Watts Happenings in Bolivia 3 July 15, 2005
Dear Friends and Family,
The internet has been down at the Seminary and between this and that I haven´t gotten to an internet cafe this week so here´s my update for the week!
The work in the library is coming along well - the Reference Section is weeded and the shelves are cleaned, and Elizabeth has pulled the cards from the catalogue. We´ll probably try to sell the discarded books for a few bolivanos each (1B = 18cents). Anyone want a 1943 Britannica? I´m sure if it were easier there are a few I could sell on eBay, but with the Bolivian postal system, I´m sure I won´t try. I´ve gotten throught the 100´s - Philosophy and Psychology, for those of you who don´t do Dewey-speak - and am on to the largest section of our Seminary library: the 200´s or Religion. I haven´t seen Raul this week (our resident computer guy) so I´m not sure how he´s doing with getting the Library programme onto the computer. They were messing around with trying to patch together some more memory for the server. The computers in the seminary are pretty miserable. I think that is a real need here - most of the students wouldn´t have any access to a computer except through here or an internet cafe, which seems cheap to us but would be dear to them, so these computers get well used for students doing research and typing up papers.
There have been a couple of Doctorate of Ministry courses being offered at the Seminary these last two weeks from Carey College (Regent at UBC), so even though there are no students around because it´s their 3 week break between terms, there have been lots of Profs and some of the hierarchy with the UBB (Bolivian Baptist Union) around to chat with on break. We´re hoping to start our Spanish course next week which will be good because my chatting skills are pretty limited right now! I can answer: Where are you from?, How long are you here for?, What are you doing here? and Do you want to buy this ____? Fill in the blank with some unwanted item.
Someone asked what our living accomodation was like - we´re living on the campus of the Seminary in an apartment. In our building there is another apartment upstairs and some single bedrooms for students, as well as a recreation room with a foosball game which backs on to our bedrom! We have 2 bedrooms and a study for Kent, a kitchen (all coucacracha now gone), a living room/diningroom and a bathroom (although why I call it a bathroom when there is no bathtub, I´m not sure!). We have cold running water and a toilet that you can´t put toilet paper in. I have a Hoover washer (small tub that washes about 7 items of clothing at a time and then you put it into the spinner to get the water off) and lots of clothesline (the clothes sure smell better than Bounce!). The floors of the apartment are ceramic tile which is chilly now that it´s winter but will be nice and cool in the summer) and the walls are stucco. As we clean and begin to accummulate a few items it starts to feel and smell more like home.
We are having lots of casual interaction with people on campus that wouldn´t be happening if we were stuck off in some nice house like we were last time. For example, the other day at coffee break one of the profs introduced us to an older man and woman and their daughter who had come down from the altiplano to see a doctor and to get some proper id for one of the women. The prof is originally from near their village. It took them a day travelling on the back of a truck to get to Cochabamba from their village. Since they had to wait around for the prof to be finished class before he could help them we invited them over to our apartment. They spoke mainly Quechua, but the daughter spoke pretty good Spanish. The father told us he was hungry, so I cooked up some chicken and veggies I had around (I miss my microwave!) and served it with some tea and bread and butter. Pedro, the dad, enjoyed the butter best of all, I think - he reminded me of my dad, in that he like to eat the butter like cheese! They have about 30 sheep and 3 cows (not with them!) and grow some potatoes and barley. After they had been in the house a while I realized that there was a baby in the younger woman´s bundle she had on her back. The baby was only one month old and sooo cute!. Once I find a computer that I can put the pictures on I´ll send those along and you´ll see for yourselves why I had a hard time giving the baby back to the mom! That whole exereience reminded me of being a little girl at home in Nfld and people I didn´t know coming to our house from "around the bay" and Mom breaking open a bottle of rabbit to feed them. I only wish I had half the gift of hospitality my Mom did! A few bottles of rabbit would come in handy - especially without a microwave!
Oh, here´s our "Stupidido" story for the week! Kent and Anna met two girls around Anna´s age that are kids of students here at the seminary (many of the students are older and are pastors of smaller churches around Cochabamba). They told me that one of the girls was named "Dos-Marie", which I thought was pretty stange because that means Two-Mary! I asked what the older girl´s name was - Uno-Marie (One Mary)!? Later in the week I met the two girls and it turned out her name was Rose-Marie! Of course we´ve refered to her as Dos Marie and the older girl (Eunice - sounds a lot different in Spanish - EE oo neez) as Uno-Marie ever since. Eunice came over one evening for supper and hung out with Anna for the evening. We´re playing a lot more crib, Uno and Dominoes than we ever do at home!
Blessings on you all and thank you for your prayer support. Pray that we´ll be a blessing to those around us and that the computer programme will work!
Love,
Susan, Kent and Anna Watts
The internet has been down at the Seminary and between this and that I haven´t gotten to an internet cafe this week so here´s my update for the week!
The work in the library is coming along well - the Reference Section is weeded and the shelves are cleaned, and Elizabeth has pulled the cards from the catalogue. We´ll probably try to sell the discarded books for a few bolivanos each (1B = 18cents). Anyone want a 1943 Britannica? I´m sure if it were easier there are a few I could sell on eBay, but with the Bolivian postal system, I´m sure I won´t try. I´ve gotten throught the 100´s - Philosophy and Psychology, for those of you who don´t do Dewey-speak - and am on to the largest section of our Seminary library: the 200´s or Religion. I haven´t seen Raul this week (our resident computer guy) so I´m not sure how he´s doing with getting the Library programme onto the computer. They were messing around with trying to patch together some more memory for the server. The computers in the seminary are pretty miserable. I think that is a real need here - most of the students wouldn´t have any access to a computer except through here or an internet cafe, which seems cheap to us but would be dear to them, so these computers get well used for students doing research and typing up papers.
There have been a couple of Doctorate of Ministry courses being offered at the Seminary these last two weeks from Carey College (Regent at UBC), so even though there are no students around because it´s their 3 week break between terms, there have been lots of Profs and some of the hierarchy with the UBB (Bolivian Baptist Union) around to chat with on break. We´re hoping to start our Spanish course next week which will be good because my chatting skills are pretty limited right now! I can answer: Where are you from?, How long are you here for?, What are you doing here? and Do you want to buy this ____? Fill in the blank with some unwanted item.
Someone asked what our living accomodation was like - we´re living on the campus of the Seminary in an apartment. In our building there is another apartment upstairs and some single bedrooms for students, as well as a recreation room with a foosball game which backs on to our bedrom! We have 2 bedrooms and a study for Kent, a kitchen (all coucacracha now gone), a living room/diningroom and a bathroom (although why I call it a bathroom when there is no bathtub, I´m not sure!). We have cold running water and a toilet that you can´t put toilet paper in. I have a Hoover washer (small tub that washes about 7 items of clothing at a time and then you put it into the spinner to get the water off) and lots of clothesline (the clothes sure smell better than Bounce!). The floors of the apartment are ceramic tile which is chilly now that it´s winter but will be nice and cool in the summer) and the walls are stucco. As we clean and begin to accummulate a few items it starts to feel and smell more like home.
We are having lots of casual interaction with people on campus that wouldn´t be happening if we were stuck off in some nice house like we were last time. For example, the other day at coffee break one of the profs introduced us to an older man and woman and their daughter who had come down from the altiplano to see a doctor and to get some proper id for one of the women. The prof is originally from near their village. It took them a day travelling on the back of a truck to get to Cochabamba from their village. Since they had to wait around for the prof to be finished class before he could help them we invited them over to our apartment. They spoke mainly Quechua, but the daughter spoke pretty good Spanish. The father told us he was hungry, so I cooked up some chicken and veggies I had around (I miss my microwave!) and served it with some tea and bread and butter. Pedro, the dad, enjoyed the butter best of all, I think - he reminded me of my dad, in that he like to eat the butter like cheese! They have about 30 sheep and 3 cows (not with them!) and grow some potatoes and barley. After they had been in the house a while I realized that there was a baby in the younger woman´s bundle she had on her back. The baby was only one month old and sooo cute!. Once I find a computer that I can put the pictures on I´ll send those along and you´ll see for yourselves why I had a hard time giving the baby back to the mom! That whole exereience reminded me of being a little girl at home in Nfld and people I didn´t know coming to our house from "around the bay" and Mom breaking open a bottle of rabbit to feed them. I only wish I had half the gift of hospitality my Mom did! A few bottles of rabbit would come in handy - especially without a microwave!
Oh, here´s our "Stupidido" story for the week! Kent and Anna met two girls around Anna´s age that are kids of students here at the seminary (many of the students are older and are pastors of smaller churches around Cochabamba). They told me that one of the girls was named "Dos-Marie", which I thought was pretty stange because that means Two-Mary! I asked what the older girl´s name was - Uno-Marie (One Mary)!? Later in the week I met the two girls and it turned out her name was Rose-Marie! Of course we´ve refered to her as Dos Marie and the older girl (Eunice - sounds a lot different in Spanish - EE oo neez) as Uno-Marie ever since. Eunice came over one evening for supper and hung out with Anna for the evening. We´re playing a lot more crib, Uno and Dominoes than we ever do at home!
Blessings on you all and thank you for your prayer support. Pray that we´ll be a blessing to those around us and that the computer programme will work!
Love,
Susan, Kent and Anna Watts
posted by Bibliomaniac | 6:29 a.m.
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