Looking on the bright side of things

Our car has been in the shop almost once a week since we got it. Not a good track record so far. It's been having some problems starting. So last week when this happened again we decided to bring it to a new mechanic in hopes of getting it fixed once and for all. The best part about this new mechanic was that we got to have the car towed to the shop in this antique tow truck. I had never seen one like it and thought I would snap a few pictures.

Little story...

I thought that just the mere presence of scorpions and two inch spiders in our house was bad enough. It turns out I was wrong. Yesterday morning as I started washing my face I was still pretty groggy and out of it from waking up. Just as I was about to close my eyes to rinse my face I looked in the mirror and saw... a scorpion climbing on my shoulder!

It was a small little guy but still; a scorpion is a scorpion, right? Well, needless to say I freaked out a little trying to get it off without really touching it. I can only imagine how ridiculous I looked flailing about. But I did so successfully and was fully awake from that moment on. Not the best way to start the day but I'll take a scorpion over a spider any day.

La Casa de los Johnson

So it's about time that we posted some pictures of where we live. We live in an area called "Ciudad del Nino" which is a bit out of the city. But it only takes about 15 minutes to drive here from the city. And that's nothing being from Chicago, right Chicagoans!

We are blessed to live in a very nice house though because it is a bit farther away from things. If the same house were in the city we would probably not be able to afford it. I guess no one wants to live where we do because we can't believe how cheap rent is! That seems like the only explanation. In return for being further away we get a beautiful view of both the mountains and the city. Another nice thing about the house was that even at a low rent price it came fully furnished! It was very nice not having to worry about getting everything once we moved in. We even have some beautiful Bolivian paintings.

We have enjoyed living here so far and hope you enjoy some pictures of the place.

The mountains in the distance on our road.

Our street. Doesn't have a name but we think it should be "Johnson" street. A lot going on out here, huh?

Here she is. Every house here has a fence or wall to protect from getting robbed. And we have some very spiky metal spikes and an electric charge on our wall to go with it. So don't even think about robbing us.


Here is our door from the inside of the property.

Our sad little palm tree and some statues. One of them is decapitated.

I think this looks oddly realistic up close.

Our car.

Another view of the yard and front of the house.

A spot to barbecue. You can't really see in this picture but
there are beautiful green mountains in the background.

The pool which is so gross right now that it has fostered it's very own ecosystem. I swear I have seen fish in there and cannot figure out how they got there. We also have our very own little Chosa...CBCE, you know what I'm talking about.

More yard. View from the front door.

Front of the house.

Front door from inside the house.

Dining room.

Living room. We put fleecy fabric over all the couches because they were very uncomfortable. It's like sitting on plastic. Someone once said here that there is no comfortable furniture in Bolivia and I believe it.

The kitchen.

Gotta have clean water.

Going upstairs.

The upstairs landing and also our office for now.

Our bedroom.

One of our views. And that's also a mountain that we climbed.

A view from one of the back windows.

So there you have it. La casa de los Johnson. I know I love having a mental picture of where people are so I tried to give a complete picture of where we are. And if that's not enough than you can just come down and stay here with us!

The little things

There are a few differences between living in Bolivia and living in Chicago...

...finding scorpions (and a lot of other weird bugs) in your house. I have officially started checking my shoes before I put them on so there you go Mom (she made me promise to do that when I moved to Ecuador and six years later I started doing it).

...we also have a bird that tries to get into our kitchen by knocking his beak on the window. And its a big, orange beak. He comes every morning and knocks about twenty times at the same spot then flies away.

...living on a street that doesn't have a name. And we don't have a house number either. It makes it interesting telling someone how to get to your house...especially in Spanish.

...throwing out toilet paper instead of flushing it

...buying milk in a bag

...listening to the radio and thinking "This song, really? I forgot it existed!" Also feeling like you've stepped back in time when watching T.V..

...boiling water for 15 minutes before you use it to cook anything

...public transportation not being learned by a map but by observing where each bus goes. It's a guess and check type system.

..starting to think that 35 Boliviano's is too much for anything then remembering that it's less five dollars. Your perspective of money and how much everything costs shifts once you've been here for a couple months because everything is so much cheaper.

...seeing the owners of your house every few days just because they decide to stop by...with the whole family. I'm talking spouses, kids, grandkids, everybody.

...the only post office in town being closed for three weeks

...spending only about half your time on paved roads

...something that would take maybe an hour to get done in the States takes at least three days here

...being held up in a street by a herd of lambs at any given moment

...if you need something, anything, you've got to go to the market to get it. I had been taking Target for granted all these years.

...you can expect that anything you're planning on not to get done in the way you have planned.

It's kind of hard to think of the things that are different because I think we are already getting used to the way of Bolivia. In some ways I think it suits us better than the hustle and bustle of America. Time seems to pass by rather than rush by. It's refreshing in a way but can be frustrating in another.

In Chapare

Last week, I (Elsa) spent the day in Chapare which is in the jungle. We have two orphanages there so I was going to check them out. One of them is almost complete and the other is in the process of being built. It was about a three hour beautiful drive in the mountains to get there. It is really hot there and I was sweating just sitting in the shade. There are also tons of bugs and mosquitoes that come out as the sun is going down. One interesting thing is that one of the villages where we are building is the hometown of the current President of Bolivia, Evo Morales. He came personally to the orphanage this year on Christmas Eve morning for a visit.

Anyway, it was a good day even though it was a lot of driving. I spent a bunch of time playing with some of the kids that lived near by. They were very anxious to have someone to play with and they were very sweet. They shared a mandarin orange with me that they had just picked from a nearby tree and one girl held my hand most of the time I was there. It will be fun to go back and see them again.

Oh, bunny ears. I guess some things
are just universal.

In front of the church that is partnering with one of
the orphanages. Sadly, it has been damaged due to recent
flooding. It's right next to the home.

One of the homes in Chapare. If you're wondering why
everyone is gathered looking at the ground it's because
there is a yellow, poisonous snake right there.

This is the son of one of the builders, Alejandro.
I just had to put it in cause he's so cute.

We were playing a game of throw the leaves up in
the air and see how many you can catch. And here are
some action shots.

A big restaurant in the village. Compared to everything else surrounding, this was quite fancy and I was actually surprised that such a nice building was a restaurant. There was a huge river right behind it.

More buildings in the town.

Dia de los Ninos

This past Saturday was "Dia de los Ninos" in Bolivia. They have Mother's and Father's day like we do but also children's day. I thought it sounded like a great idea. We spent the day with all the kids and the parents from one of the orphanages. We went to this HUGE park where we played games and played with them all over the park. It was quite an accomplishment just keep track of all the kids since there were hundreds of other kids there. It was fun to celebrate the children and be with them for a day of fun.


A bunch of kids were playing "slide" on the half-pipe.
I thought it would make for an interesting picture.

An interesting thing from that day...there were a bunch of "photo op" spots set up with a bunch of big stuffed animals. There were big stuff Barney's, leopards, lions and ponies. They were set up so that kids and parents could take pictures by all the stuffed animals. As I got closer to them I touched the mane of one of the "ponies". Then I looked more carefully at it and realized that it was not a "pony" but a real, stuffed pony! I could see the spot where it had been sewn back together. Unfortunately it was after I had touched it that I realized this. Oh, Bolivia.