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. :)

Moving Day

We moved in last night, and as of this afternoon (Saturday), everyone actually has a pillow. That's a new thing. (We were using ones from the SP house.) I took two loads over to the apartment yesterday, some SP guys got the big stuff, and our new place is great.

And now it's Monday. We actually have most things put away, if not officially organized. It was enough so that I could actually vacuum the floors. We spent a ton of Saturday morning cleaning up, and then we spent quite a bit of time trying to do some more shopping for the apartment to get things like trash cans, converters, and an ironing board. (We finally found a decent one at a reasonable price at one of the neighborhood markets.) There are a number of markets here, but the one in our new neighborhood, Achumani, has prices that are way too high. That's where I tried to buy a bunch of stuff the other week and they tried to rip me off, so I walked away. However, another market in Irpavi seems to be a decent place to go. I found a small household stand with an honest woman who gave me decent prices, so I think I have found my market stall, even if I have to drive a little way to get there.

Shopping at the market isn't always cheaper, though. Part of me wonders if the buying power of supermarkets is going to end up driving markets out of business at some point. I can frequently find things in the supermarket for less than the market. Additionally, everyone tells me (and I have found from my experience) that as soon as they hear my speak they are going to hike up prices or not give me the best deal. When things are a simple, set price in the grocery store, there's no real reason for me not to shop there. The only exception will probably be fruits and vegetables, but otherwise I'll probably just shop at Ketal or Hypermaxi unless I go to the one woman in Irpavi.

We should get our furniture while we are gone, which has its benefits. As of right now all we have is a bed (the kids are sleeping on the floor) and a plastic table we're eating on. It works for a few days, but it will be great for the kisd to have beds, to have a few side tables, a real dining table, and a couch finally! What's going to be interesting is the color of the couch. I looked at the receipt over the weekend, and the color said chocolate. I ordered more of a stone brown color, MUCH lighter. We tried calling yesterday but no one answered, and things are so crazy today we don't think we can check on it, so the color might be a surprise. We'll see. I like the idea of the dark brown; I'm just afraid that it will end up showing fuzzies and stains. But then so will the lighter color; it all just depends on what gets on the couch, right?

The kids really like the apartment and are going to love their rooms I think, which are pretty large. Micah was taking a nap on Saturday while Alex and I were gone, and apparently Jason poked his head in the door and watched Micah very sneakily put on his monkey boots, very carefully pull the covers over him, and go to sleep. We have the pictures for proof!

No more for now. Today is insane because we have to get up at 3:00 in the morning tomorrow in order to be at the airport at 4:30. And we have a short flight with a short layover, and then we have an eleven. Hour. Flight. With small kids. I'm not quite sure what we're going to do for entertainment, but we'll work it out. We're almost there!

DING DING DING We have a winner!

On the family side of things, my son is apparently a HUGE flirt. I had to take him with me to the school today to turn in some forms, and on the way out there was a group of girls in a circle (probably 2nd or 3rd grade) who saw Micah. They immediately asked if he was Alexis’ brother (so apparently people know Alex already) and started to say how cute he was. My son then proceeded to walk up to the circle of females and give each one of them a kiss. They all instantly fell in love, and my son is going to be dangerous… lol.

On the administrative side of things, drum roll, please…

We have a place to live.

HOORAY!

I really couldn’t have asked for a better place. Here are the details:
- 20 minute walk to the office for Jason (and that’s a little farther because when he measured it, he went by his favorite coffee shop)
- 4th floor, so it has a view, but there’s an ELEVATOR!
- very, very, very safe (along with everything else, it’s next door to the Belgian embassy)
- on a quiet block that is close to everything but also quiet; a small park with playgrounds on each side of the block
- electric gate (I don’t have to get in and out to open the gate whenever I go anywhere) and an extra storage space, too
- huge kitchen with lots of counter space and (hopefully) a place for a small table
- place for washing laundry and hanging it up, attached to maid’s quarters (small room with bathroom)
- large living/dining area
- huge master bedroom with walk-in closet and full bath, also space for office in there (oh, and did I mention that both bathtubs are Jacuzzi tubs? that is apparently a big thing here)
- two smaller rooms for the kids (one doesn’t have a closet, but we’ll use it as a bedroom), and they're not actually small; they're bigger than the kids' roooms at home
- another full bath in hall (although with a hugely awkward toilet that you can barely sit on because the shower is two inches from the front)
- huge other room with walk-in closet and full bath – we’ll use as a play room, for the kids main bathroom, and as a guest room when needed (this currently has navy blue teddy bear wallpaper in the entire room, but we can strip that and paint it for about $100)
- carpet in all the bedrooms
- already has overhead lighting everywhere and neutral curtains (this is actually really important because that saves us money to spend on other things that we need, including a range hood, which is probably going to cost us about $300 – crazy, huh?)

Overall, this place is everything we could ask for, and we think we’re going to be really happy here and won’t feel cramped or like we’ll need to move after a year. It’s been a little bit of a difficult month living in transition, but we should begin our lease on Dec. 1, and we think that we might be able to start moving some things next Monday (and possibly as early as Saturday; we’ll see about that.) It’s a great price for the location, and we’re all very happy. We just went to take another look at it and take some measurements, and both of the kids seemed very happy about moving there.

So city won. Kind of. It’s like a little oasis in the middle of the city.

Things will start moving very quickly now. Because SP takes care of a lot of things, things are slightly more difficult. (This isn’t anything bad; it just means that buying things for the home will take a bit longer.) However, tomorrow morning we’re going to go look at furniture and probably place a very large order. We are most likely going to buy most things at a place that makes very cool, simple wooden furniture. I was there on Saturday and like all the stuff, so almost all of the furniture except the couch will probably come from there. Hopefully Jason will be able to go with us for that, but we’ll see. In the afternoon I’ll probably head into downtown La Paz to get some household things like basic kitchen supplies, possibly a few nightstand lights, etc. We’ll also need to buy a refrigerator and oven because those don’t come with rentals here. (And of course, the range hood. Sadness due to it being so much money.) However, we’re going to get a gas stove (hooray) and might actually be able to take the refrigerator that’s in the house we’re currently living in. (We already have a washing machine.) Things are going to start being a lot busier around here, but that’s great because it means that we’re actually going to be in a place of our own, which will be wonderful.

Pictures

Alexis' first progress report.

This might be the most disturbing assignment ever for a four-year-old. The frogs look way too friendly.


Micah has a need to close ALL doors. He doesn't like the fact that some of them don't stay closed here.

They got new chairs and LOVE them!

These will be my downfall. About a dollar for this box of bite-sized pastries. This is bad news for me.

Random Updates

1. I just heard my son count to five in Spanish while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Maybe we'll get cable after all...

2. I made homemade tomoto sauce yesterday. I didn't have the ingredients I really wanted, but I tomatoes, oil, and onion powder. For only those three, it turned out really, really good. I guess it's kind of Italian style: fairly chunky and you're supposed to just coat the noodles in it. I think I'm going to make more today with better ingredients.

3. I saw a house the other day that could be really great for us. It's farther away than we wanted, but it looks like there's publich transportaion nearby and a place to park our car. The drawbacks (other than distance): spiral staircase, which I worry about with the kids, at least one kid would be on a different floor from us (this would make going to the bathroom in the middle of the night a little weird for Alex because she'd have to go up a flight of stairs if she was on a different floor), and it's actually pretty big, probably bigger than we need, making cleaning a potential challenge. (I'm still hoping for a maid, but the bigger the house, the more expensive that becomes.) Part of me is still really hoping that we can get that one apartment within walking distance. It would be so great in so many ways...

4. Alexis got her first progress report the other day and did EXCELLENTLY. I was so proud. She got goods in all of her "extras" like gym, etc., except for in art, where she got an excellent! And all of her "academic" stuff was perfect. I'll take a picture and post it if I get it back today.

5. Have I mentioned that I feel like my entire face has broken out during this process? I shouldn't have to battle zits and wrinkles and the same time; it's really not fair. On the flip side, though, my hair looks A-MA-ZING in this country. Low humidity I guess.

The Eternal Quest?

Okay, so maybe that's me speaking a bit hyperbolically, but what can I say? It feels like we've been househunting for a long, long, long time. In reality, we've only been here a little over two weeks, and we didn't even see our first apartments until a few days after we arrived. It really hasn't been that long. I think we're just a bit disappointed in the dearth of options near the office where Jason is working. We'd really love for him to be able to walk to work, but we're not quite sure if that's going to happen.

There are two opposing viewpoints here. ONE: LIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY!!! Okay, so we could live in the middle of the south zone of the city, which has a neighborhood called San Miguel, whichis right next to Calacoto, where the office is. The benefit is that we would be close to everything. We could walk out of an apartment building and go a block to our favorite ice cream place, walk to get saltenas (my new favorite food - a slightly sweet, baked pastry dough filled with chicken or beef, potatoes, veggies, and spices), and basically have close access to everything. However, it would be like living in the middle of a city, constantly noisy, and we don't know if that would get old. On the flip side, we could live in the burbs, have less access to transportation (possibly having to take Jason to work every day or give him the car), and live in a tranquil setting, possibly with a view, and maybe even a house with a bit of green space. Oh, the dilemna. Oh wait: there's not much of a dilemna because there's NOTHING FOR US TO SEE! (We've had a few showings cancel on us.)

In reality, we have a good place to stay until we find where we want to move, and we can be here as long as we'd like to be, which takes the stress away. However, we're all ready to find a home, but we don't want to just move into something that's not going to good for us and we'll have to move out of a year later. So city or country? VOTE NOW!!!! (Not that we'll take into account your votes, but vote anyway!)

Micah is finally over his cold. He went on antibiotics to get rid of a cough, which was the only symptom of his cold. The cough wouldn't go away, so we spent 18 bucks on medicine. (Yikes, right?) The pricing thing is interesting here. TO give you a rundown of a few grocery store prices:

1 liter milk: $.90
1 pounf of chicken or beef: $3
1 box of Cheerios: $4
1 box of about a dozen small pastries of various types from Ketal, a grocery store here: $1 (These will be my downfall. They're bad, I tell you. BAD! But oh so good...)
six kiwis: $1 (this is at the grocery store; they're apparently a lot cheaper in the market, which I haven't been to yet)
1 saltena: $.65 (Now I want to go get these for lunch.)

Groceries aren't really cheaper for the most part, except for fruits and veggies. Some things are more expensive and we'll still buy sometimes (like CHeerios for the kids - I haven't found a generic version yet), but other things we'll give up completely. (I don't think I'll be buying any Nutella here.) Part of the experience though, right? One of the things that always cracks me up is when I'll see an import of something, like beverage sweetener, that in the states I woudl buy at the dollar store and here costs about four bucks. Always interesting, right?

Now let's review some of the differences:

1. I can take out my trash any day of the week. All I do is put in in a bag and take it to the curb outside of my house. How awesome is that?

2. There are no driving rules here. I mean, I know there ARE some rules, but there aren't many as far as I can tell. If you try to take a left turn, be prepared for cars to pull up on your left and your right and take the turn before you if you're not aggressive enough. I'm working on my agressive behavior. Honestly. Take THAT, PUNK DRIVERS! I'LL PASS YOU IF YOU'RE GOING SLOW!

3. They have this thing called your NIT, which took me a while to figure out. Whenever you buy something, you're supposed to either give your NIT number, which is your tax id number, or save your receipt. This is because sales tax isn't added, and the citizen is supposed to keep an account of all purchases so that they can pay the government the appropriate sales tax. I wonder how many people actually do this...

4. Milk comes in bags, just like in Managua. You can buy it in a box, but it's more expensive. It seems like I am constantly opening up bags of milk due to the two rugrats I have at home.

5. The dogs. The stupid, stupid dogs in our current neighborhood. I promise you it sounds like the beginning of a West Side Story rumble outside of our window at two in the morning. Maybe we can move somewhere without so many dogs that want to join gangs and disturb the peace of slumbering humans.

6. The playgrounds. When I asked Alexis what her favorite part of Bolivia was, she said school, and then she said playgrounds. Because almost everywhere you go out to eat, there's a playground. It's very nice for the adults.

7. The bathtubs. I know this isn't an across the board kind of thing, but every place that we've looked at (and some have been nice and some not so nice) had jacuzzi tubs in the bathrooms. Our hotel had it. Our current house has them. I never expected this to be a norm here considering Jason didn't even know if we were going to get a regular bathtub.

8. There's no sandwich bread. Not that there's any lunch meat or peanut butter anyway, but the sandwich bread that's available is all really tough. I have found some rolls that we're using for sandwiches and cooked a bunch of chicken and sliced it thinly for sandwiches, and I found some reasonable cheese. Put that on a roll with some avacado, and WALA! You have a sandwich.

Those are some of my observations thus far.

Jason is on his first trip to see one of the SP project locations. He'll be back tomorrow. While there's a lot involved (he is the "boss" after all), he's really enjoying his job so far, and the people are great. I'm trying to put myself out there with my Spanish and simply with trying to get stuff done, but I feel a bit in limbo until we get a home. The good news, though, is that there have been no problems with me working for Smarthinking while I've been here, so I can still continue with them. I'll have to figure out next semester's schedule soon, but it seems like it will still be a good fit. Especially if I can get Alex to always take an afternoon nap after school. (You're getting very sleepy, Alexis. You want to take a nap.)

Finally Some Pictures

Yes, we finally have some pictures. The first two are pictures from the baclony of our hotel. Stunning, huh? The others are pictures of the SP house (including Jason's new office) and the views from there, and then we have a few of us just hanging around, including Alex and her first day of school. She was so excited to wear her Highlands t-shirt!The house only has the beds and the table for furniture right now, so we're hoping not to stay here for long. Yes, we do have some pictures of Micah, but Blogger kept failing on me. (I am remembering why I stopped publishing pictures here; it's way too complicated and time-consuming. I think the pictures are going to remain on Facebook for the most part!)

Alexis' First Day

You know how I wrote that Alex was pretty shy when we went to go visit her classroom? Well, when I dropped her off at school yesterday, she greeted her teacher with a huge smile and went right in. She apaprently had a great day and really enjoyed herself, and we're really glad that we're sending her. It's just weird to have her gone every morning. We signed her up for the bus yesterday morning, and I was told that bus service would start on Thursday. (Wednesday is a holiday.) However, when I got to school, the classroom was empty. Everyone apparently thought that she was going to get on the bus. (I was also about five minutes late because the guy who was picking me up only thinks it takes five minutes to get to the school.) Anyway, we called Jason, who was there to greet Alexis at the door, and everything was fine. Her teacher said she had a perfect day and was really happy, so that made me really proud. She played in the sandbox and with playdough and house and other things and said she didn't learn anything because she already knew what they were learning. We also did her homework yesterday, and she got to go to the library, which was exciting for her. She REALLY wanted to get a book for Micah, which was sweet.

We also looked at another apartment yesterday, which was great in a lot of ways but was only two bedrooms, and we decided that we really want the kids to have their own rooms. It's going to be worth it to us for them to each have private space when they want it. The search continues! There's one place that might be coming available sometime soon, but we'll have to see. Apparently it's a little dumpy at the moment but will be fixed up, and it's in the middle of everything, which is good and bad. It's supposed to get a ton of light, which helps keep the apartment warm, and it's the perfect location for Jason walking to work. It is, however, just like being in the middle of a city, which is a little crazy.

We went out for dinner and ice cream last night and had lomo saltado, a very typical dish of grilled beef, tomoatoes, and onions over french fries and served with rice. It was awesome. And, of course, there was a playground for the kids, which they love. Then we went out for more ice cream (not as good as Sunday, but it was two for one day). It was the first time I think I really got a feel for living in a city, though. Walking around at twilight and then when it was dark made me think of being in New York with tons of people around and everything open and tiny stores and massive traffic. Not everything in our area is like that, but there's this oval inside of a street called Montenegro that makes you feel like you're in downtown La Paz. (Not that I've been to downtown La Paz yet... It's just how I imagine it would feel. We're in Zona Sur, the southern area.) Being able to walk to stuff is very cool except that the kids keep wanting us to carry them, which gets pretty old.

Today is a holiday - Day of the Dead - so there's barely any traffic and the office is closed, so it's probably going to be a great day for us to get in teh car as a family and do a little bit of exploring while the roads are fairly empty. To the grocery store!

First Week

We’ve been in La Paz for almost a week now, and in some ways it already feels like home. In other ways it feels like we’re simply fumbling along, though!  It’s been a great week. We got a lot of rest by being at the hotel, and it really helped with the transition to have a place where everything was taken care of, we didn’t have to worry about cleaning, and was incredibly nice. We left there on Friday morning, when I proceeded to rush out the door and forget one of your bags. (Yes, I felt really bad about that. What is it with me and not getting all the bags? This one was behind a door when I did the final check, and I couldn’t bring it out before leaving because it was huge and blocked the entire hallway.) However, all was resolved and we arrived at the Samaritan’s Purse house, which is right next door to the main office. In a number of ways that is an ideal place: Jason’s office is downstairs (as well as some other cubes in a huge room), it’s spacious, it has HUGE closets, there’s a great little yard, etc. In other ways, though, it’s not the best: really slippery (thus dangerous) floors, fairly choppy, Jason’s office is downstairs… (There are good things and bad things about that.) Ultimately, though, we can’t stay here. The former director lived here, but then they decided to start using it more as office and guest space, and apparently the lease might be up next summer anyway. Regardless, we can’t stay here.

SO BEGINS THE HOUSE SEARCH! So far it’s not very promising. We’d really like something where Jason could walk to work and it not take 30 minutes, or at least he could take a trufe, which is a small van/bus/taxi type of transportation. We looked at two apartments on Tuesday evening. The first was actually really amazing: spacious rooms, great for entertaining (and since Jason is the director, part of me is thinking that we need a place where we can invite people), beautiful floors, and way out of our current price range. There were two other drawbacks. First, it was being rented furnished, which means that we would be responsible of the kids (or me) destroyed anything. Second, one of the bedrooms was set up with a huge built-in bookshelf and desk, which is great if you want an office but bad if you need a kid’s room. So that was off the list for a number of reasons. The second place was farther away but next to an amazing kid’s park. However, when we entered the apartment, I think we both knew it was just wrong. It was in horrible shape. Not that we need anything luxurious, but this had massive cracks and needed to be painted all over and there was mold all over the bathrooms, one of the tubs was actually blocked by the door and a wall so there was NO ventilation or light, pretty gross kitchen, and one of the rooms had a smoker in it, and I doubt that smell would ever completely come out. Needless to say, we passed on that one as well.

What’s a little disappointing is that the newspaper had basically nothing for us to look at. We were thinking that we would find at least some possibilities to look at from the weekend paper, but there was one apartment that was $300 a month (there’s no way that’s in any shape for us to want to live in at that low of a price), and the other one has a great location but is only two bedroom, and we’d really like at least three. Apparently there was one house at a great price that was a little farther away than desired but still worth seeing, but as soon as we found out about it it was gone. We might have something to look at tomorrow, but I’m not sure. Part of us would still really like a house for a number of reasons, but there are a lot of other issues that come with that, like a gardener, security, etc. So the housing search is still on in a major way, although we’ve only really had minor results. It’s great to have a place to stay while we’re looking, though, and while we’d like something sooner as opposed to later, we can wait a little while. Hopefully not too long, though.

We spent most of the weekend unpacking and trying to get organized a little bit. It seems weird to unpack when we’ll just have to pack up again, but it actually helps to organize everyone’s stuff and get out of the way things that we’re not using at the moment. Last week was also nice because people from SP took care of lunch for us, so today was the first time we actually had to fend for ourselves for lunch. What’s amazing here is that there are SO many places, including nice ones, that have play areas for kids. Some of them are huge playgrounds, some of them are just small areas, but a lot of stuff is really kid-friendly, to the point that 1. Sometimes there is even a person who works for the restaurant that watches the kids in the play area, and 2. When we went to get ice cream last night, Micah started looking around for the play area. It was really great not to have to worry about lunches at all, but it was also really nice last night to be in our “own” – albeit temporary – place and have a meal around a table the other night. The people here have been so helpful and friendly, and it has made the transition a lot easier.

Alex will also start attending school Tuesday. It’s a little weird to think about, but while I’m sure it will be hard for her in many ways, I’m also pretty confident that she’s going to love it. She met her teacher and was a little shy at first (this is pretty normal right now – things have been a little overwhelming), but then she brightened up and was playing in the room. She now has a Highlands t-shirt to wear for her uniform for now until we get her some other polo shirts, and tomorrow she’ll start going to school every day. So different. Alexis is also feeling MUCH better. She’s over her laryngitis and only has a cough sometimes, but that’s more of an adjustment to the climate than anything else.

On the other end of the spectrum, Micah has been unbelievably exuberant. He just smiles at everyone and is smiling and dancing and laughing and wants people to pick him up and overall is interacting with almost anyone who will pay attention to him. He has already made some favorite friends amongst the SP staff. While Alexis is taking a little longer to warm-up (it’s more overwhelming for her, and being sick didn’t help), Micah is full-speed ahead. It’s pretty awesome to see how captivating he is.

Life has been busy and will continue to be busy, but this is what we expected. We went to the English-speaking church yesterday and there was a potluck after the service, so it was nice to be able to meet some people there. While I’m pretty sure that we’ll go to a Spanish-speaking church most of the time, it’s nice to be connected with the missionary community down here. I don’t think it’s nearly as large as the one in Managua, but sometimes it will be nice to have some community that speaks English.
Today was also Jason’s first full day of work. The family went this morning because he led devotions, and while I don’t understand a lot of it, the parts that I did get were really great. He made people laugh and engaged them in a number of different ways, and I was really proud of him. Today it’s been all meetings for him, so he is right in the middle of it and getting to work, which is sometimes I admire him for doing.

That’s it for now. I’m going to drive Alexis to school tomorrow (someone from SP will be in the car with me) since I need to go there to sign a bus contract for her, we might have an apartment to look at tomorrow, at some point soon I’ll have a cell phone (I don’t want to drive without one), and we’re ready to really get started!