Randomness

Well, Friends, our lives have not been too exciting this week. That's not a bad thing, but it does leave one to wonder what to post about on the blog. Last night Gerson and I were looking through our photo files on the computer. We had a great time recalling wonderful memories and laughing about all our antics. We decided to share some of them with you! Remember, all of these things happened awhile back -- they are not current! Hope you enjoy the randomness in the next three posts!

Do you see a resemblance?

Cream with coffee . . . white chocolate with dark chocolate . . . white sugar and brown sugar . . .

Dark meat and white meat! These are the two doves we see almost every week as we enter church. Gerson and I have joked since we first saw them that they were two love birds -- one dark and one white -- just like us! We've adopted them as "our doves!" Aren't they cute? Can you see the resemblance?

Famous Faces

No, I´m not the famous one in the picture. Rather, the man standing between Gerson´s dad and sister is the well-known face. Who is he? The ex-president of Bolivia! Silvana, Gerson's sister, had to travel for a basketball game. We took her to the airport, and to our surprise, the former president was on her same flight! The whole basketball team surrounded him for a picture. Then Gerson convinced me to join his dad and sister for a picture. I thought, "Why not?" So, here I am with a former president!

Another time Gerson and I were at the Butterfly Farm (a truly beautiful place!) on a rare day off for both of us. On our way out to the car, Gerson spotted the man above. I had NO idea who he was. Gerson explained he was a former Bolivian soccer player who was now coaching. Only later did we find out he is actually the coach of our Bolivian national team! Gerson was thrilled to get a picture with him!

Flying Ants, a Delicacy?

Those aren´t beans. They are ants. Way back when we were dating, I learned the Gerson thinks these are a delicacy. These flying ants, as they were described to me, are ¨in season¨ (sounds like a fruit, doesn´t it?) during a certain time of the year. I guess that´s when they ¨fly through the area¨? Anyway, many Bolivians catch these flying ants, pull off the backside of them (what part of the bug is that, Keetha?), and fry them up! They serve them over rice!

I have to admit I didn´t really relish the thought of eating one of these bugs, but since my husband thinks they are soooo good, I finally gave in and ate ONE. Don´t worry, it was well cooked! I have to say, I´ve never had a craving for these little critters! When in Rome, do as the Romans . . . . .

Surprise Visit!

This is called a garafa. It is a gas tank we use to run our stoves here in Bolivia. Due to a small, but real, risk of explosion, we keep the garafas chained up outside our homes. A hose is used to move the gas to the kitchen when we need to cook. As you can see, we keep a chain and padlock on our garafa. If we don't, they tend to "walk away."

On Friday morning I got up and started to cook breakfast for Gerson and me. Much to my surprise, my stove wouldn't light. At first I blamed Gerson, since I had asked him several times over the last few weeks to refill our extra garafa because I knew this one was running dry. However, when he went to unlock the garafa to take it to get a refill so he could have his breakfast, imagine his surprise to find the padlack snapped open and the gafafa gone!

We quickly realized we had been robbed in the night. We have a fence around our property. Gerson decided to take our extra garafa for a refill (he still wanted breakfast!). While he was gone, I walked the property behind our house and found a HUGE hole snipped in our fence. The picture above is of the fence once it was fixed again! I was so shocked by it all, I forgot to take a picture of the hole! (I know, Keetha. The cardinal sin of a blogger -- to FORGET such an important picture!)

We called Gerson's dad to come and mend the hole. If you look closely at the wire fence in the picture, you can see where he had to wire it back together. By the way, we weren't the only ones robbed! Our neighbor, Miriam, also had her stolen that night!

Through this all, I realized I haven't even posted pictures of where we live. So, I'm taking this opportunity to do that as well. This is our home -- but we only live in about 1/3 of it! This house is divided into 2 apartments. We live on the side with the doghouse. It is a 3 room apartment (not including the bathroom) -- a living room (right inside the door, with the 2 windows, one on each outside wall), the kitchen/dining room (which has no windows and is the middle room), the bedroom (the last window you see on the far left) and a bathroom off the bedroom (with the window above the doghouse). It's a small little place, but it's cozy for the two of us. Miriam lives on the other side of the house.

This is also part of the property. Think of this as a picture taken from our small porch. As you can see, we have several other buildings on the property. The buiding beside the large truck also has 2 small apartmentes. The other building on the left side of the picture has 3 apartments, with the biggest one being in the middle. We have lots of neighbors -- all WGM missionaries and a lot of them teachers at the Learning Center.

This and That

Sorry I´ve been silent for several days. We´ve been having computer issues. Thankfully, yesterday we had a computer wiz come over and he got our computer up and running again!

What I have been doing the last few days? Well, we've had several work teams who have been able to take some luggage back to the States for us. When you consider that we'll be moving back in February and each of us has a 2 piece luggage allowance, that's not much when we're moving our whole life to another continent! So, I've been sorting, organizing, throwing away, and packing. It's kind of refreshing! So far we've been able to send 3 trunks of stuff (mostly sentimental things like photo albums, baby blankets, wedding gifts) to the States with teams. Thanks, Liz, for "housing" our goods til we get "home!" It's hard when you can't move with a U-Haul!

I've also been spending some time working on lesson plans for the new classes I will be teaching in August. It's hard to believe school starts in just 2 weeks! Where does the time go? As it stands for now, one of the classes I will be teaching is the 10th grade writing class. It's new to the curriuclum, so I'm kind of going in blind. We have a new book and I'm the first teacher to teach it! Please pray for me as I find my way!

I was also told I would be teaching Eastern World Geography to the 7th and 8th graders. I've always like geography, although I'd much rather teach about the Western World! I will be learning right alongide my students! Pray for creativity as I teach this class!

Now, this is MAY be subject to change. I am one of the teachers who is somewhat flexible with my schedule. I did request to teach part-time since I will only be around for one semester. However, we have a huge teacher shortage at the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center. If you know of anyone who is willing to come to Bolivia to teach for a year (the downside is we raise our own support), please let me know. Below I will list our current needs as I know them to be at this point. Even if you don't know of anyone, please keep these needs in prayer, as school is starting soon!

Teaching Needs:

1st grade

6th grade Language Arts

Jr. High Bible

High School Bible

High School English

Other Staff Needs:

Elemantary Principal

Elemantary Chaplain