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| King of Rurre! |
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| Helping Jenette walk! |
Monday March 3, 2013
So last night, after Eric and I got back from town, I come to find out that I will be working with Moises all day today. Apparently, he was asked to take the trash to the dump behind campus, and on his way, he decided to dump it right in front of someone's house on the ground. Juan saw him do it and told him that he needed to pick it up. But he refused. Then, not knowing Juan had already asked, Warren told Moises to pick up the trash and yet again, Moises refused. So Warren decided that for punishment, instead of going to school tomorrow (which Moises likes), Moises was going to work with me all morning doing hard labor. So that is what I had to look forward to today.
So last night, after Eric and I got back from town, I come to find out that I will be working with Moises all day today. Apparently, he was asked to take the trash to the dump behind campus, and on his way, he decided to dump it right in front of someone's house on the ground. Juan saw him do it and told him that he needed to pick it up. But he refused. Then, not knowing Juan had already asked, Warren told Moises to pick up the trash and yet again, Moises refused. So Warren decided that for punishment, instead of going to school tomorrow (which Moises likes), Moises was going to work with me all morning doing hard labor. So that is what I had to look forward to today.
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| Enoch just being cool |
Surprisingly, I actually had a really good morning working with Moises. Just before we started, I gave him a lecture about how he needed to work good and not complain at all or else the work would get harded and I'd punish him more. After that, no problems. I made him pick up all the trash that he had dropped in front of the house, and I walked around the entire campus with him making sure that he picked up any other trash too. After we finished picking up all the trash, I had him scrub down all of the bread pans (about 25) to get all of the oil, grim, and residue. After finishing that, I took him to rake up the tall grass that was mowed so that eventually we could burn it.
Moises worked really well today. I was super proud of him and it was kind of nice to have a partner. Especially because absolutely nothing grosses him out. He had no problem picking up dirty diapers that had been sitting in the rain for a few days. It's amazing, he picks it up as if it was just a random piece of paper. So that was another little perk to have him working with me, I didn't have to touch any of that stuff!
Later in the afternoon, after school, Eric and I did some laundry. But before we could even finish, it started storming and raining like crazy! This makes it a little bit hard to dry out our clothes in the sun. Fortunately though, the rain only lasted about 15 minutes. Then the sun came back out for a little bit.
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| Birds nest! |
Eric and I also cleaned house! We cleaned and organized out room. Lemme tell ya, when 2 guys go on a cleaning spree after not having one for awhile, it looks like a completely new room! We even brought in a desk so that we could have a work space. Both of us are huge desk people. So now I have a picture of all my wonderful family members sitting on my desk along with some other nic nacs.
Tuesday March 5, 2013
Today was kind of crazy, little Edwin was cutting grass with a machete when I walked by and WACK! Right into the ankle. HAD to have hit some serious blood vessel......nah just kidding. Today wasn't too exciting.
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| So you think I can´t pick rice? Guess again! |
Wednesday March 6, 2013
Today was kind of a work and fun day. Today, I got to go to town in order to do some more research for the ladys' house that we will be building. After talking with a new volunteer, Gerry (who is a construction worker), we decided that it would be much better and more efficient to build her house out of wood than brick. This completely changed all my plans that I had mapped out, but it is definitely a better idea.
So today, our goal was to research wood and roof prices and locations both in Rurre, and in San buena (which is across the river and where the lady lives). My other goal was to go to a hardware store and purchase some MUCH needed tools for Familia Feliz. This however was only possible with part of a very generous donation from a member of my church, Phil and Audrey Howell. So today I purchased 2 axe's, 2 hammers, a handsaw, 7 sickles, and 7 harvesting bags. These are all in great need and greatly appreciated by all here at Familia Feliz.
Gerry and I were able to get just about everything done that we wanted. Then I was hoping that he would want to eat lunch in town before we headed back. Turns out that not only did he want to eat lunch, but he needed to get his bike serviced. So this allowed me the ever craved internet time! I was able to have a chat with my mom, my dad, and the birthday girl, my lady.
Ended up staying most of the day......good day.
Today was kind of a work and fun day. Today, I got to go to town in order to do some more research for the ladys' house that we will be building. After talking with a new volunteer, Gerry (who is a construction worker), we decided that it would be much better and more efficient to build her house out of wood than brick. This completely changed all my plans that I had mapped out, but it is definitely a better idea.
So today, our goal was to research wood and roof prices and locations both in Rurre, and in San buena (which is across the river and where the lady lives). My other goal was to go to a hardware store and purchase some MUCH needed tools for Familia Feliz. This however was only possible with part of a very generous donation from a member of my church, Phil and Audrey Howell. So today I purchased 2 axe's, 2 hammers, a handsaw, 7 sickles, and 7 harvesting bags. These are all in great need and greatly appreciated by all here at Familia Feliz.
Gerry and I were able to get just about everything done that we wanted. Then I was hoping that he would want to eat lunch in town before we headed back. Turns out that not only did he want to eat lunch, but he needed to get his bike serviced. So this allowed me the ever craved internet time! I was able to have a chat with my mom, my dad, and the birthday girl, my lady.
Ended up staying most of the day......good day.
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| Lunch on the truck |
Thursday March 7, 2013
Today was designed to be an all day rice collection day for everyone. We cancled school in order for everyone to work. The big rush is that the rice is only good for about 2 or 3 weeks and we have a TON. However, early this morning it was raining. Fortunately, it was only able todelay us by about 2 hours.
Once the rain lightened up, we all headed out. We had a decent amount of cloud cover which protected us from the extreme heat. Being out there for hours without any tree cover and in the direct sun gets extremely exhausting. Using the sickles however has been an extreme help and has sped up our speed greatly!
After several hours, we came in, ate lunch and took a small break, then headed back out there. We were only ablt to work a couple hours in the afternoon though because there is only so much the kids can do in one day. Ok ok, fine, there is only so much that I can do!
Today was designed to be an all day rice collection day for everyone. We cancled school in order for everyone to work. The big rush is that the rice is only good for about 2 or 3 weeks and we have a TON. However, early this morning it was raining. Fortunately, it was only able todelay us by about 2 hours.
Once the rain lightened up, we all headed out. We had a decent amount of cloud cover which protected us from the extreme heat. Being out there for hours without any tree cover and in the direct sun gets extremely exhausting. Using the sickles however has been an extreme help and has sped up our speed greatly!
After several hours, we came in, ate lunch and took a small break, then headed back out there. We were only ablt to work a couple hours in the afternoon though because there is only so much the kids can do in one day. Ok ok, fine, there is only so much that I can do!
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| The Adventurers |
Friday March 8, 2013
Today turned out to be a baking day. Jodi has requested that I make cinnamon raisin bread every friday for Sabbath. Apparently it is one of her favorites. So even though I had never made this kind of bread, I wasn't too worried. Steve showed me the ways of the bread samurai.
Everything went pretty good. The only problem that I had was finding all the bakery things. Before Steve left, we had our own bakery room with designated items that Steve purchased himself. However, it was decided to turn that into a guest room. This unfortunately left me without a baking room. Not only that, but I was not involved in the moving process. So, all of the various baking things were moved all over the kitchen and being used by other people for other things and several other items are still MIA.
It wasn't a HUGE deal. I simply had to go on a little treasure hunt before I started. But all in all, the bread turned out really well and everyone seemed to like it. So add that bread to the list of successfully completed.
Saturday March 9, 2013
Today was an absolutely perfect Sabbath. Earlier this week, Warren talked to us about how he wants Familia Feliz to start building a stronger relationship with the adventist church in town and start doing more outreach things. So we decided that this week, Eric and I would take a small group of some of the more well behaved kids into town for church.
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| We came, We conqured! |
So this morning, Eric and I woke up early to cook rice with potatoes, tomatoes, and cumin for us to have in town for lunch. After we finished cooking, we loaded up Juancito, Jose Carlos, Damarise, Claudia, Lizette, and Sarah and took off. We wanted to leave earlier than we did, but the truck was out of gas and we needed to add more water to the radiator. So unfortunately, we were only able to make it to the church service.
The church building is fairly small, but was packed! We could not find anywhere where more than 2 of us could sit together. I'm sure that treeman and fire beard.... sorry, I mean Eric and I stuck out like sore thumbs there. We did however, see 3 of the workers from Narguila's there which was really cool.
After the service, we loaded up the kids and drove to the base of a mountain and parked under a tree and dished out the rice and had a picnic in the back of the truck. However, because the girls didn't bring and plates or spoons, we all had to share the 4 bowls that us guys brought.
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| Are we there yet? |
After lunch, we started walking up the mountain. This mountain by the way is where the cross is that looks over all of Rurrenabaque and the River Beni. It is only a 15-20 minute hike, but it is completely straight up making it pretty difficult. The kids though made Eric and I look like gringos! And here I thought that after 6 months here, I thought I was pretty much Bolivian. But once we finally got to the top, it was completely worth it. It was incredibly beautiful up there and it was only made better by being there with my best bud Eric, and some great kids.
We probably sat up there trying to cool off for about 30-45 minutes before we came back down. It was a really hot day and we were expecting a good breeze once we got to the top. But unfortunately, it wasn't too much better up there than at the bottom.
Pause everything.... I am typing this at 11:15 pm Saturday night and Eric is in his bed beside me completely passed out. He has been snoring and not moving. But he just started talking in his sleep. The catch is, he is talking in spanish!!!! Haha! So funny! Ok, now to wrap up my day.
After lunch, we started walking up the mountain. This mountain by the way is where the cross is that looks over all of Rurrenabaque and the River Beni. It is only a 15-20 minute hike, but it is completely straight up making it pretty difficult. The kids though made Eric and I look like gringos! And here I thought that after 6 months here, I thought I was pretty much Bolivian. But once we finally got to the top, it was completely worth it. It was incredibly beautiful up there and it was only made better by being there with my best bud Eric, and some great kids.
We probably sat up there trying to cool off for about 30-45 minutes before we came back down. It was a really hot day and we were expecting a good breeze once we got to the top. But unfortunately, it wasn't too much better up there than at the bottom.
Pause everything.... I am typing this at 11:15 pm Saturday night and Eric is in his bed beside me completely passed out. He has been snoring and not moving. But he just started talking in his sleep. The catch is, he is talking in spanish!!!! Haha! So funny! Ok, now to wrap up my day.
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| Eric and I overlooking the motherland (Rurrenabaque) |
After coming back, guess what, everyone else that stayed here at Familia Feliz wanted to go swimming at Asunta. This wasn't a problem, but Eric and I decided to hang back and let them go because we were super tired from waking up early and the hike. So we just wanted a little nap. Then after my nap, I was able to get some good reading done. That pretty much concludes my day or at least as far as I can remember.
You Stay Civilized........Planet Earth!!!!
You Stay Civilized........Planet Earth!!!!
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