q frio santa cruz

days left in santa cruz=3 days til j-town=10

wow it is so cold that i can see my breath while i type this. ok maybe that´s an untruth, but yesterday i could see my breath in the house, on the micro, outside, everywhere pretty much. the newspaper says that monday will be the coldest day in july in 29 years...3 degrees Celcius (ay señor! exlaimed papi). that´s probably around 36 degrees F. holy my body will be an ice cube. i know the majority of my reading audience is from the cold state of michigan and may be thinking "wow corrie has turned into a softie," but you are going through a hot summer and your houses have furnaces! here homes are made to keep the heat out - high ceilings, single paned windows that don´t close, tile floors, etc. and no we don´t have furnaces or heaters. the only place that is warm is bed, if you wear 2 pairs of socks 3 sweaters 2 pairs of pants and a hat. which i have been doing. a plus is that we break often to drink hot drinks. so i´ve been drinking coffee, choco-like, and api all day. api is a hot drink made out of purple corn with lots of sugar and cinammon. yum.

my last day at cento menno was wednesday. we celebrated with some pie and it wasn´t too busy, which was nice because i suddenly remembered all the things i said i would do before i left that i still had to do! hopefully i left good enough instructions and a clean desk! had one last crazy request that made a good end to my time at centro menno. someone called 3 different times telling us "hola yo necesito una avioneta." yes, they were asking for an airplane. they didn´t want to buy one, just borrow it to fly from san jose to santa cruz. the first time they called i thought they were asking for a vagoneta, a kind of taxi, so i explained that we were an office with a library and newspapers and hung up. the second caller spoke in low german and we told him no and suggested he call someone else. the third time a woman called an spoke very s-l-o-w-l-y and clearly to make sure i understood she needed an airplane. i ended up cracking up on the phone and apologizing for our lack of airplanes.

since today is so cold, the normal saturday afternoon of watching fútbol all day is canceled. but tonight i am having my despedida (goodbye party) with my host family at a restaurant popular for its ice cream. we may have to pass on dessert. so unreal. and tomorrow i will move out and they will drive me to MCC where we will have a little coffee time and say our goodbyes. also unreal and really sad. ok don´t want to think about that anymore!

we fly out july 21 at 1:30am, have a layover in miami, and will arrive in philly around 6pm. i will be in akron, pa until july 26 for re-entry and will be home july 27. huzzah!

michigan seems like a dream to me now...

you sang it simon/garfunkel. it is now july. i will be leaving santa cruz july 21 at 1:30am. and the goodbye process has already begun. i´ve filled out end-of-term reports, trained kathy to take over, and have had 1 goodbye dinner. and my host niece natalia is very excited about the potential drama that takes place with goodbyes and has filled my cell-phone inbox with late night text messages of TKM (te quiero mucho) and constantly reminds i will NEVER know how much she will miss me. part of me is grateful that all of this is forcing me to own up to the fact that i am leaving and to prepare myself for it. but part of me still wants to pretend i´m not going anywhere so i won´t have to say goodbye to people that have become such an important part of my life.

but i am having a fun last few weeks spending time with my host family and friends and enjoying "normal" life that may not seem so normal in a month.

kathy and i completely captivated with packaging the menno bote =>

mundial! seems like we are either watching a game or talking about it. it´s awesome. there is a big screen set up in the plaza and on one sunday afternoon i watched some of a brazil game here. the fans are crazy.

we visited a mennonite cheese factory where they make 600 kilos of mozarella cheese every day! i don´t know what i was expecting, but i felt let down when there were just a couple of guys stirring big tubs of milk.

but the cheese was delicious!

and the link below is the yearbook for the SALT year 2009-2010. SALT volunteers from all over the world wrote about their experiences and sent in pictures. ignore what i wrote because i sound like a complete loser, but they other SALTers have a lot of insight to offer.

http://salt.mcc.org/SALTyearbook_2010.pdf

down on the farm

i took a weekend trip to the colony Canadiense 2 (canadian 2) and stayed with the Falk family.

it was nice to be in the country and enjoy the slow-paced lifestyle. the food was delicious (cake at every meal!), the weather beautiful, and the family was very friendly. the father spoke spanish, but the women of the family did not. still we managed to get by. i have had 10 months of being the awkward foreigner who doesn´t really understand what´s going on, so i´m used to it.

here´s their house.

the falks are from a group of colonists who moved from Paraguay over 40 years ago. they had been extremely poor and life had been very tough for a long time, but now they are successful. they own land, cattle, milk cows, and are part owners of a store. they milk the cows twice a day and sell it to Pil, the national milk company. they all have hands the size of plates and can milk a cow with lightning speed. before i tried/failed milking, all i could think was "man i wish i had practiced this in wisconsin so i could impress them" but nope i am just a city slicker. after pushing the milk back up the cow for a couple minutes, i managed to get a weak stream going.

Sunday was their annual dankfest, or thanksgiving celebration for their church. the falks are part of an evangelical church, not the colony church, that has been around for almost 2 years. i helped clean the church saturday afternoon and the youth group decorated it with real fruit creations. there was a morning service, lunch, and then an afternoon program. the sunday school sang some songs, recited bible verses, and played the piano. then leaders of the community went to the pulpit and talked about the move from Paraguay, colony life, conversion experiences, and funny anecdotes. i really wish i could have understood what they were saying. a woman who knew english would randomly translate for me.

after the program we had a feast of fresh fruit. delicious! a volleyball net was set up and the youth played. plenty of chatting and tereré drinking. a few english speaking women found me so i had some pleasant coversations and felt welcomed. it was a long day, 9am-5pm. so i crashed when we got back and missed the milking! and i headed back to santa cruz monday morning with the trufi taxi service.

it was a good experience, i´m glad i went. but i´m also glad it´s over with. even though i didn´t speak low german and the mother knew a little spanish, we still enjoyed each others´company and shared matté. and i got to see a glimpse of what life is like for the people that come into Centro Menno. and it was nice to not be the only big white person in church haha!

typical night

Right now I´m supposed to be writing my goodbye article for the Menno Bote describing my time here, but I find myself back in paper writing procrastination mode. So to get those creative thoughts flowing, I´ll write here instead.

Last night after dinner I helped my host parents study for their “parts of the body” test for their English class. I helped them with pronunciations and they taught me some new vocabulary (I know I know how did I get by 10 months without knowing the word “tobillo” – I would just point to my ankle). Some words in castellano just don´t translate exactly. For example, “manco” means without a hand or “tuerto” missing an eye. My host dad acted these words out for me with big gestures but I was sorry to say that English doesn´t have a cool words like that.

After reviewing family vocabulary words like “father in law” or “husband” (or according to papi, what corrie does not have), we got into a huge argument over the definitions of “step-brother” and “half-brother” (my host mom declared that she has 12 half brothers and 5 half sisters, which is true). It was hilarious because mami and I would explain and papi would just yell no no and try to make up his own definition and then confuse himself and not finish his thought. Trying to argue my definition was also way confusing since I just learned those words in Spanish, so I finally just gave up. We were at a stalemate until mami brought out the dictionaries (sounds like an intense night of Scrabble between the aunties and gma) and all was resolved with papi exclaiming claro! (of course!) even though he had been arguing against the dictionary definition.

To end the night right we sang some English worship songs they had learned in class. When I first came here I really struggled with singing in church, but now I know most of the songs and love singing them. Trying to teach my host parents how to say the word “awesome” made me realize how wack the English language is! And now I can´t even speak it that well.

bye schroeder family

last week the (ex) directors of centro menno, hans and elma, and their kids went back to canada after 4 years of living in santa cruz. i miss them and pray for a smooth transition into a new life.




as a last hurrah we went swimming (crazy gringos swimming during winter) and had a nice dinner. then i got a hair wrap done with the girls so they could show off some bolivian fashion. but now they are gone and i just look like a hippie.






keep having interesting encounters on the street. this time a gypsy woman from argentina told me i was cursed by a witch and that´s why i´m crazy in my mind (so there is a reason!). but no worries, cuz she could bless it out of me for free. that all made me a little mad and when i spoke to my friends she would yell at me "no espeaky in inglés!" we got away, but it took our favorite ice cream treat a "fruggy" (what the what i am completely blanking on the english name - candy bits mixed in vanilla ice cream) to feel better.


i have 6 weeks left (rapidingo!), so the job search has been kicked up a few notches. if anyone knows of anything out there, please tell me.

who...me?

Saturday I went to the market to buy a pair of “camba” (pronounced with a long a like cAHmba) jeans – tight jeans with rhinestones. They are quite in style here. Arelis met me to help in the search and we felt quite elated after a successful buy. But in the midst of the celebration, we were stopped in an empty hallway by a police officer who demanded to see our documents and the reason why we were in Santa Cruz. I don´t carry anything on me (very stupid I know) since my 2 robberies. Arelis didn´t either, so we just had to insist that we are from the U.S. and are volunteers. He was convinced that we were exploited workers from Brazil. After much insisting (and eye-rolling and exasperated sighs) he finally let us go after giving us his number, making us call his phone so he would have our numbers, with the reason that we could call him if we ran into any trouble in the future. Turns out he was a _______ (fill in the blank with a word of your choice) who just wanted our numbers and may not even have been a real policeman.

That experience was frightening, embarrassing, and infuriating all mixed in with a sense of helplessness.

How outrageous, right? I mean, I was not doing anything suspicious, just shopping with a friend and contributing to society. At least I´ll never run into this at home. Oh wait, I won´t have trouble back home, but potentially thousands of people in the state that ends in “zona” will have to live in fear of harassment if a bill that was signed is not changed. The bill gives police officers the right to stop anyone they deem suspicious looking and request ID. The bill´s goal is to “identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants.” But it may open the door to racial profiling and huge abuse of power. Here´s an article that explains it more fully:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html?hp

I am not from a border state (haha I am, hi Canada!) so I admit I do not understand the situation down there. Maybe I don´t understand the situation at a national, social level or at all, which you reader are free to think. But I made a friend 2 years back whose husband is an illegal immigrant. They have a young son together and both work long hours (6 days a week for the husband) to make a life as a family. His employers know he´s illegal, they just don´t ask questions – why? Because they can make him work long hours for a lower pay then they could someone else. They have tried multiple times to make him legal (she is a U.S. Citizen) but are always denied. So he can never go home to visit his mother (whom he is also supporting). Kicking him out would not benefit anyone. I don´t think his presence is hurting anyone.

I´m confused by a couple of things. How can a people that are so proud of their “freedoms and rights” be so quick and eager to deny those same things from others? Why are people who were born on one plot of land more important or deserving then people born on another? Who decides that? Imagination time: Think of your ancestors when they got off the boat. I myself am not picturing a clean, wealthy, educated bunch of Krols. They didn´t speak the language, did not know the culture, and chose to live in an area populated by immigrants from the same country. Yet they worked hard, thrived and made a new life for themselves and the generations to follow, because they were allowed. How can we take this opportunity from others?

Being away from home makes me realize that I am very happy that I am from the U.S. I will probably dance a little jig when we land in Miami in less than 2 months. But it´s not a blind happiness. We are not perfect and as hard as it is to admit that, we need to.

update

time has been flying...it´s already wednesday. tomorrow and friday we have focus weekend. all of the mccers of bolivia get together for 2 days of meetings, workshops, and lots of eating. i was on the planning committee. although planning is not my thing and i was not too excited about my appointment, i had fun. i was in charge of kids´and bday activities, so i went to the market and bought a piñata and other stuff. i love market shopping so much i even bought myself a hardcore bolivian market day bag! i´ll probably use if for beach stuff back in michigan!

some salters and i went to samaipata for the weekend. we hiked to el fuerte, an old fortress/marketplace/religious center for the chiné, incans, spaniards, and maybe even extraterrestial beings. (maybe not, but that is the rumor)

we had a great time! then sunday was cold and slightly rainy, so we sat around in town drinking coffee and eating pan de chocolate, which to my surprise was a crossaint with a chocolate bar in the middle. probably the best innovation after dark chocolate m&ms.

we just had an open house today in cento menno for my coworkers, hans and elma. they are set to go home to canada with their 3 kids in less the 2 weeks! i will miss them because they have been great coworkers, mentors and friends!

fotos

thought this week i would show a few photos instead of blabbing on and on...
for good friday my church youth group went to a campground where we played futbol, beach volleyball (hurray!), swam, and ate churrasco. here´s los jóvenes digging in.

mcc had a "cachivachi" or second hand sale and my host mom bought a 256 piece puzzle. they called it "rompe de cabeza" - head-breaker. it took natalia, 2 of her friends, mami and I 3 days to put it together. sorry Grandma Esther, I did not inherit your puzzle skillz/patience.

so the chick has grown up and we call him "el rey" or the king. he thinks he´s a person so he doesn´t like to hang around the other chickens in the yard. instead, he likes to sleep on the grill.

my fellow salter, kristen, is a music teacher in santiago de chiquitos, a small town about 12 hours by train outside of santa cruz. for 2 weeks there was a baroque music festival in santa cruz and in the chiquiteria so there were concerts every night! her choir and orchaestra had 2 concerts in scz - this pic is from one concert.

apparently this dog was a fan of baroque music, too.

SALTers: adrienne, me, kristen, arelis, allyn. (falta kimber)

i had a dream last night that i was hanging out with people taller then me. odd, but nice. i came home last night to an epic hopscotch match between natalia and mami.

i joined in, mami won with boxes ahead and i managed to come from behind and snag second place.

foto de campeónas!

happy mother´s day mama jane! i love you!

happy bday shoutout

It seems like April (or almost April) is the month to have birthdays. While it doesn´t rank as high as some months (cough July) a lot of important people were born this month! So Happy Birthday, Feliz Cumple, and Hoffentlich Geburtstag to…

Wyath
G-ma Esther
Aunt Marcia
Jodie
Dad
Petah!

Now we have entered the “transition time” at Centro Menno. One couple left in early February, and now the second couple, Hans and Elma and their family, will leave June 1. A new family is coming next week and have about a month of overlap and training with Hans and Elma before they have language school. A couple who normally live and work out in the county have come in to the city to work in Centro Menno through June. Then my last 4 weeks here will be just me and the newbies. So in the next three months I will be the constant variable in Centro Menno. Kind of freaky since I can´t speak Low German. I am getting to the point where I can understand and then reply in Spanish, but most of the time I have to run and get help. So the people of Centro Menno could use some prayers for assistance in guidance, patience, courage, understanding, and peace of mind.

We have been bouncing from cooler, dry weather to hot and humid. Sunday was a really hot and sticky day but with wind that smelled like fall. I slathered on the spf 50 and headed off to the pool with my host mom, who swims like a fish. Upon arrival, we realized that the whole place was shut down and had no choice but to turn around and drive the dusty road home. My host sister in a very “uh duh” tone commented of course the pool was closed, it´s the cold season. I may have reached the point where I wear a sweater when it´s in the low 60s, but 90 degrees is not cold. The forecast for Friday is rain and 75 degrees! Can´t wait!

A few weeks ago, we had a reporter and photographer from MCC in North America come to give interviews and take pictures for a series of articles. Here are a couple of pictures that the photographer, Silas Crews, took of a normal day in Centro Menno.

checking out books with Elma

sending out the POST (german newspaper from Canada) with Vicky, a Bolivian who owns 2 stores with Mennonite clientele.

yo quiero taco bell

ok, not really. but i was ferociosly barked at by a rat, i mean a chihuahua ¨dog,¨ the other day and that over-used commercial line popped into my head. this is not a segway into the pervasiveness of tv into our lives (garbage in garbare out right dad?), but instead my realization that i understood the phrase. really understood it, not like ¨oh i know what that means in english¨ but i don´t have to translate it in my head. the spanish word just seems to describe the situation or feeling right. i find myself muttering spanish words as i´m working on the computer ( buscar...inciniar...ay! no funciona! caramba.) or sometimes when speaking in english the spanish word just makes more sense, like tranquillo (calm, relaxed, chill yo) or no se (i don´t know). my grammar may be horrible and i am always forgetting past tense, future, whatever, but i can kind of function. huzzah!

last week was ¨semana santa¨ or holy week, and i was excited to see what traditions and worship styles go on here. i asked my host mom what kind of things would be going on at church, for maybe Thursday or Friday night, and she looked kind of surprised and said nothing was planned, only for Sunday. and even that was whacked because el presidente made Easter Sunday election day for the govenor and mayor of the department and city of Santa Cruz. and the rules for election day is that no one is allowed to meet in groups, people can´t drive, micros don´t run, until after 5 or 6pm. And a huge tradition here is to have a sunrise service Easter morning in the soccer stadium. it usually starts around 2:30am and goes til 6am. so they moved it to thursday night/friday morning instead and i totally missed it. bummer. but on sunday night we did have a church service (sparsely attended) where we sang songs and had a sermon about the resurrection. just because it didn´t ¨feel¨ like Easter because I didn´t attend my ¨normal¨ services or eat my Cadbury cream egg, that doesn´t mean a thing. Jesus died and rose again not because I do all the right things, but because of all the wrong I do. hallelujah. thank you so much for your sacrifice and grace, Jesus.

on a shallower note, on friday i went to el campamento with the jóvenes (youths from my church. another spanish word i love more then the english one). we played soccer (reluctantly), swam, and played beach vball (hurray!) then for the reason that ¨my name came up¨/ let´s make the gringa sing! the jóvenes were demanding that i sing them a song. one guy knew how to play the backstreet boys´¨i want it that way¨ so they wanted me to sing that. while i love that song and know all the words, i cannot possibly do it justice being a one woman show instead of 4 (or 5? oh does it matter?) dancing/singing popsters, i told them i would sing it for 100 pesos. dealbreaker! i finally caved in and sang ¨Lord I Lift Your Name On High¨ with guitar accompaniment and only about 7 people watching as opposed to the whole group of 40.

and a new development...someone pointed out to me that i have weird white spots on my neck...and shoulders...at the hairline of my forehead...and at the collar line of my back. i have heard ¨que fea cardy¨(how ugly corrie) plenty of times now. right now the running speculations are sun allergy, sun damage, lack of Vitamin A, and fungus (what the what?) any other suggestions? so i have bought spf 50, will try to always walk in the shade. drink plenty of water, and get me some Vitamin A. my host dad held up 3 fingers with a shake of his head (as in sorry corrie, you only have 3 more days to live) and that was on Monday. welp we´ll see how tomorrow goes!

nbd

made a peach pie for my host dad last week for father´s day. it was my first solo attempt, and i think it went well. only weird thing is that i didn´t have cinammon powder so i just broke some cinammon sticks up and put it in the pie. but it turned out to be nice and ¨stick-y¨ sweet. (lame pun)

on sunday afternoon i went to a suprise bday party for an hermana from church. it was a hot, windy day, so we sat out under a tree and talked about how big her family was (13 daughters) while tripe (intestines, yeah that´s right and no i did not eat it) were cookin´ on the makeshift grill. then in hit me, wow this feels totally normal. i was participating in the conversation and did not feel out of place. just a usual chill sunday afternoon with people from my church.

i´ve been spending a lot of time with my host mom lately and she really helps me work on my spanish, explaining words or when to use ¨me¨ or ¨yo¨ grammar, blech. kind of a cool story. back when che guervera was trying to start a revolution in bolivia, my host parents lived in a little village in the mountains called ¨valle grande.¨ when che was captured, he was taken there and killed. they put his body out, on display i guess?, and my host mom went to see him. she said papi was gone for the day so she went by herself. she thought he was ¨ very handsome but he had a beard and was very dirty.¨ it´s pretty cool (to a history nerd) to hear a first hand story of a historical event. and i´m glad she told me now instead of back in september so i actually understood.

i also get up in the mornings at 6am to go for a walk with my host mom. she always looks nice in a dress or a skirt suit, but for our walks she wears her embroidered jeans :) it´s nice and cool in the morning and the only other people out in my neighborhood are fellow walkers. yesterday she had us run a block, walk a block, etc. and she´s 68! i hope i have her health and energy when i´m that age.

i have 7 months under my belt and 4 left to go. when i look back, it´s kinda hard to believe that a year ago i was still in school, living with friends, had a car to drive, could speak the language, etc. seems unreal. but i am looking forward to going home and being with friends and family and my own culture again. and i know time is going to fly by. the work day usually goes by pretty fast and i find plenty of things to keep me busy. i think i have to remember to not get into a comfy slump and to keep putting myself out there. keep having those awkward conversations where i forget both the spanish and english word so that i can deepen relationships here.

well i totally lost my train of thought (happens a lot here. if i am not following a conversation i just slip into corrieland) so that´s it!

wyatt!

so i had a wonderful visitor march 1-7. yes, super short only 6 days, but we had a great time. when wyatt got off the plane there was a mariachi band playing ¨viva santa cruz!¨ i told him it was for him...maybe not a full truth but definitely a grand welcome to bolivia! my host family welcomed with open arms and he stayed in our guest room. so he was able to experience most of my normal life - meal times, hanging out in the patio and not really understanding what´s going on. he was relentlessly teased by my 11 year old host neice, but everyone assured him it´s nothing personal she´s just jealous.

it was so nice to show him around, take him on my normal micro routes, show him my job, and do the couple walk around the plaze 24 de septiembre. one night we had a particularly crazy driver and that turned out to be a highlight of the city. everyone at work and my friends were really excited to meet him but since he left sunday morning he didn´t get the chance to go to church. which was apparently unfortunate because some church members said they needed to meet him in order to tell me if he was a good guy or not :)

we traveled to samaipata and went hiking in the cloud forest. turns out a family from east grand rapids was on our hike and they only live a few blocks from wyatt. small world. we also got some shopping in (in the hottest weather i´ve experienced here) and saw some local sights. we went to lomas del arena (sand dunes!) with fellow mccers. they were alot easier to climb then michigan sand dunes, but it´s super disappointing to climb a dune and not look out on lake michigan. but still made for great pics. and of course we closed out the week with a huge churasqua party (40 ministers and their wives at my house) with accordion playing and all. so in a whirlwind 6 days wyatt experienced a bit of my life!

but now i miss him and am excited for july!

and Happy Birthday Dana!

carnaval en moro moro

just got back from the market and almost got taken out by a power line. oh no it wasn't an accident, the power company was there taking lines down. only they just don't block the section of the street off or have a sign up or anything. going to buy fruit shouldn't be so exciting :P

wish this was my view everyday
what happens when you refuse a beer at 10am during carnaval

so feb. 15&16 we had off for the holiday of carnaval. things get pretty crazy in santa cruz with people throwing water balloons, paint, car grease, rocks, etc and public drunkenness everywhere, so we ( allyn, adrienne, and I) decided to head to the mountains and visit the MCC workers in Moro Moro, an 8 hour bus ride away. carnaval was still going on up there, but on a way lower level on the crazy scale.

he was so cute we refilled his water gun and let him shoot us

we had a great time and our hosts, andy and cassie. they build water systems with the people of moro moro and live the slower paced rural life. they took us on motorcycle rides on the side of the mountain (ahhh!), on hikes all over, and to a carnaval parade around the town plaza. the parade was made up of different groups who had their own live music, coordinated party shirts, and dancing. my favorite was the group for the elderly cuz man they could dance.

we also went to a morning celebration of the completion of a cow barn. people in moro moro usually just let their cows wander free, but then it can take a day or two to find the cow again and they don't really benefit from the milk. so that combined with carnaval made for quite the party. we showed up at 9:30in the AM and instantly were pressed to start drinking with them. so we just kind of held cups in our hand and poured it onto the ground for pachamama's (mother earth) blessing. and we danced to the live band of accordion and guitars. then we watched the dedicating ceremony to pachamama which entailed digging a hole with a machete and soup ladle, putting in food, drink and coca leaves and dancing over it. kind of strange to watch the combination of native andean culture and catholocism. i couldn't tell if they were hard core believers in pachamama or just perpetuated a traditional ceremony of their ancestors that's thousands of years old. but it was really interesting to watch, especially after reading and studying so much about cultural practices. we had a good time and i even ended up getting a free hat out of it!

and now wyatt comes in 5 days!!! huzzah!

wait, what´s your job?

talking with my family i realized that i don´t really write about my job. ok maybe i have once. i guess i do usually post about traveling, host fam, or random events (sidenote: last weekend we went to visit fellow salter kristen in santiago de chiquitos where she teaches music and pretty much the coolest salter there ever was. i´ll put some pics up later)

i love my job. it is both totally normal yet totally strange at the same time. Centro Menno ¨Drop-In Center¨ has a mini-bookstore, hang out area, and a library in both German and English. It´s a place for low german speaking colony mennonites to stop in while they are in town shopping or whatever. Let´s back up and i´ll explain some things. My over-arching organization I work for is Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) and Centro Menno is part of the Low German Mennonite program of MCC Bolivia. And I came as a SALT volunteer. ok awesome.
Colony Mennonites are on a wide spectrum of conservatism. The majority in Bolivia are pretty conservative because they left Canada, Mexico, and Paraguay because they wanted to hold on to their Old Colony traditions. I don´t really want to go into depth with the how and why of their beliefs because i don´t fully understand myself, but let´s just say they are kind of like the amish, but not. To really really simplify things, they chose their way of life minus modern conveniences because they believe its how God wants them to live.

Way of life and rules depend on the colony. One colony may not allow rubber tires on their tractors, so they use steel. This is to keep people from traveling too far out of the colony on their tractor. Another colony may require women to wear a head scarf and hat, others a head scarf, io others just elaborate braided hair dos. but the women wear brightly colored, big flower print dresses made out of polyester. i have no idea how they do it in hot humid santa cruz. men wear a wide range of overalls, pants and button up shirts, cowboy hats or trucker hats.

Now Low German (or Plautdietsch) is not the german spoken in Germany. oh no its not. It´s a 500 year old dialect that is not a written language, yet its the first language of over 300,000 mennonites in the world. To me it sounds like a mix of German, Dutch, Old English and a lot of random Spanish words thrown in like ¨no se¨ or ¨bien.¨ Here´s an example of the difference: english-¨this little book¨ high german-¨dieses kleine Buch¨ low german-¨dit kjleenet Buakje.¨ what the what? i´ve tried studying it, but so far all i´ve managed is how to say good morning, good day and goodbye. when i try to speak high german, spanish comes out. when i do manage high german, either they don´t understand or it turns out they speak english haha!

I manage the library, checking out books, helping people find books, repairing books, etc. Pretty interesting since the majority of the books are in German and the majority of the mennonites who check out the books are women and only speak low german. we also sell cds and tapes (gasp what would the elders say?) so i play the music and try to sell them. usually pretty interesting trying to communicate. one day a man started looking at the audio tapes and asked a question in low german. sometimes i can guess what people are saying and can point the way to the bathroom or help them find a book, but i had no idea what he said so i asked
¨ablan español?
¨nä¨
ok, english?
¨nä¨
ok now what?
then he spoke up and said ¨ekj räd Spanisch¨
um perdón?
Spanisch!
oh ok i´m sorry he doesn´t speak español, only spanish.

i also manage the subscriptions for the 3 periodicals we distribute, label and package them. so i´m really getting to remember the colony names and popular colony mennonite names, such as Peter Peters, Corny, Klassen, Thiessen, etc. and i do just random office admin stuff. one day i was sitting at my desk and i looked up at a large mennonite family (7 kids in their overalls and dresses) and thought ¨crazy awesome.¨ i love studying culture and history so man have i hit the jackpot with this job. we also break for tereré in the mornings and afternoons and drink it with whomever is hanging around. sometimes i can follow the conversation, but i usually need someone to interpret for me. so we hear old colony jokes or stories about family life. for example, one man in his 60s wanted to buy a book for each of his kids, but he has 27 so the thought it might be expensive. turns out he was a widower with 13 kids and married a widow with 14 kids. yowza. i asked him if he could remember all their names and he said it wasn´t too hard because there is a few duplicates :)

but maybe one reason i don´t really write about my job is because Centro Menno is here to help deal with the issues and struggles of colony life and i don´t want to just be writing about the negative things that do exist. the colony mennonites in bolivia became known to the world through international news last june when a group of colony men were arrested for mass drugged rapings in some colonies. i myself didn´t know about this until i was in language school and my teacher told me colony mennonites were bad people because all she knew about them were the horrible rape cases. these crimes will affect the colonies for generations and who knows how long emotional, physical, spiritual healing will take, if it happens at all. i don´t really know what to say, just that i don´t really have much to offer them. i just pray for them and treat evey woman i meet here with respect and a smile, because who knows...

if i´ve just succeeded in confusing you, write me an email and i´ll try again. also, here´s a website with a ton of pics of mennonites in bolivia. i have no idea how this photographer was able to take these pics, but it provides a glimpse into life here for them.

http://www.jordibusque.com/stories/MennoBolivia/12.html

the krols part dos

continutation of the family visit with some pics to spice things up...

at the ¨sky bar¨ in front of the catedral.
awwww, my families!

wednesday we had to say goodbye to samaipata and head back to santa cruz. this taxi driver was silent, but deadly. he manuevered those hills in a mini-van like he was james bond in some sweet sports car. but we made it back. we ate lunch at my favorite pensión ¨don freddy´s¨ (yes the sign for the restaurant is in quotations) where you get soup, bread, a massive plate of rice/veggies/meat, and gelatin all for 10bs (or $1.43) back in centro menno, my coworkers jerry and irina were having their despidida, or open house goodbye party. i introduced my fam to my coworkers, showed them around, and of course drank some tereré. and got loaded with a ton of fresh oranges and lemons to make fruit juice. huzzah! for supper we went to the wednesday night english speaking potluck. traveled in a micro like situation with stuffing 12 people into a prado and then drove around lost for 45 min. but it was like giving my fam a free tour of santa cruz!

samaipata!

thursday...

we had breakfast at lynn & laurie´s , my coordinators, house. baked oatmeal, fresh fruit, and discussion about the awesomeness of the bowl cut! a very full krol family rolled out of there and off to mariposario, a eco resort/research center. it was gorgeous! there was an enclosed butterfly house and another enclosed area for rescued birds. everything looked very natural and it was clean! that´s kind of a big deal here in santa cruz. the best part were the swimming pools. they were made out of rock and kind of waterfalled (yes my english is suffering) into each other. and there was a lake for kayaking with an island of monkeys and an island of rabbits. we had a great time. had to keep the white fam out of the sun so that they wouldn´t blind the other visitors. ordered pizza for dinner and let me just say i hate talking on the phone in spanish. i didn´t know what ¨supreme pizza¨ was in spanish, so i said ¨ supremo pizza¨ and kept getting told ¨i don´t understand you.¨ so maybe you can understand that i was mad when i looked it up and saw it was ¨pizza suprema.¨ but we did get our pizza.

played cards or fill or bust every night...

friday...

was a chill day because dad and pete were sick and the girls were also not feeling 100% so me and the sisters and mom went out for breakfast and then did some artisan shopping. found some great souvenirs at one shop. after shopping we got manicures. i´m sure you´re all thinking what? manicures? well like my host bro here says ¨manicures are for the people¨ as in they are super cheap. fun. just relaxed in the afternoon (really hot again) with a little more shopping. dana found some great shoes and jewelry for her winterfest and we took pete back to ¨our¨ touristy shop and the store owner gave me a coin purse because i had brought her so much business haha. their flight was at midnight, so one last time we squished all 6 into a taxi. i was not ready for them to go, but i also didn´t feel too sad. i´m already half way done with my time here and it flew by, so i know i´ll be home before we know it. but we had an amazing time. it was great for my fam to meet my host family, coworkers and friends and to see the everyday places of my life as well as seeming some of the beaurtiful sights bolivia has to offer. and now a new countdown for another special visitor :)

hanging out. my fingers indicate how many times i have already told my siblings something, yet they asked again because i think they listened to me about 30% of the time.

the krols came to town

when i sat down to write this blog, i had to look at my pictures from the past week to believe that my family had been here. we went to the airport last night at 10pm and that already seems like years ago. but they did come and we had a great time. it was so wonderful to laugh over things that only we think are funny, to tease my dad, punch (in a very non-violent way of course mcc) my brother, hug my mom and sing with my sisters. doesn't matter where we are, we have a good time :)

friday...
their plane arrived on time (pretty unusual) at 11:50pm and i went with some friends and family members to pick them up. i ended up pushing my way to the front of the crowd and stood right by the door to the terminal becasuse the glass was only one way and you can only see in when the door is open. since i was one of the tallest people in the airport i was kind of blocking the view of everyone else. whatever my fam was on the other side of that door! they had a little trouble purchasing thier visas because of some less then perfect US$, but they made it out! we loaded up into 2 vehicles and had the adventure of trying to find New Tribes Mission, where we were going to stay. we ended up driving around a plaza about 5 times, but arrived after 1am. we stayed up for an hour or so talking and exchanging gifts. big chocolate payload for me :)

saturday...
super hot and humid day. welcome to santa cruz! we sat in the shade all morning because it was too hot to move. then went out for lunch with a missionary who was also staying at NTM. He kept telling stories of political blockades, money scams, etc. niceguy, but he didn’t understand that my frantic hand gestures and glaresmeant to change his subject matter. The afternoon was more of sittingin the shade. I introduced drinking terere. I think everyone but Dana likes it :) At 5, when the sun wasn’t so brutal, we took a first ring micro to MCC. It was fun seeing my fam on the micro, especially whenit got crowded. Gave a quick tour of MCC and then we walked to plaza24 de Septiembre. We went to a rooftop restaurant next to thecathedral to enjoy the cool breeze and watch what was going on down atthe plaza. Around 8 there was a pre-carneval parade with hundreds of dancers. I didn’t know that was planned so it was a good surprise toshow my fam. Then we flagged down a taxi and squished all 6 of us in.Did this a few more times during the vacation, so we got pretty good at it.

Sunday…Started the day off early with dad by walking through torrential rain to buy futbol tickets. Bought them off a scalper, felt kind of proud i managed it in spanish. We went to my church for the morning service. Papi gave them a welcome speech and during our “welcome song” everyone came over and shook their hands. After church I gave them a tour of my host family’s house and then my whole extended Bolivian family came over for churasqua(cook out!). it was a real typical Bolivian meal of grilled meat,sausage, cheesy rice, tomato salad and ahi (hot sauce). My family really liked it, especially the ahi. The weather had cleared so we ate outside. It was really cool for my 2 “families” to meet and for my fam to see what my daily home life is like. We did some artisan shopping in the afternoon. The girls and mom found some good turquoise jewelry and other little souvenirs. Then it was off to meet Anita (my hostsister) for the big soccer game. It was a crazy game. The tournament was sponsored by an airline that was offering free in-country flightsfor a year to the winner, so I think that added extra craziness to thealready crazy fans and competition level. There was plenty of drama,yellow cards, and fireworks shot from the stands. Awesome.

Monday…We left New Tribes Mission, left our stuff at MCC, and headed out to Samaipata, a small town in the foothills of the Andes about 3 hours outside of Santa Cruz. Our taxi driver was very chatty and would point out different mountain formations and stopped for pics. The farther we drove the farther behind we left the hot, sticky weather of SCZ and felt the cool climate of the hills. Hallelujah. We stayed at LaVispera (means ¨the eve¨ in spanish and also ¨the awesomest¨ in whatever) a hotell/café/garden/ owned and run by a Dutch couple in their 60s. They had moved there 20 years ago because they “found paradise” and I have to agree. Their gardens, buildings, and scenery were beautiful. The perfect place to just relax. We ate a late lunch and then explored Samaipata. There are a lot of vacation homes in the hills and plenty of European tourists, so we didn’t really stick out.We found the park that overlooks the town and has an airplane, the plaza, and a market where we bought fresh fruit. Then we walked a trail behind La Vispera that ends at a stone throne perfect for takingin the scenery. It’s just amazing the diversity of Bolivian geography.We loved Samaipata!

Tuesday…We went on a guided 4 hour walking tour of Parque Amboro. Our guidespicked us up and drove us up and around some hills (ok to people from Michigan they look like mountains) to get to the park. There had been a heavy rain 2 days before so the roads were not in the best conditions. And it was my 17 year old driver´s first time ever driving those roads. Like we kept telling my family, here in Bolivia anything goes. The hike was amazing. We saw waterfalls, swung on vines, saw trees 1,000 years old and I actually understood about 90% of what our guide was saying! huzzah! Then about 2 hours into the hike it started pouring. That felt good at first because we were so hot, but it turned cold real fast. made walking really slippery and we all took some falls, but grace always managed to stick the landing with some fancy twist. we made it to the peak of the mountain hill and it looked like we were in the clouds - couldn´t tell where the fog ended and where the sky began. got back to la vispera cold, wet, muddy, but had had an amazing time. had some hot showers, cafecito, wine, fanta and cards. early bed time.

ok i´m getting sick of writing :P i´ll add pics and the rest of the week later!

bittersweet symphany

krol fam countdown is back on. yay! first they bought tickets for feb., but then grace's profs said "not if you want to go to grad school." so cancel that and my dad bought new tickets for jan. 22-jan. 30! he couldn't get a hold of me, so on saturday i checked my inbox and had an email with their new itinerary and a "see you friday." crazy! gotta stay on your toes with the krol fam, don't know if santa cruz is ready.



but as i'm writing this my family is at the reception after my grandma's funeral. my grandma passed away early sunday morning. love you grandma geraldine pearl! you are missed. on sunday i got to see the pics they chose for her photoboard and not gonna lie, she was pretty cool.



and for the grand adventure of the week...arelis (fellow salter) and i decided to "get out of the city" on friday for a break from all the traffic and noise. so we went to the nearby pueblo cotoca, about 30 minutes out of santa cruz. turns out all there really is in cotoca is a big cathedral and a lot of motorcycles. we thought the one hotel we found was overpriced, so we got back into a taxi to find madre silva, a hotel outside of cotoca my host fam told me about. turns out that was even more expensive. welp, back to santa cruz! arrived back around 9pm, went out for dinner on a street that was completely shut down for a pre-carnaval stage show, and we were welcomed with open arms and huge laughs by my host mom and sister. they gave my some advice (always call ahead!) with some gelatin and off to my free bed. so i've been to cotoca :)



thank you for all the wonderful prayers and messages. they helped me feel more connected to home. and after posting last week´s blog i was back to feeling my usually happy/contentness with my life here in santa cruz. hurray!

life is like a box of chocolates...

so this week has not been the best. to be brutally honest, it completely sucked. it started off with me having some bug sunday through tuesday and being up sick almost all monday night. but i left for work wednesday morning telling my host mom ¨yo estoy perfecta!¨ and super pumped because 2 more days until my family would come. i kept telling everyone how unreal it felt that they were coming and i made plans with my host family to have a big cookout and a day at the pool on sunday.

then around 9:30am i read an email from my dad saying that he was flying home from his business trip because grandma gerry took a turn for the worse and her nurse predicted she may have 3 days left. he wasn´t sure how this was going to effect the trip and to call when i got the chance. i thought ¨oh wow this is bad¨ and tried to work. but i couldn´t focus, so i went to talk to my boss and had my first cry of the day. i knew a fellow salter was at mcc so i went to borrow her skype equipment and had cry number 2. i called my dad and when i heard ¨´we´re not going to be able to come¨ i just lost it. 5 months of anticipation and planning and excitement and dreaming just crushed. i could not understand the timing. why right now? my poor grandma has suffered with alzheimer´s for 10 years. 10 years! i can´t understand why God didn´t bring her home sooner. i knew there was a possibility of her passing away during my year in Bolivia and i wish i was home. right now i feel the farthest away i have ever felt. and now i feel so selfish because i will not see my grandma one last time and i want my family here with me!

some people heard my crying and asked my friend ¨oh no was she robbed?¨ no that happend a few weeks ago...so they heard was what going on and i recieved a lot of comfort and prayers from the staff here. really wonderful people here. i spent the day with my friend, talking and eating chocolate from north america. then at potluck (wednesday dinners at mcc) we had prayer time where we prayed for the people of haiti during this horrible time and for my fam. and at home my host fam said to just have peace; it´s better to have known before my family came to santa cruz and have had to rush home.

i talked with my family for almost 2 hours last night, got all our crying and frustrations out and got to hear how grandma is doing. sounds like she is comfortable and ready to go. the grandma i remember is an amazing woman who loves Jesus, loves her family, friends, long walks, and ice cream and took me on the train for my first trip to chicago. we´ve already been missing her the past few years, but there would be times her personality would shine through the confusion and memory loss. i love you grandma gerry :)

one thing that happens often here in bolivia is that people make plans with you, and then don´t follow through. i´ve just learned it as a fact of life here. but having plans change i made with my family? no way those are supposed to be set in stone. later on in a conversation my dad said he was thinking how we say ¨i´ll follow your plans Lord...as long as they fit into mine.¨ well that was definitely how i felt yesterday and to be honest still feel today. but i definitely feel more at peace, calm, and happy today. last night i was able to joke and laugh with my family, hear about 50 cent in the g-rap (gasp!), and pride and prejudice and zombies. i wish all of this could have happened in person. but i´m looking toward the future, and hoping that they can come another time.

thanks for all the prayers and messages we have already recieved. if you see any member of my family, give them a hug for me.

i read psalm 13 last night and thought how no matter how david or the writer started off the chapter, whether in praise or crying out to God for help or lack of understanding, the chapter always ends with praising God. you know, that´s a pretty incredible, sometimes hard thing to do, but amen brother. so...

¨As for me, I trust in your merciful love.
Let my heart rejoice in your saving help:
Let me sing to the Lord for his goodness to me,
singing psalms to the name of the Lord, most high.
Psalm 13:6-7

20-10 or 2000 and 10?

happy new year! already am finishing up a week of work after the whirlwind vacation. i think i´ll write about it over a few short posts cuz one long post seems a litte daunting right now.

on wednesday morning (dec 30) had slight bank fiasco because i wasn´t sure of my pin number and didn´t want the atm to eat my card, but it all straightened out. we didn´t go to tiwinaku because no buses were running, so we explored the city some more. we went to a park that over looked the city and took some great pics and relaxed. then we found the ¨witches market¨ where everything from herbal remedies to llama fetuses are sold. didn´t buy any souvenirs there. we also toured the coca museum. it was just this little cramped room but full of info about the coca leaf´s history and culture. in north america we may hear coca and instantly think ¨cocaine! crime! rick james!¨ but that´s really the westernized use of coca. in western bolivia the leaves are dried and people chew and leave a wad of leaves in their cheek, usually when their working. it kind of helps increase stamina and staves off hunger. when the spaniards first came they forced the andean people to work in the mines at shifts over 20hours long. at first the spaniards outlawed coca, but when they realized that chewing it helped keep the workers in the mines alive and more productive, the king of spain encouraged its use. and now coca-cola still uses it for flavoring! gotta love museums.

seeing the cultural difference between la paz and santa cruz was huge. people from santa cruz are extremely proud and brag about it all the time, but honestly i don´t really know what they are bragging about. i don´t really see a unifying culture or theme to connect people besides their pride in their city, where as in la paz the amayra people and culture came before the incans and is still around today. i do like living in santa cruz, but la paz has a lot more character. more later.

krol fam countdown: 7 days