Tackle Season

This past week was one of those normal /abnormal weeks.
The power went out again on us from a lightning storm -normal.
Our water soon stopped after that - normal.
We used water from the dirty creek to wash our dishes - normal.
We didn't shower - normal.
The power was out for more than one day - abnormal.
We didn't have classes because no one had clean uniforms - abnormal.
On the second day of not having power, it poured and we played soccer in the rain - normal for the kids, abnormal for me. It was my first time trying to play. I didn't last very long.
Our soccer game turned into seeing how many times you can tackle the teacher in the mud. I successfully tackled about six children while I lost count how many times I was tackled, dragged through the grass to the pothole that was filled with water and sat on. If that's how the kids show me that they love me than I am very loved.
Just for the record, I successfully tackled Eliseo which is quite an accomplishment because while he is super skinny, he has a lot of hidden strength that you don't realize that he has until you're trying to knock his legs out from under him and before you know it, you're facedown in the dirt. He still insists that I was never able to successfully tackle him but I'm pretty sure Jonathan or Josh have GoPro footage to prove that I got him at least once.
After our tackling session was over and we sent all the kids back to their house because lightening decided to stop our fun, my house all decided to shower outside. (Momentarily forgetting about the lightening) Showering consisted of standing under the water gutter as it poured and trying to wash the dirt and grass out of our clothes and hair. We weren't very successful but I think taking a shower in the rain is one of those almost expected SM experiences. Here, we don't take days off from school for holidays, we take days off when the the rain keeps the power off for more than two days.

I like papayas. Papayas?

One way to get out of making your bed in the morning (at my age I shouldn't be looking for excuses but it's actually quite annoying to make your bed when it's surrounded by a mosquito net that's tucked into your bed) is to give your bedding away to kids to take to class. That's what happened this morning. As everyone was eating breakfast, I had finished and was going around the table hugging my girls when my oldest girl, Belza asked to use one of my sheets in her  Bible class. With some confusion on my part I agreed. Once in our house I gave her my multicolored, crazy striped and poka dotted bed sheet that I had bought in town my first day in Rurrenabaque when I hadn't realized there was more than one option for sheet patterns and she went on her happy way to Bible class to use it for whatever reason. I didn't see it again for four days but decided that I didn't need it any way because it's been so hot.

This past week I discovered a whole different world - the banana grove. Now, this may sound pathetic but I have never seen a banana tree before. They're a pretty good height with thick trunks, big leaves and a single flower at the end of each banana bunch.
The banana grove is where we get the majority of our fruit supply for the mission and I stumbled upon it when I was looking for one of the other SM's who'd taken a group out there to bring some bananas back to the kitchen. I found her and her group of boys sitting under a banana tree, licking papaya juice off of their sticky fingers. I was offered a piece of papaya and I skeptically tried it. Papayas and bananas are the main two fruits that we grow and eat since buying fruit instead of growing them is expensive. I've had papaya a couple times in food and haven't liked it but when I tried that perfectly juicy papaya slice, I changed my mind. I like bananas, I think that mangos are sweet and (now I can actually say that) I like papayas (but nothing can beat that sweet love of God - just because you can't write the first part of the fruit song without finishing the rest of it).

During work assignments this past week, I was walking around the mission with a group of kids picking up trash when I noticed that one of the boys had lit the brush/burn pile on fire. I thought to myself that it wasn't the best idea to light a fire on such a windy day but then again, what do I know about fires? I can never keep a good fire going in the fireplace at home. Not twenty minutes had passed when I stepped outside of my house and saw smoke and ashes swirling all around the mission making the sky hazy and the air thick with smoke. The next thing I noticed was Josh running around and kids pouring out of houses with buckets, making their way towards the base of the smoke. Sometimes I like adrenaline parties and I was in full fire fighter mode within seconds. I grabbed my girls and we raced to the kitchen to grab buckets. Or more like I had to drag my girls out of the house, convince them to take the bucket of water then tell them to run to help put out the fire. I guess the possibility of a fire burning down the mission, losing all your possessions and missing supper didn't seem that important to them. I soon left them behind and carried my food storage container filled with water where the smoke was. The fire had quickly spread thanks to the wind and was dangerously close to the carpenter shop where we keep all of our gasoline. That's where the majority of people were working so I ran between the shop and the fire to throw my bucket when suddenly the winds changed and I was caught up in a cloud of white that made it nearly impossible to see. My throat turned to sandpaper and I emerged coughing, blurry-eyed with tears streaming down my face from the smoke. Facing the flames and haze head on wasn't working so well for me so I changed tactics and started putting water on the opposite side that the wind was blowing. The fire on that side was closest to Miguel's house (the director of Familia Feliz) and the banana grove. If all the bananas went up in flames that would be quite tragic. Miguel's house is brick so I wasn't terribly worried about his. We finally got the flames under control then dowsed in water and finally there were just a few embers burning which we let be..... and definitely shouldn't have because at 2am the embers lit up and started another fire that took some time to get under control - at least that's what I was told. My house was in a dead slumber and didn't wake up when we were called to come help with the fire. I'm a reliable firefighter.

Castigos and a Food Fight

Here in Bolivia, we can actually have the kids do physical labor when they misbehave unlike in the states. For the kid’s “castigos” or punishments, they have to take a machete and go cut however many pieces of wood that they were told to cut for their punishment. Two of the boys must have done something pretty bad earlier last week because I saw two of them hacking away with their machetes at a huge tree that they had cut down. They had to cut the tree into pieces then move it to a certain place. I’m a terrible person when it comes to assigning punishments because I can’t do it. I only made a child cut 15 pieces of wood once and that was when he was being very disrespectful in class. 15 isn’t a lot when the normal assignment is 50 or 100. That was the only time I made a child cut wood so seeing these two children out cutting a giant tree into smaller pieces when it was so hot made me feel bad for them so I went to the kitchen and brought them both cups of water telling them to drink it. They did so gladly and I even got a “thank you” in English from one of the boys. I need to learn to be tougher and not feel badly when a child gets punished, I guess. 

Let me tell you about two brothers who have found a way to cheat the system of having to cut wood. There’s Jesús who pays other children to cut his wood when he’s assigned it. Then there’s his brother, Manfred who went somewhere in the jungle and cut down a huge tree and then chopped it into thousands of pieces. Whenever he gets any punishments, he goes to his secret spot in the jungle then just hangs out with his already cut fire wood waiting for the right amount of time that he thinks it would take to cut the amount of wood he was assigned, then he’ll bring the wood back to the mission. They don’t know that I know this, but our director knows about it and told the other SM’s. I think it’s brilliant. These are also the two brothers who like to wrestle bulls for fun. Yes, for fun. They can be a little hard core out here in the jungle if they need to be. 

This past week was my week to be in the kitchen so all of my time was spent either teaching or preparing meals. Last night the group of kids that I’ve been working with in the kitchen, and myself, made popcorn for supper then started making bread for breakfast the next morning. Jesús is the oldest in the kitchen and he’s been really good this week at making himself look busy while actually doing nothing. Sabbath night I was determined to make him work with me so I dragged him over to the bread while he gave me several excuses on why he couldn’t make the rolls. No me importa. I showed him how to roll them correctly which was comical because I had just learned how to roll them three minutes earlier and he knew it. He grudgingly began to roll the bread and in no time at all we had finished.
(There they are grudgingly making bread and trying to pretend that they aren't having that much fun)

I turned around to congratulate him and there he was, bending down to get to my eye level and blowing flour off of his palm onto my face and hair. If you start something, you had better be prepared to continue it so I picked up a huge handful of flour and rubbed it all over his hair and the hair of one of the girls that had egged him on to throw the flour on me in the first place.  We all ended up with white hair, flour streaked faces and arms covered in it. I think I got more than the others though because all of the other kids ganged up on me. It got in my nose, mouth and my clothes until I thought I was leaving a trail of flour every where I walked. It was my first food fight and it was a good one. 

Goodbyes and Hellos

I think the best thing about saying goodbye is being able to come back after a while and say hello again. After being home in California for a week for my sister’s wedding, it took me three days to travel back to Rurrenabaque, Bolivia. After only being able to sleep three hours total for my whole trip, I was more than ready to be back at Familia Feliz to see the kids and get some sleep. When I got out of the taxi, the first thing that one of the sm’s said was, “Wow! You look so American in your jeans.” I’d forgotten that I was wearing jeans and since I only wear skirts and dresses at the mission (Occasionally cargo pants for work), and decided to change as soon as I could. One of my 11^th graders was there and helped me take my luggage out of the taxi. I was excited to see him and gave him a hug before I noticed the bandage on his neck and asked him about it. Every day at Familia Feliz I learn something new and that day I learned to not ask about bandages, scabs or any sicknesses that the kids have because I guess it embarrasses them.  He brushed the question off and said he was fine but the other sm’s told me that a few of the children had been sick and now have scabs that appeared on their hands, arms and neck. Good to know. Besides missing that interesting sickness that went around,  I missed the 114 degree weather. That is something I am so glad I missed out on.

On our way to my house, two of my girls saw me from a long way off and ran to give me a big hug then help me take my things to the house. I only had gotten a little ways from my taxi across the wooden bridge when I spotted Dagner. Now, Dagner is someone who only warmed up to me the day before I left Familia Feliz to go home. And when I say that he warmed up to me I mean that one week he wasn’t speaking a word to me and seemed really shy and the next week he was constantly hanging around me and hugging me. When I saw Dagner, his face lite up with the biggest smile as did mine and he ran to give me a hug and nearly squeezed the breath out of me. He has now become my shadow wherever I go, constantly hanging on me and scowling whenever I say I have to go back to my house. He may find someone else to be his shadow next week but right now I’m enjoying every moment.

That’s my favorite thing about leaving somewhere and knowing that I’ll be coming back; being so warmly welcomed with smiles and bear hugs from the kids. It makes me even more excited to go home to heaven, where I know I’ll get the biggest hug from Jesus and where we’ll both be so excited to see each other. I can't wait!