Study Time and School Projects

Santa Cruz!

I got to make a lovely trip to Santa Cruz, Bolivia last week. Hermana Lita invited me to accompany her to help out in the national Pastors’ Conference as her husband is the current president. I had only been to Santa Cruz once before (2 days in March with the PBA team) and loved it, so I happily accepted.

I traveled by car with one of the pastors, the pastor’s son, and some girls who help out in the church. It was a 9.5 hour trip, but it was gorgeous. All morning we passed through the mountains, arriving in Chapare at noon for a lunch of delicious local fish. Chapare is the doorway to the Bolivian tropics, so from there on it only got flatter, hotter, and steamier. We arrived at the church sweating (no AC) just in time to head to the airport to pick up the pastor’s wife. We went to dinner near the church and then headed back for a meeting that lasted until 2am! Our churches here have 5am prayer every day, and seeing as it was a pastors’ conference we clearly had to be there.

The rest of the week for me consisted of helping prepare breakfast for the pastors that were staying at our church (the conference was in another church), accompanying Hermana Lita to the conference and meetings, helping the pastor’s son with driving directions, and helping to retrieve dinner for the pastors late at night.

I did get to return to our church with its pastor early one night and share my testimony during the service. It is really a wonderful church, new and small, but the people are all very open and quick to make friends. They really made me miss my old small group! After that service I helped Pastor Edson make purchases for the next day and rent tables. Our final day we held the post-conference meeting in our church. I helped to serve coffee and snacks, set up for lunch, serve the meal, and clean up. Once everyone was gone….we crashed!

The next day was the long drive back to Cochabamba. I must say that I miss Santa Cruz. It is a big city, hot and humid, so much like West Palm Beach. But there still isn’t anything better than pulling up to the BLC, seeing the kids pour out the door, being hugged and told you were missed. It is good to be home again!

Photos from the Farm

Start of the tour.

Cow manure goes in one end, releases gases as it decomposes which move up through the tube in the middle, and the poo comes out the other end ready for the garden.

The gas travels through the tube and collects in the big bag hanging from the ceiling, another tube connects the gas to the stove for cooking.

A blurry photo from the guinea pig barn.

Yum. Dinner.

Birthday Fun

Yesterday was my birthday and absolutely amazing! It started with the normal routine of breakfast and getting the boys off to school. Then I decided to take a stroll in to the plaza to buy flowers for myself because I love them and I was sure that today I had a good excuse. I also stopped at the bakery for 2 freshly baked chocolate glazed donuts (grand total for 2 donuts and 3 bunches of flowers = $1).

We also had a field trip planned for the day (my first one since arriving) to a farm. So we gathered all the boys who weren’t in school and set out. It was a really beautiful farm that had lots of eco-friendly plans in use (solar cooking, solar water heating, gas from the compost pile collected for cooking on cloudy days, a waterless bathroom that resulted in compost, etc), lots of vegetable, a sheep, guinea pigs (we eat them here in Bolivia!), and 47 milking cows! The boys loved it and had lots of questions. We returned to the BLC for lunch, sent the boys off to school, and collected the boys that were returning for another trip to the farm!

The older boys went to the school soccer field to play at night, like they do every Friday but I decided not to accompany them this time. Just as I was falling asleep, I received a call from their supervisor saying that one of them had hurt his ankle and couldn’t walk and I needed to come see them right away. Since I had been nearly asleep, I fell for it and rushed to their dorm. As soon as I entered their room, the lights went out and the “hurt” boy jumped off the table revealing the bread and candle hidden behind him. They started singing happy birthday (rather terribly I must admit) and I knew that I was doomed having previously seen the Bolivian birthday tradition. As the song was coming to a close, they attacked. “Making birthday cake” they cracked 4 raw eggs over my head and then dumped a bag of flour on top!

How many people can say they had a wonderful day that ended with egg shell in their shower drain?

Kissing Boys

Just the really little ones :) As I was thinking about ways that we can make the BLC more like a real family, I realized that we don’t show as much affection as a normal family. Especially a latin family! Some of it is due to sheer numbers. There are just so many of them and so few of us adults. And it is so easy to get occupied in activity and discipline that unnecessary affection slips quickly from the mind.

So daily kisses became my new goal for the 2 youngest dorms. Most frequently I sneak up behind them while they are eating a meal. Many try to run from me, but few get away! Some of them absolutely LOVE getting their kisses. One kiss per day is necessary, but they can ask for as many extra as they like. I have received requests (and delivered) 100 kisses on many occasions! I’ve also had a few boys recommend that I buy dark lipstick so that they can keep the kiss longer! And whenever the littlest ones are grouchy with no apparent reason, I recommend kisses as the cure and it nearly always works!

I’m pretty sure that I have the best job ever!!

Getting in the Groove

I’m so glad to finally feel like I’ve got the swing of things. I’ve got plenty to learn still and some big changes yet to tackle, but I think I’ve got day to day life down! I’m glad to have some routine back in my life, and it is time that I reintroduced blogging into that routine because…SO MUCH HAPPENS HERE!!

My daily routine for now looks like this: 6am wake up, prayer for the pastors and churches that I love so dearly, morning yoga, hot shower (if there is propane), downstairs for breakfast of bread and hot something-or-other to drink by 7:15, med distribution, at the gate by 7:40 to mark down who leaves for school on time, 20 minute walk to school (hopefully this is temporary for me…I’ve got a little buddy who needs to be accompanied to and from school while he regains trust), 20 minute walk back home, study time in the cafeteria with the morning boys until 10am. By now I need a quick break to make some tea as caffeine is a necessity. Then I head into the clinic (which I am using as my office) for some computer work. It doesn’t last long though, as I need to head back to the school at 11:40 to pick up my buddy. The walk home today will include a stop at the bakery as I could tell from the smell in town this morning that the bread will be fresh!

Straight to lunch on arrival, then supervision as the boys have free time until 2pm. My buddy stays with me so we do his devotional and then when he starts his homework I get to go back to work until 5pm. As the afternoon boys come out of their classes, my office is generally invaded (they all LOVE using word art to write their names and then change the size, shape, and color on my computer). I really enjoy the opportunity to chat with them as they wait their turn for the computer and they generally trickle out the door by 6:30. After grabbing a jacket from my room, it’s time for dinner, rounds of the dorms and supervision of the wash house, med distribution, hang out time with the teenage dorm (this generally involves downloading music to their MP3 players, watching a movie, or harassing them about girls), and if there are no disciple issues in the dorms it is finally time to head up to the apartment. If the water hasn’t been shut off yet, I get to rinse off the daily grim and then it is time for hot chocolate and prayer for my beloved monsters (boys). The goal is an 11pm bedtime. Yeah, right!