It has been a 'chilly' week for people here in the Santa Cruz area! It's been in between 18 and 25 degrees Celsius since Monday, and windy. What this means...
- Bolivians are wearing parkas with FUR, many many layers, toques, scarves, etc. It looks like they're going out in a blizzard in Manitoba, with their only their eyes showing.
- people don't shower! Because they don't have hot water tanks here, and the water is freezing cold. So people stink a lot right now.
- some students don't come to school! Because somehow it's too cold and their house will be better? Really it won't be, but that's what they think.
- I have lots of energy! I didn't realize how much the hot temperatures were draining me, so now I feel so calm and energized.. it's really quite nice. Feels like a holiday in a way.
- aand I laugh a lot, because everyone looks ridiculous. They keep on asking me if my feet are cold (i'm wearing pants, a shirt and a cardigan, and flipflops, more than I have all year so far). And my feet are not cold at all.
Thursday, 28 April 2016
Neeeew blog address, sorry!
Hi everyone, so sorry to change my blog! The other site (jessalynheppner.blog.com) has been very inconsistent with a lot of things, so I decided to move over here, hopefully it proves more reliable! Once I can access the old blog again, I will try to transfer those posts to here.
Wednesday, 20 April 2016
more than just surviving
Well after the hustle and bustle of the last few weeks and
especially this last weekend, with track and soccer, and reports cards
were due, plus other things as they come up… yesterday was the lowest
day I’ve had here. Mentally and physically exhausted, running on 4 hours
of sleep for a few nights in a row, feeling frustrated and cynical
about classes, sports, languages, cultures, and life in general. Me
trying to do it all = not much good. I will probably learn this lesson
continually for the rest of my life! I know it has to be God in me, or
else it will nothing. And what purpose is there without God? Really,
literally, there is none. I asked for prayer yesterday from my sisters, I
spent a lot of time reading in Romans and also in (somewhat desperate)
prayer. Life is more than just surviving.
Romans 7. Mostly talking about how the law is cancelled when death occurs, for example if your husband dies, the law of marriage would no longer be there. Same with the law of sin. Towards the end of the chapter, Paul says:
Romans 7. Mostly talking about how the law is cancelled when death occurs, for example if your husband dies, the law of marriage would no longer be there. Same with the law of sin. Towards the end of the chapter, Paul says:
It happens so regularly
that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to
trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious
that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel,
and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
I’ve tried everything and nothing
helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything
for me? Isn’t that the real question?
The answer, thank God, is
that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this
life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and
mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally
different.
So today, I remember. I remember that I
can’t do anything for myself, but JESUS CHRIST can and does. With my
pride, my anger, my need to try to do it all on my own. Today, I
remember, and I die to myself and sin, and I truly LIVE in Jesus. Today
wasn’t perfect, by no means. But it wasn’t just surviving.
Thank you ALL for your continued prayers, I especially felt them today.
Please pray that I will see each of my
students as loved and treasured children of God, and not as problems, or
objects, or annoyances. Today I was able to see that, but it doesn’t
always happen!
I am thankful for the grace and encouragement of my fellow teachers, mission team, and also the students!
Wednesday, 13 April 2016
atletismo & futbol
This blog has been hard to access lately, sorry!
My life in the last month has included using all my free periods, and even skipping out on my regular music classes, to coach track (atletismo) and futbol (soccer) for the elementary teams. It has been a lot of fun, very busy, and crazy. I’ve never coached this age before, and it’s very different. Now the time has come to see how we stack up against competition! Tomorrow is the track meet for the area, and Friday through Sunday is the futbol tournament for this area. Hopefully this is a fun opportunity (they do love these sports!) and also a practical lesson in sportsmanship and good attitudes! Most of them do not speak English, so I have been trying to get a grasp on soccer terms in Spanish as quickly as possible!
ball – pelota header – cabeza goalie – arquero defence – defensa halfback – medio campista
forward – delantero heads or tails – cara o cruz
there’s more, can’t remember everything!
If you want to pray something as ordinary (and yet so full of learning potential) as track meets and soccer games:
- that I could demonstrate sportsmanship and a godly attitude to my teams
- that I will figure out how to make myself understood in a very Spanish world (both in my team, and at the tournament – scary!!)
- that we will have fun and be proud of our accomplishments
My life in the last month has included using all my free periods, and even skipping out on my regular music classes, to coach track (atletismo) and futbol (soccer) for the elementary teams. It has been a lot of fun, very busy, and crazy. I’ve never coached this age before, and it’s very different. Now the time has come to see how we stack up against competition! Tomorrow is the track meet for the area, and Friday through Sunday is the futbol tournament for this area. Hopefully this is a fun opportunity (they do love these sports!) and also a practical lesson in sportsmanship and good attitudes! Most of them do not speak English, so I have been trying to get a grasp on soccer terms in Spanish as quickly as possible!
ball – pelota header – cabeza goalie – arquero defence – defensa halfback – medio campista
forward – delantero heads or tails – cara o cruz
there’s more, can’t remember everything!
If you want to pray something as ordinary (and yet so full of learning potential) as track meets and soccer games:
- that I could demonstrate sportsmanship and a godly attitude to my teams
- that I will figure out how to make myself understood in a very Spanish world (both in my team, and at the tournament – scary!!)
- that we will have fun and be proud of our accomplishments
Thursday, 31 March 2016
bolivian quirks and tips
Internet says no photos! Sorry.
Standard Bolivian greeting: (and believe me, greetings are VERY important, to the taxi driver, the neighbour, the shop owner in the market, you MUST say good morning/afternoon) If this is a person you are officially meeting (so, not the waiter, or taxi driver, but someone you will talk to), you must shake hands and give them a pretend kiss, your right cheeks touching. You don’t actually contact their ear/cheek with your lips at all. Make a slight kissy sound, and voila, you are not a rude person. This is only for females greeting females, or males and females, not JUST males. Overall, be more friendly than less friendly! Unless you’re a female alone somewhere, then maybe not as good an idea.
Approaching someone’s house: yards/compounds have fences/brick walls around them, so either right before you enter their compound, or right after, you clap loudly a couple times. This is the doorbell. Give them time to come outside, don’t approach the house right away.
Restaurants: don’t bother asking for a menu, they do not have any. Or if they do, they won’t have what’s on there anyways. There are usually 2 or 3 options, chicken, beef, maybe pork, with rice/potatoes/fries and some veggies, plantain, etc. You pick the meat, and you get what comes with it. Chicken is very very cheap here, fyi, and pork is the most expensive. Also, some restaurants carry only 2 or 3 L drinks, so don’t EACH order a drink, or that’s a lot of pop!!
Pepper is not a normal thing here. You can buy it, in a few places, but most don’t use it. This is so sad to me, I like to pour the pepper on. Also, MUSTARD. It exists, but again most don’t use it. Heartbreaking! I love mustard. Fruit and vegetables are very cheap, perfect for my ideal sustenance:) I am particularly loving the papaya, green grapes, watermelon, lemons and string beans. I go fruit shopping a couple times a week, sometimes a fruit truck comes down my road and I buy it right there on the street.
Umm… I’m forgetting lots. I will experience more of these I’m sure!
Ciao
Standard Bolivian greeting: (and believe me, greetings are VERY important, to the taxi driver, the neighbour, the shop owner in the market, you MUST say good morning/afternoon) If this is a person you are officially meeting (so, not the waiter, or taxi driver, but someone you will talk to), you must shake hands and give them a pretend kiss, your right cheeks touching. You don’t actually contact their ear/cheek with your lips at all. Make a slight kissy sound, and voila, you are not a rude person. This is only for females greeting females, or males and females, not JUST males. Overall, be more friendly than less friendly! Unless you’re a female alone somewhere, then maybe not as good an idea.
Approaching someone’s house: yards/compounds have fences/brick walls around them, so either right before you enter their compound, or right after, you clap loudly a couple times. This is the doorbell. Give them time to come outside, don’t approach the house right away.
Restaurants: don’t bother asking for a menu, they do not have any. Or if they do, they won’t have what’s on there anyways. There are usually 2 or 3 options, chicken, beef, maybe pork, with rice/potatoes/fries and some veggies, plantain, etc. You pick the meat, and you get what comes with it. Chicken is very very cheap here, fyi, and pork is the most expensive. Also, some restaurants carry only 2 or 3 L drinks, so don’t EACH order a drink, or that’s a lot of pop!!
Pepper is not a normal thing here. You can buy it, in a few places, but most don’t use it. This is so sad to me, I like to pour the pepper on. Also, MUSTARD. It exists, but again most don’t use it. Heartbreaking! I love mustard. Fruit and vegetables are very cheap, perfect for my ideal sustenance:) I am particularly loving the papaya, green grapes, watermelon, lemons and string beans. I go fruit shopping a couple times a week, sometimes a fruit truck comes down my road and I buy it right there on the street.
Umm… I’m forgetting lots. I will experience more of these I’m sure!
Ciao
Monday, 14 March 2016
community
Buenas noches, como estas?
Bit by bit, I’m learning Spanish. Poquito.
God is good. So many things, big little, have happened this week that just prove that over and over again. School stuff just coming together in miraculous ways, hearing the stories of changed lives at a wedding yesterday afternoon, a funeral today where someone came to the front and asked for forgiveness for his past sins, and wanting to accept Jesus in his life! Things are hard yes, why did a young man have to die?? Nonetheless, we are NOT God and we don’t know the answers, we just trust that he is GOOD. It was a beautiful funeral service, ending with long hugs and hope.
As I see the community gather around families here in both celebration and grieving, I am so thankful for the community that I have. I have family and so many friends, a ‘clan,’ a church family, all who are so amazing. This sounds incredibly trite/cliche as I’m writing, but I do want to recognize and be intentionally grateful for what I have, and I have a LOT. My new community here is something I’m grateful for as well:) Thank you ALL for whatever role you have in my life!
Bit by bit, I’m learning Spanish. Poquito.
God is good. So many things, big little, have happened this week that just prove that over and over again. School stuff just coming together in miraculous ways, hearing the stories of changed lives at a wedding yesterday afternoon, a funeral today where someone came to the front and asked for forgiveness for his past sins, and wanting to accept Jesus in his life! Things are hard yes, why did a young man have to die?? Nonetheless, we are NOT God and we don’t know the answers, we just trust that he is GOOD. It was a beautiful funeral service, ending with long hugs and hope.
As I see the community gather around families here in both celebration and grieving, I am so thankful for the community that I have. I have family and so many friends, a ‘clan,’ a church family, all who are so amazing. This sounds incredibly trite/cliche as I’m writing, but I do want to recognize and be intentionally grateful for what I have, and I have a LOT. My new community here is something I’m grateful for as well:) Thank you ALL for whatever role you have in my life!
After the wedding photo! Nancy, my new
roommate and an English teacher at the Villa Nueva school, is on the
left. Ella, a linguist working on a Plaut Deutsch curriculum in the
Santa Cruz province in the middle. Both good friends of mine here:)
Friday, 4 March 2016
Not tiptoeing
“All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe.
Run, hop, skip, or dance…
just don’t tiptoe.”
I’ve read many, many books since arriving, as there’s not much to do
in my free time! Currently I’m reading Irresistible Revolution by Shane
Claiborne. It’s amazing, and disturbing. It hits home, but then I have
to do something about it. This quote is from this book, I think it was
from his college professor? About living LIFE.
photos in no particular order:
This is a traditional food here, from the
Mennonites I’m guessing. My hosts for the last month had this for Sunday
lunch a couple weeks ago and invited me to join them. It’s called geesu
(that’s how it’s pronounced, not spelled!) and is prepared in caste
iron pots over the fire. Delicious.
Tuesdays and Thursdays are ‘long’ days at
school, 730 to 230, so lunch can be purchased at the school on those
days for 10 bs. This particular lunch was very good, the deepfried bread
looking thing there is jietzkuaken. Amazing!
People
drink a lot of pop/sugary drinks here, partially because the heat
drains your energy and partially because they just like to drink them. I
do as well, when I need a quick energy pickup. This particular pop was
pineapple. Not bad. And on the right in an imported item, dark chocolate
covered raisins – pomegranate flavoured. Love this in Canada, so when I
saw it in one of the big grocery stores here I scooped it up! However
it didn’t have a price on it, so when I paid for it I was in for a bit
of a shock! 168 bs for a bag. PRICEY. It’s a good thing that store is
far away and not readily accessible.
This it the money here. Bolivianos.
Everyone calls them ‘bs’ (pronounced bees). 5 bs equals about 1 Canadian
dollar, 7 bs is one American dollar. I’m getting better at doing the
exchange in my head on the fly!
I purchased a phone a couple of weeks ago,
which is quite an experience. It took 4 different people to get it
registered, 2 days, and 3 shops. What you see in this picture are the
phone repair shops/tech shops. They just set up a little booth covered
in tools and parts and they’re ready for business.
Life has picked up in speed here! In
addition to school, I’ve joined a worship team at the church here in
Villa Nueva. We played for the first time last Sunday. There was a
funeral in the community, I played for that as well. Spanish classes
will be starting this next week on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, so I
am VERY excited to learn EVERYTHING. Ha, we’ll see! If people come to
register, I will also be teaching English on Wednesday evenings after
Spanish. I’ve taken on piano students as well, I think about 8 so far.
AND track and futball/futsal teams are starting up and need to be ready
to compete at the Games in one month! It looks like I’ll be coaching the
elementary teams. It is a bit crazy, but doable, hopefully.
One thing that is very exciting is that
TOMORROW I will move into a house, where I will stay for the rest of
this year! I’m extremely grateful to all the people that have hosted me
in the last 6 or so weeks, they’ve been wonderful. It will be nice to
have a place to call my own, and have a kitchen and all that!
Prayer:
- There’s still a few things to iron out
with lesson planning (although it’s getting much easier to plan!)
particularly with the grade one class and also with curriculums
- That I would be organized and disciplined to accomplish everything I need to in the next month!
- Sleep has been difficult for me, mostly
because of my wisdom teeth. I was looking into getting them pulled
before I came but didn’t have the time or finances. Here it is MUCH
cheaper, but still costs money! So that I would be able to get them
pulled, and also that I could find ways to rest in the meantime!
Thankfulness:
- a house!
- more and more independence in grocery shopping and doing business
- visa paperwork is in the very last stage (currently being processed in La Paz). Interpol okayed me!
- opportunities to mingle with people in the community
- building relationships with students
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