Sunday, January 15, 2011
Church was good, we got a couple calling cards from everyone and we have rides to tonight's fireside. This ward won't be our real one, but it was fun going to the young adult class with three people in it. Everyone kept staring at me during sacrament meeting. The only two problems we now face are who's paying for the food at the hotel and the Spanish is a bit difficult to understand for both of us. But on the bright side, we each have our own bed :). After being hungry, and waiting for Luis to get out of church so we could call him, we did find out though, that we can order whatever we want at the hotel to eat. We have decided to save them money by refilling up the water bottles with the water cooler down staris in the lobby. However, the hotel's room service is super inconsistent. Sometimes they don't have it, and sometimes they do. Sometimes they have a cook and sometimes they don't. The food isn't so good either, and it isn't expensive. Breakfast is free and is ok with fresh fruit, but I don't like having to eat here and we don't have Bolivianos yet to buy stuff in other places. The hotel service is inconsistent, undependable, and always comes hours later. For example, we asked for more toilet paper and they brought it about two hours later, or we order room service and it takes about two hours. Things move slow here.
PPS Today at church, a lady who was talking to us and later gave us a ride asked me if I was Cristina's mom. Ha ha, we look nothing alike since she is Peruvian.
Luis and his family stopped by today to take us on a tour around the city. We drove through all the rings around the city to the last and outside ring, which is wealthier and more jungly. I saw a restaurant called chuy, that looked like half of a McDonalds arch (they don't have much American stuff here). Ironically, it used to be a McDonalds and because of political problems McDonalds pulled out. My companion and I are feeling a bit paranoid and sketch about being here. Why did they send us here?? We feel like we don't belong and feel unsafe. I just hope that we find a really good reason God wants us to be here. I feel so out of place and am struggling with the Spanish. I am hating Spanish, which is a weird thing for me to say. Also, I am the only person with blonde hair and white. I am so out of place and everybody stares at me. I am learning what it feels like to be different. I feel like a black person in Utah or something. We have been a bit paranoid and do not leave the hotel. We walk with our money belts on always as we do not trust the hotel staff either. We are told that we should not walk here alone at night (and sometimes during the day too in some places).
It was really fun to see Santa Cruz, except on our way back, the car broke down and we had to call the tow truck. Man was it hot outside! The Tow Truck came and put the car on the bed in the back. Cristina, Jared (the manager's 10-yr old son) and I sat in the car. It was a fun and bumpy ride! Don't think that's legal in the US. We went to their home and saw pictures of them and of places he's visited while we ate ice cream. He really wants to go to Salt Lake City someday. I hope he and his family are able to go. We ate at Dumbo again and I shared an appetizer with Cristina. Afterwards, we walked through the main plaza. There were so many people, artists, and dancers. The night life is a big deal here and people are always out at night. IT begins at about 8 or 9 and goes all night. Luis says it's because its cool at night and people avoid the heat. However, its usually only about 75 to 90 degrees here and often cloudy. So yeah ....it's been a long day. I'm ready to go to sleep and hope that tomorrow we get some good news about the prospective apartments. Hasta manana!
Monday, January 17, 2011
So it's our third day in Santa Cruz. We still haven't found an apartment, kind of like Mary and Joseph (no room at the inn). We just found out that we are training a number of employees at the center tomorrow morning and all week long. We possibly have another workshop scheduled at night time while still being homeless and have not unpacked and dirty clothes. Our manager always talks about how great La Paz is and how there's nothing here that it's unsafe and uncivil. But, they caught 25 gang members in the city today so that was good, but then they released them because they didn't have proof. When we walked in the Employment Center this morning, our manager urged us to go inside his office. He then proceeded to tell us that the guy sitting outside was dangerous. He used to live in La Paz and held up the office with a gun and demanded $20,000. The bishop had to come and talk him out of it. Ironically, the bishop still sent him on a mission....that only lasted three months. He just comes in and sits on one of the tables for a couple of hours everyday. They think he's observing the center, but they won't kick him out. What's more, is that our manager tells us that we can't walk outside alone. There's not enough police here so yeah, welcome to the jungle.
After meeting with the employees at the center, we went apartment hunting and asked different residential buildings in the area if they were renting apartments. We didn't have any luck. We felt like Mary and Joseph. We returned to the hotel in the afternoon and took a much needed nap. My brain was EXHAUSTED. At about four o' clock in the afternoon, Luis came again to pick us up and took us to see a possible apartment. It was...alright. It lacked some essential things and it was in a sketchy area. That sucked. Are there no apartments in Santa Cruz??? We came back to the hotel AGAIN and we began to study our material for Tuesday's workshop. We ordered dinner, which took forever to come and we crashed at about 10pm.
INTERESTING FACT! Bolivia may be the only country with no McDonalds. Apparently it's too unsafe for even McDonalds here.
We always get to watch the news while eating breakfast down in the hotel dining room. Some interesting things are happening. Bolivia is a crazy place! We already had a flood for a 1/2 day. There is a political revolt on milk prices right now, and only families that own houses can register their kids for school (those that rent can't right now). The average monthly salary is about 100$. There isn't much work, so most taxi drivers are college graduates. There is also a lot of racism between the Collas and the Cambas (the indigenous indians vs. the whiter immigrants).
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Today was different. Maybe it's because we got tired of complaining and decided to just work, but things started to look up. Elder Davila (sp?) of the Seventy came to the Employment Center to give a devotional. After the devotional, Cristina and I sat in the main room and went through our material while getting to know some of the people who were going to attend our workshop later that morning (Barbara, Reynaldo, Lourdes, Cesar, Yesenia). Also, the relieving part was that we were NOT training, but rather just teaching these few young people. They were so helpful and patient with my Spanish, and what a better way to practice our first workshop ever. Even though we started the workshop late (because Elder Davila had a meeting with some people in our workshop room), we made good time and we didn't SCREW up! All the people in our workshop are pretty much awesome so I hope that we get to know them better this week and we'll pray for them so that we know how to help them and how to word things so they can understand. I am really struggling to explain these concepts in Spanish. This is really surprising, because I thought I knew Spanish, but I don't as well as I would like and my confidence in Spanish is suffering.
I'm so excited for this week and can't wait to serve the people attending our workshops. AND we have an APARTMENT yet! We haven't seen it yet, but Luis just signed the contract today and we move in tomorrow. It's got a washer AND a microwave. So we're pretty much set. We rested and studied for our workshops tomorrow for the rest of the night.
Also, Today was the FIRST time I got SICK from the FOOD, it happened really quick after dinner (the chef wasn't available so the other guys said he would cook us something). It was super greasy chicken an fries. So gross. And then a plate of fresh fruit. Cristina and I shared, butshe didn't get sick. I think the chicken was undercooked (I only ate two bites). Anyways, I ended up throwing up everything. It took about 30 minutes for me to get sick and then relieve myself. I felt immedately better. I am so grateful our body knows how to relieve itself from poison.
FUN FACT. there are sloths in the city, apparently.
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