Pictures of our Apartment

Here is our kitchen-the microwave is called a "half pint" and it takes double time at least to heat something. We have a gas stove and oven so that was something new to master lighting an oven. It was very nice that everything was furnished for us and the only thing we've bought is a can opener. Can openers here are very unreliable and you go through many I've heard.

We have a china cabinet in our dining room with all our dishes because we don't have much cabinet space in the kitchen.

This is our much coveted bathtub--the only one in the compound. Most homes just have showers--I'm not sure why that is. Our tub is the hang out spot for a group of frogs that don't take the hint that I don't like them.

Here is our bedroom. Pretty simple and I do miss carpet all the rugs we bought at the feria here but it is just not the same.

This is our living room right when you walk into the house. The whole house has tile floor but the tile in the living is the only red tile. We don't use our living room all that much. Our computer is in our bedroom and our dryer too :)

This is the outside of our house. It's a triplex and we are at the end. It's designed very well and we have our own fenced in back yard. You can see Grant sitting on our porch :)

Un Paro Civil

We went to the English church this Sunday and there was a fellowship meal after the service. We met a teacher from the international school that goes to the English church. Their school was on strike for the entire week in protest of the teacher's salaries in the public schools. They get paid 600 Bolivians a month. That is roughly 75 dollars a month for a full time teacher. They have to go to school to become a teacher for four years and that is just not enough to live on. Our school is not getting involved and striking for the week because we have to make up the days because we follow U.S. guidelines. Bolivian schools don't make up missed days.

Today (Tuesday) we are having un paro civil. That is a civic strike. Bolivia is made up of 9 provinces or states. Today 6 out of 9 were on strike. That means nothing happens at all. There were tires and rocks in the all the roads in the city. Nothing was open and no transportation was on the streets. They are protesting their president Evo. He is the country's first indigenous president and he stands really for the indigenous people and not for the whole country. Because of this the people are very upset and are afraid because he is trying to get himself in office for good without reelection. He is a huge friend of Hugo Chavez from Venezuela and is following his steps to becoming president for life.

We had a nice vacation day. We baked cookies and played volleyball with the missionaries in our neighboring compound. I don't completely understand what effect the country going on strike has in making the statement they want to make. I do know it made Bolivian history because never has 6 states all banned together in a cause like today. Apparently Bolivia made CNN when the Congress got into an all out fist fight with each other. The debate got out of hand and everyone started punching and hitting and pushing one another. We watched it on the news here and later Gary told us he saw it. Everyone here says to stay out of politics it's very complicated and tense. They are working on a new Constitution that might make private school obsolete. This definitely has SCCLC nervous.

Buganvillas

This weekend right after school got out on Friday we headed to a nice hotel called Buganvillas after the flower. I had never heard of it but everyone else had somehow :) It was a great resort and they had a lot of apartment like rooms so we stayed in a suite with the principal and his wife and then two single teachers. It was very nice weather Friday and Saturday so we swam all afternoon. After that we had dinner and then we met together for some games and get to know you activities. The school mascot is an eagle so we had to make a member of our team into an eagle with newspaper. It was a lot of fun to be with all the staff at the school. There were about 50 total with everyone. You never see very many of the staff all together in one place so we had a good time getting to know everyone. Here is a picture of our team. Beside me is another Spanish teacher at the school. Andrea (the eagle) flew with us from Miami to Santa Cruz.

Shanghai

At our prayer meeting Grant and I were given a mission vehicle to drive while we are here. So Grant went out and practiced a bit on Thursday and then together we found our way to the supermarket for groceries. The city of Santa Cruz is set up on a ring system so downtown is in the center of town and then it looks like a wagon wheel with roads like spokes coming from the center and then at 1 kilometer there is a large ring called the first ring. This continues all the way out to about kilometer 9 and then you are in the country. So the city is very sprawled and and the names of the roads change often in between the spokes.

We found the grocery store alright and then decided to go to dinner. We went to a restaurant called Shanghai and parking became a big question mark in our minds. There was a large side walk and no other parking. So debated for a while and then an SUV pulled in and just took up the whole side walk so we decided to park on the side walk. We asked later and they said as long as there aren't No Parking signs you can park anywhere you want--including on the road.

Ham and Peach Pizza

This week went by very fast and we are really settling in to a routine. Monday after school we made some homemade pizza since we don't have any frozen pizzas here. On Tuesday I attempted to make chili but no one in Bolivia knows what chili powder is so no luck with that one. Grant and I have caught up on reading some since we have been here. I'm involved in two Bible studies women's groups. One is with our mission and one is with the English church. The one with WGM is a book about Christian leadership and the other is Daniel by Beth Moore.

One Wednesday night we had prayer meeting at 4 like always with WGM. We had a new family move to Santa Cruz but they are not new to Bolivia with World Gospel Mission. So after our prayer meeting we had dinner together. The social committee ordered pizza. One of the pizzas was covered in tomatoes and the other had ham and peaches on it :) Bolivia does not have pepperoni at all and their pizza is very creative and interesting. I liked the peaches and ham.

This week I had to wake Grant up one morning because I wanted to take a shower and there was a frog hopping all around in the bathtub. They come up through the pipes and really freak me out. This was the third one so far. We have caught two and one got away. We have also had very many lizards and Grant used a fly swatter to rid our kitchen of a pesty lizard and it's tail fell off in the process. Grant thought it was great but I stayed in the bedroom until he cleaned up the mess. We have two that we see everynight outside our door and the guy who used to live here asked how "Spot" was doing. He named him! I'm just counting my blessing that they are lizards instead of snakes or mice. Still I would like to be able to think that Grant and I are the only creatures living in our apartment.

Dios es Amor

Sunday we were planning on going to the Spanish speaking church Berea and then English speaking church after again. However, the couple which are in charge of VIAs, which stands for Volunteers in Action which is what we are, asked us to go to their church with them and out to lunch. Their church was a lot different than some we have already attended. There were no words so worshiping along with them was a little difficult. The church has a pastor that is slowly giving his position to a younger pastor. The younger pastor spoke for a long time and then the pastor gave the same sermon over again. The couple we went with agreed that the older pastor was a bit off on his interpretation of the Bible. On the verse about multiplying in numbers and filling the earth he stated that it was a sin to stay single and it was a sin to have any less than 4 kids. The funny part is he has four kids and our friends think that is likely where the number came from.

After church we went to Don Miguels for lunch. It is a very popular restaurant and very nice. They start to cook your meat on the grill but then they put it on a tiny grill and bring it to your table so you can decide how done it gets. It was a really fun restaurant. They told us about a restaurant called the monks where all the waiters where brown robes and chant. They said the atmosphere is actually very serious but when they went their group couldn't stop laughing.
The rest of the afternoon we just relaxed and read and stayed inside--it was very cold again.

Birthday Parties and Movies

We finally have internet at our house again so the blog continues.....Last Friday night it was Crystal's birthday so we had a little get together to celebrate. The menu for dinner was hot dogs and mac and cheese made with Velveeta. The hot dogs were flown in from the states for the occasion...seriously. Here the hot dogs are really not what we would call hot dogs so that is one of the things people from the states miss when they live here for some time. Crystal's church sent a work team down and she requested two packs of hot dogs for her birthday dinner. So they froze some oscar meyers and we had a great dinner.
We ate and talked and had a great time and finished off the evening with some movies. Saturday almost everyone that was at the party met at the movies and then we had Nescar chicken for dinner. Nescar is the missionaries favorite place for a quick affordable dinner that is really good. For a dollar and a half you get a quarter of a chicken and rice and fries--it's delicious. We had a really good time Friday night and Saturday relaxing and hanging out with some new friends.

Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center

So this week was the first full week of class. Is that already too soon to want to pull my hair out? No seriously all in all it went really well. It took some arranging to get kids in the right classes so they are at least a little bit close to the same level. I did have to adjust to having 5th and 6th graders. One of the first days I simply gave them an activity from the book to work on and I watched and some starting writing but they weren’t looking at their book and others looked at their books but didn’t write and another looked like she wanted to cry. I realized that you have to explain things more at that level then you do with sophomores in High School. But I have adjusted and now we go over instructions very thoroughly.

This week we had a lot of meetings to attend to get school off and running. Monday I had a staff meeting, Tuesday there was a prayer meeting for staff in the morning and then a parent’s meeting at night. Wednesday we have a meeting for WGM so by Thursday I was about meetinged out.

Fridays I’m going to be helping in the Library on my free period and the 3rd graders come in at the same time every week. Today I read them a story about a dog who ate alphabet soup and then can talk. So after the story I asked what would you do if you saw a dog that could talk? The answers I got were hilarious and it was difficult to not laugh. One student said “Kick the dog hard” another said “Steal the dog” one girl said “I would die” The best was a Bolivian boy said “ I would set up a stand to see the dog and charge people and I would be rich!” This from a 3rd grader--I had to laugh.

English church/Spanish church

Today we went to two services. First at 8:00 we went to Berea with Ann another missionary here. It was a Spanish church. The worship was great with contemporary worship and clapping and dancing. The sermon was on Daniel and how we should set high standards for ourselves like Daniel did. Directly after this service we went to Trinity Union Church which is all in English and the pastor is a man from England. It was also a great time of worship and the sermon was the first in a series on Saul about when God calls you to do something new and the steps of that. It was in all 4 hours of church but it was great.

We ate lunch at Ann’s house. After we relaxed and cooked dinner again and got a little better at cooking here. Cooking here is completely from scratch. I didn’t ever appreciate soups already made in cans and hamburger helper, frozen pizzas, frozen vegetables, and just anything that’s already made for you. Here you buy fresh meat, fresh vegetables, rice, pasta etc and make everything every step of the way. No easy dinners besides peanut butter and jelly J . After dinner we went to the school to talk to some people on the phone. The school provides a Vonage phone to call the USA for free to us.

Midnight Serenading

So we have been experiencing technical difficulties and we have not had internet for the last week. We aren’t sure when we will have internet again at our house. On Friday night we went to Mike’s house and participated in a very Bolivian tradition of singing to whoever has a birthday at midnight. The birthday person goes to bed and acts surprised but they have cake and pop for all their friends who come and sing. Since Mike didn’t know about the tradition we brought the cake. You don’t knock you just stand at the door and sing loudly the six happy birthday songs they have here in Bolivia until everyone is awake.

Saturday Grant and I went downtown and shopped around a bit but didn’t buy anything and then we went and checked out the Cine Center which is the movie complex here. It is very new and very nice inside. It has a food court and an arcade. We decided to see a movie and there were posters on the wall of the movies and underneath it said En Espanol if it was in Spanish. We decided to see Ratatouille and when the movie started we found out it was in Spanish so I went out and asked if we could switch because my husband didn’t speak Spanish and we were confused J So we saw Ocean’s 13 instead and it was great. One of the missionaries here said if she ever needed a break and to feel like she is in the States at home again she goes to the movies. The tickets cost about $2.50.

After the movie we went to the grocery store and found everything we needed including some ice-cream J That night I cooked something that wasn’t quick and easy. We had to ask our neighbor how to light the gas oven but we have that down pat now except that we broke our lighter so we need a new one.

Cow udders and chicken hearts

It was day two of classes today and I was in a new classroom already. My room is on the second story of the gym and you have to walk across the gym floor to get to my room. Over the summer they redid the gym floor but they did not quite finish. So yesterday the school informed me that I would have to move to a new class for a bit while they paint the gym floor. It was not too bad though pretty smooth going.

Tonight we went to dinner with a couple that has been here a long time Gerson and Betsy and Andrea. Gerson does not speak much English and Grant and Andrea do not speak Spanish and Betsy and I speak both so I was a little bit curious how dinner would go. It flowed pretty smoothly-- sometimes we just spoke English and occasionally Betsy would translate and sometimes we spoke Spanish then I or Betsy would translate. It just happened how it happened. The place they took us to was one of the nicer places in Santa Cruz. It had a salad bar and a bar with hot food except the meat. The meat was their speciality and the waiters came around with the meat on spear looking things right off the grill. They started our table off with some chorizo or sausage that was very good. Then some Argentine beef wrapped in bacon that was delicious. Then come something that looked a little weird and I heard what the waiter said it was so I didn't take any but Grant and Andrea tried it. It was cow udder! Grant said it was gross. I took his word on that. They also brought around the hump of a bull to eat. Grant liked that he said it had good flavor. Our waiter liked to tease if we didn't try something but they brought meat about every 5 minutes. Chicken hearts were amazing at the restaurant. I said I wanted some and they served me 10 hearts! We definitely didn't have any room for dessert.

Tomorrow is Mike's birthday so everyone is going to his apartment at 12 to serenade him with Happy Birthday and have pop and cake. I feel worn out but I don't want to miss this Bolivian tradition of serenading. Today I listened to Froggy radio from down here on the internet. It made me feel a little like I missed being at home. I know I miss all the people friend and family but today was the first time I felt like oh yeah it would be nice to hear music in English and listen to the radio in my little red car. We have adjusted very well so far. WGM really knows how to make it easier.

Creatures and Cow pies

Today was the first day of school! I would have probably been more excited except my allergies have me feeling wretched. Overall it went pretty well. I teach 5th grade, 6th, 7th, 8th, grade Spanish and then Spanish 1, 2, and 3. So basically I have 1o year olds through high school seniors. The schedule is not completely ironed out and it is so much complicated here just because we are in a Spanish speaking country and so every level of Spanish has three levels within it--beginner, intermediate and advanced. I usually teach intermediate there are two other spanish teachers.
I had one student who was born here in Bolivia run into my room and ask if he could speak Spanish in my room. I said of course. The students are not allowed to speak any Spanish except in Spanish class.

Right after school we had to go with the same guy as Wednesday to finish up with the carnet process. This time it was a mug shot and our finger prints so they could make sure we were not criminals. They took our picture from the front and from the side with us looking forward. Mike and Andrea both arrived the same time we did so they were with us for this process. After that we caught a cab and went to a great Cuban restaurant downtown. The walls were covered in writing from guests from around the world. Grant ordered a dish called old clothes in Spanish. It was pulled beef--the food was delicious. The restaurant was by the cathedral and major plaza.

When we got back the taxi dropped us off at the school because Andrea left her keys there so we had to walk home from there in the dark! The field was really dark and the only thing I could think as we were walking was how many creatures and cow pies there were and I had no idea if I was walking right into them. I managed to get home with pretty clean shoes however. :)

AIDS Testing

Wednesday was supposed to be our last day to work before we had class on preparing for school. We got to school though and one of the staff members told us we had to go with a guy around the city to get our papers to get our Carnets. A carnet is a visa you have to have to be in the country and it is a long process to get one. One of the steps that I could have done without is you have to have your blood drawn for a AIDS test! I thought that was the strangest thing and unpleasant. The nurse could not find my vein and I had a room full of strangers watching me make horrible faces I'm sure as the needle moved around in my arm searching for a vein. I did not pass out however which is saying a lot for me.

That took most of the day but we still could not finish because one place was closed for the afternoon time and we didn't want to return. Grant and I went back to school and worked a little and then had prayer meeting for all WGM staff. After prayer meeting we returned to school and worked a little bit longer. For dinner we ordered BBQ chicken pizza. Pizza here is not the same at all. All the missionaries say when they return home that is what they want to eat is pizza. It was pretty good though not too bad just not the same.

Military Parade

Today went smoothly without any reports of violence in the city. I think the clip I included says that the reason was because they held the demonstration in the airport and it was closed and regulated instead of in the streets. I know a lot of people were praying and I think that is what saved this day from turning violent. Here is a short clip from CNN

"Bolivian President Evo Morales' government held a military and Indian parade in a center of anti-government sentiment Tuesday without the feared violence that prompted a U.S. Embassy warning to Americans.
More than 10,000 uniformed soldiers and Indians in traditional dress marched down an airport runway in the eastern city of Santa Cruz in honor of Bolivia's Armed Forces Day.

The U.S. Embassy in Bolivia had warned Americans not to attend the event, citing "potential violence" between marchers and counter-demonstrations by Santa Cruz groups.
But the fact the event was kept away from city streets may have helped avoid any conflicts in the city, where racial tension sometimes is mixed with political differences."

We avoided the streets anyhow today. We were at the school and then at home. We live in a fenced, barbwired, glass and nail protected compound. Theft is a problem here so we have two gates that are always locked with two barb wire strands around the top of the wall. There are parts of the wall that have nails and broken glass on top. The school is the same way with a 24 hour guard post that is always manned. To get to school we walk out the back gate and there is a field that we walk through. It belongs to a family that lives in the middle of it. It's their cows that sometimes choose to be large obstacles to getting to school. But if we walk through the field we come to the back of the school compound and we walk around and the guard lets us in the gate.

Today at school they ordered food from one of the staff's favorite restaurants that is located close by. It's called Nescar. It's a chicken place and the food is very delicious and cheap. It cost 13 Bolivianos for 1/4 chicken, a huge plate of rice and french fries. 13 B's is roughly 1 dollar and 55 cents. The other day Grant and I ate at a restaurant that is inside the Hipermaxi (grocery store) and it cost 23 Bs which is a tiny bit less than 3 dollars and we had more food than we could eat and it was amazing. So eating out here is cheaper than anyone could ask for. One day a group of us ate Mexican food for 25 dollars for 14 people. So far all the food we have had has been very good.

Cows and Lizards

Bolivia has a very yummy snack that should be created in the states. It's a yogurt container but on the bottom it has cherry jello and on the top it has plain yogurt and then you mix them up and eat them. It's very good. Today is Bolivia's Independence day. We did not have to work at school but we went for a little while this afternoon. On our commute (walk) to school there were three large cows with horns in our path. So instead of risking angering the cows we went off roading and had to get over a fallen tree and I lost my flip flop. I think next time I'll try my luck with the cows.
When we got home from school I walked into the kitchen and I saw a lizard! Worst of all is he disappeared in the closet with the washer and dryer and we could not find him (correction Grant couldn't find him) I was in the other room by then. There is a lot of political unrest in the country and tomorrow it is likely to be some demonstrations and violence. We were advised to stay in our compound all day. Evo the President of the country is an Indian and he looks out for his people a lot. Santa Cruz does not have many Indian people in this province also Santa Cruz makes a large portion of the money for the whole country and it gets distributed to all other regions and is controlled by Evo. The military work for the President while the Police serve the people here and they have been known to fight.

All this to explain that tomorrow Evo is visiting Santa Cruz with all his army and marching through the city to show his power. On the walls of the city it says "To arms Santa Cruz" There could be quite a bit of violence or it could pass no one knows. The mission suggested having two weeks of food on hand in case. The police use tear gas in the city fairly frequently I've heard. The missionary we had lunch with yesterday said she has been caught in tear gas four times. That was a high number to me because the missionaries are cautious and stay out of the city most of times when demonstrations and violence breaks out. Cows, lizards and unrest all have got me thinking that we are definitely in a new place.

Brrrrrrrrrrr!

I really didn't believe it when people said it gets really cold down in Bolivia so pack really warm clothes. But we are freezing--yesterday morning it was 50 degrees and probably only reached 60 degrees all day. There is no heat what so ever so getting out of bed is pretty cold.

We have been at the school a lot the last two days. Thursday we had new staff orientation and then Friday we had all staff orientation. On Thursday we went to a Mexican restaurant (which are not very common) and ate lunch together. There were several tables of Mennonite men in the restaurant. We were told when we got down here that Mennonites are probably the most unfriendly people in Bolivia. At lunch they stared at us and smoked the entire time. I've read somewhere that many of the mennonites here are mennonites only in heritage but they aren't Christians or practice their faith. They speak German and Spanish and dress similar to conservative mennonites from the states.

My classroom is not with the other classrooms but it is in the gym on the second level. They have been working on the gym floor recently and so I have to power in my class yet. It is pretty small but it does have a big window and an air conditioner--which we haven't needed yet. Grant and I have been making posters and banners for our room. It's plain white so it needs some color. Our school verse is Micah 6:8 so I made a tac board with that verse in Spanish. One of the school rules is NO SPANISH because my classroom and one other teacher's are the only places spanish is to be spoken. Otherwise the students would speak spanish all the time.

On Friday night we went to a family house for dinner. They had served in Honduras for 10 years and had only been here for a little bit of time. We had a lot of fun we played spoons and then speed scrabble. I have one of their daughters in my class. They asked if they could call us Aunt Heather and Uncle Grant because that is how they do it within the mission family.

Candy

Something I failed to mention about our shopping trip that made me laugh was while we were checking out if the teller doesn't have the right amount of change they give you candy or sometimes a bandaid I hear. But we were given two pieces of candy in lou of change. They said at the pharmacies they give you an aspirin or tylenol if they don't have the correct change.

On Wednesday we went downtown to learn about how our finances work and how we do expense reports. We ate something really good but I always forget the name. It's like a pizza pocket with chicken, potatoes, peas, corn and gravy all inside. They eat them for breakfast and everyone here loves them. We took our first taxi home from the office and wow was that a ride. The taxis are very cheap but driving in them makes your life flash before your eyes on several occasions. We made lunch for ourselves in our little kitchen and then Grant and I went to work on my classroom.

On Wednesday night WGM always has prayer meeting for all their missionaries. This week they had a huge churrasco (BBQ) to welcome us and to say goodbye to another missionary. It was a lot of fun. The food was great--they grilled huge steaks and fried yuca and had mennonite cheese rice. We had some of this rice at Los Lomitos and we didn't like it very much but at Rick's it was amazing. It's kind of a wet rice with squeaky cheese in it. A lot of the missionaries are in the states right now before school so the group was a little bit smaller than normal but their was still about 40 people.

Everynight when we return home there are geckos on our enclosed from porch so I make Grant go first and scare them away and then I can walk in the house. It gets dark about 6:30 pm here and they said in the summer (winter in states) it only gets dark about 7 pm.

Where are we again?

This morning I woke up and freaked out because I wasn't sure where I was. Unpacking did not take half as long as packing up everything took. We packed and repacked to get all our bags to weigh 50 pounds and no more. Our apartment is located in a compound with a gate and barbwired fences all the way around it. There are several houses in the compound and different apartments in all of those. We kept hearing over and over that our apartment is the coveted apartment and we found our it's because it has a bathtub. They are non existent around here so we are lucky I guess :) I went to lunch at the school with Andrea ( another new teacher) and Kelly ( one of the principals) We ordered in Subway--funny for one of our first few meals in Bolivia. Grant went with Steve and some of the guys from the school to Los Lomitos a steak place near downtown.

We went grocery shopping for the first time this afternoon. It was crazy how different the grocery store was but it was a lot of fun to pick out food. I did however pick up a package of hamburger and blood ran all over my hands yuck :( There was nothing to do but rub my hands together and keep moving. Rick and Lori who picked us up from the airport picked us up for dinner and we went to Los Lomitos again :) But it is the missionaries favorite and it was very good. We ate the typical Bolivian dinner. Yuca (bland fried root) which is tasty with ketchup, french fries, tomato salad, and lots of meat. We had a huge steak and a sausage. Meat is important and very readily available and Lomitos means meat here.

After dinner we had orientation at Rick and Lori's. They just moved in from the country and have a great house with a pool and futbol field. Anyway, it was a great day-we met a lot of people and had a lot of new experiences and had a great time doing it.

We arrived!

Well after months of planning and anticipating we arrived in Bolivia Monday morning around noon. It was a very long day of delays while traveling but we were just happy to be here. Total travel time was 27 hours from when we left home until we were picked up at the airport.
We met up with a girl in Miami and traveled the last flight with her. When we got to Santa Cruz she didn't have any of her luggage. Fortunately we had all of ours and she received hers the next day. We were picked up by a couple and their daughter and taken through the city a bit to a waiting brunch. Santa Cruz is set up on a Circular ring system so we were on the 6th ring and it is the newest so my first impression was wow construction. The closest city I would compare Santa Cruz with is Cairo, Egypt. There is trash everywhere and the traffic is a wild ride to say the least. We ate a wonderful brunch and met everyone in our compound and then they showed us our apartment and we crashed and slept.
After a long nap we woke up and I looked at Grants digital watch upside down and panicked because I thought it was 9 o clock but it was 6. Our neighbors had us over for dinner with the two other newbies. We played cards and talked until late. It was a little overwhelming but once we had slept everything looked a lot brighter. Overall a good adventure and nothing to complain about.