Thankful?

Thankful?

I think a LOT. Every second I am here, there seems to be something new to think about and question. These questions can be anything from, “What will I feed the boys for breakfast?” to “Is this really what’s best for these kids?” If I were to unpack the last 2 weeks, I don’t think this post would ever end. We have shared amazing memories with our boys, struggled to get food, learned how to communicate better, fought endless fires, and rested somewhere in between.

The longer I am here, the more normal all of this seems. I can truly say that I am used to this life now. I know exactly how long it takes the boys to complete their chores in the morning. I know what my limits are with cooking and when I have time to try something new in the kitchen. I know how to communicate in different ways with each one of my boys, and I know when my body wants a break. With all of this comes comfort.

Comfort in a place like this is something I have been waiting to attain. Now that I have it, I can see my life here from a bit of a different perspective. However, that is not exactly a good thing. With comfort comes shortcuts, and while shortcuts are easy and quicker…they are not always an option.

For example…as always, the weekend is something I wait for. Sabbath means I get to sleep in (till 7:30 at least) and Sunday means I don’t NEED to be out of the room until 8am. However, Saturday nights are what I truly wait for.

My co-parent and I put on a movie for the kids and make some food just for us. Once we’re done, we can do nearly anything with our time. We are basically free from 7pm on. Once the movie is over we put the boys to bed and continue with whatever we were doing. In my case, this is watching a movie. During the week, there is never a guaranteed time when I can just sit and watch what I want to. Therefore, Saturday night is a dream.

I got used to this weekly comfort. However, for the past few weeks it has been completely thrown off. Fires seemed to burn our area every Saturday for a month and a half. Either Zoro or I would go out and fight the fires with a few of the older boys. This often meant that power was out and we had no way of being “comfortable”.

Since I had gotten used to things being a certain way, when they got thrown off I would freak out. This is just one example of how things down here don’t always go according to plan. As another example, over the past month and a half, the kids have only been at school for 5 days. This means that my daily schedule was never what I thought it would be.

Reasons for school cancellations are as follows.

•         Heavy smoke
•         Fighting fires till 2am
•         Not enough teachers
•         National holidays (a lot of them)
•         School tournaments
•      Government visits

* Each one of those have a story to go along with it and I could say a good amount about all of them, but that would be a LOT of writing:)

When things like this happen…there usually ends up being one questions on my mind. “How can I be thankful for this?” As I said earlier, I think a lot. This is a question that I have asked a lot recently because of a popular holiday back in the States.

How can I be “thankful” for not knowing if there will be food the next week?

How can I be “thankful” knowing what a child has been through before they arrived here?

How can I be “thankful” when I got 3 hours of sleep and still must be a fully functional parent to my boys the next day?

How can I be “thankful” when fighting a fire that has burned people’s homes? Crops? Livelihood?

How can I be “thankful” knowing that when some of these kids get to go home, they may never come back to Familia Feliz?

How can I be “thankful” not knowing if there will be any volunteer to watch the 40+ girls that live here next semester?

How can I be “thankful” knowing the comforts of home while living such a different life?

 

Well…put simply, I don’t think I can be thankful for all of that. It is too much of our sinful earth being put into different questions.

However, what I can be thankful for is the reality of living through and experiencing each one of those questions. Just like every one of the locals here live through these same things as part of their normal lives.

 

I can be thankful for the faith that Familia Feliz has. Faith that God will provide for us and our kids. He has for 15+ years and won’t stop now.

I can be thankful that these kids can smile and live a life that is happy and more “normal” then anything they have experienced.

I can be thankful for the energy that God provides me when I feel there is no more to spend.

I can be thankful for the community that comes together and helps out neighbors when they are in trouble.

I can be thankful for the experience of liberty, nutrition, education and knowledge of Jesus that they gained during their time here.

I can be patient and have faith that God will provide someone with a willing heart that is ready to serve in a way that will change many lives.

I can be thankful that I get the opportunity to experience a way of life that I will likely never be able to experience again.

 

There is always a way to be thankful in every part of life around us. No matter what we feel or see around us. Its life. God’s got it.

Little Leonardo and I during his haircut. (we had to give him a mullet while we could)

Fires...to Cows...to Freedom!

Fires have been a HUGE part of life here recently. We fought them for a month and a half almost every day. Of course, this is not necessarily easy work. We would get very tired very quickly, but the fires would not stop.

There was one night that I went out to fight the fire. It was very close to our buildings and was on our property. After walking on hot coals with protective clothing for close to 3 hours, my body did not feel right. I knew that I had to get out of the heat as fast as possible. I was down in a literal trench and had to climb up a burning, ashy steep incline to get back towards safety. I got to the top by following one of the community leaders named Max who was actually raised at Familia Feliz. I found my way back to safety and the only thing on my mind was how hot I was and how badly I needed water. 

Just then a group of kids passed me with buckets of water. I immediately asked one of them to dump water on my head. The water hit my hair as cool and refreshing. Once it rolled off, it felt HOT and dirty. I had not realized just how hot my body was until that moment. I then started to walk back to campus on the trail we carved with machetes. When I got back it was around 11:00pm and I sat under our faucet attempting to cool down. I had pushed my body too hard and not listened to it when I needed a break. A lesson learned for sure. 

Cows:

This past weekend the fires were particularly bad. They got so bad that many of the pastures from the surrounding areas were burning, therefore the cattle had nowhere to go. Our campus happened to not be burning, so there was only one option.

We had just lost internet and my boys were playing around the house on Sabbath. Suddenly we heard "Vaca!!!" from outside. I walked outside and saw 30+ cows coming my way. It was like a dream (I really like cows). However, shortly after that there were cowboys and bulls running onto the campus. We heard "EN LA CASA!" as the bulls ran our way. Imminently we got the kids in the houses and warned everyone about what was happening.

For a while it was a little scary watching the bulls head butt, but after a while of not being able to leave the houses, it got old. Eventually the cows went further back into the property and it was safe to come out. A bunch of cows decided to sleep right outside my house which made for a very loud and smelly night. In the morning the cows were still there, however the cowboys came and led them out as soon as they could.

Rain:

This past Monday, a miracle happened! We finally got rain! It rained nearly all of Monday and most of Tuesday. The storm reminded me of a summer Florida storm and was so much fun to experience with the kids. They played in the rain until the thunder got so loud it was startling. Then we learned that it was actually acid rain due to all the contaminants in the air, so we once again had everyone head back inside.

But it was a still a welcomed thanksgiving present to say the least!

I have tons of photos and videos of the fires, however they all look very similar. So, here are a few of the big moments from dealing with the fires recently.

On several nights we could see fires out on the mountains. This one was far away, but they got closer and closer as the days went on. Power went out shortly before this.

This night we fought fires nearly all night. The fire was about 200 meters behind one of the houses.

Walking through the jungle can seem scary when your carrying backpacks full of water and hear flames all around you. Some of the guys were out till about 2:00am this night. This continued every day for an entire week.

Another night headed to fight a fire.

They always tend to pick up in the afternoon and continue into night. It's nearly impossible to clear every one of the embers. 

More fires in the distance.

Some of the damage during the day.

About 30+ cows showed up on our property that day.

It was difficult to sleep that night to say the least.

Several bulls made it into campus as well. This made it rather unsafe for us to be outside at all. 

Eventually the cowboys came and grabbed almost all their cattle. (we still find some wandering around)

Finally, RAIN! We all were very happy.

Seeing the ground wet for one of the first times since I've arrived.

Broken:

Responsibility is a hard thing to accept sometimes. This past Sunday, I was faced with the reality of understanding that I was responsible for an something without being directly involved in it.

All of my boys were playing on a tree in front of our house. They had a large stick and were pretending it was a seesaw. One of the older boys pushed down hard and one of the little guys went flying. He started crying so I walked out and talked to all of them about safety and making sure that we are being careful. I told them that the next time something happened, they would get in trouble.

About 10 minutes later another one of the boys (Jose-Elias) started crying. I walked out expecting to get the older boys to pick up some trash around the house before taking the stick away, but could tell something was wrong immediately. Jose-Elias wasn't crying like he usually did. I knelt down and saw a very obviously broken arm. 

I was so mad at myself. If I had taken that stick away just 10 minutes earlier this would never have happened. Even though I had a plan to discipline and help them learn, it was too late. I had waited too long. However, it wasn't a time to think about how I messed up.

We cleaned him off, prepared a DIY splint and sent him to the hospital. The first doctor took an X-ray and simply said "there's no problem with it." Now I'm no doctor, but I do know that a wrist is not supposed to look like that. We simply said that we thought there was and asked him to put a cast on it. Thankfully they did. That's Bolivian healthcare for ya!

Once he returned, he was as happy as he ever was. If anything he was smiling more then usual because all attention on campus was directed straight towards him. 

Seeing him sleep/cry that night and being with him through the pain of a broken arm was a harsh reality. I wanted to help take the pain away but could only stay with him to try and comfort him.

He is much better now and smiling all of the time. This experience helped me learn a lesson and let the kids know that they really should listen to me when I say something.

Jose-Elias and his "no problem with it" wrist

It hurts to see him in so much pain. Medical care here is...unique...to say the least

It has been a packed few weeks! We have done a lot and made many memories.

Here are some photos from the time I've talked about: 

Enjoy!

Sean and one of the baby's chilling in his room when we got back from our La Paz trip.

Made Hush Puppies, rice, a tomato sauce and a cucumber salad for the boys! Unique meal, but they loved it.

Frape Oreo and bread from the French Bakery on my day off in town.

No, I don't let them hold knives all the time. But, this was the only way I could make them smile for a photo.

You're going to see a lot of bread...

Sadly the day after this picture was taken we had to put down our campus Emu. It's leg broke and there was no way to fix it :(

Cornbread with no power.

Smoke was worst around 2-5am. Once the sun came up most of it would start to lift. This is what campus looked like for a long time.

Dinner rolls!

Fun story...I was bit by a bullet ant! yes...the most painful insect sting there is...that one. Thankfully Sean knew how to deal with it and I was able to feel better soon.

All of us sorting beans after dumping all of them into the same pans. We would use the bean buckets to fight the fires.

Using some Peanut Butter and honey for my dinner rolls. Reminded me of home!

The fires are affecting this entire area of Bolivia. These are the mountains near town.

Protests in Rurrenabaque. Road blocks have been continuing for weeks and people want more help for the fires from the government.

We got a flat tire on our way back to FF one day.

Made tortillas with rice and beans one night...I need to work on my shaping...

Baby Jhonny!

Special music by the Lillas casa.

Special meal with soy meat my dad brought from the United States! The boys loved it.

If you look close enough you can find a sloth...or an anteater. We're not really sure what it was.

I got stung by some kind of wasp. It was huge and hurt a lot. I know nothing else.

Beth and Zoro (the campus couple) fought a fire for an entire day and took a break eating mangos. They were very tired.

While Zoro was out, I stayed back and took care of the kids.

Memo learning how to do stitches...

My first ever brownies!

Sprite carried me through many difficult days recently.

Zoro putting Leonardo's shoe on.

Street empanadas! So good.

Leonardo on his throne.

Lunch time.

Joel growling at me...he likes tigers.

School on the States independence day.

Got to ride a motorcycle for the first time! This guy just picked me up on the side of the road...gotta get into town somehow.

I've enjoyed making granola and several other things recently!

Went to a new church a few minutes down the road.

Over 300 people were here and many volunteers were out till 3am the previous morning fighting fires.

Wind picked up and tore all the tarps off their strings.

Thankfully, all of our kids are pathfinders and have their knot badges!

The knots didn't hold :(

Ivan and Leonardo on the way back to FF.

Stuffed veggie meat bread! 

One of my most proud creations so far.

Tarantula in the shower

Haricuts!

Leanardo before and then with a mullet! We gave him a more...normal haircut right after.

The first birthday of a baby is a really big deal here in Bolivia.

Baby Jhonny's first birthday was this past Monday!

Here's all the food along with the cooks.

Took a while to put all this together.

Baby Jhonny!

Thanksgiving with the SM's

My plate of food...I hadn't felt American in such a long time.

Our Thanksgiving ended at 1:15am. We are all tired, but it was more then worth it.

Conclusion:

With all of this said, I am extremally thankful for all of the experiences I have gained while here. It is true, many days we are tired, busy and ready for a break. But it is in those times that I can see and feel the difference we make in these kid's lives.

Thanksgiving this year meant a lot to me. It was a reminder of home as well as a time to experience something new. Making the food as a group was very fun as well (I made the bread of course). However, instead of your typical mid afternoon/evening meal, we could not eat till much later. There was nobody to watch our houses, so we had to wait till every child on campus was asleep. This made our thanksgiving start at 11:30pm and go until 1:15am. Yet I still had to get up at 5:30 to prepare for the day. Sure, I am tired while I write this. However, that sense of community was very much needed. (Some good old American thanksgiving food was also a necessity for this time of year.)

Seeing my family and friends back home gave me a different feeling than I expected. I thought it would bring a feeling of missing out on something I love. However, it made me grateful to know and remember what this holiday (my favorite holiday) has been like in the past. My mom Facetimed me (for as long as the internet would let us) and showed me what was happening. My friends and I texted and caught up. It was exactly what I needed.

I am more then thankful for all of this. Also, thank you for following my journey here in Bolivia. I appreciate that there are people who are willing to look into a bit of our Familia Feliz.

Finally, if you would like to spread a bit of the Thanksgiving spirit and help out Familia Feliz directly, there is an opportunity coming up! Next Tuesday (Nov 27) we are starting to fundraise for our campus clinic! Southern is helping by providing the website and we are advertising. Our goal is $25,000. This would cover the entire cost of building the entire clinic from the ground up. 

If you would like more information and would like to donate, please visit this link.  Southern's initial goal is half of the needed amount with additional fundraising to happen in the future.

https://crowdfunding.e.southern.edu/campaigns/2023-gt-student-missions-familia-feliz-medical-clinic

Matthew 5:3-10

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted. 
Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."