I had intended to post some photos Yoli took Saturday of her cake and of her niece, but apparently I didn't copy them onto my thumbdrive like I thought I did. So I'll try and post those later tonight or tomorrow.
Also coming tomorrow, great photos from Cotoca.
Tonight we are headed to Tio Adonai's to video interview him about some family history stuff. After that we go to Leya's quinceanera party for her family.
Just a quick update to say that I have spent most of Friday and Saturday entertaining Ludi and Jadzia while Yoli prepares cakes for Leya's quinceañera.
We have passed the time playing lots of pretend, reading books, watching a couple Baby Einstein videos, playing Mr. Potato Head, doing jigsaw puzzles, cooking, sweeping, and getting the girls' clothes thoroughly dirty.
It has been very, very cool these two days. Long pants have been necessary. We didn't bring any jeans for Jadzia, so she wore her pajama pants.
Friday night we attended a chapel service at El Jordán which was very good, and Jadzia and Ludi went with the kids to their classes -- so, a brief respite for me! They did well in their classes and got to eat some cake (for someone else's birthday).
Saturday was much of the same, Yoli working on her cakes, etc. But as usual, Leya's party (which was supposed to start at 2 p.m.) ran very late. Her mom didn't get around to picking up Yoli and the cakes until around 5 p.m.
Right now I am here in a small, crowded internet cafe with one girl in my lap and another in the stroller. We went to three other cafes that were all full. It's been an interesting day. Hope all is well back home!
We spent Wednesday morning visiting some family and letting the girls play. Yoli's sister Noemi, who hosted Jadzia's party a couple days ago, lives very close to Yoli's dad. So we decided to visit them both.
Here are two photos of sunset I took looking down the street where Yoli's uncle Adonai lives. I'm just curious if anyone likes either of these, thinks they suck, or thinks one is better than the other. I'm especially interested in professional photographic opinions.
Wednesday evening we visited Yoli's tio Adonai. He and his wife Miriam have three puppies, a cat, and a parrot. Jadzia and Ludi had a fun time, though Jadzia got too silly at the end of the visit and wouldn't speak Spanish very well.
At the Santa Cruz Zoo you can get closer to the animals than perhaps you can at an American Zoo. The closest we got was to a sloth climbing a tree with its baby in the middle of the zoo, not in a cage.
Wednesday morning we took the girls to the Santa Cruz Zoo. What follows is a sort of photo essay of the morning.
This year Jadzia has enjoyed one of the longest periods of birthday celebration enjoyed by anyone outside of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. She had her first birthday party on Aug. 12, in conjunction with Yoli's and my dad's birthdays. Her actual birthday was Aug. 24, which we spent traveling to Bolivia. We had a party for her on Tuesday to which all her cousins and a few friends were invited.
In the time since we last visited Bolivia, several of Yoli's family members have bought cars and started driving. This is of course a big deal for them. In fact, they offered to let me drive if I wanted, but I continue to be dead-set against driving here. Our friend Corina has been struck in two different accidents in just the past couple months, and the first one got her into trouble because she had no friendly witnesses who could back her up against the accusations of the driver who truly caused the accident. And in Bolivia, you essentially start out guilty until proven innocent.
Santa Cruz is not unlike other parts of the developing world such as India or China, which are seeing huge growth in personal automobile ownership. This is one reason the price of gas is going up everywhere.
That is, everywhere the price of gas is not subsidized by the government. Bolivia is such a place.
I am not an economist and don't have a full grasp of the situation. But for whatever reason, there are shortages of gasoline in Santa Cruz. Some blame it on the federal government under Evo Morales, who nationalized some of the petroleum companies. Others cite different reasons. Regardless, it's often hard to get gas when you need it, and there can be long lines at the stations. This, despite the fact that almost all of Bolivia's petroleum is extracted and refined in Santa Cruz.
It affected us somewhat today. My brother-in-law Boris was supposed to pick us up in his car and take us to the house of Yoli's sister, Noemi, for Jadzia's birthday party. At first he couldn't find gas, and called to tell us we would need to make other arrangements. But later in the afternoon, just as we were trying to make those arrangements, he showed up. He had been able to find some gas somewhere.
Later in the evening, my father-in-law arrived. When an opportunity arose (we needed to buy hot dogs and buns), he asked me to come with him and my two brothers-in-law in his car for the errand. He was obviously very proud of it, and showed off its fancy CD player. He boasted of the selection of music he had, and insisted that my brother-in-law Juan play it very loud. Juan was driving, because though my father-in-law recently bought this car, he still hasn't obtained a driver's license.
I have mentioned before how Jadzia is seeing Bolivia with new eyes. She is old enough now to appreciate some things about it. Though she may have been here and seen it all before, she doesn't really remember it.
One such thing is the market. Santa Cruz has many markets. There is one within walking distance of El Jordán called Mutualista.
Bolivia has a world of smells. As you walk the streets, you might be inundated by the odor of sparks and metal as you pass a block of small welding shops. Walking in an alley you might smell garbage in the elevated trash baskets at each house, or sometimes just from litter on the street.
But the markets, to me anyway, have even stronger smells. Undoubtedly this is because of all the foodstuffs available, as well as the trash produced. There are vendors selling tons of produce, butchers with chicken carcasses split open so you can see the insides and decide which one you want.
And, of course, right around the corner are all the folks selling party favors and candy. And that's why we went to the market. We needed a few cookies and trinkets to fill out the goody bags we planned to give out Tuesday evening at Jadzia's birthday party.
To me, the market is a labyrinth. The central part of it is essentially a grid, but once you are inside, it can become claustrophobic. Many stalls' inventory overflows out into the aisle or hangs out across the ceiling, whether it's underwear or bright multicolored boxes of cereal.
Since we were at the market anyway and we had no supplies to speak of back at El Jordán, we decided to buy some spaghetti, tomato sauce, ground beef, and broccoli. They ground the beef for us right there, which was interesting to see.
Jadzia doesn't have much to say about all this (yet anyway), but I can tell she is taking it all in as if it were a brand new experience.
Trying to catch a nap. Bolivia can wear you out!
Play time at home.
More than any of us, Ludi gets really dirty, since she is sometimes crawling around on dusty floors.
Technically it is wintertime here in Santa Cruz, though the season is winding down much the way summer is winding down in St. Louis.
It's a bit dusty with temperatures in the mid-80s. The breeze keeps it fairly cool. This is the first time I've been here at this time of year, and it certainly feels very comfortable outside. Not the sweltering humidity and occasional torrential rains like you get around January.
Jadzia awoke at 4:15 a.m. and she wasn't bothered to be awake. She was very excited. "Today we're going to Bolivia!"
I tried to get her to scarf down a pancake before my dad showed up to take us to the airport. (Thanks, Dad!) Yoli and I were awake and surprisingly functional considering we had been awake until about 2 a.m.
We were anticipating a difficult day ahead, what with a long layover and a long flight. What would the girls do? Would they lose their minds?
A week ago Yoli and I finally traveled to Houston to do business with the Bolivian consulate there. We arrived Monday and stayed overnight. Our appointment was for Tuesday morning. We stayed at the apartment of some friends who also have two children.
We had three pieces of business we wanted to accomplish:
Well, most of you know how things go when you have kids. We got a later start than we should have. And the consulate turned out to be farther away timewise than I had imagined from our MapQuest printout. We ran late.
But to the consulate's credit, they didn't put up a fuss when we arrived. They took care of all of our business, and we left feeling happy that we had gotten everything we needed. This was definitely a better experience than when we were in Washington D.C. last year and were informed they had run out of passports.
My visa cost $100, but is good for five years. I still maintain that this visa program will ultimately hurt Bolivia and depress the tourist trade. But they seem to be processing these visas in a timely and organized fashion, so kudos to them for this.
