Chad and Emily Jackson

2008-11-16T11:36:00.003-07:00

These trees bloomed a couple weeks ago on our playground. The little guy is Joaquin, one of my students. He is super sweet, and always gives me nice sweaty-headed hugs right on my tummy during recess that leave wet marks on my shirt. :)

2008-11-12T16:39:00.001-07:00

2008-10-17T15:55:00.002-06:00

Kindergarten

2008-09-28T12:37:00.003-06:00

Sunday Swim

Today James and Jenny brought their kids over to go swimming. They have three boys: Coy 6, Cy 3, and Cade 8mo. We spend lots of time with them...we are grateful for their friendship!

2008-09-21T12:48:00.003-06:00

Halo

When we got out of church today this was in the sky...very cool...a little lower in the sky was another rainbow but a horizontal one. Chad looked it up online and it was called something "halo", I've already forgotten. I guess it happens a lot in the arctic because of ice particles in the air. Here it probably has something do to with the moisture and smoke in the air. September and October are always smoky here due to the farmers burning their fields.

2008-09-14T18:11:00.002-06:00

Man, I need to have our camera handy.

The funniest thing happened the other day during kindergarten recess. I was watching the kids, and they were, you know, running and screaming, playing monster, swinging, chasing each other, screaming, all the things little kids do. Then something caught my eye. Out in the field sat two of my students, Joaquin and Andres, MEDITATING. Sitting cross-legged with their hands resting on their knees and their fingers in meditiation position. I smiled out loud if that's possible...I watched them for a few minutes and decided to make my way out there and ask them what they were doing. They said they knew someone that does it..i asked who and they told me one of the first graders. Then Joaquin said in his broken english , "yeah, and in chinese they do." So I told them that a good thing to do while meditating is to pray because you are being quiet and still...they just nodded and smiled, so I left them to it, and they resituated themselves and started it up again. Andres sat there the rest of recess time...so cute. Where did they get that??:)

2008-08-23T19:56:00.003-06:00

I know we have been maybe not so good at the blogging. Here goes another try.

This summer Chad came back to Bolivia for two weeks with a team from Faith E. These are a couple of pictures of that trip and also a picture taken on my birthday in Montana with my sister Cara and her husband Gabe.

2008-03-25T14:55:00.002-06:00

This one is for Gina
I have a friend who lives far away,
china to be exact.
Just today i heard from her,
and she asked me with friendly tact:

"Why don't you ever update your blog?"
(She is a master at blogging, you see)
I don't know how, but in between everything else,
she has time to inspire me.

Inspire you how? you may want to know.
oh man, where do i start?
she has mommying and wifing and gro-cer-y shopping
down to a very fine art.

So now, although it has been so long,
I will post this blog today.
In honor of Gina, who, though its been ages,
remains my friend....Hoooray!

Cheezy? oh well. It just comes out.
It comes from my mother, you see.
SHE is the reason I make silly sweet rhymes.
She's done it since before I was three.

So now, I guess this poem of mine
has become a tribute to two.
my mom, to whom I give far away hugs
and my friend, who I wish you all knew.

2008-01-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

Christmas

Starting in November, I think, Chad and Molly made a deal that for every episode of Gillmore Girls that Chad watched, Molly would watch one of the Star Wars Episodes. (Better deal for Chad, I think, being that Gilmore girls is only 40 minutes). Molly quickly became sucked into the saga, and although I hate to disappoint Chad, she has shown a love for it that I never had:) Chad was only too happy to further her new interest with her own Star Wars DVDs for Christmas. She was thrilled. As for Chad and Gilmore Girls, well, I don't know...you'll have to ask him...

We had a wonderful Christmas here with wonderful friends...we are so thankful.

2007-11-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

A tribute to Mike and Aileen

Our good friends Mike and Aileen left Bolivia about a month ago after spending a year here. They worked with students at the Bolivian Evangelical University in sports ministry and taught English. Aileen also coached varsity girls basketball at our school and they were always involved with what the kids were doing there. They were a blessing to everyone around them here. Chad and I are ever grateful for them, and feel so blessed to have spent this time with them. Now they are back in Montana....we miss you!!!!!!!

2007-11-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

We loved having Travis and Elizabeth with us. They are easy going, sweet, and wonderful! They had a good time visiting orphanages and meeting the people we know here. Elizabeth came to school with me one day and made fast friends with the kindergarten kids! We took them to Guembe Mariposario ( a butterfly observation place with lots of pools for swimming). They have this sweet play area for kids with an awesome castle with a room of mirrors at the top! I would have played in that castle for hours when I was little! The big metal structure is the observation tower. I didnt' go up that day...makes me dizzy. (oh, and if your wondering who that is, that's Chad, showing off his muscles...oh dear....)

2007-10-21T10:48:00.000-06:00

No me gusta blogger. Why can't I move these pictures? Argh.

Our dear friends Mike and Aileen left last week. At our high school retreat the students presented them with a gift and told them how much they will be missed...and they truly will be.

Yesterday we went out to the campo with the family of one of chad's students for a barebeque. They have a lot of animals and a really cool nest hanging on their porch. Sage had a blast at the pond (or should I say swamp-like mud hole?). It always feels great to get away from the city for a while. Our friend Molly came with us. She teaches fourth grade and does our missions books..yay for Molly!

2007-10-01T15:39:00.000-06:00

Hi all. I can't seem to figure out how to format my pictures on this thing, and I have already lost the picture of Ian twice, so I am not going to download it again. Anyway, this is Jack. He always does this cute jumpy thing and flaps his arms when he's excited about something...like trying to catch a butterfly or happily telling me some fact about beetles.

2007-09-09T20:53:00.000-06:00

Chad: Well here's my 5th grade class. They are a crazy group. My 6th grade is awesome because they already know how I run my class. But . . . my 5th graders are a different story. They are nuts. Part of the challenge is that they are such a diverse group. In this class I have: one Tiawanese girl, three Korean girls, one girl born in Paraguay (Paraguayan?), a Japanese boy, a Dutch boy, one Panamanian boy, two Brazilian students, one Canadian, and a couple of Americans. It is quite a group. I'll tell you a secret though. I kind of like the crazy classes. They're a challenge, and their usually filled with crazy kids. I'm not sure this is a good thing, but I like the crazy kids. I was a crazy kid. Yeah, they're fun in other words.

Well we just had our open house, and I had the kids write welcome in all their native languages. It was cool. I also got to say, "anyung ha sayoh" and "konbanwa." I have no idea how to spell that in English. The first one is Korean and the second one is Japanese. I had about four or five parents tell me my Spanish is good! That was awesome because my students always laugh at me. One final note, Emily did open house too. I have to brag a little, the parents, kids and the 5th grade teacher all love her. She's super awesome at kindergartening.

2007-08-28T21:38:00.000-06:00

Chad: If you know me then you know me then you probably know that I am a night person. It's funny because Em is more of a night person. She always "hits the wall" about nine or ten. Then she starts laughing at everything and is really cute. Ironically that's about when I hit my peak funness. Often times I wake her up before I crawl into bed I wake her up with fun things like dances or something. Anyway, that's not what I was going to say. What I was going to say is how smart Emily is. She figured out how to get me up in the mornings. Last year she would try to get me up, and I would cover my head with a pillow and go back to sleep. Often times this would result in us being late to school. Emily will get Sage up on the bed, and she will come over and lick my face. I love it. For some reason I always get up. I'm impressed with Emily's ingenuity though that's for sure.

We had our school staff retreat last weekend. It was a blast. We spent a lot of time with our friends and then we got to know some of the new staff. I am going to post some pictures of us making each other into an eagle (the school mascot). It was fun. This is my buddy Gerison. He's a kick.

2007-08-18T15:26:00.000-06:00

Emily: Nine boys and four girls....Although my class is a handful, they are definitly super cute. I am trying to be creative and think of fun hands-on things to do. Next week in Bible we are learning about days 4-7 of creation and we are going to make a big shiny fish poster with aluminum foil. that will be fun...i'm sure there will be kids going home with foil stuck in their hair, but hey, that's what kindergarten is about.

Last weekend we saw some guys (I'll refrain from guessing their age) playing soccer in speedos. I decided not to post those pictures.

2007-08-06T13:01:00.000-06:00

Chad: So you thought we'd never blog again! Well I'm showing you huh! See the way I figure it this blog is about our life in Bolivia, so we only blog when in Bolivia. At least that's how I rationalize two months of no blogging. I sure hope that there is someone out there that will read this . . . somday.

Well, Em and I are back in Bolivia. We were greeted by a bunch of friends at the airport and welcomed home by Sage. All in all it has been a great couple of days. Emily and I are both preparing our classrooms and getting ready for school. This is a picture of us celebrating Em's birthday at her favorite restaurant, La Suisse.

I also want to say that we will do our best to continue blogging on a more regular basis. So keep checking and perhaps there will even be something new once in a while to see or read about.

2007-05-14T12:43:00.000-06:00

Some news:
We had our dog Sage spayed on Friday--she will never have puppies of her own:(
We are coming home in two weeks!:)
I cut off a chicken head for the first time:/

Praise the Lord news!!!
Chad shared with his fifth and sixth graders today...some of his own story and laid out the gospel for them. 14 of his students dedicated their lives to Christ and one sixth grader accepted Jesus for the first time~~~ Many of them had great questions, too, and Chad hopes to be able to talk with them individually soon. Yay!

2007-04-14T08:31:00.000-06:00

It all started with a flat tire....
During our trip to La Paz we were able to see Lake Titicaca, which is located in what is called the "altiplano"...a stretch of highlands at an altitude of 13000-15000 feet. Pretty incredible considering the fact that you can see the Andes rising above that in the distance.
After our lunch at Hotel Titicaca, our driver noticed the van had a flat tire. No biggie. We went and played on the playground and minutes later he had it fixed. Presto! About 30 minutes later on the way home it went flat again...again, no big deal, unless you are in the middle of nowhere and one of your friends has started feeling quite ill (we blame it on the rice). So, we waited for almost two hours while our tire got fixed and played truth truth lie, you know it? We learned some new things about our dear Elliotts and Molly, and Molly learned that it is no fun to feel sick in the altiplano. Is this the end of our fun day? nope. Later that night (this is Saturday before Easter) Chad woke up and was sick for three hours in the middle of the night. I went across the hall to get some more water from the Elliotts, feeling a little wierd about waking them up, but they were already up. Sick. We missed the Easter service the next morning, and Chad had to breathe some oxygen from the tank, but really, what brings people closer than being sick together? So, while we are not happy with the rice, we now feel more connected to the people we love here. Just keep that rice away from us, please.

2007-03-28T16:07:00.000-06:00

Emily: I feel a complete writers block. I will post some pictures.

Happy Birthday Aileen! We went to a restaraunt called "La Suisse" and had steak fondue.

2007-03-21T20:03:00.000-06:00

Chad: yeah so we just got robbed. Emily and I took her dad, Joe, to our favorite restaurant. Emily hailed a taxi to take us home. She picked a bit of a run-down taxi in order to give Joe the opportunity to experience a memorable ride in a taxi. This taxi had no panelling on the indside, just the metal framework. It also had wired hanging all around on the the indside. It stalled at least three times on the way back to our neighborhood. There were no handles to roll down the windows. Basically this was a ghetto piece of junk taxi. When we got in he mentioned something about us slamming his door too hard. I figured he was up to something, so when we got to our neighborhood, we had him take us to a park about two blocks from our house. When we got out he got out with us and claimed that we had broke his window. Now I talked him through the logic that there was no broken glass on the street when we left, that if it had previously been broken it still would have make a rattling of glass sound, etc. I also pointed out that all the other windows were already missing or were cracked. He persisted though and demanded that we pay for the window. He also informed us that it was not Bolivian manufactured glass, but rather it was quality glass. Evidently he owned one of the junkiest taxis in Bolivia (no small feat) but had German-glass windows installed on his jalopy. Here it is often simpler to simply pay someone and be done with it. If the police got involved they would simply demand some type of bribe and demand that we pay the taxi guy anyway, so although ridiculous we payed the guy 100 bolivianos. That sounds like a lot, but it's really only like $12. It really is kind of a funny story.

2007-03-05T14:04:00.000-07:00

Emily: On Friday our school had what we hope is it's first annual "Servant Day". The junior high and high school students were sent in groups to different locations to work on a variety of projects. Some went to orphanges, others to churches, and one group went to do an evangelism survey in a small village near Santa Cruz. I went with a group of junior high kids to a church to help paint a mural in a Sunday school room and dig out a tree. The picture was taken on our return to school.

Also--my sister is having a baby girl on Friday!! She will join her super cute brother in the sparkly blue tinkerbell sunglasses:):)

2007-02-27T15:25:00.000-07:00

Chad: Well, my junior high basketball team just had their first basketball game. We have been practicing for several months, but we usually only have practice once a week. We have also had two weeks of camps that the team didn't have any practicies. The last month has had crazy amounts of rain, and since we practic outside it often cancelled our practices. The final piece of data was that the team we played this week played another school last week and beath them 28 to 0. To say the least, I was worried.

I told them that we hade to 1. play defense 2. rebound 3. take care of the ball- if we were going to win. They did an excellent job of all three. We ended up beating them 22-6. As you may have guessed I now live in a country where soccer is the primary sport, but my players did awesome. I really enjoyed it.

2007-02-20T16:32:00.000-07:00

dancing Chad

Emily: I just have to say that Chad made me smile all week at camp. If you know Chad, you know that a few years ago you couldn't have paid him to dance. He had quite a serious aversion to it. Over the past couple of years, though, (should I take credit for this??), he has become quite jiggy. Not that he would dance at an official dance, where the dancing takes place, but he does like to bust a move(which is so awesome it makes me laugh..wish you could all see it) when he is in the company of his family and friends.
Back to camp: Junior high week, Chad's team cheer involved nothing but a (silent) quirky dance. Senior high week, Chad's team (team Fed X..?)broke out the "I love to move it, move it" song, changed to "mail it, mail it". Chad also made a cameo appearance in the video scavenger hunt his team did..in the back ground you can see him, all alone, what? yes, dancing. The one that truly got me was this: He lost a bet last week and had to dance for the talent show! WHAT??? When I found out he was going to do it I"m sure I looked confused as ever....Chad? Dance? In front of everyone?? It truly was a sight to behold. He pulled a Michael Jackson (the spin and throw of the hat) for his first move and the rest is history. I love that man!!!

2007-02-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

Chad wrestling with some junior high guys at camp

This makes me laugh: Chad lost a bet and had to dance for the talent show...this is his beginning move:)

2007-01-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

We can't help it.
She's like our first child.

2007-01-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

the dot dot dots......

Emily: Hi all...we are back at school this week. It feels good to get back into a schedule. I will now be doing ESL with pre-ks on tuesdays for half an hour. You wouldn't think that five 4 and 5 year-olds would be that hard to control....you would think....

I gave Chad a hair cut the other night...It takes me a while, but he doesn't mind. It really would be easier to use a clipper, but for some reason I have to use scissors. I have to admit that everytime I have cut it I have had to go back and do a couple a "touch ups" the next week....maybe I'm really not that good at it...

I realize that I use the ......s a lot. I get it from my mother. Her emails look like this: Good morning..... went out for dinner with Geri last night. . . . had chicken salad.... . was yummy. . . I hope you are doing well sweetie. . . . . talk to you soon..... mom

I like it.

2007-01-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Chad: Well we just went to Brazil. So now if someone just casually asks, "So has anyone ever been to Brazil?" I would respond, "Why yes, I 've been to Brazil." So that's pretty cool. Brazil is very different from Bolivia. While there we seemed to gravitate towards anything American. I ate more McDonalds (which we don't have in Bolivia) last week in Brazil that I had in the previous two years. We got to eat Pizza Hut and go to Outback Steak House too.

I also learned that I don't speak Portuguese. People would talk to me, and I would have no idea what they were saying. Wa wawa wa wawa Charlie Brown. I couldn't even say yes or no in Portuguese. It's sort of close to Spanish though, so I would just answer them in Spanish and sometimes they'd sort of understand me.

We also spent a couple of days at the beach with several missionaries from Evangelical Church Mission. That was great. I must say that I think there were more people on that beach than there are in the state of Montana. Well, anyway I just wanted to close by saying that yeah I've been to Brazil once. It was sweet.

2007-01-01T11:28:00.000-07:00

Chad: Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano Nuevo, that's Bolivian for Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Well it's been an eventful week. Lots of things to share.

Friday: Mike and I were invited to play basketball at the colleseum by a friend named Silvana. Now last time she talked us into something we ended up playing in a tournament that lasted for about a month. We never knew when the games would be or what time. They would call us and ask us to play in like a couple of hours. We wanted to make sure that all we were doing was playing pick-up games. We went to play and there were these guys that were all members of the Bolivian championship professional team. They were huge. Mike and I played with them for about an hour or so. We would play two on two and then they would rotate new guys in to play against us. Afterward they talked to us and invited us to join their basketball team and play in a South American Championship tournament in Paraguay. They also invited us to a barbecue the next day. We went to that and played two on two against even more of the team. Not to be modest, we won a lot. It was sweet. We only lost one game and it was our fifth straight game in 90 degree weather. I was pumped. We got cut from our high school basketball team, but we were offered a position on a professional Bolivian basketball team. Now we debated and decided to stick with the missionary profession, but nonetheless are stoked about being offered jobs as professional Bolivian basketball players.

Sunday: We almost lost Sage yesterday. Emily had just let Sage outside to relieve herself of any excess fluid. She didn't do anything, so Emily let her back inside. Sage took three steps in the house and peed on the floor. Emily brought her in to the bedroom and I was petting her on our bed. I was ironing my pants and joking about our little Sage. I yelled to Emily in the next room that I'm sure Sage would now pee on our bed because she couldn't possibly be out of juice. I told her that I would outright kill her if she peed on our bed. I laughed looked up and saw her walking diagonally across our bed leaving little dropplets along the way. I then noticed a puddle on my pillow. Like I said, we almost lost her because I just about killed her. New house rule: No dogs on the the bed.

2006-12-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

Emily: Today I can hear some loud music coming from somewhere in the neighborhood. This is not abnormal. There always seems to be some kind of dance beat pounding a few doors down, or a spanish opera singer serenading the neighborhood from a record player. But when I go outside to sweep our porch, I realize that it's not the radio or a CD, but a live mariachi band playing in the park just down our street. They are just standing on the sidewalk, singing and playing their instruments, decked out in full black uniform and sombreros. I don't want to display my complete gringoness by walking down and taking a picutre, so I stick my camera out our gate and snap a shot.

2006-12-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Chad: Well, Christmas has come and gone. Definitely an experience having Christmas in Bolivia. It is summer here and so it never really felt like Christmas. I knew that it was Christmas in my head, but it just never felt like Christmas. We really enjoyed ourselves though. We actually had our friends Mike and Aileen Kindsfater over, and they spent the night. It was sweet. We then spent the day playing games and watching some movies. The picture here is the Santa that was at the equivalent of the Bolivia Walmart. Em and I thought he was interesting.

It is also our privilege to say that we have finally chosen a name for our little puppy. It was a painful process but after a week we have named her Sage. Just yesterday the whole potty training thing just clicked. After a week of virtually no progress, I was beginning to wonder about our little fuzz ball. Then suddenly she walked to the door yesterday and barked. We let her out and she did her job. We were exstatic. She did the same thing several more times yesterday, and although I'm sure she will have an occasional accident; she's doing well.

We just want to say Merry Christmas, and we hope that all are well. We miss you all.

Emily: Yes, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! The picture of us together was taken the day we played Mary and Joseph for the chapel nativity scene at school:)

2006-12-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

no where? nowhere. hmmm...have you ever looked at a word you have written a thousand times and wonder if you spelled it right? ...yeah.....

2006-12-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

Emily: well...now is the time to tell you all to be expecting to see a new face in the family....
We don't have a name picked out yet, but she is so super cute, our new puppy!!! It is a big committment, but I think we are ready:) I asked Chad as we drove home from the vet, "do you realize we will have this dog when we have our first child?" (nowhere in the near future for those of you wondering). It's just nuts to me to think that this dog could be a part of our lives for the next 10-12 years!!! SO crazy. We made a good compromise, though. Chad wants basset hounds, which I am not ready to concede to yet, and I love little dogs, which chad, well, doesn't. I know that golden retrievers are not small...sometimes not even medium...but I think she will be a great dog for both of us. Any name suggestions? Here are the forerunners today: Paige, Isabelle (Izzy), Mara, and Claire.

Yesterday was the last day of school for the semester at the learning center. This morning we took a friend to the airport. There are a bunch of teachers going home for Christmas. I was a little sad and maybe a little envious, but we are going to enjoy our Christmas in Bolivia!! We can lay around in our hammock sipping cold drinks while the majority of you might be a little cold and wondering where all of the snow is. My friend Staci posted on her blog about how captivating the Christmas story really is...how God came to earth..and changed our lives...we can be captivated no matter where we are. Merry Christmas!!!!!

2006-12-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

Emily: I would just like to clarify, on my mom's behalf, that she did not scream about the tarantula. She was actually quite calm but DID make an "oh this is too gross I can't do it" face.

2006-12-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

Chad: Well this is like the third time that I've tried to get this to work, so I'll cross my fingers that third time is a charm.

A couple of quick stories. While Emily's mom was here we got to do some tourist activities that we haven't been able to do within the context of our daily routines. We took Laura to a butterfly farm. At the butterfly farm they kept a gigantic tarantula. Emily and I held it, but Laura could barely get herself to touch it. She kept trying to touch it, but everytime would jerk her hand back at the last instant and scream. It was hilarious. It reminded me of a similar instance in Mexico with my mom, but that's another story.

We also went with Mike, Aileen, and Laura to los Espejillos, which are some waterfalls in the jungle by Santa Cruz. In order to get there we had to drive through a river. Mike and I got out and forded it to make sure that it wasn't too deep.

We continued driving up into the mountainous jungle. It was incredible. We then hiked up to the waterfalls. The falls cascade in several steps down the mountain creating several different pools. Unlike the mountain rivers and lakes in Montana these pools were warm. Mike and I found a ledge that was about 30 feet high to jump off into one of the pools. Aileen and Emily jumped off a lower ledge that was about 15 feet high. It was awesome.

2006-11-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

Emily: We have no excuses. We competely stink at keeping our blog updated. Our apologies.
Thanksgiving in Bolivia was, well, hot. It was nice, though. We had dinner with many friends, and my mom was here! yay for moms! She is pretty much great. Okay...I am going to try to download some pictures...if they're not here, it took too long, and I had to go. Recess duty.

Hmmm....we'll see....while I wait to see if this is going to work, let me tell you how much I love little frogs. It is raining today, and I've seen several frogs jumping around or swimming in puddles by the sidewalks here at school. They are so cute. Last week my mom was taking some laundry out of our dryer. Our light doesn't work in the laundry room (yes, all I have to do is walk across the street and buy a new lightbulb), and she bent down to pick up what she thought was a big sock. it was a big frog. "SOCK!" she screamed, as she dropped the poor animal. heehee...it was funny.
Success! We have pictures!

2006-10-23T20:01:00.000-06:00

Chad: yeah so this is going to have three parts, but i wanted to share them all.

story #1: our friends mike and aileen are here now (they have a blog too and when they teach me how i'll put a link to their blog spot onto ours) . we took them out friday night. we had been to a restaurant that rocks that we wanted to bring them to. our typical means of travel is that i drive and emily stares at our santa cruz map and tells me when to turn. it's not foolproof but it's pretty bolivianesque. at any rate we were using our not quite tried and true method to get to the restaurant. we got a little turned around and we needed to get back to a street we had just turned off of. so i took the initiative and took the first available right to get to the main street again. now i have to be honest, i have rarely gotten nervous or uncomfortable when driving here, but there is a first for everything. i turned onto this multi-lane street to face no less than a hundred headlights coming in formation right toward us. evidently i chose to turn onto a busy one-way street the wrong way right after their light had changed. yeah, i was pretty much nervous. i believe that there was some screaming. i know there was honking from furious bolivian drivers going the correct direction. i gunned the engine and cranked the wheel. we flew up onto a sidewalk and over a corner to land safely on the street we had turned from. poor mike and aileen, for them it was like night #2 in bolivia. bienvenido a bolivia (welcome to bolivia).

story #2 i worked really hard the other day digging a trench and installing a drainage pipe at an orphanage. it was hot.

story #3 i caught a huge beetle this morning and it was cool. that's all. (so maybe one story and three cool pictures)

2006-10-15T14:49:00.000-06:00

Emily: I love the feeling of a wonderfully lazy Sunday... we have been reading most of the afternoon with the exception of a quick nap here and some laundry there. I was going to bake some peanut butter cookies but didn't have any butter. Sad. I would have gone to the store, but it seemed so far away, and definitely would have zapped the lazy Sunday feel. I ate a spoonful of peanut butter instead. Sorry Chad, no cookies today.

2006-10-09T13:34:00.000-06:00

Chad: As many of you are aware I have a bit of an affinity for basset hounds. In fact that has been one of the challenges of being on this continent (I couldn't bring my parents basset hounds). I have particularly missed Chessa, who despite Emily's opinion does not drool very much like Chloe does. At any rate, the other night we went to the Santa Cruz Ghetto to drop off our friend Jared. This is a neighborhood without paved streets that white people lock their doors when travelling through. After dropping him off I saw a basset hound. His name was Diego. I got out and asked the Bolivian people near by if I could pet him. It was awesome. It is also amazing how God can encourage us with the simplest things here. Oh and for all concerned Emily did not pet Diego (or go within four feet of him) and I did not get fleas or any other communicable disease (so far as we currently are aware of).

Yeah, so I pretty much have a mate now. One of my friends here is from England, and his name is Andy Partington. He's a couple of years older than me and has two kids. Anyway, we have gotten to be pretty good friends, and the reason that I know this is that he now calls me "mate." So that's pretty sweet. The problem being that if I call him mate it sounds stupid. We Americans don't have any names to call each other that have the sophistication, yet friendly nature of mate. We say dude, buddy, dawg, and many other less than worthy nicknames. I'd be curious to see if anyone has a suggestion of a nickname that doesn't make me seem like a neanderthal (sp?) when speaking with my "mate" Andy.

2006-10-04T13:57:00.000-06:00

Chad: Sorry everyone that it has been so long since we have blogged. By now we probably have no one left that even checks it. Last weekend we went to a youth retreat with our church youth (Bolivians). It was really interesting. They really get into the worship. After the service we were talking with a newly-wed couple. Around us it was mass pandamonium. Typical of retreats or other camp experiences they were running around throwing everyone into a pool and getting each other wet. They never do stuff like that to us because we are the "misionarios." As we were talking with the couple a friend of theirs charged up from behind them (across from us) and dumped cold soup on them. We got smooshed banana pieces, white chunky water, peels, and other bits of assorted food dumped on us (inadvertently). It was quite an interesting experience. I've never had old soup dumped on me. If there is anyone still out there thanks for reading my story.

2006-09-20T08:24:00.000-06:00

Emily:
It is raining today..the most rain we have seen since we've been here. We had a great thunderstorm in the night. I only woke up once from the thunder thanks to our very old and very loud airconditioner next to our bed...it all kindof sounds the same.
We went on the senior retreat this weekend. It was a great getaway, and was fun getting to know the students better. One kid, who I hear is always doing wacky and crazy things, took my challenge of eating a spoonful of melted butter and chopped garlic. I instantly felt sick and was sure that he had an allergy to garlic that had somehow gone undetected his whole life. I spent the next half an hour worried he would suddenly die and it would be on my hands, the new girl, and we would have to leave Bolivia because of the resentment of the rest of the students and his parents. Oh, the drama in my mind. He was fine. And definitely not allergic to garlic. He swallowed it and continued on with his good time. Aaaaaaahhh.

2006-09-12T07:40:00.000-06:00

2006-09-12T05:42:00.000-06:00

Chad: That's it. I've had it! I am officially declaring war on our shower. I have tried to remain positive, I have tried to stay optimistic, and I have tried to negotiate. There is nothing left but to proceed with open hostilities. Our shower thankfully has warm water. The problem is that it always fluctuates between freezing and scalding. Despite a month of tinkering and experimenting I have been unable to successfully negotiate a setting that will allow for a warm and comfortable setting. Last night was the final straw! I was showering, since I am a night time showerer, and had worked up a thick lather of shampoo. Meanwhile the devious shower shifted temperatures yet again. Because of the scalding temperatures I was unable to rinse the shampoo from my hair. I tried to circumvent the scalding water to increase the flow of cool water, but burned my arm in the process. After finally reaching the cool water I was forced to wait several minutes while the water began to slowly shift temperatures in its ocillation between scalding and freezing. While waiting for a reasonable temperature I got shampoo in my eyes. As I waited for the scalding water to cool my eyes burned and stung. There was nothing I could do. Upon completion of my shower I looked in the mirror to see my eyes red and irritated, but alas we had no visine. Thus I have officially declared war on the shower, and I am fairly confident that Emily will join the cause being that she is empathetic to my plite.

2006-09-07T05:48:00.000-06:00

Emily: We had a great cultural experience on Saturday night. We went to a wedding with our field director, who performed the ceremony in a church out in the country. It was "scheduled" to start at 8 and didn't actually start until around 9. There were people answering cell phones, chatting in the back, and little kids sleeping on the dirt floor of the church...all during the ceremony! At the reception afterward, the bride and groom did a sort of march through the reception, and stopped to have pictures taken with the pastor, his wife, and the two of us---we tried to sneak out of the picture, but the groom pulled us back...we had never even met them:) I thought it was pretty cool... to be brutaly honest, at our wedding I probably would have thought, "who are these people?...get them out of my picures." Anyway, we stayed for a while (you usually don't leave before the meal), but after a couple of hours we decided to jet...when we got up, the girl who got us our table kept asking Chad why we were leaving..the food was still coming:) They have a completely different mindset..where we are time oriented and need a schedule, they just enjoy being together. It doesn't matter that they wait three hours for the meal. I was completely tired by the time we got home at 1 AM but couldn't help wondering if maybe I could learn something from the experience:)

2006-08-27T19:53:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-08-24T05:52:00.000-06:00

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:)

2006-08-19T15:21:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-08-15T11:36:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-08-12T12:44:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-08-08T19:52:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-08-07T19:01:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-08-02T18:34:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-07-29T21:57:00.000-06:00

Chad: We finally left today. Thankfully I only threw up once this morning before we left. Have no fear though, we are almost sure that it had nothing to do with a virus and everything to do with moving to a new continent. It was really difficult saying good bye to everyone this week, especially to our families today. On the upside, it has been such a blessing to know that we love so many people, and the tears seem to indicate that this sentiment is generally reciprocated (with only a couple notable exceptions). Pray for us for these next couple of weeks of adjustment. I still don't know what I'm teaching, and since the school is short on staff this fall Emily is nervous about where she might end up as well. Finally, we want to thank everyone for their support and prayers. You have blessed us so much.

2006-07-20T14:16:00.000-06:00

Emily: Hee hee...I figured out how to post pictures before Chad. I win! He likes to think he always wins..not today my friend, not today....
The photo of us was taken on our trip to glacier with our friends Mike and Aileen.

2006-07-18T20:26:00.000-06:00

Chad: Well not bad for two severly technologically challenged people? This is it the first journal entry for our site. Right now I'm actually typing on a gigantic Walmart 45 gallon tub filled with my personal affects. If only you could all see our disaster of an apartment. We could post some sweet pictures with our brand new canon 7.1 megapixel camara, but we don't have one. Some of you may have heard of the Jackson Curse! Charlie and I made that up as a result of our crazy Winnie the Pooh luck. Oh bother. Emily and I actually looked for several weeks for the camara we wanted, picked one out, went back the next day, and they were sold out. Thus, we are pictureless and waiting for a new shipment.