A Taste of Home

Since we are trying to avoid the giant paint and water balloon fight that is Carnival (at least until Tuesday when we plan to pile into the back of Kens truck and unleash our fury on the locals), Ken thought it would be nice for us to cook the guys a meal like we would have in Canada.  So yesterday, we went to the butcher and picked up a big sirloin tip roast.  Then we went to the store and picked up some potatoes, lettuce and some other salad stuff.

Surprisingly enough, the food down here is quite bland.  They don't use much seasoning at all other than salt, so Ken warned that some of the boys might not like our food, especially the gravy.  Ken has not had a roast beef, potatoes and gravy meal in a really long time, and he was quite excited to have some.  He also mentioned that the last time he tried to make gravy, it didn't turn out well at all, so he was hoping we could show him how to make proper gravy.  If there is one thing I know, its how to make anything that goes with cooked meat, and gravy is no exception.

The roast went in early this morning, and there was lots of drippings to use for the gravy.  The boys made a big pot of rice to have with their meal since it isn't a meal down here without rice (and they weren't sure if they were going to like our food).  Rice at home takes 15 minutes or so.  Rice down here takes a good hour.  The time in the water is the same, but they always toast their rice in a pan with oil for a good half hour before they add any water.

The meat, gravy and mashed potatoes turned out perfectly, and all 14 people ate until everything was gone.  Everybody loved the gravy (which they called carne sauce because they don't make gravy at all with any meat).  Some of them asked how it was made and if we make it with other meats and if we could show them how to make it.

Overall, everything went well and but we came home a little early because Lukas had a migraine.  We did have a little excitement on the way home because we were ambushed coming around a corner by a bunch of carnival water balloon throwers.   We just got our windows up in time for them to splash on the side of the truck instead of our laps.

Avoiding Carnival

Carnival started yesterday, and around Santa Cruz, the first day means everybody starts throwing waterballoons filled with either water or paint. Instead of spending the day dodging projectiles, Ken called and said he was taking a 7 of the boys to an eco resort that had a pool and asked if we wanted to go. Paint filled balloons are tempting (especially to the boys), but we agreed to go. So the 7 Bolivian boys piled into the back of Kens truck and the rest of us piled into the front and off we went.

When we got there, most of the boys scattered to where they wanted to be, because they had been there before and each had their own interests. Our kids headed for the pool to cool off with a couple of the other guys. I decided to take a walk around the place to see what all was going on. I ended up a little off the beaten path in a forested area which had a whole bunch of different butterflies and large ants. The ant hills here outside the city stand about 2 feet tall and the ants range from the size of a dust speck to 3/4 of an inch long. I kept on walking and eventually heard some talking. Down the hill was the edge of a lake, where 3 guys were fishing without rods. They would throw their line in the water using a Y shaped stick and pull it in by hand. One guy was just pulling the fish in the picture in when I arrived.

Everybody had a good day overall, and after I accidentally ordered 2 large bottles of coke instead of 2 personal bottles of coke (so I asked for 10 glasses to go with them), we all had a refreshing drink and headed home a few hours after we arrived.

Carnival really kicked up later in the evening, and the music and fireworks continued on into the wee hours of the morning. Our place is just a couple blocks off the parade route so we didn't get a lot of sleep, but thankfully, it is all over on Tuesday. :)

Home

Up to now, we had been having orientation meetings, getting settled in to our place, and getting used to day to day life in Bolivia. Today, we were picked up by Ken and taken over to his place for lunch. We were supposed to go about an hour out of town to a home for either street boys or orphaned boys, but the rain came down so hard this morning that the many streets were flooded and Ken said there was no way we would get across the bridge on the road out to the boys home. Instead, we had the opportunity to drive around the town a bit and to take one of Ken's boys to his soccer game. One of the ways that some of the boys get into school/university is to try out for soccer teams and try to get scholarships. Its not easy to do, since everyone here plays soccer, but its worth a shot, and David is pretty darn good at it.

On the way across town, we passed through some of the wealthy area and through some of the poorer areas of the city. The picture here is of a "home" we passed along the way. This particular house is made up of many different pieces of houses that have been scavanged from the ruins or other houses. These people will soon be moved along by the authorities because their home is right where the city is building another road.

We talked with Ken and David on the way to the soccer field about these people and the street kids. You see the street kids at almost every corner trying to make money one way or another. The young ones are either trying to shine shoes, or doing circus tricks like juggling to get money, the older ones are cleaning windshields as the cars stop, still others are running up to the cars trying to sell fruit they have picked. Some cars give a coin or two, but most continue past. I can't blame them really. If you gave a coin or two to every person you passed at the intersections, you wouldn't have any money for yourself and your family.

We eventually got to David's tryout and dropped him off. I obviously had been picturing a Canadian soccer field in my head, because when I saw the field that the University soccer tryout game was being played on, I was completely shocked. The field had grass about 5 inches long, was as bumpy as any washboard gravel road back home and in front of each net was a 10ft by 30ft mud puddle about 3 inches deep. I was also amazed at the skill of most of these young guys have and at the level of violence that they play the game with. This soccer game was as violent as most hockey games back home but with no fights.

David is a little out of shape since he hasn't had much opportunity to play soccer lately, but although he couldn't run as far or as fast as the others right now, he did show great skill with the ball. He impressed so much that he was one of the lucky ones to be told by the coach that his name was being submitted to receive a scholarship. To put that in perspective, this University which these guys were all killing themselves on the soccer field to get a scholarship to has a monthly tuition of about $100 Canadian dollars. That may not seem like much to use, but the average monthly income here is pretty much exactly the same, so you can see how hard it is for people to get their education, especially when they come from the streets. For those interested, David's team fell behind 2-0 but came back in the second half and won the game 3-2 on a beautiful corner kick play.

The Little Can & The Big Wind

There are lots of things that are different from Canada, but the bathroom alone is a totally different experience. The morning shower here really gets you going. The reason for this is that you get a shock every time you adjust the water. You see, there are no water heaters here so every shower has an electric water heater wired right in that tries to heat the water as it comes out. It never gets more than warm, and the temperature is regulated by the flow of water. The more water, the colder it is. So the attempt is to find a happy medium between a small warm trickle and an ice cold torrent. You really want to get it right the first time because successive shocks are not my idea of a good time. As you can see from the picture, its all expertly wired and really safe.

The next item that is different is the quality of plumbing. Upon our arrival, we were immediately informed that the sewage lines here are not up to North American standards and that toilet paper cannot be flushed down the toilets. This is where the little can next to the toilet comes in. Used toilet paper is placed in the bin and emptied daily for obvious reasons.

All of this sounds quite terrible, but its not so bad. For one thing, the showers are HUGE. They are all at least 6 feet long by 3 feet wide with a drain in the floor. There are no tubs so hence no baths.

Last night was both thrilling and scary at the same time. At night, we open all the windows to try and cool everything off, but at 3am, we were awakened by very loud rain and very strong wind. If you have seen Forest Gump, you have heard about the big ol fat rain, and the rain that comes straight up, but this was the first time I had ever seen rain go sideways. The overhangs above the windows stretch out a good 4 to 5 feet, but the wind and rain was so strong last night that it was coming straight in through the windows. We ran around and closed all the windows to stop the rain coming in, but then we were a little worried that the glass in the windows was going to break due to the wind. It all stopped about an hour later and we mopped up water that came in under the door in the morning. We checked the weather report this morning, and it reported the winds got up to near hurricane force during that hour.

Today we spent the morning with the kids working on the homework that they need to get done for school and we are expecting to be picked up right away for another preparation meeting and supper with a friend. As long as the internet stays up, I will post some more pictures later tonight.

Forgot One Thing

I can't believe I forgot the highlight of the day. If you go to the pictures on the post below, the last picture or two are of this huge spider Melody found when she was looking next to her bed. If any of you know Melody well, you will also know that Melody absolutely HATES spiders and she set a new land speed record out of the bedroom when she saw it. The boys of course thought it was great and we took pictures before it met its end.

Observations from the First Full Day

Today was a bit of an orientation day and some basic shopping for food etc that we need to survive. First thing in the morning, we went to El Jordan which is actually a couple of blocks away from where we are staying, and had an orientation meeting and a tour of the school. They actually have a fairly large building, but most of it is still quite empty. The computers were a little better than I had expected so I don't think cleaning them up will be as bad as I expected.

After our meeting, Ken came by and we all went over to his house to meet the boys and have some lunch. Time isn't really important here, so by the time the food was ready, it was 2:30. We were all really hungry by then and luckily, the food was pretty good. The meal consisted of a mixture of ground meat, rice, potatoes, and some other vegetable type plants. This was served with a side of fried plantains (really starchy bananas) and topped with a fried egg. Don't know why, but they love to put a fried egg on top of pretty much anything. Either way, we were all hungry and it was all pretty good.

We then went to get some fruit. Since we have figured out that meal times may vary, we decided it would be best to get some fruit to take with us for such a situation. We purchased a bag of peaches, bag of plums, 2 pineapples, and a bag of a strange fruit with a hard shell. Each bag was about 1 kilogram each and the whole batch cost us about 8 dollars. I will put a picture of the strange fruit when I get a chance to take some. It has a sort of white almost fuzzy looking flesh on it around a very large pit. Tastes like a peppery banana but quite juicy and shaped like a small plum. The fruit stand was fun and there are lots of other kinds to try. I know we also paid a "gringo" price but it was all still a lot cheaper than at home.

From there, Ken took us out to a "hotel" as he called it, but to me it was more of a ranch with two cabins on it where he is hoping to take us this weekend to avoid the full on carnival treatment. The weekend of Carnival turns into one giant water balloon and paint balloon fight in Santa Cruz where people will drive around heaving balloons at anyone they feel like. He said with kids, it is best to leave town for the weekend, so that is the plan. The ranch had a small lake and lots of nicely cared for gardens. They also had two small pigs that followed us around everywhere and a howler monkey which liked the kids but did not like the adults very much.

One interesting thing about Bolivia that is very different from Canada is what I like to call the "Tableau of Smells". The tableau is not necessarily a bad thing. As you drive or walk, every hundred yards or so, you experience a totally different smell. Sometimes its flowers from the plants or tiny stores nearby, and sometimes its sewage. On the drive to the ranch, we experienced the sweet smell of sugar cane fields, the vegetable oil plant and some of the fragrant trees. We also experienced the smell of rotting fruit discarded from the fruit stands, manure from the farms we passed, and my personal favorite, which was some kind of unidentified stench from some factory we passed.

Overall, the day was good and we have learned a fair bit about the day to day things that need to be done or not done here. Tomorrow, I will explain about the driving habits, and also about the little garbage can next to the toilet.

Here is a link to some pictures of our trip and first day.

Bruce: The Video

Here is a short video of Bruce in action.