As Others See Us...

Hello everyone,

This video is a short skit performed by the boys of our youth group. Last Saturday night we were celebrating Dia de la Mujer (Women's Day) so the boys planned a whole evening for our enjoyment. Part of the entertainment was that they would act out a skit, and one of the boys would play the role of one of us girls, and we had to guess which girl it was. They were hysterical.

In this video, which is of course the one featuring "Rachael," you will find the following scenario: Clemente (in blue) and Beto (in red) are talking to each other when they run into me (played by Gonzalo, also in red). Clemente and Beto are trying to explain to "me" about the hiking trip the youth group did while I was away in the summer. Notice my blank expression, and how I don't seem to be really getting it. Clemente and Beto try again, at which point Gonzalo really drives home who he is imitating: he says "Noo, verDAD?" in a terrible terrible English-speaking accent. The camera jerks at this point because I lost it laughing, and so did everyone else. Rats, and I thought my accent was getting so much better!

Anyways, it was truly hilarious watching the boys acting like girls, and I hope you enjoy it even if you don't understand the Spanish.

Love to all!
Rachael

Racquetball Beginnings

Hey Everyone!

So there's a racquetball court right down the road from us here, and Jeremy and Carlos play every weekend. Jeremy wants to teach me how, so last Sunday night I came with them. Suffice it to say that there is much work to be done before I am a decent player. My main problem seems to be that I'm afraid of balls, and also loud noises. That's pretty much racquetball in a nutshell, right there. However, the boys are being very easy with me to start.

Jeremy, my self-appointed Racquetball Tutor, wants me to do research on racquetball and come up with ten facts about the game, including where I found the facts. Who assigns a bibliography for racquetball homework?? This is yet another chance to weild power over the Evil Tutor, I just know it. But he is trying to help me.

It seems I never use the racquetball muscles, because ever since Sunday my right forearm has been sore and also trembles if I so much as pick up a frying pan with that hand. Hopefully this will decrease as I get better and better at the game (note my confidence!). And no, I will not, ever, be putting up videos of me playing the game. There is a limit to how embarrassed I am prepared to be.

Love to all,
Rachael

PS - Prayer request: I'm having more trouble breathing lately, if you all could pray that we find out why, and how to fix that, it would be great!

Major Breakthrough!!

Hey Everyone, you'll never guess what I did!

I finally changed a garafe!

Let me explain. Here in Bolivia, hot water heaters and kitchen appliances run on tanks of natural gas. In our house, they last for about two or three weeks, and then they run out and you need to change them. This involves turning off and hauling out the old tank and installing a new one. They are bigger than an average propane tank for a barbeque (see pictures). I admit that ever since I arrived here last year, I have been putting off and avoiding ever changing a garafe. I don't like dealing with things that might potentially cause a gas leak and an explosion!

But since I'll be down here alone over Christmas for a month, I know I need to figure out how the system works. I had Carlos show me how to do it a couple of weeks ago, but my first real test came yesterday, Saturday. Carlos was out at the market (buying things for our belated Canadian Thanksgiving, yummmm!) and I needed to bake a pumpkin pie. The flames in the oven were looking mighty low, and soon blew out altogether. It was crunch time!!

I got out the new garafe (quite heavy, actually). I took all the food products out of the cupboard beside the oven, to allow easier access. I put on my head-lamp to let me work more easily in that dark cupboard (yes, it was pretty geeky, but I was NOT wanting to make a mistake!). I turned off the old garafe - or at least I THOUGHT I did! Turns out that the whole "lefty loosey, righty tighty" adage doesn't hold true in Bolivia - I actually turned it all the way ON. This explains why gas started leaking out when I started unscrewing the hose! But what with the "hisssssss" sound and the smell, I figured it out right away, tightened the hose again, and turned the tank off properly. From then on, it was a walk in the park - removing the old tank, putting in the new one, and hooking it up. I prayed quickly, and turned the oven on, and it worked! No explosions or anything! I was, and am, inordinately proud of myself. The only downside was my jeans got really dirty...I'll know better next time.

And, while I'm on a roll of unexpected adventures, the water was cut off this morning again. And this was a bigger problem than usual because the youth group was supposed to be cooking a big meal to fundraise after church! Our house is one of the only ones around here that has a reserve tank, so the youth leader, Clemente, and I grabbed two big pots and walked down to our house from the church. Once here, we filled them up (really big pots, did I mention?) and prepared to haul them up the hill again. I honestly don't know how we would have done it (considering I have no strength in my arms at all) or how long it would have taken, but fortunately Carlos gave us a ride back up the hill. Some water got spilled, but all in all we made it safely. Water that regularly comes out of the tap: something I used to take for granted!

OK, that's it for now!
Love,
Rachael

Spring Carnival at Highlands

So this is what our Spring Carnival looked like - it was the perfect day, blazingly hot and sunny! If Carlos hadn't gotten me an umbrella for the ticket booth I was manning, I would be fried to a crisp, sunblock or no sunblock. The Carnival was held to raise money for the school. I sold tickets for the games, which included "Pie in the Face" and "Dunk a Teacher," as well as other activities like balloon darts, pony riding (not kidding!), and face painting.

My favourite part was the "Wet Jail" - you paid two tickets to put someone of your choice in the jail, where they were soaked with the hose (again, good thing it was a hot day!). To get out, they had to pay a ransom of two tickets, or get someone else to pay a ransom for them if they were too impoverished to do so. The teachers were especially picked on as jail targets!

And other than that, life goes on as usual, with the occasional novelty. For example, the other day (another scorcher actually) I had to take a long bus ride home, and the ONE empty seat beside me was filled with FOUR upper-elementary students, all squirming and being noisy and practically sitting on my lap. That was a new one to me. Oh, and also, there is construction being done down the street a ways, and so our water is being cut off a lot more frequently than normal. This means cold showers, or sometimes no showers. I am learning to take a shower whenever the water gets turned on, even up to 9 pm. Live and learn!

Love to everyone,
And a big "hello" to Abby, Sam, Matthew, and Jessica,
from Rachael

Los Kjarkas

Greetings to one and all,

These are some pictures of a concert I went to with Jeremy and Carlos about two weeks ago. The band was Los Kjarkas, one of the most popular Bolivian bands around, and their genre is apparently "Andean pop." It was a cool cultural experience - they use a lot of the traditional Bolivian instruments, and dress in typical Bolivian costumes. The part I liked best was that everyone seemed to know the words to all the songs - the entire audience was singing along the whole time! And even though the concert was in an outdoor stadium on a cold La Paz night, there were so many people squished in that we all kept warm.

In other news, this weekend Carlos and Jeremy are going to introduce me to Wally Ball (volleyball but you use the walls as well) and racquetball - there's a court right up the street, and Jeremy has been trying to get me to play for a long time. Not dissuaded by the fact that I am afraid of flying balls, Jeremy insists that I will like it and that he will go easy on me. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

More later,
Love,
Rachael

Home Sweet Home

So today I returned to the Vargas house in Llojeta (pronounced "yo hetta")after a ten-day stay in the zona sur with Elisa while her parents were away. I had a great time with Elisa and her two cats, but it's still nice to be home again!

One thing I liked about staying with Elisa is that I get to visit her church, Kairos, which is big and charismatic and has great worship times. They also have a prayer room - it's not quite 24-7 but it's open most of every day, from about 6am on. I went on Wednesday, early before Elisa got up, and it's so nice to have a place to go and pray and focus. If I lived closer, I'd definitely go more often! My goal is still to visit it about once a week.

Oooh, and such good news! Jeremy is doing so well at his typing! He's now typing up his own reports and things for school, which is so encouraging. As for my schoolwork: I kind of fell behind on my reading of the Spanish book, but I'll get right back on track now that I'm back at home. I promise.

Love to everyone,
Rachael

The Library Tour

Hey all,

Here's the video tour of the library, isn't it beautiful?? Maybe I'm biased. It may not look like much, but compared to what it was just a few short years ago, it's amazing! And we have something like over 6000 books.

Right now I'm living with Elisa in the zona sur while her parents are away, stay tuned for pictures of me covered with cat hair! She has two beautiful cats, and it's been such a nice treat to sit and read a book while cats sit and sleep on me. I'm also getting my first little taste of being a mom who homeschools - on Monday I was frantically trying to make lunch while also checking Elisa's math work. May I just say, to all you homeschooling moms out there, I have even more respect for you now than I did before!

Thanks to everyone who has commented or checked the blog, it's very encouraging.

Oooh, check out this exciting news! I've been slowly reading through the book of Luke, and I keep on wishing I could read a commentary on it, but I never get around to looking for one. But I found one here at the Schulz apartment, and even though it's in Spanish, I've been reading it and understanding it perfectly! Well, 95% anyways, which is still pretty amazing.

More again soon!
Love to all,
Rachael