Guembe

Throughout the year, Nancy and I dreamed about the time when we could just let loose and have nothing on our minds, and just relax. These dreams finally came into fruition in December, where we were able to go to a resort combined with a biological park, called Guembe Biocentro and Resort. We also were able to convince a couple good friends of our to come along, so we had a grand ole time, with nothing to do but relax and laugh together. And count pools.

Getting there was interesting, the first taxi that we hired to take us there didn't actually know where it was, and we didn't either! After a few frantic whatsapps back and forth, we got dropped off at a nearby and more well known location, the Ventura Mall. From there we flagged down a few more drivers, and finally found one who thought he knew (he did - whew). It's a little out of Santa Cruz, and along some backroads, so I don't blame these guys.

This place is a resort, but not like a giant hotel. There's a variety of rooms, and they're all in one area of the park, but not all attached. Little cabins, large cabins, huts, more normal hotel rooms. Our room was just beside la Isla de Monos, monkey island. A manmade lake, with an island in the middle, which served as the home to many many monkeys. There were also monkeys on our side of the water, little tiny ones that came in hordes. This park has 13 or so little pools, some with sand on the bottom, some with cement, and then 3 large pools. It's on different levels, with rocks, palm trees and beautiful scenery all around. Mini golf course, huge play structure for kids, open grass fields. The biological part of it is in a orchid sanctuary, a huge aviary (where we went every day, it's so cool), a butterfly sanctuary, a reptile and creepy crawly place, and some weird bones and skeletons in a historical place. All in a very green and luscious forest. It's way better than just going to a hotel with a nice pool, here we had so much to see and do, or even just to walk around and do nothing.

One thing we would say... they have advertising in English, which is normal for a higher end hotel. But in booking, and upon arrival, absolutely no one spoke English, creating some fun misunderstandings!

 

The orchid sanctuary. Weird towers of rock with flowers everywhere.

 

 The tower up to the top of the bird cage 

 

 One end of the bird cage. Huge and beautiful.

 The top of the cage

 These smart macaws will steal your park pass (a bracelet) right off your hand, if you're dumb enough to let them.

 one of the official Bolivian flowers, patuju

 Butterfly food, old bananas, with a butterfly

Two of the many little pools, at night

Many turtles

 Kayaking on the one natural pond. Those paddles are made of very heavy wood.  Also I tried standing up and paddling, which worked great. After a long time, some employee noticed me and started yelling :(

Good friends!!

 

 

If bamboo fit in my suitcase, I would have taken it all home with me.

 

One of the large pools, and us enjoying it, and each other

I was extremely blessed by the friendships with these people, and I'm so thankful we were able to spend these last few days together.

my eyeballs' journey

Throughout most of my life, I've used glasses or contacts. I don't remember ever not having glasses. Over the last two years, they have been strained until I had headaches and weird eye pain. This year that just got even worse, as literally everything I did required focusing my eyes on little details (writing lesson plans/worksheets on my computer, writing music on my computer, reading books, watching movies). I mentioned that to a fellow mission team member at the beginning of November, and just the cost of glasses and eyes in general. She told me of another friend who'd had laser eye surgery done here in Bolivia, with very good results! The cost is not super cheap, like some other medical things here, but slightly cheaper than the average in Canada. My glasses and contacts are expensive enough that over a few years, the surgery would be paid for already in eyewear. The biggest pro was the waiting time. I emailed in one week, had my tests and appointments the next week, and Nov 18 I had laser eye surgery! The appointments and checkups have been funny and frustrating, as only one technician and my own surgeon speak English, out of 20 or more staff. My name has been changed to Haffer Ah-nay, and other combinations. But the end result was successful surgery!

It has been a rough haul, the first day right after surgery was excruciatingly painful, some of the worst physical pain I've ever had. Thanks only to Eva, another mission member here, did I survive that day with getting around. Also, workwise -- the last week of school was the week following the surgery, and reports cards were due! I did not think ahead at all, plus the doctors told I'd be able to due almost everything normally (not taking into consideration that I needed to write report cards, clearly), so this was a bit stressful and quite difficult. But I went back for a checkup 7 hours after surgery, and the surgeon said they were healing so fast that it looked like it had been two days after surgery. He'd never seen that before! And when I went back three days later they were healing perfectly.

One difference from the experiences I've heard of in Canada is the vision healing time. People have told me 4 days, or 7 days, till they have perfect vision. Here I was told 4 weeks. I'm at about 2.5 weeks right now, and my vision is slowly improving. It's already good enough that I could play probably any sport other than baseball or maybe badminton, and not need contacts or glasses. That in itself is AMAZING; I've never been able to before! Playing piano for school, working with sheet music in choir and Christmas performances.. that has been hard, and mostly relying on memory.

I'm scared, honestly, that it will not improve all the way, especially the details and closer stuff. Abstaining from reading and being outside in the bright sun and from sewing has been quite difficult, and by now I definitely do read and spend time outside. But reading too long isn't comfortable (mind you, I like reading for 5 hours straight, maybe that's just too long in general), watching a movie definitely is useless (which isn't the worst thing on earth, eh? I won't complain about that), and sewing is definitely straining. So I hope and dream and pray that I will get 20/20 vision. It would be wonderful.

 I woke up at 5 to catch the sunrise, on Nov 18. Just in case it was the last one.

 Not so beautiful in the morning, but me with glasses, one last time.

They operate on your eyes for about one minute. And yet you must put on this entire outfit, including the vodaemchalla pants and the long thick socks. The waistband on these pants could have fit two of me. On a distantly related note, there were three of going in for this surgery this morning. One spoke a bit of English, the other not at all. But it's amazing how you can relate to and bond with someone when you're all alone in a very sterile environment with this institutional clothing, and then they give you relazapan. We were blood sisters.

 My pills and drops right after surgery. I ended up making a very nice chart that the nurses would have approved of, with dates and times and places to sign. All very orderly.

Thankful
~ English speaking eye surgeon
~ much improved eyesight already
~ a pretty good end of the school year
~ a solid closing program
~ Good friends. And campfires, camping, going to resorts and bad futbol games with these friends

Praying for
~ wise decisions for my future! One option I was really looking forward to has mostly fallen through, but HE's got a plan!
~ eyes healing to 100%
~ that I would be able to adjust to culture and climate and people at home (I have a feeling it will be difficult!), coming up very quickly!!

Clausura - closing program

The last day of classes was November 24. Leading up to this, I spent the majority of my music classes practicing with the students for the Clausua, the closing program. Imagine spending 5 hours, singing the same 1 or 3 songs, all day, for a few weeks. I know those songs backwards and forwards now!

As is typical for any school year and students, regardless of location, as we got closer to the end of the year, kids were more and more antsy, with less patience and ability to pay attention. But us teachers were a little antsy too, so we all understand. Temperatures were also a factor in this, we had some really hot days on and off - I think just above 40C. Luckily, we had some colder days in between.

One interesting twist in our schedule is that the marks and report cards were due (required by the government) Nov 21st, a few days before classes actually ended. Tests, papers, etc, all needed to be done before that. Busy busy the week before, but then at least the last few days we could focus on the program.

Nov 24, a Thursday, we practiced at church for a few hours, with the entire school. On this day I thoroughly regretted trying to sing a song with the entire school. Getting them all lined up, realizing the back half of the choir couldn't even see me!, it was chaos. But we went through all the items for the program, practiced walking in and out, until we mostly knew what we were doing. Each grade presented a dance, song, mime, skit, something. It was very well done.

Sunday, Nov 27 was the day of the closing program. This was a very busy day for me personally, a mission/agricultural group from southern Manitoba just arrived that morning for church. It was absolutely wonderful to see faces from 'back home.' I went out for lunch with them in Pailon after church, then rushed back to get ready for the closing program. The closing program went really well, kids were relatively calm and all the presentations were great. The parents and guests fill up the church for this, so the students and teachers were all in the back foyer. Whenever it was their turn to do something, they would go outside the church, line up, and enter the stage for the doors from outside. Coordination was key.

After the program, it is apparently tradition to have rollkuchen and watermelon at school, so we had a giant buffet of this -- soooooo good! Later on, I joined the MB group at their sleeping place, a nearby guesthouse. It was really refreshing and relaxing to spend time with them.

The grade 12s leading worship to start off the closing program

 

The entrance of the church, where all the students and teachers sat.

 

The sanctuary of the church

 

Kinder class, singing a song

 

Some of grade 5, finishing up a mime.

 

The whole school, singing Singabahambayo. The performance day was waaay better than rehearsal.

 

Us four teachers were leaving, so they gave us gifts and said words of appreciation, I think!

 

The staff of Villa Nueva