Watts Happenings in Bolivia 7, September 30, 2005
Dear Friends and Family,
I just looked back at when I sent Watts Happening 6 and realized it´s been a while since I´ve written (although I´ve been pretty good about sending pictures, and Kent has written!).
We are settled in nicely to our routines and don´t seem to be having as many tummy troubles. Anna is spending a little less time talking about friends at home and more time talking about friends here. She still thinks Pacific Christian School is way bettter than Carachipampa, and I have to agree! As the cooler weather sets in at home and the warmer weather here, Kent and I are doing a bits less talking about home, too. But we all sure appreciate getting emails from you all! Life without email would have been very different for us down here.
So what have the Watts been up to lately? Almost a month ago we got to go on a retreat to the Charpari with the Youth Group from Calama Baptist Church (Spanish congreagtion) and Ivan (our Canadian Baptist Volunteers coordinator) and Christine (Youth Leader at Calama) Gutierrez. It was a four hour trip over very winding, only half paved roads. We went down and down from the middle altitude of Cochabamba, where we live, to the low altitude of the jungle. What a hard worker Christine is - and pleasant throughout! She took on the main cooking. Kent and I did devotions, with Ivan translating. The retreat center was much like camp anywhere (OK, the bathrooms were worse and the kitchen would have had a few Canadian camp cooks quitting on the spot) and there was a swimming pool that everyone enjoyed. We went for a walk to the river and saw some of the poorest housing I´d ever seen - just sticks in the ground, thatch roof, no glass in the windows and nothing inside them. No toilets (flush or not) that I could see. At first I thought they were summer cottages, but the people lived in them year round. In Canada, even we don´t see the poverty that we´ve see here.
It was cool to see the banana trees, papaya trees, coconut trees, and a real live coca patch on our trip. In Cochabamba we can see lemon and orange trees and lots and lots of beautiful flowers.
We´ve had a total of 3 rainy days since we´ve been here. 97% of the time the weather is beautiful, sunny and warm. (OK, I won´t rub it in too much!).In Victoria the staff and students at school often spend time in Jan., Feb., hoping (and perhaps praying) for a snow day. Well, Anna has already had a Bolivian version of a snow day - a blocqueo day! This is when protesters set up a road block and will let nothing through.So no school for Carachipampa because most of the students come from quite a distance to get there. Anna has an hour and a half on the bus each day. She´s made a bus friend, Ruby in grade 9, but still the ride is tedious - neither really free time nor work time. She´s made a group of friends at school (guys and gals) and is enjoying going to a youth group at the SIM guesthouse (having been big fans of the SIMs computer game we are shocked that these SIM´s don´t have lines over their heads indicating when they are hungry or tired!) and having sleepovers. Anna seems much more content and her usual happy self. She´s a great girl! Annna is going to help Lydia, a young woman from Australia, with the Sunday School - which is huge! Church pictures coming soon so you can see for yourselves!
We´ve been enjoying having people in for meals and I´m beginning to get a grip on what is and what isn´t impossible to accomplish with regard to food down here. I finally figured out that if I don´t want rice to burn or be total mush, I bake it in the oven. Cooking with gas is fast but tricky! One couple that we´d gotten to be friends with, Joan and Gerdine from Holland were here for about 7 weeks to adopt their son, Joaquin, about 7 months old. All went well for them and they went back to Holland a couple of weeks ago. There´s certainly a bond with other adoptive parents!
We´ve had some other visitors that have not been so very welcome. These native Bolivians persisted in coming to our apartment, especially enjoying hanging out in the kitchen and the bathroom (a novelty) and keeping us up at night with their partying. We weren´t sure what to do to get the idea across to them that they had overstayed their welcome, without being rude, so we asked Ivan what we should do and we asked Blanca, our Spanish teacher what we should do and we took their advice and poisoned our uninvited guests.
The bug spray that we used on the cockroaches (spraying in the drains of the kitchen and bathroom where they liked to hang out) was really strong (probably not permitted in Canada). In fact, I think Kent got a little poisoned himself one day. At Spanish he was really stupid, not focusing on the lesson at all. When we told Blanca what he had done she told us that after we spray we need to stay out of that room for hours. At the end of the class Kent lay on the floor on his back and waved his legs! I stamped (almost) on him! But we haven´t had any of those unwelcome visitors for a few weeks now, so hopefully they got the message and are gone for good! Poquita, the dog, was afraid of the cockroaches, but I couldn´t help thinking that Latte, our cat who stayed behind in Canada, would have enjoyed playing with the cockroaches!
One thing you can keep in your prayers is Pat Jenke´s dad who is sick in Canada. He´s 85 and has congestive heart failure and has ended up in ICU with an infected gall bladder, very low blood pressure and kidneys shutting down. Pat returned to Canada to be with her family at this time. Also keep Terry and the boys (Joel and Jonathan) in your prayers as they cope without Mom in a very busy schedule.
Another prayer request is for peace, harmony, and wisdom between the UBB and the Seminary.
Elections are coming up in Dec. 5. Evo Morales is the first indigenous Bolivian who seems to have a chance of winning, which would be good, since he wants to nationalize the natural gas, etc. so that the Bolivians benefit from their resources, but he´s pro coca (it isn´t a problem here - alcohol and glue seem to be the stimulants of choice - and is used much like we use tea or asprin) and somewhat anti-Christian. He´s more popular in the campo (country). Pray for wisdom for the people and the candidates as they form policy.
We have recently heard of two separate situations where murder was committed against inocent people (relatives of friends) and in both cases the police were paid off and the known murders were not even charged with a crime. Because the police earn so little, it is easy to buy them off. One friend, a Christian, has an amazing attutide towards his sister´s murderer. He says he has Christ´s peace in his heart, which he himself doesn´t understand and that God is just. Pray for those families and for the judicial system of Bolivia.
God bless you all and we thank you for your support, both financially and prayer. We are well aware that we are serving Christ here as your representatives.
Susan Watts
I just looked back at when I sent Watts Happening 6 and realized it´s been a while since I´ve written (although I´ve been pretty good about sending pictures, and Kent has written!).
We are settled in nicely to our routines and don´t seem to be having as many tummy troubles. Anna is spending a little less time talking about friends at home and more time talking about friends here. She still thinks Pacific Christian School is way bettter than Carachipampa, and I have to agree! As the cooler weather sets in at home and the warmer weather here, Kent and I are doing a bits less talking about home, too. But we all sure appreciate getting emails from you all! Life without email would have been very different for us down here.
So what have the Watts been up to lately? Almost a month ago we got to go on a retreat to the Charpari with the Youth Group from Calama Baptist Church (Spanish congreagtion) and Ivan (our Canadian Baptist Volunteers coordinator) and Christine (Youth Leader at Calama) Gutierrez. It was a four hour trip over very winding, only half paved roads. We went down and down from the middle altitude of Cochabamba, where we live, to the low altitude of the jungle. What a hard worker Christine is - and pleasant throughout! She took on the main cooking. Kent and I did devotions, with Ivan translating. The retreat center was much like camp anywhere (OK, the bathrooms were worse and the kitchen would have had a few Canadian camp cooks quitting on the spot) and there was a swimming pool that everyone enjoyed. We went for a walk to the river and saw some of the poorest housing I´d ever seen - just sticks in the ground, thatch roof, no glass in the windows and nothing inside them. No toilets (flush or not) that I could see. At first I thought they were summer cottages, but the people lived in them year round. In Canada, even we don´t see the poverty that we´ve see here.
It was cool to see the banana trees, papaya trees, coconut trees, and a real live coca patch on our trip. In Cochabamba we can see lemon and orange trees and lots and lots of beautiful flowers.
We´ve had a total of 3 rainy days since we´ve been here. 97% of the time the weather is beautiful, sunny and warm. (OK, I won´t rub it in too much!).In Victoria the staff and students at school often spend time in Jan., Feb., hoping (and perhaps praying) for a snow day. Well, Anna has already had a Bolivian version of a snow day - a blocqueo day! This is when protesters set up a road block and will let nothing through.So no school for Carachipampa because most of the students come from quite a distance to get there. Anna has an hour and a half on the bus each day. She´s made a bus friend, Ruby in grade 9, but still the ride is tedious - neither really free time nor work time. She´s made a group of friends at school (guys and gals) and is enjoying going to a youth group at the SIM guesthouse (having been big fans of the SIMs computer game we are shocked that these SIM´s don´t have lines over their heads indicating when they are hungry or tired!) and having sleepovers. Anna seems much more content and her usual happy self. She´s a great girl! Annna is going to help Lydia, a young woman from Australia, with the Sunday School - which is huge! Church pictures coming soon so you can see for yourselves!
We´ve been enjoying having people in for meals and I´m beginning to get a grip on what is and what isn´t impossible to accomplish with regard to food down here. I finally figured out that if I don´t want rice to burn or be total mush, I bake it in the oven. Cooking with gas is fast but tricky! One couple that we´d gotten to be friends with, Joan and Gerdine from Holland were here for about 7 weeks to adopt their son, Joaquin, about 7 months old. All went well for them and they went back to Holland a couple of weeks ago. There´s certainly a bond with other adoptive parents!
We´ve had some other visitors that have not been so very welcome. These native Bolivians persisted in coming to our apartment, especially enjoying hanging out in the kitchen and the bathroom (a novelty) and keeping us up at night with their partying. We weren´t sure what to do to get the idea across to them that they had overstayed their welcome, without being rude, so we asked Ivan what we should do and we asked Blanca, our Spanish teacher what we should do and we took their advice and poisoned our uninvited guests.
The bug spray that we used on the cockroaches (spraying in the drains of the kitchen and bathroom where they liked to hang out) was really strong (probably not permitted in Canada). In fact, I think Kent got a little poisoned himself one day. At Spanish he was really stupid, not focusing on the lesson at all. When we told Blanca what he had done she told us that after we spray we need to stay out of that room for hours. At the end of the class Kent lay on the floor on his back and waved his legs! I stamped (almost) on him! But we haven´t had any of those unwelcome visitors for a few weeks now, so hopefully they got the message and are gone for good! Poquita, the dog, was afraid of the cockroaches, but I couldn´t help thinking that Latte, our cat who stayed behind in Canada, would have enjoyed playing with the cockroaches!
One thing you can keep in your prayers is Pat Jenke´s dad who is sick in Canada. He´s 85 and has congestive heart failure and has ended up in ICU with an infected gall bladder, very low blood pressure and kidneys shutting down. Pat returned to Canada to be with her family at this time. Also keep Terry and the boys (Joel and Jonathan) in your prayers as they cope without Mom in a very busy schedule.
Another prayer request is for peace, harmony, and wisdom between the UBB and the Seminary.
Elections are coming up in Dec. 5. Evo Morales is the first indigenous Bolivian who seems to have a chance of winning, which would be good, since he wants to nationalize the natural gas, etc. so that the Bolivians benefit from their resources, but he´s pro coca (it isn´t a problem here - alcohol and glue seem to be the stimulants of choice - and is used much like we use tea or asprin) and somewhat anti-Christian. He´s more popular in the campo (country). Pray for wisdom for the people and the candidates as they form policy.
We have recently heard of two separate situations where murder was committed against inocent people (relatives of friends) and in both cases the police were paid off and the known murders were not even charged with a crime. Because the police earn so little, it is easy to buy them off. One friend, a Christian, has an amazing attutide towards his sister´s murderer. He says he has Christ´s peace in his heart, which he himself doesn´t understand and that God is just. Pray for those families and for the judicial system of Bolivia.
God bless you all and we thank you for your support, both financially and prayer. We are well aware that we are serving Christ here as your representatives.
Susan Watts
posted by Bibliomaniac | 7:12 a.m.
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