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". ...

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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...

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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...

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Ken's Random Life...

Random funny moments from the past couple of weeks: Riding the bus with Yimy for 12 hours to get to Cochabamba only to find out my truck still wasn't ready after being at the autobody place for nearly five months.  Wait...that's not really that funny.  Uh...the 12 hour ride back to Santa Cruz?  Not that funny either.  Fighting with the lady in the seat in front of us over the use of her window...kind of funny.  Lots of Bolivians don't like breezes.  They think it will give them some unidentified illness.  It was...

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Dreams and such...

This post is one of those, "This is my blog and I can write what I want..." posts.  It really has nothing to do with anything. And on that note... It is a very rare night when I remember dreaming anything.  I'm sure I do dream...I think everyone does.  But when I wake up in the morning, ninety nine percent of the time there's not even a whiff of what happened in my head during the night. Which is what makes Tuesday night's dream stand out.  It was one of those crystal clear, I remember every moment, kind of dreams. ...

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Another run in with the police and my friend Jedi...

Sunday night I was heading back to the house after driving a couple of guys home who were visiting us over the weekend (more on that in a minute) and I pulled out and passed a motorbike.  Only as I pulled up beside them did I realize they were police officers. I casually passed them...didn't make eye contact...which is what I do whenever I pass the police...and then prayed (uh...chanted...)... "Please don't pull me over...please don't...

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"Los Marchistas..."

UPDATE:  There were clashes between the police and the protesters all night last night.  The police were once again firing tear gas into the crowd.  This morning (from what I understand), President Evo backed down and announced that he was suspending construction of the highway.  He announced something similar once before but construction continued that time.  So I guess we'll see.  Certainly the people have him...

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Life...and it's not that exciting...but there is a picture.

It was an election day here in Bolivia which means they shut the country down.  Until 6 PM you're not allowed to drive anywhere and everything is closed anyhow so even if you could drive there's no where to go.  It's nice actually...it makes for a very relaxing day.  So...I decided to cook a big roast for Sunday lunch since we were all around.  I went shopping in the market Saturday and found myself a chunck of beef (4...

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In response...

I got an interesting comment on my blog last night. It leaned a little towards the snarkier side of things, so I just deleted it. As soon as I did though, I wished that I hadn’t. I wrote a reply there, but as I laid in bed last night, I started thinking more about what the person had written and I decided to respond. My blog is certainly written for a predominately Christian crowd. Which is fine. But not all my friends are Christians. I’m sure that...

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The Gringos...

Back in August I got an e-mail from some random guy who said he was with a mission organization called "The World Race" and he was wondering if he could place a team with us for a month.  I was a little wary.  A month can be a long time with a team.  Especially if they're lame.  Not to mention that I'd never heard of this guy or group.  I asked him for a bit more info and he sent me a list of the groups and missionaries they...

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