Day 5

Today is day 5 and holding with no running water. The rations I was so eagerly expecting yesterday didn't come. I've been using our water bottles very carefully and trying not to dirty too many dishes, which isn't too hard since Scotty is out of town. We weren't quite prepared for this length of time and don't have a large receptacle to store water in to use for flusing toilets. The neighbors have put out a large tub downstairs to catch the rain water, but we only have one small jug to fill up and lug back upstairs. It's good for one flush. Scotty and I will be taking a short retreat tomorrow and are praying that the hotel we're staying in will have water.

Oh, the rainy season!

Rain is a beautiful gift from God that is absolutely vital to create and sustain life. That said, I'm not a big fan of the rainy season. We are in the middle of summer right now- but I'm wearing long sleeves and sweaters indoors. Why is this? The rainy season. From about December through February, it rains...a lot. And when it rains, the sun goes away and it becomes very cold in La Paz. Because La Paz sits at a staggering 12,000 ft., the sun is the main source of warmth for this city. When it's gone, I become a sad girl. Growing up in Florida has taught me to appreciate and enjoy heat and sometimes even humidity- I pretty much feel like an alligator here.

Well, I'll stop complaining and explain what else happens in the rainy season. Floods. Now, La Paz is one of the largest cities in Bolivia and relatively metropolitan. But, it is build in a gorge and along the sides of crumbly peaks and mountain edges. It's not uncommon for mudslides to wash houses away, but I was unaware that this was common in this city. After a good thrashing of rain last week, I felt like the city was beginning to crumble apart. There is a river that runs through the whole city and all of the water from upstream comes rushing down into the heart of La Paz. As Scotty and I were driving home one night last week, we saw the river leaping and raging out of it's normally calm bed (quite a bit lower than the road) and up over the retaining wall into the highway. Traffic was rerouting itself to avoid the danger. We found out later that the bridge we cross before ascending into Malasilla was covered with the rushing river, which usually lays 20 feet or so below this. Other bridges collapsed, and sadly, about 30 lives were lost in that evening. This was definitely another reminder at how precious life is and how quickly it is taken. We didn't suffer anything so tragic, but the surges broke a water main, affecting 200,000 residents- including us. We haven't had running water in the house for 3 days and our 12 2-liter bottles we bought a few nights ago (thinking it would come back on before too long), are quickly running out. I'm taking showers at friends' houses and begrugingly watching my dirty dishes stack up before my eyes. Then, to top it all off, our electricity went out this afternoon. I'm not sure how long that will last... I've heard that the water company will be rationing water for the next 10 days- 8 determined hours per zone a day of water. I think ours was supposed to come on at 3 this afternoon and last until 11 tonight. I should probably get home and wash some dishes and fill up bottles, but I'm so much happier outside of the house right now.

All's quiet

I don't like to write without posting a picture, so I thought I'd introduce you to Jaw Dog. Now, I don't know what her real name is, or if she even has one, but Scotty and I have taken to naming the majority of the stray dogs in the neighborhood (and if you've ever been to Bolivia, you know there's about as many stray dogs as people, if not more). Jaw dog was hit by a car at some point and has a jaw that healed crooked- she's one of my favorites. Shortly after moving in, we came about the scene of another accident involving her pup, who we've named "Cria" (offspring), who had just gotten his leg broken by a car. Cria still has a twisted front leg, a little grotesque to look at, but gets around quite fine and is growing up into a handsome, strong little dog.

So, things have been pretty quiet around here for the past week or so. So, why haven't I written, you ask? Maybe because there just hasn't been much going on. Scotty was on schedule to preach the Sunday after my parents left, and so he spent the majority of that week preparing, while I caught myself up on some administrative tasks around the office. This week has been more emailing, errand running, and general house wife duties- stuff I actually really enjoy. Up until Carnaval has passed, people lay pretty low around here, and even church responsibilities have lightened significantly. My friend Jana had her little girl, Emma, on Saturday, and I've spent a little bit of time visiting her in the hospital and enjoying their first baby. We picked up my good friend Whitney and her new husband, Tim, from the airport on Tuesday and have seen the rest of our missionary friends and aquaintances trickle in as well. I'm pretty sure we are the only missionaries in our circle who did not travel during the holidays. Our nights have been nice and quiet- playing games, reading, watching movies, taking walks...we like this time.

Photo montage

Nighttime in Mallasilla
We had so much fun with our parents over the holidays...instead of going into every little detail, I thought a nice collection of photos would be fun to scroll through. We are thankful for our parents!

Mims and Papi arrive and get straight to work on various projects in the house- Papi glazing all the windows.

We invite the pastor and his family over to meet our parents

We take lots of walks with the Misers and play.

We're happy Mims and Papi get to see our first evangelistic event as a new church...Jose and Alberto dressed as shepherds (nice pink bathrobe!)

After the Christmas drama, Scotty, Alberto, Jose, and Hugo enjoy fried doughy snacks together.

Santa's asking directions from Scotty??

We celebrate Christmas with Mims and Papi before my parents arrive. My parents arrive on Christmas morning!
I certainly enjoy my 2 moms for the 1 day of overlap they had on Christmas.

More presents! Scotty and I celebrate Christmas again with my parents after his leave.We played LOTS of Settlers of Catan.

We enjoyed relaxing and watching movies with my parents.

We took a beautiful, scenic walk with our friends the Ramirez'- Eucalyptus trees are quite common around here.

I couldn't resist putting in the cute burro- look at his huge, fuzzy eyebrows!

We're glad our parents got to meet some of our special Bolivian friends- the Ramierz family.

Scotty helps my dad buy a guitar and they practice together.

And so we spent a month and a half with our parents in town- no better way to pass the holidays!

A love story

Scotty helping me with a youth barn dance while we were "getting to know each other" (he actually was not "legally" allowed to date yet according to the SIM dating policy- so we were just good friends :))

I'm not sure where our engagement pics are, so here's one of Micah and Scotty the morning of our wedding. Micah was present at the engagement, so I guess that counts.

Oh, so happy to be married!!

Lovin' life in La Paz.


Sara has tagged me to share the story of how Scotty and I met and fell in love- including obligatory (and fun!) pictures of our engagement, wedding, and a recent one. I'll be tagging Kelly, Nicole, and Julie.

So, it all begins in 2003, my first term as a single missionary in Cochabamba, Bolivia. I was working with youth through an international church there and was invited by my ministry partner, Micah, to a Thanksgiving dinner. He dropped me off and then went out to pick up Greg and the new guy (Scotty) to bring them along as well. I think Scotty's gray hair (I thought he was too old for me) and my strict dating policy worked against me initally thinking twice about this new missionary I ended up sitting next to during dinner. Scotty likes to explain that he thought a cute, blond girl must have relied on her looks all her life and must not have developed other essential character qualities, thus working against him... until dessert. He "held out until dessert" and then decided he wanted to get to know me better- and fast, since he only had 5 months in Cochabamba before moving to La Paz, 8 hours away. Scotty is a fantastic conversationalist- interesting, good listener, funny. I found myself being interested, despite my vow of not dating my first term. Over the next few weeks and months, he found ways to interact with me, beginning with the famous missionary pick-up line, "Do you want to be on my email newsletter list??" and I enlisted him to be a chaperone for various youth events I was planning at the time. Before long, we just knew this was nothing ordinary. We continued to date long distance after he moved to La Paz in April of 2004 until the time we both returned to the states to be married in the summer of 2005. Christmas of 2004 brought a surprise proposal, geniously arranged by both Scotty and Micah. We were married August 27, 2005 in my hometown of Gainesville, Florida. We lived in Charlotte for a year and are now permanently back on the mission field in La Paz, Bolivia- starting a new church in the community we live in and also hoping to start a family soon! God has been amazingly good and gracious to us- from the way he perfectly orchestrated our meeting to calling us together to make our home in Bolivia and providing all we need here and more.

New Years celebration

Well, I've got a few seconds at the office this afternoon before Scotty comes back to take us home. It's been a whirlwind of a trip with my parents here- most spare minutes filled with activities, although the last 2 days we had the chance to take them to our favorite hot springs where we layed around in the sun, soaked in the hot waters, and ate yummy food...and, of course, there was lots of game playing. We taught my parents how to play Cities and Knights version of Settlers and stayed up till midnight doing that on New Years Eve, followed by great fireworks shot off by all the neighbors. It was a great way to ring in the new year. The weekend is already packed and then we say good-bye on Monday. We will miss having visitors but are so thankful for the time we've had for a month and a half with our family.