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.
