Easter season as always flew by way too fast. Pentecost in Bolivia is a big event. Most notably, they hold a vigil all night from 9pm to 5am beginning and ending with mass. Here in Villa Cochabamba it was attended by all the young people 13-20. Tom and I, being oldfolk, decided not to attend and instead got a good night’s sleep and attended the masses the next day. The church was as always beautifully decorated also.

Pentecost means something more to me here in Bolivia because it is truly the gifts of the Holy Spirit that keep me going everyday. Every Sunday at mass I pray for the strength to live the next week with love, patience, and understanding. Then it dawned on me today, that what I’m really doing is continually asking for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Strength gets me through the hot days, the sick days, and the days when I don’t understand anything. I am constantly seeking the Wisdom to see what God wants of me each day and to know how to show God’s love when constantly facing material and spiritual poverty. I pray for Counsel and Knowledge to know how best to offer assistance for all the needs we’re surrounded by; how to empower people and avoid handouts; how to let children know that they’re loved and valued.

The gift of Understanding became clearer to me while I was reflecting on the Gospel this week. It had always bothered me how the disciples spoke and everyone understood in their own language, until this week, when I connected that with my own experiences communicating in other languages. It wasn’t the way the disciples said it that was the miracle, it was the way the people heard it. I have had many experiences like this in my life where I understand something but I don’t know why I can understand it. I’ve always been gifted with languages in that I can pick them up quickly and develop an ear for new accents quickly. Sometimes, I can even listen to a language I’ve never heard before and understand, which to me is clearly the work of the Holy Spirit. The other interesting thing about this understanding is that it’s not language-based. I couldn’t tell you the words the people used, I can just tell you what I heard, heard more in my heart than through my ears. I imagine it must have been like that for the people listening to the disciples also. They didn’t need to know all the words to get the message, because God speaks right to your heart.

Fear of God was never one of my favorites but Bolivia certainly puts the Fear of God into people. There is a very strong emphasis on confession here, such that people won’t go to Communion unless they’ve literally JUST confessed. I don’t think this is totally healthy but I think they do have more reminders that our time on the Earth is short. It’s not always easy to live in Bolivia but it is easy to die. In a country with practically no safety regulations, no safety nets, not so much as an ambulance to come get you if you fall in your own front yard, it’s just between you and God. If you’re still alive, it’s because of the grace of God because He’s had plenty of opportunities to end it.

I also feel like I’ve increased in Piety since beginning this journey last July. In July we lived and prayed with Salesian Sisters in New Jersey for three weeks. At first I felt the 6am prayers and daily rosary was just unnecessary, but after awhile it really grew on me. Having structured-in reflection time each day really provides an amazing amount of peace and strength. Now in Montero, though we don’t do the Liturgy of the Hours with the Sisters we occasionally join them for rosary or Adoration and always attend first-Friday mass in the Chapel. People have also started calling me “Hermanita” despite the fact that they should know I’m married. They don’t know what to make of a married person without children that lives in a convent though.

Sugar cane harvesting is just starting to ramp up to high-gear. This weekend we drove by the refinery that is to the north of town and saw 50+ semi trucks filled with sugar cane. The down side to this is that a lot of farmers burn the fields as part of the harvesting process, which makes the air quality awful here.

I walked out of the house on a nice sunny day last week, and noticed little bits of black floating to the ground nearby, when I went to look at one closer, it was clearly a bit of charred husk.  Then after that the soot got really bad.  I was burning some DVDs for the sisters, and after leaving one of them on the coffee table for an hour, it had a whole bunch of black flecks on it.  I’m expecting that we’ll have to do a lot of cleaning over the next few weeks.

Then the other night right before sunset, we saw our first big plume from a fire somewhere west of town.  We went up to the top of the Institute to take some pictures of it…here’s the best one (click for full resolution):

I also took a short video of it:

Get it in 720p.
Also on Youtube

Wednesday morning I had to get up early to go the Japanese Hospital for a recheck on my sinuses so Patrick and Dad-Tom nicely offer to accompany me (which involves leaving Montero at 6am so REALLY nice of them). Tom even got up for 5am rosary that morning! I slept in. In reward for getting up early, I gave them the whole Santa Cruz experience. We took moto-taxis to the plaza then walked to the trufi station and squeezed into a trufi. We got off at the third ring in Santa Cruz and took a micro(bus) over the Japanese Hospital. The buses are often standing-room even to the point that people are hanging out the door and Tom bravely managed the door-spot on our way back from the Hospital. The Japanese Hospital, despite it’s name, is still quite Bolivian so we spent most of the morning standing in line. But by 10am I had a clean bill of health from the doctor and we headed over to meet everyone else at the zoo. When we got there though it was just Tom and Kevin (who was feeling better) as the other two had decided to stay in bed. The zoo was GREAT. It was a cooler, rainy day so there were few people but the animals were really active. Despite not fulfilling Kevin’s dream of seeing a South American guinea pig, we saw lots of jaguars close up, rheas trying to eat lizards, and monkeys that walked on two feet and took food out of our hands.


Wednesday we hit the food court in Santa Cruz for lunch (a really nice place to eat! I had sushi) and we headed back for Kinder. In the afternoon and evening, those who weren’t sick in bed worked in the computer lab and had homemade pizza for dinner (thanks to buying some mozzarella in Santa Cruz).

Thursday morning the crew continued working hard in the computer lab and Maureen was feeling better so she and I went for a walk around the market to buy the few things we needed to make wild rice for the Sisters for lunch. On Thursdays, all the volunteers eat lunch in the convent with the Sisters so all the family was invited also. We brought Minnesotan wild rice and Starburst jelly beans to contribute to lunch and share a taste of the U.S. with the Sisters. Thursday afternoon was the Mother’s Day celebration at the Kinder so of course the Kent family was invited as ‘honored guests.’

At the end Maureen and I were both presented with special mother’s gifts because as Madre Clara said, I would be a mother soon, to which one of the profesoras yelled “next year!” They like to pressure us about the kids thing a lot here. Most Bolivians start having kids even before they get married so the idea of getting married and waiting is about as foreign as we are.
The last part of the Mother’s Day party was a chicken dinner. Madre Clara asked me the night before how the family liked their chicken cooked and I basically answered “not by a Bolivian” so she gave me the chicken the night before and I washed it and cooked it for us. The chicken for everyone else I believe sat out all night or else was only semi-refrigerated. After a quick dinner, we headed over to get a trufi to Buena Vista. It was just the six of us since Tom had to teach until 9pm. We were hoping to get a van that holds seven but when we arrived the last van was already full of people and all that was left were cars. So, we sucked it in and squeezed all six of us plus a driver into something the size of a Honda Civic. It was a tight-bonding-experience with Kathleen, Patrick, and Kevin and me all in the back seat as our trufi driver passed cars and semis on the dark road but an hour later we arrived safe and sound at Buena Vista Hotel.

The hotel has a beautiful view of the Andes and after checking in, we got a beer at the bar and met with Marcos from Amboro tours to plan our hiking trip into Amboro Park for the next day. Luckily Maureen was still feeling better but Kathleen didn’t want to risk digestive distress in the rainforest, so she stayed behind with her ipad. I think they had a wonderful time. The rest of us got up early and headed into the rainforest with Julian, our guide. We piled into a 1979 Toyota Land cruiser (which would NOT have held 7 people so we lucked out there) and started our 2 hour drive to the Park.

This included lots of river crossings

and other interesting off-roading experiences. We also got to see some rural communities on the way and lots of orange and mandarina groves. Once in the park, we hiked 2 hours to a beautiful tropical waterfall.

We saw lots of interesting ants along the way, like army ants and leaf-cutter ants. The ants go marching 2 by 2…
Unfortunately we didn’t see any mammals but we did see tracks of a medium-sized cat and some jaguar scratches (the jaguar had apparently been walking down our path the night before!). And on the way out of the park we saw some mini-macaws! I believe they were Chestnut-Fronted Macaw. I was too busy with my binoculars to get pictures though. That night we went to the nicest restaurant in Buena Vista (and possibly the nicest in 50 km for that matter) and got some very average cheese pizza and fettucine alfredo but enjoyed each other’s company nonetheless. Then we played some hearts and went to bed.

Saturday morning we returned to Montero, finished up things in the computer lab and went to the Parish Center’s Mother’s Day celebration. Theirs was considerably less-well organized but my youth group did a dance and highschool-age group did a skit. Lots of prizes were raffled off for the mothers and everyone was served hot dogs and soda. Kathleen was feeling better also, so the whole family was there.

Sunday morning we went to church with the Hogar girls and the family said good bye to them. Also, they had brought a gift for our god-daughter Carmen, a Dora the Explorer book and some stickers so Tom and Maureen sat down with Carmen and read her the book. I don’t know if she has a lot of experience being read to, particularly by a mother and father, so it was nice to see. The Sisters invited us all to lunch on Sunday (we brought pancakes to make sure there was something safe for everyone to eat) and they presented gifts to all the family members and thanked them for coming and thanked them for sending Tom and me here to help. Tom and Maureen thanked the Sisters for their hospitality and kindness. Everyone said their thank yous and goodbyes and we headed to Santa Cruz.

We did a little touring of Santa Cruz that evening, mainly the plaza and Cathedral, ate some Pique Macho, played more Hearts- quite a thrilling game actually when Dad-Tom came back from 89 points to almost win, and went to bed early. At 7am we took the shuttle to the airport and by 10:00am (ish) the Kents were on their way back to Miami. Safe, sound, and mostly-healthy. Iron-stomach award goes to the Tom and Patrick for surviving Bolivian food without a scratch! Thank you all for coming! We loved having you here!

We were so blessed at the end of May to have Tom’s WHOLE family come down to visit us here in Montero. There was plenty of pre-trip stress getting plane tickets, hotel reservation, vaccines, visas, and travel medicine for five people but they prevailed through it all and landed here in Bolivia May 17th. They toured in La Paz on their own for two days and then we met them in Sucre for a weekend of touristing.

Everyone was healthy and happy when we met them in Sucre and oh what an amazing feeling it was to be standing at the Sucre airport and see familiar faces for the first time in 8 months! In Sucre we hit a lot of the major tourist sites such as the Crustacean, er I mean Cretassic Park (largest collection of dinosaur footprints in the world!), the Casa de la Libertad, Cathedral, Cementery, Folkdance show, and Folklore masks museum.
Yes those are Dinosaur footprints!
And on Sunday the family went for a beautiful hike on the Inca Trail. Unfortunately I had arrived from Montero with some lingering food-borne illness and spent most of Saturday and Sunday in bed.

In Sucre, we stayed at Casa Verde, a cute B&B run by a Belgian man named Rene which I would definitely recommend to anyone. He even gave me some electrolytes to drink when I was sick in bed (just a fun Bolivian-traveler note, out of the 8 bedrooms I wasn’t the only one bed-ridden. There was another German? wife also sick in bed. It’s a fairly common occurrence.) Anyway we also filled up on good food in Sucre from Para Ti chocolates to dinner at La Casona and JoyRide. It’s better to arrive in Montero fat and happy because you sure won’t leave that way! Hah…oh it’s not funny though because it’s true.

Casa Verde

Monday we flew to Santa Cruz and were met in the airport by Madre Clara and her nephew Javier who gave roses to all the family members. Then they drove us back to Montero. It was lunchtime and we had meant to eat something at the airport but both Madre Clara and I totally forgot so we thought, oh no worries we’ll go to the Chinese place in Montero. The Chinese restaurant is the ONLY restaurant in Montero that Tom and I really feel safe eating at and taking other people to. There are some fried chicken places that look okay also but I’d say you’re always gambling, kind of like digestive Russian Roulette. And the little roadside tables that the locals eat at look just down right poisonous (note this is not a judgement on their food or their culture, but a realistic knowledge that their sanitation and food preparation practices are not what U.S. stomachs are accustomed to). Anyway, we get to the Chinese restaurant and it’s abandoned. Apparently it changed locations but left no information about where it had gone! We had lost our only restaurant! I felt like posting signs on lightposts LOST: clean Chinese restaurant If found please call: Laura. Anyway, jokes aside we swung by the grocery store and made hamburgers back at the convent. We gave the family the grand tour that afternoon and the girls at the Hogar LOVED them. Then we cooked dinner and relaxed (we were invited to a festival that evening but declined). Monday night: Kevin gets sick. Cause: snack in Sucre Mon. morn?

Tuesday Tom and I put everybody to work! While I ran around and did some errands with Madre Clara, Tom got everyone starting cleaning my Kinder computer lab, spin-rite-ing all the hard drives and trouble-shooting my problem computers. I got back at about 11am and showed Maureen and Kathleen around the Guarderia that I thought they would help out at on Thursday. Tuesday lunch we ate from the Guarderia, except that it wasn’t at all the normal food that Tom and I eat, it was beef, vegetables, and noodles made especially for them. That afternoon the Kinder put together a welcome ceremony for the family with dancing and singing. It was really sweet and I had all the kids talk to them in the few words I’d taught they so far in English. Also each family member was presented a present and hugged by a student. I think the biggest surprise of the day though was Patrick! He was a BIG hit with all the female profesoras. I thought they were going to gang up on him and force him to stay in Bolivia and marry one of them. They were just all a flutter, it must have been the beard. Bolivian men don’t grow facial hair. Kevin was back on his feet and made it to the second-half of the Kinder party.

Tuesday night we had our normal community dinner with the other volunteers except that Andrea had two friends visiting her also so we had 13 people for dinner! I had to request more place settings from the Sisters and we ate over in the Guarderia dining room, where the Kindergarteners usually eat. It was a regular loaves and fishes kind of meal. Despite only have one chicken to cook, everyone ate well and we still had food leftover. Everyone had a good time visiting afterwards and there was also time to go over and observe Tom teaching his class.

Kevin, Kathleen and Patrick talking with Melia and Andrea (Hogar volunteers) and Andrea’s two visiting friends (front two) on our front porch area.
Tuesday night: Despite mostly avoiding the vegetables all day, Maureen and Kathleen get sick. Cause: lunch from Guarderia? vegetables at dinner?

Since I’m not great at taking lots of pictures, you can check out the Hogar’s blog: http://hogarsagradocorazon.blogspot.com/2011/04/felices-pascuas.html if you’d like to see more pictures of our Easter celebration. Also the picture at the end is the new baby that was born here in March to a mentally handicapped woman who lives at the Hogar. It’s a long story but the baby is doing well and is being raised by the Sisters. Special thanks to Terri Berg for mailing us a breast pump so he could get some colostrum! I got to babysit Jose Maria last Friday and he was a joy! He slept most of the time sleeping but was very interested in his surroundings when awake and watched some of the royal wedding with me .

More soon, so much has been going on! So little time to blog…

So being the southern hemisphere, winter is starting. We finally (after having been melting for the last seven months) got our first big cold front that came up from Argentina over the weekend.

The results were pretty crazy; everyone had their wool stocking caps, big winter jackets, and I even saw some people with gloves on. Basically doing everything they could to keep warm.  When we left for church this morning the temperature was….wait for it….58 F!  Honestly I was comfortable in my long sleeve shirt and long pants (which I haven’t worn since christmas), but I just thought that after months of them laughing at me for how much I sweat here that it was funny to see them a bit out of their element.

Sadly, the temperatures are supposed to go back up into the 70s tomorrow and 80s by the middle of the week, so the great (cool) weather won’t be holding on for too long.

So I took a panoramic photo of the market from on top of the Institute:Click on the picture to see the full resolution version. You can look into the market stalls and see what is going on.  You may also notice a car that is only half there (it was moving when I took one picture, and not in the next).

This is actually just part of a larger picture, which you can get here.  It includes our house and our neighbors across the street (see if you can find the chickens in their yard).

You can also get the full pre-cropped image here.

For those interested I stitched it together with the (largely automated) Hugin software, I highly recommend it.