Chad: Well, we got our driver's licenses now. I pretty much love driving here. First of all I am no longer driving a '88 Honda Accord. Here in Bolivia we need four wheel drive vehicles so we get this sweet Ford Ranger. It's awesome! Secondly, I absolutely get the driving here. It is organized chaos, but it makes sense to me. Here using your horn is paramount. For instance, I can abruptly cut someone off as long as I quickly honk my horn once or twice before I make my maneuver. One must also be decisive with driving. No half-hearted attempts. If you switch lanes or make a turn, do so with authority. Finally one must learn to be relaxed and go with the flow. If someone veers toward your car just honk and let them know that you are there. Don't panic. My final piece of advice is take all this with something of a grain of salt because this plethora of knowledge and experience comes on my second day of driving.

Emily: Just to clarify: the dead white cat was just a dead cat. The "white thing" was a joke...maybe we should choose our jokes a little better, eh?? You always see straggly, mangy looking animals wandering around. So everyone can relax:)
Chad and I went grocery shopping the other night, which ended up being an all-evening outing. I started crying in the produce section. All I wanted was one yellow onion. Not six or seven in a bag. A little over-emotional?? Yes. It hits at the strangest times:)

Chad: Two stories. First we came home last night after school to our little apartment. Outside our apartment laying next to the sidewalk was a little white dead kitten. It was horrible. I had to clean it up and put it in the garbage. I thought of putting a picture of it but I won't subject everyone to that kind of atrocity. Emily has a theory that it was left there to send us "white" people a message. Perhaps there is a mafia in our neighborhood that has it in for us! What I do know is that they won't intimidate me. I'm a fighter, a survivor, and I'm really tough. I've been practicing martial arts moves since I first saw the Karate Kid.

The second thing is that we just took our first public transportation ride. We took a small bus called the micro to school. It was really cool. We are well on our way to becoming Bolivians. There were no seats, so we had to stand. I was too tall so I had to hunch over a little. It only costs 1.5 Bolivianos which is about 12 cents. It was cool.

Chad: So last night I had a nice cold refreshing Coca-Cola with dinner. We then went to high school Bible study. When we returned my cup that was sitting next to the sink was covered with ant-like creatures. They are like tiny ants that move super fast. they were everywhere. Well, Emily didn't like that very much. Her response was without mercy. She got the Bolivian equivalent of Raid (perhaps even a little stronger) for killing cockaroaches. She proceeded to spray our kitchen counter. This did in fact decimate the ant train, but it also filled the kitchen with toxic fumes. It also got a powerful insecticide all over our kitchen. From this we have learned several things. First, the insecticide does in fact kill tiny ant-like creatures. Second, it is difficult to breath and potentially dangerous to human health to use insecticide, but Emily will have no mercy on the miniscule invaders.

Emily: Oh the wind! I hear there are two seasons here. Summer and windy. For this reason, even though I swept our apartment today, I can pretty much be sure I will be sweeping again tomorrow. Not that we don't have doors. We have lovely doors. Quite lovely. Dark wood. With locks. It's just that small space at the bottom between the door and the floor...even though they have those "sealer" attachment thingies made of rubber or plastic or whatever (does anyone know what I'm talking about?), the dust finds a way...it will always find a way....

We found a large spider in Chad's classroom the other day. Hence the photo. Chad wanted to step on it, but I decided to find out if there is a standard procedure of removal. The procedure is to step on it. To me, that was like stepping on a small mouse. It gave me a very gross and crawly feeling to think about it. And it would be gooey. Chad decided to capture it and put it outside. We did snap a couple of pictures, though. Chad had to be the one to get the close ones...I was certain it was going to attack me.

Chad: today the heavens opened and the Lord smiled upon my face. I was informed that I will not have to teach Biology. Oh capital! I when he left I did an Irish jig to the music in my head. And the people rejoiced.
Emily: It's true.

Chad: Yeah so nobody from Bolivia can really say my name. It always comes out either Chaaa or Chath. I also have to repeat it like four times for anybody to understand what I even said because they've never heard it before. Thus I've decided to poll everyone (assuming of course that there is somebody out there actually reading this) to see what Spanish name I should use. I have narrowed it down to several choices: Arturo, Gustavo, and Ruben. I am not actually set on any of these names, so if anyone has other suggestions they would be taken into consideration. In Mexico I went by Chavo, but evidently there was some TV show with a guy named Chavo del ocho. This TV character was kind of like Kramer. I have also gone by Pepecito but that's a Mexican name. Please give me your vote. This could determine my name for years to come in the country of Bolivia. Simply post your comments and I will be happy to reply to them and keep you posted on what I decide. Gracias. P.S. Emily doesn't think that I am any of these but she fails to tell me what name does fit me.

Emily: Hello from Santa Cruz Bolivia! We arrived this morning, safe and sound, and more rested than the last time we took this trip. This we attribute to flying first class. Fluke or mistake? It appears that way, but it sure was a blessing, and we thank God for it:) We will get more pics posted (hopefully) next week.....ciao.