Wow, what a ride! 

We have been so blessed to have this experience.  I know we are only around 4 months into our year, but I am just so incredibly happy to be here! Now that I have had the two teeth that were causing me the most trouble pulled, I can finally get going on the several jobs that have been laid before me. For someone that is rarely sick, I have been ill several times in our short time here. Teeth can really mess you up!

The most recent addition of my “Jeffy do” list is the Casa Padre Bertram. This is a retreat house the Catholic Diocese of Coroico allows the UAC-CP use for simply maintaining the buildings. The main house has 17 bedrooms, a kitchen, 3 big bathrooms, a large multi-purpose room, and beautiful sidewalks for contemplation with benched areas for small group activities. The smaller building is the big kitchen and eating area. The pictures that Susan will post will show you all what I am talking about as far as the outdoor stuff. What a beautiful setting for retreats! The lists of things to do were plumbing, carpentry, screen repair, and glass work. As some of you know, I hate plumbing. So, of course, that is what is giving me headaches. I managed to accomplish 2 of the 3 of the plumbing tasks, but one is still a mess. The glass was easy, and I didn’t cut myself once! The carpentry consisted of a board that I think had dry rotted. It was responsible for holding up a shower stall door, so it had to go! Taking it out of the wall revealed that when it had been put up, it had had nails driven into it on the back, and then the exposed nails were pushed into the wet concrete on the wall. I’ll use anchors, thank you very much.

We continue to find joy over most hills, and we also continue to share God’s peace with everyone we meet. We pray that you are all well, and if not, that God will make you well. Please continue to pray for us and those that we share with you.

Shalom!

Jeff

Hey guys!

A while ago, I was blessed with the chance to be able to run a library for the children down on the lower campus. It’s something that they all really enjoy, and it’s awesome to see them get an opportunity that they normally wouldn't! The library is open from 12:30-2:30 Tuesdays and Fridays for checking out/returning books, and 2:30-3:30ish on Thursdays for reading only. It took me a while to learn all of their names, but there are about 159 people who've ever been there to check out a book, and out of those, I normally get about 40-50 kids every Tuesday and Friday, and about 20-30 of the whole number are adults/parents/teachers/siblings. It’s amazing to see these kids checking books out for their parents! I have all ages, anywhere from 4 or 5 to grown adults. On Thursdays, the reading day, I try to get someone (other than me) to read, and these past few times, I’ve gotten one of the other volunteers to read for me. Her name is Mai, and she’s from Vietnam. She speaks both Spanish and English fluently, so we can talk, and she can talk to the kids fluently, which is something I sometimes have trouble with.

It’s amazing to come walking down the hill into the campus and start walking over to the library and hear this several times, “Vas a abrir la biblioteca?” Which, for our non-Spanish speakers, means, “Are you going to open the library?” I also hear excited screams and yells when they see me coming that make me feel very appreciated and gives me a good feeling about what I’m doing for these kids. I have several girls (Usually Valeria, Mayerli, and Melanie with the occasional show of Karen or Maria Fernanda) who like to help me clean up, and there’s an older German volunteer who likes to come and read, interact with the kids, and help me clean up afterwards. Ursula and the girls are a very big help, and I’m thankful for all we’re able to do down here, with help or without it.

Peace,

Delaney

Party, party

Hi everyone,

     It's been a fun couple of weeks. Last week was the Fiesta Universitaria -- always a fun week filled with competitions between the carreras (sort of like departments, except a student takes all of his or her classes within the carrera, so more like majors) and party after party. We enjoyed the dancing, singing, sports and more all week and had a wonderful time! The carreras gain points throughout the week based on their finishes in each event, then at the end, a champion is crowned. This year's champion is Agronomia! This carrera is here on upper campus, and one of my classes is there. Also, the boys from this carrera are the ones on the other side of the wall from our apartment that we have told you about a few times. They had a big celebration the last three days, including a pig roast, a formal gala dinner and dance, fireworks (at 5 AM!), parade and lots of singing and music. It has been a fun few days. Tomorrow I will post a video I took this afternoon of the "parade" in front of our apartment. All of my Agronomia students were there, and they were having a blast!

     A couple of things to watch for this coming week: a link to the YouTube video of the volunteers and guest house residents dancing on stage last Saturday night (yours truly included! Watch for Delaney up front, and Jeff's new signature dance move near the end), plus we will be posting the English II student projects where they wrote to/about the future, for themselves, the UAC, and Bolivia. Also, this week my Education students will be baking banana bread on Wednesday morning, so taste test judging will happen that afternoon. I will post the winning team's photo and recipe as soon as I have it.

     The weather here is warming up, although it seems the rainy season may have started a little early. Prayer of the week: Lord, please let our clothes dry!!! But seriously, we would ask you to pray for our little 4-year-old neighbor girl Nathaly, who fell off the stair landing in the girls' dorm yesterday afternoon and hit her head. She has six stitches and a big bandage on her head. She fell about 10 feet onto concrete. Ouch! She is resting comfortably at home, apparently no broken bones, but YIKES! Thank God little kids bounce!

    We miss you all and may God's peace be with you~

     Susan

Cloud forest ruminations

     Two things that are fascinating about living in the cloud forest of Bolivia are the colors and the smells. The colors are hard to describe, being that I am a man, and therefore only able to see a limited number of colors. Those married men in our circle of readers will understand this statement without explanation. For those that are unmarried, men see red, blue, green, etc, while women see dusty rose/pink/fuschia/magenta/red, vibrant midnight/teal/baby/royal/electric/blues, chartreuse/forest/sage/pea/greens, and the list continues into oblivion. That being explained, I will begin my description! Looking out the window of our apartment, or the window of a bus to Coroico, one can see 300 different shades of green. This may sound like an exaggeration, but it seems as if each different plant you see is actually a different shade than the identical plant sitting right next to it. One can also see incredible reds, yellows, oranges, blues, and any other color that you can imagine. This is all before going to the market. If you go to the market in La Paz, you see flower markets with every color of the rainbow, and a whole lot more.  The fruit and vegetable market is a smear of colors that the human eye has trouble has trouble interpreting and differentiating. My words fall well short of the mark in trying to describe this to you all, so please look at the pictures that Susan posts to our Photobucket account. I have taken a bunch, and will continue to while we are here.

     The next items to fail at describing are the smells. The smells here are also of a wide spectrum, like the colors. Some smells are intoxicating, some are revolting. I will start on the revolting end first. Even though this country has changed so much in the past 13 years, it is still developing. Some homes here still don’t have indoor plumbing. Walking by can be a minefield. The nose cannot sidestep around the odor as the feet can miss the cause. Next in line would be the animals. Dogs, goats, sheep, chickens, pigs, cows, etc. add to the aroma as you walk through the countryside. The market place has the aromas of different meats and sometimes over ripe vegetables left out to the elements as the vendors hawk their wares. Dried beef, dried fish, beef, chicken, fish, pork, llama, papayas, mangoes, pineapples, bananas all mix into an aroma that sometimes smells like an exotic salsa, sometimes a smell that would have you leaving the market early to get some fresh air! The exhaust smells mingle with all of this to create an environment that keep you light-headed, and not just because of elevation. From here on out, the descriptions won’t be noxious! Walking around, you smell wonderful flowers. The trees here take turns blossoming. I say this because it is unusual to see identical trees waiting until the tree next to it blooms, and then fade before starting the process for itself. The coffee and orange trees are probably the most intoxicating. Simply walking through them can lift spirits, and make you crave the fruit, or the beverage! There is a section of the road to lower campus and the village that smells like there should be millions of bees in the air. The 20-foot section of roadside smells like honey. The smell is so strong, that Delaney and I investigated to see if they had hives behind the bushes. There is just something about the way that the different hedge flowers mingle that creates the intoxicating aroma of honey mead!

     The sights and smells of this country are incredible. I know that my descriptions are weak compared to the original, but I have given it my best shot. Next time, I will talk about the children around the campus.

Benedicion y la Paz!

Jeff