My 8 Monkeys

October 7, 2011 

            This morning I groggily stumbled into the boys room a few minutes before 6 a.m.   I started shaking the boys and saying “tiempo para levantarse!” It’s time to wake up!  As I passed by Ivan’s bed I noticed something white attached to the back of his pants.  I looked closer and saw that it was a white cord/rope tied to his back pant loop.  I pointed at it and said all I could think of in Spanish, “que?” … “what?” Immediately the boys burst into giggles, hiding their faces as they made their beds.  At this point I was beginning to catch on but wanted to hear it from them, “que?” I asked again.  I made out one word through Ivan’s giggles: “monos.” At that I couldn’t help from bursting into laughter myself.  In a couple seconds I went from being groggy and half asleep to wide awake and trying to control my laughter.  I looked around the room to discover that almost all 8 of my little boys had white “tails” attached to their pants and had apparently been doing a whole lot more than sleeping after we put them to bed last night!  My little monkeys.  Each day I am amazed by how industrious these kids are.  They come up with the most unique ways to entertain themselves.  They build damns in the creek to create a pool to go fishing, they build kites out of sticks and garbage bags, they build forts in the jungle out of tree branches and rocks, they make little houses out of the old orange bags, they even build contraptions to try to lock their room from the inside – which their mothers are endlessly having to break.  Throughout the day today the kids ran around with their monkey tails, I even saw some of them take off to school with their white tails tucked into their pants. It made me smile to see my little monkeys chasing each other around and trying to catch each others tails.  I may or may not have “accidently” stepped on a couple tails today too… which of course caused great yelps of “pain.” ;)   

We are working on Miguel(left), he doesn't like to smile much

 October 3, 2011

Another rough day.  I guess a normal day is a rough day here.  Each day seems more exhausting than the day before.  This morning after the kids went to school Erin and I got ready to begin building the brick covering for the generator, but on our way over there Melissa stopped me and asked if I could finish her batch of bread for her because she had to take an unplanned trip to town.  I’ve made bread at home but this was the first time to make it here.  I’m really beginning to realize that absolutely everything you do here is harder and more complicated than what I’m used to at home.  Instead of the bread machine I’m used to at home to mix up the bread, it is all by hand here.  After adding flour and kneading it for what felt like ages, I rolled it into little balls and put it on pans to bake.  Baking here is a whole new adventure: they use a huge igloo shaped dirt and brick oven out behind the kitchen.  Attached to the “igloo” oven is a fire that must be kept at a certain temperature in order to be hot enough to bake the bread.  It has to be extremely hot, but no flames or else the bread turns black.  It is quite a process to break a batch of bread, I didn’t realize how simple making bread at home is until coming here.  Another obstacle I’m trying to get used to is the whole no water on campus ordeal.  Right about the time I was getting used to showers, washing clothes, doing dishes and everything that requires water with the little spigot out behind our house… and now the water doesn’t work.  At first I thought it was just temporary, but I asked around and found out that this is what happens during the dry season (which last several months!)  Clean water is like gold now.  When the spigot isn’t working, which is almost all the time, we have to pump water from the one pump on campus.  Long lines form at the pump because it’s the only place for the over 100 people on campus to get any water.  As of now I still have some water saved from when the spigot was working, but when it runs out the only option is the pump – which often is pretty dirty water.  Another thing I’ve always taken for granted at home: water. 

           

This afternoon alone felt like a whole week.  Our kids were having major problems cooperating today.  Guerrmo causes the most problems.  He pees his bed every night so we require him to wash his blanket every day.  Today he refused to do any of his chores.  His chores have been piling up: 3 days behind in homework, wipe and sweep under the table after the meals today, clean his blanket, clean under his bed, wash all of his clothes.  When he wouldn’t obey we took him outside in the hot sun, gave him a machete and told him to cut the grass.  After a long while of watching him, and chasing after him when he tried running away he finally slowly started cutting the grass.  With no water working, washing clothes and dishes is a whole new story.  It takes the boys ages to pump all the water.  Edwin, the work director at Familia Feliz, told Erin and I this afternoon that we are assigned to help the man who is working on our new bathrooms from 1:30 to 5:30 every afternoon from now on.  The kids are back from school at that time so I think we will be trading off, one watching the kids, one laying bricks for the bathrooms.  It’s going to be a lot of work, but it will be a huge blessing to finally have our own bathroom when it is finished.

Yesterday I had a really good conversation with Missy (Melissa Harding, founded Familia Feliz 6 years ago) she is 29 and has been in Bolivia since she started the orphanage.  She is in the process of adopting her 9^th and 10^th child here in Bolivia.  Her house is at the center of campus, she is one of the directors of the orphanage while mothering and home schooling her children.  Being here for only 2 weeks now, I am in awe of what Missy has done.  It’s been such a huge culture shock for me, never in my life have I lived even close to how people live here.  It was really good for me to talk with Missy, she explained to me that coming here and living in a place like this you have to accept that it is new and different and not compare it to life at home.  It’s a new place, a new experience and it will never be like what I’m used to at home.  She is right, I can’t think of any similarities between this place and home!  She says a lot of it has to do with mindset.  I am doing my best to not have the mindset of what I’m missing here, but accept and appreciate it for what it is… it can be really difficult.  It is definitely hard to get used to EVERYTHING making you sick.  All it takes is an unwashed piece of lettuce (or even washed under the pump) and before you know it you have Salmonella.  I’m hoping I’m still in the adjustment phase and my body will become accustomed, but so far there has been very few days when my stomach hasn’t felt queasy. I am trying to get used to a whole different standard of cleanliness as well.  It is still the beginning of the journey, I continue to tell myself “one day at a time.”  I miss and love you all.  

Swimming with the Chicos :)

October 2, 2011

Today was one of the best days I’ve had so far since I got to Bolivia.  Usually Sunday’s are long days, no school and we have the kids all day long.  Today was different – we took the kids to town with us!  The boys are in love with swimming, they ask us every day if they can go swimming in the river.  We thought it would be especially fun for them to go swimming at the nice, clean pool in town.  They absolutely loved it!  For many of them it was their first time swimming in a pool.  We played there for most of the afternoon, it was amazing to swim in clean water for the first time since I’ve been here.  The boys are quite playful and sneaky.  When Erin and I were taking a break from swimming, sitting on the side of the pool they snuck up behind us and pushed us over the edge – thus beginning a massive water fight in which we had a hard time catching and throwing them in because they were so slippery!  It was a fun, carefree time with the boys.  After swimming we took them across the street to Cherries Ice Cream, the Ice Cream shop that Erin and I go to pretty much every time we are in town.  Then we headed to the Sunday market.  On Sundays the street by the river is full of different booths and little shops.  There are all sort of different stands, fruit, veggies, meats, spices, clothes, shoes, shower and cleaning supplies, and random trinkets.  We got the boys one of their favorite treats, Rice Balls.  They are round balls of rice with an egg in the middle.  I had some things I needed to find, it was an interesting situation trying to explain to the different stands that I need Bleach.  I used the Spanish word for it but maybe I wasn’t pronouncing it correctly or something because all I got was blank stares.  The boys tried to help me out but they couldn’t figure out what I was trying to find.  Eventually Jose, one of my oldest boys realized what I was looking for and he helped me find it.  It was fun having the boys along and taking them around town, it is very seldom that they get to go to town.  It was also stressful to keep track of all 8 of them going in between all the crowded stands, luckily we didn’t have any mishaps in the market.  Erin and I stopped in a little shop on our way back to meet the truck, they had Oreos and peanut M&M’s there… immediately reminding us of home!  I got some peanut M&M’s, I don’t even like them much but they are one thing here that look and taste like home so I just wanted them. Once we got back to the orphanage I could tell the kids played hard, they were all quite sleepy even before they had their dinner.  As soon as they finished dinner we put them in bed and in no time all 8 were asleep.  It was such a treat to get away for a day and spend time in the pool, it’s definitely been marked in our heads for many return trips in the future! 

Perspective

September 29, 2011

Today has been a rough day.  I continue to remind myself I am still in the early stages of this venture, yet it is difficult to not become totally overwhelmed.  All day thoughts of family, friends, home and life in the United States of America filled my mind.  It is like a completely different world here.  Time passes by so very slowly, and it’s hard not to think about home.  Today I began to realize something that I’ve always known to some degree, but was really emphasized today.  It’s amazing how many things in my life I take for granted.  At home I remember complaining when my showers are too hot or too cold or not long enough or not at a convenient time ect ect, and being here has made me realize how easy showers at home really are.  Showers are not easy in the jungles of Bolivia.  When we first moved out to our little house with the boys, I was bummed about not having a bathroom or shower, having to use the spigot out back for showers and walk to the other girls bathrooms.  Now, I am in LOVE with our little spigot out back!  Simple reason: water has been slowly running out all around the orphanage, it’s the dry season, it’s been a while since it has rained.  I just found out today that during the dry season the only place we can always count on water is at the one pump on campus, which is often dirty water.  Our spigot is a multipurpose spigot and when it’s not working it means we send the kids to pump water to brush their teeth, take showers, wash the dishes, and wash their clothes.  Tonight Erin and I had our first “shower” over by the pump… and after that experience I officially love our little spigot.  All the sudden it became a treat in my mind whenever that little spigot is working!  Later, right before bed I ran to check if there was any water yet, when I found water I immediately decided to take advantage of the water while it’s here and I took another, better shower.  Another thing that comes to mind thinking about home is how I sometimes snap at a sister or brother who turns on or off a light when I’m using it.  For example when I’m about to fall asleep I don’t enjoy a bright light being turned on by my head.  Or when I’m reading under a light I don’t usually enjoy it being turned off and the room turning pitch black.  Now I would be quite pleased to have light of any kind at any time, how nice it would be to have control of when the lights work and don’t work! These past few days there has been a strike and a roadblock up the road a ways from Familia Feliz, it is the main road that comes in toward Rurrenabaque from La Paz, Santa Cruz, all the big cities around.  Because of the roadblock gas trucks weren’t able to get through to Rurrenabaque and there has been a shortage of gas in this area.  Usually the generator only runs a few hours a day but without gas it can’t run at all, which means no electricity at Familia Feliz.  They say roadblocks and strikes happen quite often around here and we start running low on food and water too if they last long enough.  Luckily this one ended and we were able to get more gas today.  All these things just made me realize, as I was standing out back washing my hair under our little spigot, hearing the noises of the jungle and the generator working again to light our little houses – I was so happy to be showering under a spigot and to have light shining from my house.  These things that I have taken for granted my whole life felt like luxury to have at the same time.  Perspective.