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