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!