Putting Down Roots

It's hard to believe we've been here less than three weeks- it seems like ages have passed since we left the familiarity of friends, family, church, and summer. There's a lot to love here. Our house is gorgeous, even if the stairs are a death trap. The slick wood floors from top to bottom have made us all slip down a few steps at one time or another, Danny taking it the worst of all last week in his suit and dress socks, getting a nice bone contusion on his elbow on the way down. But the wood is so lovely! The only eyesore is an accent wall in the living room. This being a rental property, there is not much we can do to personalize the space, though I've bought some paint to cover over the peach wall in the living room. Our couches are mustard-pea and the color combination is more than I can stomach. I haven't painted the wall yet because we haven't gotten approval to paint. (Isn't that just like me, to buy paint and then ask if I'm allowed?) I've also gotten to do a little digging in the green patch I call my garden. We made a friend, Kendra, who has an exceptionally green thumb. She gave us strawberry runners from her strawberry patch to plant in our garden. She gave us a tour of her chicken run as well and put a damper on that dream of mine quick. I will probably speak of her again since I think we are going to be good friends. We have a bread-baking science day at her house on Monday! And I'll leave the chickens till I have my dream farm.

Our adventures this week have been tame on account of the rain. (It's been an unusually cold and rainy spring.) One of our adventures was to attend a fair at the local American school. This was a fund-raising event, and we attended in support of our friends who go to the school.

Another adventure was to hire an "empleada" to help with the upkeep of the house and with the cooking. She stuck with us despite an awkward interview and things have settled into place over the course of the week. I don't know the first thing about polishing wood floors and, after three days of her culinary offerings, I've decided I don't know how to cook either. Her name is Florencia or, as the kids call her, Flower. I think she likes us. I've only seen her panic once, and that was when the littles decided to have a pillow sack race in her freshly laundered pillow cases, and she was running behind them yelling frantically. The floor wax left its mark on the white cases and Flower was mortified. Perhaps it was on account of a such a lax week that homesickness started to hit, Noemie in particular. We went out for pizza on Thursday night and she sat forlornly, thinking of friends back in FL and VA. But considering that many others in our shoes have been fighting tummy bugs this week, I think I'll take homesickness instead.

Our church search has been disappointing. Our first week, we failed to make it to church because we failed to plan. So Danny hired a private driver early the following week to be safe. But that driver didn't show up last Sunday. After waiting for a while, we called a taxi. For the first time ever, the taxi was a no show as well! So we started walking to the nearest Christian church in the area, an interdenominational church 2.5 km away. We weren't passionate about that church and left looking forward to visiting some other area churches this week, but now it looks as if protests will block all the routes out of our area tomorrow. So. Maybe it will be another week of "church at home."

One of my favorite people sent me an email last week with lots of questions that I've decided to post answers to here in the form of a Q&A.

What kind of bad weather can we get? Earthquakes, though there have never been any serious ones in anyone's memory. Also, flash floods and mudslides happen occasionally in La Paz but where we live, we should not experience any problems.

What is our sponsor family like? We were given a sponsor in preparation for our arrival. Her name is Julie, she has four kids, and she's from the western US. They are a wonderful family that has gone above and beyond to make our transition here seamless, stocking our fridge before arrival, accompanying us from the airport at 4 am (with snacks!), checking in on us periodically, and making sure we are aware of all American community gatherings. Like the school fair.

Did I find a piano teacher? No, but I did find Tovi a violin teacher! She looks to be about 20, and speaks broken English and it's kind of funny to watch them try to figure each other out. Props for Tovi for being brave!

Did Gigi get her hair cut? Yes, I took her to a salon in Sunrise before we left.

Do I have a back yard? Not exactly. Our house is walled in. Most of the space between the house and the exterior wall is tiled. The kids use the carport as a large, tiled soccer court. There's a tiny patch of green by the front door where we have some fun droopy flowering plants that attract hummingbirds. I call this our garden. I bought a rose plant today. I don't know where to put it. We also have oregano and rosemary which Flower used to make a slam dunk roast chicken on Friday. 

Are there fast food restaurants here? Yes. Rey Porky, Don Pollo, and Toby. There are a lot of roadside shacks that have food but I'm allergic to diarrhea so we haven't visited them.

Are there libraries here? I don't think they have public libraries here.

Malls? Yes, but not big and trendy. 

Movie theater? There's one in the mall. It offers 5 movies, two of which are rated "14+", like Steven King's It.

Are there playgrounds? Yes. The kind from the 80s that might lose you a finger or a set of teeth. I am all about dangerous playgrounds. Danger teaches kids to be cautious. Cautious people don't need the government to tell them how to do everything. Cautious people are thinking people and thinking people are safe people! Most of the time...

From D.C. to La Paz

We have officially packed out of our townhome in DC. We spent everyday that week preparing for one set of movers or another, or handling the house cleaners etc, while Danny alternated between days of pack-out assisting and days of work-training that included wrestling and defensive driving tactics, which he would endure with only 4 hours of sleep. When he arrived home that Friday afternoon after another day of his brain sloshing around, he looked close to death. But we survived and met some colorful characters in the process.

Wednesday night was the night before our pack-out. We were so wrapped up in the washing and organizing that we totally forgot about church evening service. We worked through the night until our movers showed up at noon, 3 hours later than we expected. Of the four "men" who showed up, three of them looked about 15 years old and they didn't speak English. Danny was a head taller than all of them! Two hours into their work, they looked at each other nervously and called for reinforcements. Three additional guys showed up, guys who were much bigger, louder, and covered in gang tattoos. When two hours later two more guys showed up, it became absolute chaos. They all played for the same soccer team in Maryland and they were trying desperately to get out to an evening game. Their work was sloppy. Danny's abuela was with us and she wasn't having any of it. She sat on the mattress and would point and say, "My love, that is not good enough. Do it again. Dear, the corners of that frame are still exposed. Fix it." All in Spanish of course. The smells of body odor and cigarette smoke were pervasive. Rain ruined boxes that Danny had to recall so that they wouldn't arrive at post with mold. Praise God x 1000 that Danny was given the day off at the last minute and was able to be present. Praise God for a lot of things, like the fact that Danny's mother and grandmother had bought plane tickets to be there that week, not knowing that our pack-out would be scheduled for that time! Praise God that we had enough Marriott points to cover both ours and Danny's mom's hotel rooms for a week! And for a neighbor who threw our kids an impromptu going-away pizza party on the cleaning day. Our cleaning lady was left at our door by her boss. We expected three workers, to take three hours. Instead we got one worker, an undocumented 25 year old girl from Honduras, who worked alone for five hours without a moment's break. My heart hurt for this weary girl.

With our personal effects off and on their way to their various destinations, Danny and I took to living out of luggages in hotels. We began winding down our activities in North Virginia. Dominic went on his first sleep-away camp with the church youth at the end of July. The youth had spent a week of intense ministry work in South Carolina assembling Bibles and attending church services. As the day approached for the night where testimonies were to be given, we kept reminding him to think of one or two memorable moments to share, and we bought him a stop-watch to help him keep track of time. Without notes or outlines (against our advice), and with the help of his wristwatch, Dominic introduced himself, articulately described the Bible printers at Beacon of Truth Ministries, he described his love for mechanics, and how cool he thought it was that someone in the Philippines would be getting a Bible that he helped to make, and concluded promptly when his two minutes were up. We were so proud of him! 

We were hosted for dinner by Noemie's AHG Coordinator, by friends from college, and by families from church. The church also held a going-away fellowship pot-luck in our honor. It was a welcome respite from restaurant meals. We got our yellow-fever vaccines. The kids and I attended a safety seminar with Danny's department that was the equivalent of a worst-case scenario handbook, except it's not as fun as the handbook because I might actually need to know how to identify the symptoms of typhoid or the evidence of espionage or ricin exposure. We picnicked at the Washington Monument, grabbed lunch in Annapolis, and spent a beautiful day at Hershey Park. And, as a final epic finale as far as I'm concerned, Danny dusted 20 years of dust from his violin and played in a violin quartet for our last Sunday service. It was practically a miracle. And done almost entirely, I am sure, for Tovi's sake as much as the Lord's.

In mid August, the kids and I flew down to south Florida, leaving Danny in Virginia to finish his training. The evening of our arrival I had to cut out from dinner early on account of a migraine. Before the week was over, I had a severe sunburn and the consequential fever blister, followed by a bad cold that I would eventually pass on to Danny and my parents who, three weeks later, were still recovering. But when I wasn't feeling like death, I was thrilled to pieces to be "home." We had three weeks of park meet-ups, pool play days, birthday gatherings, lunch dates, and going away parties with our favorite people on the planet. We spent our days hopping from Hutchinson Island to Plantation, to Miami, to Boynton Beach, to Sunrise, and back again. The pastor at our Florida church asked Danny and I to substitute teach the third - fifth grade Sunday School class and I was able to sing in the choir. It was glorious. The question we heard over and over, "Are you excited?" And the answer was usually the same: "I'm excited to be right here, right now." It wasn't that we were anxious or disinterested in the big move, we just had no idea what laid ahead. We had no expectations- not of joys or troubles, positives or negatives, sights or sounds or smells. I asked Dominic on our way to the airport, our little family with over 600 lbs of checked luggages and carryons moving to a country we have never been in and knew so little about, what did he think of it all? He laughed nervously and said, "It's ridiculous." And I rather agree.

We took a red-eye flight on the eve of my and Danny's wedding anniversary, arriving in La Paz at 5 a.m. on a Wednesday. Toby was green as he got off the plane. He sat perched on my rolling carryon bag as we dragged our way through the exit terminals. Noemie was making use of her airplane barf bag before we reached customs. We were greeted at the gate by two of Danny's co-workers and by our incredibly sweet and tireless sponsor. Our little team was ushered through the entry stops and we took a van in the darkness of early morning La Paz down the winding stone paved roads from El Alto (elevation 14,000 ft) to our neighborhood 2000 ft below. Toby made use of his own airplane bag as well. El Alto is a poorer part of La Paz and we were impressed with the amount of trash on the street corners, piled chest high. We were also impressed with the number of dogs that roam the streets, living in a sort of parallel dog society, and the extensive network of telefericos used as a means of public transportation here.

Our motorpool took us directly to our house in the much cleaner Zona Sur where our sponsor gave us a tour of our house and  demonstrated how to use our water distiller and how to clean our produce with bleach. Tovi and Noemie crawled into the first bed they found and spent most of the morning throwing up. Nico suffered from headaches. Gigi, predictably, was entirely unphased. Danny and I had been taking an altitude sickness prevention medicine called Diamox. Having seen the reactions of our kids' bodies to the altitude, I have concluded that I would never fly into La Paz without it! The effects for us were limited to being short of breath with very little exertion. If I blew my nose, for instance, I had to take a moment to catch my breath. We took our first foray into the neighborhood shops that evening, walking to the local grocery store a block away- just Danny, myself, and the irrepressible Gigi. Our fridge was now stocked with eggs, carrots, strawberries, and cheese. Not sure what kind of meals we could make with that but none of us were hungry anyway. By evening on the first day, I had unpacked about half of our luggages and Tovi was picking fights with his siblings, so we knew he was back to normal. 

The second morning Danny was off to work. The kids, minus Noemie, found ways to keep themselves entertained in the immense house while I went from room to room identifying how each room would be used. We ended up with 2 separate guest rooms, each with its own bath. Noemie continued to wander the beds aimlessly, listlessly. She had already thrown up the single strawberry she'd had for dinner and said she was really thirsty so I gave her some water, which her body rejected a few minutes later, at which point I got concerned and called on a driver from the embassy to take us to the med unit. At the embassy Noemie was treated for mild dehydration and was given some oxygen. Since we were all present, they went ahead and gave us all our mandatory post medical checkups and safety briefings. Noemie was good as new when we were all done. 

The rest of the week went well- waking up each morning with a clearing of our bloody nasal passages, enjoying the incredible mountain views from our bedrooms, visiting new restaurants (since carrots and cheese can only take you so far), attending a meet-and-greet potluck for embassy families, keeping our eye on Hurricane Irma whenever possible, and venturing out on longer walks including Sunday's Achumani market. We received our air shipment remarkable early, so we now have barbecue tools, sandals, board games, and a crock pot that looks like it was kicked by a steel-toe construction boot. In retrospect, I wish our air shipment had included bath towels and toothpaste. We've made several good friends including those who accompanied us to the market. They have been showing us the ropes- which carnecerias to avoid, how to hire a cook, where to buy egg laying hens, and what not to eat in the local restaurants. Ultimately, most of the advice is centered around avoiding diarrhea. 

Noemie and I stumbled across a festive little parade which we greatly enjoyed.

Tomorrow we will start school! This is the longest we've ever gone without formal academic studies and Noemie is practically jumping out of her skin she is so eager to get started. In the next few weeks we will be establishing our community by finding a church (we hope!!!) and deciding on which extra curricular activities we will be involved with. 

So did you take notes? Please pray that we find a church. Then, get your visa, yellow fever vaccine, Diamox, a good chapstick, and come on over for some incredible adventures!