No Power…No Shower

No Power...No Shower

Here's a sort story about no power and burnt bread:

      Baking bread is somewhat of a hobby for me now. It is rather therapeutic! The preparation required, materials needed and kneading of dough make it very entertaining for the kids to watch and for me to do. Some of the boys will sit and simply watch me tirelessly press on a ball of dough for 30 minutes and not make a sound (its quite nice).

We make every kind of bread. Corn bread, banana bread, zucchini bread, dinner rolls, carrot bread, birthday cake and even doughnuts! Here's the catch, I never made bread before coming here. So far, my bread has come out as hard as a rock, burnt to a crisp, far too salty or too sweet and even shaped like breadsticks instead of my intended rolls (shocking but true story). The first time I made perfect bread was this week! It was genuinely one of my happiest moment of the past year. The kids couldn't get enough of it an I even had to pull it away from them. With that said, bread is an important part of life here.

On Monday night (sept 11) I made my first banana bread alone. Thankfully it is difficult to mess up banana bread, so I had a failsafe. I was sitting over by the oven at la Casa De Los Lionnes (House of lions) because our oven was broken at the time. My co-parent Zoro was in the shower so I was skirring back and forth between my bread and my home. At around 7:30...disaster stuck.

Power went out...as usual. The problem was that I was at the oven which was about 1000 feet away from my home. I heard yells come from my house and sprinted over to let the kids know that everything would be fine. I arrived to a couple of my little ones crying and the older ones trying to find flashlights. Zoro came out of the shower and went to flip the breaker (which is often the issue). 

Sadly, Zoro returned and notified us that the problem was the power on the road instead of a simple flip of a breaker. This meant our power was out indefinitely. It was now pitch dark, 13 boys still needed to be entertained, we had no idea when power would come back and we hadn't eaten dinner. Then I actually realized that WE HADNT EATEN DINNER... this reminded me of my banana bread.

I sprinted back to the oven with my flashlight to pull out my semi-crispy banana bread. Zoro and I sat all the boys at the table and ate our flashlight-lit meal. As I sat at that table a couple things hit me. We had no power, no water, no way to charge phones, no way to run fans, no way to shower anymore, and no guarantee when the power would return. To be honest, I freaked out a bit. Since all the boys were seated and under supervision of another house parent, I decided to go on a walk to clear my head.

*Personal note* Like most people...I really like to be clean. Even though all of our showers here are cold, it is for sure one of my favorite times of day. I get to cool down and have my own personal time for about 15 minutes every night. It's pretty great!

Power goes out here quite often (5-10 times per week). Usually outages range from 15-20 minutes and only cause minor disruptions on campus. This time...it was hours, and we still had to take care of the kids. Back in Florida, power goes out whenever terrible storms happen. Here, power simply goes out because it wants to.

My brain was running at a million miles per hour. I couldn't stop thinking of all the things that could go wrong with extended periods of no power. I paced around the road outside my house and finally decided to look up. This is what I saw.

Sitting in the sky above me was the most clear milky way galaxy I had ever seen. With no power in such a rural area comes quite a significant amount of beauty. The only thing to do at that moment was pray and thank God for this incredibly new and unique experience.

I returned to the table, ate dinner with the kids and sent them upstairs. I was still frustrated because all I could think about was a shower and how the kids (along with me) couldn't take one that night. We sang a few songs, played "Historias de la biblia" and sent our boys off to bed. I went downstairs and sat for a while just talking to other SMs (Student Missionaries) before heading to my bed. As I sat down and prepared to close my eyes...BOOM lights! Even though it was rather late at night, I happily jumped out of my bed and stood under that cold shower faucet.

Like every day... I learned a lesson right then. No matter what was happening in the moment, it would be okay in the end. I was freaking out for no reason. The power eventfully came back on just like it always does, even though this time was unusual.

And yes, the kids loved my crispy banana bread.

What's been surprising:

I have now been at Familia Feliz over a month and believe that I understand how things operate in our community and in this country. Here are a few of the things that have taken me by surprise and that I have noticed that I think about quite often.

How necessary a break is:

    Every day is non-stop. It can be so difficult to simply let my mind rest, but I quickly learned how necessary a break is. The first week I was here...I experienced pure exhaustion. I have been very tired in my life several times, but never been so tired that my body physically can't do anything else. I made lunch for the boys and suddenly didn't feel right. I told Zoro that I needed a break and went in my room to sit down. I ended up taking a 3 hour nap. For me that's HUGE. After that happened, I knew that my body needed some time to rest.

Our solution to this is simply having periods of time during the day for 30 minutes or an hour when Zoro and I can alternate rest. They have been very helpful. 

Fear of cooking turned to joy:

So far, I love cooking! It’s my way of getting in the zone to make something great for the kids I am here to serve. At the start, every time I entered that kitchen, I feared something would go wrong. All of this was new to me a month ago. Rice was terrifying to make. I would always forget to sauté onions or not cook the rice all the way. Now that I have an understanding of how to cook, that kitchen brings me joy. I feel like I can attempt anything and easily fix it when something goes wrong. Unless its bread...then I can have bigger problems.

Failure is okay:

I've found that it is impossible to always get everything right. Whether that is with cooking, doing a project or even taking care of the kids. I will burn the beans, I will always forget to nail the mosquito net in the right area, and I defiantly can't ALWAYS have my eyes on the kids. The one I would like to focus on is supervision.

These boys are kids. I continually need to remind myself of that. They don't listen, they like trouble, and quite often...they don't understand me. With the combination of these three issues, the kids are bound to get out of my sight at some point. Like any "parent", I like to know where my kids are at all times. However, with 13 boys on a large property, I have found that I would get far too easily exhausted if I ran after every kid when they run off to collect some bananas from our trees. They'll eventually come back, even if the scrape on their knee taught them a well deserved lesson.

Where my excitement comes from:

Happiness is something we all crave. Back home, I didn't think about most of the daily blessings that occur in order to bring happiness. Here is a list of things that make me VERY happy these days:

• A full and successful flush of a toilet (2 or 3 times a week).
• Sleeping all the way through the night without one of the kids needing help (4 times over the last month and a half)
• Rice cooking all the way.
• Kids going for seconds of my food.
• Kids not asking for hot sauce on their food.
• Not being coughed on while holding a child.
• A clean upstairs.
• A clean kitchen.
• Knowing where all my kitchen knives are (this has yet to happen).
• Having all the kids at home.
• Having all the kids at school.
• Kids asking me questions about home.
• Writing.
• Swept floors.
• Knowing where the lighters are.
• When I have bread to serve for breakfast (less cooking early in the morning)
• Having time to do a worship/journal during the day.
• Hearing a song I haven't heard in a while.
• Singing hymns in Spanish on Sabbath.
• Hearing the kids sing.
• Doing worship in the morning with the boys.
• When the water in the pipes is still warm from the day (20 seconds of a warm shower)
• ADULT TIME
• When the boys smile about anything.
• Talking to my family.
• Talking to friends.
• Having a kitchen full of groceries.
• Having a clean refrigerator.
• Having leftovers that are still edible.
• Going to the bathroom (lol).
• Alone time
• Having chocolate
• Cold drinks from the store
• Using Ziplock bags (I had no idea how important they are)
• Time in town
• Clean clothes
• Hearing English.
• Any food that I don't prepare for myself.
• GOOD INTERNET
• Having all 3 of our house stools in the room
• The campus cats/kittens.
• Prayer
• Playing marbles with the kids
• Baking bread
• Having a schedule
• Having an age appropriate show/movie for the kids!
• Talking to new people.
• Using Spanish correctly
• Talking to last year's SMs (they're wise)
• Learning something new.

All of these things simply make me happy. Even though it can be hard to hear my 5:30am alarm, I know that these things can keep me going!

Frustration:

Lastly, I have found that frustration is much more difficult to deal with while I am here. Back home, when I am frustrated about something, I can go somewhere else or try my best to fix it. Here, the only option is to live with the frustration. Things like the technology and confusion with communication get to me most often.

 Tech is unbelievably frustratingly. In order to provide these kids a sense of normalcy (and get a bit of a break), we do our best to show them a movie on Saturdays nights and possibly on Sunday. The problem is, often times movies won't load on campus, so we have to download the in town. Services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV as well as other streaming services only work on occasion. They are also difficult to navigate in this country. Movies like Madagascar, Croods, and Disney films are perfect for these kids...they just won't load.

Things almost never save. I have re-written so many Facebook posts and blog posts. Even though I write them on backup systems, my computer or phone can overheat and delete the file (this happened once, but definitely sticks out in my memory). It’s an expectation at this point that I will be fighting the internet on a daily basis. Between 8:00am and 9:00pm I have found it nearly impossible to rely on any internet service. I am currently writing this directly after my entire Facebook post deleted before I could save it. Lessons are leaned every day.

Spanish is getting easier by the day. I defiantly can understand more than I thought I would be able to, however there is a limit. For example, everyone in Bolivia uses WhatsApp. The government uses it for recordkeeping, the hotels use it for reservations and the taxis use it to communicate with customers. It is everywhere. However, they don't text on it. They only use voice messages. All of them record messages and send them. Whenever I receive one of these messages...it is almost like all of my Spanish understanding goes out the window. It could be an important message and it could be meaningless, but either way, this is a problem. I wish that I could magically understand everything, but know that comes with time.

Every day gets a little bit easier even though the days are never the same. I am so thankful that I am here and truly take in every moment.

Photos from the last few weeks:

Rice, Beans and Arepas!

The boys are always very curious as to what is going on in our clinic.

Making pizza!

It was good.

Some leftovers for lunch.

Pathfinders having a bonfire!

Joel wondering what we are doing in our room.

Movies are AMAZING

Some banana bread

Flashlight-lit meals.

Power outage worships

Semi-crispy banana bread.

Ivan approving of my rice and beans

Killed the yeast my first time making dinner rolls.

So I made breadsticks instead!

And burnt half of them pretty bad.

The entrance to our campus.

A map of Familia Feliz and our buildings on campus.

Full picture of our road outside.

Otto with his pet bird he wanted to show me.

The bookshelf looked like that for about 10 seconds.

Trees must have forts on them!

The boys talking to their past house parent Treson! They love to hear from him.

Joel being curious as always.

The long wait for taxis along the road.

Blog work location.

Little Santiago! He's adorable.

Casa De Las Dahlias! (House of the Dahlias)

How to make a light work when power's out... Flashlights!

Pretty sights in Rurre.

A grueling hike to the Rurrenabaque overlook!

It reminded me of Angels landing in Zion National Park.

Such a pretty view.

Sean and I at the top.

Great meals at Luz Del Mar.

Carrot cake with far too much salt in it...

Sauce for my pasta!

Ivan making empanadas 

Pathfinder Sabbath!

Sabbath lunch is always special.

Baked Ziti made them very happy.

Azul, one of our Mccaws.

A fun snake I saw.

These boys love food.

The boys went through and scraped all the cheese off the top of our baked ziti. It was defiantly a frustrating moment.

Sunset with some Arroz con Leche

Making dinner rolls... v2

They were incredible!

More food.

Drinks from Luz Del Mar are incredible as always.

Closing:

Every day creates a memory of some kind. Whether that memory comes from dealing with a difficult kid or messing up while baking, I have been creating memories at every step of this journey. These photos show just a snip of some of the experiences that I have had. I hope they help show you what life is like here.

Closing out, I'd like to say that I am beyond grateful for everything we have been blessed with. Jesus has helped me realize that this is what is best for these kids. We have food on the table, showers to stand under, and education for every child here. Even with all of these blessings, there have been several times I have had to question God. "Why did this happen to this kid?", or "How did this happen?", and even "Is my service worth it?"

Frustration often has led back to God in my mind. No showers? Yea, I defiantly put that one on him at the time. However, God is helping me realize a very important lesson. While He is in control of my life, I must live it. Putting myself in the uncomfortable position has always led me to something great. It always makes my food taste better, a kid smile more or some kind of work easier. I must be content with what I am given. I'm in the middle of the Amazon rainforest...of course internet won't be the best. I must learn to not let these things frustrate me and move on to the next part of life.

2 Corinthians 12:10: 

That is why, 

for Christ's sake, 

I delight in weaknesses, 

in insults,

 in hardships, 

in persecutions, 

in difficulties. 

For when I am weak, 

then I am strong.

Thankfulness has been a running theme of being here. Things may be tough, but having Gods help in seeing the good in it all truly keeps me Going.

I truly enjoy writing these blogs. It helps me think about my own feeling about this experience. Thank you for keeping up with me, and please keep our Familia Feliz in your prayers!