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.