Los Padres in Bolivia (Part 1)

This month we have had the blessing of my parents, Burnell and Paula Johnson, come and visit us!
We live in a third world country at approx. 8,400+ feet elevation. Our location is reached after at least 24 hours of grueling travel. This is not a trip for cowards! Before they came, I had many people ask me, "Are your parents in good health?" I am very happy to say that, yes, they are in great health and did awesome while they were here. The first week they were a little woozy and extra tired, but have bounced back from their long journey and first encounters with Bolivia just fine!

Waiting for Grandpa and Grams to touch down!

 Tia stayed with our Casa Kids and the rest of us were able to be at the airport to welcome our first "official" guests!

 Walking to the Cochabamba baggage claim!

 My parents have arrived! Can you find them in this picture? What a blessing to see them after many long months!

Waiting outside the baggage claim!

Our friend and taxi driver, Cristian got time off work to help us pick my parents up. Jennifer was also there to meet my parents! Cristian told Rudi that he had never seen an older man from the U.S. who had a full head of hair! I failed to get a good picture at the airport with my parents in it... silly me!

 My parents brought four BIG bags full of things for numerous people here in Bolivia. It was like Christmas in April!

Grams with L.

Grampa with Abby

Leo and Abby had no trouble adjusting to the "Abuelitos"!

                                                                  

After she had a chance to rest up, Clancy and Clara got Grams to clip their birds wings, so that they could "tame" them. Clara had the most success and we dubbed her the "bird trainer"!

Clancy with "Pretty Boy"

Clancy got warmed up to the idea also... After lots of bites on his fingers, his bird finally calmed down!

Clara with "Verdecito" and "Pretty Boy"

                                                         

Taking in the Pedestrian Day!

The first Sunday they were here was the "Dia del Peaton" (Pedestrian Day)! We all went for a walk to the market on our usually bustling with traffic, Avenida Blanco Galindo. Pedestrians ruled the day with driving not allowed from 8-4 ish!

Gotta love those hats!

Ruth taking care of her pals!

 I loved this picture of Ruth with the twins, too cute!

Myles and Grandpa

 It was a real cultural experience for my parents and a blast for us to show them our favorite market that we go to every Sunday!

Clancy and Myles "At the Fruit Stand"

Making the deal at one of the veggie stands!

Do you think he will be able to ride that bike home?

We just had to take a picture of this man taking home his potatoes on his bike... only in Bolivia!
                                                                ________
   
Thankfully, the first full week they were here Tia Techy and Carlee teamed up to watch our Casa Kids and we took our first vacation as a family since we have been here. I did not realize how much I needed the break until we got it! It was incredible to be able to relax, relax, and relax some more!

We opted to go to a Hotel/Resort close to our house, so we didn't have to spend a lot of time traveling. Our children enjoyed swimming to their hearts delight. The got sunburned the first day, but each day after we slathered on the sunscreen and avoided further damage!

Hotel Regina Pool

 This is where the children could be found most of the day!

And us too!

We were able to have quality time together, as well as show Mama and Daddy around Cochabamba a bit.

Pizza for All!

Daddy uses an electric razor and as we did not have an adapter to recharge it, he opted to buy a new one here in Bolivia. Mama and I waited with some of the chillin's while he went to buy it.

Waiting in the Shade!

 Mother loves art and especially watercolor. While we were out souvenir shopping and taking in Cochabamba, we found this man that does watercolor art and Mama and Daddy bought a few pictures from him!

Hotel Regina, along with its regular hotel rooms, has six separate houses that have four bedrooms, three baths, kitchen, dining, and living room. The bonus is that each "Casita" has its own pool. It was a bit hot when we got there, but we asked them to turn the heat off and it was a perfect temperature the rest of the time. When we weren't out on the town or in the outside pool, the kids LIVED in this pool! Grampa and Grams got in on some swimming too! 

Bathing Beauties!

One!

Two!

Three!

Our Adorable, P.J.!

Bowling!

Grampa and Grams took the children out for bowling and ice cream, so that Rudi and I could have some time together. A good time was had by all!

One evening Vico and Elena came over for dinner! We were glad Mama and Daddy were able to meet them before Vico and Elena left for the States for an extended visit. Vico swam with the kids and then we had a fun game of Yahtzee. I won! Which is worth mentioning because I NEVER win at Yahtzee! Tuve la buena suerte!
I will continue the adventures of Los Padres in Bolivia in the next blog! Stay tuned for details!

We Hiked The Andes!

This last Thursday and Friday we hiked up in the Andes! We went with Tia Techy, Her husband Javier  (ha-vi-are), nephews Bryan and Gielmar, Daddy, Myles, Clancy, and I.
 We started at Park Pairumani (view Happy Mobile blog) and hiked up a little way to where we rested a little while, while waiting for Javier who took a separate route to meet up with us so that he could save his 5 B's entrance fee (equivalent to 70 cents)! We gringos laughed at that! When he finally arrived we descended to the waterfall. The first part of the trip.

Some of the trail to the waterfall

 As you can see in the picture below everybody carried their rather heavy packs all the way up to Caspicancha, the small village where we stayed the night. Daddy's and my packs were definitely the heaviest of the group. Whew!

Once we were beyond the water fall we started walking up a very rocky riverbed. We missed the main trail that goes up to the village so we hiked up the river for most of the way! Talk about hard work! We ended up finding out that the trail that we would have taken is much more difficult to climb up than the river bed. All things work together for good, even though we complain!

Tia, Myles, Javier, and I

We stopped to rest and try chewing some Coca leaf and eat Snickers bars! Daddy did not like the Coca ( I think it was mostly because he did not like the idea of chewing something) but Myles, Javier, Bryan and I chewed it for most of the way up. It gives you lots of energy and helps with altitude sickness. I like it.

It started to rain so we all donned ponchos only to take them off in a few minutes! We joked that Myles looked like a hunchback with his on!

"Hunchback Myles!"

We hiked up the riverbed for about 2 1/2 hours, then we climbed up out of the riverbed for the last KILLER stretch to Caspicancha. That last part was Horrible! It was dark and we were tired. My pack began to feel like lead and I had a hard time keeping one foot in front of the other! Thankfully Bryan carried my pack for the last part (the only chivalrous thing he did the whole trip), but even then it was rough.
We finally arrived at Javier's uncle's hut where we were greeted very hospitably by the folks that live there. They let us sleep in their two huts that they have and gave us some blankets that they made from the wool of their own sheep. We played a couple games of spoons and then we all were soooo tired that we soon went to bed. Daddy and I slept in the hut where they keep all of their sheep hides! Thankfully they were not smelly!
Poor Tia Techy did not sleep a wink because she was so sore! She said that she hurt so bad that she wanted to yell, but she didn't because she knew that she would wake everybody up! Daddy and I slept okay, but apparently we were the only ones!
           Daddy got this beautiful picture of the sunrise when he went out to read his Bible.

 

The Heavens declare the Glory of God......

 The kitchen was only made out of rocks with a straw roof but it was very warm when we went in to eat breakfast. The Senora and Tia Techy made our coffee and Hot dogs over a open fire that was inside. The smoke went up over our heads and then out the door.

one of the kitchens in the village

They made the houses that we slept in out of bricks that were made of mud. The roof was made out of tin. They hauled the tin up the mountain with horses. They do not have running water or electricity, but they seem to be much happier than us rich folks in the states that have everything we could possibly need! It was amazing to watch the way that they did everything! It was like stepping back in time. We brought marshmallows with us and when we gave them to them to cook they just passed them around raw! They probably had never seen a marshmallow before!

With our Hosts

Here we are standing in front of the house and kitchen with Javier's Uncle and Aunt. His Uncle is holding their youngest boy. It was like pulling teeth to get his Aunt in the picture! Look at how nicely dressed she is!

The place where we stayed the night

  While we were eating breakfast Javier put about a quarter cup of sugar in his coffee, and I said "Man! Look at all that sugar he just put in his cup!" Then Myles and I talked about how strange it will be to go home and not talk about people behind their backs without them not understanding a word of what we are saying! I guess we will just have to speak Spanish! Watch out!

The Sheep Fold

     These people raise sheep and sell their wool for a living. This is one of their sheep folds.They go down to the city once a month to get supplies and sell the things that they make.

Diaper Drive!!

In the Fall of last year, I, along with a volunteer from Denmark, Camilla, got the idea to surprise the Tias here with new cloth diapers. With anywhere from 11-20 babies in diapers at any given time, it is a FULL time job keeping the babies and the diapers clean and ready. Anyone who has worked in Casa 1 knows that what they work with for diapers is difficult at best and hair raising at worst!

It Happens to the Best of Us!

 Let's face it with babies... you know what happens... A LOT! We put the word out that we were doing a "Diaper Drive" to raise money for cloth diapers for Casa de Amor and we had a HUGE outpouring of support! I wanted to use this blog to thank the many who gave to our cause. This was not a tax-deductable donation, so everyone gave out of the goodness of their hearts and many gave sacrificially. THANK YOU to all of you. Below is an attempt to list everyone who gave. If your name is not here and you gave, please e-mail me and I will add your name to the blog!

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE!
Paul and Kamerin Williams/ OR   Anonymous :)/CA        
Derrick and Naomi Clark/ OR       Tracy Cahill & Family/ OH
Burnell and Paula Johnson/OR     Anne & Danyelle Graves/TX
Margaret Ruth Dysart/CA              Dennis & Rachel Knee/KS
Eliot and Sherry Kirk/CA              Heather Cole & Jeremy Knee/TX
Clayton and Kim Gruenstein/MI   Aaron & Laura Ault & Family/IN
Bruce and Nikki Tibbett/CA          Hearts of Hope for Honduras
Savannah Sielbeck/TN                  Iris de Kievet/ Holland                
Paul and Valerie Van Zyl/ID        Camilla's Friends and Family in Denmark
Andrew Zoller                              Michael and Dolores Booher/OR
Leroy and Carol Hopkins/OR     Linda and Friends from Yoncalla/OR
Tim and Diane Nydam/OR         Carol Wood/OR
 Marc Lapointe and Sweetwater Community Church/CA                   

"Thank You, We Love Our New Diapers"

Because of your generous gifts we were able to purchase 300 super-absorbent bleached cotton flat diapers, to put inside the 120 Econobum covers we were also able to purchase. I spent many hours reading reviews and studying which type of diaper would be best for a country where there is no hot water to wash the diapers in and where they also use a lot of bleach to wash the diapers. Also, a diaper that would hold up to thousands of uses and washings. Another thing I considered was the fact that the Tias were not likely to appreciate something a lot different from what they were already used to. We were able to purchase a TON (almost) of diapers that are similar to what they were already using, but way BETTER.

Denise Hershberger came on board and not only raised a significant amount of money for this cause, she also took over the purchasing of the diapers and found us some amazing deals. The people she bought from gave us the diapers and covers at cost. I want to thank them here also and encourage you to purchase your own cloth diapers from them if you happen to need some! John and Jen Lamp own http://trustyz.com/. They helped us purchase Osocozy Flats. Connie owns  http://www.holisticparent.com and she helped us with purchasing the EconoBum covers. Thank you so much for making our diaper drive a HUGE success!

Denise also washed and dried ALL 300 diapers to "break them in" and get them ready for us to use down here. She also took care of shipping them to the various people who were coming down to visit or work with the orphanage and could bring them with them. It was a huge project and I would have been lost without her AMAZING help. She also made 17 flannel baby wipes. I very begrudgingly gave them to the orphanage as they will need them more than I will, but they were very cool! Thank you, Denise, for your labor of love on behalf of the babies at Casa 1!
Getting the diapers from the U.S. to Bolivia has been a job in itself. Three different parties have brought or are bringing the diapers down for us. The people who helped us with this are: Savannah Sielbeck, Marc LaPointe and Sweetwater Community Church, and my parents, Burnell and Paula Johnson who are coming in April with all the rest of the "mountain" of diapers.
The Tia's were very surprised and thankful for the new diapers. All in all they are going to be set for a long time!!! Thank you one and all for your support!!!

"Aren't we cute in our new diapers?"

Christo Ama Cada Uno

 This little tune is one of our favorites. We sing it every day at Bible time and one of the little girls is pretty much always singing it!
 I recorded it on Garageband (an amateur recording program available for Apple computers, iPads, etc.) just for fun one evening with Paula, and it turned out to be such a hit with my grandparents and cousins that I decided that I would post it in the blog. I re-did it on my legit recording program with Clara and Ruth singing it in English. That way y'all can sing it and know what you are singing!
  While I was recording Paula I had some trouble with her singing loud enough so I showed her the results on the iPad. ( If you look on the song post above, you can see by the static where the song got loud and where it got quiet. When I am recording this is how it shows up.) I told her that I wanted her to make those lines BIG! I got her on the mic again and I was shocked at how much better she did! She really sang it out!
 I know you all will enjoy it and I am pretty sure that the children who hear it will be singing it around the house 24/7!
PS. I now know how you felt Uncle Chris,when you were trying to record me singing For God So Loved The World, and I kept saying, wonderful his love like me! Ha ha!
Here is the original song that I did on garage band.

Our Quinceañera

Modeling her favorite peanut bars! Clara's gift!

Our firstborn, Emily Jo, turned 15 this month. In Latin American culture turning 15 is a very big deal. Many spend their life fortune and have a party similar in size and pomp to a wedding. We asked Emily if she wanted a Latin American 15 year old birthday party, but she took one look at the dress she would have to wear and said "NO"! Those of you who know her I'm sure are not surprised. Instead we had a day long birthday bash... We started the morning in a traditional Booher fashion and had (some) gifts at a special breakfast! Tia Techy had breakfast with us in honor of Emily's birthday and brought her the first of her favorite gifts of the day... (you'll see what I mean later on!)

Opening Tia Techy's gift!

SIDE NOTE/STORY: Tia Techy left our house the afternoon before Emily's birthday and went into town to La Concha to search for a gift that she knew Emily wanted. About three hours later and after dark, Tia's sister called our house looking for her, about fifteen minutes later he husband called. While he was talking with Emily his cell phone died. We did not have his number to call him back, but we knew that he was worried about Tia and was looking for her also. Well those of you who know ME know that I was already planning a funeral... I know my family is laughing about this... I was worried sick. I figured that she had gone into town to find a gift for Emily and I felt horrible that she had gotten kidnapped or worse, all because of Emily's birthday. I figured that Javier had run out of credit and would not call us back and we did not have number to reach them. Tia always forgets, loses, or doesn't have her phone charged, so of course, she was unreachable, which is what had us all worried in the first place! At about 9 p.m. I told Rudi that he had to go out to Tia's house and make sure that she was home or I would not be able to sleep... (I know that my family is laughing at this too!) He took Emily with him to show him the way, as she had been to Tia's house twice before. When they got there a very apologetic Tia met him at the door. She was very sorry that she had worried us all so much. (I guess her mother-in-law was in tears about it! A kindred spirit!) She had gotten late shopping for Emily and going by her mothers house on the way home. He husband also was more than a little peeved that she had not taken the time to call... Tia is learning to be a better communicator... She has been more quick to call if she is late since then!!!! I was just super happy that she was okay!

Okay back to the party...

Here is the infamous gift that Tia was shopping for: A Cochabamba Futbol Team Shirt!

Egged

Another tradition in Bolivia is to "egg and flour" someone on their birthday. Clancy did the honors with the egg and Myles did the flour. They were supposed to wait and let us all gang up on her, but jumped the gun on us. Emily would not stand still long enough for a proper photo of the blessed event!!!

Floured

And for lunch we all went to our favorite pizza place, Cozzolisi!

Waiting for the amazing pizza

Vico and Elena, Volunteers Kaley, Anna, and Carlee joined us and gave Emily her second favorite gift of the day: A Cochabamba Futbol Team shirt!!! Great minds think alike and all that! It was super sweet of them to all go in on a gift for Emily! It also made our party special to have them all there to celebrate with us!

Emily, in her second team shirt of the day. The first was egged and floured!

After pizza we walked down to Frozz to enjoy some delicious birthday ice cream! From L.to R. in the picture above, Carlee, Kaley, Paula(back) Emily, Ruth, Anna, and Elena!

Baby Snooze Time! Abby and L.

A. and K. enjoying the party!

We opted to take all of our "casa kids" instead of dropping off the babies at House 1. L. has been sporting an eye infection for awhile now and we didn't want to share that around. They did great napping in their new strollers we had gotten them from La Concha!

"Aren't these shoes sweet"

After pizza and ice cream we worked it all (or some) off by going bowling! I loved the shoes they loaned Rudi! Finding shoes that fit his size 14 here in Bolivia has proven to be a bit of a treasure hunt.

We had lots of fun. It was Tia's first time bowling and she did great. And as it should be, Emily racked up the highest score of the day!!!

Myles securing the strollers for the ride home.

We all crammed back into the Happy Mobile for the ride home. (Vico, Elena, and Kaley went home before the rest of us went bowling.)

One side full!

Other side full!

Clancy, Paula, Ali, and I rode in the front with Rudi. It was cozy for sure! Another thing was that the latch that secures the back tire to the door, and thus making it so that the back doors do not spring open, broke right before departure. Anna who was closest to the door on that side was a little nervous. At one point Rudi stopped because the door was coming open and secured it with Myles' shoelace! It helped a little and when Anna would look worried I would assure her not to worry that the shoelace would keep the door shut... Maybe? We did arrive home all safely and the door is currently being repaired at the mechanics!

Emily with some more of her gifts!

Emily with 15 Candles on the Cake!

In the evening Jake, Jen, and Anna joined us for Enchiladas and Cake! We also had more gifts for Emily and Jake and Jen brought her another t-shirt that says "I love Cochabamba"! The paper flowers on the cake above were made for Emily by Myles and Clancy.

You can run......

Of course, Emily knew what was coming next...the "take a first bite" then "cake smash"! She tried to get away, but Jake caught up with her and gave her the traditional face plant!

But you can't hide....

At least she let me take a proper picture this time! It was a great day even if it didn't measure up to Latin American standards! Emily is growing into a sweet young lady and we are proud of her many accomplishments so far: Follower of Jesus, awesome musician, great friend, incredible big sister, accomplished diaper changer and bottle feeder, Spanish speaker, responsible overseer of the children, great baker, Ultimate frisbee player, barista, laundry master, and much more! We are excited to see what the next 15 years will be like, hopefully they do not go by as fast as this first 15. Something tells me that they will go by even FASTER! We love you, Emily!

"Ukelele Jo"