Because, apparently, the bolivian trufi-taxi drivers decided that it was time to have a strike. I guess it happens every once in a while, maybe like. Every year or so, but when they decide to do it, it has quite an effect on the productivity of their society. I´d say like. 50 to 51% of the vehicles here are some sort of trufi or public transport. Apparently there is some sort of law that went into place that the trufi drivers don´t like. So they decided to go on strike for 2 days. I called the orphanage this morning and the director was like. Don´t worry. There´s no transport. But the interesting thing is that this strike means that they take all their trufis and block all the roads. I´ve got like. 2 pictures of it, but I don´t want to do anything to tick off the angry trufi drivers in mass, so i´m scared to take more photos. Apparently, in certain places they will light fires in the intersections and throw rocks at like. Taxi drivers, (who are trying to make a killing when there are no trufis taking people everywhere). So, for that reason, I´m a little scared to just like blatantly take pictures about it. And today is a little more interesting, because there are trucks of policemen driving around and motorcycle gangs of policemen going around with shotguns. which isn´t really rare, but they are just doing it in mass today. So, if the trufi drivers don´t get what they want, I´ll have nothing to do tomorrow. I did make the 45 minute walk into downtown today. I was wearing a gray shirt. It´s about 80 degrees out. It was visibly nasty.
What else is new with my life. I still have not been able to go to the yuquis. And it´s still up in the air whether i will or not. Because in the lower lands, it has been raining a ton. I think i mentioned the flooding earlier, and it hasn´t really subsided where the yuquis are living, and i think the river is still a bit difficult to navigate. So I´m really hoping that it...subsides. So i can go, because. I want to. One of the elder yuquis passed away last week from something preventable. I´m not sure what it was, but apparently it was pretty preventable, but no one could get in or out to give him any treatment. so he died. Which sucks. So for that reason I´m still not able to go there.
At the orphanage I had my first real experience with baby diarrhea. It was the nastiest thing I have ever experienced. The kid smelled. So I carried him into the room where the babies get changed. Upon picking him up, i realized that his pants were damp. After laying him down, I smelled my arm. And gagged. It was so bad. I rinsed my arm off and then went to the business of changing bladdy. I pulled down his pants to see that the liquid poo had leaked out of his diaper. Down his leg. Onto his socks. I know that babies legs aren´t very long, but the fact that it leaked all the way down to his feet was just incredible. It was so terrible. One of the other tias came in and was like.¨woohhhhhhhh bladdy, what did you dddooooooooooooooooooo!?!?¨. It was really terrible.
I rode in a volkswagen turtle (beetle) driven by a man named ChiChi. No lie. I only thought that was a made up name for a restaurant. But his name actually is chichi. Half way home, we stopped for an emergency. His little daughter had to pee. So his wife set her out of the car, pulled down her pants, and she peed. Right on the street. Then we continued home. There is no room in the back of those things. Like. The way that girls sit on the ground when they are wearing a dress is the way i had to sit, because there was literally no way for me to put my feet in front of me between my seat and chichi´s. So i had to put my feet to the side. I never knew how little it was inside of those things.
Last weekend, we visited the world´s largest statue of Christ. It was big. and you get to climb inside of him! But the staircase stopped at like. His armpits. So i was able to climb to the armpits of the world´s largest statue of Christ. And at the entrance of the Cristo, there was a plaque from pope john paul commemorating the Cristo. So that was thrilling.
We also went the palace of some really really rich dead guy. I don´t really remember his name, but he had a tttooonnnn of money because he owned a ton of mines. During like the 40´s or something he was among the 10 richest men in the world, and so he decided to build a huge house to show how rich he was. He´s even got like a 5 meter statue of a condor in his garden. Yeah, kind of like the marble elephant in Lucky. But bigger. But the interesting thing was that this house is like massive ginormous humungous. And he never got to live in it. When he was building it, he had a heart attack. And then wasn´t able to return to cochabamba after his heart attack due to business or health, or whatever else. So there is this absolutely massive house sitting there that no one has ever lived in before. It was like the ultimate lesson in storing up treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. Or, moreso, of the man with the barns who built more barns. but then had his life demanded of him. So he wasn´t even able to use what was in his barns.
I still hate doing laundry by hand in sinks. You have no idea how nice it is to have a washing machine and dryer. It´s incredible.
I´m not sure what else I´ve got. There are certain things here that are easier and certain that are harder. In a couple weeks, my schedule is going to change a lot and I´m also going to be spending 7 hours a day at the orphanage, half of it with the 11 kids, and the other half of that with like 23 kids. So i´m a little concerned for how that´s going to affect me. sometimes it´s difficult to walk in the spirit with kids that not only don´t listen to you, but do the exact opposite because it seems fun, and then get all of the other kids to do the same thing. Because that´s even more fun. So that is something to pray for. I guess also that I would just be able to consistently follow Jesus in whatever situation i´m in, and that I would learn to deny myself. And that I would just listen to the Spirit and what he has for me, whether it´s easy or hard.
I think that´s most of what´s going on in my life. Eric, I´m not sure about any of my paradigm shifts, but I have finished the Shack, so that should have changed them. Right¿ It was actually pretty good.
That´s pretty much it for now. I know more happens in my life but I can never really seem to recall it when I´m sitting in the internet cafe.
I love you guys, whoever happens to read this.
You´re wonderful and i miss you.
P.S. we did not feel the earthquake.
20.2.10
I think I´m getting more used to the culture
Because I don´t have as many stories of me making an idiot out of myself.
But that´s besides the point. I´m still working at the orphanange. Which is good. It´s really hard sometimes but i still think it´s good for me. A group of us are going to the orphanage to day from the church to work with the kids and do some like. figner painting birthday things for the kids. It will be...interesting. The kids can´t eat without getting everything all over the place everwhere, so i´m only assuming about the finger paint. But it should be good.
We went to a Bolivia Christian camp. It was 4 days long. Really long. And we slept on the floor, so there wasn´t much sleeping. And all the kids spoke in slang and really quickly and were pretty much all like 14 or 15 years old, so it was sort of difficult to relate to...any of them. So for those 4 days, i was pretty much on my own. Which, as a result, I didn´t have a very good attitude. But the ironic part is that i managed to win, as far as i can tell, something along the lines of like...the person with the best attitude. It was sort of funny, because. well. It couldn´t be true. But I sort of think they wanted to give me a t-shirt. So I got a t-shirt, which i was severely coveting the whole time we were there. Who doesn´t want a t-shirt from a bolivian camp? So I was happy about that.
I would say my favorite part of the camp was translating text messages from one particular kid named Junior. For some reason, he has some girlfriend that speaks english. But her english is not good english. Quite bad. The texts usually said something along the lines of like, ¨tell me you love me. don´t kiss any other girls. I know you will me want to be in my dreams of you tonight¨. And other things like that. I can´t remember other ones, but they were all along those lines, and it was reall fun to translate that into spanish for him and what him sort of be like...¨uhhh.....¨.
What else. Oh yeah. I don´t think I´ve mentioned this. We managed to come to bolivia in the middle of this thing called ¨carnival¨. This basically means that people burn some sort of offerings to the devil, do dances to the devil, and other things in order to please the devil in the hopes that they won´t be cursed by him. It´s sort of crazy. it´s from like..the remnants of the incan culture. And it´s like 2 months of celebration. ¨celebration¨. Apparently they sacrifice llamas, and like. Someone told me that Evo, the president here sacrificed a baby when he became president. And him and the vice president drank the blood of the baby that was sacrificed. I´m seriously having a difficult time figuring out whether or not this actually happened. So if someone wants to check in on it for me, that would be helpful. But either way, it´s crazy. And also, somewhere in the worship of the devil, this means that they also whip waterballoons everywhere, at everyone. The day we got back from the camp, my family happened to not be home. And I don´t ahve keys, so I couldn´t get in. So I launched my stuff over the fence and walked out to the intersection taht I usually pick up a trufi to go by Jackie´s house. But apparently trufi´s dont run during certain days of carnival, and this was like a special holiday. And there were not many taxis. So i waited at this intersection for like 45 minutes while i got waterballons thrown at me from all 4 corners of the intersection, a little kid with a squirt gun shooting me from his yard, and while 3 or 4 trucks drove past filled with people in the back for the sole purpose of throwing water balloons at people. I finally got into the first taxi that drove past, 45 minutes later with a old fat bald bolivian smoking a cigaretted, and just sort of prayed, ¨God, let me stay alive¨. (Because the taxi service I call apparnetly was not operating on that day, either). It was fun. I showed up totally soaked at Jackie´s house like an hour later.
Um. What more. There´s a crazy Australian lady named Phoebe that´s a missionary here. She moved here from Australia like 45 years ago, not knowing anything about Bolivia. She just got on a boat with all of her stuff, and came to bolivia because she wanted to be a missionary. I´ve gotten to talk to her quite a bit, and helped her re-organize her house last night. I´m trying to imagine what that would be like. 1964 she left australia to start a new life in bolivia. Like, especially back then. I feel like the world was a lot bigger before the internet. And air travel being common. this is before my mom was born. Crazy. So she´s been living here and becoming bolivian for the last 45 years. That thought wasn´t organzied, but it´s fine.
I´m molting like a snake right now. I think i took too much sun. It´s pretty disgusting. My arms have almost completely peeled. And a layer or two of skin on my ears as well.
Um. I know i´ve had interesting encounters, but I can´t remember them. Especially because I haevn´t gotten online in two weeks, so I´m overloading my brain.
English is starting to become difficlt sometimes. I use spanish syntax when i speak english. Or i just completely mess it up. but I still completely mess up spanish, so I´m not really getting anywhere.
Out of time. There´s more i know that´s going on, but that´s fine.
Love!
But that´s besides the point. I´m still working at the orphanange. Which is good. It´s really hard sometimes but i still think it´s good for me. A group of us are going to the orphanage to day from the church to work with the kids and do some like. figner painting birthday things for the kids. It will be...interesting. The kids can´t eat without getting everything all over the place everwhere, so i´m only assuming about the finger paint. But it should be good.
We went to a Bolivia Christian camp. It was 4 days long. Really long. And we slept on the floor, so there wasn´t much sleeping. And all the kids spoke in slang and really quickly and were pretty much all like 14 or 15 years old, so it was sort of difficult to relate to...any of them. So for those 4 days, i was pretty much on my own. Which, as a result, I didn´t have a very good attitude. But the ironic part is that i managed to win, as far as i can tell, something along the lines of like...the person with the best attitude. It was sort of funny, because. well. It couldn´t be true. But I sort of think they wanted to give me a t-shirt. So I got a t-shirt, which i was severely coveting the whole time we were there. Who doesn´t want a t-shirt from a bolivian camp? So I was happy about that.
I would say my favorite part of the camp was translating text messages from one particular kid named Junior. For some reason, he has some girlfriend that speaks english. But her english is not good english. Quite bad. The texts usually said something along the lines of like, ¨tell me you love me. don´t kiss any other girls. I know you will me want to be in my dreams of you tonight¨. And other things like that. I can´t remember other ones, but they were all along those lines, and it was reall fun to translate that into spanish for him and what him sort of be like...¨uhhh.....¨.
What else. Oh yeah. I don´t think I´ve mentioned this. We managed to come to bolivia in the middle of this thing called ¨carnival¨. This basically means that people burn some sort of offerings to the devil, do dances to the devil, and other things in order to please the devil in the hopes that they won´t be cursed by him. It´s sort of crazy. it´s from like..the remnants of the incan culture. And it´s like 2 months of celebration. ¨celebration¨. Apparently they sacrifice llamas, and like. Someone told me that Evo, the president here sacrificed a baby when he became president. And him and the vice president drank the blood of the baby that was sacrificed. I´m seriously having a difficult time figuring out whether or not this actually happened. So if someone wants to check in on it for me, that would be helpful. But either way, it´s crazy. And also, somewhere in the worship of the devil, this means that they also whip waterballoons everywhere, at everyone. The day we got back from the camp, my family happened to not be home. And I don´t ahve keys, so I couldn´t get in. So I launched my stuff over the fence and walked out to the intersection taht I usually pick up a trufi to go by Jackie´s house. But apparently trufi´s dont run during certain days of carnival, and this was like a special holiday. And there were not many taxis. So i waited at this intersection for like 45 minutes while i got waterballons thrown at me from all 4 corners of the intersection, a little kid with a squirt gun shooting me from his yard, and while 3 or 4 trucks drove past filled with people in the back for the sole purpose of throwing water balloons at people. I finally got into the first taxi that drove past, 45 minutes later with a old fat bald bolivian smoking a cigaretted, and just sort of prayed, ¨God, let me stay alive¨. (Because the taxi service I call apparnetly was not operating on that day, either). It was fun. I showed up totally soaked at Jackie´s house like an hour later.
Um. What more. There´s a crazy Australian lady named Phoebe that´s a missionary here. She moved here from Australia like 45 years ago, not knowing anything about Bolivia. She just got on a boat with all of her stuff, and came to bolivia because she wanted to be a missionary. I´ve gotten to talk to her quite a bit, and helped her re-organize her house last night. I´m trying to imagine what that would be like. 1964 she left australia to start a new life in bolivia. Like, especially back then. I feel like the world was a lot bigger before the internet. And air travel being common. this is before my mom was born. Crazy. So she´s been living here and becoming bolivian for the last 45 years. That thought wasn´t organzied, but it´s fine.
I´m molting like a snake right now. I think i took too much sun. It´s pretty disgusting. My arms have almost completely peeled. And a layer or two of skin on my ears as well.
Um. I know i´ve had interesting encounters, but I can´t remember them. Especially because I haevn´t gotten online in two weeks, so I´m overloading my brain.
English is starting to become difficlt sometimes. I use spanish syntax when i speak english. Or i just completely mess it up. but I still completely mess up spanish, so I´m not really getting anywhere.
Out of time. There´s more i know that´s going on, but that´s fine.
Love!
7.2.10
More things in Bolivia.
So. I still love the country. And i´m sitting in an internet cafe next to a guy just jamming out to his Michael Jackson. bad. smooth criminal. the works.
anyways.
I´m about as red as a lobster. And it really hurts. But I guess that´s worth it. Because I got to go to the mountain park thing "Pirumani". Don´t ask me what it means or anything, i think it´s some sort of Amayran or Kechua name. Which are the names of different indigenous groups in Bolivia.
This was probably the coolest place I´ve ever seen in my life. Like no lie. After we got a little lost, and wandered past probably like 30 cows, (which they just tie to a stake in athe ground, and let them graze...even just along the roads. They just stand on the shoulder of the roads eating whatever...weird) we finally got to the top of this plateau. And this comparatively little plateau was definitely taller than anythaing we have in wisconsin. So it was pretty awesome to be able to look down from this plateau onto cochabamba, looking down off of this like...200 foot sheer cliff down to the river below. It was sweet. And then we noticed a pack of alpacas or llamas or some other sort of mountain dwelling animal, and we watched them go from the moauntain to the valley.For like a half hour. I´m not sure why, but it was intriguiging to watch like 20 llamas and a boy wandering around the mountain to go to the river to drink, or do whatever llamas or alpacas do. (p.s. this keyboard has like. cigarette burn holes in it and a bunch of the keys are broken. that´s my excuse for the spelling errors).
So then after that, we walked through this underground tunnel, and when we came out the other side, we could see this waterfall in the distance. The people here considered it a little one. It was definitely the bigget one i´ve ever seen.a So we walked along this cliff side trail to the water fall, and got to sort of play in the rapids a little bit. Which was amazing. The water was so crisp and clear. Which felt really really good on the really hot day. I took a drink of it--i´m pretty sure that water is a lot better to drink than the tap water here. At least I haven´t gotten sick yet since I drank that water. So then we went up a little further to, what was then the 2nd largest waterfall i´ve ever seen. It was a little smaller than the first, but relatively calm. So I got to walk under it. Or more so in it. It was kind of like being at the water park in six flags where that big bucket of water dumps on you in the kiddy area....except constantly. It was pretty awesome.
And then after that, I did, what I think might be one of the stupidest things I´ve done. Jackie things it was fridge sledding, but I think this wins.
So, they take some of the water from this river and they pipe it...somewhere. I don´t know where, or what for..maybe irrigation or something. But anyways, this water happens to pass through a tunnel. It´s maybe... I don´t know...a quarter of a mile? Maybe less. Maybe more. It was a lot longer than it intially appeared, because it was straight. And I could see light at the other side. So, Jackie, Kattya and I decided that we wanted to go through the tunnel. Because it would be cool to do. So we were going through the tunnel, and we got maybe. I don´t know, a quarter of the way through and i´m like. Oh crap. Bats. I don´t like bats. So. We turned around and went back out the way we came in because...we decided bats were not a good thing to try to crawl through.
So, as we were leaving, there was another group of people, like a family that were going into the cave. We were like, hay murcealagos!...which means, there are bats. They were unphased, and still decided they wanted to go in. So we left, and walked maybe 5 minutes. This is when kattya decided that she really wanted to go through the tunnela. I didn´t. But she did. So Kattya and I turned around to enter into the bat tunnel, while Jackie went to the other side to wait for us. As we got to the tunnel, the other people had decided that there were too many bats. So we waited for them to get out, and we dropped in.
This tunnel is less than 5 feet tall. And probably had about a foot of water in it. and about 3 feet wide. So that left 4 feet of space for us and the flying bats.
So, as soon as we enter the tunnel, I can see about 2 or 3 bats flying around in the tunnel. And as we start going, it just looks like there are 2 or 3 bats.. maybe a couple more. Then, we get about half way, and the number of bats are steadily increasing. The further we go, it seems like the morae we wake up. And the more wake up, the more the others wake up. And, they do not seem to like to go near us, so they just get more and more dense. Once in a while, I´d see the reflection from the water above my head on the roof of the tunnel. Until I realize there´s not really any light to be reflected. The bats are flying above my head.
I´m freaking out, because I don´t like bats. Kattya just closed her eyes and kept saying, "God, you made bats. Keep them away from us please!!!!". The closer we get to the end, the more bats are flying around, like just inches off the water. At my face. And then flying up like when they are super close. I already had my plan--i was going completely undaer water to get the bat off of me if one happened to hit me. I was already on my elbows and knees crawling, as to give the bats as much room as possible. When we were lik 50 feet from the end, there was at a minimum of 20 bats just whipping around the tunnel, because, apparently, they really do not like the light. And when I could see in the light, I could see them just dropping...guano...everywhere. When we got to like the...15 or 20 feet mark, I decided it was just time to go for it. So we just dropped our heads and sprinted, as well as yoau can on all 4´s out of the cave. I didn´t see it, because i had my head down, but Jackie said that a cloud of bats exploded out of the tunnel with us. So. I didn´t get bit. But i was probably covered in bat poop. So that´s more experience with fecal matter for me.
That was a really long story. And probably doesn´t sound as exciting as it was for me. But it was.
My family is fun. My little brother and i were doing some sort of wrestling. I called him a little girl, but he said that he was valliant. I said if he was valliant, then I´m santa clause. He´s been calling me Papa Noel since.
Um. Also, I´ve been letting my brothers use Jack, my iPod. It was sort of a shock to me, because I had to teach them how to use an ipod. How to turn it on, how to find the music, how to play a song, and how to pick something else. And how to turn it off. It took me by suprise, because we take stuff like that for granted. Everyone has an ipod. Everyone knows how to use one. It´s common knowledge. Nope. It was sort of a wake up call. Not everyone in the world has as much money as I do. And I am so often blind to that. But it´s a good lesson.
The orphanage has been going well. Mostly. They are little kids though, and they don´t like toget put in a time out. So as a result, I got called Tio Caca the other day. Uncle Poop. They thought it was funny. I thought it was too, but I don´t think it would have been very good if i laughed at their nickname for me. At least when they were in time out.
This will only make sense to the people of Harvey´s Halfway House and a few others. I was riding in a trufi to church yesterday, and the trufi driver had a Triple H air freshner in it. I really wanted to buy it off of him, but only had 50 centavos. One Fourteenth of a dollar. And the trufi was really really full and really really busy. So i passed on the conversation of asking the driver to buy an air freshner from him because I knew it wouldn´t go smoothly and decided not to keep the other 20 people on the trufi. Sorry guys.
I´ve spent so much time talking about stuff, I haven´t really shared anything meaningful. And now i´ve only got 4 more minutes. 3. But I have been learning a lot. And it´s been really good. Difficult at times, painful at times, but overall good. And I know that.
And. There´s been like a ridiculous amount of rain in Santa Cruz. which is another city in Bolivia. And there´s been problems with food and people haven´t been very happy about it. There´s been a few problems with that in Cochabamba too--like lack of natural gas and food too in some places. I haven´t been affected by it, but when there´s problems in the same country--the same city as you. It hits home a little more. So if you could be prayin for that situation, it´d be good. I´m sure there´s something on google news if you search cochabamba or bolivia or santa cruz or something along those lines if you´re interested.
Thanks all & Love!
kyle
anyways.
I´m about as red as a lobster. And it really hurts. But I guess that´s worth it. Because I got to go to the mountain park thing "Pirumani". Don´t ask me what it means or anything, i think it´s some sort of Amayran or Kechua name. Which are the names of different indigenous groups in Bolivia.
This was probably the coolest place I´ve ever seen in my life. Like no lie. After we got a little lost, and wandered past probably like 30 cows, (which they just tie to a stake in athe ground, and let them graze...even just along the roads. They just stand on the shoulder of the roads eating whatever...weird) we finally got to the top of this plateau. And this comparatively little plateau was definitely taller than anythaing we have in wisconsin. So it was pretty awesome to be able to look down from this plateau onto cochabamba, looking down off of this like...200 foot sheer cliff down to the river below. It was sweet. And then we noticed a pack of alpacas or llamas or some other sort of mountain dwelling animal, and we watched them go from the moauntain to the valley.For like a half hour. I´m not sure why, but it was intriguiging to watch like 20 llamas and a boy wandering around the mountain to go to the river to drink, or do whatever llamas or alpacas do. (p.s. this keyboard has like. cigarette burn holes in it and a bunch of the keys are broken. that´s my excuse for the spelling errors).
So then after that, we walked through this underground tunnel, and when we came out the other side, we could see this waterfall in the distance. The people here considered it a little one. It was definitely the bigget one i´ve ever seen.a So we walked along this cliff side trail to the water fall, and got to sort of play in the rapids a little bit. Which was amazing. The water was so crisp and clear. Which felt really really good on the really hot day. I took a drink of it--i´m pretty sure that water is a lot better to drink than the tap water here. At least I haven´t gotten sick yet since I drank that water. So then we went up a little further to, what was then the 2nd largest waterfall i´ve ever seen. It was a little smaller than the first, but relatively calm. So I got to walk under it. Or more so in it. It was kind of like being at the water park in six flags where that big bucket of water dumps on you in the kiddy area....except constantly. It was pretty awesome.
And then after that, I did, what I think might be one of the stupidest things I´ve done. Jackie things it was fridge sledding, but I think this wins.
So, they take some of the water from this river and they pipe it...somewhere. I don´t know where, or what for..maybe irrigation or something. But anyways, this water happens to pass through a tunnel. It´s maybe... I don´t know...a quarter of a mile? Maybe less. Maybe more. It was a lot longer than it intially appeared, because it was straight. And I could see light at the other side. So, Jackie, Kattya and I decided that we wanted to go through the tunnel. Because it would be cool to do. So we were going through the tunnel, and we got maybe. I don´t know, a quarter of the way through and i´m like. Oh crap. Bats. I don´t like bats. So. We turned around and went back out the way we came in because...we decided bats were not a good thing to try to crawl through.
So, as we were leaving, there was another group of people, like a family that were going into the cave. We were like, hay murcealagos!...which means, there are bats. They were unphased, and still decided they wanted to go in. So we left, and walked maybe 5 minutes. This is when kattya decided that she really wanted to go through the tunnela. I didn´t. But she did. So Kattya and I turned around to enter into the bat tunnel, while Jackie went to the other side to wait for us. As we got to the tunnel, the other people had decided that there were too many bats. So we waited for them to get out, and we dropped in.
This tunnel is less than 5 feet tall. And probably had about a foot of water in it. and about 3 feet wide. So that left 4 feet of space for us and the flying bats.
So, as soon as we enter the tunnel, I can see about 2 or 3 bats flying around in the tunnel. And as we start going, it just looks like there are 2 or 3 bats.. maybe a couple more. Then, we get about half way, and the number of bats are steadily increasing. The further we go, it seems like the morae we wake up. And the more wake up, the more the others wake up. And, they do not seem to like to go near us, so they just get more and more dense. Once in a while, I´d see the reflection from the water above my head on the roof of the tunnel. Until I realize there´s not really any light to be reflected. The bats are flying above my head.
I´m freaking out, because I don´t like bats. Kattya just closed her eyes and kept saying, "God, you made bats. Keep them away from us please!!!!". The closer we get to the end, the more bats are flying around, like just inches off the water. At my face. And then flying up like when they are super close. I already had my plan--i was going completely undaer water to get the bat off of me if one happened to hit me. I was already on my elbows and knees crawling, as to give the bats as much room as possible. When we were lik 50 feet from the end, there was at a minimum of 20 bats just whipping around the tunnel, because, apparently, they really do not like the light. And when I could see in the light, I could see them just dropping...guano...everywhere. When we got to like the...15 or 20 feet mark, I decided it was just time to go for it. So we just dropped our heads and sprinted, as well as yoau can on all 4´s out of the cave. I didn´t see it, because i had my head down, but Jackie said that a cloud of bats exploded out of the tunnel with us. So. I didn´t get bit. But i was probably covered in bat poop. So that´s more experience with fecal matter for me.
That was a really long story. And probably doesn´t sound as exciting as it was for me. But it was.
My family is fun. My little brother and i were doing some sort of wrestling. I called him a little girl, but he said that he was valliant. I said if he was valliant, then I´m santa clause. He´s been calling me Papa Noel since.
Um. Also, I´ve been letting my brothers use Jack, my iPod. It was sort of a shock to me, because I had to teach them how to use an ipod. How to turn it on, how to find the music, how to play a song, and how to pick something else. And how to turn it off. It took me by suprise, because we take stuff like that for granted. Everyone has an ipod. Everyone knows how to use one. It´s common knowledge. Nope. It was sort of a wake up call. Not everyone in the world has as much money as I do. And I am so often blind to that. But it´s a good lesson.
The orphanage has been going well. Mostly. They are little kids though, and they don´t like toget put in a time out. So as a result, I got called Tio Caca the other day. Uncle Poop. They thought it was funny. I thought it was too, but I don´t think it would have been very good if i laughed at their nickname for me. At least when they were in time out.
This will only make sense to the people of Harvey´s Halfway House and a few others. I was riding in a trufi to church yesterday, and the trufi driver had a Triple H air freshner in it. I really wanted to buy it off of him, but only had 50 centavos. One Fourteenth of a dollar. And the trufi was really really full and really really busy. So i passed on the conversation of asking the driver to buy an air freshner from him because I knew it wouldn´t go smoothly and decided not to keep the other 20 people on the trufi. Sorry guys.
I´ve spent so much time talking about stuff, I haven´t really shared anything meaningful. And now i´ve only got 4 more minutes. 3. But I have been learning a lot. And it´s been really good. Difficult at times, painful at times, but overall good. And I know that.
And. There´s been like a ridiculous amount of rain in Santa Cruz. which is another city in Bolivia. And there´s been problems with food and people haven´t been very happy about it. There´s been a few problems with that in Cochabamba too--like lack of natural gas and food too in some places. I haven´t been affected by it, but when there´s problems in the same country--the same city as you. It hits home a little more. So if you could be prayin for that situation, it´d be good. I´m sure there´s something on google news if you search cochabamba or bolivia or santa cruz or something along those lines if you´re interested.
Thanks all & Love!
kyle
30.1.10
Bolivia is beautiful
So. New blog. Different stuff.
So it turns out, I won´t be working at the project with the families with addicitons until after classes start. There is someone there working now that is, apparently, is foreign, and they try to minimize the help of the foreigners to one at a time so we don´t let things get too out of hand.
This means, instead, that I get to work at an orphanage for the next two weeks. I was there the last two days (i think. maybe more). That place is absolutely crazy. 23 kids, all between the ages of like baby and 5. And I don´t have a ton of experience with kids, so I´m doing a lot of learning. They love to eat. crayons. and erasers. So most of my time is spent telling them not to eat erasers, helping them go pee, getting peed on, and changing their clothes after they´ve peed in them. All the while being a human jungle gym and trying not to crush any of the kids as they are crawling-peeing-eating things they shouldn´t be eating.
My first day there, I showed up at about 8:00. Had a sort of orientation till about 8:15. By the time it was 8:30, or 8:40, i was thinking to myself "boy, it has to be at least like 9:30 or later". Nope. It´s so hard to be there somtimes, and it can get easy to lose perspective when you´re trying to, by yourself, keep 10 or more kids occupied, content, busy, happy, and teach a little bit of math in the process. All in Spanish.
But then the realization sort of hits me that these kids....they don´t have families. Or the family tha they did have...well, they are much better off in an orphanage than where they came from. And that´s the part that really gets me right now. Though they cry, as do all kids...They always seem to be happy. They always seem to have joy and are content in their circumstances. And that I don´t understand. It´s incredible. So, though I would never want to grow up to be a person that is given the task of watching large masses of kids...I think this is an incredible opportunity for me, and I´m learning more from these kids than I think I really am.
Um.
Mishaps.
So, yesterday. Or maybe two days ago, I don´t really remember, I ended up in a different city. I got on the wrong number 260 trufi (microbus-van thing i´ve mentioned before), and took it in the wrong direction. I thought it was just going around the rotunda (roundabout), but it actually happened to be turning left, instead of going straight. So I got to ride on the trufi for an hour and a half that day, and end up in a different city. Eventually i struggled though broken spanish with the driver of the trufi and he told me that i needed to cross, basically, their version of the freeway and catch one going in the opposite direction. That one was completely my fault.
Then, today. I also grabbed a 203 trufi. It just so happens that there are 2 different routs for the 203 trufi, the one that has the green label, and the one with the red. The one with the red label goes to the stadium. The one with the green label goes down calle Mayor Rocha. I wanted to go Calle Mayor Rocha. I got on the red-labeled trufi. But after several phone calls to Jackie, I made it. Alive.
Um. Que mas.
I did laundry for the first time. It was in a sink outside, and i used a srub brush.
I feel better. I am no longer sick.
Apparently they eat cow udder here. I´m not sure how i feel about trying it.
This week was the first time I´ve been peed on. It´s now happened multiple times.
Two days ago, I saw a car with a cabinet on it´s roof. The cabinet was wider, longer, and taller than the car itsself. I wish i had a camera at that point in time.
Um. I think that´s it for now. I´m sort of short on time. But. I wish there was a way to put pictures on here, I think taht would be the only way of describing the place. but I have no way to get pictures from my camera to the computer. Also, I´m not really taking many pictures, because I don´t want to be the annoying gringo taking pictures of everything. but I really should start.
Hokay.
Love & Hugsies!
kyle
So it turns out, I won´t be working at the project with the families with addicitons until after classes start. There is someone there working now that is, apparently, is foreign, and they try to minimize the help of the foreigners to one at a time so we don´t let things get too out of hand.
This means, instead, that I get to work at an orphanage for the next two weeks. I was there the last two days (i think. maybe more). That place is absolutely crazy. 23 kids, all between the ages of like baby and 5. And I don´t have a ton of experience with kids, so I´m doing a lot of learning. They love to eat. crayons. and erasers. So most of my time is spent telling them not to eat erasers, helping them go pee, getting peed on, and changing their clothes after they´ve peed in them. All the while being a human jungle gym and trying not to crush any of the kids as they are crawling-peeing-eating things they shouldn´t be eating.
My first day there, I showed up at about 8:00. Had a sort of orientation till about 8:15. By the time it was 8:30, or 8:40, i was thinking to myself "boy, it has to be at least like 9:30 or later". Nope. It´s so hard to be there somtimes, and it can get easy to lose perspective when you´re trying to, by yourself, keep 10 or more kids occupied, content, busy, happy, and teach a little bit of math in the process. All in Spanish.
But then the realization sort of hits me that these kids....they don´t have families. Or the family tha they did have...well, they are much better off in an orphanage than where they came from. And that´s the part that really gets me right now. Though they cry, as do all kids...They always seem to be happy. They always seem to have joy and are content in their circumstances. And that I don´t understand. It´s incredible. So, though I would never want to grow up to be a person that is given the task of watching large masses of kids...I think this is an incredible opportunity for me, and I´m learning more from these kids than I think I really am.
Um.
Mishaps.
So, yesterday. Or maybe two days ago, I don´t really remember, I ended up in a different city. I got on the wrong number 260 trufi (microbus-van thing i´ve mentioned before), and took it in the wrong direction. I thought it was just going around the rotunda (roundabout), but it actually happened to be turning left, instead of going straight. So I got to ride on the trufi for an hour and a half that day, and end up in a different city. Eventually i struggled though broken spanish with the driver of the trufi and he told me that i needed to cross, basically, their version of the freeway and catch one going in the opposite direction. That one was completely my fault.
Then, today. I also grabbed a 203 trufi. It just so happens that there are 2 different routs for the 203 trufi, the one that has the green label, and the one with the red. The one with the red label goes to the stadium. The one with the green label goes down calle Mayor Rocha. I wanted to go Calle Mayor Rocha. I got on the red-labeled trufi. But after several phone calls to Jackie, I made it. Alive.
Um. Que mas.
I did laundry for the first time. It was in a sink outside, and i used a srub brush.
I feel better. I am no longer sick.
Apparently they eat cow udder here. I´m not sure how i feel about trying it.
This week was the first time I´ve been peed on. It´s now happened multiple times.
Two days ago, I saw a car with a cabinet on it´s roof. The cabinet was wider, longer, and taller than the car itsself. I wish i had a camera at that point in time.
Um. I think that´s it for now. I´m sort of short on time. But. I wish there was a way to put pictures on here, I think taht would be the only way of describing the place. but I have no way to get pictures from my camera to the computer. Also, I´m not really taking many pictures, because I don´t want to be the annoying gringo taking pictures of everything. but I really should start.
Hokay.
Love & Hugsies!
kyle
26.1.10
Hopefully I can finish what I started this time.
Today I´ve got a little bit more time to stop by this little open air internet cafe near my house. As i do this, it´s 70 degrees out and there is a light breeze blowing on me.
Jealous?. Also, these keyboards are crazy different. All the punctuation is all over the place, so I´m making a lot of mistakes, and generally don´t care enough to fix it. But anyways.
Tomorrow is when I´ll be be starting my "ministry" down here. I´m really excited for it, but at the same time a little bit hesitant. Talking with my family and the other people down here is generally pretty difficult and requires a lot of hand and body gestures, and generally means that I very poorly try to explain something I have no idea how to explain in Spanish. But it´s fun. And once everyone fully grasps how slowly, clearly, and simply they have to talk to me, things go better. But because of that, I´m a little hesitant with what I´m doing. (I was supposed to start on Monday. But I got sick. I won´t go into detail, but I´m sure you can figure out what was happening. One of the workers with the organization, Aldo, called it the "Bolivian Baptism". Wasn´t much fun for me.) So anyways. I´ll be working with this organization in the city that works with the families of people that have addictions. From what I can gather, (but could be totally wrong) the families live there. They try to give the family a safe place to sort of "start over" and teach them every day skills they might not have learned. These things range from auto repair to cooking, and everything in between. So, I´m excited to go. But the idea of jumping into another´s culture where I don´t speak the language, and then being expected to teach them things. I don´t really feel as though that´s something i´m worthy of, or that I´ve yet earned the priviledge to do. But I guess if I can do nothing else, hopefully I can at least show them love. so if whoever is reading this could pray for that, that would be really great.
Apparently, after living in the city for a month, or a month and a half, is when I will go to the Yuquis with Miguel. The hope is that I learn the language and become a little more comfortable and familiar with Bolivian culture before I get completely thrown off from everything I know. (Though it´s different here, it´s not completely foreign. We have computers. We have showers. (Though I was taking very cold showers for the first couple days, because I could not figure out for the life of me how to make the water hot. I finally asked Samuel, mi hermano. My shower today was very nice.) We eat chicken. And rice. Lots of rice. And drink tea. Lots of tea. And coffee. But generally instant coffee, without caffeine. sad. We drink milk. It just comes in bags instead. We watch TV. Always futbol.) So, though things are a lot different here, there are still parts of home that i can sort of grasp to for comfort.
However, from what I can gather through Miguel, the Yuqui´s style of life resembles nothing of what I´m used to. I got to look at some pictures he took from one of his trips there. There was a picture of him holding, what I´m pretty sure, was a lynx. Or something similar. There also was a picture of one of the Yuqui´s with a Puma sitting over his shoulders. A Puma! Who hunts pumas??? Apparently they are quite the hunters, will hunt anything, and will eat anything they hunt. So I guess there´s a chance that maybe i´ll be eating puma, lynx, anteater, or even a vulture. I´m not really sure how that´ll go.
They apparently still live, for the most part, the same way that they´ve been living for hundreds or thousands of years. From what I can tell, they don´t really do life the way that we generally envision people living, but legitimately and truly live off the land.
Also, the Yuqui people, conveniently, don´t really speak any spanish. So I won´t even be able to stumble through something resembling a conversation with them. But that´s pretty far in the future.
I think that´s pretty much all for now. At least to summarize my first couple days. Again, thanks for your prayers. It means a lot to have people doing this with me.
much love!
kyle
Jealous?. Also, these keyboards are crazy different. All the punctuation is all over the place, so I´m making a lot of mistakes, and generally don´t care enough to fix it. But anyways.
Tomorrow is when I´ll be be starting my "ministry" down here. I´m really excited for it, but at the same time a little bit hesitant. Talking with my family and the other people down here is generally pretty difficult and requires a lot of hand and body gestures, and generally means that I very poorly try to explain something I have no idea how to explain in Spanish. But it´s fun. And once everyone fully grasps how slowly, clearly, and simply they have to talk to me, things go better. But because of that, I´m a little hesitant with what I´m doing. (I was supposed to start on Monday. But I got sick. I won´t go into detail, but I´m sure you can figure out what was happening. One of the workers with the organization, Aldo, called it the "Bolivian Baptism". Wasn´t much fun for me.) So anyways. I´ll be working with this organization in the city that works with the families of people that have addictions. From what I can gather, (but could be totally wrong) the families live there. They try to give the family a safe place to sort of "start over" and teach them every day skills they might not have learned. These things range from auto repair to cooking, and everything in between. So, I´m excited to go. But the idea of jumping into another´s culture where I don´t speak the language, and then being expected to teach them things. I don´t really feel as though that´s something i´m worthy of, or that I´ve yet earned the priviledge to do. But I guess if I can do nothing else, hopefully I can at least show them love. so if whoever is reading this could pray for that, that would be really great.
Apparently, after living in the city for a month, or a month and a half, is when I will go to the Yuquis with Miguel. The hope is that I learn the language and become a little more comfortable and familiar with Bolivian culture before I get completely thrown off from everything I know. (Though it´s different here, it´s not completely foreign. We have computers. We have showers. (Though I was taking very cold showers for the first couple days, because I could not figure out for the life of me how to make the water hot. I finally asked Samuel, mi hermano. My shower today was very nice.) We eat chicken. And rice. Lots of rice. And drink tea. Lots of tea. And coffee. But generally instant coffee, without caffeine. sad. We drink milk. It just comes in bags instead. We watch TV. Always futbol.) So, though things are a lot different here, there are still parts of home that i can sort of grasp to for comfort.
However, from what I can gather through Miguel, the Yuqui´s style of life resembles nothing of what I´m used to. I got to look at some pictures he took from one of his trips there. There was a picture of him holding, what I´m pretty sure, was a lynx. Or something similar. There also was a picture of one of the Yuqui´s with a Puma sitting over his shoulders. A Puma! Who hunts pumas??? Apparently they are quite the hunters, will hunt anything, and will eat anything they hunt. So I guess there´s a chance that maybe i´ll be eating puma, lynx, anteater, or even a vulture. I´m not really sure how that´ll go.
They apparently still live, for the most part, the same way that they´ve been living for hundreds or thousands of years. From what I can tell, they don´t really do life the way that we generally envision people living, but legitimately and truly live off the land.
Also, the Yuqui people, conveniently, don´t really speak any spanish. So I won´t even be able to stumble through something resembling a conversation with them. But that´s pretty far in the future.
I think that´s pretty much all for now. At least to summarize my first couple days. Again, thanks for your prayers. It means a lot to have people doing this with me.
much love!
kyle
25.1.10
I made it!
I made it to Bolivia. After something like 26 hours of travelling, with a 6 or 7 hour layover in the incredibly hot city of Santa Cruz, where I had my first experience with agua con gas. Carbonated water was all they had--and it was terrible. (After I finally got to my family, I was pleased to find out that they much prefer agua sin gas. Normal water.) I don´t really know where to start with this. Traveling was a completely new experience for me. I haven´t been on a plane since I was like 7 years old, therefore my first trip out of the country to a place that doesn´t speak my language was definitely an experience. After we got on the plane from Miami to Santa Cruz, it sort of hit me then. There was practically no english spoken on the plane, and I wasn´t going to be speaking a lot of english from there on out. It gave me this unsettled feeling when I finally began to contemplate, "how on earth am I going to be able to communicate with these people, without driving them nuts in the process?"
But. So far it´s been great. My family is incredibly nice. Very soft spoken, (which apparently is common of Bolivianos), but they are some of the nicest people i know. By the 2nd day, I was already feeling like I was truly a part of the family. My dad´s name is Pastor Jesus, and my mom´s name is Silvia. I´ve got 4 brothers, but only 3 of them are living at home right now. The three brothers I live with are Samuel (22), Pedro (16) and Jorge(9). The other brother, Daniel(20) is doing some sort of mission work in Argentine, or with Argentine people (at lest from what I can gather. I could be way off.)
The missions coordinator, Kattya, is a super friendly person. She also knows a bit of english, which is very helpful when she´s around. Which, now, is not a ton. But it is a lot easier to communicate in half broken english\spanish when we can help each other out a bit, versus when I´m with my family and simply have to struggle to explain all of the things I didn´t learn in high school spanish. Which is a lot.
I have no idea how to describe the city. At the same time, it´s the craziest and the most laid back thing I´ve ever seen. The traffic is nuts. They have 3 ¨lanes¨of traffic where we´d have one or 2 in the states. And the lanes don´t really mean anything. People are all over the place. I´m relatively far from the main bases, so everywhere I go is on a ¨microbus¨, which is public transport. They fit about 20 people in smaller than a 15 passenger van, and just zoom around the town on certain routes. I have no idea how anyone knows what routes they take, because there is no maps or anything. People just seem to know. And they don´t have microbus stops. You just say, "en le esquina por favor" (at the corner) or wherever you want to stop. And you don´t get on a stops, you jut hail it, sort of like a pseudo taxi. The first day, mi hermano pedro and i were going to the mission base, and we crossed in the middle of the street (as does everyone) and a car flashed his lights at us and beeped his horn. He then slowed down and stared at us. I thought he was upset (because we crossed in the middle of the road, or something). Nope, he just wanted us to get in his taxi. There are no stopsigns. You just beep the horn near an intersection. There are stoplights. But they aren´t very important if there aren´t many cars around. People sort of slow down, and then go through the red. And through all of the chaos on the road, nobody seems to get upset when driving. They just expect it, and it´s common. And I haven´t seen one accident yet. I don´t understand how it works. I guess the people actually pay attention when they drive here.
I don´t even know what to talk about, because there is so much. It was almost too much to take in at first The buildings are beautiful and incredibly varied. There are people here that are like 100% indigenous, but at the same time, the person next to me in the internet cafe is listening to Daughtry or something and is on facebook. But the person next to him is listening to some mariachi music. My house is nestled at the foot of the mountain that goes up to the hill with "Cristo de la Concordia". There are mountains everywhere, and they are BEAUTIFUL. The weather is perfect. Every day, it´s been 70-75 degrees, either partly cloudy or sunny, and the nights have been about 45 or 50.
I think I´m running out of time here, so I´ve got to go soon. This cafe actually isn´t terribly far from my house, so I should be able to stop in here from time to time to update things.
There is a ton more that I´ve got to say, but I can´t.
I love you guys, and please keep praying. Thanks for everything.
Adios!
But. So far it´s been great. My family is incredibly nice. Very soft spoken, (which apparently is common of Bolivianos), but they are some of the nicest people i know. By the 2nd day, I was already feeling like I was truly a part of the family. My dad´s name is Pastor Jesus, and my mom´s name is Silvia. I´ve got 4 brothers, but only 3 of them are living at home right now. The three brothers I live with are Samuel (22), Pedro (16) and Jorge(9). The other brother, Daniel(20) is doing some sort of mission work in Argentine, or with Argentine people (at lest from what I can gather. I could be way off.)
The missions coordinator, Kattya, is a super friendly person. She also knows a bit of english, which is very helpful when she´s around. Which, now, is not a ton. But it is a lot easier to communicate in half broken english\spanish when we can help each other out a bit, versus when I´m with my family and simply have to struggle to explain all of the things I didn´t learn in high school spanish. Which is a lot.
I have no idea how to describe the city. At the same time, it´s the craziest and the most laid back thing I´ve ever seen. The traffic is nuts. They have 3 ¨lanes¨of traffic where we´d have one or 2 in the states. And the lanes don´t really mean anything. People are all over the place. I´m relatively far from the main bases, so everywhere I go is on a ¨microbus¨, which is public transport. They fit about 20 people in smaller than a 15 passenger van, and just zoom around the town on certain routes. I have no idea how anyone knows what routes they take, because there is no maps or anything. People just seem to know. And they don´t have microbus stops. You just say, "en le esquina por favor" (at the corner) or wherever you want to stop. And you don´t get on a stops, you jut hail it, sort of like a pseudo taxi. The first day, mi hermano pedro and i were going to the mission base, and we crossed in the middle of the street (as does everyone) and a car flashed his lights at us and beeped his horn. He then slowed down and stared at us. I thought he was upset (because we crossed in the middle of the road, or something). Nope, he just wanted us to get in his taxi. There are no stopsigns. You just beep the horn near an intersection. There are stoplights. But they aren´t very important if there aren´t many cars around. People sort of slow down, and then go through the red. And through all of the chaos on the road, nobody seems to get upset when driving. They just expect it, and it´s common. And I haven´t seen one accident yet. I don´t understand how it works. I guess the people actually pay attention when they drive here.
I don´t even know what to talk about, because there is so much. It was almost too much to take in at first The buildings are beautiful and incredibly varied. There are people here that are like 100% indigenous, but at the same time, the person next to me in the internet cafe is listening to Daughtry or something and is on facebook. But the person next to him is listening to some mariachi music. My house is nestled at the foot of the mountain that goes up to the hill with "Cristo de la Concordia". There are mountains everywhere, and they are BEAUTIFUL. The weather is perfect. Every day, it´s been 70-75 degrees, either partly cloudy or sunny, and the nights have been about 45 or 50.
I think I´m running out of time here, so I´ve got to go soon. This cafe actually isn´t terribly far from my house, so I should be able to stop in here from time to time to update things.
There is a ton more that I´ve got to say, but I can´t.
I love you guys, and please keep praying. Thanks for everything.
Adios!
19.1.10
2 Days.
I am leaving for Bolivia in 2 days. Less. Thanks to visas and the problems that seem to come along with them, I will be staying only for 3 months, instead of the initial 4 months that was planned. This was hard news to take, but 3 months is still better than no months. Even before leaving, I have learned how much fun it is to struggle through visa problems and flight-change fees.
One of my friends who spent time in Papua New Guinea told me that plans will change 10 times before you're even able to do anything. And then another 10 times. I've been beginning to see that this is very much the case.
I'm not sure what life will be like in Bolivia, but I'm excited for what it has to bring.
Please keep me in your prayers as I go onto this adventure.
P.S.
I'm a rookie at this whole blogging thing. I'm not entirely sure what is interesting. Or what is boring. Let me know if there's anything in specific you're curious about, or if there's anything I've bored you with. You guys are helping me out a ton on this, and I want to do my best to keep everyone updated.
Thanks for your prayers and support
Kyle.
One of my friends who spent time in Papua New Guinea told me that plans will change 10 times before you're even able to do anything. And then another 10 times. I've been beginning to see that this is very much the case.
I'm not sure what life will be like in Bolivia, but I'm excited for what it has to bring.
Please keep me in your prayers as I go onto this adventure.
P.S.
I'm a rookie at this whole blogging thing. I'm not entirely sure what is interesting. Or what is boring. Let me know if there's anything in specific you're curious about, or if there's anything I've bored you with. You guys are helping me out a ton on this, and I want to do my best to keep everyone updated.
Thanks for your prayers and support
Kyle.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)