Monday Dec. 3, 2012

Family I stayed with in La Paz

                Today I am taking the morning off. Eric and I have decided that we will both take 2 mornings off each week instead of one full day. This is because we are now the sole parents of the kids in this house, making it difficult to spend a whole day alone. So I will still be coming to town ever Monday from about 8 am to noonish, then again on Friday. He will be taking Tuesday and Thursday mornings off. We have decided that we want to be back by about 1 or so so that we can help each other cook and watch the kids in the afternoon.

                This afternoon when I got back I had to dish out a little punishment. The first story was because someone soaked another students’ (Jose’s) bed with water. This obviously made Jose mad and upset. When he told me what happened, he said he thought it was David, but then David said it was Guillermo, then Guillermo said it was David. So I got both of them together and asked who did it and they looked at each other and both said Moises. I obviously knew it couldn’t be Moises, so I told the boys that I would punish them both if they didn’t tell me who did it, and then when I found out who it really was, that person would get an even worse punishment.  So immediately Guillermo perked up and said it was him. So I said Thank you and went downstairs to talk to Eric about my idea for punishment. He loved it. So I went to Jose (the kid whose bed got soaked) and I told him that he could take 2 liters of water and soak Guillermo’s bed! He was SO excited and couldn’t believe that I was letting him do that! So later on when I said he could, he went upstairs and did the deed. However, what I didn’t know was that Guillermo was IN his bed asleep. So that was a rude awakening. However He didn’t complain about it at all because he knew he had it coming.

                At just about the same time, the other David in the house came up to me and said someone trashed his dresser and threw all of his just washed and folded clothes all over the floor. There were only a couple people around, and the most mischievous, Moises, was sitting right there on the floor looking guilty. So I asked him if he did it and he quickly said no. I asked him if he was lying and said that when you lie, it only makes things a lot worse for you, a lot lot worse. Then I said I was going to ask him one last time if he did it, then after I did, he hung his head and was quiet, then he looked up and said no. I asked him if that was his final answer and then he paused, and then said he did it. So I said thank-you and told him that he will have to do David’s laundry next time.

                There is a big problem in this house as far as wetting the bed. Because most all of these kids are going through that stage. But the last story I have to note of this day was right before the kids fell asleep, Moises and David said “Teacher Eric, Teacher Eric” (who was standing right beside me) “we just went pee pee”. So these kids just pee’d the bed before they were even asleep! So I actually thought that was a little funny.

Tuesday Dec. 4, 2012

                Today Eric went to town in the morning. This was my first real test of patience because normally I have Eric here with me who is absolutely phenomenal with kids. But today, I was on my own. The first task was to cook breakfast. So to make that easy, I decided to give them oranges, bananas, and scrabled and fried eggs. BAM! Done!

                Now to get them to work. That is by far the hardest part. So today, I wanted to take all of my boys over to the church with brooms, buckets, and brushes. The church floor became extremely dirty and gross. So Eric and I thought it needed a good cleaning. The kids eagerly went over there. However, they weren’t so eager to actually work. Most all of them worked a little bit, but Jose and Moises worked hard the entire time. We cleaned all the pews and almost all of the floor with soap and water. It looks so much better. And since those 2 boys worked without stopping and didn’t play around, I gave them Oreo’s in front of everyone and explained why they were getting them and why the other boys were not.

                For lunch, we got really lucky because Steven decided that he was going to cook for us which was a big surprise. He cooked soup and potato wedges. It was not only scrumptious, but saved me the hassle of stressing about what to cook for the kids. After lunch, Eric got back. The kids played for a good portion of the afternoon.

                Later in the evening again was when I had bad sides come out again. My David (“davicito”) decided he was going to take one of Erics’ David’s mango. My Davicito took the mango and started to eat it which made the other David sad. So I called my Davicito downstairs, took him to a corner, put a piece of tape on the wall and said that he needed to put his nose on the tape and not take it off for 10 minutes. Genius punishment right? Well I can’t take full credit for it because my girlfriend came up with it. So he stood there, not allowed to talk to anyone or look at anything other than the wall for 10 minutes.

                Later , Eric and I were downstairs talking and all of a sudden we hear terrified scream coming from upstairs. So I ran up there to find Edwin (the new boy) pushing David off of his top bunk headfirst toward the ground! Poor David was so scared and shaking. So I caught him and brought him down to the ground and made sure he was ok. Then I talked very sternly with Edwin because he has been having some bully issues recently. So I’ve decided that I need to talk to Melissa about what to do with him.

                Probably the funniest thing that happened today with Moises. The boys have been making French fries several times today. But Moises (who is 11 but a little slower than most kids) decided that he wanted to add a little flavor to his French fries, so instead of using regular cooking oil like everyone else, he was going to use something special and make a delicacy, he used motor oil. Fortunately we smelled it and caught him before anyone, including himself ate it.

                Another kinda funny thing that happened today was right before I layed down to go to bed, I took a drink of water. Then a few seconds after I layed down, a drip of something landed on my lips. I had no idea what it was or where it came from. I was just hoping it wasn’t pee coming from one of the kids’ beds upstairs! Then it hit me, I figured out where it came from. There was water on my mustache, and when I layed down, it dripped from the hairs onto my mouth! Gross right? Nah, that’s awesome! Haha

Wednesday Dec. 5, 2012

                This morning Eric and I woke up and fixed breakfast for everyone, then Eric and 3 of the boys went up to the Toma to fix the water because a big storm last night knocked out the water. Leaving me with most of the boys which was no problem. It has actually been very helpful to have Steven here as a little relief too. The boys pretty much played all day. Then in the evening, Eric and I showed them Lassie and then they all went to bed. Nothing too exciting happened.

Thursday Dec. 6, 2012

                Today was Eric’s second town day and to be honest, I don’t really remember what happened today. I usually type up my blog once or twice a week and sometimes the days completely run together. So I will make it up to you and try to post a few more pictures here.

Friday Dec. 7, 2012

                Today was my second town day!! Sweet! So me being the cheapskate that I am, I ate breakfast here so I wouldn’t have to buy any in town. But today I stocked up a little bit on my snacks, used the internet, picked up Erics’ laundry for him and just enjoyed being away.

                On my way back however, I stopped to see if there were any packages for either me or Eric, and we each had 2! Normally they would never let me pick up Eric’s mail, but it was a new girl and I told her that he wasn’t with me and really wanted them. I also showed her that they were to and from the same address. So she let it slide. I walked out of that “post office” (which is more like a shed filled with random mail) and felt like the king of the world with 4 packages stacked on top of each other! Turns out that our Christmas and thanksgiving packages arrived about the same time. So when I got back to Familia Feliz, Eric and I tore into them! We got some veggie meat, stickers, chocolate, gravy, mash potatoes, instant cook cookies, cranberry stuff for Thanksgiving, and tons of letters from our friends back home. While we were opening those packages, I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we felt like we were at home. It is non-stop excitement and joy when we get a package and open it. Turns out that they only took about 2 or 3 weeks to get here too! So thank-you southern and too all who wrote me letters!

Saturday Dec. 8, 2012

                Eric and I did not have the best wakeup call in the world. We woke up to the kids yelling something about poop. Turns out that Moises (same kid who pee’d the bed while he was awake, and who baked with motor oil), needed to go to the bathroom and could not make it. So there was poop upstairs on the floor, all down the stairwell, in the kitchen, and all over the toilette seat. Fortunately, Eric manned up and said he would go out and take care of it because he knows how I get around poop. You can smear spider guts all over my face, you can put a cockroach in my mouth, but DO NOT under any circumstance put me near poop, especially when it is not in a toilette, because I WILL throw up. Not maybe, I will.

                So now, the entire house smells like poop and we have to wait for the wind to take care of it. We made him clean up his mess, but there is still a stench. Lizelle came over this morning and also found more poop right outside against the side of the house. Turns out that was Moises too. Not sure exactly why he went to the side of the house to do that when it is not only further away than the bathroom, but there is no toilette paper there either? Oh well.

                This morning for church, we sang 3 songs, and watched a Bible Movie that Eric’s mom sent him. It was also the first time that I prayed in front of people in Spanish! Phew. I’m sure I was extremely wrong in what I said, but I’m sure they knew what I meant.

                We just finished lunch and now the kids are playing, so now I am going to read a little and then take a power nap! Oh, and Eric says hi.

                Well, I woke up a little while later and Eric and I commenced the process of cooking dinner for all the kids. However, Milton, one of Joys kids, came over and asked if we wanted to go to town and play volleyball tonight. Eric and I got so excited because we LOVE volleyball and were even on the same A league intramural team at southern. But we weren’t sure if we could both go because someone needed to watch the kids. That is why we decided to take them all with us! Once we got into town, around 8:15pm, Joy dropped us off at some indoor courts which are actually racquetball courts converted into volleyball courts. This was an absolute blast. We played with the kids and the other volunteers until 10 pm. They don’t really know how to play volleyball and just hit the ball with not much rhyme or reason which I thought was pretty funny.

Sunday Dec. 9, 2012

                Today was a hard day, because Eric was going to town in the afternoon. He changed his days so now he is going to town on Sunday and Thursday. While my days to go to town are still on Monday and Friday mornings.

                However today, 2 of my boys had a rough day. They simply did not want to listen. The good news was, they weren’t disobeying me, but rather they were disobeying baker Steve. These kids have such little respect for baker Steve which makes him very sad and I hate to see.

                Steven and I were baking bread today and while we were dividing them into individual buns, a couple of the kids were playing soccer nearby and came very close to knocking over a bunch of bread. Not only was it a little annoying, but bread is Steve’s passion. Anything that comes to bread he takes personally. So he kindly asked the kids to play on the other side of the building which they did. But 5 minutes later, they were right back over. So he asked them to play outside which they just refused to do. I finally asked them to leave and to listen to Steven and they immediately left and didn’t come back. However, once I finished helping Steven, I went back to the house. But as soon as I did, the kids came right back and started annoying Steven.

                It makes it so much harder for Steven because not only is he not used to dealing with kids, but he doesn’t speak but a few words of Spanish. So he just talks to the kids in English even though they don’t understand. So finally, Steve took the ball from them and locked it up (good for him). But then again later, another boy came over and started flattening the bread and messing them up. Steven caught him and told him to stand in the corner for 10 min. Which even in English, the child understood, because Steven walked him over to the corner and said “Aqui, diez minutes” (here, 10 minutes). But the child (Guillermo), just turned, looked at Steven and ran away.

                Steven talked to me later about all that happened. So I apologized and told him that I would take care of it and those two boys would get punished. Later on, I sat down with each of those boys and had a long heart to heart with them. I explained that it hurt Steven and they need to listen and respect him. Both of them seemed to listen and understand very well.  So apparently, individually, they went to Steven and apologized for how they acted. Which was great because I didn’t even ask them to do that! Steven really appreciated it and now he is happy.

                They night ended with Eric and I making soup with noodles and carrots in water. However, before we served the food, I remembered that Southern had sent me Mckay’s vegetarian Chicken broth! MMMMMMMM it was soooo yummy! The kids loved the taste too! They had never tasted that before. So it was a nice treat for everyone. The night concluded with a showing of the lion king in English. We gave them the option of watching another cartoon in Spanish, but they said they’d rather watch the lion king, even if it was in English.

You stay civilized……planet earth!!!

Daddy who?

Friday November 30, 2012

                Well, today is Friday and I returned to Familia Feliz on Tuesday after I was held up in La Paz for a few days due to there being a lot of rain in Rurre. My flight from Miami landed sunday morning at 3 am in La Paz where I planned on getting a few hours of sleep before i purchased a ticket to Rurre. However, when I asked about a ticket, they said that no flights were going in or out of Rurre for a few days due to heavy rainfall they were having. Rurre is just now entering the summer which is also the rainy season. Hence it is super hot all day, or it is raining all day. Anyway, this left me in a little bit of a predicament as I had no plans to stay in La Paz. So i decided that I would call Dr. Patty and see if he would let me stay at his house again which was of course no problem.

                Fortunately I was only there for 2 nights before I was able to catch a flight to Rurre. During that time, I also got another opportunity to shadow him in his office. While i was waiting in the airport, I met 2 young tourists who were heading to Rurre for a few days. I talked with them for awhile and found out that they were from Australia. They also didn't know much about Rurre, so like a pro, I was able to tell them all about the small town and the best places to go for certain things. Then again on the plane, I met a Spanish woman who didn't know english or Rurre, and I wasable to help her as well. So that was pretty exciting and made me feel good about myself.

                When my plane landed and I stepped outside, I immediately felt the heat sweep over me like a constant blanket consuming my body. At the airport waiting was Joy, Eric, Lizelle, and her sister. Later that evening, I found out that there was a new kid on campus who had came that very day. This boys' mom brought him and was still on campus, but this boy has some terrible gashes and wounds on his legs. All of which were oozing and clearly painful.  As it turns out, he has an immune deficiency problem which causes any small scrape to become like that. When I came into the house to witness all of this, I was wearing surgical scrubs. This obviously gave me a free pass to pretend like I knew what I was doing while examining his legs. My diagnosis: His cuts looked yucky and he needed help. Of course since I'm a missionary, I didn't charge them for my services and my diagnosis.

                The thing is, we are assuming that the mother is neglectful to her son (Edwin) at home and is a little bit of a floosy. She acted very nice and caring around us and was very convincing, however, Missy was not convinced. Around 11:30 pm, the mother decided to leave her son with us to help take care of. But as she was leaving, she came up to me and said that she wants to leave her son in my care because she said that I can take good care of him (after seeing me look at his legs (even though I didn't really do much)). However, ironically, I didn't quite understand her, so as she is asking me to take care of her son, I am asking for a translation.

                The next day, Wednesday, I finished unpacking and cleaning my room. But later that afternoon, Eric and I moved my bed and several of my things from my house to his as I will be living with him, Juan, and Emmy for the summer.

                School ended a few days after I left which brings about many changes for the summer. Almost all of the kids have left to either their parents or extended family who are "willing" to take care of them for a few months while school is not in session. Furthermore, I will be living with Eric and his family and the only 8 boys (besides Missy's 8 kids, and Joys, 5 kids) left (which is a combination of my house and Eric's house, and thee new boy). Furthermore, Juan and Emmy are leaving for a month on vacation to visit their families. So that leaves only Eric and I to be daddy and daddy for this 8 boys. Which of course brings it's worries because the cook is gone for the summer and Emmy is leaving, sooooo what do we do about food? Fortunately, there are a few girls left here over at the girls dorm and a deal has been made for them to help us out a little. Spoiled? I think yes.

                Thursday, I pretty much just baked bread all day with Steven, that was my day.

                Friday, Eric and I woke up early this morning and went into town as early as possible so we could get a little faster internet (because when there are more people, the internet slows way down). We didn't spend too much time in town because it wasn't our day off and we wanted to help out around the village. Now it is pouring down rain and I am about to go play some soccer! Go figure right?

Saturday December 1, 2012

                Today was my first Sabbath back and my first Sabbath of the summer. It’s amazing how much smaller the congregation is when 70 or so kids simply disappear! The service was very basic with lots of singing and a reading of “My Story Hour”. Greatest books ever! That afternoon, I read my bible, played with the kids, took them behind campus to swim and enjoyed the beautiful Sabbath day we were having. Tonight was a big night because Juan and Emmy headed out on their vacation to Santa Cruz for a month. This is a little nerve racking because that leaves only Eric and I. So now we shall see how good of parents we truly are! We closed the Sabbath with the “rounda” worship, then a video about Sampson and Deliliah.

Sunday Dec. 2, 2012

                Our first day as parents. We both woke up around 6:30 not knowing if we would need to cook breakfast or not. We had heard that maybe the girls dorm would be cooking for us, but there was a little miscommunication. As it turns out, they are! But unfortunately only for breakfast. So it is up to Eric and I to cook for lunch and supper. After we had breakfast, we had the kids do all their laundry and clean their rooms.

The new boy Edwin is having a little bit of a hard time getting used to being told what to do. So we have had to punish him a few times. But what is super annoying about him, is once he is punished, he starts screaming and throwing a tantrum. He also starts fake crying and moaning loudly the entire time so that everyone around him is miserable.

The biggest issue we have had to deal with so far is Moises. Moises is one of Eric’s kids and is one of the hardest to control. He can be very sweet, but whenever anything happens to him, he transforms into this angry “need revenge” boy. He will punch and kick and cry. Whatever it takes to get even. He also has a slight mental disability and speech impediment. So one night, David (another one of Eric’s boys) had picked some mango’s and had them in his bed, then Moises decided that he wanted a few without David’s permission. David tried calling for Eric and I but we didn’t hear him, so Guillermo (my boy) took matters into his own hand and took the mangos away from Moises. Then the transformation happened and he began to punch Guillermo, then Guillermo returned with one powerful punch to Moises’ head which sent him crying. By now, Eric and I were on the case and separated them and talked with each one individually and issuing punishments to each.

Anywho, after breakfast, while the kids were doing their chores, Joy stopped by and asked if I would drive France into town and get another tire on the truck fixed because it popped. So I left around 11:30, and took care of everything in town with nothing too much exciting happening. Now I am back and trying to fight the heat as I simply lay here sweating!

                You stay civilized…..planet earth!!

Thanksgiving

Saturday Nov. 10, 2012

                Ok guys, I have a confession, I have gotten behind on some of my blogging. I have wanted to write a couple of things down for you but I have been busy and have procrastinated. So, for the past few days I have been traveling all over Bolivia working on getting everything cleared for me to surprise my mom. My dad and I have been scheming for several weeks now trying to work everything out for me to be with them for thanksgiving. One of the big reasons we wanted to make this happen was because both my brothers and their wives were able to clear their schedules for Thanksgiving. So as far as my mom knows, everyone will be together except for me. Little does she know.

                Anyway, working all this out has been very confusing and challenging. For one, my passport is in Santa Cruz because they are working on my year long visa, and second, the "most reliable airline" in Bolivia is Amaszonas, however, they have been cancleing all kinds of flights because all but 1 of their planes are out of commission. They are having to rent planes from another airline. However, the other airline is not happy with the arrangment and is talking about boycotting the agreement. It is a completely messy and scary situation. So I have had to reschedule flights like crazy and get in touch with people I have never met in Santa Cruz to pick up my passport.

                Fortunately, our flight from Rurre to La Paz flew out that day (although delayed by 4 hours). This was a hard time for Erin because she is leaving Bolivia for good. We were able to work it out so we could fly out together. Once we landed in La Paz, Erin caught a taxi to a guy's house named Dr. Willy Patty (again, a man we have never met). While she did that, I got onto another flight 2 hours later to Santa Cruz. During that 2 hour wait, I looked up online "the cheapest hostel in Santa Cruz" so I could make a reservation.  On the flight, I met this man who spoke 8 different languages. He was from a country near Germany I believe, but has lived in Santa Cruz working for his government giving aid to the Bolivians. We talked about a lot of different things including the unfortunate outcome of the recent elections, and religion. He is not a religious man and does not believe in God, but I was able to talk to Him about how I was a missionary, so that was nice. On the plane, something really weird happened. It almost felt like a vein in my forehead just suddenly popped! It hurt so bad and I had to tell him to stop talking because I was in so much pain. It was kinda funny though to hear his reaction. He was extremely worried and sort of panicked for me. But the pain subsided and I was fine.

                Once I landed in Santa Cruz, I caught a taxi to my cheap hostel. The room actually wasn't too bad. It had a fan and wifi internet. Pillows were like sleeping with a slab of asphault, but it was a bed. That evening before I went to bed, Victor (the man with my passport) called me and wanted to drop it off to me that night which was perfect with me because this whole trip revolves around me getting my passport. My flight the next day back to La Paz was not until 2:20, so I woke up at 8 and was going to try and find a market to buy some gifts and other things. The market I found put all others to shame. It was massive! It was like a whole other city of made of tarps and carts with everything you can imagine on them. It was like a maze walking around. It's a good thing I love exploring because I literally got lost inside this market and was sure how to get out. So I just kept walking and finally found the main street again.

                I then went back to the hostel (which the fact that I could find it again was a miracle) to wait for a taxi. While I was waiting, I got to talking with the guy at the front desk for probably 30 minutes. Turns out he is very familiar with Adventists and all of our beliefs. He is not an Adventist himself, but his sister is. So it was very interesting talking with him.

                Then I went back to the airport to catch another flight back to La Paz. Once I landed in La Paz, I caught a taxi to where Dr. Willy's house was. I started talking to my taxi cab driver and at one point I mentioned that I was a missionary here for 9 months. He then immediately asked, "Oh, are you an Adventist?" So I guess that means Adventists are doing a pretty good job down here in Bolivia. I got to the house were only Erin and the maid were. The parents were still at work. Erin and I were both very hungry for dinner though so I took her to a Thai restaurant that was about a 20 minute walk away (remember, I have become pretty familiar with La Paz and know where a lot of things are because of how much time Eric and I spent here earlier).

                The next morning was Sabbath. I was excited because I was going to see a friend that I had made here earlier in La Paz, Alfonzo.  This morning was the first time I got to actually meet the Patty's. They are extremely nice and generous people. They had a wonderful breakfast made for us and even when I was full, Dr. Willy asked if I wanted more, then when i told him that I was full, he just shook his head and said "No, you need more". Once we were ready to leave for church, Erin, who was wearing a nice skirt, a nice North Face jacket, and sandals was stopped my Lidia (Mrs. Patty). She asked Erin if she had shoes for church, and when Erin said she didn't, Lidia proceeded to get Erin some heels and a new top of some sort. We then were off to church in the family car. One thing I like so much better about Bolivia is that at church, it actually looks like they are at church. Almost every man is dressed in a suit and tie, and every woman is in a dress or something else that is appropriate for church. The other thing that I like better, is that every is so nice and welcomes you. Young, Old, and all in between, want to welcome you and know about you and generally care what you have to say.

                After church we headed back to the house where I had my first test of willingness at their house. For lunch, they cooked some rice, mashed potatoes, and a bunch of meat. Shortly before we were about to eat, Lidia asked if I ate meat and I said meekly that I didn't. Then she went into a little bit of a panic because she wanted to make sure I had good food to eat. So she made me 3 fried eggs, and a fresh salad which was mostly carrots with a big slab of cheese on it, and I could also eat the rice and potatoes. This wouldn't sound to bad, but here in Bolivia I have tried to cut out cheese and Eggs because of the high risk of Salmonella. We are pretty sure that is how Eric got Salmonella from eating eggs. However, I really like eggs, so that wasn't the hardest part. The hardest part was the BIG salad she made me which was loaded up with carrots (which my mouth thinks is poison), a massive chunk of cheese, and no dressing because Bolivians do not use dressing. But I was able to mix the carrots into my potatoes and eat most of the salad dry. They did offer me however some olive oil which I knew was a sacrifice. Olive oil in Bolivia is a very expensive thing because all of it has to be imported. I used a little but didn't want to be a typical American fatty and load it up.

                After lunch, we took some pictures and then took a glorious nap. Oh, and by the way, ever since I got to La Paz, my thighs and hamstrings have been so achy. They have been hurting all day long. It's not just when I stand, but when I sit too. It's completely weird. But anyway, Erin woke me up around 6:30 and said that we were going to an afternoon church service. So I quickly got dressed and we headed out. The 3 girls, Lidia, Erin, and Ebony (another young missionary staying here for a few days) went to another church while Dr. Patty, me, and his 2 sons John and Sergio, went to another church. Once we got to our church, Dr. Patty had to leave to a meeting, so I wasn't exactly sure what to do. But one man in the church saw me and asked if I would talk with his daughter. I wasn't exactly sure why he was wanting me to talk to her but sure, why not. So turns out his daughter was like 15 and he wanted her to practice English with me. So I talked to her in Spanish while she talked to me in English. So that was good practice for both of us. We talked for about an hour until she had to leave and then I just sat out on the porch of the church for about an hour and a half waiting for Dr. P to be done.
                Afterwards it was about 9:30 and I figured that we would just go back to the house. But nope, we went off to the mall and met the girls at an arcade. Then we ate and had some ice cream before we left around 11:30.

                Sunday was sort of a dead day. We literally just laid around the house not doing a single thing. It was quite the wonderful experience to do nothing and relax! But later that afternoon we tried to go to the market and find some gifts for friends and family. But unfortunately everything was closed because of the Strong catholic presence here and it being Sunday.

                Monday, we woke up super early and tried to hit the market. We have heard that that is the best time to go. So we left the house around 7:30 and went to the market, but it actually wasn't as good as we were hoping. But we were able to walk around long enough and find what we needed to before we left.

                Again, I'm sorry I don't have more details, I keep procrastinating on my blog and by the time I start blogging, I have forgotten all the funny and interesting stuff that has happened.

                Wednesday morning, Erin headed out. So I woke up at 6:30 to say by to her. Afterwards, I walked to Dr. Patty's office to shadow him for awhile. I thought he was just a general dentist so I figured that I would not need to stay long. But he is actually an oral surgeon and does all sorts of implants and extractions. It was very interesting to watch. But I have to say, Bolivians are kind of gross, at least by American standards. For example, dentists do not wear gloves. They just work in someones mouth unprotected, which is gross in itself, but then they work on the next patient without washing their hands. They also use the same tools without cleaning them (unless blood gets on them) they just don't care and it doesn't bother them. The patients also all share the same rinsing cup without it being changed or cleaned. So that was quite interesting to watch. I almost wanted to say something, but thats just me being a gringo and not being used to this culture.

                Later that evening, Dr. P asked me to go to his sons' concert and video tape the whole thing. I gladly said yes, especially because I thought that the program was only going to be an hour or so. Turns out, we had to be there at 5, when the program started at 7:30 to help set up. So that was a little bit of a bummer but no big deal. But then I found out that his kids arn't even in the program, they are just stagehands. Good news is, the first half of the program was very interesting. It was a bunch of cultural dances and costumes and fun stuff like that. But the second half was nearly unbearable. It was little kids singing.......nope, nope, can't say singing, so I shall say shouting bloody murder. It was cute, but I felt like my ears were bleeding. Then, finally, 3 hours later, the program was over. So I had sat in that auditorium seat for 5 and a half hours and it was now 11:15 on a school night! But oh well, you only live once right?
                Thursday, my big travel day. I was up at 5:15 so I could pack my bags and get ready to leave by 6:30. My flight leaves La Paz at 10, and the airport is only 30 minutes away, but I did not want to take any chances. Especially with Bolivian travel, where nothing is reliable. Fortunately, Dr. P told me that I could catch a bus for 3.5 B's instead of a taxi for 60 B's. Thats a big difference. And it's a very good thing I did too because once I got to the airport, they had 3 taxes that they imposed on me which ended up being over 500 B's. I BARELY had enoug money to cover it. So now I currently have $15 to my name and nothing more. I now sit here in Lima Peru waiting for my final flight to Miami. So excited!

                After landing in Miami Fl, I stayed in a hotel, then woke up the next day to catch a shuttle to West Palm Beach airport where I waited for my dad for a couple hours for his flight to arrive. Once he got there, we said our hello’s and then came the fun part. My mom was to come to the airport planning only to pick my dad up. However she has no idea that I will be there too. So my dad and I went outside but I waited a little farther up the road and pretended to be a hitchhiker. So I was obviously looking a little sketchy with a beard, and some pretty raggy clothes and a hoody. So my mom showed up and picked up my dad, my dad then got into the drivers seat and started to drive away. But then he saw this “hitchhiker” and told my mom that he had met me on the plane and that I was a nice guy. So he started to pull over to ask where I was going. This was obviously a little nerve racking to my mom but she decided to trust my dad in picking up this homeless looking man. When the car pulled up, I turned around and my mom looked directly at me and was completely blown away! She had no clue that I was going to be there. She could not stop touching her face and saying “Oh my goodness!” It could not have worked out more perfectly!

 

                From there, we went back to the condo, and vacation began. I have taken a complete break from blogging this week but I will give you the highlights of what happened.

-          Friday: my dad and I arrived

-          Saturday: Robert and Shellie arrived

-          Sunday: Ryan and Liz arrived

-          Monday: Kristen Long (my girlfriend) arrived and my brothers, my dad, and I played 18 holes.

-          Tuesday: All 8 of us went to a par 3 course and had 2 foursomes.

-          Wednesday: shopped for a few things for Bolivia, beach day

-          Thursday: Thanksgiving!! Had AMAZING food! And baked bread for everyone.

-          Friday: relaxed by the pool and began to pack up

-          Saturday: left back for Bolivia

This vacation has been absolutely amazing! I love being with my family and girlfriend. I have been able to rest, catch up, and most importantly, eat amazing food! Drinks with ice, air conditioning, showers…..wowie! It has been absolutely wonderful! It will definitely be hard to go back, but where the Lord leads, I go. Sometimes hard, sometimes easy. Unfortunately, this is one of those times where it is hard. I will hopefully be back to my normal day of posting blogs (Mondays). Sorry for the lapse in updates.

You Stay Civilized…….Planet Earth!

First package!

Sunday Oct. 28, 2012

Today was an exciting day because Eric and I headed to town in the afternoon because our day off starts tonight. The other reason is because Calvin heads out early in the morning. So the 3 of us got a hostel and had a good last night here in Rurre. We went to Juliano's for dinner which is a place where everyone gets pasta because of how good it is and their generous portions. Half way through our meal, Ron, the bread guy showed up and gave us a theological talk on things from his point of view. Later on we simply watched a movie that Calvin had been wanting to see for awhile.

Monday Oct. 29, 2012

Although today is our day off, we still woke up around 6:30 am in order to get Calvin to the bus station by 7. You see, he was supposed to fly out of here, but the airline (which happens to be one of the most reliable airlines in Bolivia) cancled his flight along with everyone else's for a week. Apparently, every single one of their planes are out of commission except for one. So that one plane is being used to make all the trips for Amaszonas. So Calvin was forced to get a bus ticket which will now take him over 20 hours!

Once we said our fairwells, it was just another relaxing day in Rurre for Eric and I. Later that evening though, I decided to just check the mail place (which is not a post office, but rather a hole in the wall that recieves everyone's mail) since it was near the taxi station. And low and behold, I recieved my first package! I was beginning to doubt the mail services here in Bolivia. But the package was from my wonderful girlfriend Kristen. It had tons of food and candy and pictures of us and of my family. It was so exciting to get a package!

Tuesday Oct. 30, 2012

Tuesday.......my most trying day. For some reason I was so tired this morning that I didn't even hear my family have worship. So unfortunately I totally missed it. I slept in till WAY late, like 6:30 am! But today was my class day....again. Furthermore, it was bread day. So this day was going to be a physical, mental, and emotional day for me.

Class was actually not going too terribly bad for me today. The kids were still misbehaving, but a little less than usual I think. That was of course until I turned my back for 1 second and a fight broke out. The fight was between Guillermo (who lives in my house), and another boy. Unofrtunately Guillermo beat on the other kid pretty good. Enough to make him bleed from his mouth and the expose one of his teeth at the root because the gum was peeled back. I have no idea how it even happened! I was literally turned around for just a second! Oh well, the rest of the day was dedicated to bread. It went pretty good. However, the best part was the fact that Eric and I were able to make Steven laugh a decent amount today. This, at least for me, is very warming because he isn't one that shows true happiness and laughs. He is overall a happy guy, but it can be hard to get him to laugh. So it is always nice when we see that he is having a good time.

Wednesday Oct. 31, 2012

As far as adventure and being like Indiana Jones, nothing too terribly exciting happened today. Eric and I needed to head into town later this afternoon in order to take care of a few things in town. Right when we were about to head back, Joy showed up with the truck which was wonderful because that saves us money and gives us more time in town. When the truck is not in town, we have to leave around 5:30 in order to catch a taxi. The way it works here is the taxi driver waits until he has about 10 people wanting to go to the same place before he leaves. So I could wait for hours, but until the car is full, we arn't going anywhere. The last taxi I was in had 15 people in it. Now keep in mind, this car has enough seats for 8 people. Anyway, Joy got in right when we were about to leave. The most exciting part of the day happened when we started driving back to F.F. (Familia Feliz). On our way back we had to stop for one of the regualr cow crossings. But one of the cows was feeling lucky and decided that he could win in a jousting match against our truck. So he ran straight at us and thunked into the truck. It was absolutely hilarious! And yes, the cow was ok. The rest of the drive, we all just told each other jokes and made fun of Erin for anything we could think of.

Thursday Nov. 1, 2012

Last night 5 people came in last night who are missionaries at another school here in Bolivia. There is a couple from Mexico, and Puerto Rico, and a Lady from Columbia. They are all only staying here until Sunday. They are just passing through on their way to visit family and friends during the summer months. They all seem to be very nice and outgoing. The first guy I met was named Gerry. He is from Mexico and was super nice. He has a wife a daughter here with him. Today I decided that I was going to work on some laundry and doing some house chores. But then Lizelle came over and asked if I could drive her and 3 of the other older girls to go get watermelons, coconuts, and bananas. Naturally i'll jump at any chance to drive. Then she told me that she wanted to leave right now. So I got my things together and took off to the big house to where the truck was parked.

Once the truck was ready to go, I drove over to the girls dorm, picked up the girls and hit the road. I felt a TINY out of place because all 4 of them were speaking spanish really fast and I was trying to understand the best I could. But it wasn't too bad. They were all nice and I'm now able to communicate pretty much anything I want. Granted, it's always with very broken spanish, but I can get the point across. While we were picking coconuts, one of the girls offered me this fruit to try which was yellow, the size of a lemon, and had thorns all over it. It looked like one of those poison fruits you see in the movies. But it didn't kill me and wasn't too bad either. I seem to be trying a ton of new fruits that I've never even heard of before.

Friday Nov. 2, 2012

For some reason, I didn't think the kids had school today. I don't know why I thought that, but I was surprised when they were heading off to school. Shortly before they left, I thought they looked a little bored, so I brought out Uno (which was in the care package Kristen sent me) and I asked if they wanted to play. They said yes, but they wanted to play after school. Thats when I taught Wilson (my favorite (I think it's ok to say I have a favorite)) how to play along with his brother Louis Fernando. These 2 boys go to school in the afternoon, not in the morning. This allows me to spend some time with them which is totally fine with me!

After we finished playing, I heard some violin music coming from the girls dorm. I thought this was Annie, because she was staying over there for a few days. So after one of the songs, I did a loud slow clap. Then the music stopped. I laughed and that it was funny because I knew she would give me a hard time about it later. As it turns out, it wasn't Anie playing, it was one of the new volunteers that I didn't know. So I knew that I was going to have to talk to her and clear that up.

Later that day at the "rounda" (the "feliz sabado" handshake circle every friday evening), I found out who was playing the violin. So after the handshake, I asked her if she was playing and she said yes and asked if I played and then wanted to play together. So we grabbed our violins, met up a little later and started to play Cannon in D. I absolutely love that song and never get to play it with anyone. So this was the highlight to my day!

Saturday Nov. 3, 2012

Today Eric was sick again. All of us are starting to give him a hard time because it seems like every single Sabbath, he is sick and can't come to church. We have started to call it the "Saturday Sickness". But fortunately, every Saturday afternoon, he always feels better.

Today I had the absolute hardest time staying awake in church. I don't know why I was so tired, but I was simply exhausted. So I was looking forward to taking a short nap this afternoon. But apparently I was just too tired to remember that I had 7 boys who will do whatever it takes to prevent me from resting! After we ate, I went to lay down and the boys started begging for me to take them to the Toma which was out of the question because last night it rained a ton, and it is such a long walk. Then they asked about just going into the jungle. I initially said no, but it turns out that kids are champs at knowing what buttons to push. So I finally settled on going at 3 (which they wern't too thrilled about since that was 2 hours away). I don't know what these kids have against sleep, but they are fierce enemies of it! Constantly the kids were saying "Teacher! Teacher!" So I didn't end up getting any sleep at all. But thats part of being a house parent right?

At 2:57 they were all ready to go and were pushing for me to be as well. So I got up and around 3:07, we left and headed into the jungle. I have to say, I started out the hike as a grumpy old grouch because I had not gotten any kind of nap and I was so tired. But once I decided to suck it up and stop being a girl, I started to have fun. Lesson learned. We were going through some very thick jungle. This stuff was no joke. Juan Carlos was up front with a machete hacking down trees and plants and brush in order to clear a path for us. All I could think about was how much poison ivy or other funky jungle poisons I was going to get on my feet and legs (because I was wearing shorts). After ducking under fallen trees, jumping over others, and balancing across trees that spanned deep ravines, we came up to the creek. Two or three of my kids immediately said that this part/place is dangerous and that we should turn around because all the big snakes like to hang around this area. The other boys wanted to keep going. So the decision was on me. What do I do? Well, I decided that there was only one thing I could do, I had to be the responsible adult and tell them that we should keep going. However, I was a little nervous because this is the first time that I have seen any of these kids worried about anything, especially in the jungle. They were all trying to avoid the water if possible and tried stepping on the shallow parts if they could find them.

But we finally made it to a little oasis that had another swinging vine that went out over water. These kids love these vines which I can completely understand! A couple of the boys went fishing with their 1 hook and piece of string. It's amazing how these kids can catch as many fish as they do without any kind of poles or gear! One of the times that I swung on the vine, I go to the other side and sat down at the base of a tree. After about 10 minutes, the kids told me that I should n't sit there because it was dangerous because it was a "boona tree". Boona's are ants that are the size of caterpillars and have a powerful sting if stung. I'm telling you, the ants here in Bolivia are no joke. They make every other ant in every other country look like.....well......something smaller than an ant.

Right before we decided to head back for worship, the kids found a tree with a fruit on it. Once again, it was a fruit that I had never seen or heard of before. It has a similar taste to a banana, but is more like a powdered cookie that is inside of a shell that you have to smash open with a rock. It was interesting tasting, and the kids literally picked over 100 of them and ate all of them right there on the spot. Then we headed back to the rounda to close out the Sabbath. This is also a little bit of a bitter Sabbath for many because this is Erin's last Sabbath here. So a lot of people are feeling sad about that.

Sunday Nov. 4, 2012

This morning Joy asked me to take the truck into town to drop off the other missionaries at the bus station because they left this morning. This was a little stressful because before we left, Joy said "be careful because of how bad the clutch is, the motor could blow at any time". Great! The hardest part about the truck is that it simply will not go into gear because of that dumb clutch. But somehow I made it work. I probably will not not be able to come into town tomorrow in order to post my blog. So I am rushing to submit it before we head back. I will not be able to post pictures from this week until a couple days from now. But rest assured, I do have pictures from this week! Oh! and I got 3 packages today! 2 from my parents and 1 from Southern! So excited! Can't wait to open them! Ok, well I have to go now. But I will post pictures later. so stay tuned!

You stay civilized......planet earth!!!!

Monday Oct. 22, 2012

The only exciting thing that happened today other than our day off was there was a campus picture taken today. Familia Feliz has had Calvin (a professional photographer/videographer) working here making a promotional video and helping to make a new website for Familia Feliz. So today, they wanted to get a picture of the entire campus for the website. Oh, and one other thing, while I was dressed up in my church clothes, I was sitting on the steps on the porch of the big house and a dog walked up behind me and lifted his leg to pee on my back!! Fortunately, I saw him lift his leg and I was able to move midstream before it hit me. But that was a very close call! Other than that, it was just a normal day off.

I have been preparing for my sermon on trusting in God and had a lot of my thoughts together. However, this evening France came to my room and told me that he had a powerpoint presentation for me to preach my sermon from. Needless to say, this was very unexpected. I immediately became a lot more nervous because this is a drastic change from what I was expecting. But then I figured that preaching with a slideshow behind me might actually be a lot easier. Thats when he told me that all the slides were in spanish. Was he kidding? I might be able to get the idea of what some of the slides say with my broken spanish, but I can't preach a sermon from a slideshow written in spanish! Especially 41 slides! This caused me to go into a little bit of a panic mode and I decided that I needed to talk with Erin and get her to help me

Tuesday Oct. 23, 2012

Bread day again. Today we decided to make Ciabatta bread again, one of my favorites! It actually started late last night so we could get a "12 hour preferment" for added flavor. But unfortunately, Eric got some shampoo spilled into his laptop and it completely stopped working. So he needed to go to town to see if he could do anything to fix it. So that left Steven and I baking bread all day. Which really wasn't that bad because I want to learn how to make Ciabata perfectly!

Half way through the day, I saw Erin and told herabout my sermon situation. I was just going to ask her to help me translate the slides so I could have an idea of what I was talking about for each slide. But then she read my mind and flat out said that this is ridiculous and that France can't expect me to do this. So she told me that she would talk to France for me. Later on, she brought France over and we all talked about it. He was confused at why I couldn't do it (even though he knew that I didn't speak spanish) because a month ago, he asked me if I would preach a sermon and I said yes. However, a premade slideshow in spanish was not part of the deal. I think he was a little disappointed, but he was very nice about it. So I suppose my sermon will have to wait until another day.

Wednesday Oct. 24, 2012

Tonight was very exciting though because in the late afternoon, Lizelle asked me if I would drive her to town. Of course I said I would. Then when I asked when, She said right now. Which was a little confusing to me because it was getting late and I wasn't sure why anyone would want to go to town that late. As it turns out, she had to catch a bus to go to a graduation service somewhere. So we all loaded up in the smaller truck that I have never driven and headed out. It was Lizelle, her sister, Limbert, Eric, and me in the truck. Limbert was going with her and the sister just wanted to spend more time with Lizelle.

Eric and I both thought that it would be a quick drop off and come back to town, quick and simple. But nothing is that simple in Bolivia (which is great because we never know whats in store for us from hour to hour). Once we got into town, Lizelle said she needed me to take her to her brothers house, then to her other brothers' house, then shopping for sandals for Limbert. During all this, at one point, she asked me to pull a U-turn. Now this is no problem in the States, even with a stickshift. But this truck has no power steering (which if you have never driven is a complete pain), the roads a extremely narrow, and this is like the busiest that I have ever seen Rurre. But I was able to make a 3-point turn and be on my way. So I was pretty proud, but the icing on the cake was when Lizelle was like "Wow, good job, very good!" because she doesn't just throw compliments around willy nilly.

After this I told her that Eric and I would wait for her at Naguila's because since we were in town, we might as well get online! Right? Turns out, we didn't end up leaving Rurre until about 11:45. It was wonderful! On the way back, Joy and 2 others were in the back seat (because they drove in later on the motobike), and they were able to fall asleep even with my driving and swerving to avoid all the potholes in the road. I felt like I was driving like Indiana Jones if he were driving in the middle of the jungle! But we got back safe and sound and I was able to crawl into bed around 1 am.

Thursday Oct. 25, 2012

Today was yet another bread making day. We were supposed to meet up with steven aroun 9:00 am but because of how late we got in last night, and then being woken up again around 5:30, I don't think either of us were physically ableto wake up that early. So we ended up meeting him around 10 or so. Today we are making Ficossie (not sure how to spell it) bread which has now become my favorite bread, at least when olive oil is not around. The plan was for me to make a small batch of ciabatta and Eric to make another small batch of ficossie on the side for extra practice, but because we didn't get as early of a start, we will have to postpone that until later.

Eric was a little disappointed that we were making ficossie today because it is his absolute favorite bread, but today was his class day so he could not help us make it. Steven and I were able to have a good day together without clashing shoulders too much. I think he is starting to warm up to Eric and I, but I think we are warming up too. Steven loves what he does and loves who he does is with. He wants to be able to teach others the art of bread making and throw is some spiritual insight in with it. I think he is beginning to kind of treat Eric and I as his "family" because he has not seen his family in several years and doesn't even know where they are at. But ever since he realized that we are the same age as his kids, and even have the exact same birthdays, I think really excited him.

Later on, right about the time to clean everything up, Eric finished his classes and came to help. Which was wonderful because in my opinion, cleaning up to Stevens standards is the hardest part of the bread making process. It is good that we are trying to be clean, but it just takes quite a long time.

In the afternoon, Calvin was finishing up the final product of his promotional video for Familia Feliz. So once their new site is up and running with the video, I will let everyone know.

This afternoon I also found out that this friday and following monday there is no school for the kids. They are having some sort of vacation. Which they love, as any kid would. So tomorrow some kids will be going to a relative's house nearby while others stay here.

This evening, since I only have about 4 kids, and there was no school tomorrow, I decided to show them a movie. The only problem about showing them movies is that all the movies I have are in English. But that does not keep them from enjoying them in the slightest. I actually kind of like it because I translate as much as I can for them so it might even be helping my spanish.

Friday Oct. 26, 2012

Today was the first day of vaction for everyone! One of the first exciting things to happen was Juan loaded up the truck with a bunch of the children and we went to a nearby school to play with them. This was a little surprise to Joy and Melissa because nobody told them about it which made them a little upset for obvious reasons. They were not told, much less asked about the whole situation and they are the ones responsible. Anyways, after some of the adults had a chit chat, we were on our way. Calvin, Eric, and I went with the kids but we were not sure if we were going to play because it was SUPER hot today. The kind of day where you can crack an egg and drop it straight into your mouth and by the time it gets there it's already fried.

Upon arriving, there where hardly any trees around the field so the 3 of us opted to not play and sit in the shade relaxing and talking. We had some serious guy talk. I would tell you all about it, but what guys talk about is of the upmost secret to the female species. And I know some woman are reading this. ;-)

After we came back, I relaxed and blogged for a little bit before I went outside to do my laundry. And as I said before, laundry takes a little bit more time than it does in the states. Especially if you just keep putting it off like I do. This was a good day to do laundry though because the heat would dry our clothes in a jiffy! I wanted to hurry up and get my laundry done so that I could have a penalty kick (soccer (for the ladies (haha))) competition with my house kids. They can turn any patch of ground into a soccer field and use anything to make a goal. Even though my kids are small, they are GOOD at soccer. I love to see how much passion they have for it.

Saturday Oct. 27, 2012

Today was Communion Sabbath which is always one of my most favorite Sabbaths. They do not allow the kids to participate only the adults and a few of the older children who understand what it means. Footwashing was very way more meaningful to me here than it ever has been to me in the states. I say that because in the States, we all wear shoes, bathe regularly, and don't have wild animals running around pooping and peeing everywhere. Here it is at least a little more like in the Bible days when you are actually humbling yourself to get on your knees and wash the dirt and grim off of unmanicured, gross looking feet. I think in the States, before we do footwashing, we should have everyone walk around in a big bucket of cow manure first! Ok, maybe not.

After church today I was able to do something that I have only done once since arriveing here, I got to take a nap. Or at least I tried. Remember how I said that on Friday we could drop an egg into our mouths and by the time it got there it would already be fried? Well today, the egg wouldn't even make it to our mouths because it would be incinerated.

I was laying in bed sweating like a pig. I wasn't able to get too much sleep because 1, it was obviously hot, and 2, everytime a bead of sweat formed on my chest, or back, or arm, or anywhere else for that matter, it felt as though it was an ant, mosquito, or some other little pest crawling all over me. So then I would slap myself for no reason. Later on, Joy asked me what I did this afternoon and I told her about how I tried to sleep but couldn't because I kept thinking bugs were on me. So she graciously told me that next time I wanted to take a nap, she would keep slapping me so that I wouldn't have to.

For dinner, everyone was on their own, so me being the guy that I am start to think, where should I go in order to find a good meal, cooked with love in every bite so I don't have to eat a raw carrot. So where else better to go than the girls dorm! Jackpot. Turns out, Calvin, Erin, and Annie were over there. So between the 4 of us, we cooked pasta with vegetables and vegetarian chicken broth.

This evening I let my now 3 boys watch Lion king while I went over to the big house to meet up with the other volunteers to watch Get Smart. But once again, nothing is THAT easy in Bolivia. On my way over, one of the older boys from the dorm stopped me and wanted to talk to me in private. Once we got to where no one could hear, he asked me if I could loan him 80 B's so he and his family could go to the pool tomorrow. I was pretty unsure about loaning out so much money to someone that I don't really know. So I told him I would think about it and I would let him know a little later. So I asked 4 different people about it and everyone of the immediately said that I should not do it and that he is the most untrustworthy person in the entire campus. So I discussed it with Max who is one of the deans and he said that he would take care of it.



You stay civilized......planet earth!

pictures

i was able to post a couple pictures to my last blog.