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