3 weeks left

Well we only have about 20 days left of our trip in Bolivia and it's going to go very fast. Sorry for not updating the last two weeks. We've gotten distracted and had several things to do and I've been a bit lazy. Since the 4th of July we have continued doing our business classes three nights out of the week and we've had our English classes on Saturday mornings. Last Saturday none of our kids came so we didn't have anyone to teach. There are two really cute kids that come most of the time so we promised to make cookies and cake for them on our last day.

Last week it got really cold and actually snowed in La Paz! We got some rain which was exciting, and the wind continued. In our cement house it was pretty cold for about 3 or 4 days nonstop. One of those days we got to learn how to make Empanadas with one of our coworkers moms. It was really fun, especially since it was cold that day.


The onions made us cry...alot.

This is how we cooled off the Empanada filling...stuck it on a chair and put it outside. The filling was made of pretty much everything from ground beef, chicken, eggs, and peas, to cilantro, spicy seasonings and lots of oil.

No rolling pin to be found so we used a glass bottle. The dough is basically flour, melted butter and some water but is actually pretty tasty.


The way she pinches the ends give the Empanadas a really cool design.

Then they get deep fried in a LOT of oil.

Yummy!


The next exciting thing that is upon us now is the new arrival of American kids to be here for the next two weeks. We met them on Monday and they all look like they're still in high school. Excluding a couple chaparones, they aren't any kids older than me. It was really quite fun to speak English again.

Last night the whole office went to see them at their hotel and play some soccer. The field was really big and Ben got quite a workout. After the soccer game Ben and I took some of the participants shopping for clothes because two of the girls had their bags lost by the lovely Miami airport, and one girl and her mom went looking for soccer cleats, so we took them. Then they allowed us to crash their dinner with all 26 kids and however many adults. We ate at this Brazilian pizza and pasta place that was sort of like a buffet but you didn't have to get up. They would bring around trays of pizza, tell you what it was and ask if you wanted a slice. It wasn't typical pizza, it was brazilian pizza and that means lots of ham and bacon pizza with cheese and onions. There was a cheese and garlic pizza that Ben ate that must have had at least 6 cloves on the one slice alone! My favorite one is hard to describe. It had lots of cheese on it, and pizza sauce doesn't really exist there, and then had milk, yes milk, on the middle of the pizza, and then these crunchy stick things with pieces of steak. They were very very good.

Then there were the desert pizzas! They were really good too! There was one with condensed milk and coconut, one with chocolate spread and chocolate sprinkles (my favorite), one with chocolate spread and strawberry jam on top, and one with some peanuts and peanut spread. Very tasty. Sadly we didn't take any pictures, but it was also really cheap so we plan to go back there sometime before we leave.

Hopefully we will get to see the americans again and get to crash more of their dinners. It's fun for us and we get to be helpful because with 26 americans that don't speak Spanish, we figure we can be of some help somewhere and offered to help out while they are here. Hopefully we will get to be able to soon.

The rest of this week is supposed to go as usual, with the possibility of helping the group of Americans. We have our class in La Guardia tonight and our class at the office tomorrow night. Fortunately it has warmed up a lot and I have made good use of the extra mattress and the balcony that we have to take naps on and relax on.

A funny thing happened yesterday. Ben and I went to the grocery store to get chocolate and bread and butter. We got to drive the boss's car all by our selves through the Bolivian roads, which was an adventure in itself! We found a bunch of cans of soda and Root Beer was one of them and we wanted it! Mine was no trouble but Ben's was. In the style that only happens in movies and cartoons Ben picked his can and it was like slow motion! All the rest of the cans slowly toppled to the floor and they just kept going and going and there was no way to stop them! It was hilarious and intensely embarrassing. It was amazing.

Well, thoe are the highlights from the last two weeks. I'm sure there will be more exciting things to come, and we will be sure to keep close updates on our last three weeks in Bolivia!

Best wishes and hopes to everyone back home.

Adios!

Marian and Ben

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Hello again!

We apoligize for not being as consistent about updating but time is going faster than we think sometimes. Here are some pictures from the Hotel we stayed at that weekend. It was called Buganvillas and as Ben wrote in our last post we had a really good time there.
We had a nice room with this living room, a mini kitchen, and small dining area. It was very nice and a pretty cool experience.








Last week was very interesting. We had a meeting with the headquarters of ASCEND, and are hoping to actually improve the work ethic around here as Ben mentioned also. We went on several visits and taught our classes three times that week as usual. On Wednesday Ben and the rest of the staff went to check out this really nice hotel where the expedition is staying when they come in August. He took pictures and managed to arrange for us to stay there that week too! Fortunately it's right before we leave to go back to the states and will be a great way to end our long trip in Bolivia. Here's what it looks like. It's in the mountains close to an area called La Guardia where we teach our Wednesday classes. Ben says it was amazingly quiet and had some breathtaking views.














Ben and I are very excited to stay here. It'll also be wickedly cheap for us just like the other hotel was.

The next day we went on our usual visits and had our class at the office that evening. We intended to make several more visits in La Guardia the next day but it didn't quite go as planned. Our first stop was to help a woman from our class install a door on her daughters room. Everything went wrong with that door that possibly could've gone wrong. It was too big, made of extremely hard wood, our power tools ran out of batteries, and we accidently smoked up the recharger pack in the wall outlet. Even though we eventually got the door up, it was hardly usable, and would only close when kicked. We're hoping to go by today to fix it, but it took us so long that day that we had to make it work and get on our way. However, that wasn't the most interesting part of that day.

As we have found, if you are at a visit for a long time, the person you are visiting will usually give you something to drink and sometimes even something to drink, depending on the time of day. We went to this woman's house right before lunch, as we weren't anticipating the door taking so long. We had planned to fix the door and go to the hotel for lunch so I could get a look at it. However, she insisted on feeding us enough food to feed her whole family for another day. I still don't know what I ate, but I can describe it. We were first giving what looked like beef soup with a bone in it with a bit of beef still attatched. When we ate it, it was really thick and had little bits of potato that gave the soup the consistency of little pieces of fat floating around in a nasty more liquidy fat. It tasted like bones and fat of a cow. Erwin asked me if I liked it and of course I had to say "Si! Mi gusta!" or something to indicate that I liked it. After the soup she gave us a potato salad and rice sort of dish that was a huge improvement from the fat soup, but definitley not good for me and Ben. We had to eat it anyway. The worst part was the beverage.
When we go to visits and get beverages from the people we are visiting we almost always get coca cola or that cinnamony drink we had our first day here. We think this was an attempt at the homemade cinnamony drink, but we still aren't sure. It had rice in the bottom, that floated up when you drank it, giving it the consistency of vomit. I don't know how to describe the liquid part of the drink but it really made me feel like I was on Fear Factor. The scary part was not knowing what we were drinking. Needless to say, Ben and I had interesting comments from our stomachs all weekend.
We taught our english class to a mighty 2 children that Saturday and discovered that it is pretty hard to keep 2 kids entertained in the forms of "to be" when one of them already knows it and the other has discovered a pencil sharpener.
The rest of Saturday we spent relaxing and lounging around. I caught a bit of a cold that weekend and did not go to church on Sunday because of it. We slept right through church actually because we were both not feeling too hot.
This week has been good so far. Monday was some kind of holiday so we didn't have class that evening. We went on visits that morning and afternoon and one visit that morning was particularly interesting. We ended up in this part of town and at what looked like an American storage facility with the rows of alluminium slide down doors, numbers over the top of each, and cement floors with rather narrow hallways. These were not used for storage. They were people's homes and they were selling things too. I have no clue what they sold, or what the guy we visited even did, but it was very interesting to see a desk in a storage unit with two chairs on each side for the clients to sit in. There were venders going around selling jello in plastic cups, and drinks in plastic cups just like a popcorn man at a baseball game would. It was really dirty and sketchy but Ben said the business part of the visit went well.

Yesterday was Tuesday and Bolivia had a soccer game last night. It was comforting to know that the reason for the gunshot noises was really just firecrackers celebrating a goal. Ben went with some of the guys from the office to play soccer last night. We went on our visits in the morning and afternoon, and rode in the back of a pickup truck (my first time doing that!) from the machanics back to the office.

Today we are going to spend a lot of time in La Guardia again, as we have our class there this evening.

Ben and I are determined to eat nothing but hot dogs today in honor of the Fourth of July and wish we could barbeque something or make a flag cake to go along with it. We wish everyone a happy Independence Day and wish we were there watching the parades too! We have almost exactly a month left and it's going to go fast. Best wishes to everyone and again, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Ben and Marian

Week 4 and 5

Week four was not very exciting, except for the fact that Marian started to go out with Erwin and I, to visit people in their businesses. Marian has surprised us all with her ability to understand and speak. She is not yet fluent but getting there pretty quickly. We also have been told of a very prominent hotel in Santa Cruz, it suppose to be a five star hotel, and we have plans on going next week to visit it and find out if it is as good as they say it is.

Week Five started out great, Ben was given the chance to give a class to the in-country staff about what our business classes are all about. We then made our way around to peoples businesses and visited them and to remind them about our class that night, we watched Hoosiers. It was the same thing everyday until late Thursday, when we got a call from Utah, we were going to have a meeting with Sallee Reynolds the next morning to discuss the in-country staffs goal's for the next 3 months. Friday turned out to be a bad day, as you know, I was to give a class at 8:30, it came and went. Brigam was in the same room with me as I was setting up my presentation, Erwin came in and talked with me as I was putting my class on the projector, he got up and left. Carmen came in and never entered the room where my class was being given, and not to mention the person that was helping me, never showed up. The boss showed up and then never entered until Sallee called at 9:00. Friday to say the least was a bad day, we did nothing, absolutely nothing, we sat around and did nothing.

Saturday was fun, we got to go to the Hotel and see what it was like. When we got there we had a good lunch, Marian had a Hamburger and I had a club sandwich, they were amazing. I then went to play an exhausting three hours of soccer, and Marian sleep, watched TV and then went tanning. The rest of the day was spent swimming in a pool and hot tube with the possible chance of having a fun day at the spa, but we never got to go to the spa.

Sunday was much like the first day, except the fact that the sun was not out and it was cold so we decided to stay in most of the day and talk with each other. The entire weekend was about lounging and splurging and it was fun to get away from the cares and worries of Ascend. We had so much fun.

Love,

Ben and Marian Griffin

3 weeks!

Well we've been here for 3 whole weeks now and it's still new and exciting. This past week was a bit more typical of what we're supposed to be doing. It was a very exhausting week. We had our first class here in Santa Cruz last Monday night and we have the 2nd one tonight. It went alright, although a lot is desired in the whole organizational view of things. Last wednesday we spent almost the entire day walking around La Guardia before our business class there that evening. We split up to try to find the members of our class and talk to them before our class that night. Ben and I didn't find anyone. Directions are not anyone's strongpoint. It is also very difficult to find someone's house when the map is upside down and there are no street signs on the actual streets. While we were doing this, we stopped in a median thing to look at where we thought we were, and all of a sudden two very big and very alive bulls were right next to us! We were very startled and kinda scared. There was a boy with them and he eventually led them away from us.

Thursday was a national holiday here so we didn't have to work. It was a catholic holiday called "corpus cristi" meaning the body of christ day (which I probably spelled wrong). On our day off we slept in for a very long time, we relaxed, and then we went to the puppy district! I wanted to see how they do "pet stores" here in Bolivia just because there are so many dogs walking around in the streets, do they even have ones for sale? I was curious. I also thought they must not watch The Price is Right out here, which would explain why nothing has been spayed or neutered. Anyway, it turned out that when we asked for the taxi to take us to the place where they sell animals, he took us to this street that was full of street venders selling animals. Literally. Not shops you go in and have a look around, but cages on cages full of puppies of all kinds, rabbits, more birds than I've ever seen, and fish too. The just like the street, in place of stores. There were a ton of different puppies: saint bernards, german shepherds, border collies, chiuahuas, dalmations, great danes, rotweilers, dacshounds, and lots and lots of little fluffy things. All pilled into these cages with no water and no food. It was pretty sad. A lot of them looked like they could've used a couple more weeks with mom. It definitley was an experience.

Friday we did the same thing that we did on wednesday. We went back to La Guardia and looked for people. This time we only found one person. Still, it was hot and dusty, and rather agrivating. We sure did get our exercise though! Friday night we went to a little restraunt around the corner from our house that Ben had eyeballed. We got it to go and it was soooo delicious! We got two very good very big steaks, a lot of a rice type dish, a salad, and papas for 25 bolivianos. That's like $2. Here's what it looked like:
It was so delicious, I hope we can go back and get more soon!

Saturday morning we had our english class with only about 9 kids this time. This week's class we learned the days of the week, and how to tell time. It was very hot, and when you have that, something trying to be taught/learned, and 9 kids ranging in age from 5-10, it becomes hard to keep them focused. So after class we taught them how to make paper airplanes and they were entertained until their parents came to get them.

And of course, they all love Ben who plays the role of teacher and jungle gym each week.

We enjoyed church on sunday at the chapel that is only about 5 blocks from our house. We sing without piano or organ, which is interesting, and Ben said it was a good meeting so I believe him. It's been pretty hot and humid the last several days. Apparently winter is over. Ben's found that he can play soccer for several hours with our manager, Luis, and his soccer team on Saturdays and I've discovered that I don't like washing clothes in a 5 gallon bucket, but that our balcony is a prime tanning spot. It's been a good week and we are looking forward to doing even more this week. My spanish is getting better and it's really great to be able to start to speak on my own in their language. Ben has been very patient with me and is still my dictionary and translator most of the time. Until next time, Happy Summer!

Marian and Ben

Greetings! Sorry for the late update, it's been a nice lazy weekend. Since our last entry we have done several exciting things. On a trip with our coworker Brigam, we went to check on more gardens in a village about 40 minutes outside of Santa Cruz (I forgot what it's called). To get to the village we had to go through a brick factory. It was pretty cool. They dry the bricks by standing them up in rows like this on top of each other.















Nothing that we'd ever seen before. The workers wanted to take a picture with the "pretty american girl" but Ben let me know that although they have a lot of bricks here, they don't have a lot of morals, so that was an interesting experience. There are always animals walking around the street but this was the first time we'd seen a family of pigs!















One of the families that we checked on has a son that the former interns met. This little boy was very young when they met him, very sick, and just not in good shape at all. When they saw him they thought he looked like Chucky, the scary doll from the movie. Since then they've all called him Chucky even though his name is David and he probably is just learning to speak. He is the boy in the picture with us. His family told us that he doesn't like to wear pants. It was really cold outside too, so we thought he must still be sick although he's slowly getting better.















Two new animals! We were on our way back to catch a taxi to take us back to Santa Cruz and Ben saw this parrot just walk out of the doorway. He tried to fly but we thought it looked like his wings had been clipped or something. Then he kept trying to walk on the little half inch ledge next to the door! He sure was beautiful though. Then, we saw this cow. When we watch tv we always see these cows being sold on television and it was wierd to see one in real life! See the fence? We are on the inside of it. The cow is walking in the road, and it was followed by two other cows, but no human leader or anything! Strange sight.














That same night we had our business class again in La Guardia. This was the second class Ben and I were at and this time Ben got a little section to teach something. I thought he did an excellent job, but I also had no idea what he said. Here he is teaching too fast for the camera!















On friday we went to a school just outside of La Guardia. There were 9 classrooms that ASCEND had helped the community build, and they fit 400 students into them! All the kids looked like they'd never seen "gringo's" before (white people) and stared and Ben and me alot. It looked like the school covered kindergarden all the way through middle school classes.

This was one of their classrooms. Pretty nice for the area but definitley cramped for space. Ben and I thought that they must have half the kids outside while the other ones are in classes to fit 400 students there.

After we looked at the space for the new library, the local people had a lunch for us that was very traditional. They served us the cinnamony drink again and I thought it tasted like donuts this time. We also had a soup with rice and vegetables in it that also had a leg or thigh or breast of a hen sitting in the middle of it. It was a different presentation that I'd ever seen before but the soup was delicious! Before we left they gave us two huge bags of some citrus fruit that looked like an orange on the inside but was yellowy green on the outside.















After our time at the school we went to look at another facility. While the boss Luis was talking with another man, we all decided to play soccer. Ben and Erwin were kicking around for a while to start off with. This place must've been another school, but there were no kids in it, so it might not be finished yet. This place also had lots of eucalyptus trees, which I haven't seen since we left the states!

Every park and school has basketball courts and they also have built in soccer goals under the basketball hoops on every single court. I've never seen anyone play basketball on it.
This was a cool shot they didn't even know I took. They eventually made me play goalie and we had a little game. There was a house in the background and horses were walking by, with no owner visable at all.

It was really pretty cool. Then we left and when we got home this lizard was waiting for us on our porch. He was pretty cool looking and a good model.

Another cool thing is that all the public telephones are in the belly of some kind of bird like this.















Well, I'm sure we will have more in a few days. Our schedules are picking up and so is my spanish, but very slowly. We hired a woman to cook and do laundry for us and she made a fantastic lunch today and prepared a drink made from starfruit and other things for us. She only comes twice a week but it's definitley worth it. They say that winter only lasts a couple days here and that it'll start getting warm again soon but will start getting really really windy.

That's all we've got now, Adios!!

Marian and Ben

Pictures from last week

Here are some pictures of things we got to do last week.

On thursday we went with Brigan and Carmen to a village called the 26th of September (that's when it was founded or something), to check on some gardens that ASCEND had taught the villagers how to grow. This is us with one of the families and their nice looking garden! It's an extremely poor community and this house behind us was one of the nicest in the whole village. Most families don't have showers or bathrooms, so ASCEND is also helping them by building latrines. The kids in the second picture were funny and are not all from the same family. They followed us around for a while and were so excited to get their picture taken also. When we got it they all crowded around to see it. Ben told me later that you have to be careful what you take pictures of, becasue lots of these people think that the camera will take their souls.















This is a "perro" that didn't want to be touched. This is a bathroom/shower and it was a lot better than most of the other ones that we saw that day.

These flowers are equal to the wildflowers that grow in the states. Nobody plants them, they're beautiful and they're all over the place. They're sooo pretty and sooo colorful. We saw a lot of them while we were in this village.









One of the women who lives in the village was helping us find all the families we needed to check on. She was really sweet, 6 months pregnant, and these were her two kids. They went with us all 4 hours that we were walking around the village. I forgot their names but they were super friendly and cute.







The roads are all dirt, and this is what the village looked like all around. Big dirt roads, and little houses on the side made of anything that would stand up really. There were also animals roaming all over the place. We figured that they just remember who feeds them and eventually end up there each evening. No tags, and all things from chickens, to horses, to pigs, and lots and lots of dogs and cats.



















This poor man was on the side of the road making shoes. We saw him while we were driving around recruiting people with Jhon and Erwin for the business class. Ben and I think that he's the kind of man who needs help and could really benefit from some business classes. Apparently though, they only work off referals and how often is a sidewalk shoemaker going to be reffered...We're still trying to figure out how to get our good ideas heard and how the system works and where it could be improved.


Well, we'll have many more pictures and things to talk about this coming week! Hope everything's going well in the states!

Ben and Marian

One whole week!

It's been a whole 7 days since we arrived in Bolivia and it has been quite a week! A lot has happened since we last checked in and we are continuing to learn more and experience more every day. Wednesday turned out to be a very long and exciting day. Both Ben and I went to La Guardia on a trip that was only supposed to be an hour or two long. We went with Erwin and Jhon, who are the in country staff in charge of the Microenterprise section of the company. We went to teach a class that they thought was at 4pm but wasn't actually until 7:30 pm! This is the library in La Guardia where they have the business classes. Since the people there are so poor, they don't have to pay the fee for the classes as long as they bring their own supplies and refreshments.














This is me with Erwin and Jhon right outside the classroom at the library in La Guardia.

This first week has had its ups and downs, we are still getting us to the sorroundings and adjusting to the new time zone. We are having fun and really starting to get our feet wet and have fun. The classes don't start until next week and they will last about two months. We are still recruiting people for the class that will take place in the office and still need more people for the class in La Guardia.

Marian and I got to go and do something fun, we went and talked with the Mayor of a little village to see if we could start working with them and the people(mainly the poor people). What we did at this meeting was tell there what we do and why we do it and give them a brief overview of our organization. Is this we ask them if they will support us working there, and by supporting us they are obligated to, by the government, pay half of what the project will cost and supply, if needed, materials and man power or labor. The other 25% of the project come from the people themselves in the form of actual money(normally they do not pay money for projects), or they provide some materials and man power. This is a huge cost saver for the organization and will help cut down their cost and raise others.

Things are well and we are starting to get some work thrown our dirrection so we hope to be getting busy in the next couple weeks and learning the system and learning what to do and being able to manage ourselves.

Love,

Marian and Ben

Day 4 in Bolivia

Buenos Dias!

It is the beginning of day 4 in Bolivia and we have learned a lot about local customs, about each other, and how the office functions. On our first day of working with the people, we had an all day project to empty, paint, spakle, and sand the "classroom" that they use here for the business classes. It actually is a converted garage, so I was right about that. It did take all day and after we did that two of the staff members, Brigam and Erwin, took Ben and myself to the local "Hipermaxi" or supermarket so we could get some basic food and supplies to hold us over until we got more settled. That was an experience. The currency here is called the Boliviano, and it is pretty nice because 1 american dollar is about equal to 7.85 Bolivianos, so we bought 300 Bolivianos worth of food and stuff and that is only about 38 American dollars. Lucky for us, if we'd bought the same items in America it would have cost close to 60 dollars! Milk comes in a bag, and Brigam bought us one of his favorite drinks (also in a bag). It tastes like apple juice but is extremely sweet and almost like spiced cider mix disolved in water. It was good though.

Our second day of work, yesterday, we didn't do a whole lot. Our current instructions are for me to learn spanish as soon as possible, and for Ben to teach me spanish as soon as possible. We are doing this while looking over several powerpoint presentations to be used to teach their business classes. It's quite an overload for my brain, but I'm getting better each day. Yesterday it was raining hard and very windy from morning through the night. Today it is still very windy but the rain has stopped for now. It is actually a little cold here! Yesterday Ben and I went to go get some snacks to eat and only had to walk about 6 houses down the street to find a woman selling a lot of food and snacks out of her garage. There were bars between us and the food and her, with a little swqinging door thing to pass the goods through. We got 2 liters of pinapple banana juice, 2 chocolate bars, and a really big package of chocolate wafer cookies all for about 13 bolivianos. In American terms, that's about $1.75. It's pretty awesome.

Aside from the nice fact that things are really cheap for us here, we've discoverd some things about the house, and the little community. Rule 1 - don't let your feet touch the ground. This means we're back to wearing shower sandals and socks to bed, and everything. Rule 2 - Don't drink the water. We can shower in it and use it to wash our face but don't drink it. Rule 3 - Don't rely on what the staffmembers say is true. We learned this the hard way by believing that there were no ants in the cabinets, and we put all our food in there. We then went to make dinner last night and realized that we'd be getting a little extra protein with our Hamburger buns. So we had to clean everything out and put all of it in the fridge.

Today is more of the same. I have to learn spanish, and Ben is going to help me along. Ben is going to be going to Laguardia today (I think I spelled that wrong, so we'll correct it later) with the staff to help with recruiting and things. That will be an interesting trip he will have to write about.

Sadly, the batteries from our camera had died, and we have yet to buy new ones, so we have no new pictures...Also, we plan to update this about twice a week.

Adios!

We made it to Bolivia!

Well, we've made it to Bolivia, and since we got married last Friday this has been the only chance we've had to update. So here are some highlights and pictures.

Before we got married we had to get our shots in anticipation of going to Bolivia. We both went to go get yellow fever shots, but the Ben asked about geting another one for me. So, I got an unexpected shot for Hepatitus A. The nurse was nice to me and gave me a Spongebob Squarepants bandaid for being such a good sport.


















The wedding went beautifully and it was such a good beautiful day, couldn't have asked for better weather in D.C.

We took close to a million pictures in about 45 minutes, and after that was all over we went and had some delicious thai food for lunch. We are still waiting to get some of the pictures back, but the ones we have seen so far look amazing!

There were two or three other couples getting married that we knew from SVU on the same day and a few other couples getting married at the same time as us, so it was pretty crowded that day.









When we came out of the temple everyone was crowded outside the doors with camera's ready to shoot us. It was exciting and we both felt like celebrities with our own paparazzi! Lots of flashes and no idea where to look when.






















All of the Griffins! All of the Sayers and Reams and California family members.

Our reception was terrific and gorgeous and delicious. Ben and I had such a good time, the food was delicious. I heard lots of good stories about Ben from his good friends, and Ben was excited to see so many people from where he grew up. We gave out some disposable camera's for people to take pictures with all over and a couple ended up in the hands of Ben's nephews, so those will be excellent to look at when we get back.














After we took off from the reception we went to Washington D.C. for a couple days for a brief honeymoon. Ben told me not to expect much, we were only going to the local Econolodge (yeah right!). However, I was pleasantly suprised when we pulled into the Omni-Shoreham hotel right in D.C. It was beautiful and so much fun to get room service and fancy plush towels. Much better than any Econolodge.

On Saturday we went to the Zoo in D.C. and had a great time watching the animals, and trying to find them in most of their "habitats". We saw some interesting creatures I don't remember the names of, and bought our first little memory ornament which is a painted wooden carved panda. It's cute. We saw an ENORMOUS lobster that was practically as big as Ben's torso, we saw comodo dragons, all sorts of monkeys and bugs, and an elephant getting weighed. It was pretty exciting.



















The next day we walked around D.C. got ready to leave for Utah on Monday and had a good time relaxing. Ben showed me some of his favorite spots to go to and we enjoyed excellent weather. We flew to Utah that next day after packing all our stuff into the car and figuring out that there are often two streets with the same name and that they might also be in completley different parts of the state. That means we got lost. A couple times. Fortunately Ben was correct that our plane left an hour later than I thought it did and we got on the plane to Utah.

We had to make a stop in Chicago for an hour or so, we got dinner and hung around before we left for Utah. We got to Utah an hour late because of a pesky weather system we had to go around. We got to Utah around 9:30 pm Utah time which was 11:30 pm our time, and we were beat. We had expected that since our Internship company, ASCEND, was taking care of our housing while we were there, that they would be coming to pick us up at the airport. However, apparently they didn't think so, and we were stranded at the airport unable to reach anyone, and after Ben got to know the airport layout very well looking for anybody, and after hearing our pages over the PA system several times we figured, might as well get a hotel room and figure the rest out in the morning. So, we did. Next morning they called while we were at the free breakfast, and eventually someone came to pick us up much later. However, the excitement didn't end there. The guy who came to pick us up oops! locked his keys in the car, so we had to wait for his girlfriend to come give him the extra set so we could get to the Intern Training that we'd already missed a day of. The training that week wasn't that bad, and we sort of discovered that the definition of "Intern" should also include "doing the office busywork that nobody wants to do". We built desks, organized their junk piles in their attic, and drove to Deseret Industries to make substantial donations. To get back at them, I put a severe dent in their bowl of salt water taffy that was in the conference room and Ben drank all the juice in their fridge.

Our housing set up just got better. After the night in the hotel we ended up staying in the Vice Presidents condo right in the heart of Salt Lake City, only two blocks from temple square. It was really really nice. After that quick week of training, and learning that part of our luggage alotment had to be designated for 200 sunglasses to take to Bolivia, and some other events, we headed to Bolivia Saturday afternoon. We had a stop in Dallas and then in Miami, but ultimatly made it to Bolivia.



Two very nice people were there to meet us this time, huge relief, but they didn't speak much english, so Ben had to translate for me. Having traveled about 24 hours straight, we were exhausted and very frazzled and dirty. We got to our house where we got the tour, we live right above the office which is convenient, and right accross from a soccer field and next to a coconut tree. There are palm trees everywhere! The house we are in is in a pretty middle class type of community, and there have been kids playing soccer all day. Somewhere closeby is a full marching band we can hear.















Ben in front of our house and me in the kitchen that has no food in it.


This is the classroom Ben will be teaching the business classes in. Yes, it looks like it used to be a garage. Pretty resourcefull. On the way to our house we saw within the first few minutes, a sign warning ostrich crossing and other strange animals, as well as a dead and severely bloated "burro" in the middle of the road.







After we had a chance to settle in a little bit and the rest of the staff here got out of church they took us to lunch at this fantastic restraunt that is all done up in the style that Bolivia was 50 years ago, from the clay plates and bowls to the white outfits the servers wore. There was even a live band playing very traditional music. We tried several new things and were so exhausted it was difficult to remain on our chairs. There is a drink called Chicha that they love made from peanuts and a bunch of cinnamon. It's really rich but pretty good. We also got to try this potatoe like thing called Yuca that is really good, and just tastes like a harder fried potatoe. We were then served some very traditional dishes, and a plate filled with chicken. I swear we've both ate a whole chicken and maybe more in that one meal.

I haven't learned spanish yet so this is very hard to adjust to, and Ben says his spanish is rusty and so it's a little hard to communicate with them. Tomorrow we are going to an outdoor market to buy food and other things we need so hopefully we'll be able to do that. The currency here is called the Boliviano and I don't remember exactly what the rate is but it's pretty cheap having US dollars. Meaning that we are going to hire a lady for the equivalent of $1.25 a week to do our laundry and we can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner for the equivalent of $3 each day. Now we finally have some time to rest before our first in-country meeting at 9am tomorrow morning.

Hopefully it won't ever take this long to update again. Adios!

Ben and Marian









This is Ben on our balcony!