Life on the Journey

I kinda like trash day and gas truck day. On trash day everybody has to take their trash to the truck. None of this leaving it out on the side of the road like in the States. If you think this is strange read my earlier post that discusses dogs. Therefore when I hear the clang clang of the trash truck I hurry out to the street corner with all the neighbors and give my trash to those heroic sanitation workers.

Gas truck day is a completely different story. Mostly in that the "clang clang" is a different pitch. The same lady yells to her neighbor (she has one of those voices that you can't tune out). And everybody takes their empty gas cans out to the street corner to get new ones. We were fortunate this morning that the gas truck came. We were pretty much out. There are few sights more wonderful than full gas cans (one can lasts 8-10 days for cooking and hot water, depending on all the variables that go along with that).

Community is so important here. We sometimes take for granted a lot of things. Here, nothing is taken for granted. We're reminded virtually every week how we are dependent on others. Since we don't have a car we rely on the taxi company to come pick us up (especially since the bus drivers are currently on strike). We were reminded of our reliance on them a couple weeks ago when we had to wait for 40 minutes for our taxi to take us to church.

We need to always remember how we rely on our neighbors and our community.

dave

Generally speaking everybody is fine. The first day of school was a couple weeks ago. We have a very happy 2nd grader and a preschooler who is a little unsure of things. Hebrew class continues to be a learning experience on both sides of the table. I'm giving a test tomorrow night, hopefully my students come to class :). It has been uncommonly rainy over the past month or so. I've talked to several people here who say that we've gotten significantly more rain than normal. There is some flooding in the lower lying parts of the country.

The new year in Bolivia apparently tends to bring out the restlessness that had been pent up for the past year (from what I understand January and February have the most protests). We started right after Christmas with the "Gasolinazo" when the government tried to take away the gas subsidies that kept gas prices quite low. Gas and diesel prices jumped more than 70% overnight. This lasted about a week before the president reversed that decision. So far this year we have also had the "Azucarazo", which is the sugar shortage we've had for the past 2-3 months (and, by the way, I have deduced that placing "azo" at the end of a word in Bolivia is the same as putting "gate" at the end of a word in English to signify some sort of scandal). Currently the public transportation workers are going on strike hoping to be allowed to raise the fares, those who are opposed to that idea, and the unions who would like to have minimum wage raised (which is ironic because if the gas subsidies had gone away the minimum wage would have been raised). Fortunately these protests tend to only happen during business hours. They are done by 6 or so at night and they take weekends and holidays off as well. Beyond school being closed for a couple of days we haven't had any ill-effects from them. The key is being prepared. We try to stock up on food and water to last for a few days when we hear of protests coming (they are usually nice enough to announce strikes and such). We're not in any sort of danger, especially at home. Protests happen downtown and we live quite a ways away from there. And, as the head of our language school told us last week, protests are a part of life in Bolivia.

In other news Carnaval is fast approaching. This is the Latin American equivalent of Mardi Gras, all the alcohol with less "other stuff". There are lots of parades and fireworks etc. In the weeks leading up to Carnaval all the parade groups practice. This past Saturday there was a "rehearsal", complete with fireworks. I'm told they have practices every weekend leading up to the big day. I'm also told that a large part of the fun of Carnaval is the city-wide water gun fight. Pretty much nobody is safe from drive-by soakings. I've got to get me a water gun :).

Always an adventure here. We always keep in mind that we are here doing/learning to do the Lord's work and we know that he will always protect us.

dave

* Dave's parents were here for ten days over Christmas and our older son's birthday.  What a blessing it was to have them here!  The kids got lots of quality time with their grandparents, which was absolutely the biggest blessing of all.

* SO many people thought of us and sent gifts and treats to us with Dave's parents.  Thank you all SO much!  We are already using, eating, and appreciating everything.

* Last point of this week's gratituesday...Dave's Christmas miracle.  Dave's big way of relieving stress and culture shock is through Dr. Pepper...it was a huge blessing to find it here when we arrived.  Unfortunately, we had spent the last six weeks searching the city and entirely unable to find a single can.  So when I came home from the store a few days before Christmas with a LOT of Dr. Pepper, Dave was a pretty happy man.

Today, I am thankful.

I'm thankful for our families and the enormous support and encouragement they are to us.  Our parents have gone above and beyond in their efforts to stay connected to us.  I wish there were words to explain how much we appreciate them, but there just aren't.

I'm thankful for friends.  For the friend who sends me the best boxes.  For the friend who went out in a blizzard to pick up a couple things to mail me.  For the friend who made a late night run to the store last night to get me Peppermint Extract to make Christmas treats (once the extract makes it here, that is).  For the friends who send me sweet notes, or post on my facebook wall, or try to call, or pray for me every now and then.  I'm thankful for all of you.

I'm thankful for doctors.  I'm thankful for my Bolivian pediatrician who speaks flawless English (praise GOD!).  I'm thankful that when I show up at his office with no kids just to turn in results of tests that I decided to have done myself, he doesn't even charge me for the 5 minutes we sit in his office while he writes out prescriptions.  I'm thankful for my Bolivian pulmonologist that has never treated my lungs.  ;)  But he's kind and compassionate, and I always smile when I walk into his office and hear him say "Señora Eli, cómo estás?"  I'm thankful for the doctor in the States who is willing to serve the Lord by allowing me to call him and try to clarify and re-diagnose in English when I'm just not totally sure that I was understood in Spanish.  What an enormous blessing.

Thank you, God, for the people you have put in my life.

The ovens are used as a method of outreach. We have been having monthly meetings with one interested group of people which always includes a Bible study. This past Sunday we had a meeting that was supposed to include a demonstration. Ruth was going to make banana bread in the solar oven. And wouldn't you know it, Sunday was one of the only cloudy days we've had in weeks!!! There was a very good turn out for the meeting however. There were about 20 people there representing 12 families. The goal was to have 10 families represented. We're going to try again to have a demonstration in January. Lord willing we'll have the appropriate weather.

dave

This month's meeting:

Parades here are often more of a moving theater production than anything.  There is usually at least one band (varying in size from 4 brass instruments to a full high school marching band), and in the bigger parades there are quite a few.  Everyone in the parade is in full costume, and those that are not part of a band dance/choreograph down the street.  A majority of the dancers have a series of bells on the costume by the ankle, so the bells shake in rhythm when they dance (thus utilizing a good bit of staccato type stomps in the choreography).

This particular parade was in honor of Saint Andrew, and part of the story told in the parade involves demonic like costumes...but I never felt like they concluded that idea or did anything with it, and not being Catholic, I don't know enough about St. Andrew to know what it all meant.

Without further ado:

Partial glimpse of the local "Palace"....a mansion built about 85 years ago by one of the wealthiest men in the world.  He never lived in the house, but it's pretty impressive.

So how are things with you? Things are pretty good here in Bolivia. We are entering late Spring now and the temperature continues to be warm (haha to all those in the cooler climes). Still hasn't done much in the way of rain, which everybody around here thinks is weird. Anyway, on to the goings on of the Chalenburg family.

Summer vacation is upon us. The end of school program was on Saturday and featured dancing giraffes, hippos, rhinos, lions, and zebras as well as angels, scientists and other strange people. I didn't quite understand all of it. My favorite part (aside from my dancing hippo) was that they had a tree on stage that was actually a guy who was the microphone hander and also the guy who helped with lines. I think this is a brilliant revolution for elementary productions.

Schools here have workshops in the summers so that the kids have something to do. 2 mornings a week with a shortened schedule for us.

Other son hasn't changed much. He's still ornery and still gets in to everything. He has been picking up on the Spanish though. He likes to tell the taxis which way to go. He's figured out how to say the words for right and left, now he's got to figure out which way is right and left :).

Not much else has changed. My Hebrew class is starting to pick up speed. They are growing in their familiarity with the Hebrew letters which helps a lot. I don't have to repeat things nearly as often as I did to begin with. I still attend the Tuesday night small group Bible study. I'm actually almost to the point in my language learning that I understand a good deal of what is said. I still don't say much, but that's ok. I also plan on getting a grill tomorrow. I look forward to cooking meat the way God intended (note all the Biblical references to the sacrifices being a pleasing aroma to God in the OT).

Thanksgiving in upon us (as I'm sure you can't forget even if you wanted to). Turkey will likely not be on the menu here. For some reason it is not a common food here. Therefore one frozen turkey will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50. That is ridiculous. Other standard Thanksgiving items are also very expensive. Therefore we will be having a non-traditional Thanksgiving (unless of course things change).

In this, and future, entries I will be leaving out references to brand names. One of my previous posts was littered with references to a certain wonderful beverage and a certain chain restaurant. That post received a LOT of spam comments. We think there are things out there looking for such references. Therefore I will try to leave them out.

Please pray for the wife. She has had some issues with little friends. Let's hope that the medicine knocks them out and she can feel better.

dave