Christmas is coming!

There's a children's home we work closely with down here called Mision Timoteo.  Two of our guys have sisters who live there.  If you have a moment, take a look at the next post below this one for a bit more information about them. 

At any rate, Mision Timoteo is a really great home, but like most children's homes down here, they exist on very little money.  There's usually nothing left over for anything "special".  Like Christmas. 

As I wrote below, we found out this week that they had no plans for anything extra for Christmas.  No Christmas trees or decorations or Christmas supper...nothing. 

I'm not saying that Christmas is only about these things...of course it's not.  But when you're a little kid and the whole world is decorating and wrapping presents and getting ready...and once again you have nothing...it's tough.

So we decided we should try to do at least a little something to help.  Maribel and I and Yimy went shopping in the market today for Christmas trees and lights and decorations for each of the houses.  It was a very good time!  I tend to get caught up in the moment and walk away with more than I'd planned on...but that's half the fun...  =)

Anyhow...I thought I'd share a few pictures of our morning...

Buying decorations...

Yimy demonstrating what he usually looks like in a picture...

Organizing everything at the home...

You buy that tinsle stuff by the metre here...

One of the kids with his house's pile of decorations...

The green thing in the bag is the tree.

One of the houses...

Maribel, Yimy and one of the kids...

One of the girls made a Christmas tree for their house...

I thought it was pretty creative!

Going house to house...

Another of our young friends...

The last of the houses...

All in all, a great way to kick off the Christmas season!  The kids were really excited.  We're hoping to go back on Christmas Eve (which is when Bolivians celebrate Christmas) and cook a big Christmas supper for everyone.  We'll see how those plans turn out.  If you'd like more information on how you can be a part of that...just keep reading the next post.  =)

Keep checking back here and I'll post some pictures of our decorating attempts in the house.  To tide you over until then...

I call it "Scariest Christmas Elf EVER!"

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My Christmas Update Letter...

Merry Christmas! Or Felz Navidad as we say here in South America. It’s hard to believe that Christmas is so close. To be honest, it’s always a bit tough for me to get into the Christmas spirit when most days the temperature hovers between 35 and 40 C and I’m surrounded by palm trees. Well…maybe not surrounded exactly. But I can see at least one from where I sit.

Yes, yes…I know…poor me. But seriously, as a Saskatchewan farm boy, it feels like there should be snow and wind and biting cold for me to really feel like Christmas has arrived. Our Christmas decorations for the house are still only half finished because every time I think about it, it feels like its July and I still have lots of time left.

One Christmassy thing we do have here in Bolivia though, are those musical Christmas tree lights. Which everyone loves…and which everyone turns up as loud as they go. As you walk through the plaza or really any store or restaurant in the city, every tree/shelf/window/pillar is singing a different squeaky, nasally rendition of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas!” It makes me want to bang my head against the nearest hard surface until it just all goes away. Roberto was quite annoyed that the lights I bought for the house didn’t come with that particular musical ability. I, on the other hand, paid extra for lights that didn’t have a little sound box attached.

Anyhow, all that as it may be, Christmas is closing in on us here in Bolivia, just as it is in Canada. And being who I am (mixed with the aforementioned sense that it’s summertime and Christmas is still six months away), I didn’t sit down to write this letter until…wow…the 14th of December. Way to be on top of things Ken…

The reason I’m writing is that I wanted to let you all know of a couple things we have planned for Christmas and how you could be involved if you’d like.

First of all, over the past months, we’ve been building a great relationship with one of the children’s homes here in Santa Cruz. It’s the home where Andres and Jose Manuel’s younger sisters live (two of the guys who live here). There are thirty five kids there, ranging in age from about four or five to seventeen.

It’s a great place, but like most homes here, they survive on the bare minimum. There isn’t a lot of money (if any) for extras. I found out the other day that the home isn’t able to do anything special for Christmas. No Christmas supper (which we celebrate here on Dec. 24th) or decorations or anything.

Maribel (who works for us) and I decided that we should do something about that. So tomorrow we’re off to buy Christmas trees and decorations for each of the houses (there are five houses where a mixture of older and younger kids live with an “Aunt” together as a family). As well, the guys and I and Maribel hope to be able to cook a big Christmas supper for the kids on Christmas Eve.

Then on Friday I’ll start what seems to have become a Christmas tradition for me…Christmas shopping the week before Christmas. =) The guys here are in serious need of shoes this year, so I think that’s going to be the main gift they get (if you read this and you know any of the guys….just keep that to yourself!). As well, they’ll probably get a t-shirt and some stocking gifts.

With the extra guys who will be celebrating Christmas with us (guys we know who don’t have family to celebrate with), I’ll be shopping for nearly twenty guys this year. Yea…shoot me now. =) If you think the malls back home are crowded, you should try some of our markets. There are times when you’re literally pressed up against people on all sides and you just kind of go where the crowd goes. =) But in all honestly, it’s pretty fun…mostly.

As you all know (having spent the past few weeks shopping for your own family and friends) all of this takes money. I was kind of laughing with Andres tonight that sometimes I go ahead with ideas because it’s the right thing to do…even when I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to fund those ideas. But helping this children’s home feels like the right thing to do. So…we’re going ahead with that.

As well, Christmas is an important time for us as a family here at the house. It’s an opportunity to show some of the guys we work with, that we care about them and want to encourage them. Every year we have at least one guy who’s never received a personal gift for Christmas. And the laughter and excitement that comes from my guys as well on Christmas morning is a lot of fun too!

So if you’re interested in being a part of our Christmas down here and you’d like to make a donation towards helping us out that would be greatly appreciated! The easiest thing would be to contact my mission, International Teams, directly at 1-800-465-7601. You can also go online (there’s a link to the left of this post that takes you directly there).

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this and consider being a part of our Christmas. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting pictures and stories of our Christmas here so check it out if you have time.

Thanks again everyone! Have a wonderful, snow-filled and joyful celebration of Christ’s birth!

As will we…without the being filled with snow part.

Oh…and my parents are here in 13 days!

Feliz Navidad!

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Ken 1 - Bolivia 0

As I'm sure I've mentioned many times before...I love the life that comes with living in a foreign country.  A simple drive to the supermarket can turn into some crazy adventure.  Or in this case a simple drive to some pretty cool waterfalls on a little dirt trail an hour back into the jungle.

Okay...maybe the supermarket/waterfall-jungle comparison wasn't exactly even.

Be that as it may, what started out as a relaxing day in the sun turned out to have a few interesting twists in it.

But then, doesn't it always?

A friend from church volunteers at a children's home about an hour out of the city.  She called me Monday evening to ask if I was free the next day to drive the kids and a few staff members out to some waterfalls we know (I've written about them before). 

Let's see...hang around the city in 40 C weather or go spend the day playing in the water?  Wow...decisions are hard!  That one took at least three and a half seconds to figure out.

So bright and early we all piled into my truck (twenty one of us) and headed off into the jungle. 

Franco's first ride in a truck...

One of the little guys (Franco) had never ridden in a truck before.  He was facinated with everything.  He had his nose right down in the air vents and he asked me what they were.  So I reached over and turned the air conditioning full blast.  Poor Franco...  The look on his face was awesome though.  You know...it's the little things that keep you entertained...  =)

The waterfalls...

We had a great day at the falls.  I had a good time schooling a group of Bolivian teenagers by showing them that old, gringo guys can jump off cliffs where Bolivian teenage guys fear to tread.  And also the ladies from the home grilled some chicken that made you think you'd died and gone to heaven.  So...yea...good day.

The kids playing in the water...

As I sat there in the sun in my Superstore foldy chair, I thought, "I really enjoy my life.  Do what you will Bolivia...I'm winning!" 

Huh...I should know by now...never taunt a country.

Eventually the day began to wind down and so we all piled into my truck for the ride home.  Along the way we had to stop to let a spider cross the road.  No kidding...we saw it from about fifty feet back.  It was bigger than my hand.  Probably about the size of a small dinner plate.  And hairy.  And it seemed to have more legs than normal. 

I got out to take a picture with one of the staff member's camera.  By now it was in the longer grass alongside the road, so I tapped my sandled foot near it's backside to get it moving to where I could take a better picture. 

As a side note...until that moment the spider had been crawling across the road at a reasonably slow rate.  There had been no indication it could move any faster than it already was.  So...putting my bare foot near it's scary, hairy legs didn't seem like that big of a deal.  Seriously.

So...disclaimer aside...the moment I tapped my foot, the big, scary spider jumped and went shooting off through the grass.  Scared the flipping whits right out of me.  I suddenly realized, "That thing could have run up my leg and bitten me on the face before I even knew what was happening!" 

My respect for nature was once again renewed.  Well, for sure at least until next week...

The kids wanted to catch it and sell it (which you can actually do...people put big bugs under glass and sell them to tourists).  But I figured live and let live was a better philosopy. 

Once we got passed the big spider, we dropped the kids off at their home and headed back into the city.  Only to be stopped a few miles later by a big line of trucks.  I didn't realize what was happening at first.  I thought the trucks were just parked along the highway waiting to get into a grain terminal that was nearby.  But then one of the ladies said, "Oh, oh...bloqueo!" 

Blockade.

I've mentioned this before, but for those of you who might not know...everytime someone...anyone...is annoyed about something...anything...they block a road.  It doesn't really matter why.  They just dump a pile of dirt in the middle of the road and toss a few burning tires into the mix and they figure they're making a political statement. 

And the crazy thing is, people here respect it.  Everyone's just like, "Oh well...another blockade..."  It's just a part of life...

So we bumped and bounced as I u-turned over the centre boulevard and we headed back the way we came.  We discussed everyone walking across the blockade and catching a bus on the otherside while I waited in my truck for the blockade to come down.  People can walk across the blockades...you just can't drive past them.  But someone commented that I could be waiting a couple of days depending on how serious the blockade people were.  Yea...toss that idea.

Then someone suggested we follow the line of cars and see if someone knew a route around the blockade.  Since it seemed we had nothing else to lose...away we went.

Line of cars behind us...

Eventually we were way out in the middle of nowhere where no one ever goes...along with about a hundred other cars.  It was pretty funny actually.  Every little road or two lane track had a row of cars randomly trying to find a way past the blockade back to the main road.

Toll booth...

These two enterprising gentlemen were charging people to use their gate.  I got mocked my the people in my truck 'cause I overpaid.  How was I supposed to know the going rate for bribing some random guy to let us through his gate to get out of his cow pasture?

Stalled...

Eventually the line of vehicles came to a stop and I started to worry.  We were literally in the middle of nowhere and if there was no way to go on, we would be hours trying to turn around and go back the way we came. 

The line of cars and trucks stretched out for miles in both directions.  We were pretty much stuck.

But not to fear!  According to the truck in front of us, we were in a "Convoy Zone".  And if I learned nothing from 80's trucker movies, I learned that convoy's are never defeated!

Although...truth be told...this convoy didn't seem to be rolling the way I'd always imagined convoys rolled. 

Eventually, after driving through a ditch and another field...we were moving once again and my faith was renewed...

There were a couple of confusing traffic moments.  Afterall...who has the right of way in a cow pasture?

But eventually we made it through.  And after only two hours of driving through some of the most scenic backroad pastureland Santa Cruz has to offer...we were once again on the main highway and past the blockade.

That makes the score:

Ken - 1
Bolivian - 0

Well...Ken - 2 if you count not getting killed by a giant spider.
 

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