I apologize for not the last day or so. Things had been rolling along quite well on this trip but some of that initial good luck has started to balance out a bit with some bad luck. To start off, there won't be many pictures on the blog for the next while and will probably only be much shorter posts than before. It appears as though the hard drive in the laptop has decided to pack it in. Luckily, I backed everything up before we left, and being paranoid, I had my computer set to backup all our trip photos nightly to my google account, so all we are out is the cost of a hard drive which may have to wait until we return home.
The second bit of bad luck was that I managed to burn a few fingers on my right hand fairly badly while lighting a gas oven that flared on me. I wasn't sure how bad it was at the time, but now that the blisters have grown, popped and on one finger peeled off, it is a little worse than I had hoped. I am taking care of it so there is no infection setting in but it is still pretty gross to look at.
We are just finalizing the plans to get to the salt flats with Ken but it looks like we will be flying up to Sucre and then taking a tour van to Uyuni for about 8 hours and then do a 3 day tour of the flats, geysers, lagoons etc. if you haven't seen what the area looks like before, I really encourage you to google it and admire it for its sheer beauty. We have had some issues getting logistics worked out because the Dakar rally is on the flats the second week of January so everything is pretty crazy around there right now.
As for New Years Eve, we have been invited to a party being put on by the church which includes the roasting of a whole pig and of course massive amounts of fireworks (to which I have generously donated due to how much I enjoy seeing things blow up). Melody and Jordan will be dressing up a bit as all the ladies do, while I will be sporting jeans and one of my 4 new soccer jerseys. It seems here that the women dress up and the guys wear pants and their newest jersey. How do I choose between Bayern Munich, German National, Chelsea or Spain?
We have pretty much wrapped up delivering all the hampers to the families that we have left except for one who we will deliver this evening. I am passing over the ipad to Melody to write a bit about our delivery and visit with Sandra who she had taught during our time down here in 2010.
As Ron said, I will tell you about our visit with Sandra. We wanted to stop in to see if her husband could set up a visit as she doesn't have a functional phone right now. To our luck and surprise she was home. I knew I was going to be happy to see her after almost 5 years (I did private spa classes with her) but I had no idea I would be so emotional. I walked into her front yard and started to cry. They have done some work on the house but still have a long way to go before we would consider it complete. As we sat and visited with her we found out that her husband got involved in a bad financial arrangement and is now responsible for 950 Bolivianos a month ($150 Canadian). She is working in a spa but only gets to take home 50% of her actual income the rest goes to the spa owner. As always I really wanted to help. El Jordan is going to hire her husband to do some painting ( that is his trade but has to drive taxi because there is not enough work for painters), and we decided to give her one of our hampers. She was very grateful and by the end of the visit we were both in tears, I feel very connected to this girl and would go to the ends of the earth for her. Ron and I are still talking about other ways to help Sandra, her husband and her 4 kids.
Armadillo...It's whats for lunch and other random happenings
Thus far most of the blog has been about the work that we have been doing down here. Since we have a few down days, it is a good opportunity to put some random happenings or other interesting tidbits up on the interwebs.
Let's start with today. Being Sunday, we went to church this morning. For those of you who haven't been to the Kairos Familia church, it involves a lot of good music, plenty of hugging (not something I like to do), and is very much a small community of people who care about and help each other out. It is tradition with Ken that the boys get to go out for lunch after church each week. Usually it is one of the many chicken restaurants (spoiler alert: there will be a post solely on the chicken restaurant names in the future), but since we are guests, we decided to go to Las Cabanas (anybody know how to put the squiggly line over the n in that word?). Las Cabanas are basically thatched roof huts down by the river who all make traditional Bolivian cuisine and is one of the places to get the more distinctive dishes. If you followed our first trip, this is the place we ate where the dog wandered in and urinated on the chair.
We chose a hut and basically ordered about half the menu because Ken let the boys order plus a couple of items that the Anderson crew really wanted, and then we waited while a band started playing loud horn and drum music and random people wandered by trying to sell us everything from chewing gum to inflatable cartoon balloons to sunglasses. The food showed up after a few minutes and we had plates of pique macho (beef with hot dogs, french fries, sauce, boiled eggs and mayonnaise), roasted pork, a roasted duck and tatu. Tatu translated to English is armadillo, and its something I have been waiting to taste for quite some time. Gotta say, it was the best dish of the day and was a huge hit with the kids. I made the pics a little extra large so you can see all the delicious detail in these ones.
After lunch, we went down to the plaza downtown where they have a Sunday market. Logan picked up a small ring and Melody got a lovely linen shirt with very finely detailed crocheted accents. The shirt is very typical of the Santa Cruz area and was made by a nice older lady. I almost purchased a leather satchel for work, but we were not able to negotiate a price I was happy with, so that will have to wait. The other interesting things were the cayman skin belts with the heads as the buckle.
We decided to chill out a bit in the plaza after the market, so we got some bird feed and fed the pigeons and when Lukas ran out of feed, he tried to catch them but managed to get a bit scared when one flew at him. Then we just had to have a picture taken with the scariest Santa Claus we have had the pleasure to meet.
That was about it for today, so here are a few other little items from our trip so far. First off, Melody has a hatred for spiders, and we have had a couple of run ins since we got here. The first was at Ken's house and was with the spider in the picture below. The second was with a very similar spider who ran from under our bed into the dirty clothes pile and made her jump up on the bed and let me know in no uncertain terms that there was a spider that needed my attention. We have also seen a number of other large insects along the way as well such as moths and large ants.
And to cap it off, here are some pictures of cute kids we have dealt with along the way.
Let's start with today. Being Sunday, we went to church this morning. For those of you who haven't been to the Kairos Familia church, it involves a lot of good music, plenty of hugging (not something I like to do), and is very much a small community of people who care about and help each other out. It is tradition with Ken that the boys get to go out for lunch after church each week. Usually it is one of the many chicken restaurants (spoiler alert: there will be a post solely on the chicken restaurant names in the future), but since we are guests, we decided to go to Las Cabanas (anybody know how to put the squiggly line over the n in that word?). Las Cabanas are basically thatched roof huts down by the river who all make traditional Bolivian cuisine and is one of the places to get the more distinctive dishes. If you followed our first trip, this is the place we ate where the dog wandered in and urinated on the chair.
We chose a hut and basically ordered about half the menu because Ken let the boys order plus a couple of items that the Anderson crew really wanted, and then we waited while a band started playing loud horn and drum music and random people wandered by trying to sell us everything from chewing gum to inflatable cartoon balloons to sunglasses. The food showed up after a few minutes and we had plates of pique macho (beef with hot dogs, french fries, sauce, boiled eggs and mayonnaise), roasted pork, a roasted duck and tatu. Tatu translated to English is armadillo, and its something I have been waiting to taste for quite some time. Gotta say, it was the best dish of the day and was a huge hit with the kids. I made the pics a little extra large so you can see all the delicious detail in these ones.
After lunch, we went down to the plaza downtown where they have a Sunday market. Logan picked up a small ring and Melody got a lovely linen shirt with very finely detailed crocheted accents. The shirt is very typical of the Santa Cruz area and was made by a nice older lady. I almost purchased a leather satchel for work, but we were not able to negotiate a price I was happy with, so that will have to wait. The other interesting things were the cayman skin belts with the heads as the buckle.
We decided to chill out a bit in the plaza after the market, so we got some bird feed and fed the pigeons and when Lukas ran out of feed, he tried to catch them but managed to get a bit scared when one flew at him. Then we just had to have a picture taken with the scariest Santa Claus we have had the pleasure to meet.
That was about it for today, so here are a few other little items from our trip so far. First off, Melody has a hatred for spiders, and we have had a couple of run ins since we got here. The first was at Ken's house and was with the spider in the picture below. The second was with a very similar spider who ran from under our bed into the dirty clothes pile and made her jump up on the bed and let me know in no uncertain terms that there was a spider that needed my attention. We have also seen a number of other large insects along the way as well such as moths and large ants.
Christmas Here, Christmas There...
Now that we have a little down time, I can get caught up on the blogging as promised. We left off last time with having dealt with all the chickens. The next morning, Ken picked us and Heidi up to go get the potatoes and the rice from the market. We bought two giant bags of potatoes and five 50kg bags of rice at the market and headed back to El Jordan. Job number one was to sort the potatoes into sizes and then wash them all and count out 3000 of the right size. We managed to get the potatoes sorted with and sorted out the 3000 that were intended to be prepared for including in the meals for the streets. Unfortunately, when we were washing the potatoes, the locals also washed the others that had been sorted out, so our family got the lucky job of resorting the potatoes and then guarding them to make sure we didn't have a repeat of the potato problem again.
Then the pigs arrived from the farm where they had recently given their lives for the good of others. The picture below shows how they arrived covered in leaves to prevent flies and drying out. The pigs were then taken to a "butcher" who cut them into what I would describe as "non-traditional" pieces that are not the same cuts as we would see in the stores in Canada. Frankly, none of the cuts that are used here look like what we see in the stores or butcher shops in Canada.
The pork and chicken were then cooked throughout the night in 8 propane ovens outside while 10 or more large pots of rice were and potatoes cooked throughout the night until all the food was cooked. Next to no pieces of pork go to waste as you can see in the picture above. Every bit is food and crispy skin is mighty tasty.
Each meal is packed with rice, one potato, one piece of banana, one piece of pork (whatever piece is next up), a piece of chicken, and a slice of beef. As the meals are put together by assembly line in the morning, they are packed into boxes for dissemination to each area of the city to be delivered.
Lukas and I went with Marco to some of the "rougher" areas where the long term addicts live in makeshift shacks in bushes behind the markets or behind the industrial area. These folks were not very trusting and sent out one person to see what the deal is. After the "guard" was sure we were legit, people started appearing out of the trees and bushes in bunches.
The gentleman in the picture below explained that he is 77 years old and wants to go to the addiction center. He was in good spirits thanks to the meal, and spoke to us in Spanish, Portuguese, French and a little English as well. What you see below is his house. He sleeps under an awning on a cardboard mattress and makes what little money he can by helping direct people to available parking spots for about 15 cents each time.
Melody, Logan and Jordan went with Heidi to deliver food to the groups of street people who live on the meridians between the bus depot and the Ramada Market. They were very welcoming of Heidi and our family because they know Corina and look forward to this day each year. We were warned that some of them are very good pick pockets, so we left all of our valuables at home. However, once Melody and the kids were among the people they felt very safe. Melody said they were actually very protective of her and the kids. Although most of them had bottles of glue that they were sniffing, one of the guys would not let them smoke marijuana in front of the kids. Logan and Jordan were somewhat of celebrities given their long blondish hair and everybody wanted their picture taken with them. Jordan said it was a little scary, but they both were happy to pass out meals, cutlery, juice and presents. All in all, a great experience.
Side story: We were in Hot Burger (a Bolivian fast food joint) getting lunch the other day and when we turned around, Logan had been surrounded by about 6 teenage Bolivian kids. We were initially concerned but quickly figured out that it was his hair they liked and they all pulled out their cellphones and took selfies with him like he was a Disney channel celebrity. A very surreal experience.
After delivering all the meals to the streets, we went home for a well deserved break, and to nurse my bright red sunburned arms. Then we were picked up by Ken to go prepare and serve food at Mision Timoteo. Ken's boys had cooked chickens and made salads while the staff at the children's home had cooked up some rice.
We dished out the food for all the waiting kids and served them. They were very excited and had their finest clothes on for the occassion.
After the meal, we blasted off some of the fireworks that Ken and I had bought in market and finished it of with having some of the older kids hold the Roman candles as a finale. Everybody had a great time.
It was then 9:00 so we headed back to Ken's place to cook the pork and the rest of the food for our own Christmas supper. I had made up some of my magic dust rub for the pork, and cooked it in a somewhat unreliable outdoor propane oven and it turned out great.
At midnight, the entire city lit up with fireworks as is the custom here. I had set aside a couple of hundred dollars for our own fireworks display which was awesome and very loud. We of course had to do the traditional stupid things with the firecrackers like blowing up apples, and throwing them in mud puddles so the mud sprays everywhere as well. Then we ate and got home around 2am.
We got to sleep in on Christmas day until about 10:30 and then we were back to Ken's boys place to cook a Canadian Christmas supper of two turkeys (a little hard to come by here), stuffing, mashed potatoes, salads, cranberries (canned here) and apple crisp with ice cream for dessert for 40 people. As a special treat, I found After Eight mints at the store and picked up two boxes for a ridiculous price because it just didn't feel like Christmas without some chocolates I am familiar with. The meal went over great.
I haven't had time to upload the pictures from Christmas day but I will do so in the next day or so since the bulk of our work is over for now. In case I didn't get a message out to you by email or some other messaging system. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Andersons.
Then we moved on to the bananas that had been donated. Lukas and Logan pitched in on this job by cutting the bananas off the stocks while I told them of the horrors of banana spiders. Then each banana was cut into two or three based on size so that we had one for each meal that was heading out.
Side story: We were in Hot Burger (a Bolivian fast food joint) getting lunch the other day and when we turned around, Logan had been surrounded by about 6 teenage Bolivian kids. We were initially concerned but quickly figured out that it was his hair they liked and they all pulled out their cellphones and took selfies with him like he was a Disney channel celebrity. A very surreal experience.
We were greeted in the kitchen by the Director of the home, and two very impressive cockroaches.
We got to sleep in on Christmas day until about 10:30 and then we were back to Ken's boys place to cook a Canadian Christmas supper of two turkeys (a little hard to come by here), stuffing, mashed potatoes, salads, cranberries (canned here) and apple crisp with ice cream for dessert for 40 people. As a special treat, I found After Eight mints at the store and picked up two boxes for a ridiculous price because it just didn't feel like Christmas without some chocolates I am familiar with. The meal went over great.
I haven't had time to upload the pictures from Christmas day but I will do so in the next day or so since the bulk of our work is over for now. In case I didn't get a message out to you by email or some other messaging system. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Andersons.
Patience is a Virtue
Sorry for the lack of posts in the last two days. We have been going full steam on Christmas on the Streets and then over to the children's home for Christmas supper and then back to Ken's boys place for late night Christmas Supper and now we are headed back there to cook Christmas day supper. I promise a complete (and probably way too long) post within the next 24 hours with a bunch of pictures to go with it. Merry Christmas everyone.
Rainin Chickens
Sorry for the bad pun, but the title is a combination of what today was made up of. It started raining around 11:00pm last night and it just kept on raining. There was a group of 6 or 7 intrepid chicken killers who went out to the "farm" last night to start killing and cleaning 200 chickens for today's cutting session, and they managed to get them all killed, cleaned and put on ice, but there was so much rain that they were not able to get into town this morning as planned. The normally small river that has to be crossed to get out to the farm was up to waist high and the the clay hill on the side of it was so slippery that there was no crossing while the rain was till coming.
In the city, the streets were pretty much flooded and all the water channels they have on the main streets were full of water as well, and it took about 20 minutes of waiting in the rain for our taxi this morning since they were so busy.
The boys and I spent the morning putting boxes together and cutting steam holes in them in for the delivery of the meals on the 24th while we waited on word from the chicken crew. Melody and Jordan helped out with some of the little kids and pitched in on the boxes where they could as well. Each box needed to be taped together and have two small holes per side cut in them to prevent the steam from the meals making the boxes too soggy on delivery day.
At lunch, we went to Corrina's and waited for word from the chicken crew on whether they would be able to make it in. We got the call around 1:00 that they were on their way but it took over two and a half hours to get through what is normally a 45 minute drive because they had to basically build part of a road where it had been somewhat washed away. Once they arrived, we set to work cutting each chicken into 10 pieces and dunking them in the marinade and then bagging them in bags of 50 pieces each. I can honestly say I have never seen so many dead chickens in one place at one time,
After a quick lesson in the Bolivian chicken butchering method (somewhat different from the French method I am familiar with), I helped out as best I could. These ladies have obviously cut many more chickens apart in their lives than I have because they would get through two for every one I managed to do and I am pretty good with meat cutting if I do say so myself. We managed to get through all 200 chickens in just under two hours.
While Melody helped out with finishing the packaging of the chicken pieces, Heidi, the boys and I went to get all the propane tanks filled that we need for tomorrow and the 24th. They have a pretty good system here where you take your propane tanks to the depot, and just trade them in for filled ones. No waiting around for the someone to fill the tanks!!
We finished up for the day, and then went out for supper around 8:00 and now its time to hit the hay. Tomorrow will be a LONG day of grabbing the potatoes and rice, and starting to cook all the chickens etc.
Two Posts for the Price of One!!!!
Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. As usual, the internet was hit and miss again.
Yesterday Melody, Jordan and Logan went to El Jordan to package all the gifts, popcorn and candy into a slightly larger bag, so when it comes to handing them out we only have to hand each person one bag. Then, all of those bags are put into large garbage bag sized bags and put into categories as to which location they are to be delivered to. This is a more complicated process than it sound. Each location will be given an exact number of bags (equal to the number of meals they have requested) and will handed out at a specific time.
Yesterday afternoon, the same bunch went with Andres to the market to buy the first batch of supplies for the hampers. Melody chose a stall at the market that we had purchased noodles from before where a younger guy ran the place. She asked for a good deal on the stuff with the promise that she would come back for the rest the next day. They struck a deal and he helped carry everything on a dolly to a taxi so they could get home to repackage the goods and put them in the hampers.
Jordan and Melody returned to El Jordan to bake a bunch of cookies for the volunteers next week. Jordan struck up a conversation over Google translate on Melody's phone with a girl named Antonia. I am sure that the messages weren't perfect but the intent came across nonetheless.
Everybody got home around 7:45 and we quickly made a simple supper and hit the hay.
We were up early this morning because Ken had asked us to be ready for 8:00 to go help out a home that takes care of babies with terminal diseases or with serious health or physical issues. Ivan has a connection with the house, because of his physiotherapy classes, so he had asked Ken if Ken's boys and our family could help out today. The weather forecast said it would be about 29 degrees with a 30% chance of rain and wind gusts, but more on that later...
Ken came to pick us up at around 8:20 which is pretty much on time for Bolivia. Then we picked up a couple more volunteers from the side of the road and were told we had to stop at the store to pickup some items for the home on the way. Since we really hadn't eaten, we grabbed a bunch of empanadas of various kinds, some drinks for while we were working and some strange pastry that Jordan decided we needed to try. Ivan picked up a few packages of diapers and some other baby type supplies and also some groceries for lunch then we were on the road again by 9:30. We were told there was one more volunteer to pickup outside a chicken restaurant, so we waited a few minutes there but nobody showed so we continued on and arrived at 10:00 with an army of about 10 of us.
We divided into a few smaller teams with Melody and Jordan tackling the kitchen and the toddler play area and the boys heading out to the yard to clean up. The yard is basically a large sandy area with about 5 very large mango trees. Job number one was to pickup all the rotting mangos from the ground and throw them into the compost pile by the back wall. I must say that the smell of rotting mangos is not that appealing. While we were tidying up the yard, we found an old tire that had been a tire swing and when we moved it, a bunch of water and a GIGANTIC frog came out. To put it into perspective for you, it was roughly the size of a 5 pin bowling ball. That pretty much ended the boys contribution to the work for the next 20 minutes while they made the frog jump around the yard.
Once the frog show was over, the boys pulled out a bunch of the cribs from the sleeping room and started to sand and paint them. Not a very difficult job unless you have 3 or 4 very interested toddlers trying to "help" by bringing you extra buckets of paint, stirring the paint, trying to sand or just grabbing onto the parts you just painted. We had just finished the first coat of paint when the aforementioned forecast turned out to be wrong. It started raining fairly heavily, so we quickly grabbed the wet paint cribs and moved them under some cover, but that ended the painting for the day.
We finished up cleaning the inside of the home, and then made our way to the market to pickup the last of the oil, dish soap, shampoo, cheese and potatoes for our hampers and got back to our place to finish putting them together. For reference, the hampers contain various school supplies, crocheted grocery bags, a potscruber, dish clothes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, small towels and face clothes, soccer balls, pasta, flour, sugar, rice, oil, shampoo, dish soap, salt, cheese, stuffed animals, potatoes and the washbasin that it is all in.
Corrina from El Jordan came over and we figured out the first four families that we were going to deliver hampers to. We delivered the first one to a small family with a mother who was widowed and had 4 children. All the kids are in school, but started late so they are two to three years behind. The next hamper that we delivered was to a boy and his three siblings whose father has been gone for a long time and whose mother left him in charge 3 months ago.
Thankfully, a lady and her husband took him and his siblings in and provide them a corrugated tin room with two bunk-beds. The picture below shows the lady along with the 4 kids she has taken in plus her own. In total there are 14 children living in the house when everybody is home. The husband works away and comes home on weekends, and she bakes bread and cunape (cheese buns) to bring in money.
Yesterday Melody, Jordan and Logan went to El Jordan to package all the gifts, popcorn and candy into a slightly larger bag, so when it comes to handing them out we only have to hand each person one bag. Then, all of those bags are put into large garbage bag sized bags and put into categories as to which location they are to be delivered to. This is a more complicated process than it sound. Each location will be given an exact number of bags (equal to the number of meals they have requested) and will handed out at a specific time.
Jordan and Melody returned to El Jordan to bake a bunch of cookies for the volunteers next week. Jordan struck up a conversation over Google translate on Melody's phone with a girl named Antonia. I am sure that the messages weren't perfect but the intent came across nonetheless.
Everybody got home around 7:45 and we quickly made a simple supper and hit the hay.
We were up early this morning because Ken had asked us to be ready for 8:00 to go help out a home that takes care of babies with terminal diseases or with serious health or physical issues. Ivan has a connection with the house, because of his physiotherapy classes, so he had asked Ken if Ken's boys and our family could help out today. The weather forecast said it would be about 29 degrees with a 30% chance of rain and wind gusts, but more on that later...
Ken came to pick us up at around 8:20 which is pretty much on time for Bolivia. Then we picked up a couple more volunteers from the side of the road and were told we had to stop at the store to pickup some items for the home on the way. Since we really hadn't eaten, we grabbed a bunch of empanadas of various kinds, some drinks for while we were working and some strange pastry that Jordan decided we needed to try. Ivan picked up a few packages of diapers and some other baby type supplies and also some groceries for lunch then we were on the road again by 9:30. We were told there was one more volunteer to pickup outside a chicken restaurant, so we waited a few minutes there but nobody showed so we continued on and arrived at 10:00 with an army of about 10 of us.
We divided into a few smaller teams with Melody and Jordan tackling the kitchen and the toddler play area and the boys heading out to the yard to clean up. The yard is basically a large sandy area with about 5 very large mango trees. Job number one was to pickup all the rotting mangos from the ground and throw them into the compost pile by the back wall. I must say that the smell of rotting mangos is not that appealing. While we were tidying up the yard, we found an old tire that had been a tire swing and when we moved it, a bunch of water and a GIGANTIC frog came out. To put it into perspective for you, it was roughly the size of a 5 pin bowling ball. That pretty much ended the boys contribution to the work for the next 20 minutes while they made the frog jump around the yard.
Once the frog show was over, the boys pulled out a bunch of the cribs from the sleeping room and started to sand and paint them. Not a very difficult job unless you have 3 or 4 very interested toddlers trying to "help" by bringing you extra buckets of paint, stirring the paint, trying to sand or just grabbing onto the parts you just painted. We had just finished the first coat of paint when the aforementioned forecast turned out to be wrong. It started raining fairly heavily, so we quickly grabbed the wet paint cribs and moved them under some cover, but that ended the painting for the day.
Corrina from El Jordan came over and we figured out the first four families that we were going to deliver hampers to. We delivered the first one to a small family with a mother who was widowed and had 4 children. All the kids are in school, but started late so they are two to three years behind. The next hamper that we delivered was to a boy and his three siblings whose father has been gone for a long time and whose mother left him in charge 3 months ago.
Thankfully, a lady and her husband took him and his siblings in and provide them a corrugated tin room with two bunk-beds. The picture below shows the lady along with the 4 kids she has taken in plus her own. In total there are 14 children living in the house when everybody is home. The husband works away and comes home on weekends, and she bakes bread and cunape (cheese buns) to bring in money.
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