Happy weekend to all

Hello everyone!

     This week has been full of planning for our return home, among other things. Our flight will leave at 6am on June 18^th, arriving in Chicago at nearly 9 in the evening. We will probably stay overnight in Chicago and head home in the morning. We may even hang out for a day or two and rest before making the final leg of the journey home by rental car. We want to give a shout-out and a BIG thank you to the people of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, our faith home, who generously helped us out with our plane tickets home. They turned out to be much more expensive than expected, and while we love it here in Bolivia, we are really looking forward to coming home, too! Thanks again, St. A’s, you have been such a blessing to us.

     This week’s weather report: it has been raining most of the week, but there have been several absolutely beautiful mornings, but the rain has closed in by afternoon. Today, Saturday, however, is just gorgeous. After coming home from the market, we opened all the windows and hung our blankets out in the sun to freshen. It’s a good day for laundry to dry, too, so we will take the chance while it’s not raining!

     Thursday evening, staff from the US Embassy in La Paz came to speak to the students about opportunities to study in the US, and programs to help them pay for it. Since the meeting was during my Education dept. class, we met briefly to check homework and take attendance, then walked over to the presentation. I assumed that it would be partly in English and partly in Spanish, and that this would be good for my students, plus it can take a year or more to get one of these programs set up, so 3^rd-year students like mine are the target group to begin the process, and several of them were really interested. Four students from my Agronomy class also attended, so they got an extra credit point for that. I was so proud of Valeria, one of my Ed. Students – she asked a question in English, and even understood the answer in English. Yay! Bonus points and two thumbs up! She is interested in becoming a Fulbright scholar and studying Education Administration in the US.

     This morning we made our weekly trip to the market. I got up feeling a little icky, so I wore comfy clothes – my peach-orange ombre long broom skirt and a smocked poet shirt over a cami. I didn’t even think about the fact that this somewhat mimics the chola – the traditional outfit that most older Aymara and Quechua women still wear, even in La Paz. It consists of a ¾-length or longer colorful skirt that is layered in tiers from the waist (it is supposed to exaggerate the hips, something that is traditionally considered very attractive), then a pullover type blouse or sweater on top, usually of a solid color (although sequins, sparkles, lace or iridescence are usually present), plus hair tied back in braids. I didn’t braid mine, but I did put it in a simple ponytail tied with a bright orange scarf that I got at the huge market in El Alto. I attracted a range from approving to outright delighted looks from many if not most of the locals in town. One older woman we greet often even commented about how nice my outfit was when we passed her fruit juice stand in the town square! I received nods and smiles from nearly every traditionally dressed woman we passed, and even some of the men. Who knew that positive international relations could be achieved so simply? It was fun! Maybe next time, I’ll do it on purpose… ;)

Peace to you all, and may God bless you with a beautiful sunny day like today sometime this week!

Susan

March 22nd

     For our post this week I thought I would describe land usage around the area. As many of you know, cleared land here is at a premium. That is why for centuries, the citizens of the Yungas region have cleared hillside after hillside to grow coca, which is used to ease symptoms of elevation or altitude sickness, and other maladies as well. Many locals here live in the bottoms of the valleys, but climb thousands of feet every day to cultivate/harvest the vegetables, fruit, and products of nature. At home, it is not uncommon to commute 30 miles. Here the commute is vertical and can cover as much as 5000 feet. This isn’t done by vehicle, it is done on foot. People that are fortunate enough to have their own piece of land generally clear some ground for gardening. This can be used to augment family income, or it can just be for the family. For some of the larger homes, small flocks of sheep can be seen keeping the grounds presentable. These homes generally do not have anyone living on site; these are more often used for weekend retreats from La Paz for the more affluent people. Some of these homes would fit right in in many of the most affluent neighborhoods in the U.S.

     For the homes that have families living in them all of the time, there is a wide variety as well. There are homes that are nice by most standards. Then there are houses that are more lean-to shelters than houses. These can be found attached to mud brick buildings housing sawmill equipment, or homes for other residents. More often now, you find fired hollow brick structures replacing the old mud brick or lean-to structures. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a house might have more amenities; it is just structurally sounder than the mud brick before. Many times, the only electricity is to a single bare bulb hanging over the raw brick opening used as a door, covered by a curtain to give privacy to its residents.

     So, things are improving here for the individual families as far as housing goes. Clearing the cloud forest still presents the same problems it has always caused, but families are able to grow food, and some have very green thumbs. But what do you do when you don’t have any land of your own? This example was my reason for this subject today. There is an older gentleman, (I would estimate around 70 years old) from the village of Carmen Pampa that has four cows, 2 sheep, and 2 goats. Back home in the states, this man would have to have a couple of acres, if not more, to sustain his herd. This gentleman doesn’t even have a yard. What he does instead is simple. Every morning he gets up, and walks to whatever patch of grass he left his livestock tied up on the night before. He unties them and starts herding them up the hill from Carmen Pampa and the lower campus, up past the upper campus. He follows them about 10 kilometers, or about 6 miles toward Coroico, then turns them around and follows them home. He does have help though; he has 2 mutts that help him keep everything in order. His cattle get plenty of grass and water, plenty of exercise for leaner beef, all while providing a free lawn mowing service for grassy areas near the road.

     So, the next time that you think you don’t have enough room for whatever you think you need more room for, think about this example, and go out and find a way to get it done!

Peace!

Jeff

Hello from Bolivia!

Happy Saturday to everyone~

Here’s the news for the week…

     Firstly, Jeff is happily working on his project designing the remodel for the upper campus library. Currently, light fixture proposals are on the table. A creative idea that may fly is one we saw in a restaurant in La Paz a couple of weeks ago, where a square of translucent fabric was suspended below bare light bulbs, both hiding and softening the light source. This seems like an inexpensive and attractive option to replace the dim, clinical lighting in the current space. Do you have some other ideas like this one that you’d like to contribute? Please comment below or send Jeff a Facebook message sometime this week.

      Secondly, I have spent the week in a Vicodin haze. One of my teeth broke off, and inside was a hidden cavity that apparently developed behind a loose filling. The dentist thinks I may need a root canal. Not the greatest impact on our finances, but at least this sort of work is much less expensive here than at home. So, I am waiting until payday (April 1) to go back to La Paz for that. In the meantime, please keep me in your prayers, as the nerve is exposed and quite painful at times.

      Thirdly, this week we said goodbye to our friend Hugh, who is no longer the Director of the UAC, but has taken a position with the Carmen Pampa Fund working with donor relations. He will be based out of Boston, it looks like. We will miss him, but he assured us he will be back here a couple of weeks before we leave, so we will get to see him again then.

      Finally, Delaney is hard at work on her second semester classes. Internet access is a chronic issue for her, and can be quite frustrating at times. She is in the home stretch now, though. If you have a few moments to stop by her Facebook page and offer her some encouragement, I’m sure she would appreciate that. Words from home are always welcome!!

      As our thoughts are beginning to turn towards our return, we have all realized how much we are looking forward to that. We love it here, especially we love the students and families that have become our friends and family here. We will always have them, and we will miss them when we leave, but we also miss our friends and family back in the States. One thing we will be doing this week is making a list of places to go and things to see before we leave – that will be a bit bittersweet!!

      Please know you are all in our prayers.

Love,

Susan

     I want to start off this week’s blog by saying that I am truly thankful for each and every one of you out there that has supported us financially, in prayer, and in the many other ways that are too numerous to mention. We are truly blessed to have any single one of you, let alone all of you.

     This past week, our home church, St Andrews, celebrated Shrove Tuesday with its annual Shrove Tuesday pancake feed put on by the men, for the lady folk in our lives.  This culinary event has been performed for decades, if not longer.  In solidarity with the men who cooked, served, and cleaned up, I too delivered piping hot hot cakes to Susan and Delaney. There is a reason that it is also called “Fat Tuesday,” and that is because we all make such good pancakes!

     Also this week, I passed a milestone. My father recently posted on Facebook that “If you hadn’t grown up by age 50, that you didn’t have to.” Yesterday I turned 50, and I don’t view myself as “not grown up”, so, by default, I don’t have to! Celebrating my birthday was a quiet affair. A simple meal of chicken and rice was served, but it felt like a gourmet meal. Susan and Delaney wrote a poem and gave it to me. The poem states “There once was a man from Waverly, Whose hat always tilted crazily, He went to the South, Lost teeth from his mouth, And turned 50 while singing terribly.” I want to be the first one to say that I think they are just jealous of my “joyful noise unto the Lord.” My oldest daughter, Hope, gave me a present too. She found out this week that she is having another boy, so I will be a grandfather again in June. But, I feel that the greatest present ever was to be here in Carmen Pampa, serving God’s people, and hearing God’s calling clearer and clearer.

     We are finally on the downhill side of our year in Bolivia. Planning is started (at least on paper!), and thoughts are turning toward home. The students here will be missed (at least most of themJ). I just wanted to remind everyone that we would not have been able to undertake this year of mission without each and every one of you. So I will close for now, but know that you are all in our hearts, our thoughts, and our prayers.

Peace,

Jeff

Feliz Carnaval!

This week there were three things that shouted at me to be shared with everyone following us:

     First, we are living in the Cloud Forest. This means that we will see animals, birds, snakes, and insects that just aren’t seen at home. This was pointed out to me yesterday by the visit of a giant beetle with really long antennae. I will post a still image of the beast, but make sure that you also watch the video here: http://youtu.be/pBz56uXTw2Q. A German shepherd pup approached, but was smart enough to not tangle with it. Yes, that is a normal-sized popsicle stick under his belly for size comparison.

     On a more somber note, I had to go into Coroico for some grocery shopping on Wednesday and I saw something that I thought I would pass along to everyone following us. On the way into town, we passed a funeral procession. That isn't so strange. What was different from funerals back home was that most of the people in the procession were on foot. From little children with squirt guns (it is Carnival here) to ancient Bolivianos bent with age. The coffin was carried in the open back of a minivan, wrapped in white muslin fabric and then surrounded with flowers and two gentlemen to hold it in the back. Everyone that was walking had already walked up from the valley floor around 2500 feet down in the sunny and 80 degree weather. The women were wearing their finest shawls and their bowler hats, and the men were in their fedoras and Sunday best. There were a few people crying, but for the most part, everyone was stoic. At first I thought that they were burying a child, and then I remembered the size difference, and realized it was probably an adult. I was just really touched by the physical approach to a funeral. Back home, people bundle into cars and run the a/c or heat (depending on season). Only the people coming from out of town arrived in vehicles, and even they got out and waited in the heat to pay final respects. I was just really touched by the fact that they put themselves through harsh conditions to say farewell, when their entire lives have been in harsh conditions. Life here has not been, and is not easy. People live, and people die, and still life goes on. I pray that each and every one of us live lives as fully as these people do.

     Finally, the English Department uses CD players to play audio clips for class and tests.  Each campus has 1 working CD player.  These are the same CD players that I cobbled together from non-working ones, to make the working CD players they do have. These CD players run anywhere from 299 b’s to 450 b’s.  We have been looking into alternative ways to deliver the audio and have come up with a workable solution. USB players are VERY big here. On average, these players run around 140 b’s, and can be used with a simple flash drive. These USB flash drives cost around 70 b’s, for a grand total of 210 b’s (enjoy the math Charles!) What we are looking for now is funding to get at the minimum 1 player for each campus. We will gladly get more if the funds are there. Please let us know If you can help, and thanks for your support!

       Happy Carnaval everyone! We hope you enjoy the pictures we took of the parade and the crowd today in La Paz. Sorry there aren't more, but we were afraid for our camera under the constant bombardment of water guns, water balloons, spray foam and spray confetti! Here’s a link to some great pictures of La Paz and a couple of Carnaval: http://tinyurl.com/nayoxmc

      It’s a bit insane here, kind of like Mardi Gras on steroids, or maybe a combination of Halloween, the 4^th of July and a really wild wedding reception… We have heard that Oruro is the place to be, and have been able to watch some of the festivities on TV at a couple of places today. We are there in spirit. Steph and Judith stay out of the kitchen on Tuesday. Brian and all of the men folk, I will be with you in spirit, and cooking pancakes for my ladies down here. Have some sausage for me!

La Paz ,

Jeff