Tinku

This dance is called "tinku" and apparently is actually more of a symbolic battle between opposing groups. As the dance goes on you can see where the mock fighting comes in, but unfortunately I did not capture that on this video. The dance comes from the Potosi region of Bolivia. I like the costumes, because they're so outrageously colourful!

Caporales

So this dance is called Caporales, and it's one of my favourites. Lucas danced it last year at his school's Bolivia Day, so I even recognized the music. My favourite part is the bells on the guys' boots, which make a wonderful (and loud) accompanying jingle. I feel sorry for the girls who have to dance in such short skirts, though!

Traditional Dances

Hello Everyone,

On Wednesday I was invited to a special presentation at my friend Jimena´s high school. Every semester, as part of their grade for physical education, the students learn one of the traditional dances of Bolivia, of which there are many. I like seeing the dances and the fantastical costumes, so I was excited to go.

Jimena´s class was performing the dance called "tobas," which, as you can see, has pretty amazing costumes. The shaking noise that maybe you can pick up from the video comes from the shakers that are around all the dancers' legs. The dance requires a lot of energy, because it's full of jumping, and it's really beautiful.

I'll post a bunch of different posts over the next few days, with more videos of the different dances. Bolivia is so culturally rich! Every "department" (like a province or state) has its own dances, traditional dress, dishes, music... I mean, really, what would you say if someone asked you the traditional dance of British Columbia?? I get faced with this kind of question pretty regularly.

Love to all,
Rachael

Breaking News

Really big prayer request!

Jeremy has broken his foot. His class went on a hiking/camping trip last weekend on one of the Inca trails, and since this is the rainy season, it was raining for part of the time. He slipped on some rocks and fell, and the result was a broken foot. But he had to keep walking for another day, because once you're on the trail there's no way out except to keep going.

The doctor isn't sure yet if this is a simple break or a complicated break. Please do pray that it's a simple one and will be all right in a few weeks! If it's complicated, there could be surgery involved, and with the trip to Canada coming up so soon, we DON'T want that!

So for now, Jeremy has a huge cast on his foot that goes up almost to his knee, and isn't supposed to walk on that foot. Needless to say, not the most fun. If anyone has any suggestions of fun things to do while not moving a lot, post a comment! I'm sure Jer would love to hear an encouraging word.

(and sorry for the pun :)

Love to all,
Rachael

Rainy Season

Hello Everyone!

So as I mentioned before, it is rainy season. I haven't yet managed to have my camera on me when the river is raging, but coming home today the roads were flooding a bit, water overspilling the foot-deep channels on either side of the road. So I got my camera and took a video for you all. The location is just down the road from our house.

Elisa and I had quite the Rainy Season Adventure yesterday - we went shopping in the open-air Alto market, which is huge and mazelike, and all of a sudden it started hailing like the dickens. The whole morning had been sunny and too hot, but within 15 minutes the ground was covered in an inch of hail. And as it melted, and as the hail turned to rain, the streets turned into rivers of muddy water. Elisa and I got totally soaked, especially when we had to walk down a huge twisting flight of stairs which had a creek pouring down it suddenly! Water splashing up to our calves. We should have remembered our umbrellas, but that wouldn't really have helped our legs at all.

In other news, complete recovery on my bug bite, praise the Lord! And also, I would just like to say that I am so blessed by people sending me mail. At the end of my bug-bite-bed-riddenness, I went to the post office and there were five things for me! A letter from Beth Goh, two letters from Katherine the Great, a card from my mom and my grandma, and a package from the amazing Walsh family!! And how cool is this: four out of those five letters contained stickers! You guys are all so awesome!

Love to everyone,
Rachael

Hold the Phone!!

Hey everyone,

I just had to share this story of victory!

Last night I answered the phone and it was Jurgen Schulz, but I didn´t know it was him and he didn´t know it was me. We exchanged a few sentences, in Spanish, and then suddenly he said, "Rachael, is that you?" You see, he didn't realize it was an English-speaker on the phone, because my Spanish had been so good! Isn't that awesome??? Jurgen has been a missionary here for over 20 years, and his Spanish is fantastic, so this is a real compliment!

It's nice to know that there is progress being made!

Love to all,
Rachael

English Classes and Recovery Times

Dear Everyone,

First of all, thank you all so much for all your prayers. My foot is now almost completely normal - not swollen anymore, nor red, and only a little itchy. Praise the Lord! It was the second shot of penicillin that did it, I think. I'm so grateful that now I can actually walk on it without causing pain, get out of the house, and actually do dishes and cook again! In celebration of my recovery, I made a triple batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies yesterday! And they were the best I've made so far - I think I finally have the trick of making them in the altitude.

Also, we had our fourth English class last night, and two more students showed up! I just love teaching English this way. It's so comfortable and cozy - we have tea together, and whatever baking I've done that day, and then have a great time laughing and learning English.

It's now full-on rainy season down here. The rainy season technically started a while ago, but we were having a drought - very bad for the farmers. But now the rains have started in earnest, and it's crazy! The river is churning and dashing madly, it looks alive, and it's so much higher than normal. La Paz, being such a dry, dry city for 9 months of the year, is just not equipped to handle this amount of water. I'll try to take a picture of the raging river! Meanwhile, here are my English students!

Lots of love,
Rachael

Update!

Hello Everyone,

First of all, this is a video of the lovely location of the church camp in the Yungas. And despite the fact that my foot is still suffering from that terrible bug bite, I would go back again. I'd just use more bug repellent next time.

As for the foot, I'm still taking a lot of antibiotics but it continues red, swollen, and painfully itchy. It's also hard to walk, or even stand, on. So, I'm spending a lot of time with my foot elevated, reading my dwindling supply of books. If it doesn't clear up soon, there may be more penicillin injections in my future.

But other than that, things are good!

Love to all,
Rachael

More Medical Adventures!

Dear Everyone,

Well, it´s been quite a fascinating turn of events since I last wrote - was that just two days ago??

I have completely ceased to worry about the breathing issue, and the concern now is my ankle which was bitten by a bug in the Yungas. When we were at the clinic yesterday morning, after my second blood test Carlos insisted that I see a doctor about my foot. Turns out it's a good thing he did, for it is...infected. Rats! They say I shouldn't have scratched it...but it was itchy!! I'll know better next time...

The doctor wrote me out a very specific prescription - two antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory, to be taken at nine different times throughout the day. At least it gives me something to do while I'm lying in bed and trying to not irritate it further!

But then...the story's not over! We kept on monitoring my ankle throughout the day, and the swelling didn't go down, and it got redder. Carlos called his friend who is a doctor, and apparently this is a bad sign. So, when it was still swollen and more red at 9 o'clock at night, the doctor decided we needed to take more drastic action, because apparently you don't want to fool around with infections like this. So! Carlos loaded me into the car, and we drove to the doctor's house (stopping on the way at the pharmacy to buy a syringe and some penicillin) and he gave me an injection, bringing us up to three antibiotics! Wait, is penicillin an antibiotic? I think it is. Anyways, what an experience that was - this kind of injection has to go into the biggest muscle, and I think we all know where that is! But you know, it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would! Things could be a lot worse.

So, today I am taking it easy and resting my foot, and we will be keeping a careful watch to see if the swelling goes down. To my eyes it looks better already (but that could just be because I haven't gotten a good sleep in the last two nights!). I shall be catching up on letter writing - so if you want one, now is the time to say so!! :)

Prayers would be appreciated, but don't worry about me too much - Carlos is taking extremely good care of me, always calling the doctor to see what he thinks.

Love to everyone,
Rachael

Sud Yungas Paradise

Hello friends,

Sorry it´s taken me so long to update the blog. Things have been kind of crazy.
For one thing, last weekend was a long weekend (All Saints Day) and our church went on a retreat into a more jungly area, the Yungas, south Yungas to be exact. We stayed at a lovely Catholic retreat center, order of Saint Augustine. The weather was hot, humid, and lovely. The pool was deep enough and cool enough to be perfect, especially when cooling off before heading to bed. A wonderful time. One drawback, though - I got a hideous bug bite on one ankle, and it´s now swollen and painful. Hopefully it´ll settle down soon!

On another front, I would appreciate prayer for my breathing again. After several tests today, the cardiologist seems to think that I´m not adjusting as well to the altitude as I did last year. In other words, I need to slow down. He´s given me some pills that he thinks should help as well, so we´re going to try that for a few days.

It was a lot of fun seeing a clinic in Bolivia, though! Quite different from here in Canada. First I had to pay for all the tests that were going to be run, and then they handed me the needle that would be taking my blood, and I went upstairs and handed it to the nurse! Also, you have to be canny about being in line-up for tests. If you´re not careful, someone will scoop your place. Good thing Carlos was there to stand up for me, because being rather too Canadian, I for sure wouldn´t have said anything if people budged in line, even after waiting about an hour for a chest x-ray!

My favourite moment at the clinic, however, was when Carlos and I came back downstairs and saw a group of doctors and nurses lifting a small boy through an office window - the kind of security window where there are bars over it, but an opening for you to speak through and slip money through. It seems the door had gotten accidentally locked while the keys were still inside. So they borrowed a small boy from one of the patients, and lifted him carefully through, and he unlocked the door for them. So cute!

More about the church camp later, if I can get my videos to load properly...
Love Rachael