Jeff's back online

Hola everyone!!! I am back on my computer!!! The only issue is that now all of my computer controls are in Spanish! It will definitely help me in the language department!

Well, Susan has now taught several classes, Delaney has started her on-line schoolwork, and
I have been given my first of many missions. My first job is to rehab some old dorms into clean living space for the “Engineers without Borders” crew coming down in 2 weeks from South Dakota State University (Go Jackrabbits!). This kind of reminds me of the Bible when God made the heavens and the earth in 6 days, except that God got the easier job! All kidding aside, I will have a small army of students providing the labor, and I will provide the expertise. 

We have taken a BUNCH of pictures and these can be seen at: Bolivia 2013 Slideshow Susan has been busy getting them uploaded (this is in progress, so keep checking back on that link, there are about 400 pictures, so she is having to upload them in groups.) I have been busy taking more! I think I have the easier job, as there are so many breathtaking views around our quiet little campus.

I am reminded of the presence of God every day in the smallest of things, the insects, to the largest, some of the Andes peaks we can see from Coroico. I am so glad that we have been able to come here and just be God’s presence in the lives of the students, and have them share in our lives as well. We are truly blessed to have friends out there that are thinking about us, praying for us, and just being there for us. We could not have made this trip without so many blessings having first been bestowed upon us.

We will try to post more often, now that school has gotten under way. We will probably only post pictures once a week, due to the bandwidth required for that operation!

We love each and every one of you, and ask for continued support in prayers, thoughts, and continued sharing of this mission through our blog, Face book posts, and pictures!

Benedicion y la paz!!

Jeff

Monday, 9:20am

It’s a rainy morning here in the RAINforest. I’m sitting in the girls’ dorm waiting to check students into their rooms, but not getting a lot of takers. I think they are hoping the rain will let up later so they can move in without getting their things all wet. Of course, mud will still be an issue! Anyway, school is starting tomorrow and I am very eager to begin my classes. I will be teaching two sections of English 2 this semester, both 4 hours per week, one each for the Education and Agronomy departments. Everyone here has been so welcoming and helpful, it already feels like home. As I have helped with the dorm check-ins Saturday and today, I have had the opportunity to meet some of my students, and they seem like a fun bunch. It promises to be a great semester!

So much has happened since we arrived that we have hardly had time to stand still, never mind keep our blog updated. Our previous post was during an evening we spent in La Paz last week, back for more appointments for our visa process. However, we do now have Internet access here on campus, so we will be posting and checking email more regularly, so please do check back for updates! Also, we have tons of pictures we will work on posting over the next few days – of La Paz, of the drive here, of the campus and our apartment, and of our new friend, Cookie. More about him later…

Jeff has decided he is doing a photo study of the many moods of our mountainside, so he will be creating a photo album online and adding to it periodically, although right now his computer is down, so we have to get that fixed first. Also we have found many beautiful birds and plants to photograph, and we would love for those of you who are interested to help us identify them. In particular is a fairly large black bird with a parrot-like head. They are plentiful here and noisy – they often wake us at sunrise with lots of loud squawking!! Maybe it’s a variety of rooster? (LOL)

So, about Cookie… His full name is Coquito, and he is a tiny, adorable ball of black fuzz with a BIG kitty personality. He likes tuna, people food leftovers, and being anywhere Delaney is, preferably ON her, if possible. He came to us Saturday as a gift from Hugh and Hye-Jung, and he is already a member of the family. His little jingle bell is a welcome sound of home in our little apartment.

Jeff and I spent yesterday morning at the market in Coroico shopping for this week’s groceriess, and looking for a few special things to make our place more homey. (A teapot, potato masher and some sugar topped the list.) Our refrigerator isn’t working, apparently some of the freon channels in the freezer rusted through and let the freon out, so it has to be repaired and recharged. In the meantime, I have to buy one big thing of meat (last week it was our chicken, Bob, whom we ate on all week) and keep cooking it every day so it doesn’t spoil. It helps that is “winter” here, so it’s chilly at night and not so hot during the day. Keeps stuff from spoiling so quickly! This week I bought 2 kilos of hamburger, cooked it up in the big soup pot with some onions and garlic, then put all that would fit in a plastic container that our upstairs neighbors put in their fridge for us. (Gracias Gladys y Carlos!!) Then I chopped a bunch of tomatoes (there are lots of Romas at the market) and cooked them with crushed oregano, pepper and salt, using my new potato masher to crush the mixture up. Then I combined it with the hamburger I kept and stirred it all in the big pot with some little macaroni-like pasta I found at the dry goods store in Coroico. It was yummy, and there was enough left for breakfast this morning. Bonus!

Delaney informed me that the power is out all over campus (I understand this is common when it rains really hard like it was a little while ago), so I don’t know when I will get to post this, but please know that we are thinking of all of you and holding you in prayer. Please remember us in your prayers and think of us when it rains!

Abrazos y paz (hugs and peace),

Susan

Well, it has been a long time since we posted anything, but that doesn't mean we don't love each and every one of you! We have been very busy, and haven't had access to the internet! We have gotten semi settled into our apartment, and have even been adopted by the neighbor's dog "Choco." 
We have done a LOT of bird spotting, flower sniffing, and picture taking. So much in fact, that I am going to have to post the pictures in a few days when I hopefully have my computer back up to speed. It is currently dead. We have been busy, but we have also had fun. We just celebrated La Paz' Independence. That is the name of the district we live in. Traditional dress, traditional music, traditional drink, all added to a wondrous event! Susan and I will be in shape sooner rather than later as I don't remember the hill being as steep or as long as it currently is! I think they used a road stretcher on it or something! 
Enough from me. Now I turn the blog over to Delaney, so you don't think we traded her for 4 llamas, a pig, and 2 chickens! (It was tempting!)
God's Peace,
Jeff

'Kay, so Dad talked about La Paz's Independence Day, and celebrating that, but the funny thing is the date that it was on. Hmmm.... what else happened on July 16th? Oh, that's right, my fifteenth birthday! Dad had loads of fun with it, proclaiming to every wide-eyed Bolivian that "all of La Paz is celebrating her birthday!" I found it slightly amusing, but not quite as hilarious as he seemed to think... That was the funny part. The most amazing thing that I have seen here is mostly the countryside, as it is gorgeous! The trees are large, green, and full of life, and the flowers are as vibrant as you could think! The birds are colorful, and often quite loud, with loud whistles and cackles, and sometimes what could pass for giggles. The first time we went down the hill to the lower campus, we had a follower. We suspect that it was a monkey that went crashing through the trees behind us, but we aren't quite sure. It's sure very fascinating here!

Delaney :)

Hi everyone, I'll be brief because I am very tired. :) Our first week here has been eventful, what with such firsts as the first night in our (2-bedroom!!) apartment, shopping for food and other necessities in Coroico, a trip back to La Paz today -- a faculty meeting for me and then more visa business in the morning before we head back to Carmen Pampa for a BBQ with the staff and some students. This week's keywords: ARRIBA and ABAJO. We live ARRIBA, which is the upper campus. The Guest House and the fiestas this week are both ABAJO. After a couple of long trudges up and down, I am quite familiar with ARRIBA and ABAJO!

I am excited to meet students and get started teaching soon. Today I met my colleagues on the faculty, and I was pleasantly surprised at how many of them were female. Mighty mujeres!!

More to come as we get our Internet working ARRIBA in the next few days. We miss you all!

Susan

The Eagle has landed

Hola and buenos dias to all our friends and followers!!

We made it here to La Paz last night (VERY late), and are having a rest day. What an adventure it was! We got up at 2:45 am in Columbus, OH, gathered our things and drove the 2 minutes to the airport (it was nice to be so close), then unloaded our bags so I could return the rental car. Once I returned to the ticketing desk, after wandering the deserted parking garage for 10 minutes trying to find my way back, we discovered that our desk didn't open until 4:30. We were told to check in 2 hours prior to our 6:10 flight, thus why we were early. We used our extra time to re-weigh all of our checked suitcases (we ended up with 5) to make sure they met the 50-lb requirement. Of course we had to re-arrange things a little bit, so it was a very good thing that we had the extra time to do that. We got all checked in, then moved on to the security checkpoint. We've all seen what happens on TV when someone gets pulled out of the line. This time, it was me!! Apparently some of the beads on my dress were metallic enough to set off the scanner (who knew? I would have sworn they were all plastic), so I got the wand, the pat-down AND the chemical wand for explosives. THAT was certainly interesting, but I didn't mind it.

Our flight was delayed coming into Chicago, and our 35-minute layover to change planes was cut to 20 minutes. We had to run across 3 concourses, only to find that our flight had left and we were re-booked on the next flight out, leaving in 90 minutes. So, we walked back to the concourse we had just run thru (by this time we were all ready for a rest and a treat!), picked up a McDonald's shake and waited.

This is the point at which weather became a problem. Yes, Iowans, weather delaying flights is not just a winter phenomenon!! Our flight was delayed multiple times before it left Chicago due to re-routing around storm fronts, then we were re-routed three more times in the air!! A 2.5 hour flight turned into more than three and our 3.5 hours to rest and eat in Miami was mostly gone. We landed with about an hour between flights, and then the flight to Bolivia was delayed!! And we moved gates. And it was delayed again. And we finally left Miami at 4:30, about two hours late. The good news is that they were able to make up a bunch of time in the air, so we arrived only 1.25 hours late in La Paz, at 10:15pm.

By this time, we were all exhausted, plus we immediately began feeling the altitude before we even left the plane. Fortunately, Customs was a breeze, a taxi driver spotted our big load and came right over to help us get all our bags collected and out to his cab -- and it was big enough for all of us and our stuff!! After a somewhat wild ride (those traffic laws are more like "guidelines" than actual rules), we arrived at our hostel. The door was locked, but they were waiting for us and came right out to help move everything in, knowing who we were, making us feel both expected and welcome. It was so nice to be treated like friends!

So, right now I am sitting in our little room using the free wi-fi, having been awakened by a call letting us know that the free breakfast was ending in 45 minutes so we could eat (yes, the front desk actually called to make sure we knew there was free breakfast!), with a full stomach, a pocket of coca leaves to chew for altitude sickness, and a comfy bed. The only assignment today is to change some money, since we got to the airport so late last night that the office there was closed.

We will try to get some pictures posted later, although we are taking it VERY easy today so we don't get sick.

Love to you all, and thanks again for your thoughts and prayers as we begin our journey in Bolivia.

Abrazos!!
Susan

Well friends, here it is around 11:30 pm on Tuesday night. We have a "wakeup" call for 2:45 am. I don't think they call it that at that early in the morning. In my younger days, I would have told them to give me a "go to bed" call then! Also, I don't think I would have believed you if you had told me I was going to be taking my wife and "almost 15, Dad" daughter to Bolivia for a year!

We have spent the last several hours trying to get everything into the suitcases, including spending several hours last night! We did finally decide that the $70 per bag for a second suitcase for each of us was well worth the money. Tools and light fixtures took up a lot of space, as did our years supply of meds for both Susan and me. We will try to post something along the way tomorrow, but no promises!

We love each and every one of you, and we thank you for your prayers and wishes. We hope that everyone follows us through the blog. We promise to try to blog regularly, and take LOTS of pictures!

La paz de Dios a todos!

Jeff

Luggage

Our luggage waiting to be loaded (a few items here are not going to Bolivia)

Prophetic? I say yes!

As we got on the road yesterday morning, we were running late. I know what you are thinking, ”sounds like Jeff and Susan!” So, we get to the rental car desk, and I ask the gentleman behind the desk what kind of car we were getting. His response made me smile. He said “It’s a Genesis.” How fitting, that as we depart home, we are reminded that we are starting a new course in our lives. Also, the Hyundai Genesis is a very nice car. This also reminds us that as we start off in the direction that Jesus wants us to go, great things happen. The rewards that we are promised in the Bible don’t always have to be spiritual. After all, fishing on the other side of the boat caught the disciples a net full of fish.

I want to thank everyone again for everything that each of you have done for us. From financial support to prayers, each of your contributions have been essential in the success that we have enjoyed so far. We have been truly blessed to have such a caring bunch of friends and supporters. We are finally on our way, and we can hardly wait to get there, and get started on serving among God’s people at the UAC-CP.

Jeff