The List

Things I can’t believe I saw while in La Paz:
• 3 year old girl poppin’ a squat in the middle of the side walk peeing down the hill
• Dogs running through the out door markets in packs, past the raw meats
• Raw meats in the outdoor markets
• A beggar with so much coca leaf in her mouth and teeth that she could barely ask for money
• A shirt that said, Coca’s not a drug (then why can’t I bring it home to the US with me!)
• 10 yr olds bagging my food at the grocery store in the middle of the week when they should be in school. (Children working all over the city for that matter)
• Homeless guy crazily untying garbage bags searching for food and drink and laughing
• (Doug saw) 2 homeless people being ‘friendly’ with each other on the sidewalk. Eewww!
• Beautiful, skinny, hungry dogs 
• 45 year old women who seriously looked older than 80.
• Babies wrapped in fleece blankets and sweaters on a 65 degree day, sweating nonetheless. While I walk in my T-shirt and no jacket.
• Numerous women pick my child up to goo-goo over her, without even acknowledging me.
• Beggars accepting money without saying thank you. (apparently it’s not normal in their culture)
• A man peeing against the wall while guards to the air force base watch from their above post. Holy moly, Lol
• Indigenous women asking for money if you take their picture. They believe you take their sole with the picture. Yet, they’ll sell it daily for 1boliviano. Hmm.
• Buses, motorcycles, Cars driving at night without any headlights on. On purpose. Hello!?Danger!
• New floors of buildings being raised with tree branches instead of 2x4’s. I was just waiting for one to collapse. It just didn’t look stable at all.

Travels and Triumphs

This morning we set the alarm for 4 am. Unlucky me, my body woke up at 2:30! We threw our cheap sheets away along with the food we hadn’t eaten. We left the highchair, toys and sally’s pack-n-play with Lisa. Hopefully someone can get some use out of it all. All 4 bags we had were busting at the seams with stuff so we even had to leave a blanket that I really wanted. We checked all the drawers in the apartment for random Sally finds. It’s hilarious what she hides in them! Lemons, paper, carpet fuzz, socks, toys…haha. It was sad to leave the apartment. The morning was cold, frost was on the ground up in the altiplano. Rojelio took us. He is the same driver that picked us up. El Alto International Airport was busay! I stopped by one of the many gift shops, after we checked our bags, full of Bolivian made trinkets and colorful back packs and winter wear, to buy 2 last minute gifts. All of the shops there were WAY more expensive than down in LaPaz. We arrived about an hour and a half before departure time…but didn’t leave until almost an hour late. This is very typical in Latin America routine. So I had time to browse the few gift shops, which actually had great handmade Bolivian stuff that we wished they sold down in La Paz. Sally however was having repeated melt downs due to the early wakeup call and I could hear her screams from the shops so I returned to poor Doug and relieved him. She thankfully fell right asleep on the first trip for about an hour. The flight wasn’t much longer than that. We flew past Cochabamba down in a valley of the rolling red rocks of the Eastern Andes Mountains. Among the hills and deep valleys were small and I mean small, remote communities of shanties. I couldn’t help but wonder what the disease rate of these communities was, what kind of education were they in need of. They probably drink the polluted mountain water and that alone brings dysentery and numerous other bacteria. Looking down into Santa Cruz the view was a stark contrast to the mountain city of La Paz, it had palm trees and green trees and some green grass. It is much warmer in Santa Cruz. It’s still winter but it’s lower in altitude. We flew over a large house with a swimming pool in the yard. There was farm land and sheep and alpaca roaming the fields. The airport was nicer. When we got off the plane we immediately felt the humidity. We had to deplane for them to clean and restock the plane which had come from Lima Peru. We had just enough time to order and eat breakfast at the only restaurant before re boarding to our seats on our 757 for the 6 and a half hour trip to Miami. Thank you for the prayers because Sally was great! Our attitudes were stellar for having been so tired. Between her coloring pad and ipod episodes of Dora and Elmo on the computer, she was a peach. She fell asleep at lunch time and woke up 3 hours later! Yay! I think I did finally sleep the last hour she was sleeping. We flew over Haiti/Dominican republic and Cuba, the waters of the islands and Florida always amazes me with its beautiful color and changes in depth. The humidity in Miami just about knocked me off of my feet! Phew, I’m not ready for the rest of the summer in D.C. Bluk! We were occupied in Miami as well. Sally ran and ran and ran while we waited in line for passport control and customs (which all went smoothly). Not for one guy that was sitting in front of us on the plane. He got searched before he even got to the walkway…hmm. He apparently had a laptop for his girlfriend’s mom or something…weird-ski! After customs we rechecked our luggage and got dinner at the Island Grill (Coconut Shrimp and Chile Chicken Wings, yammers!) and then as soon as we got to our gate it was loading. Seriously, couldn’t have been smoother. God is so faithful. In the midst of a ‘could-have-been-the-worst-travel-day-ever-in-the-middle-of-the-day-with-a-tired-one-year-old’ day, we were at peace. We’re exhausted, smelly and greasy, but at peace. Lol. No rushing. No stress. It was awesome. I am currently typing this post on the last plane from Miami to Minneapolis watching by sweet baby sleep and praising the Lord for the gorgeous sunset we’re following. We haven’t seen sunsets because we were in a bowl in the mountains for 2 months and never saw the horizon. Weird huh? Sunsets, Oh how I’ve missed their beauty. I am saddened to leave behind the people and amazing culture of La Paz but am excited for the journey ahead of me at my job in the hospital now that I can better understand the language of 20% of my patients. I am excited for the job that Doug was accepted into where he’ll be speaking Spanish in. I am excited to speak Spanish at home and continue to learn it with Sally so she can be better integrated in our apartment community. I’m sad to leave but am so glad and honored to have had this opportunity. Thanks Doug for your adventurous heart, Thank you family and friends for praying for us on our adventure, thank you Holy Cross for giving me the blessing of a short leave. God bless you all. Love,

Ready. Set. Lift off.

So I just realized that there is a post missing from when my computer froze. Sad. I'll have to update you when we get home. I also have some pictures to post which up until this point I have not been able to post due to lack of internet.
So here's the scoop. We had a good bye lunch with some of Doug's co-workers on Thursday at a Ranchero Place. I had a steak and fried plantains, unbelievable btw, and on my walk home gave the leftovers to a crazy homeless man. I almost had to feed it to him cuz he was so wacked out and crazy. Hope he enjoyed it as much as I did. It was a good day. On Saturday we took the elevator upstairs to the 21st floor where we used to live and had an amazing dinner party with some other co-workers of Doug's. It was catered and there was a man that served us and poured our drinks. We ate typical bolivian food, Fried mashed potatoes, trout, chicken with mushrooms, steak, Quinua dish and salad and just enjoyed each others company. Sitting around the long dining room table I cought 30% of what they were all talking about. The interesting part to me is when the 3 Americans talk to each other, they speak spanish. Cracks me up! Me and Ivanni, one of the younger co-workers, had a great chat! We wish we would have met earlier in our trip. Cuz now we're packed and ready to head to the airport in the morning. I'll write more about our last adventure to Oruro (including pics) when we get home. So don't stop reading. Thanks for following me. :)

One week to go...

One week to go. Can you even believe it! I am just amazed at how fast time goes. Sally is now down to one nap a day, and one quiet time. She’s getting more verbal and more stubborn. It’s going to be interesting traveling during the day on our way home. We spend the night in Oruro last week on Mon-Tues. Sally and I played in the plaza’s and then found some new friends from Argentina. I really hope to run into them again before we leave. They were on their way to LaPaz when we met them. They are artists from Buenos Aires. We had lunch with Kate at a tipical Bolivian restaurant. It was 5 courses. Then we did some sightseeing of Oruro. I got some interesting pictures of an old mining community that used to be wealthy to Bolivian standards, and now…poor. Very interesting.
On Sunday we skipped church, again, and went to the prado for the street fair. It’s just too fun to resist. We bought some more Christmas presents and enjoyed some Tucumanos smothered in peanut sauce. You walk up to the kiosk, similar to at a fair and ask for what you want. In front of you on the counter are juice pitchers, each filled with a different sauce to put on the Tucumano. It’s halfmoon pastry filled with potatoes, ground beef and pulled chicken. There was a green spicy cilantro, red picante, mild peanut and a few other sauces. We like the peanut. You stand at the counter and put small amounts of the sauces on your pocket, take a bite and repeat. You have to push through the crowd to get more sauce but it’s so fun. Sally ate two by herself the other day by the park. It’s always sunny and warm in the middle of the day so it’s fun to wander the prado. We looked at paintings and art like we do every Sunday but it really never gets old! This coming week we have a good bye lunch with Doug’s colleagues. Then he is giving a presentation Thursday on his report on the Juvenile justice system regulations to the people at Save the Children. I’m so proud of him. He’s done so well. I’ve been getting better at conversations by myself. I had to learn how to say, I lost my phone, have you seen it! I left the park with Sally and never saw it again. The time is coming to an end. Not many adventures left. Sad. I’m not ready to go back yet, but I am ready to see my family and some friends. Thanks for following. It’s been great to share with you all.

Oruro

Now that I have finished language school I don't have much to do. Just hang out with Sally. Which isn't bad but I don't get a chance to practice what I've learned. So when Doug invited me to Oruro with him for a day I said yes! Oruro is a city South of LaPaz up in the altiplano. Flat, flat land. It is 3 hours from LaPaz by bus and the road is paved and actually pretty nice for Bolivia. It is much colder than LaPaz and 12,159ft altitude which is higher then where we live. Its about 11,000. We had to wake up at 5 to get to the bus station by 6 o'clock departure. So we got ready and got Sally up (and left her in her jammies) right before we left. I covered her head with a small blanket and Doug grabbed the clothes that I set out for her. We hailed a taxi at a very dark and cold 545am and 3 blocks up the hill Doug said, "Did you grab shoes for her". Fooey! Nope. When we got to the bus station it was still dark and really chilly. The bus we were going to buy a ticket for was still closed, there was a man opposite the counter we went to was calling out 'Oruro! Oruro!' So we went over and bought tickets $3 each! Crazy huh. Everything is so cheap here. The bus was cold and drafty, because we were in the second row. The driver like to take frequent passing opportunities around semis and slow old rusted out beaters...Scarry! He had the curtain pulled so we couldn't see out the front. I didn't like that. Sally was awake the whole time. Too cold and new. Half way we picked up a native woman who had a basket full of hot meat pies! They smelled so good but we didn't dare buy one, didn't want to be sick in a new town. We arrived to Oruro around 9:00. The entrance to the Departament (Province) Had a toll booth. The Province was also named Oruro. After the toll booth, we came to a round about with a GIANT steel miner's hat in the center. It had pictures bent into it. Very cool. We went completely around it and drove through some shanty homes and stone homes. Then came into the town center. There were some women serving hot soup for breakfast. I went in to use the bano publico (public bathroom) that you have to pay to use. 1 boliviano. When you pay, they hand you your very own wadd of toilet paper. FYI in South America you can't flush the toilet paper. In this particular bathroom there wasn't any heat, so it was drafy and freezing in there. The water didn't run in the sinks. For this reason I always have sanitizer... A co-worker of Doug's who lives there, picked us up. We took a taxi from the bus station to an out door market and bought Little miss Sal pal some shoes. The guys then left me at a hamburger place with a play area for kids. They had meetings to attend. After playing Sally and I walked down the main street and found a plaza. There was a woman selling corn for the pigeons. Sally had fun with that until Kate met us and we walked back to the hamburger place for lunch. We walked to the outside of town where the hill starts to climb. Up the hill there was a giant concrete slide alongside stairs. A lot of stairs. The kids were out of school for winter break so the slide was full of kids going down it on cardboard. So fun. We didn't try to climb it. There was a large white church nessled in the hill. It had a royal blue ceiling with bright yellow portruding stars. The dome in the center looking up had the apostles painted fullscale around. At the farend of the sanctuary there was a black gate that opened to a tunnel into a mine. Tours weren't open until 3. It looked cool though. Oruro used to be a thriving mining town. They mined tin mostly, but also silver and copper. We met up with the guys and walked to Save the Children's office there. Kate stayed at work and they took me and Sally to Fernando's house to put Sally down for a nap while they went for another meeting. She didn't sleep a lick. It was too exciting to be in a new place. Fernando's 13 year old son, Adrian, got home after a while and played with Sally. We spoke spanish and I taught him some english words. I felt like I knew so much Spanish! Yay. His mom and younger brother got home about a half an our before the guys did. And again, we conversed in spanish! It was so good for me. They offered us coffee and some (blah) cake (I needed the coffee!) and we accepted. Sally and Fabrizio played with plastic zoo animals while Doug talked and I zoned. Adrian offered his E.T. doll to Sally and we headed to the bus station around 545pm. The bus we took home was warm and comfortable and sally zonked the minute we pulled out of the 'terminal' and slept the whole way home. What an adventurous, tiring day.

On the Lake.

Crillon tours own hydrofoils. They are boats with skiis under them in addition to a motor. It's crazy. They are beautiful boats with seats like you'd have on a bus. That morning there were 2 other groups going out with us, 2 friends from USA who worked for the US embassy in LaPaz and a man traveling alone from the USA but originally from sweden. Gustavo narrated our route we'd be taking through Lake titicaca. A normal 'boat' takes maybe 3-4 hours to get to Copacabana but on the hydrofoil it took only an hour and a half. It was a nice ride too. The sun was out and the wind wasn't too chilli out on the back of the boat where the small deck was to take pictures. Halfway through the ride we could see the mountain range really well. The pictures didn't turn out until the ride back when the sun was in a different place. We arrived at Copacabana mid morning and it was a sight! On this island the Aymara people are catholic. There was a Giant white church on the hill built by the Spanish. The inside was every color of the latin rainbow if ya know what I mean. Bright, fiesta colors. The front of the church was a tall wall completely covered in solid gold statues on a 180 degree rotation. The wall rotates to reveal this gold side only for days of worship and the other days of the week it is facing the lake revealing a blank wall to the sanctuary. While watching the service for a couple of minutes we sat down in a pew. Sally fell through the back pew and wacked the back of her hed on the kneeling bench behind her. So we left the service with a screeming child. It was a warm day, sun shining. We past outdoor kiosks bordering the plaza across from the church. Sally was still upset from hitting her head so we bought her more finger puppets. She cheered up after that. Walking through Copacabana was similar to LaPaz but WAY more layed back. The streets and allie ways were crowded with women selling vegetables, breads and nuts. The stores were all open with the same touristy Bolivian wear. I bought Doritos! . . . they were NOT like our Doritos. :( Made in Peru with powdery cheese. It was a good snack though. I got in some great photos from the pier while waiting for the rest of our crew to arrive back to the hydrofoil. When we reloaded the boat there were 2 new groups. The one we talked to a little was a couple from Germany, they loved Sally. The woman sang interactive German songs (in German) to Sal. She liked that. We took a 30 minute ride to the Island of the moon. There we had a front row veiw of the mountain range. All the pictures are on facebook. You really couldn't get a bad picture, they were just SO beautiful. We walked up steep wooden plank and rock stairs rounding up the hill. Halfway up were 3 small houses with a lookout deck. We kept walking up and saw some sheep owned by the local Aymara people who live on the island and saw a huge brown Llama wondering the hillside. At the top of the stairs there was an old incan temple in ruins. One wall had been reconstructed to show what it may have looked like. What used to be the floor of the rectangular structure was now weeds and grass covered. We walked around and basked in the sun. Sally just layed down right in the middle of the 'field'. She attracted the attention of 2 little girls from Peru who were traveling with their parents. After a while we took our boat again to a new island. Island of the sun. Here we walked up another steep stairway and came to a restaurant overlooking the lake. We had breaded wild trout and a warm zuccini salad following a bowl of potato and quinoa soup. Our guide told us that quinoa has so many nutrients in it that you could live on it with nothing else. The restaurant was built on a natural spring and it provides the restaurant and the hotel up the hill with water. As we walked back to our boat we took a small detour up the rocky beach to see the spring that flows into lake titicaca. From there you could tell why the lake was SO clear. It is constantly fed by this beautiful freezing cold water. This was our last stop before heading back to Huatajata to get our van again. When we boarded the hydrofoil we were surprised with a blessing of the Aymara in which we were sprinkled on the head with the national flower dipped in the 'pure' water from the spring. We repeated the 3 Aymaran rules: do not be lazy, do not lie, do not steal. Then we celebrated with a typical bolivian toast and recieved a ceritificate of blessing. We were able to capture unbelievable pictures on the way back and just bask in the beauty of the mountains and blue water. What an amazing adventure. Thanks for reading about it!

At the Lake

Crillon tours is all inclusive, meaning you pay for your ticket and nothing else! So amazing to go to restaurants, museums, ruins, boats and not have to hand over any money. So when we arrived to the hotel, like I said yesterday, we gave our lunch and dinner orders to Gustavo and while the lunch was being prepared we toured the outdoor reed boat museum. At lunch the others had Llama steaks and I had trout (by recommendation) with bacon and garlic. The fish was good but the Llama!! Was amazing. Sally even ate it. We sat and overlooked the lake and the outdoor bar. It was so nice. After lunch we had free time. I totally missed out on the SPA part of our hotel! I didn't realize it was really a spa. I just figured in Bolivia, a spa meant a hottub. It was like $3 for a massage. Stupid me, always taking pictures. Well, I got some alone time while sally and Doug napped. I got some great pics. We met up just after sunset for a 'surprise'. The guide took us into a theater off of the hotel lobby and showed us a video of the Kallawaya people in the mountains of Lake Titicaca. They are an elite group of healers, only men, who are chosen by their fathers to pass down all of the secrets of natural healing. It was wildly interesting. After the 15 minute video, we were given flash lights and lead out the back door into the dark. There were candles lining the walkway to a grass covered mud hut. As we walked in the old, tree bark door we saw that it was a museum of natural healing. There were very realistic manicans acting out the activities we had seen in the film, some life size, some miniatures. There was a real size native man squatting down sorting through coca leaves and frozen in the position of putting them in a colorful sack resembling a shoulder bag. The ground was dirt. The walls were wood and mud, ceiling of straw. There were candles and dim electric lights guiding our way and shining on important structures. Like one miniature of 2 young lovers happily running away from the parents. The Father was throwing a rock at the daughters boyfriend. Which apparently is a positive and good luck gesture in Aymara when the Father gives his blessing for marraige. The next miniature was a child getting his hair cut by his godfather. The Aymara believe that in this ceremony at the childs first birthday as the godfather cuts the childs hair that his character is transmitted to the child. Makes ya think twice about who you want as your kids godfather! As we made our way throught the 6 sections of the small house, we were shown all of the herbs and plants that are used for medicine and healing. Like for burns or open wounds...tobacco placed on the skin and wraped. It was just full of wonderful information and beautiful displays. Most recently they have proven placentas from birth have numerous healing properties when placed not only on the skin but eaten. The last section was about one of the many Aymaran superstitions, witchcraft. BLAH! It is so bizzar and so confusing. When land is perchased by someone, a box of 'goodies' must be placed in the ground for 'pachamama' or mother earth, thanking her for allowing them land. In this goodie bag included an aborted baby Llama! Why!? Don't aske me. It's rediculous. I just kept saying, that's wierd...hope I didn't offend Gustavo. We came into a small dark theater with curved benches facing a corner stage, lit only by a fireplace. There was a man sitting still in the center of the stage with the small fireplace to his right and a wall of herbs to his left. He was real. Scared me at first. We sat in the front since we were the only ones there. The man was a 16 year Kallawaya healer and he was dressed in native red clothes with bright colored stripes and a winter had that had earcovers and tassles, you know the type. He called out to all of the mountains by name(where they command their power from) and then asked if we had questions for him, like future stuff...we were like, um, no. But he did tell me that I'm going to have more children. A boy and a girl. Hmm. A little disturbing considering a native woman earlier that day had handed me a small replica of the fertility gods...hmm. This trip just got interesting! lol. We went and had dinner, smelling like bonfire. And listened to a live flute band. After dinner, Gustavo led us out in the dark to an elongated pole barn looking building near the lake. We sat on benches in the dark, and a movie began about the southern stars!! Now I was excited. I love the night sky. And out in this town there were no lights to hinder the beauty of the sky, plus the moon wasn't out that night, so I knew we'd see some amazing constelations. What I didn't know is that when the 10 minute movie about the constelations and the indian stories behind each one was done, the screen went black and the ceiling retracted and revealed the night sky! It was so shocking and amazing. Standing huge in front of us was a NASA telescope x1000 magnification to see the stars, constelations and planets. Unbelievable. The first one that the man found for us to be awed by was SATURN! The rings were amazing and so bright. It was so fun I couldn't stop stomping my feet and squealing. Which ofcourse made the telescope go shaky and out of focus. LOL. I was just so excited. We saw many constelations and a nebula. God is so good. Phew! Amazing. Then it was time for bed 10pm and an early breakfast was ready for us.

Trip to the Lake.

So almost 10 years ago my husband (boyfriend then) went to Argentina for 10 months. During that time he took a trip to bolivia and visited Lake Titicaca and took pictures and mailed them to me. But even though the picture was gorgeous...it was nothing compared to the beauty we saw when we went there in person! Friday morning our 15 passanger van (just for the 5 of us) arrived in front of our apartment building with our private tour guide, Gustavo. He was with us for the entire tour. First we drove out of the valley (LaPaz) and up to the plateau of El Alto. The city there is almost all Aymara Indians. It is a busy, crowded, poor town. Most of the buildings were brick and half the walls were as if a war had happened, tearing them to the ground. But no such war...just ran out of money to build. So people just live in drafty buildings with a couple of walls. The further out we drove, the more scarce the building became. We drove through the altiplano which is a very FLAT piece of land between the mountain ranges. The sun was behind us on the way out so it was tough to get pictures with the haze of the sunrise but to the eye it was amazing. It took us about an hour to drive to Tiwanaku Indian Ruins. There was a museum at the ruin site with the history of the mysterious Tiwanaku with artifacts that have been found on site. We were able to walk on the actual dig site! Walk up the stairs that have yet to be brushed clean and walk on the mound that will someday be the temple uncovered. It was amazing. It felt so ancient. The archeologists were digging and brushing away the dust in one area of the site. Local indigenous people were working, carrying the dirt away in wheelbarrels. There were 3 temples in 3 levels. The highest is a tribute to the Gods or heaven so it is above the ground on a built up teared mound. The second is a ground level temple celebrating life on earth and the third was below the ground, a tribute to mother earth (Pachamama). You'll have to see facebook for all of the amazing pictures. So far in the dig, the 2nd temple has been dug up (over the past 30 years) with all of the walls perfectly intact. Not one stone missing! It's incredible the detail and advances in their civilization. At one section of the wall there is a hole that when whispered into magnifies your voice to be booming loud. Like a stone age P.A. system. Amazing. The ground of the temple is angled so rain water would run into sisterns and collect for irrigation of the plant life and other needs. We walked around the dusty ruins for over an hour and the last stop was near the exit, the most recent discovery, just 6 months ago they were leveling the ground for the rocky walkway and they hit something. It was an ingraved stone, maybe 8 ft long lying on it's side. Cool huh. It's now stading upright. We had to drive from there all the way back to El Alto to get the road going North to the lake. Back through the vastness of the altiplano we relaxed and had some snacks. 1 hour and 30 minutes and we started to see a patch of bright blue! This lake is fresh water, crystal clear beauty! We arrived in Huatajata around lunch time. A man took our bags to our room, our tour guide took our orders while we lounged for a couple of minutes in the lobby of this beautiful hotel and then we went to an outdoor museum learning about the making of reed boats and their history. You'll have to google the Limachi Brothers. While sally was facinated by the spool of thread being spun as a toy by an Aymara woman the others learned about the Limachi brothers in the shed. So I can't tell you much. After that we ate in the beautiful lakeside dining room and then had free time to roam about and photograph. Here are some of my faves. I'll catch you up on the rest of the trip tomorrow.

The Mountains Delare the Glory of God

This weekend we went to the market again on Saturday. I took video but it's sideways! We have started finding our way around now. We feel pretty confident. Sally is doing better walking and tolerated the morning walks through the busy markets filled with raw meat and all sorts of things mommy yells 'no, esta sucio!' to. Now sally walks around pointing at things saying, 'sucio' which means dirty. We have liked buying our groceries at the street markets. It's fun! And just slightly cheaper and it's more supportive of the locals. We wondered around the market to different places we hadn't been. We passed a 'cholita' sitting behind a small kart full of quart sized open tin paint cans. She had large pieces of paper surrounding her cart with 15 large circles on them, each a different vibrant color. She must have had 10 sheets decorating the base of her cart. The cans were full of colored powder, dye for the items the indigenous women make! I was facinated. The cholita dipped a flat wooden stick into one of the cans containing bright blue and smeared a dab on a small peice of paper for a woman there who was there to buy. We then passed a store that had HUGE potatoe sacs full of diffent spices and nuts. We came upon a saltana (pronounced saltania) cart run by a man who insisted on speaking some English to us. 'Chicken or Beef' he said. We answered him in spanish, and he said, 'Six bolivianos'. So funny. Saltanas, if I haven't said before, are meat and potatoes stuffed inside a crust and baked. In Argentina they are fried and called Empanadas. This guy had 5 different salsas (sauces) to put on them. I ofcourse like an idiot decided to put a spoonfull of the jalepeno sauce on mine. Instead of just the juice, I took all the chunks and everything. HA, AH, OH, SOOO Hot. Doug just giggled at me the whole time. My eyebrows were sweating so bad my sunglasses fogged up! We stood at the cart long enough to try a few of the sauces and continued down the road. We found the tourist shop we were searching for. It had beautiful clothes and kitchen accessories. I was in love. It is the most expensive store we've come accross. Check it out at http://www.aynibolivia.com/fairtrade/en/ayni-bolivia It kind of a cool background story.
SUNDAY we went to a new church. Ron and Rhonda who I mentioned from my school are missionaries her and the church they attend is a new church called Rey de Reyes (Kind of Kings). Doug was asked by Ron to translate his English spoken sermon into Spanish! What a huge challenge for Doug. He did a great job. I hung out in the back with Sally and a 5 year old boy named Gadiel. I made paper airplanes and listened to the sermon. There were maybe 35 people there and it lasted almost 2 hours. Wow. It was a fun experience. I think we might go back. We went to Dumbo (which is becoming a staple here) for lunch with Ron and Rhonda and Rhonda's son Tim who just arrived here from Tenessee on Friday. At the end of our meal Ron noticed that his bolivian bag with his 2 bibles in it had been stolen from under his feet. :( It was a good reminder for me to keep my camera and purse attached to me at all times. Besides Dumbo,

ILLIMANI has also become one of my favorite things here. It is the mountain we see out of our windows to the South East. I have taken some amazing pictures and I just love how it towers over our city like it was placed there to remind us of Gods amazing Glory. Today it's actually quite overcast and I can barely see it. The clouds have started rolling in the cooler it gets. You can hear the breeze whipping into our building at night now. We're preparing, the winter is upon us. Brrr.

"Shoosh, shoosh, sapatos"

Sally and I have been cooped up in the house for the last 2 days. I've been sick, well on Monday was a holiday so we were all home for a new work-free holiday for the Aymara people. It is celebrated as the Aymara new year. Click here to find out more of their traditions and celebrations on the new year http://www.boliviabella.com/aymara-new-year.html. I didn't have school and Doug (or anyone else in Bolivia for that matter) didn't have to work! Doug and I were going to have Nora come at 11 so we could walk up the street just a block from our apartment highrise and see a pelicula (film/movie). But at 1030 we got a call from Nora saying that she couldn't get a taxi or a bus so she couldn't babysit! All of the taxi cab drivers, kiosk workers, market sellers etc... were at home or at the Aymara celebration in El Altiplano (a straight stretch of land a small distance from LaPaz). So we decided to stay in as a family. About 1 we went downstairs to our garden in the rear of our building. Sally loves to jump on the trampoline. I still have yet to take pics or video of this. So we played in the sun for a while and went to the store (This was still open. Phew!) We have to by 2 (2 liter) bottles of water a day, for drinking and cooking. So we had to make it to the store. We thought about taking Sally with us and just seeing Toy Story 3 but I for one didn't want to sit through it with a 1 year old during nap time AND for the fact that it was in spanish with no subtitles. At the store we walked through the isles wondering what to have fun for dinner since it was a holiday and all! We decided on homemade Alfredo with broccoli and carrots. I bought a new cheese which semi resembled parmesean and bought cream that was thicker than heavy whipping cream in the states but that was all they had so I got 2 of them. When I opened the one container at home it was fine, the other was already opened and chunky!! Blah! So I used half whole milk and the other cream...I used fresh nutmeg for the first time and the new cheese!!!! Mmmm. Well the dinner turned out beautifully and Doug really loved it. Sally not so much. And me well...at 3 in the morning my stomache felt like it was in a vice! Oh my word the pain!! I finally 'got sick' if ya know what I mean, around 6am after being restless and in SOOOO much pain (and you have to know, I gave birth with NO meds and total concentration and this was SO much worse!). I sat there seriously thinking about running downstairs and hailing a taxi and saying "hospital por favor!!" Doug stayed home until 930 but had to go to work so he put Sally back in bed and I tried to sleep. Nora couldn't watch sally that day either so I just had mom pray that sally would be good! Oh and she was. After sitting in the highchair for a LONG time watching an entire dvd of Dora and eating a lot of junk, she just played quietly like an angel! Which never happens. :) I just layed on the couch and watched her. Her new play is dress up in everybodies shoes or "SHOOSH" as she calls them. So I got one pic on tuesday night of her in my shoes. Then she was gettin ready for bed and didn't want to take off her new shoes so here are some pics of her being silly.
I am now recovered (still some rib pain and fatigue) and again today don't have school. Maybe We'll get that movie in tonight. :) Next Tuesday Doug's parents are coming and we are going to travel and hour or more North to Lake titicaca! SO beautiful. I will definately post!!

Fin de Semana (Weekend)

Last week was short for me at school. On Tuesday my teacher, Jorge, had to leave after only an hour of my class and then on Thursday he canceled because he had a private lesson with a 12 year old girl, teaching her spanish. He is a little different teaching aproach...which includes homework! It is really hard. I sit with my dictionary wondering what the heck it all means. On Friday when I returned to school, about an hour into our class we heard BOOM...Pop, pop, pop. This is pretty normal for LaPaz. We hear this sound a lot. It indicated Marches. Some large, some small. But up until that day I had only heard the marches, hadn't seen one. So the noise was getting unignorably close and then we could hear voices yelling and cheering. I was like 'comon! let's go out there'. It's ok mom, we assessed the situation before getting close. :) We walked out of the school and they were walking right on the street in front. Teachers, marching for whatever. The police were ahead of the march blocking off the traffic. It was maybe 200 people. Very calmly walking down the center of the street. When we got out to the street the leader of the march let off another Boom, pop, pop, pop. There was a woman walking towards us with 3 year old girl at her side and the girl got so frightened! Just like sally would. It was so sad. But like I said, this happenes almost every day in various places around the city. We went back and continued our lesson.
Saturday morning was fun! We decided that we were going to go to the 'black market' and search for some sweaters for Doug and hopefully come across some alpaca stuff! We boreded one of the independent buses that takes us up to the Plaza San Fransisco. It costs 1Bs per person which ($1 to 7.5Bs) There are numerous buses that pass in front of our house every minute. And by 'bus' I guess I mean van. Toyota, honda, unknown...mini vans. They place cards in the window of where they are headed and you just jump in. There are also big buses that I think too are privately owned companies. There is person who sits and calls out the locations to the people on the street. We got off the bus at a place just past San Fransisco and walked up the hill. We didn't know exactly where we were going but Nora told us that there was alpaca near the Plaza. We took a couple of turns through some food markets and some frier kiosks (with hotdogs and hamburgers) and came upon some clothes... then we just were surrounded by clothes on both sides of the streets. Blocking the allies. In the street. We found it. I tried on fancy coats and warm coats but all of the arms were too short. I'm a tall American! I don't fit these clothes. :( I settled on a double padded poncho. I don't know if I like it, but it looks cool for south america and it'll keep me warm. We walked up hill some more and found some sweaters for Doug to try on. He too, was just a big long American. Nothing fit right. On our way down another gray brick road on the way to buy the food from our grocery list there was a man with a salten(y)a cart. Saltenas are pockets of baked dough with potatoes, eggs, meat and vegetables in them! yum. We bought 2 and Sally ate all of mine! She loves them. We put a cucumber onion and tomato salsa on top. Mmm. After that we entered into a doorway that brought us into indoor shops. ALL ALPACA! Yay! The stuff is beautiful and SO soft. There's a store at the Mall of America with alpaca and it's really expensive. Not here. So inexpensive, cuz it's made right here. Loved the hats, purses, bags, sweaters etc. I got a beautiful sweater, Doug got a scarf and sally got some little things. The women love sally here. They just want her to stay with them in their shops. It was a fun day. Once we got home and had naps, we went back to the market again. This time to the more touristy shops in buildings. It was still cool. There is just so much to buy.
Today, Sunday, we went to the street party again instead of church. There are 2 blocks of street that are closed down on Sunday mornings for artists and local buisnesses. It's so fun! Sally went through a toddler obstical coarse and won a rattle (which I think contains tiny little gum peices inside but sally hasn't figured that out yet). She screamed when we took her away from it so other children could have a chance! The 'teachers' for the child developement tent kept taking pictures of sally. I bought her some hand crocheyed shoes! Love em! $6. And we got some other fun stuff for family and friends. We sat and listened to a fun band and watched the adorable old indigenous people dance the coolest dace. Next time I can't forget the ipod to videotape it. Tomorrow is a new holiday for the Aymaran people. It is their new year. So I don't have school and Doug doesn't have work. We're having Nora come watch Sally so we can go to a midday movie.

Save the Children

So on Monday I think it was Doug too me and Sally to breakfast at Alexander Coffee, which is aperantly the only place that sells/brews bolivian coffee. I got seasoned pancakes with a fruit salsa on top, there was a lot of cinnamon in them, Doug shared his Sugar and honey pancakes with me and had the rest of mine. Their coffee was SO good. I'll have to bring some home. Oh wait, my husband is an addict, I'd better not tempt him! I'll take orders though if YOU want some!! After breakfast (in which I was really really crabby!) He took us to Save the Children, where he'll be working all summer. (Winter here). Here are some pics of his building and his office. Most of the people who work there are Boliviano. There is one girl who is Boliviana and North American and Lisa who we lived with for a while is Originally from Iowa. So doug pretty much speaks spanish all day (when he actually talks to people). He is doing research right now on whether or not Bolivia is complying with rules on how to treat juveniles in the justice system. There was a law signed by numerous countries, including Bolivia, that promises to follow certain rules and regulations. So Doug is working on a paper to show the progress that Bolivia has made. Cool for him! I'm glad he's the one with 30 documents to translate, study and write about! Although, I've gotta say, being in school again is really good for my brain! I feel like I've been asleep for 4 years since I graduated. It's nice to be challenging myself again.

Making Changes

Housing On Friday we signed a month and a half lease on a nice, fully furnished apartment just downstairs from the apartment that we were staying in. (Pictures on facebook) We are enjoying the space, but we are on the SE corner of the building so it's so warm with the sunrise until about noon, then it's freezing in the afternoon and at night. The second night here we bought a small, very small, space heater. Sally especially slept better that night.

School is going well. I'm learning Verbs...Blah! But it's good. I'm able to say a lot now. I had a 31 year old girl as my teacher last week, I'm in private lessons at a school called a speak easy. It's run by a British woman named Alexandra. It gets really busy in the summer because of tourists. Mostly Japanese, North American or Australian weirdly enough are who they teach. The school also teaches Bolivianos English. So there are two girls who work at the front desk after their English classes. They are adorable. (Pics on facebook) This week I change my time to a little earlier so I'm with a new instructor now. Jorge. He's about 30 aswell. He was raise by his dad in England for a while but lives in Bolivia where is mother is from. It's interesting to hear his English because he has a british accent. Grace was a great teacher, it made me nervous to have a different one. But Jorge is a good change because he speaks 95% Spanish to me! Whoa, it's intense learning. I like it! I feel smart when I get the answers right. And really slow when I get them wrong. Anyway, on Friday I went outside for my break and there was a woman sitting on the step. I heard her speaking English! I love hearing English. It's like, "are my ears decieving me, or am I getting really good at understanding spanish!?" So, we started talking. It turns out, her and her husband are here with their 5th child (15yrs old) as missionaries! They are working the the Aymaran people in sopacochi where we live, just further up the hill. They take weekend trips to the remote villages in the mountains surrounding LaPaz. SO COOL! She invited us to their home on Saturday to a birthday party for her husband. We went and had a blast. We ate tacos and potato chips. Ron (the husband) had to show the guests how to make a taco! Funny. LaPaz is potato central so there are potato chips at every kiosk and grocery store. The people there were from 2 different churches. They were so nice. It was hard for me because I still can't carry on a conversation. There was a 6 year old girl named nicole who was quick to correct my pronunciation! So funny. Sally took her hand right away. Nicole had a baby sister so I just played with her the whole time because there was no talking involved. Sally seems to understand a lot. It was fun, glad we went. Glad I met Rhonda!

PLAY Sally has taken a like to our gardens, there is a trampoline and she loves to run around on it. It's so beautiful, all sun back there. I love being out there. The only thing that worried me is that you can see this garden from our 11th story window and the windows don't latch or lock! I was SO scared when we moved in that I nearly had a panic attack every minute I couldn't see her!! Doug found some thick wire and tied up the windows! I love that man. My anxiety was immediately relieved. Now when I hear her say 'outside' I know she's standing by a window that is locked. Phew.
Save the Children Doug's job is going well. He's doing a lot of research and writing. This week he gets his badge to enter the prison to get involved in the education clinics that Save the Children runs. I'm so excited for him. He really seems to be enjoying this opportunity. He walks up a steep hill every morning but surprisingly enough, it's the walk down the hill that bugs him. Shin splints! ouch. Sally and I walked with him this morning and ate breakfast at a coffee shop. It was nice. Only I was Miss Crabby pants all day today. It's probably because I don't go to bed when Sally does. I guess that means good night!

Give me your eyes so I can see

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

My heart is heavy tonight. I write with tears in my eyes and a pulling in my chest. In my mind with my eyes closed I can't drift away from the homeless man I pass on my way home from school every night. He is always in the same place, lying on the cold concrete with layers of heavy tattered and torn jackets and pants on. He is quiet, he is still, lying in the dark by a bus bench. After yelling out and begging all day he rests his head on some plastic and cardboard. In the middle of the fast moving crowd I daily turn and watch him as I walk by in the rush of people. Wondering: is he cold, is he sad, does anyone know him. I see homeless people in d.c. but this almost seems harder. No place to go. No shelters. Just him and his clothes. Everyday.

Today I also visited an orphanage, a beautiful orphanage. We rang the bell to the left of the tall brown painted iron fence and long yellow stucko walls coving half of the block. They unlocked the gait and we went in. Entering a beautiful courtyard with flowers and green grass lining the wide cobblestone walkway. Up the stairs there was an open porch the entire length of the building. Through another walkway there was another beautiful garden. A very happy looking place. We asked if I could assist with anything and we were told to wait for the 'sister' to come. So as we waited, Sally walked the second courtyard investigating this colorful place. We walked past classrooms, playrooms and dormatories. All with doors opening to the courtyard. Everything was cleana and organized. Pretty soon 3 tiny little boys came around the corner with a 'teacher.' One boy called to sally, 'bebe' and they came to see her close up. Sally liked them and touched their chests and hands. So adorable. But yet again, tears. Tiny people came for everywhere. Darling little people. Little girls, boys... no mommies, no mommies... (crying). They were precious. About the same age as Sally. One girl couldn't get over Sally's blond hair and touched it and then her face and tried to hug her. Sally just started batting the girl with her hands and saying 'no, ah no, no!' I couldn't help but laugh. That same girl (2yrs) kept trying to hold Sally and her hand. So funny. I just loved they place. The nun finally came and said that 2 of the babies have been sick for 2 days and they don't want me or Sally to get sick so I was to come back in 15 days. ? . So, I will. I just really want to go back. Hold those babies. Love em up. It looked like they had really great help there. Just hope theres a place for me. Sniff.

School is going really well. I have a private teacher named Grace. About 30 yrs old. I like her a lot. She is from Bolivia. Her Engish is great. And I am learning a lot. I am planning on 2 weeks of language study. I am excited to get to the market alone and test out my listening skills. I can speak really well but it's the 'hearing what they're actually saying' part that I have a problem with. I walk home from school at 7:00pm in the dark. But the good thing is, night life is hoppin! There are teenagers everywhere, people going home from work and little kiosks 5 or more to a block, full of candies and other goodies. There is one kiosk I walk by that is a tall but small box and there is a woman inside with a small frier in front of her. The people wait to tell her what kind of meat they want and she'll put in the oil and place it on some bread with fixings. It is so cool! It's about a 10 minute walk down hill. I'm not alone and feel really safe.

Tomorrow morning we move into our new apartment! It's so nice. I'll try and get some pics up. Miss Nora the housekeeper is going shopping for all of our food and neccesities at the Black Market in the morning and she has pledged watch Sally for us everyday next week, so I can go to school. So after she's done at Lisas she'll come down to our apartment and live in our 'servants quarters'. Crazy. But seriously awesome. This means I don't have to cook dinner for another week because she'll do it!! :)

Getting our chill on

The weather seems to be changing. Doug and I went on a date Saturday night just up the hill from our apartment building, which is 23 stories by the way. We are on the 21st floor and the housekeeper opens the windows when she's cleaning or cooking to cool down the kitchen. The only problem is that even though we are 21 stories up...they don't think we need screens! So daily I have a mini heart attack when I can't see or hear sally! I can't even think about... AH! SO anyways, we have been locking the top latch to each window or shuting the doors between rooms when the windows are open. It's calmed me greatly since I found that latch. And I think my mother can sleep better since I told her about the locks. So we went to a place called Traffic San Jorge for dinner and Kate babysat! YAY! We got all dressed up and the food was amazing. And so beautiful. I said wrong things to the waitress in spanish, but at least I'm trying. I worried a few times about Sally but for the most part it was relaxing no one else was there so it was quiet and quick service. On our way home I was shivering! I didn't bring a jacket with to Bolivia...smart. Before we left it was just too crazy to organize. The air is dry and cool. But when the sun goes down or you are walking in the shade it's chilly. It does feel great to open the windows and clear out the house. Sally is doing well, sleeping better in her Pack'n'play. We are too since she's out of our bed. I'm going to enroll in a spanish 'speak easy' this week and hopefully get into one of the orphanages. I'll keep you posted.

Out on the town

Today Lisa left for Guatemala. Kati leaves for Oruro on Tuesday. Me and Kate needed to search for a new cell phone battery before she leaves and we need some internet cables. The ones we have are shotty. We went to the Plaza San Francisco again. Only this time we walked. Up hill! Blah! We walked throug a cool part of town with almost hidden doorways to restaurants and stores. Then the closer you get to the Plaza the more street vendors there are. It's Saturday so not everything is open but it was still crowded. The one thing I can't get over is how bundled up the indigenous women keep their tiny little babies. The babies are in 2 or more layers of clothes then wrapped in a huge wool blanket and wrapped in a bright stripped sling and placed on the front or back of the women. This seems rediculous. And a little over kill when I'm walking around sweating in a short sleeve shirt. Not to mention the women are over weight (which is seen as a sign of wealth or health) so when we're huffing and puffing from the altitude going uphill these women are carrying so much weight and not even grimmacing. Wow. Their skin is dark aswell and they wear layers of aprons and shawls. No complaining either. I could learn a lesson from them. :/ I found 2 sweaters for Sally and 1 pancho!! And Some plush soccer balls. SO CUTE. We saw 2 ghetto Merry go rounds! (Picture) Crazy. I don't think I'll but sally on one. We walked and walked through markets of stuff after stuff. Trinkets and whatnots. Clothes. shoes. Unbelievable how these people squish into these tiny cubes for shops and cram it with stuff. We kept walking until we were tired, then we had to walk home. No internet cables but I got awesome stuff for sally. Oh and the funny thing is we found clothes that were "made in the U.S.A." I thought that was funny cuz not even in U.S.A. are clothes made in the U.S.A. LOL.

We made our way (accidentally) to the government buildings and to the Presidents Palace. Phew! There were 8 guards at the door. Accross from the palace was another Plaza. There were A thousand Pigeons I'd guess. And the venders sold corn to feed them. If you walked to quickly ALL of them went flying in a circle formation and land again. My mother would go into cardiac arrest i just know it! She Hates low flying birds. We saw 2 wedding parties walking through that and another plaza. That must be the thing to do after people throw rice at you. They were covered. hehe. We found our way back. Poor Doug had sally all day. Sally was somber but that was good so daddy could get work done. What a tiring but fun day. Going out now to a restaurant while Kate, lovely Kate, babysits. :)

Mercado negro (Black Market)

There is another woman down here from d.c. until Tuesday. Kate is her name. She'll be traveling south of LaPaz on Tuesday to a rural town in Bolivia to do research evaluations. She's been speaking spanish with Sally and me a little bit. She is an elementary school teacher for the foster care system in d.c. She's great with Sally. Sally keeps getting really close to her face and touching it softly. SO cute. At lunch time we ate our left over pizza from last night. Last night we took a taxi to San Miguel (a very nice part of town. The farthest down into the valley to drive, the nicer the houses and restaurants). Kate had Llama meat and large corn kernels on her pizza. Doug and I had more traditional Pizzas, Lisa had Salmon and Crawfish!! Yummy. So, anyway, we ate those for lunch.

Then our housekeeper was going out to buy groceries at the outside market and I told her I wanted to tag along! Kate came too. And gladly enough she had her camera. I was SO excited to see and photograph an outdoor market. And I was right to be pumped. It was AMAZING, colorful and so busy. She called it Mercado Negro. The black market. Actually I think it was really called El Mercado de Catorse de Septiembre. It was blocks and blocks of tents filled with everything you'd need to make whatever you'd want. It was all in bulk. The streets were lined with vegetables, fruit, nuts, spices, pasta, rice, sauces and oh of course Potatoes! Bolivia is the home of the potato. Mucho Papas!! And there was much more including raw meats, which I wasn't so fond of: Fish (picture right of Kate and Nora), chicken, beef, pork, shell fish, sausage...etc. You could by makeup, dog food, clothing and bagged liquids (Picture above) ie: water, juice, milk, yogurt. It is much cheaper to sell it in bags than in bottles. Well, after Nora (the best housekeeper ever!) was done with the food we ventured up the hill in a van taxi to the more obscure part of the 'black' ;0 market...cell phones, toys, shoes, electronics...hmmm. It was a little shady but I didn't care. My list of things to get was a crib, cell phones, and a high chair. And this place had it all. They were willing to barter on it all too! Which was great for me. I got two cell phones for $60 (440 Bs)! And a new Graco Pack'n play and a high chair for $79 (590 Bs) Yay! I love deals! Doug was so happy when I came home so accomplished in my shopping.
When I got home we went and saw what will hopefully be our new apartment!! It's so huge and beautiful!! SO cheap and it's in the same building we are in now. So secure. So safe. Love it. God is preparing the way for us.

Sally is better. Hopefully she'll sleep better in her new bed. I'll be happy to have a night with out headbutts in my face from her trying to 'cuddle' with mommy's face. It's amazing how heavy a 1 year olds head is when she's exhausted! Love you all.

Potholes

So yesterday I decided that I needed to get out of the apartment. Doug gave me a very small shopping list but nonetheless, it'd get me to the supermercado. The house keeper and I ventured out into the sidewalk after I bundled up thinking it was cold. As soon as I stepped into the sun off came my scarf and sweater. The weather was beautiful. Can't tell you exactly but I would guess it was above 50 degrees. Sally was in her red stroller and we slowly made our way up the slight incline to the store, dodging potholes and bumps and people. I now know why everyone would double take at us. The bright red stroller was a form of loco-ness on streets like this. Whatever, it wasn't that bad. I had to stop twice just to catch my breath, still not used to activity in the altitude. We passed a Nissan dealership and a Cinema that was brand new and had a mall inside it. The Cinema was open and functioning even though it's not complete. Hmm, I guess they wanted the income. We had to cross the street to get to the store and even with the 'walk' sign on the drivers still flew by! We had to quickly run across the street when there were 2 of 3 lanes were stopped. Frogger anyone! Inside the market I couldn't believe how cheap, like rediculously cheap everything was. I felt like I was robbing them. A large shampoo for men, $2 (14.75 Bs). It was like getting nice things at the dollar store. So I just bought more than I was planning (kind of like you do at walmart) because it was nothing. At the checkout my total was like (90 Bs) $12!! And I couldn't pay for it. So I had to leave sally with Nora, didn't have to but it'd be faster for me just to run down the hill back to the ATM and get some Bolivianos (Bs). Have way through getting cash I was starting to freak out! Thinking "oh my gosh, I think I know the housekeeper but what if she's trying to sell my baby right now." Ah! so I ran back up the hill, which didn't seem to phase me this time. She was already walking down to meet me and left Sally with me and she went to get the groceries. :) I'm such an idiot, she was fine.
Well I don't want to bore you. We are enjoying taking it easy. My appetite is back. But Miss Sally spiked 101.3 fever in the night. I think she's cutting the rest of her molars from what I can see but it's still a little nerve wracking thinking we're in a 3rd world country and my baby has a fever...prayers are welcomed. Thank you.

Day 1

WELCOME TO BOLIVIA. At this point you are lucky you are sitting at your computer enjoying the luxury of being able to breath in and out. The altitude here in the bowl of LaPaz Bolivia is 9,000ft aproxamately. The air is thin and cool. Every breath takes reminding or your lips and extremities turn blue. The air feels amazing after the hot day we had in Miami before we left. We arrived to El Alto at 0545 yesterday. El Alto is the plateau above LaPaz. Its a quick landing cuz there isn't much to land on! After deplaning, we had a slight trauma. Sally's carseat flew out of the stroller face first onto the tunnel carpet while she was still buckled in! Her nose didn't bleed but it was purplish/red all up to her forehead. Poor baby. She still has a small spot but she's ok. She cried all the way through customs and getting our visas. The police were there to greet us, all dressed in army green snow pants and jacket with vests and boots. I thought, jeeze! How cold is it out there. All of our bags made it safely and we had a handsome suited up taxi driver with our names on cardboard waiting with a smile! :) Loved it. Doug's spanish has been good. He was able to get our seats back from a woman who was also assigned 34E and he was able to converse very well with the taxi driver. The driver quickly rushed to get the car saying 'its too cold for you, get in'. It was beautiful out. I'm from MN buddy. This 35 degrees feels great. Strait out from the airport is this beautiful mountain peak covered in snow. It was absolutely breathtaking. My camera of course was packed in the back and I was so tired I didn't even think about getting it out! Until we started to descend into LaPaz. WOW!! The people were starting to come out of their orange colored clay homes. Colorful clothes out on the lines. There are dog's everywhere. 2 of them were enjoying each others company on the sidewalk, if you know what I mean! I made sal look away. The Taxi ride down the switchbacks into LaPaz was interesting to say the least. I did get my camera out and stap a few. We are in a very nice apartment living with a woman from save the children. We have all of the same nessecities as we would at home (but can't flush the toilet paper). With the addition of a house keeper named Nora. She is awesome. Made me breakfast this morning. She is here all day and goes home at night, she does all the cooking and cleaning. I've been speaking some spanish with her. We are very close to the American Embassy, you know, just in case. The mountain outside my window is so pretty. Mount Illimani. We haven't been out much yet I was sick yesterday but feel better today. We've been drinking Coca tea, it is leaves of the coca plant. When processed this leaf turns into cocaine. Hmm. Won't be given sally any of that. I really think that it helped me get better fast though. Doug is at the office now. Doing orientation yesterday and today. Then the rest of the week is a bolivian holiday. So we'll hopefully get out.