A Fresh Perspective

Last week my family brought the comforts of familiarity. This week as Kim, David, and Caleb Carney have been visiting from CVM I've been blessed with familiarity's counterpart--novelty. The freshness of three people I barely knew, the newness of visiting cities and places none of us had ever been to before, and the refreshingness of their unparalleled laid-backness, an outlook that always fascinates me.

Over a holiday weekend we visited the city renowned to be Bolivia's most beautiful - Sucre, one of the world's tallest, and once the largest and richest city - Potosí, and even had an accidental stop off in world's highest capital city - La Paz. After their incredible time in the Amboro forest before they joined me in Santa Cruz it was nearly impossible to impress them, but they had nothing but positive things to say and willingness to try anything including eating things many would not consider foods, such as kidney, heart, intestine, hump, tongue, and David's favorite, udder. A testimony to great parenting, their six year-old son Caleb was phenomenal in his ability to withstand, and even embrace, adult company and boring activities for such a long time with such a good attitude. But yesterday, while the grown-ups were spreading some gravel and painting some baby cribs, Caleb took full advantage of some playground time and the chance to chat with a 5 year-old.

A highlight for me is always the time spent in my little house around the table chatting, eating, or playing games, but outside of my living room, the silver mine tour in Potosí was a must-see. Lacking OSHA, child-labor laws, ventilation, or really any liability the climb down into the manmade caves was an adventure, an educational experience and a heart-wrenching awakening to the reality of these workers' lives. The men we met were upbeat and joking around with us, but it was impossible to see past the truth that the 13 year-old boy we met likely won't live to be as old as I am if he continues to work there with his father.

The rest of our time together was spent showing the Carneys a good view of normalcy here, where my time is divided between car mechanics, the office, the university and the orphanages, just in case they wanna come back in the future as missionaries... hint, hint.

Now that my month of English-speaking guests has come to a close, it's time to attempt to resuscitate my flatlining Spanish.