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.