Army Base Visitation

Three weeks of summer break have past. I'm starting to wonder why my usual summer break never feels this long.
Each day, to make sure we're not completely lazy, we have four hours of work before the heat of the day strikes.  This last week a lot of us mowed all week. One of the volunteers, Pablo, brought out the tractor and started cutting down the higher sections of grass around the school, one of the new sm's that just got here a couple weeks ago, Kevin, weed whacked around all the garden and the orchard trees and I used the push mower to clean up path ways to houses. Those who didn't have other jobs used machetes, which is my least favorite way to cut grass.
There's a successful feeling though that comes after you've spent so long cutting all that grass and it's finally finished even if you do have to cut it again next week.

To switch things up this last Friday night after our normal vespers to bring in Sabbath, we all piled in the truck and road in the back to the outskirts of town where the army base is. During the school year some of the kids will go with a volunteer and do bible studies and sing songs with the soldiers. Things got busy in November and we didn't go and so after a month had passed, one morning while all of us were cutting grass or working on making food, a truck pulled up and out hopped five soldiers. I got a little nervous but luckily they chose to talk to Kevin who speaks fluent Spanish. They asked if we'd be coming back to do bible studies any time soon then said they'd be willing to bring a few soldiers out to help us cut all our grass because they have about eight weed whacked that could get the job done pretty fast. I personally like the idea.
It was pretty cool that they were wanting us back at the army base so that's where we headed last Friday night. It was a little strange hearing the metal gates cling shut behind us as our truck rolled through the entrance. Once we got inside the building a few men were scrambling around changing the dinning hall chairs to face where we would have the meeting and songs. The soldiers were lined up outside then after a bunch of shouting and commands on one of the soldiers part, they all came in and sat down around us. I was a little nervous but curious about the army base but felt more comfortable when we stared singing. The first couple songs I had never heard and I don't think the soldiers had either because there wasn't much singing that went on. However, once Jonatan asked the soldiers to stand for our last song, every soldier seemed to know the last song. There was something amusing yet pretty cool hearing around 80 soldiers all belt at the top of their voices all on different keys "Jesús es mi capitan" complete with hand motions.
I'm hoping that we'll keep going on Friday nights to do Bible studies at the army base.

Teacher, don't smile.

This is my first summer vacation in 8 years where I haven't worked at camp. It's summer vacation in South America right now even though it's December. Most of the kids have gone home leaving me and the other sm's with only five children to look after. In some ways it's nice because I feel like I can spend enough time equally with each child but it's also strange that the mission is so quiet.

Along with summer break has come an infestation of bugs. The plague of Egypt has taken a detour and ended up at Familia Feliz. It might just be because the rainy season has started and all the bugs are seeking shelter. Anyways, the mosquitos are everywhere. I've given up my skirts and traded them in for my work pants with the hope that they'll keep the bugs from biting but I get at least five new bites daily. Luckily none of those bites have malaria in them as far as I know. We've all quickly become use to the ants in our clothes, food and suitcases but I'm still working on getting use to them crawling around in my bed.

I learned two things this week. One, don't smile at men, any man for that matter because it will be taken the wrong way. Our garden exploded with more cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplant than we knew what to do with so we took what we couldn't eat to the market to sell. As I was waiting for customers, I was smiling at people walking by when one of my girls, Eva, informed me that I should never smile at men because it gives the wrong impression. Ops. Two, it's ok for my daughter to walk with her arm around me but I can't walk with my arm around her because it gives people the wrong impression. Ok. So I've been here for almost four months but I'm still learning a lot about the Bolivian culture.

It's been a combo of hot humid weather and long days without lots of kids to teach or play with that has lead me to this point. I now buy picole almost everyday. Now, picole (pronounced pea*col*ley) is just tamarin fruit that has been made into juice and mixed with about 1000 cups of sugar then frozen into delicious popsicles. They are my relief from the heat and ever since summer break began and the humidity has gotten worse than I ever thought possible, I have been a frequent customer at Doña Eva's (the house of the lady who makes the picole) It's funny because what started as something that brought temporary relief is now something I look forward to in my day. And although eating frozen sugar juice isn't the best thing for me all the time, I still continue to buy it. I finally made an application with my obsession with picole one evening when I realized that my obsession over tamerin juice is how I want my relationship with God to be, completely obsessed with Him so much so that it's what I look forward to every day and I'm not satisfied until I have Him in my life.