Tiempo Libre
Down here at Familia
Feliz, things are going SO great. Something about writing those words makes me happy. I feel like all of my previous posts have been about the struggles
and frustrations that we have experienced on a daily basis. There have been
times when I was not sure how I could face the next day, yet somehow we made it through. However, now is our Tiempo Libre (free time)...and we have been loving it.
It is summer vacation!
My house is down to 4 boys and we have nothing but time on our hands. At the
start of the summer…this stressed me out. But now, it is something that I am
LOVING. For about 4 months, we were non-stop working from 5:30am till late into
the night. My brain could never stop thinking or just take a break…even on my
days off. It was something I thought about all of the time. “How will I ever be
able to rest.”
When I was a kid,
resting consisted of playing Minecraft with my brother, watching movies or shows,
and playing in our play room. Here, resting looks a little different. When I
was first introduced to “resting” at Familia Feliz, I had a unique experience.
Every time there was nothing to do, the boys would find ways to fight each
other. This seemed odd to me coming from a background where my brother and I have never laid a hand
on each other, much less physically fought each other. It was a harsh reality
to realize that free time is not always a positive thing. This is the main
reason we did our best to keep the boys busy during the day and maintained strict
supervision of all 13 while the school year was happening.
Being used to having activities like Minecraft, movies and the freedom of a designated play room are not luxuries we have here. Computers are an impossibility, movies and shows are limited to the space I have to download on my iPad, and having shared toys always starts a fight. So, every time we got toys, we made sure to have all the boys feel included and have a “piece of the pie” (or car in this case). The main reason for this is that while we do serve as a “home” for the majority of our kids, many of them go home on breaks and take their toys with them. This created a very skewed version of what the summer would be like for us.
When summer started, I thought that everything was going to be same. I wanted to have a different activity
for the boys every single day. I wanted to be such a cool parent and do some
awesome things around campus…all while keeping them occupied. However, I quickly
realized something.
They’re just kids…and
I only have 4 of them.
I was blessed enough
to be left with 4 incredible and respectful boys. And to make things even
better, my boys wanted to truly have a vacation. They didn’t always want to be
doing something or playing a game all the time. While the occasional hike was
fun and memorable, they would much prefer sitting on our wooden couch on the patio
of our house just watching the birds fly by.
This was an adjustment to me. For the last 4 months we always had to be doing something. The boys wanted to stay busy, and I wanted to keep them busy. My previous experiences with kids back home was either at summer camp or babysitting here and there. In those instances, my only job was to entertain the kids and help them have fun.
...here, my job is to let the kids LIVE. Yes, of course we play frisbee, run around campus and play with broomsticks, along with occasionally working (which I’ll get to later). But LIVING is more than just fun. It is taking a moment to relax for a second “Libre”. I don’t have to be entertaining my boys at ALL times. They are really content with whatever activity they are doing. If they are doing chores, they’ll be happy. If they have an hour with their favorite toy car, they love it. When they get to watch a movie, its SO much fun. I try to play a movie every day just to have consistency and a true break for them (and me too). Sometimes we can just sit on the porch, make cookies or just chill together. I found that this is not only what they want to do, but what I NEED to do.
I remember back to my
time as a kid. Some of the most important memories I have are when my brother
and I would be playing with our new toys or climbing our “climbing tree” and
our grandparents house. Those times were so special to me, and I haven’t even
thought about their importance until now. They were my time to connect with my brother
or play “horse” with a basketball with my grandpa. The times we rested or just
had some fun created some of the best memories for me.
With all of the business of the last 4 months, I had forgotten how to relax. Like I said earlier, the summer vacation initially stressed me out. I found myself
calling my cousin Katie-Jane (who SM'd here last year) for advice on how to keep
the boys occupied. I came up with lists of how to maintain a schedule and how
we can stay busy. However, once I realized that the boys wanted a summer of
relaxing, I decided to join them. Instead of constantly keeping busy, I actually
watched my downloaded shows and movies. I reminded myself that I there is always
time to rest and time to just sit down to talk with the boys.
The past month has
been extremely freeing and has allowed me to remember what a bit of peace is like.
Here’s what a daily
schedule is like these days:
-
7:30: When the little ones are allowed to wake
me up. (This hardly happens thankfully)
- 8:00: Wake up and start breakfast.
-
9:30: Older boys come down to start the day with
breakfast.
-
10:00: Chores 1
-
10:30: Work around campus if possible.
-
11:30: Play time
-
12:30: Lunch (this is usually more between 12:30
and 2:00)
-
1:30: Chores 2
-
2:30: Group activity (Hike, game, soccer,
something fun!)
-
4:00: MOVIE! (I try to get a movie for them to
watch every day.)
-
6:00: Soccer!
-
7:30: Dinner
-
8:30: Chores 3
-
9:00(ish): Worship
-
9:30: Bedtime
I have also had the
time to talk to one of my boys Leonel a LOT about Spanish. I have learned quite
a few new words and tried to challenge myself to continue to get uncomfortable
when speaking in this new language. Whenever I watch a movie or show, I turn
audio to Spanish and subtitles to English, just to try to understand a bit more
of the Spanish language.
*I have grown rather frustrated in how some translators use different words when translating shows and movies. Often times, entire meanings can be changed and important words just can’t be directly translated.
Christmas!
Christmas day was a memorable one for sure. For starters, this was my first Christmas away from home. I have often heard about the difficulties when someone experiences this. After all, there is the famous song, “Oh there’s no place like home for the holidays.” That song rang its tune in my mind for the entire day. I was thrilled to be able to facetime my family and see them opening presents in front of our fire place.
Not only was this my first Christmas away from home, this was my first Christmas where I was in charge of how things went. We were in charge of buying the gifts, wrapping the gifts, making the day memorable, doing special things just for the kids, and not showing how we felt about being away from home throughout the day. To make matters worse, most of the kids here probably felt the same way I did. I highly doubt any of them desired to be away from their parents, families, and people they grew up with. They were all here for this season because there was absolutely nobody that had the ability to take care of them…except us. All of our children that are with us now have nowhere else to go. They are here because we are their main or only way of receiving support. This just gave me more reason to be a house parent that was strong to get through the day.
Even with all of that, it was an extremely exciting day! The Christmas season started just like any other. Shopping! Sahyii and I hunted for gifts in town several times. We celebrated Christmas back in November when all of our kids were still here. But of course, we had to have an official celebration on December 25. We ended up carrying over 70lbs+ of gifts MILES around the town before making our way back to campus.
It was Christmas Eve and I had never
seen anything like it. The town was FILLED with people. There were thousands of
people scattered all over. Little Rurrenabaque, Bolivia had become a city
for a few minutes! The markets were SO busy, and on top of that they had a ridiculous
amount of stuff. If you can think of anything on earth, they probably had it there. The market was an awesome experience. *Sean found measuring cups
in a store during this time. Not sure how long they were there, but I love that
I have a measuring cup now! *
The streets of Rurrenabaque.
My favorite firework stand!
Our 70+lbs of gifts.
When we got back to our kids they were extremely excited about the huge bags of stuff that we were carrying. It was nearly impossible to squeeze around them, but I eventually got to my room where I could lay out all of the stuff. That night we made Alfredo pasta with bread and salad as a special treat. We then prepared all the boys for bed and they all reluctantly went to sleep.
Then the real fun began for Sean and I.
Wrapping. I have never had to wrap more then 3 gifts. But, this season we had
11. When I write it down, it does not sound like that many. However, it definitely
took a while to get all of the gifts ready to put under the tree. I wrapped and
prepared their Santa hats for the big day until I couldn't stay awake any longer.
Wrapping gifts is a little harder then we anticipated.
At 7:30 the next morning I stepped
outside of my room to set everything up. I knew that if I had left the gifts
out overnight that they would not be in their wrapping paper in the morning, so
I placed all their gifts in Santa hats for easy access on Christmas morning.
The boys came downstairs to our Christmas tree, and tons of toys all for
them. The feeling around the room was SO exciting.
We had to tell the boys to rip all of the wrapping paper. They are so used to using the same wrapping paper over and over each year that they didn't want to rip it. We made sure they had a good time with the paper later.
We had to do
something special for all of Familia Feliz houses on Christmas Day as well. As I
mentioned before, I was feeling rather homesick. So, I
decided to bring one of my family's traditions to Bolivia. Back in Orlando my family
always does a “progressive party” for Christmas. This means that we all travel
to each other's houses for drinks, snacks, entrees, deserts and a movie to finish
it all off. I thought, “Why can’t we do that here?”
It was decided, we
were going to do a progressive party! I was so excited. All of the kids would
travel to the Gurreros for drinks, Lilas for the entre, Liones for dessert, and
finish it all off with a movie and fireworks at the Gurreros house. As always,
things started a little late, but our party got rolling. Seeing all of the kids
smile and experience something new was so much fun.
I made Horchata, mango juice and hot chocolate.
Prepping all my juices. It was incredible how many flies were around me while making the drinks. The sugar is like a magnet for them...
The mango juice was a hit.
Christmas issues:
I was unaware that some
of the kid's parents brought them fireworks to light on Christmas night. So, one
evening as I was walking to my house I heard a group of kids laughing and a firework launch. Boom! The firework
hit my back and exploded just after it bounced off me. I was shocked. Clearly
there was a conversation about safety with fireworks that needed to be had.
Instead of taking all the fireworks away from the kids, I had a very clear and
stern discussion about safety with fireworks. Eventually it came out that one
of my boys, Leonel was the one who launched the firework. He stepped forward and
looked very disappointed in himself. I told all of the kids to be safe, or
someone would get seriously hurt.
Leonel is a rather sensitive
soul. He is an incredible kid, but really does take things to heart. I cleaned
my bowl and then saw him walking over to my house alone. I let him be for a few
minutes before finding him laying down on his bed with tears filling his eyes. I
felt terrible…in a strange way. I knew that I had to tell them to be careful,
but had no way of doing that without the one who launched the havoc causing firework
to feel bad about what happened.
I sat down with him
and tried to talk for a few minutes. Leonel and I have really bonded over the
last few weeks. He has helped me with Spanish and we have shared several great memories
together. But now he wouldn’t talk to me. The worst part about all of this was
that it was still Christmas day. I definitely didn’t want him to leave the day
with this bitter taste in his mouth.
Time passed by and
nothing changed. We launched our fireworks that he had been looking forward, watched “Home Alone” and ate desserts.
But Leonel wanted to be left alone. There was nothing I could do. So, Sean went
up to try to fix the situation. Apparently Leonel missed his family. All he
wanted was to have a normal Christmas with his siblings and parents. There was
one problem. His mom died of Covid in Brazil back in 2020 and his dad couldn't take care of them. There was nowhere else
he (and his 3 other siblings) could go.
I was frustrated. We
spent all of this time to make this the perfect day for ALL of the kids. Yet,
one little moment of me speaking about safety made one of the kids feel
isolated. All I wanted was for him to feel better. However in his moment alone,
a flood of memories returned to him about what his life used to be like, when he
had 2 parents that loved him and place that he called home. With
him, you can tell how much his mother cared for him. All of their family requires
quite a bit of attention, but once their mom was lost, they lost their way to receive
it.
I gave Leonel some time and even the next morning he was not talking to me. Finally in the afternoon he started helping me out in the kitchen again. As most kids are, he was resilient. Even though some pretty terrible memories plagued his mind, he bounced back and joined us again.
New year…new
experiences!
Of course, we had to celebrate
New Years as well! As a student of the Dave Johnson firework academy (one of
our close family friends) I felt confident enough to put on a firework show! I
truly found a passion for fireworks after my short Christmas show, so I needed
to do something for New Years as well. I was rather surprised at the quality of
the fireworks here. All of them were nearly the same as ones you would buy at
the big firework shops back in the States, some were even bigger! And the best thing is they were relatively cheap! The biggest one I bought was a “36 Grand Shot”.
I got it for 300bs ($40). I got all of the other ones for much less, but I
wanted to splurge on one big guy so the kids could see it (and so I could
launch it.) Yes mom...I was very careful!
On New Years we had a
special celebration. We moved all of our tables out to one of our fields, made
pizza, and ate as one huge group. We had planned to play games next, but the
kids were having to much fun with the tiny “poppers” that I got in town that
day. While they were having fun, I set up my show. Some of the other volunteers
and I launched the fireworks and watched the kids smile at the great show. I'm not sure how often some of them have seen fireworks before.
After the fireworks, we played a movie and sent the kids back to their houses. It was about 11:15pm at this time and my boys were determined to stay up till 12:00. Only Leonel made it. They slept like rocks that night. It was a day they will never forget!
Conclusion:
I have done my best
to take every second of being here to heart. Whether the moment is enjoyable or
a learning experience, it's still meaningful. As always, I
feel incredibly blessed to have this opportunity to see a different side of
life. The rest I have gotten and the fun we have had over the last few weeks
has been incredible. Seeing how Jesus can help me adapt to the different
situations that I have experienced has been incredible as well. I always wonder
how I will see Him work as the days go by.
This Sunday, 4 other SMs and I are departing on OUR vacation. I have had fun planning this trip over the last two months with the very little internet access we had. We will first visit La Paz, Bolivia for 2 days. Next, we make our way up to Cusco, Peru for one day before making the move up to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu). We stay in this small town for 2 days then head back to Cusco for our flight to Lima, Peru. After 3 days in Lima, we fly to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for 4 days. Finally, we will take a trip to Sao Paulo before flying back to La Paz and returning to Rurrenabaque. Please know that we are keeping all of the funds donated to Famila Feliz separated from our travel funds.
I have definitely picked
up my dads knack for travel planning during the time I have been here. On my days off, I sit
in coffee shops, hotels and restaurants either writing my blog, Facebook posts
or planning trips…even if I’m not going on them. Planning trips that cost the
least amount of money and contain the most activities is quite the challenge,
but a hobby that I have gained a passion for.
As always, thank you
to everyone who has supported my mission experience and showed care for our
boys. The support you provide gives these boys memories that they never would have had if people from our community did not support them. THANK YOU!
Psalms 91:1
“Whoever dwells
in the shadow of the
Most High
will rest in the
shadow
of the Almighty.”
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