January 2006 Archives

You know you're in Bolivia when you're walking by a Mexican restaurant in the heart of the city with loud pop-rock blaring and a ton of Mennonites in their traditional garb are getting off a bus to go eat inside. We saw that as we walked on our way to a nice restaurant called Los Lomitos. Yoli has told me before that Mennonites love Mexican food, and it's true... almost every time we walk by a Mexican restaurant, there's at least one inside.

For a norteamericano this is just one of many surprising realities of Bolivia that seem funny and captivating.

The Palmasola Prison has little of a prison. It's more of a little town.

I guess Josh already talked about our troubles trying to get in to the prison on Thursday. We had been in the line at 2:40 p.m. The closing time to let people in was 3 p.m., but they let us in at 4, so we had to pay. When I finally was able to get in, they wanted me to pay 5 Bs. I was so angry that they didn't let Josh in and about standing in the line so long with my crying baby, that I yelled at the policeman, and he let me in without paying. (This was the first time I ever yelled at a policeman).

The last few days we've been spending most of our time visiting friends and family and taking care of various errands. We've really been packing a lot into our time here, but we haven't been able to do everything we wanted. We had been talking about visiting a nearby city, Cotoca, which is renowned for its handicrafts. They have a large market on Sunday where you can buy all sorts of beautiful textiles, pottery, and much more. There have been political problems there, though. The people are riled up over an issue involving the mayor and many of our friends suggested it wasn�t safe to go. We ended up not having enough time Sunday, anyway. So, that's another thing we'll save for the next trip. We may still try to buy a hammock while we are here, but right now I'm leaning toward putting that off until the next trip, too.

Today (Tuesday) we will hold a birthday party for one of Yoli's sisters, which will also double as a goodbye party for us. We're hoping to get the entire family together, which is no small feat since they currently live spread out all over the area. I'm not sure if all the grandchildren will be there or not. If they are, it will be a crazy time.

Tonight we hope to go out to a nice restaurant and enjoy some Bolivian cuisine. It should be a pleasant way to wrap up the trip.

On Friday we drove out to Casa Hogar Nacer. It's a home in the country for boys who have been living on the streets of Santa Cruz. It is simply one of the most amazing places ever, and each time we visit I come away amazed.

Yoli has been hoping to take me to jail for a long time.

It's not what it sounds like. This penitentiary is like a city surrounded by a giant brick wall. Prisoners literally have their own houses, stores, even restaurants. Maximum security is different. Prisoners are kept in cells ... but they have the keys and can lock themselves in or out.

When I first came to Bolivia, my wife was a volunteer at El Jordan, a center of support for street kids. It's a place where street kids can learn practical skills to make an honest living and get off the street. It's an amazing place that is changing lives.

On Wedneday we got to see a long-time project that is finally coming to fruition. Dubbed "Jericho," it's an expansion onto the next door property.

Yoli and got to visit the construction site. It was amazing. The frame of the 4-story building is mostly finished. What remains is to cover all the walls with cement and do all the finishing work. We crawled all over it, even standing on the open fourth floor and enjoying a spectacular view of the city.

Yoli shot a bunch of video and when we get back to the states we will edit it and post it here on the website. It's interesting to see the standard construction technique there compared with the ways we do things here. Almost all buildings there are built of hollow bricks and covered with cement.

In any case, the progress has wowed us and it's exciting to think how El Jordan will be able to expand its ministry once the new building opens its doors.

The weather here has been nothing short of wonderful, though in the past few days it has begun to warm up a bit. We've had rain most days, though today we had some torrents. In fact, as I type this, it is thundering and pouring pretty hard. I�m probably going to be soaked walking back to Yoli's sister's house.

Monday we visited the mission for their weekly prayer meeting. The usual format is that the groups sings several hymns, then one of the missionaries shares a short devotion, and then the group shares prayer requests and breaks up into smaller groups for prayer. On this occasion, I was asked to speak.

Yesterday Evo was sworn in as Bolivia's 66th president. We saw much of the ceremony on the TV of Alcides and Noemi from their house in Plan Tres Mil, a city close to Santa Cruz. Wow, Bolivian politicians can talk. The new vice president spoke forever, followed by Evo, then other dignitaries. Then they all spoke AGAIN. It dragged on for hours and hours, all covered by live TV.

In any case, this is a momentous event in Bolivia's political history. I am bringing back some newspapers documenting the occasion.

Meanwhile, all the internet cafes we've used so far have AWFUL keyboards. I have to reype words 5 or 6 times because the keys don't work. I hope we find a good one soon.

Jadzia is doing well... but everyone we meet says she should be wearing socks or pants and that she must be cold. In fact, she gets hot and her face flushes sometimes! :)

We brought a bunch of DVDs to watch with family here... but since I don't have a power cord for my powerbook, we are unable to watch them. But, we did bring 4 short movies we filmed on our video camera showing Jadzia and my parents. Since these were on the camera and not the computer, we were able to show them.

We arrived yesterday after a long flight. Jadzia did well on both legs of the flight and in the airports. We were surprised.

When we got to Bolivia, Yoli's mom and two of her sisters were there to greet us. Unfortunately after such a long trip, I don{t think Jadzia was ready for anymore new people or things. She cried for a long time. We eventually calmed her down and were able to nap a few hours (neither of us got much sleep on the plane, unlike Jadzia).

Since then, Jadzia has done well. She's met her grandparents, some aunts and uncles, and some cousins. I can tell the weather is a bit warm for her, but she's doing well.

An interesting note: In the U.S. almost everyone would tell us how much Jadzia looked like Yoli. Here, it's different. They all say how much she looks like ME! Go figure.

I would like to write more, but this internet cafe is really awful and I've already lost this entry once and had to re-write it. When we find a better cafe, I'll post more. Anyway, we're safe and sound. Hope you are, as well!

P.S. I am pretty dumb. I left both my computer's power cable and the iPod's firewire cable at home. I'm not sure yet if I'll buy replacements (or be able to find them)