I had been hoping that we would make it to our departure date without having any more snow to deal with. Apparently somebody had other plans, so the weekend was spent digging and blowing way too much snow out of the back yard, driveway, sidewalk and front walk. Then we were lucky enough to figure out that there was a problem with the traction control system on our van which kicked in every 3 feet and got us stuck. Dr. Ardell was kind enough to tow us back home until I could get a tow truck to Honda monday morning. That chewed up a whole bunch of time on the weekend that was supposed to be used for packing all the donated material into the duffle bags for the trip.
We ended up packing the bags late Sunday night and are happy to report that all school supplies, touques, soccer balls etc fit nicely in the bags and were all spaced out across them so that each one is safely under the 50 pound limit. Thanks to the Dunphys for lending us their bathroom scale for the weighing. I don't believe in having a bathroom scale normally. Its just one of those things that doesn't bring joy to life, like taxes.
Carry On My Wayward Son
I know, bad title, but good news. The announced that the carry on restrictions for flights into the United States has been lifted. Why does that matter you say??? Well, unfortunately for us, the only way into Bolivia from North America is from Miami and that is of course in the United States. With the restrictions being lifted, we can be just like all the other rude travellers and bring on way too much stuff and take up all the overhead bin.
Countdown Continues & Slight Change in Plans
We are in the final three weeks before departure and with it comes a few new items that we need to do so we don't experience any problems while we are down there. The first item is one that we all are pretty fond of actually, and that is eating a bowl of yogurt with active bacterial culture every day. This is something that was recommended to us in order to up the level of good bacteria in our digestive systems to prevent the oh so common travelers diarrhea that you may have seen the commercials about. Almost all yogurts these days have the active cultures except for the "dessert" yogurts which we don't care much for anyways.
The second item is the chloroquine that we have to take to try to avoid that nasty Malaria disease that the mosquitoes can provide. I normally don't mind taking medication, especially to prevent a problem, but these are roughly the size of a quarter around, don't have a nice slippery coating on them like aspirin does, and if you try to break them down to something more bite size, they are unbelievably bitter. Luckily, we only have to take it every two weeks until we return from Bolivia.
The second interesting item is that we have had a slight change in plans as far as our teaching goes. We have been asked to teach at a second location besides El Jordan. Apparently, our contact in Bolivia has been talking to the people who run YWAM and they asked if we could also come teach at their group home as well. It means a little more travelling between locations, but it also means we can teach more young people so we are good to go.
I also received an inventory of the computer equipment that is down there and what state it is in. After reading it over, Lukas and I will be reinstalling all their systems and getting them in good working order, before we can do any instruction. Apparently they have received very little attention since they were donated and are not running very well. I almost prefer it this way because it gives me the opportunity to possibly show some basic computer hardware skills to the kids and its always easier to bond with someone when they get to be involved instead of just sitting and absorbing information.
The second item is the chloroquine that we have to take to try to avoid that nasty Malaria disease that the mosquitoes can provide. I normally don't mind taking medication, especially to prevent a problem, but these are roughly the size of a quarter around, don't have a nice slippery coating on them like aspirin does, and if you try to break them down to something more bite size, they are unbelievably bitter. Luckily, we only have to take it every two weeks until we return from Bolivia.
The second interesting item is that we have had a slight change in plans as far as our teaching goes. We have been asked to teach at a second location besides El Jordan. Apparently, our contact in Bolivia has been talking to the people who run YWAM and they asked if we could also come teach at their group home as well. It means a little more travelling between locations, but it also means we can teach more young people so we are good to go.
I also received an inventory of the computer equipment that is down there and what state it is in. After reading it over, Lukas and I will be reinstalling all their systems and getting them in good working order, before we can do any instruction. Apparently they have received very little attention since they were donated and are not running very well. I almost prefer it this way because it gives me the opportunity to possibly show some basic computer hardware skills to the kids and its always easier to bond with someone when they get to be involved instead of just sitting and absorbing information.
One Month to Go
Its January 8th and we have one month to go until we take of on February 8th. Almost all the details have been ironed out now. Surprisingly, one of the hardest items was finding a hotel that will take 2 adults and 3 kids and have a shuttle that will take us and 10 bags to the airport at 4:30am. Most hotels will do one or the other but apparently it is a very rare combination indeed to find a hotel that will do both. Luckily we managed to find one last night so we are good to go.
Jordan and Logan got their yellow fever shots today which finishes up their shots for now. Jordan was lucky enough to get an extra present for turning 4 yesterday. She got her 4 year old booster shot at the clinic right after her yellow fever shot. She still took them both better than Logan who has grown tired of being poked all the time. He has progressively gotten worse every time he gets a needle. The first one went off without a hitch back in November, but today was preceded by a two minute kick/scream session before he got it. Jordan volunteered to go first after seeing Logan and got both her shots done with no problem.
The lists that Melody has been keeping for everything keep getting shorter as we go along, so I guess everything is progressing as planned for now.
Jordan and Logan got their yellow fever shots today which finishes up their shots for now. Jordan was lucky enough to get an extra present for turning 4 yesterday. She got her 4 year old booster shot at the clinic right after her yellow fever shot. She still took them both better than Logan who has grown tired of being poked all the time. He has progressively gotten worse every time he gets a needle. The first one went off without a hitch back in November, but today was preceded by a two minute kick/scream session before he got it. Jordan volunteered to go first after seeing Logan and got both her shots done with no problem.
The lists that Melody has been keeping for everything keep getting shorter as we go along, so I guess everything is progressing as planned for now.
Many Thanks
In case we haven't got a hold of you personally, email or phone, thank you very much to everyone who has contributed to our cause in person or online through the donation site. It is very humbling to receive donations from people you know and also from several people you don't know.
Many thanks to the people and organizations who have donated items to send down as well. This includes Source for Sports for donating soccer balls, Bernice for the touques for the little ones, the Salvation Army for the school supplies and the many people who provided broken crayons that have been cooked into the muffin crayons. The ten duffle bags that we are taking will be bursting at the seems and we are already shifting the weight around so that no bag is over the 50 pound limit. The best way to test it is to put one of the smaller kids in an empty bag and if the other bag is much heavier than than the one with the small child in it, then we need to be sure its not over the limit. (no, we don't close the bag with the child in it).
When we get down there expect a lot of pictures of kids wearing toques, kicking soccer balls while coloring.
Many thanks to the people and organizations who have donated items to send down as well. This includes Source for Sports for donating soccer balls, Bernice for the touques for the little ones, the Salvation Army for the school supplies and the many people who provided broken crayons that have been cooked into the muffin crayons. The ten duffle bags that we are taking will be bursting at the seems and we are already shifting the weight around so that no bag is over the 50 pound limit. The best way to test it is to put one of the smaller kids in an empty bag and if the other bag is much heavier than than the one with the small child in it, then we need to be sure its not over the limit. (no, we don't close the bag with the child in it).
When we get down there expect a lot of pictures of kids wearing toques, kicking soccer balls while coloring.
Christmas Supper
We just exchanged a few emails with Corina who is one of the people working for El Jordan in Santa Cruz. They had been quite busy over the Christmas period putting on a Christmas meal for the poor, homeless and street kids that they call Christmas on the Streets. Basically what they do is prepare food and small gifts and take them out on the streets to the homeless and poverty stricken people of Santa Cruz. This year, they prepared 505 chickens, 200lbs of pork, 900lbs of rice and 7000 potatoes. Thats a lot of spuds to peel.
All the prep work is done by the El Jordan staff and volunteers including some of the students and even younger ones such as the little girl below cleaning the potatoes.
In total, they served 5000 people and ran out of food in the process and gave everyone the best Christmas they could. Puts our Christmas into a little more perspective.
All the prep work is done by the El Jordan staff and volunteers including some of the students and even younger ones such as the little girl below cleaning the potatoes.
In total, they served 5000 people and ran out of food in the process and gave everyone the best Christmas they could. Puts our Christmas into a little more perspective.
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