Christmas in Colorado

I'm often asked what I've missed about the US while I've been away, and my answer sometimes includes Krispy Kreme doughnuts or snow, but it's usually no longer an answer than simply; "the people". Few things could have kept me from Mosaic's first ever Christmas Eve service, but these adorable -- I wouldn't dare call them that to their faces, they're way too much like teenagers for that kind of description -- cousins, and everyone else in attendance at the Scott Christmas, made an excellent substitute for my church family.

As many as 16 of us, at any one time, cozied into the two bathroom house for four days of games, amazing food, presents, overdue chats, pictures of Angelica, and good old family fun. We ventured out for hikes, skiing/snowboarding, hot springs, a little last minute shopping, and visits to my grandfather in the local hospital with an untimely case of pneumonia. But God was so sweet to allow him to be discharged to us on Christmas Eve. In his usual selflessness, he was worried about keeping everyone up all night coughing, but I'm sure everybody would agree, that each peep out of him was just a welcomed reminder that he was home with us for Christmas.

When I left the US and my family almost a year and a half ago, my three cousins, who'd all been pretty much perfect since birth, were starting to blow me away with their talent, thoughtfulness, and exuberance, it was a difficult goodbye. A couple months after I left, Rachel--the youngest--was gifted a stuffed horse and a little girl doll for her 7th birthday. She named the horse "Bolivia" and the girl "Lauren". This visit I had the honor of meeting "Lauren" and "Bolivia", and I fantasized about the days when Ange will get to play with this fabulous trio, who calls me "Willis" for no apparent reason, but is nearly impossible to leave nonetheless. Now the question is; will all 15 of those in attendance at the Scott family Christmas be buying tickets down to South America to meet the newest member of their clan, or will we be sneaking home sometime in the next year or so for the long-anticipated introductions...

Either way, we'll be together and that's all that really matters.

First Leg of the Perfect Trip

I guess if you don’t have culture shock on arrival in a new country, it’s unlikely you’ll have reverse culture shock on the return, but I had no idea it’d be this easy to transition back into the American Dream. And by the American Dream I mean, of course, wearing other people’s winter clothes, sleeping in their beds, eating their food, and playing with their babies, who’ve grown up so much in a year and a half!

On Saturday, my first day back in the States, after the shocking realization that everyone’s really tall here, I had a fabulous day in DC. Snow covered parks, buildings lit with Christmas lights, and leafless trees (never thought I would think that was beautiful) set the backdrop for a sweet lunch and reunion with my mom’s best friend from college, Carolyn, and dinner with my best friend from high school, Amanda. It was a day of nostalgia, Rollerderby, and my re-introduction to amazing American food.

Sunday, was an awesome reunion with my Mosaic family. Where they, as usual, blessed my socks off with their love, encouragement, generosity, and hugs. Which continued into a perfect three days of visits, lunches, dinners, game night, and long missed conversations with people I so respect, depend on, and miss...

If I didn't have such great friends and family to move on to in Colorado and Kentucky, it would have been impossible to leave. And I can't stop thinking if I didn't have Angelica to return to in Bolivia, it'd be awfully hard to give all this wonderfulness up yet again.

I’ve been terribly worried about my avid blog followers (who probably only exist in my imagination) who’ve been desperately awaiting their weekly update, but it turns out Colorado’s worse than a third world country in its internet access...

Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas to you all! Hope yours is snow covered like mine, now I'm off to hit the slopes...

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable Gift!" -2 Corinthians 9:15

Advent Attitude

[When we talk about December, how many people think? "Sigh, the most relaxing time of the year." "Ah yes, this free open space, this month out of the twelve, where I just feel the calm." For many people December is just, "Oh my word, let's just get through it." To which I think Jesus would say, "Oh, well done, that's what I had in mind."]

This sarcastic last line to a point Rob Bell was making recently really struck me. I LOVE Christmas; the lights, the giving, the sweets, the parties, the family! And fortunately, I kind of thrive on being busy, but in the busyness do I sometimes lose sight of the meaning of advent? Yes.

Strangely here, the activities are not all Christmas related, and none of them involve snow, but somehow this season is just as busy this side of the equator as it was nearer the North pole.

Between an end-of-school teacher's barbecue,

the semi-annual yard-sale,

our church moving into our very own building for the first time,

Talita Cumi's quarterly birthday party,

hosting a going-away party for our World Concern national director,

and having everyone over for our VetRed year-end/Christmas party,

I stayed fairly busy this weekend.

Did I mention that I also had 3 out of town guests visiting? So, I may not have cancelled all activities to focus on the Advent, but during all of this running around I don't think my blood pressure's risen once, because I've taken Rob Bell's covenant, as I recommend you do as well:

"I, hereby, do solemnly swear to not lose the plot this Christmas season. I will not worry, complain or stress over gift-giving, traffic, parties, spiked eggnog, or generally annoying busyness. In the spirit of advent I will slow down, be still, awake and aware of the divine mystery that looks so common and so ordinary, yet is wondrously present..."

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." -Matthew 1:21

My Christmas Angel

Disclaimer: If you haven't read my December electronic prayer letter, you might wanna start there.

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in your power to do it.”-Proverbs 3:27

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” -Isaiah 58:10

“...If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” -1 John 3:17

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” -James 1:27

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” -James 1:22

Many of you know the first three verses have guided my life and decisions for years. And now I’ve followed them into the idea of starting a family. It wasn’t a hard decision as you’ll learn once you meet Angelica. If I hadn’t been so quick I surely would have missed my chance as others would have scooped her up right away.

She sings in a little choir, plays the flute, loves to make jewlery and art, and learns tasks with lightning speed. But don’t worry we do have some things in common too. She’s full of energy and always up for any chance to run or play sports. She’s adventurous and curious and only afraid of the really important things like snakes and large scary birds. She’s the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, and will be teaching me math in no time. She’s always patiently taking care of the younger or weaker around her, including me. Her smile rocks my world, and as one friend put it, when she walks into a room she brings peace. She loves Jesus.

But even with all this in her favor I did not choose her as it would appear. I met her on Christmas Eve at Talita Cumi. In April I asked them which children still needed sponsors,but then couldn’t decide between the two that were left, so I took them both. My other precious child turns 17 tomorrow and also has a brother and sister in the home. In September, I learned that Angelica was becoming adoptable and God immediately started to speak to my heart, basically whispering “why wait for someone else to love her, I’m asking you.” And thus begins our story. I hope you’ll stay with us to hear the rest as it unfolds...

Thanksgiving Tacos

I know, I know, Thanksgiving and tacos don't have a single overlapping ingredient, but neither do Thanksgiving and Bolivia, well except maybe a few displaced gringos. Last week five of us displaced North Americans ventured to Cochabamba to join with other pilgrims in celebrating all that we have to be thankful for with overpriced turkey and all the traditional fixings that we either had brought down from the US or overpaid for here.

However, while I was indulging in my favorite food of the year with some of my favorite people, one friend in particular was avoiding all normal Thanksgiving foods like the plague. My dear friend Savannah accompanied by her sister Alison, who was surprise visiting from the US, went out for barbeque chicken wraps followed by movie theater popcorn to avoid the customary feast. I don't think we'd ever been seen in dresses together outside of church so after our late night viewing of HP7 we had a guard document the occasion with a photo. The next night, after visiting all the old Cochabamba hotspots, we made Thanksgiving tacos with our beloved language school director, Mauge. Don't worry we had pumpkin bread and apple pie to make it truly Thanksgiving-y.

I'm also so thankful for the Wolheters with whom we cooked, ate, played Settlers, and hiked to a "waterfall." Their boys are growing up way too fast! I'm thankful for my traveling companions Taylor and the Janeckes who made our Thanksgiving trip into the type of family-vacation that makes it nearly impossible to miss a "normal" Turkey Day. And so thankful for Skype that makes it impossible to miss my "real" family. But as life-like as Skype is, it has nothing to compare with the long awaited hugs I'll be sharing with so many of you that I'm thankful for in 2.5 weeks!

"Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness." - Colossians 2:7 NLT

A Weekend of Talita Cumi Fun

So, I know I talk about Talita Cumi a lot, but I really can't help it, for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. -Matthew 12:34. This time I thought I'd show you, more than tell you, how I got to see the kids from TC every day this weekend, and tonight I'm going back to Skype them to their Auntie Kim who's currently studying in Canada, while we impatiently await her return!

Friday, was the kids' last day of school before their summer break, so they had a little fair of sorts. They loved having a visitor to show their classrooms and projects to, even if it was someone as old and uncool as myself.

Saturday, five of the teenagers were baptized in my friends' pool.

Among the five, were Cesar and one of his sisters, my sweet Jenny.

I'm so proud of the gentle, nurturing, beautiful young woman she's becoming.

And then Sunday, because I just couldn't get that fabulous pool from the baptisms out of my mind, I hauled all sixteen girls back for an afternoon of jumping, sliding, swimming and squealing at the Adjei's lovely home.

I'm not sure how I'll survive two weeks in the US without them...

Girl Time

Over the weekend I got to spend some time with some lovely ladies. On Friday, I invited the women from our growing vet school ministry over for our second viewing of H2O. The first night a week ago was such a success that they immediately wanted to make copies of the videos, which I took as a sign of their approval, but was not so sure about City On A Hill's approval. I jokingly shared with Kyle Idleman their interesting manner of demonstrating their appreciation; which is sometimes also referred to as "stealing". And was shocked to find that he was all for it! In a country where EVERYTHING is pirated, I wonder if they've ever once had permission from the producer. Unprecedented! Now the goal is to keep getting the ladies together to fellowship and study, even though they won't need me and my originals anymore. New cupcake recipes should do the trick...

Then on Saturday we had a birthday party for some of the girls with b-days in this season. The party was specifically for Adreana who turned the big 3-0 on Friday, but the little crowns came 4-to-a-pack, so we were able to extend the celebration to some Sept-Dec birthday girls as well. There was one poor (or lucky) guy at our fiesta, and one husband who stopped by briefly, but for the most part it was, as many of our reunions are, estrogen only. And that's increasingly just fine with me.

As much as I really am enjoying my time with the ladies of my different circles, none of them have proven particularly helpful in my ongoing car fun. At least not nearly as useful as some of the men who've gone out of their way to ease my frustrations. I especially wanted to give credit and thanks to Bill Janecke without whom I'd be even better friends with the tow truck driver. For a guy, Bill is pretty cool!

Race Etiquette

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." - 1 Corinthians 9:24

Maybe I should have read this verse as my devotional this morning before I ran in my first race since leaving the US. Wearing, of course, the same shoes I wore in my last race, a mini-marathon in July of 2009 in Oregon, because they don't have shoes here large enough for my feet. But I can't complain about the shoes, they were fine, better than others' apparently as there were at least three runners carrying their shoes and finishing in socked feet. Who knows?

However, the heat might merit a complaint or two. Does anyone remember the Chicago Marathon of 2007, where they had to cancel the race because of the heat, it was 88 degrees. Here, today it is 99℉. I carried a frozen bag of chocolate milk in my pocket to stay cool, I couldn't find the little bagged waters in the store, turns out the race must have bought all of them in the entire city. BTW, chocolate milk--not so thirst quenching.

I really had no idea what to expect going into it. I almost never see runners around the city, so I had unrealistic visions of prize money dancing in my head. Little did I know, just how unrealistic. The newspaper this morning said there were 5,000 runners signed up. I guess in a city of 2 million, 1 in 400 people would sign up for a free race. Free meant more runners, no safety pins, no chips for the shoes, and t-shirts for only the first 200 finishers.

So, you're dying of suspense I know. Did I get a t-shirt, did I win prize money, did I even finish? Turns out, not wearing a watch for over a year is not a good way to train for a race, nor to know how you did in one lacking a finish clock. I thought to look at my phone a bit after the race, and estimate that I finished in about 50 minutes, which I'm happy with because we didn't cross the starting line for a couple minutes and an 8 minute pace isn't bad when you've been training at about 12-13 minute miles.

However, my running comrade Misty, says she talked to one of the womens' finalist who finished in 35 minutes, oh my! Even if I hadn't made the mistake of starting in the middle of the pack, behind a couple thousand runners/walkers who've had little opportunity to run in races and learn running etiquette like where to start based on your expected pace and how to maybe get out of the way when you decide to stop and walk in front of a stampede of runners. But passing people is a lot more fun than being passed, and I only got passed by one female the entire race, so that's something. Next time I'll know what I'm up against and be better prepared to follow Paul's advice in 1 Cor. Maybe I'll even update my footwear, or get a watch!

Now, back to the real race: "...my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace." - Acts 20:24

Happy Halloween/All Saints Day!

While you guys were off electing on Tuesday, we were also enjoying some free time for All Saints Day. Just as All Saints Day probably doesn't bring many traditions to mind for you, nor me, Halloween has just as little significance to the locals here. It's doubtful Halloween ever made my top 3 list for holidays, but pumpkins, costumes, and CANDY are not customs that any child should miss out on regardless of her nationality. So, I took some candy over to the Cristo Viene Girls' Home on Sunday night and innocently enough told them "Happy Halloween!"

Little did I know that they would immediately extract from me all the details of trick-or-treating and within minutes be loading into my car to experience this novelty for themselves. Completely against my better judgement I hauled 22 people back to my house to pick up plastic grocery bags and hit the streets, costume-less.
My neighborhood is a bit heavier on gringos than most, so there were actually a few families prepared for the squealing young mob of estrogen running from house to house screaming some attempt at "Trick-or-Treat!" After about half an hour and a quick stop at the playground they contentedly climbed back into my car and counted their loot = 4 pieces of what might as well have been pure gold! In their utter ignorance of the fact that they should have had 4 kilos of candy, they were ecstatic!

Making sure to take full advantage of my car while my new friend, Hernan, the tow-truck-driver's not monopolizing it; Tuesday we hauled 17 people to the botanical gardens for a day in the sun, and shade whenever we could find it. Toyota's 10 passenger design is really just a loose guideline.

Highlights of the day: While the lagartos (alligators), and ñandú (rhea) who joined us for lunch were fun, the feature attraction was the sighting of the ardillas, wait for it...get ready...SQUIRRELS! Does it get any better than this? Other highlights: the Talita Cumi kids who joined us didn't all pace themselves and therefore some wore out mid-morning, but a quick restful piggy-back ride and another new American tradition -- PB&J -- and they were back to full strength, and ready for the playground. Where we close with one of my favorite moments; Angélica teaching me how to swing, as if it was my very first time...

Reverse Culture Shock Practice

Who knew Lima, Peru was so HUGE?! So big and progressive in fact, that they have all these strange rules prohibiting smoking inside buildings, requiring seat belts while riding in vehicles, and calling for owners to pick up after their pets in public places. Bizarre!

As you've probably seen from recent Facebook statuses or remember from last week's post about the urgency of retrieving my passport before leaving the country, I just went on a four day trip to a veterinary conference in Peru with two co-workers and four vet students. It was a week of firsts for many of them, and long-losts for me.

Three of our girls had never flown before, left Bolivia, nor seen the ocean, let alone been to a city with more people than their entire country. So, needless to say, there was a lot of adrenaline flowing while playing in the surf, learning how to use escalators, and watching the earth shrink beneath them as the plane took off. However, no experience brought on more squealing or bouncing than someone's first glimpse of Kentucky Fried Chicken! (I'll let you guess who that someone might have been)

I'm not exactly sure why I felt it necessary to include a picture of KFC, as if you didn't know what it looked like, or wouldn't believe me if I didn't show you. Really it was more to share my enthusiasm, just seeing the Colonel and the word Kentucky was like a little taste of home, and the excitement barely dwindled as we passed two or three more franchises around town. McDonald's fries and sundae have never tasted nearly so good, and Papa John himself must have flown down to personally prepare my little pizza in the airport, because it was the best pizza in the history of the world. Basically, what I'm trying to say is; I had no idea I was missing such foods so much, and I have no idea how I'll react in December while in the US for the first time after nearly a year and a half. But if this trip was any indicator -- Look Out! Or at least don't get between me and the Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen!!!

Check out more pictures on Facebook, and watch for ministry/veterinary details about the trip in my next two prayer letters...

Faith, Passports, and Knowing When to Quit

"Faith is not believing that God CAN. It is knowing that He WILL." This seemingly harmless statement is currently my friend's Facebook status. Under most circumstances one would not find it particularly controversial or provocative, but this week, it struck a bit of nerve. Let's start from the beginning...

On September 10th, I started the Two-Year-Visa-Fun (as it's officially titled) by waiting for an hour or two to find out that I did not have all of the papers they wanted. This began the process that would take about twelve days and exactly 17,000 trips to the immigration office until on the 22nd they were finally satisfied with my documents and accepted them, telling me to return in two weeks to pick up my Passport. (This sign hangs in the immigration office, in English it reads: "The best way to do things is with Love!" In a government office!)

I generously gave them an extra week and returned on the 12th of October with every confidence that my visa would be waiting for me. However, instead they matter-of-factly told me my papers had just arrived in La Paz (I live in Santa Cruz) and I should return in another two weeks. That's when the panic slowly started to arise, only to crescendo this afternoon as my body tried to decide whether to vomit or faint while waiting in the immigration office for the second time today. You see, the urgency that struck me over the head like a ton of bricks was my trip to Peru in LESS than two weeks, for which of course, I would NEED my passport!

This was no sight-seeing trip to Peru either. My veterinary license renewal period has come and gone, without any grace from the board toward my living-in-a-distant-land situation, and now if I don't get 26 more hours of continuing education before November 30th my license will be terminated. So, this launched phase two of the passport retrieval madness, in which I flew to La Paz to speed the process, returned empty-handed, read two more books while waiting, cried in various government offices, had my car broken into, cried a bit in my own office apparently concerning co-workers as far as Seattle with my uncharacteristic emotional-ness enough to send a "Giant HUG!" cyberly to my rescue, was handed the passport of another US citizen by the name of Lauren (which was so ridiculous that in spite of the tension I couldn't help but laugh), and finally ended up in hundreds of your prayers. I cannot imagine there has been, or will be, a passport as prayed for as this one. Thank you!

In this last step I learned which of you believe the sentiment of the quote at the beginning of this post and which of you have tried it and been let down. Many of you calmly told me to "Just have faith." Others recognized it would be an utter miracle for me to get on that plane as each day passed and they assured me my passport would arrive the next day, and hence rationally tried to come up with alternative solutions. And finally, the third group of you stated out loud what was less reassuring than the "Just have faith" slogan; that maybe God didn't want me to go to Peru.

And from these ideas I have been trying to learn the lesson God's teaching me through this, to ensure that I'll never have to learn it again! My extremely timely devotional yesterday ended with the line "Nuestro futuro desconocido está seguro en las manos de Dios que todo lo conoce." (Our unknown future is safe in God's hands who knows it all.) And this I wholeheartedly believe, but what to do with this thought, I have no idea. If God really is in control, if His plan is greater than our plan, when do we take matters into our own hands and when do we leave them in His? When should I have accepted that God did not want me to have my passport, make this trip, or be a veterinarian anymore?

Well, either it was already in God's plan, but he wanted to make me sweat until the last second, or we were really persuasive with our prayers, but as you've deduced from the photo, this afternoon they finally returned my passport, two-year-visa and all!

I'm still not sure when to throw in the towel and accept that God doesn't want me to do something, and when to faithfully believe He'll give me whatever I ask, but I do know that a lot of you, and a lot of curious onlookers at immigration, just saw an answer to prayer! ¡Peru, nos vemos el domingo!

¡Sí Se Puede!

At Talita Cumi Children's Home they've recently added a little incentive for good behavior called "¡Sí Se Puede!" (Yes You Can!) The contest seems to be working out well for the home, and it's definitely working out well for me as yesterday I got to take this little butterfly out for the day as her prize!

After church, we chose the only chilly day in months to go swimming. I offered her a movie, the zoo, and anything else I could think of, but she had the pool in her pretty little head, and I wasn't about to disappoint her on her special day.

It took me awhile to get her started on the water slides, probably because she couldn't stop shivering, but after I demonstrated the fun to be had, she was a pro.

Among the highlights for me were the stories she told me in the car in her tiny little voice, after she asked if she could turn up the music. That she hoped she could get an extra stuffed bear from the Noah's Ark activity in Sunday School so we could have matching ones. And in the car when she saw me put on my seatbelt and asked "What's that?"

Least favorite moments: when she asked why one of the turtles in the tortugeria was carrying another turtle around on his back... When the turkey vulture thing tried to attack us in the aviary. And at the end of our adventures when I had to drop her off at the home. Of course I can go back and see her any time I want, but it's just not the same as having that little angel all to myself.

Endoscopy and English

Last week, Dr. Glenn Gaines graced us with his presence, his endoscopy expertise, and his goofy sense of humor. Part of what we, as VetRed, do is bring down veterinarians to train the university staff, students, and sometimes local professionals in areas they request. This time the request was for someone to come and teach them how to use this fancy endoscope they'd invested in, but has since only been collecting dust. Glenn was just that man.

Having clowned around in private practice for many years in Texas, he then moved on to cause trouble in Mongolia with VetRed's sort of sister project V.E.T.Net for 3 years. In my humble opinion, both endoscope-laden settings were really just God preparing him for his week here. He was a great sport about everything, and his flexibility about the schedule, frustrating problems with the scope itself, and minor problems with my car (shocking I know) reflected the peace he has through Jesus. The students and faculty loved him and showed their appreciation by feeding him nearly to his bursting point.

He was really fun to have with us, a great help to igniting the university's endoscopy program, and a witness of the joy of Christ to everyone he came in contact with, starting on the airplane ride here. However, I cannot say I would recommend him as an English teacher. He comes with a thick Texas accent, with heavy traces of Southern "grammar". The drawl slowed him down enough that my intermediate veterinary English students could understand him pretty well, but when he used the word "ain't" in class I had to put my foot down.

Thanks for everything Glenn! (I'll try to retrain my students tonight, I hope the damage wasn't irrevocable.)

VetRed Visits the FexpoEvangélica

"We are a network of Christian veterinarians in Latin America. We work with veterinary students and professionals in the universities, in the cities, and in the campo (country). We have Bible studies weekly with the students, monthly with the professionals, and sometimes take groups out to the campo to work with and train the farmers about their animals." This is basically what I repeated to hundreds of passersby of our booth at the Expo last weekend, except in Spanish of course.

Felicidad, my co-worker, and I took a little trip up to Cochabamba to represent World Concern and VetRed at their bi-annual Christian exposition. There were tons of other really cool organizations from around Bolivia sharing their visions for expanding Christ's kingdom in Bolivia, and many with a broader plan for reaching other parts of the world also. During the days there were speakers and discussion sessions about sending missionaries from here. One new Ethiopian friend was so persuasive that he had over 50 Bolivian pastors and leaders commit to pray, send, or go to Africa. I missed that session, but later during a conversation I may have basically agreed to take a team of our vet students over to Somalia to serve in the future as well.

I also made a few really promising contacts through our booth, now we'll see where they lead. You know I'm always looking to start new projects and, of course, for any excuse to visit Cochabamba! It was a wonderful four days, with time to run and enjoy the mountains and lovely cool weather, and plenty of time to visit old friends, the language school, my old church, and Casa de Amor, or at least 11 of their munchkins that Savannah hauled to church and lunch. She's a brave/crazy chica, love her! Love Coch!

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Somalia, and to the ends of the earth.

Talita Cumi Celebrates Santa Cruz

As I mentioned last week, yesterday was Santa Cruz's 200th birthday. To celebrate, Talita Cumi Children's Home threw a great party. For festivity's sake, the kids decked out in Santa Cruz green and white, and the adults dressed as traditionally as we knew how, or could find clothes for in our closets. Once all the guests had arrived, the games began. I've never seen such exuberance to bob for apples, race in potato sacks, compete to eat the most fruit, carry eggs via spoons in their mouths, or slide down a slippery pole in futile attempts to reach the prizes at the top. Boy do they make me feel old, and make me feel love.

One of my friends pointed out a fairly hilarious cultural difference in this pole climbing game. If we were to grease a tall pole and tell small children to scale it in the US, the women would anxiously shout "Be careful, be careful!" However, the tias (or caregivers at the home) here had a different mantra of support, "Sin miedo!" (Without fear! Without Fear!) As summitting the pole proved to be completely impossible alone, the kids finally resorted to a fairly beautiful demonstration of teamwork, and retrieved all of the tightly bound goodies at the top.

Since my Mosaic visitor left a month ago, I've been having fun keeping them in touch with these little huggable munchkins. In early September the boys and I recorded a video birthday greeting for one of the team members. Then a week later, we surprise-Skyped with the whole team at their debrief meeting. And yesterday, for one of the boy's birthday Lindsay sent a video message. With these three video experiences making up nearly his entire history with computers, it was really very understandable, but nonetheless adorable, that he kept trying to talk back to the video, unaware that there was no one there to answer.

The lovely staff at the home is so good to me, letting me hack into their computer systems at random, bring my wild and crazy puppy -- who one day hopes to eat one or both of their parrots, and humoring us with a traditional dance in these sweet costumes. But more than anything, I respect and admire them for their work with these kids day in and day out, as a big warm family to nearly 30 little love-sponges.

March for Jesus

Why not? What better reason do you have to march?

So, I'll admit it struck me as a weird concept as well. But marching for Jesus with about 80 local evangelical churches and associations turned out to be a lot of fun. Bolivians have marches for everything else; to protest anything, to celebrate caranval, to honor the Catholic virgin of every town... So the annual March for Jesus is the protestant Church's response, "we have something worth marching for too."

There were matching t-shirts, trucks with sound systems, bands, flags, signs, banners, refreshments, everything one would hope for from a parade, except maybe huge inflatable cartoon characters. I loved randomly running into other Christian friends from Santa Cruz as we walked along singing praise songs together. But my favorite part was the instant camaraderie among thousands of people in love with the same Savior, and willing to testify of His greatness to the whole city.

I'd recommend getting a Jesus Pride Parade started in the US. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the outcome. Ruby, however, thought we could have walked a little faster and demonstrated her boredom by sitting at every stoplight, so you might want to look into better traffic control.

This week we'll take advantage of two other reasons to celebrate: the 200th Anniversary of the city of Santa Cruz and the first day of spring. Thank goodness spring's just around the corner 'cause I'm about ready for some warmer weather, this wintery 100+℉ just isn't cutting it for me. ;)