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
30.1.10
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.
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