One Year Later

(This is from an email I sent out to friends and family outside of Bolivia; if you didn't get it and would like me to have your email for updates, please feel free to send it to me at pocopalm@yahoo.com.)

Dear Everyone -

I could begin with some hackneyed expressions:

“I can’t believe it’s been a year!”

“Where has the time gone?”

“The past year has been a blur.”

Well, those ideas are all true, but let me expound on them a bit.

I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S BEEN A YEAR!

A year ago Jason was coming back from training in Boone, N.C., and we were trying to finalize packing and rental arrangements and selling things and everything else you can think of that comes with a major, major move.

Yes, we moved to Bolivia, and it has been a year filled with craziness, happiness, learning, grace, and did I mention craziness? I’m just sending out a (somewhat) brief update about the family.

Micah has turned into a little man with his own loving and stubborn personality. While he still sounds young when pronouncing words, his vocabulary is great and he can communicate almost anything he wants to. He gets incredibly creative, most recently pretending to have a pet bumblebee that flies into outer space and then comes back to rest in his closed hands. He loves to pretend that he’s skateboarding around the house or on sidewalks. Also, he is finally mostly potty-trained, except when sleeping. Micah's a stereotypical boy and loves cars and balls and wants to play rough, but he is also incredibly affectionate and sweet-natured. Until something doesn’t go his way. And then he wants to collapse into fits of sadness and tears. We’re working on that.

Alexis is adoring kindergarten and just got her first report card. She’s at the top of her class, and one of the things that her teacher wrote is that she loves Alexis’ silly personality, which made me so happy. Alexis is a ball of energy and almost always wants to goof around. She’s also up way to early in the mornings… She loves having friends over to her house and loves school, and she’s reading more and more all the time. She just got a lamp for her side table, so after she goes to bed she’s allowed to stay up and read for a little while. Always the one with a sensitive heart, Alexis has a huge desire to do what’s right and gets very upset when she’s done something wrong. She can also still make an epic mess in her room, but when she’s motivated, she can clean it up in about five minutes. She is also speaking a ton of Spanish, which motivates me to learn more and speak more with her!

The kids both miss the States, but they also love Bolivia. We got to go on vacation with my parents over the summer (winter here) to Copacabana (sing with me!) on Lake Titicaca. We saw ancient ruins and beautiful vistas, but the kids were obsessed with earning mountain climbing and scouting merit badges from Jason. I don’t think they have ever laughed harder than when a man pulled trout fresh from the lake and they flopped around in a box, waiting to get cooked. Just yesterday Micah was talking about wanting the fish in his face again. They also love going to restaurants here because so many of them have playgrounds for kids, and on the weekends there’s a big bouncy slide at the park next to our house, and we go most weekends. Alex recently decided that instead of jumping up, landing on her butt, and then sliding down that she needed to jump directly to the bottom and land on her butt without sliding. No fear with that one… Micah is really excited about going to preschool next year (we’re going to send him), and they’ve both really enjoyed being here.

Jason has really grown professionally a ton over the past year. The work that SP is doing here is great, and I’m so proud that he’s a part of it. He has done all sorts of things that I don’t remotely understand, but as country director, he’s been involved in water projects, well digging, livestock and agricultural initiatives, building schools, llama and alpaca projects, healthy children initiatives and feeding programs, Children’s Heart Project (gets kids to the States for heart surgery), transformative leadership, hiring staff, training, setting budgets, getting funding, and evaluating new locations to work, not to mention all of the festivals and events and hosting he does, plus all of other things I can’t even think of! He has worked incredibly hard this year and (from what I can gather in the most objective way possible for an incredibly proud wife) is doing a really great job. He has found good ways to get some down time, including playing ultimate Frisbee on Sunday afternoons, and after an insanely busy two months, we’re hoping for a bit of a break from the craziness after this week. Last week for our anniverary (nine years!) he took me out for Asian food for the first time since I've been here. I've been craving Mekong, and this helped...

It's wonderful to finally feel settled. I spend part of my time trying to find things I can actually cook here, but we actually have a woman who helps around the house about twelve hours a week, and she’s been amazing. Since everything takes longer here, it’s been an unbelievable blessing to have someone who cleans our house and irons our clothes (no dryer) and sanitizes fruits and sometimes cooks and occasionally watches the kids. She’s about my age, and if I’m going to have someone in my home that much, it’s great to have someone who is so trustworthy and easy to talk to and loves the kids. She’s helped a lot with my Spanish, too. I’m in classes and feel like I’m improving a lot now, as in I try to use past tense on a regular basis. I try to put myself out there as much as possible. The other big thing I’ve been doing is (drum roll in case you don’t already know) writing a book. Yes, it’s young adult, so don’t laugh. It thematically deals with the line between science and ethics (to put it very, very broadly – DNA alteration, kind of dystopian, called The Stromata of Limbs), and while I don’t have delusions of grandeur, I’m getting some feedback from readers and am at least going to pursue publication. (Even if it is any good, which is certainly questionable, the chance of getting an agent is virtually zero.) Regardless, it’s been a great project and something I came here knowing I wanted to do, so after finalizing the first one, it will be time to proceed to number two! Maybe. We’ll see.

Summer is beginning here, so it’s warming up, and the rain has started a little bit, too. I fortunately ordered a pair of rain boots finally, and they’ll be waiting for me when we go home at Christmas. We’ll be coming to the States a few days before Christmas and leaving again after the first week of January. It will be great to see family and be back in the States for a while, but we truly feel at home in La Paz.

Thank you for all your support and prayers for our experience here. Please continue to pray for us, and we hope to see many of you soon!

Jess

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Pedestrian Day, or Why Everyone Here Should Own a Skateboard

Yesterday was Pedestrian Day in La Paz. This means that from about 6 - 6, the roads were almost traffic-free. Yes, you read correctly! Pedestrian Day is the day when it is illegal to get into you car and drive somewhere. There are a few taxis, buses, and other vehicles that may have permission, but they are few and far between. This means that no one can really get anywhere without walking. The concept is kind of nice to encourage, but I was surprised that the country could make it illegal to go somewhere in you car. (It also meant that Saturday was CRAZY because everyone was trying to get things done.) We ended up going to the park, letting the kids have two rounds in the huge bouncy slide, and then trying out a new restaurant a block from our house. We had lamb, lechon/type of pork, chicken, peanut soup, and wonderful juice.  Great prices and great food, and they brought us the soup for free, I imagine as an opening tactic to bring us back... :) But the coolest thing about the day is the fact that people are walking, biking, and skating in the middle of the roads. The sidewalks here are notoriously uneven, so when I saw a group of half a dozen skateboarders, one with a video camera, cruising downhill in the middle of the road, I thought that this must be one of the best days ever for them.

Life has been super busy lately. Jason has been out a lot to investigate potential new communities for SP to work in, and budget season is coming up, and some of his bosses are coming soon, and SP has their retreat, and etc. etc. etc. Even though it means things are pretty hectic, he's loving it.

Alex is back in school and loves her class. She comes home exceptionally excited if she has gotten purple on the discipline chart for the day. (Purple is the highest, and she gets a sticker on purple.) She's seems to be doing well academically and socially, and she does some additional reading work at home, too, with Studydog, an online reading program that she likes a lot. Micah is jealous that Alex gets to go to school, but he also enjoys having time by himself at home when she isn't monopolizing everything! They both really enjoyed going on vacation with my parents in July. We went to Lake Titicaca and had a wonderful time. The drive was stunning. You could see the Andes on and off throughout the drive, and when we got there, it definitely looked like we were at an ocean, not a lake. The town of Copacabana was really cool, and we ate tons of really fresh trout. I think the kids' favorite part was when we went on a boat ride and the fish came straight from the lake and flopped around spastically after caught. I don't know that I've ever heard them  both laugh so hard! They did lots of climbing and hiking, and we saw ruins, and Jason and I climbed Calgary Hill, and we toured the church where people lined up for hours on Saturday morning to cover their cars in garlands and plastic decorations and spray wine or beer on them and have them blessed by the priest. (It was a little weird to me.) Overall, it was a great time with the family. We had a wonderful time while my parents were here and got to see a number of things around the city and eat good food and play lots of Catan!

It's also hard to believe that it's already September. I'm already actively thinking about Christmas. I know, I know, that's crazy. I've been somewhat homesick lately, though, which I think is perfectly natural. However, don't let that fool you. La Paz is wonderful, and I feel incredibly blessed to be here. I'm finally in regular Spanish classes, which is very good for me (Alex came home from starting school again using a ton of Spanish phrases). We've also been trying to get some things fixed around the apartment, so our lights should be better  now, and they are doing MAJOR work to the roof right now. Hopefully that means we can get the walls in the apartment repaired sometime soon from all the water damage. Being on the top floor means we have a warm apartment (wonderful) but also got the majority of the water damage (not so wonderful). Slowly but surely, though, and anytime we talk about possible moving, we think about how perfect the space is for us and how much we love the location and decide against looking for something new.

It is starting to warm up some more, and in a few months it will start raining some more, which will be nice. The sunshine is great, but I, of course, miss rain and clouds and overcast days. It's nice to to feel like I need to wear two sets of flannel pajamas to be warm enough when sleeping, though!    

Don't You Want to Know How We're Doing?

Time for an update...


Alex: Alex is in the middle of her summer break. She loved her school year in preschool, which was an opportunity that I don't think we ever thought she would have since it's typically so expensive. However, even though she started in October and had an almost two month break during Christmas due to our visa issues, she really excelled. She made some great friends and is excited about going to kindergarten, even though she will occasionally say that she is a little bit nervous, which is cute. We tell her it's okay to feel nervous about new things and that she'll be great. They had an end of the year program for the elementary school students, and Alex got up with her class and recited the poem quietly and made her motions vigorously. After the poem every student received an award. (This is apparently a school-wide practice.) I was so happy for her when it came to her name and she had a massive round of applause; she's made some friends at Highlands! However, I was exceptionally proud of the award she got - best all around student. We were very proud parents. 

She's had a good summer, but I think she's getting a little bored. It's nice when we have times to play with some other kids, but I think she will love being back in school. Highlands has two days a week that are full day and three that are half day, which was a little confusing to me at first but will hopefully be a good transition for her. Even though I went to a half day kindergarten, I think that a full day kindergarten has become pretty normal in a lot of places, including Virginia. She's on track academically with no problems as far as we can tell. She's actually doing a wonderful job with her reading skills and can pretty easily and quickly read simple words now. She's learning blended consonants right now (I think that's what they're called) and other weird things like "the silent e at the end of the word makes the (short) a say (a). It's a jingle that gets tuck in my head.) She also almost always wants to do a craft and is getting really great with the scooter she got for her fifth birthday in May. And the girl is a playing machine, which is totally normal, but I'm pretty sure she is an extrovert because she ALWAYS wants people around. She's gotten a little bossy with Micah and we've had to help her work through that, but she's a great kid who wants to do the right thing and  tried hard to be obedient. She's incredibly affectionate and sweet and verbal and helpful. She started getting a (very small) allowance when she turned five, and she has chores to complete every day in order to get it. The only thing she misses frequently is making her bed because Jason gets up early and she hears him and runs out to be with him! She is also incredibly expressive and will surprise me at how grown-up she looks or sounds sometimes. And she is so girlie. (I have no clue where she got that from...) She would wear a dress every day if she could and will tilt her head and put her hand on her hip and say, "Well, I don't know if that's EXACTLY what he should be doing..." or some other random way of expressing her thoughts while looking like a tween. Let's just hope she's not boy crazy.

Micah: The boy will be three next week, but I keep thinking that he's already three for some reason. He talks all the time and is great at expressing what he wants or needs or ideas or jokes. He constantly cracks himself up, although sometimes he can't figure out if he wants to be laughing or wants to be upset. For instance, the other day Jason was chasing him around with a pair of pirate socks (I'm sure you can imagine the scenario), and Micah oscillated between cries of pain and ecstatic laughter. Jason would chase, Micah would tell him to stop. Jason would stop, Micah would plead with him to do it again. My son is a little bit fickle... He is also trying to learn how to work through when he doesn't get his way. His first response is to start throwing a little screaming tantrum, which is in no way acceptable and produced an immediate time out. He tends to respond to that and understand why it's happening and learn from it, so that's good. He likes to make weird, loud noises whenever we let him, and he loves cars and puzzles and playing with Alex. (At least most of the time:)

He is finally kind-of sort-of potty trained. He spends his days in underpants most of the time and wears a pull-up typically if we go out. During nap times and overnight he still wears a diaper, though, and he almost always poops during sleep, so I think it will be a while before he starts to wake up and realize he needs to go to the bathroom. He did actually start pooping in the potty a few weeks ago. He wailed and wailed and wailed about it, and then when he did it he got REALLY excited and happy and will willingly do it now that he knows he doesn't have to be terrified of it. He also had the habit of taking people by the hand whenever someone comes to our apartment in order to show them something special. He's not as free with hugs and his kisses as he used to be, but he's still a really affectionate kid. His favorite thing to do before bedtime is get superflipped by Jason, meaning that Jason holds him lengthwise in his arms and flips him onto his bed. Then he gets fall-down hugs from me, where he backs up on his bed as far as he can and basically attacks me so that I fall down. It's a nice way to say goodnight, even if it is is a bit rowdy. (He virtually never has sleeping problems, so we don't have to worry too much about winding him up, which is fun.)

Jason: Jason continues to work had. He gets to take short trips about once a month, and he really enjoys being able to do that. It's also nice because he's not gone for two weeks at a time like when he was with IJM. Their office moved a few weeks ago, so now everyone is in the same building, and Jason looks out to one of the busiest areas of our area of town. His office is huge now! He's been working a lot towards some possible grants (some from USAID), and bringing some new people onto his staff. (It's a little weird to think that my husband is responsible for hiring - and firing - people.) They're working on a number of new projects, including a bee project and a chocolate project (yummy on both counts), and SP might be doing some work in La Paz at some point if they can get some funding. I think that's the hardest part; getting grants is always difficult, but it seems like almost everything goes to Africa. And I am certainly not saying that Africa doesn't need it because it does, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of focus on Latin America. It's been that way for a while, though. However, SP is doing some great work here, and sometimes we get the benefit of it, like being able to buy llama sausage.

Jason also found a group that plays ultimate frisbee on Sunday afternoons, and that has been wonderful for  him. He has really missed it since Nicaragua, and he will go out there and run in a way I couldn't imagine. Of course, sometimes he still comes home and is coughing for quite a while because of the altitude, but that's how it is for everyone playing.

Jess: And I am doing well. I just finished my last day of work for the summer session, so I get a break until September. I do, however, have to figure out what kind of schedule I want for this fall. It's not like I work all that much, but I'll have to figure out if I want the same schedule or even if I want to take a break for a semester. While there have been a few problems with Spanish lessons (sickness, travel, etc.), I actually do have a Spanish tutor now. We'll begin again after my parents leave and Alex starts school again. (Yes, my parents are coming. So much excitement!) I've really been trying to put myself out there more with the Spanish, but I am going to be very honest and say that it's hard to learn a language when you're thirty-three! I certainly know enough to get around and have some basic conversations, but I really want to go beyond that and not just smile and nod and pretend to understand when Martina (the lady who helps me around the house) is telling me something. It does feel good that she thinks my Spanish is good, though. And while it certainly isn't "good" by any means, I can get around and typically make myself understood if someone is willing to work with me.

Trying to get things done around here continues to be more difficult than in the states, but that's typical. For example, I keep trying to get money from the atm, and it keeps not working, and I kept trying to buy these shelves at the market, but the store was randomly closed. (This is typical - you never really know when something is going to be open. Except the grocery stores; they tend to be pretty reliable.) I got the flu a few weeks ago and it knocked me out pretty badly, but last week I started exercising again after a (too-long slacker) break. A note to anyone out there: Jillian Michaels is very mean to your abs... ;) I've also been taking something of a break after a pretty intense period of writing this past spring, but I imagine I'll pick that up again once Alex is back in school. One other thing is that I'm learning to do a ton from scratch because they just don't have things here. It's helpful when someone can help me do things like chop veggies, which is something I hate about cooking. But I'm trying to be creative to give the kids some good options, and while I'm certainly not a fanatic, I've become much more cognizant of what I'm putting in my body and for the kids and Jason. Yes, I'm still going to have a Snickers bar sometimes or go get a whopper jr., but I'm doing things like making my own granola and trying to feed kids things like oatmeal and quinoa and natural honey and cutting back on diet sodas and some other things. (For some reason I think I developed some acid reflux after the flu, and ever since then to varying degrees I have felt like I had something stuck in my throat. Water helps, so I'm cutting out other drinks for a while for the most part.) But it's definitely a benefit of living here; there are a lot fewer options for "fake" food, so even though it takes a lot more time, we eat a lot more naturally. AND I just found a device I can use to steam veggies instead of boiling them, so that made me very happy!

It's still winter here, so there are days when Jason walks to work at the temperature is right at freezing. On Sunday it was cloudy and rainy almost all day, which is pretty unusual, so it was COLD all day in a way it doesn't normally get this time of year because the sun is almost always shining. I love the weather, though, and the only thing I would change would be the dangers of the sun here. We have found some new restaurants recently, including a Brazilian place with an amazing lunch special for about five bucks, and I went to see my first movie here a few weeks ago. For six bucks you can go to the VIP theater and sit in an awesome recliner seat. We never went to the movies in the states, but it is SO worth it here. Spiderman, here we come!

One Day I'll Issue a Supreme Decree...

Bolivia has been interesting lately. First, last week was Bolivian Labor Day. This year it fell on a Tuesday. However, apparently on Friday night/early Saturday morning the government issued some sort of supreme decree that when labor day fell on a Tuesday or Thursday, everyone would get that Monday and Friday, too. So there was no school on Tuesday and Monday. A few weeks before that, the school cancelled classes due to protests. There were no actual problems, but I totally understand wanting to be safe rather than sorry.
However, everyone started talking about how huge the protests were going to be this week. Health workers were on strike because the government is making them work eight hour days instead of six with no pay increase, and Evo announced that he would put that on pause and have a whole meeting in July. However, that’s not enough for workers so they are striking. And drivers are striking, and miners maybe… I’m not sure who all is doing it. But there are taxis parked in the roads to prevent people from going anywhere. It’s not dangerous or anything for us, but it’s not a good idea for us to go out in our car. I went and bought pastries late this morning and there were two huge trucks blocking the path to the main road. School was finally cancelled today, and I imagine it will be cancelled tomorrow, too, but we’ll see.

While all of this is certainly frustrating, it’s not too big of a deal for us. I feel bad for all of the people who own regular businesses who are having their commerce interrupted by all of this. When I went out, almost all of the stores except small grocery shops were closed. I feel like the protests, while they may hold some validity in some cases, are really just hurting the country. I don’t know how else they get their point across, though. However, when you have one side who is striking because they can’t raise the fairs of their taxis and buses and the other side protesting because they don’t want fares to go up, it’s like a total impasse that can’t be resolved. At least that’s my perspective. I know so little about it.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been doing this for six months. Granted, almost two of those were back in the States trying to get visa issues resolved, but still, half a year is quite a period of time. It’s gone by so quickly, though. Jason continues to enjoy his job a lot, but there’s always a fire to put out. One day it’s having to decide what the office is going to do in light of the supreme decree, and the next day it’s trying to figure out what to do with a mission trip member who broke her collarbone on the second day of the trip. In the midst of all of the administrative stuff, too, he is managing massive projects and organizing structure and hiring people and all of the other stuff that comes along with the job. I’m very proud of him, and while he’s busy, we always find family time together without problem.

It’s hard for me to believe that Alexis is going to be five on Saturday. Real school, here she comes. She was sick for almost an entire week a while ago. She was going to go back to school that Friday but then they cancelled school due to protests, which almost always involve blocking traffic. However, the really bad part of this is that the next day, Saturday, was the school’s Bolivia Day celebration. She was supposed to dance in it and had practiced the dance once before getting sick. So we talked about it, she was fine, and we went to Bolivia Day where she was ecstatic about her costume and running around with her friends. (Did I mention that we were one of maybe four families who were on time for this thing? We were one of four families who were on time for this thing. And one of the few families to actually bring baked goods for the bake sale. It was kind of weird; everyone was supposed to bring stuff to raise money, but probably less than a third of families did. You would get ostracized by other parents in the states for stuff like that. Enough griping.) Anyway, the classes had to get ready for the dance, so the pre-k class sat down, and when I went to offer Alex some water about ten minutes before the start of the show, she had a meltdown. As in a major, trying not to cry but kind of hyperventilating meltdown. She did not dance. I think not knowing the dance and then seeing all of the people there really freaked her out because she was really upset, probably the most upset I’ve ever seen her about something. Next year maybe? We do have some cute pictures of before, though, that I’ll post on Facebook.

Micah continues to charm all of the ladies in his life. Every day Martina, the lady who helps clean our house, comments on how sweet he is, and he is now going around to everyone and saying hola even when he doesn’t know them. He’s breaking a few hearts already… He has also decided that monsters don’t eat anything except cookies and loves to play monster with us. This is his favorite new game, unless it’s chasing Alexis around the house. He still sits on the side of the bed at night and prays for mommy and daddy and then thanks God for whatever he happens to see in his room at the moment, whether it’s his pirate socks or his Squinkies or the butt wipes. He’s getting better about containing his emotions when he doesn’t get what he wants, but it’s still a task to try and get him to process his feelings in an appropriate manner. He is loads of fun to play with, and when he talks I just want to bottle it up and keep him this age forever because he’s so stinkin’ adorable.

I’m actually guest teaching a few creative writing classes over the next few weeks, which is lots of fun. It was weird being back in the classroom in some ways, but totally normal in other ways. We are talking about analyzing song lyrics so that the kids can write some of their own, and it was so great to be talking to teenagers again about things I love, and music is one of those. (I got to tell them about Plato’s cave allegory when we were talking about a Mumford and Sons song, and it was really fun.) I also totally misjudged my time and got to do a lot less than I thought, and I didn’t make so many connections I wanted to, and I was trying to prevent one kid from steamrolling the class, but overall it felt really great to be teaching again. For a brief period of time. (I’m not ready to get back into the classroom full-time or anything. After all, Micah’s only two.)

The weather has been beautiful: crisp or cold in the mornings, nice in the afternoons with maybe a breeze, and always sunny. (I miss the rain sometimes, but that’s okay. Maybe I’ll get to wear my winter coat soon!) And today is my birthday, hooray! I am thirty-three, which seems way too old for how I feel. However, I think most people feel that way these days, so I’m in good company.

March News

First the kids.

Alexis: Alex is truly learning to read now. She does great with her sight words at school, but when we sit down to read books, she can sound out a lot of words and is building her confidence. I don’t know how to get her past words that can’t be sounded out in the way she’s used to, but I’m sure we’ll learn together. Not that I’m trying to pressure her to read or anything, but she’s pretty ready for some of the basics and enjoys staying up a few minutes after bedtime to look at her books. I think she’s getting excited about actually being able to read some of them.

She’s continues to do well at school and gets really excited about activities that she does there. It makes me really happy that she wants to do well and enjoys school. She’s been really into building cool towers with blocks lately, and she ALWAYS wants to do crafts! Always. It’s hard to believe that she’s going to be five in May. She continues to bust out with some Spanish sometimes, and she went to her first Sunday school all in Spanish at church last Sunday. She did a good job until the very end, when I think it got a little overwhelming for her.

Micah: Micah is trying to get potty-trained. He has good days and bad days. He totally gets the concept, but I’m not sure he truly WANTS to be potty-trained yet. However, we’ve had a few days with only a few diapers. He refuses to poop in the potty right now, though, so we’ll have to see about that. He loves getting stickers when he uses the potty, though, so that’s been a good incentive.

My son also somehow got a crayon and scribbled all over the wall around his bed. I’m not sure how this happened, but I was NOT a happy mother. He got the message, though, when he wasn’t allowed to play with crayons for a few days, so here’s to hoping he doesn’t do it again. He still really struggles with the colors red, blue and green. He can match them with each other, but he can’t identify them with regularity. Part of me still thinks he might be color blind, but he might also just have a mental block, especially if he can group the colors together. However, that’s not the end of the world by any means.
They both had their first experience with ice skating the other day. Alex had fun but got tired really quickly, I think more so than normal because the skates were way too big. Micah was having fun walking on the floor, but as soon as he hit the ice, he freaked out. I think he needs a few more years on him…

Jason: Jason is really embracing his job. He was on a spiritual retreat in NC a few weeks ago, and he came back with a true vision for the office, which is great. I think he’s really stepping into his job now and not feeling like he’s just learning everything but that he can truly lead now. And he’s doing that. For example, yesterday he got a call about two women in another area of the country who had their motorcycle stolen while they were on the road. A scary situation, but that’s part of what he’s there for: to make sure people are okay and figure out next steps. He’s been doing a lot of interviewing for various positions in the country, and I think he’s generally enjoying his job, even when it’s stressful.


Jess: Okay, so we have a made two mornings a week right now, which is the greatest thing ever. Today is only the second time she’s been here, but it’s a huge help around the house. I’m still working a few hours every week, and I’ve volunteered to help at Highlands, where Alex goes to school, to see if I can be of any help. I’ve done some curriculum and resource research for their middle school so far, so we’ll see how that goes and if I can be of help in any other ways. I still need Spanish lessons; it’s been harder than I anticipated to get someone to come for two hours a week at two separate times, but we’ll continue to work on that.

Bolivia is Bolivia. It’s been really nice the past few weeks. The rains have mostly stopped, so it’s been warm and sunny most of the time. However, we still run into the fun life issues that make things more complicated than they need to be. For example, we need gas for our stove because it ran out. We have an extra tank but couldn’t get it to work (there was a part missing in our connection), so I tried to catch the truck that drives around and rings a bell advertising gas, but I couldn’t get there in time. Then I went about asking our doorman where we could get gas, but he didn’t know. I asked a cop, and he didn’t know. I asked the guard at the bank, and he didn’t know. Finally a friend let me know where I could get it, but I spent a lot of time the other morning trying to figure this out. However, I now know where I can get gas without trying to make it to the truck in time!

Jason was actually supposed to go out of town for a night this week and got up early and went into the city. However, there were blockades due to rises in bus fares (I think), so they ended up having to turn back around and not go. That’s La Paz for you.

We’re still waiting to see what’s going to be done about the water damage in the apartment, but we’ll keep you posted on that.

Always an adventure!

Insomnia + Pink Eye + Water Damage + Sinus Infection = Time For Complaining

This post is not for the faint of heart, or for those who will be offended by my complaining. Okay, so it's not really all that dramatic, nor is it disgusting, but it's 5:30 am here and I haven't gone to bed, so I'm going to complain a little bit about a few things. I get to do that occasionally, right?

Carnaval is over, and as you may have seen on my facebook update, I finally managed to get pegged by a water balloon. This was frustrating on many levels, especially considering I had worked so diligently to avoid the silly string spraying, water bazooka toting, tightly wrapped tiny water balloon throwing festivities. They wrap the water balloons intentionally to make it hurt and then throw them from anywhere, including moving cars. That's how I got hit, and Micah's face was very close to getting hit, and that really made me mad. I don't want to feel like I have to baricade myself in my home in order to protect my children during the week-long free-for-all.

And speaking of being baricaded in our house, we are STILL trying to get in touch with the owner about some issues. It took us weeks to find her about some things (she was in Disneyworld apparently), but the guy to fix stuff hasn't shown up twice and then either didn't fix things at all or things are still broken. The big problem, though, that we have been trying to talk to her about for a week, is that with all the rain, there is suddenly some significant water damage to the walls where windows are. And it's bad in places, like bubbling paint and chips falling off, and I'm really afraid mold is going to start growing. This is bad news and is going to require some significant repairs on her part, and I don't know how that's going to be accomplished. There's a small part of me that is really afraid that we're going to have to move, and if that happens, I might cry harder than when I had packed all of my boxes for shipping and two hours later had to unpack and then repack them. I don't want to move. At all. But water damage is seriosu stuff for a number of reasons.

Alex got pink eye last Friday. Thankfully we caught it pretty early, but the problem is that it was the Friday afternoon before a major four-day holiday, and no one was around to look at her. Fortunately Jason was at a dinner that night with one of the doctor's who used to work for SP, and she told him what we needed, which was a huge help. But she was pretty much out of commission for a few days during the vacation, which really stunk. Oh, and then I started not feeling the best and went to the doctor this morning (first visit free!) and am on a series of shots for antibiotics, which is new for me. But when I woke up this morning and my face was hurting, I knew I couldn't deny the inevitable. They gave me a double shot today (and that one hurt and bruised, I think because it was such a long shot), and I have to go back tomorrow (which is actually today now - all of the other stuff happened yesterday), and then again on Friday. That's kind of a pain, especially when you don't feel good, but at least it will help me get better.

And I could recover much more quickly if I was not closing in on week two of some insomnia. I keep having a really hard time getting to sleep and then waking up every hour or two until about three, and then I basically just doze for the rest of the morning. Except for when I didn't sleep at all tonight. I don't know if it's stress of compounded fear of sleeping because I keep not being able to sleep or what, but I can tell you that I'm actually really, really tired. Something to pray about, right? Maybe I could give up insomnia for Lent...

So that's my grumbling. I'll try not to do it often because, honestly, life is really great here in so many ways. But sometimes a girl just has to air the crap.

The End of the Beginning

I've included a few pictures of the apartment. It's not totally put together, but this gives a better idea.

We are finally, truly starting to settle in La Paz. We've been back for almost a month now, which has been great. The kids have their own beds, and we've put their rooms together and have some storage for their stuff and a wooden storage thing for the playroom. And we have couches and a dining room table and we bought a rug and a television (thanks to the family for that awesome gift) and everything feels like it's actually real.

Alexis has loved being back at school, and it was really cool to see her with her classmates at a birthday party last week and how much they enjoyed having her around. (I don't know what I'll do if I end up having a popular kid since I never was in the least.) She's been working a lot on writing her numbers so that they're neater. Maybe she can have better writing than her mother, and by better I mean at least somewhat legible. She gets up every morning and plays quietly in her room until the rest of the family is up, and she comes home from school every day very happy and excited. Except for one day, when she "broke" something on the bus and another kid threatened her with the office, which terrified her. Other than that, she still loves school and her teacher, and she loves seeing the other teachers outside of school, too.

Micah is his same euphoric, miserable self. Ecstatic one moment, writhing in agony the next. He is getting pretty good at counting, and we're still working on his colors. He has a number of them but still gets the basics confused a lot. He goes out with me a lot in the mornings and is getting more used to being without a stroller, although he still frequently wants to be held. He loves having the car shopping carts to himself when we go to the grocery store, though. His favorite new thing is Blue's Clues; he gets REALLY into answering the questions. His talking has just exploded recently, too. It kept feeling like he was going through growth spurts for a few months, but now it seems like he's going through talking spurts and is forming so many long, complete sentences now. It's always fascinating to listen to him bust out with a word I've never heard him use.

Everyone has been fighting colds on and off, but I'm hoping that we've all recovered for the most part. It has been rainy, rainy, rainy here, making it a bit difficult to get laundry to dry. We have an enclosed laundry area in our apartment, which is wonderful, but when it's wet, it takes longer. Plus I haven't been able to wash sheets because I can't find a sunny day for them to dry outside. I've loved the rain, though, and it's especially nice that if I have to go out, we're in a garage and there's a grocery store that has garage parking. If I need food, the rain isn't even a worry.

I still go to the market a few blocks away frequently, but I think I'm going to stop going as much for a few reasons. First, they're typically more expensive than the grocery stores. Two, I never know what I'm going to find or if they're going to have it. I went yesterday primarily looking for cherries but had about a dozen other things on the list and walked out with only two items purchased. I then proceeded to go to the grocery store. I wonder if the grocery stores are at some point going to put the markets out of business because the stores can buy in such bulk. (I imagine that's why most prices are lower, but I could be wrong about that.)

It's also CARNAVAL this long weekend, so my plan is to avoid going places where my children might be in danger of being pelted with water balloons. That's how they have fun here. I can just imagine Micah's reaction to that, and I'd rather keep that in my imagination instead of my reality.

Christmas with the Edgertons (.ie. The Murphy's Law Homecoming)

It's currently January 6, and I am sitting at my grandmother's dining room table, watching my son eat toast that isn't falling apart (like it would in La Paz) and listening to Alexis watch Sesame Street. Why yes, we are still in Virginia. What, you ask, happened to this trip home? Allow me to elaborate on our journey. (The story of woe comes first. Regular news comes later...)

We woke up about 3:00 am on Tuesday morning, December 6 to begin our 22 hour trip back to Virginia. The kids were wonderful. This included a number of challenges. The first of which was our layover in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. We flew about an hour and had to get off the plane there. The problem, though, was that our ticket said 9:30 for the next flight. When we ordered the tickets and checked on times, it said something like 9:00. We went through security and looked for gate number four, where we were supposed to be. We found gate four, but the problem was that this gate was BEFORE going through customs, and there was no obvious (or even hidden) way to get back to gate four. When we attempted to ask someone, we got the blank stare reactions, which translates into " Why are you asking me such a logical question? Are you an idiot?" We proceeded through customs, hoping to find a way back to our gate, ate some breakfast, and checked our flight time. The board said 11:30 on time, which made no sense to us because it shouldn't have been on time according to our other information. We tried to ask someone. There was no one to ask. 9:30 came and went without our flight being called. We gathered the children up, starting to fear that we would miss this flight somehow, and began to gather around other gates. We basically jumped on anyone in any sort of uniform to ask them where to go. We walked back and forth between two gates multiple times because people told us to go different places. We were finally informed that we should wait in the waiting area (where in the world was that?) to start boarding. We watched other passengers gather in confusion and frustration until finally people started to set up ome table for yet another security checkpoint so that we could go through behind customs back to our gate. We pointlessly asked someone why there wasn't a sign informing people of this information, since this obviously happened every day. We received the blank stare of idiocy (our idiocy apaprently, not theirs). We finally walked down the hall to see hanging signs for gate three, gate five, but where was gate four? There was a sign for gate nine? We looked up and found the sign on the wall that actually said gate four instead of gate nine. We receieved a shoulder shrug of explanation. We boarded and prepared ourselves for eleven hours on a plane with two awake kids.

And the kids truly were great. This is wonderful because I can have some confidence that they're going to be pretty good on our overnight flight back to La Paz on January 20. Jason's not coming with us because he is going to Ecuador first.

The 20th, you ask? Wait! Let me do some counting! Does this mean that you have been in the states for already over four weeks? And that you'll have been in the US for about seven weeks?

Why yes, yes it does.

The day after we got here, we mailed off our passports and forms to get our visas, which arrived before Christmas. We were all good on that side of things. However, about a week after we got here, we were informed that back in Bolivia the offices that dealt with our paperwork were not going to process any of these applications between December 20 and January 23. This affects us because after we got our new visas here, we have 30 days once we land in Bolivia to complete the process. You need at least 15 days for this completion. We had always planned on leaving a few days after Christmas, but if we did this, we wouldn't have enough time to get our visas, and Jason's traveling to Ecuador made things a little more difficult, too. All of this to say that we ended up being here a lot longer than anticipated.

Alex will miss a total of three weeks of school, which really stinks, but she's excited about going back. We couldn't have done this without our familes. They've been putting us up, feeding us, helping us take care of kids, etc. The kids are doing a really great job overall, but you can tell when the constant moving becomes taxing. We were just at my parents' house for over a week, and you could tell that they were starting to settle in because they were calmer and not as out of sorts. It started to feel stable. And while I'm not necessarily a person who needs routine or stability, this has been a really long time of not having a stable life for the kids. We have literally been living out of suitcases since the end of September, when we began selling stuff in our old house. They need a regular life, and we're really looking forward to getting back to La Paz to provide that. While there will still be a ton of stuff to do in our new apartment (which we've only lived in for three days), it's ours, and that means something. And they'll have beds. And their toys. It will be nice.

Ultimately, though, it's probably better that we're here anyway. For a few reasons. 1. Our stuff still isn't there. It was held up because of labor strikes and other reasons, and now it's apparently in customs because there is medicine in a few of the boxes that they have to check. Hopefully it will be sitting in our apartment when we arrive there in two weeks. 2. We still don't have our furniture. I think that everyone selling us stuff forgot that they were taking off two weeks for Christmas or something, because it all should have been there by now. But it's not, so right now all I'm really hoping is that it's there by the time we get there.

Enough of our tale of misfortune, though. In reality, it's not exactly a tale of misfortune. After all, we got a free trip home, right? And how often do people make a huge move like this and get the chance to buy stuff back here only a few months after moving? And we have purchased a lot of stuff. My entire family doubts my packing prowess, though. However, I just "officially" did a trial packing, and have 1 1/2 empty carry-ons after it's all said and done, which was great. (Maybe I'll bring back some Trader Joe's pumpkin pancake mix... :) The real packing problem has been having enough hard shell cases for things we have. We have these large, soft duffel bags to use for a lot of things, but quite a bit of stuff can't go into something like that. Anyway, we have space for everything we bought and all our toys. AND when we got here last night, I knew I had left a coat, but I also discovered that I had apparently left another huge bag. (I had thought I brought four of those bags because they're easily packable if I didn't use them, but it wasn't at my parents' house.) SO MORE STUFF!!!! That sounds weird. What it means is that I can probably try to get them some more clothes for the kids to grow into and a few things I wanted to bring back but wasn't sure about (like mixing bowls) can go. Maybe even some of my old tupperware, which would be nice. Regardless, we still have quite a bit of space.

Christmas we great. The kids got a ton of stuff, but people were very cognizant of the fact that we had to take it all back. Alex got two Disney princess Barbies, Squinkies, My Little Ponies, and a bunch of other things. Micah was all about cars and trucks and tractors this Christmas, and he got ultra-excited anytime he saw anything with Cars or Mickey Mouse. One of his favorite things, though were his Hexbugs, these tiny little battery-powered "bugs" that skitter around different habitats that you can build. He adores them. And he loves this plane we got him that he flies around and makes the "mouth" chomp people while he flies it through the air and makes noises. We spent two nights in a hotel around Christmas Eve, which was actually really nice (especially because one of our nights ended up being free, but I'll explain that later), and took the kids to Jason's parents' house in their pajamas that morning to open their presents from us, which was lots of fun. Jason got me a gift certificate to a store in La Paz that I've fallen in love with, speakers for my laptop, and a new coat! And people gave us money to contribute to us being able to buy a television, which was really, really great because they're very expensive in Bolivia.

Speaking of money issues, this has actually been really funny while we've been here. On the bad side of things, we've had to shell out some money for our car, which hasn't sold yet. We'll have to spend a few hundred dollars because our power window regulator has fallen apart, so that still needs to be fixed, and we had to pay to renew out registration. However, we've had three "interesting" situations:
1. My new coat. To make a very long story short, there was a hole in the coat that I got that was going to require a seamstress to take off the collar and redo it so that it would be truly repaired. After a LOT of time, half a dozen trips to the store, a lot of misinformation from Target, and no other coats in two states, Target gave the money back for the alterations. However, instead of refunding the amount for the alterations, they refunded the other amount, meaning that we we charged about three dollars for the coat. When we finally realized this and called the store, we were told after everything we've been through "don't worry about it" by the manager. So we didn't. FREE COAT!
2. We bought two Phineas and Ferb movies for the kids to give each other for Christmas. But they weren't movies; they were just episodes, which wasn't described at amazon. Anyway, when I contacted amazon to ask if they could change the description, they just gave us our money back. (They did the same thing for another small item. Amazon is awesome!) FREE PHINEAS AND FERB!
3. The first night in the hotel we barely slept. It was really warm that night, and we needed the ac. However, when the ac turned on, it rattled so loudly that we woke up every time and didn't sleep until we turned it off. Not a comfortable evening. When we told the hotel and filled out a survey, they were really apologetic about it and refunded the cost of the room for one night. Country Inns and Suites. FREE ROOM!
Oh, and there's actually another one. Kind of:
4. Yesterday afternoon I got an email from my property management company stating that my hot water heater had stopped working and had to be replaced to the tune of $975. They took care of working it out, which is part of what they're paid to do. However, he didn't say anything about my home warranty, which kind of concerned me. When I called to ask him about this, he said he didn't see one on record. When he went back to check, they had all of our information about it, but it had not been put into their computers. When he called the warranty company, they said that if we had gotten preapproval that I would have paid the $55 deductible and they would have paid the rest. Without batting an eye (although I'm sure with a ton of frustration on his part), he said that we would be responsible for the deductible and they would pay the balance. Which means we're not out a thousand bucks like we were afraid of for a few hours. FREE REPAIRS! (Okay, not really, but we have a home warranty for a reason...)

In the midst of all of this, it's nice that when things go wrong, it seems like a number of people have been very customer service oriented, which is very nice.

On to other topics. Very briefly, because this is way too long. I chopped off a ton of Micah's hair yesterday, so he looks so much older now. I did it a little too short, but you have to try and see what works sometimes, right? He's still a cutie, but he looks like a little boy now instead of a toddler. We have been playing tons of games (which I have been promptly losing). We got Qwirkle for Christmas, and Jason and I found the 5-6 player expansion AND Barbarians and Traders for Settlers of Catan for half price (score! - yes, I'm a huge dork when it comes to games). The kids have also started taking showers sometimes, and by this I mean that I take the sprayer off and squirt it on them while they scream with laughter. Lots of fun. Jason had a two-week break during Christmas, but he's back working now, so he leaves most days to find a Panera or Starbucks or some place with wireless so that he can do his job. I started working on Tuesday; I'll be working two hours on Mondays and two on Tuesdays, which is a good amount of time but not too much. And one hour each day is a flexible time, so I can work it whenever I want to. And Alex has learned to cross her eyes and snap.

And I am not tired of typing. :)