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