Day Off!

The department of Santa Cruz had a strike on Tuesday. That means that buisnesses shut down for the day and there is no transportation without special permits. Basically for us, it boils down to having a restful day at home! We often joke at the Learning Center that we don't have snow days; rather, we have strike and flood days! In the morning, Gerson and I slept in, watched some Olympics (which, by the way, made us sad when Brazil lost to Argentina in the semi-final soccer game), and had lasagna for lunch.

Then we got adventuresome and decided to venture out into the world on foot. Our friends, Chad and Emily Jackson, live about 3 kilometers from us. Although it was prohibited to drive anywhere without special permission, many people were out on bikes or taking walks. We joined the throng of people along the car-deserted divided highway. My sneaky husband snapped this picture of me when I wasn't looking. You can see Baby Tejeda is growing!

As we walked along, we stopped to take some fun pictures. This is part of a Bolivian restaurant chain. Toby's is a hamburger/french fries fast-food type of restaurant. There are days I crave a good hamburger. As you can, Toby's was closed, along with everything else in Santa Cruz. I knocked on the metal wall, hoping for service, but to no avail! Needless to say, I didn't get my hamburger! Good think we had just eaten lasagna!

Along the way, we hit a small roadblock. These tires and branches were placed in the road to discourage vehicles from driving. We saw several vehicles have to turn around when they got to this intersection. We had no trouble walking across the blockade. The people "manning" it were peaceful. In fact, they were sitting at tables playing cards! When cars would come by, they'd just whistle at them and motion for them to turn around. All the cars we saw obeyed the blockaders and didn't cause any confrontations or problems.

We FINALLY arrived at the Jackson home. This is Chad with his dog, Sage. (We actually dogsat Sage during the summer months when the Jacksons went home to Montana for the summer.)Anyway, we had forgotten that the Jacksons had moved to a new home since they'd come back, so we had to take a detour to another missionary family's home to get directions to the Jackson's new place. We finally found it. I have to admit, after the 3 kilometer walk, the detour, and the photo shoots, I was tuckered by the time we arrived!

But, I had enough energy to enjoy Cade once again! It so happens, that the Jackson's turned out to be Grand Central Station! We arrived first, and a little while later the other missionaries from their mission (Evangelical) arrived. We also had other neighbors from the same neighborhood, pop in out of the house all afternoon! It was a lot of fun, never knowing who was coming and going.

What did we all do? Well, we played ping-pong and "danced" with the X-Box (pictured above) and realized most of us have absolutely no rhythm. It was quite funny! The guys ended up playing a game of Settlers of Catan while we ladies sat in the kitchen looking at decorating magazine (Pottery Barn) and "decorating" each other's houses! It's always fun to "spend" other people's money for them! We ended the night with Emily cooking chili and Jenny going home for her leftover Pepperoni Pizzaz. Emily also provided cheese and crackers for Gerson who wanted a lighter supper. By the time we went home at 8:30 that evening, the roadblocks had been lifted and Jenny was kind enough to drive us home. It was a wonderful day of fellowship! We all felt like it was Christmas or Thanksgiving --- definitely a holiday spirit. We are so thankful for the friends and missionary family God has given us here in Bolivia!

First Day of School

I realize I have had many first days of school! However, this was Baby Tejeda's first day of school! :) Gerson snapped this picture when I was on my way out the door to school on Monday, Aug. 11, for the first day of the 2008 - 2009 school year. You can't hardly tell Baby Tejeda is there, but he is! He'll make his presence more and more known in the months to come!

This is the path I walk to get to school. As you can see, it's kept nicely mowed for us -- most of the time. I've always felt safe on this "cow" path. Although it's not in this picture, there is a little house off to the right where a family used to live. They owned cows, pigs, dogs, and I even saw goats a time or two!

The worst hazzard I have even encountered on this path was a cow who refused to move out of my way and ended up butting me with his head! I lived to tell about it! Evidently it didn't like that I was invading its personal space! The next worse hazzard I encounter daily on my walk is LARGE cow pies. As long as I keep my eyes opened wide, I can usually avoid them!

Sadly, we found out last week that the property has been sold. This is of great concern to us as we were given special permission by the owners of the land to walk through their property. We are now in the process of trying to figure out who owns the land NOW and how that will affect our daily trecks to and from school. We miss the family and all their animals. It's just not the same anymore!

Classroom Views

Well, folks, here it is. This is where I spend my days now that school has begun. This is the view of the classroom as I enter through the door. Notice, Keetha, that I use a whiteboard! :)

This is the the writing corner. I have the 6 triats of writing posted up for all to see, as well as the editing symbols. I printed these small "posters" off the internet, glued them onto some construction paper, and had them laminated. Talk about decorating at the last minute! I'm so thankful for the internet. What did teachers in the "olden days" do? Also, I use the little white board to write down assignments each day.

This is the other writing corner. I took these large posters from the poster box in the book room. Thanks for the chair, Emily! Didn't you used to have a couch, too? What happened to it?

Here are Emily's beautiful cabinets at the back of the classroom! I'm taking good care of them, Em! The posters in the back of the room were borrowed from various places! I went scavaging. It's amazing what you can find when you go a'hunting!

Heartbeat and Flash

Yeah, so you can't really SEE Baby Tejeda in this picture, but I promise that he's there. (Just so you know -- we don't KNOW it's a "he," but I can't keep just saying "it." He's a person, afterall! So, I will use the generic third person until we know better!) The irregular line near the bottom of the screen is his heartbeat! Boy, was I glad to see/hear that! Next time we'll have to take the flash off the camera so you can actually see the baby rather than the BRIGHT LIGHT!

Baby Tejeda Update

On Friday evening, Gerson and I headed to the doctor´s office for my checkup. I was supposed to have an ultrasound, which is why Gerson was going with me. We´ve learned that for all of our sakes it´s best if he doesn´t go if it´s just for a regular blood pressure, weight checkup. He gets uptight with the WAIT. So, we agreed he´d only go when there was an ultrasound scheduled.

Well, on the way there I had a funny feeling that the doctor wouldn´t want to give me an ultrasound. Knowing my husband as I do, I realized he was my best advocate for getting an ultrasound done. You see, he´s MUCH more assertive than I! I don´t want to put anyone out, while he is pretty verbal about what he thinks should happen! Realizing this difference in our personalities, I shared with him my thought that I thought the doc would ¨back out¨of the ultrasound. I asked him to NOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN!

Why did it matter so much? First of all, it's our first baby so I'm not sure what should be happening and everything is new. I neeed assurance that all is well. Secondly, since Gerson was with me and he had rearranged his schedule to go with me, I knew it was important that this be an ultrasound visit or I'd not hear the end of it!

It was a good thing my woman's intuition kicked in so I had time to ask my husband to be assertive for me. When we entered the doctor's office, she was in hurry to get through the appointment and head home. She even had even ordered her supper from a local cafe and had it waiting on her desk in a bag to take home to eat! She took my blood pressure and measured my stomach. Then she tried to find the baby's hearbeat. When she couldn't hear the baby's heartbeat on the little hand monitor, I reminded her (very gently, of course) that we had an ultrasound scheduled. She replied, "I don't have time tonight." I looked at my handsome husband -- I'm sure with quite a pitiful pleading look -- and he spoke up for me! He INSISTED that she do an ultrasound to give us peace of mind!

The doc could tell Gerson wasn't playing around. She got on the phone, made sure the ultrasound room was ready for us, and herded us out of her office. We got our ultrasound!!!

The good news is that we did indeed hear the strong heartbeat of the baby. We also got to see the arms, legs, head, and little body. This baby is quite the mover! The doctor assured us the baby is growing normally and all is well. Praise the Lord!

The disappointing news is that we still aren't sure whether it's a boy or a girl. At first, we all saw "something" and automatically assumed it was a boy! However, after moving the camera a bit, the doctor discovered that the umbilical cord was right there and that MIGHT have been what we had seen. She finally declared it "inconclussive" as far as the gender of the baby. Maybe next time!!

But, we are thrilled the baby is developing and growing normally. I've felt a few movements, but I'm anxious to feel it more regularly. Tomorrow I'll be at 20 weeks, so we're halfway there! Thanks to all of you who are praying for us! We appreciate it!