Saturday, October 20, 2012

Mi Casa

Jen, David, the Rudi Booher Family, Vico, and Elena
Hello from the courtyard of our new home. David (in the orange shirt) is holding out his hand to show the numerous keys that go with our house. I think there must be at least 20! So far we have only had to use two of them: the front gate and the front door. Here in Cochabamba we have to lock things up tight! Everyone also has sharp objects on top of the fences, gates, and such to discourage theft. Pictured below is one wall in the front of our house. These glass bottles are attached with cement. An innovative way to recycle glass bottles, eh!
The Front of our Casa
I wanted to show you all around our house... Hang on tight as it may get a bit random at times...
The Sewage Canal across the Street...
   
 If you look at the picture of the "Front of our House" you will see a dip in the cement behind the first bushes. This "dip" is the Sewage canal that the houses and businesses on our street all connect to. It smells pretty bad when you get closer.... When Jen told us about our house she told us there was something "odd" about the bathrooms. When we got here we found out that we could/should only go uhmm... number 2's in one outside bathroom. We have christened this bathroom the "Big Jobber House".This bathroom is attached to a small septic tank system. All other waste water that goes from our house dumps into the canal... (I warned you that this would be random!)
The Big Jobber House
Handwashing Station
Our house came with this very deluxe area to hand wash your clothes. There was not a designated place for a washing machine. I think that the Lawyers that own/lived here before us did all hand washing for their clothes. David rigged up an area for our washing machine in one of the spare outside bathrooms. (There are two extra bathrooms outside, besides the "special" one!)

Amazingly, the washing machine "sits" in the shower area, pulls power from the shower head socket on the wall, takes water from the back of the toilet area, and drains into the toilet.... Ned, are you impressed? These folks down here know how to make it happen when it comes to electrical and plumbing! My washing machine works great and has a very large capacity. I need to get a bigger dryer to handle all of the clean wash....
Mi Secadora
Yep, you guessed it... my clothes dryer is "Bolivian style" and, thankfully, my favorite! You are also looking at the majority of our "yard". We are hoping to do all of the yard work for Casa 1 and Casa 2, to get all of the lawn mowing out of Rudi's system! Those of you who know him know he loves to work in the yard!
The Widow Maker (Shower head)
   Another wonder in the electrical and plumbing world here is the electric-heated shower head, fondly dubbed "The Widow Maker"! 220 volts can really pack a punch especially when standing in water! Not that I would know anything about it! The way it works is: you turn on the water, then you flip the breaker switch (pictured to the left in the grey box) which starts heating the water in the shower head. The slower the water flows through the shower head the warmer it is. It is actually super clever and a very economical way to have a hot shower... Just hope that your shower is not a shocking experience!
The View from our Balconies

The view from our balconies of the mountains and skies surrounding us is amazingly beautiful. The weather has been sunny, with some clouds in the afternoons. When the wind kicks up it is amazing how much dust gets in the air.

Installing our Phone line!
       I don't think this picture turned out very clear, but this is the phone guys working on the phone/power pole to the left of our house. It is a real jumble of wires and the fella on the ladder is very high up off the ground! Wouldn't the safety associations in the U.S. have a fit?

Our local herd of Sheep

 Although it feels very city like where we are, it is not uncommon to see a flock of sheep or several HOLSTEIN dairy cows, right on our street grazing on the very few tufts of grass available. I don't know who they belong to, or where they go, as I have never seen people in charge of them.
Our Neighbors
This is our neighbors directly behind us. I don't know if animals or people live in these tin roofed huts. I think it is a combination of both. I have heard lots of chicken and rooster sounds coming from here, as well as, people sounds! The house beyond them is the one of the nicest I have seen in our area. The part of town we are located in has a real mixture of industry and homes.


                      

9 comments:

  1. Thank you so much, Carla. All was interesting and entertaining. I detected a few grammatical errors, however! ;) The best part and funniest was the "Big Jobber House!" Wow! I love all the tile.

    All is well here.

    We had a surprise visit this afternoon from Bobby Lane and Alan Walker. Guess they thought we needed a "pastoral" visit. :) Bobby did most of the talking, and Alan kept looking at his watch! It was very nice of them to make the effort to come out. I gave them both some Asian pears, and some of the sugar cookies that I got on a wild hair and made last evening!

    Yesterday afternoon it rained, but I still managed to pick up most of the rest of the walnuts out front. I took the rake and shook branches to get them down. They're all cleaned up, and drying in the back room on the steel rack.

    The pond is all out. Chris came while Daddy was in the process. He went down the steps to go under the bridge, and to his amazement found a perfect arrowhead chipped out of some kind of white stone. It was right on top of some gravel Daddy had dug away from the I-beams. It was very delicate, but not a point was damaged!

    We're having sun off and on today. The temp is 55. This morning there was a perfect rainbow right over the top of your house, beginning and ending on each side. It was very unusual and beautiful, but before we could get the camera outside, clouds had come over and it was gone!

    I had better get busy--time to fix lunch!

    We love you all and miss you tons!!!!

    Mother/Grandma B



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    1. I knew I could count on my two Ma's to keep me posted on the grammar errors. I actually forbid my Ma to tell me, so I wouldn't feel bad! I ain't too worried about nothin' though....

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  2. Thanks for the detailed house pictures and update!! Some of that looks way out of my comfort zone, you all are so courageous and willing! We love you all and love reading your posts:)
    P.s hope Rudi can get his "yard" fix in!

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    1. Some of it is way outside my comfort zone too... but we are just going for it!:) Miss you and wish we could see the new baby...Send us a picture sometime! Love you, Carla:)

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    2. Abigail is beautiful, Carla!

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  3. Oh, your posts are most satisfying, Carla! And, I must confess, I did not notice one grammatical error because I was so busy zooming in on the photos and taking in all of the details and reading about the super plumbing, the shocking shower, the stinky septic, and trying to figure out what was in David's hand (who is David?)! I am so glad you told us he was holding keys; I could not zoom in close enough to determine what it was! :)

    I do so love seeing clothes drying on the clothesline. It is nice that the weather is good for line drying.

    I saw a person and an outdoor cooking oven in the tin roof complex, so the folks must abide with their flocks!

    The man leaning to the right on the propped up ladder would definitely not be OSHA approved. Just all that mess of lines would most likely be considered a hazard. :) So--you will have a telephone?

    Thanks for taking the time to post. It is a delight to join in your experience vicariously!

    How much lawn do to other casas have?

    I see you using Spanish words; have you all been picking up more vocabulary?

    Have a good Sunday. God bless you and make his face shine upon you. Isn't it a thrill to know that he is with you and with us at the same time and we are all together through his Spirit?

    Lots and lots of love, Mother

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  4. Love the pictures! Love your explanations of things. Really wish I was there too! Your blog posts are really making me miss Latin America a lot...and Spanish!

    Tell Tio David I say hi and that I miss him and Rosa! Really I miss everyone there. Kids and Tias alike.

    Oh and I'm sure the people that lived there before you never washed a single article of clothing themselves. They probably had an "empleada" that did it for them! Honestly most of the empleadas prefer to wash by hand because it is all they have ever known!

    Keep up the posts! I love them!

    Denise :)

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  6. Dear Family, this is like heaven on earth traveling along with you on your journey....I prayed yesterday "before" reading this post for the Lord to send me somewhere to love and nurture those that are in such need to know and feel God's love and compassion. I requested a third world country at that time....are there plug ins for my Scentsy and hair dryer, curling iron etc? So as of this AM I may be revamping my pray just a bit. Kidding all aside I don't know when I have been more excited about one of my family members and their heart for serving! Rudi and Carla and fam, keep the posts coming and give extra love and hugs from Aunt Margee!

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