Take time to be thankful

It's interesting the ways and times in which God chooses to speak to us. Tonight about 5 minutes after we loaded 8 litres of bottled water into the toilet tanks the water came back on to our building. We all did a little happy dance around the kitchen and then in a brief quiet moment God reminded me of all those people here in Bolivia that don't have water on a regular daily basis. Two days for us was such a huge inconvience yet each day 80% of rural Bolivians don't ever have running water. How quickly my happy dance became sadness and grief. I remember again how priveledged I am and why God has called me here. Take a moment to thank God for all that you have and ask Him what He wants your response to be.

Norma

Trials and Error

This week has turned out to be one trial after another. On Tuesday we ran into some banking troubles when the atm that Brian went to errored in the middle of the transaction and didn't give him the money although when we checked on on-line backing the money has been removed from our account. It's one thing to have these kinds of problem at home but when you're dealing with a foreign banking system it gets way more complicated. Wednesday when he went to try and straighten things out it happened again. The same day we lost water to our building. Today Brian and our Bolivian friend Ivan went to try and get things straightened out down town and to continue in the trial Brian is very sick today, oh did I mention we still don't have water. There are men outside working on the situation but I was told it won't be fixed until tomorrow. Please pray for us and for Brian to recover quickly. Discouragement comes quickly as does homesickness when things are tough.

Norma

Catch a little soccer

Saturday afternoon we were able to go to a soccer game with a few other missionary families. One thing I've learned is that the missionaries soon meet other missionaries from different countries and organizations. Dan Collins and his family have been here for 4 years already and are from the US. John and his family whom we just met at the game are here from the UK. They were rather disappointed as we all were in the game. It turned out to be a rather boring match. It was fun to all hang out together and the kids had fun. I rather enjoyed just people watching and was intrigued to see all the unique snacks being sold.

Date Night in Bolivia

Well one thing remains constant, weekends go bye too fast no matter where you are. Friday night the kids went for a sleep over to the Guthrie home and the remaining Whittles decided to go out on a date. We decided to try a restaurant recommended by a few people, named Kabbabs. Not knowing what to expect we directed the cab to the area and found it easily. The restaurant was actually the left wing of what appeared to be an old Spanish style villa. There was a small central courtyard, complete with fountain and it was ringed by buildings. The restaurant was in the front corner adjacent to the street and we found the door which was actually a set of iron gates. (doors and windows are optional in a country that doesn't see snow) Immediately I thought we had entered a scene from a James Bond movie or something from one of those world cooking shows. The restaurant was a small L-shaped room with high ceilings that exposed wooden beems and what appeared to be a thatched roof. The walls were a pealing pale pink plaster and covered with Persian themed pictures and artwork. In the background a Cd player gently turned out what we assumed to be middle eastern music. The tables were plain with bench seat that had backs cared in, you guessed it, Persian style with curved lines and large spires at the corners. The seats were covered with what appeared to be small Persian rugs. The air smelt of smoked meat and stale cigarettes and at any moment I expected to see James Bond or Humphrey Bogart come out from around the corner. In the back of the restaurant was a large fume hood covering a roasting area. Throughout the night I saw a tall thin Arabic looking man, who I assumed to be the owner, loading screws with meat. Beside the fume hood was a small gas fired circular oven used to make flat bread. The entire time we were there one of the cooks, armed with a protective arm band, would load up the special application tool with dough then stick his arm into the oven hole and stick the dough to the side wall of the oven to be cooked. I had seen pictures of this technique but never witnessed it live. It is amazing to think that they have been turning out bread like this since before the time of Christ. We sat down and were served by a decidedly Bolivian looking lady who looked strangely out of place in "little persia". We place our order and waited for our dinner to arrive. I felt I needed to use the facilities before dinner and being in a new place I thought it would be appropriate for me, the man, to be the first to explore this uncharted territory so we asked the waitress when the bathrooms were. She answered in Spanish, of course, and motioned outside and I thought I heard her use the words, "at the back". I headed out the gates and turned left. The courtyard was dark and I walked slowly heading to what I assumed was "the back" of the property. I found a building and a locked door but undetered I went left and found an opening which opened into yet another smaller courtyard area. At this point there was some light and I saw what I thought was sink. "This is a good sign"I though. I arrived at a small building at the very back of the property which appeared something like a change house near a pool. I entered door number one, which is using the term loosely as there was no door and viewed a long trough that ran along the entire back side of the room. I recognized this as being a Bolivian urinal. I paused to note that there appeared to be no water running to this "appliance" so I decided I will try door number 2. Door number two yielded another doorless room containing a toilet only. Again I paused to review my options. Fortunately the extensive training by father during all our many camping trips to Northern Saskatchewan kicked in and without thought, I was able to quickly act in this life and death situation. I quickly, but carefully made use of the clearly better choices offered by door number two. It was then I turned around to use the sink which had neither a door or walls on two sides or a roof for that matter. It was, in fact, a red pedestal sink glittering in the star filled night. I took pause there to marvel at the way the moon glistened off the water in the sink as I washed my hands. Truly an experience I have not had anywhere else. I retraced my steps back to the restaurant and was greeted by a smile from out waitress. I am not sure whether is was a polite smile of response that I had obviously found the bathroom or whether it held a more sinister motive as she smiled and laughed inside at what she knew the "gringo" had just experienced outside. We will never know. As I sat down, I was immediately greeted with the obvious question, "so where is the bathroom?" Without pausing, I simply said, "you don't want to go back there". Our food came and was delicious which complete defies the old axiom that you can judge a restaurant by the quality of it's bathroom. We paid the impossibly low bill (Complete dinner for two including deserts and a coffee and tip for $18) and started walking home. I retold the story of the bathroom and we shared a laugh. We both agreed that date night in Bolivia is far more of an adventure than anything in Edmonton.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

In light of the fact that the kids start school in only 2 more weeks, we decided to visit the school which they'll be attending yesterday to get the ho down. They will be going to Carachipampa Christian School which an international english school run by the US mission SIM. The school is a place for missionary families from all over the world and as well includes national Bolivian families as well. They have classes from k-12 and each class has between 12-17 students which is nice. Matthew being in grade 7 will be classed as high school. Schools in a warm climate country are quite different than Canada. The classes are in buildings but you must go outside to the next class or building. It's like a mini university campus. Lunches can be eaten inside or outside, the bathrooms are a separate building outside.The hallways are outside as opposed to in. Brian and I look forward to the opportunity the kids have to experience school in a novel way from North America. They will have to take a school bus each day as the school in just outside the Cochabamba limit in the neighboring community. Today we went and purchased their uniforms for the year. I must admit this is something I am looking forward to. The daily struggle of what to wear is now down to a limited option, blue shorts, blue pants or blue skirt. I think Matthew will pass on the third option.

"I want to buy a hamburger"

It hard to come up with excuses for not blogging more often, especially when there seems to be many of you that are vicariously living the South American life through our eyes and ears but alas, there are only two of us. We seem to find many ways to pass the days, waiting to become fully engaged, but parking ourselves in front of the computer regularly does not seem to be one of them. Having just finished another Spanish lesson I am now motivated to prove to myself first and hopefully to all of you that I am intelligent and that I can communicate in at least one language. I don’t know how many of you have studied a foreign language but it is indeed the most humbling of experiences. I realize that the topics we are covering have been mastered by the average three year old Bolivian and this creates frustration. The flames of frustration only seem to be fanned by the intense desire to actually communicate with people, something the both of us greatly enjoy. Everyone assures us that the Spanish will come in time but time is something I can see and count for once in my life so, patience remains low and frustration high. We both resolve to try and learn a few more concepts, words and phrases everyday and then summon the courage to make complete fools of ourselves during a taxi ride downtown or at the store as we try to practice using the words “this” and “that” as many times as possible while seamlessly using the incorrect gender of words, wrong tenses of verbs and playing Spanish charades with the few words you do know. My latest favourite, humidity= air with water. You get the idea, and so did the cabby but not without a good laugh. We tip patient cabbies well here for having to endure bad Spanish. In the midst of all the challenges of living in a foreign land, we both regularly have an out of body experience where we pause in the midst of something mundane and realize that we are indeed in South America. It is both frightening and uplifting. Before I left, I had developed a heart for those who have left their country by choice or out of necessity to go a foreign land and I can say that after only three weeks, this feeling has solidified into something more. I fully understand why God commanded the Israelites to have compassion on the immigrant because it is a life full of struggle. We have the benefit of money and education but in reality we often at the mercy of the ever faithful Ivan Gutierrez to communicate for us on important matters. Without him we would be lost and so are many immigrants with someone like Ivan. As you walk through your day tomorrow I challenge you to look around for those in your midst who are new to Canada. Say hello and show them some of the love God has called us to share. Think about how they must feel and how they, like the Whittles, feel lost some times and long to be a part of their new culture.

Out of Darkness and back on track!

We have been without internet all week so I do apologize to those of you who have faithfully been checking for updates. This week we've been trying to settle into our new apartment. Brian and I attended the Bolivian Baptist Union weekly prayer breakfast in Tuesday morning. It was a little different than the last time I attended, this time EVERYTHING was spoken in spanish. It was my first experience since we've been here of really feeling like a fish out of water. After that we made another trip downtown to "the cancha"(the market) to buy some issential items for our kitchen. We can now make 10 cups of coffee ( instead of 1 at a time) and have toast and even wake up on time in the morning if we so choose.Brian and I also started daily spanish lessons this same day which has now shows us of all we've learned in our classes in Canada and already forgotten. Blanca our instructor is very patient and gracious.

The kids are both pretty bored lately but Daddy took them on an aventure this morning to find a park nearby. Sarah and I went to a Saturday mini market just a block away this morning. There is a whole street that's closed off Saturday's for a smaller version of the massive market. We came home with some beautiful flowers which were so incredibly cheep. Each bunch of flowers is less than $1.o canadian. We are also able to buy fresh fruit and veggies daily which is such a treat. There are many things we see daily that definately remind us "we're not in Kansas anymore Toto". I will leave you with this week's favorites

1. Kids sitting on their parents knee while they're driving a car

2. 2 adults on a moped and the guy on the back holding a 20lb propane tank
3. Fruit like bananas and oranges going moldy on the outside of the peel. What does Canada do to the fruit so that that never happens.

4. People sitting in the back of a pick-up truck, even along the edges.

5. Dogs roaming everywhere and not a single one of them on a leash

6. Pointseta's and geraniums as a shrub

7. 4 adults and 4 kids going out for dinner and the bill is only 40.00

8. Jaywalking is not only allowed but most times necessary to cross the street

9. Wine served for communion in a Baptist church... yes you heard me

10. Hearing the lady that walks by you in the market yell out to all of the other sales ladies Tourista.....

Saturday July 11- Living the Viva Loco

Today we went and signed the papers for our apartment and obtained the keys to our new home. We found a 3 bedroom, fully furnished apartment in a very convenient location. Although we live on a pretty noisy street with honking cars and barking dogs all night long, we have a market right next door where we can go and buy our fruits and veggies every day. Right beside the market is a mini grocery store and then a few doors down a bakery. A few doors down from us the other way is a meat market that is safe and has chicken delivered daily. We step out the door and can hail a cab to take us wherever we need to go. We have never spent more than 1.50 for a cab ride for the whole family. The streets are full of taxi’s and we seem to be getting better at giving our directions of where we need to go.
We moved in to the Nuevo casa tonight after a very long day of sorting and repacking at the previous location. We all gathered in the afternoon to go through all the contents of the house, as there was much left behind from the former family the Janke’s. We all finished the evening off with a extremely large pizza from Eli’s. Believe it not 1 pizza fed 11 people (73cm). We headed home around 7:30 and began unpacking. We were able to settle in and unpack more in 2 hours than we had been able to in 2 weeks. Yippee

Mamma needs a new house

Yesteday we began the process of house or apartment huntin. Interesting enough in Bolivia you use a realitor to do this. We were taken to 2 different apartment building and 2 houses. Rent here is very inexpensive, around 500.00 -1000.oomonth US. One of the apartments has great potential. It is a brand new suite with 3 bedrooms , 2 baths, and brand new appliances. Most homes and suites come with a tiny room and bath included for the maid. I think I'm the maid this year and I'm glad I won't have to sleep in this room as they're usually the size of my bathroom in Canada. We went and looked at a several more today but unfortunately 1/2 of them were either to far away or way out of our budget. We will continue again tomorrow and hopefully we will be able to wrap this up. It is getting increasingly ackward leaving in this house as there is repairs and painting going on all around us. The walls here are maid of plaster instead of drywall and we've been watching the work of some talented plasterors. We must be out by next week so time is no longer on our side in finding a new home. We would greatly appreciate your prayers in this specific area.
Norma

Ah Sunday afternoon in the sun

So today we hitched a cab and went to Calama Baptist Church. We thought we were going to be late for the English service that started at 9 but indeed we the first one's there. The service eventually go going around 9:30. I think time is really a guideline around here. It was an even smaller gathering than the last time I was here, maybe 15 people tops. We stayed for the first half of the Spanish service as well and then took our queue from our children and snuck out. We then took a cab back to our house but grabbed a hot dog for lunch at our drop off point. It's a beautiful day and I think sitting in the yard with a good book sounds like a plan. You know your in trouble when on day 2 of arrival we've already been slotted into the worship team and preaching for the English service. Well that's all for now the Sunday afternoon sleepy's are starting to set in with me. I'm including some photo's of the house and yard where we are staying until July 15th.

Love Norma

Saturday at the Market with a Million of our friends

Today was Saturday and we decided to go "the market" to look for a few essential items. The first being new shoes for Sarah and the second being a functional hair dryer for Norma. The second item included an argument as to the need of its inclusion as an essential item but the one without hair lost the argument. For some reason Brian had more experience in the market than any other member of Team Bolivia (Ivan was out of town) so I lead us into the "heart of the beast". For those of you who have been overseas on vacations you can understand the concept of the typical outdoor market. For those who haven't, imagine an open air market the size of West Edmonton Mall (including the parking lot) with about 100 times as many stores. Ok, make that 1000 times as many stores and it also includes the equivalent of a 10 Superstore produce sections and 5 food courts spread out throughout the whole area. I know a picture is worth a thousand words but unfortunatley a stolen camera is also worth 1000 Bolivianos so the market is a camera fee, cash only, no hand bags, area like most other busy markets around the world where professional thieves practice their trade.

The first aisle I was able to locate was the shoe aisle. Now for all you ladies, imagine going to your favorite shoe store to look around and then imagine one of those every 5 feet for 100 feet. Oh yes, did I mention that this is only one side of the aisle. I can say I have never seen so many shoes and I was shocked Norma didn't have a siezure at the sight of this shoe nirvana. We found Puma runners for Sarah for less than Wal-Mart prices and moved on to try and find the electronics section. Well, after receiving two sets of directions we wandered around and found an alcove of electronica but not the motherload. We were growing tired of the chase and decided to make our exit. We headed out of the market and found our way through the crowded weekend streets to the main square where we stopped for a necessary hydration and caffine break before walking back to the Baptist Center. All in all it was a successful trip but still a little overwhelming for some. We will venture back again someday soon but next time it will likely not be on a Saturday.

Day 3 in a new land

I'm sorry it has taken me a few days to get onto the blog. We are still very much in transition mode. It has taken Brian a few days to even work out some of the technology kinks and some are still being addressed. Yesterday we spent much of the morning in discussions with our leadership here just trying to get oriented. Next week we will begin looking for our own place. They use realitors to find rental property and whether or not we'll be in a house or apartment is still to be decided. One of the other CBM staff members Karin Guthrie took me on a orientation of the grocery store yesterday afternoon. She pointed out all of the nuances betweeen our countries and what was safe and good. Sad to say they don't do sour cream or brown sugar here.
Canada day was spent at a beautiful hotel/retreat center. We gathered with about 10 other missionaries here and lingered all afternoon around the table. The kids were able to play on the grounds and even dip in the ice cold swimming pool. It was such a nice way to spend our first full day here. The weather is a strange combination of hot during the day (high 20's ) and cold at night ( 0). We're learning the art of layering. The house is very cold at night and in the morning.
I will post some pictures soon but for now you'll just have to put up with my blabbage.
Love you all
Norma