156th Day

Well, is it time for reflection? Bimester 2 is drawing to a close, with the last day of classes on June 29th, plus two more days of games/community competition. I have been in Bolivia for around 5 months, almost half of my year here is gone.

How has the time gone, quickly or slowly?
Classic question. Well my answer is the cliche, classic answer. In some ways it has flown by and it feels like I just got here, in other ways it feels like I've been here a long time. Today it feels like I've been here a long time, there's a rhythm and steadiness to life that makes it feel like it's always been like this. (One reason is probably because as I do things the second time around, for 2nd bimester, things are EASY and SIMPLE as opposed to chaotic and crazy).

What's the hardest part of life?
Umm...here's an abstract one -  trusting and leaving everything in God's hands! Will it always be like this? Probably. From the times when I miss people or events at home, when I'm struggling with what I should be 'doing' in life, when I know that I've fallen short in work here, etc, there are lots of times when I think and think and think (no distractions like a million hobbies or friends like in MB) and while processing and meditating is great, I often try to fix things, or figure things out, on my own. So letting go, that's really hard, but some days I get it.
A not-so-abstract hard part: teaching well/making lessons interesting and relevant/reaching every student. I struggle a lot with reaching the fringe students.

What do I enjoy the most?
Lots! Little moments with students when they really get a lesson, or they realize that they matter in life, or that I care about them. A weekly bible study that some friends and I started up a month ago has become a highlight, both for growing spiritually and for socializing. Evening spanish lessons are really great, the teacher and the students are wonderful community. And running, always, has been something I enjoy, both for physical and mental strength, here I run a few times a week with short intense runs (which are always great), but I try to go for a long run every Sunday afternoon. This has accidentally turned into a real and honest prayer time, I'm in the middle of the bush, far away from any people, and I feel like I can just let loose and be open with God (not that I can't be honest with him other times, its just way better without distractions around.. if that makes sense!) I also love how Bolivian life is relaxed and easygoing, and yet crazy and chaotic, all at the same time. Hopefully I will take some of the relaxed and easygoing lifestyle home with me.

What am I reading?
Ok no one cares what I read, but it's a big part of my day and my thoughts so I'm going to tell you anyways. I just finished reading Hebrews and I love how it talks about sacrifice, the old ways where it didn't really work, and the new way, the ONE sacrifice, and how permanent and perfect it is. Also it goes through the celebrities of faith, and what faith is. Amazing. ^10:39 "But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved." ^{11:39 "}These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised,..." ^13:20-21 "Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep,  equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
I read a book this morning (it's Saturday, don't worry) called Quiet, by Susan Cain. A look at introverts and extroverts, what our world seems to expect is healthy (extroverts) but maybe we should want something else too. Very thought provoking, I will definitely read it again. 
I'm also working my way through Mere Christianity, by CS Lewis. I've read this numerous times, but it's always good. He presents Christianity in such a logical and non 'religious' way, it's quite refreshing.  

What am I learning?
- to TRUST GOD! "God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will NOT be afraid, though the earth give way and the mountains fall to the bottom of the sea." Psalms something, I forget.
- everyone has a story. The smiles, the tears, the anger, the stiff upper lip... don't just take it for itself, there's a reason behind it. Care about the person, get past the first look.
- don't underestimate myself. In Canada, I'm kinda an average. I'm decent at music, soccer, running, whatever. I'm not bad, but not amazing amazing. I felt very insecure coming here for music and sports, I have no official education! But it turns out I have a lot to offer, in music and sports, and other things too. Figure out what you have to offer, and offer it.
- much more, but my brain is tired.

What can you pray for?
- Praise God for a 2 week vacation, and my sister is coming!! She arrives in 4 days, and I can't actually believe it yet, it seems like a dream, but I am SO excited. We will be adventuring around a few different places in Bolivia, maybe we'll post about it if there's a rainy day.
- Praise God that marks and report cards have gotten a lot easier
- Praise God for relationships back home, friends that chat and cry with me long distance! Or I cry with them! Also for the community here.
- Pray that my heart would be filled with God's love, and that I would be a river passing that love on to everyone around me. These people need love, not my judgement or harsh words, while still teaching a class, somehow!!
- Last and very very importantly, pray that I would make wise decisions for my future. I could stay here beyond this year. Ideally I would decide very very soon about that so the school can make plans. This is a very hard decision to make. If I came back to Canada I would be looking to work in camp ministry, my first and always love. I've looked into a few different camps already to see what sort of opportunities there are out there, and I will continue to be open to more of those! I know that my gifts would be used there, and it would be glorifying to God. I also realize that in different ways, my gifts can be used here to glorify God. How do I decide.

If you are still reading my blog and praying for me after these months, thank you so much! Without your support and prayers, I would be very alone and probably useless. I really appreciate you all.

this week in little creatures

this really 'cute' thing is a bat. Turns out their faces are close to a tiny mean pig? Roofs aren't sealed here so there are lots at school. This one was visiting our evening Spanish class.

 

  

Trapping the bat. I look really excited

 

This little gecko is oh so common here, they're all over the place. However this specific one didn't want to get out of the sink yesterday when I wanted to wash dishes. I don't really freak out about little things, but I don't like these because they move so fast! If I scooped it up I thought it would run all over me. So I flooded him out till he perched on the top of the sink, and then he kept me company while I washed.

 

If you look carefully, there's a baby tarantula on the left, and a beetle thingy on the right. When I first saw this, I thought the spider was taking the beetle home, but nooo. Somehow this black bug managed to overpower a tarantula, dragged it across our yard and onwards. Now Nancy and I are more scared of what this black bug can do than tarantulas!

mi casa

I think I've shown bits and pieces of where I live. Well here's the whole tour. Houses right in this area, Pailon, Villa Nueva, etc, are generally tiny. A family of 4 to 10 might be living in 200 to 300 square feet, all the kids in one bedroom. Some have a storage container, or a garden shed, that serves as a bedroom for older kids. This is a poor area, and it shows. Anyways, with that in mind, our house is a MANSION, it is CLEAN, it isn't crumbling and it's not missing any bricks! It is nicer than 99% of houses right here.

One of my reading spots :)

 This is my bedroom on a typical day. No storage except for a rod and a shelf (that's the closet) So I stack or pile things on the floor, or in my suitcase... but that's not weird, just normal life for me! 

Right mom?

    

Other side of my room. That's my closet on the left.

 My roommate's room on a typical day. We can all see who's the messy one here. Also, bugs love her. Mosquitoes especially. I've been bitten.. probably less than 50 times since we've come here. She gets mosquito bites on a regular basis, so she invested in a mosquito net, that beautiful blue thing.

Our living room! The couches aren't ours, we just got them a month ago. Another couple on our mission team moved from a different area to here, into one of those really tiny homes (actually built by Habitat for Humanity), and they're renovating, so we currently have their living room furniture! It won't all fit in their house even when they're done, so we might keep one or two things. Our normal living room is plastic chairs, and 2 chairs like that one on the left in the photo. Most people in this area don't have a living room, or couches. The piano I just carried over today, from another family on the team here. They're on furlough for the next couple months so I get their piano.

 Our washroom. Quite adequate

One very new thing for me: electricity in the shower. Hot water tanks are very rare, so if you have 'hot' water for the shower, it's because you have a heater attached on your showerhead. Hot water, that's really a joke, it's just not freezing cold. This means I really don't like showers so they are few and far between. Also, because of the setup, it means you shock yourself when you turn the water off in the shower. Funnnn.

 Kitchen. Borrowed a deep fryer from the neighbours today, we're going to make rollkuchen tonight! And I bought a massive watermelon and carried it home on the moto (motorcycle taxi), it was precarious. Our countertop is marble, which is normal here. Your options are marble or cement, or a combo of both. Again you'll notice that storage is not like North Americans. No cupboards, no closed shelves.

 Other side of the kitchen. I am thankful for a fridge even this large, at my previous guesthouse I just had a mini fridge!

 All of our dishes, utensils, bakeware, etc. This is it.

 The back of the house.

 Front of the house, with a hammock

 If you were to come to my house, this is the way into the yard. Everyone has brick fences, or wire fences. Very little is left just open.

That fuzzy looking waviness up there... that is our special ceiling. This is popular, apparently among some of the Mennonites here. And this house was built by some of this kind. How was it made, you might ask? It's not a tile, or laminate. It's from an oil lamp. That is oil and smudge and smoke marks on the ceiling. Special indeed.

And that is our house! It's not cozy, or North American 'normal,' but it is richness indeed here.

my 'secret'

I'm on the schedule to do the message for chapel tomorrow morning. I've run out of Francis Chan messages in spanish, and I was hit with a brainwave (aka lightbulb from God?) that I should share my testimony. So I've been hammering away after Spanish class tonight, trying to say the right thing, the relevant thing. As always, God better be in this. He has proven many times, especially in public speaking at camp, that even though I feel nauseous up there,  that he can somehow put the right words in my mouth. Here's the end of my testimony, where I share my secret for life. (Ha! Yikes. Not a crazy secret or anything)

How do I live with this garbage[people dying, hard jobs, being alone, feeling lost, bullying, etc]? This is my secret. I remember that God is faithful. That he is all knowing and all powerful. He LOVES me. He knows best. When hard things happen, I cry, I dig deep into God’s Word, and I read what he tells me. He reminds me that he has it under control. He reminds me that I am weak, but that when I trust in him, I am strong. I don’t always understand, because I am just a little human. But he is GOD. So I trust him.

Ps 46:1-2

God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not be afraid! Even though the earth crumbles and the mountains fall to the bottom of the sea.

  
If you want to, please pray I will be clear and God-honouring, and that they will be encouraged and challenged.

Musica Intervalos and Ultimate Frisbee!

Is it interesting to know what I'm teaching my students? I don't know. In secondaria (high school - grade 7 to 12), for the past month or so, we've been working on musical intervals. The space between 2 notes. So if you look at 2 notes on a staff, you should be able to sing the correct difference between them without first hearing it on a piano. Most students can draw and label intervals with no problems, but listening to them and correctly labeling them is hard, and singing them is virtually impossible (so we don't do the singing of them very much right now). Here's the test they had to do this week! The Spanish instructions are VERY basic, don't judge my bad sentences.

 

In my gym classes, I have introduced Frisbee in the last couple weeks, and last week, once I thought they could catch and throw somewhat adequately, we started ultimate frisbee! They were alll skeptical at first, because it's not soccer! Here, literally they spend 98% of gym classes playing soccer, and a tiny bit volleyball and track and field. Which is alright for the people that like soccer, but not all of them do! Anyways, all of my students got into ultimate frisbee, ALL of them! Now my 3 frisbees that I have here are booked all the time, they go home with students every evening, they're taken at recess, and people come borrow them from my house on the weekends! My family will be sending more soon:) 

No school today - and it's not a snow day

Woke up today, went to school like normal at 7 (actually I was running late so 7:15). School starts at 730, but today there were only 5 teachers at school, instead of the normal 18 or so. Another bloqeo (road block, truckers on strike) popped up, between my village and 2 towns away, Pailas. So that's at least 5-10 miles of trucks. All our teachers that live anywhere far away from the village couldn't make it in, so school was cancelled. Me and two other teachers walked a mile or so to see the edge of the bloceo. Not as bad as it could be, there was one lane up right there. But in some spots further down it was completely blocked up. Bolivia!

high school soccer competition and bolivian reputations

Well last week, I taught all of 5 periods at school. Monday and Tuesday were holidays. Tuesday was also the high school track competition. We had 7 or so girls, and a few guys. Our girls dominated everything that they entered it, taking 1, 2, 3rd place in long jump and 100m, 1st in javelin, shotput.. and some others that I can't remember. Boys were respectable, but only a one will be moving on to the next level of competition. Wednesday through Saturday were spent at the high school soccer competition. I am the assistant coach for the girls team, or else I wouldn't have been there quite so much! (I just taught a few classes on Friday because our game was in the afternoon.)

3 games in regular play, 2 wins and 1 tie. Won semis, and won finals. That is the farthest this school has EVER gotten, everyone is beyond excited. This was the equivalent of zones in Manitoba, like a district/municipality. It was called Plurinacionales. The next level, where we go away for a week, is regionals. Then provincials, then nationals. We have lots of time to practice before then, I think that's in August.

Something that I think is different than in North America.. here your reputation and the respect you get in the community is based on accomplishments and belongs. And status is very important. What this means for soccer is: coaches will do almost whatever it takes to win. To lose a game is not necessarily a reflection on the players, but the coach must be a cheap, lazy bum. We had high school coaches getting into actual fistfights. Bribery is a possibility. One of my students told me "if you pay the ref 100bs we'll win the game." When you WIN a game, those players are celebrities. Everyone wants a picture with the players (seriously people were treating them like celebrities). I did a radio interview, through a translator. Now the head coach of our team, who is known in the community from athletic events over the years, is a very respected man. Also, there were no female coaches, in the 30 plus teams there, except for me. Apparently as soon as anything gets competitive, there are no females. I am white, blond (ish), yelling in English, AND female. So I was a weird one.

Another interesting thing I observed was how EMOTIONAL everyone is. Yes I guess it's Latin America culture, but it still caught me by surprise. When we won semis (in a shootout, one shooter more than the starting 5!), the girls looked like they lost. They were bawling, and not happy/laughing. It was weird. My North American colleague was asked if she cried, and she was like.. ummm no? Why? Ha so there's that.

 We're yellow and blue and red. Go Villa Nueva

 In addition to track and soccer this week, there was also pingpong and chess competitions. The two boys in red and white stripes are from Villa Nueva as well. Made it to semis.

After winning semis in a shootout. I wish you could see the tears!

 Playing in finals, on a much bigger field. (This one would be regular size at home)

 Our audience at the beginning. By the end it was jam packed.

 Winning finals.

 The team

 One of our team member's mom and grandma owns a bakery and had us over cake. Bolivians don't make naturally 'moist' cakes here, they're all dry. So they bake them, pour sugar water over them (for moisture), and then freeze them. So the moistness is... interesting. But they were beautiful and delicious.