Sorry for the lack of posts, but we have been packing, traveling and unpacking again. We had a 4 hour delay in Santa Cruz to start our trip home, and let me tell you, Santa Cruz airport has NOTHING to do in it with 3 kids for 4 hours. The Bolivian airport security screening was by far the most aggressive of any of the airports we passed through on the way down or on the way back. All bags are thoroughly searched before getting on the plane, all electronics must be turned on or they won't be allowed on the plane, and everybody is subject to a full body pat down. I would assume, that this is due to the concern of people smuggling out drugs from the country.
Arriving and getting through security in Miami was a breeze. I guess they assume that since Bolivia is so tough, that they don't have to be. Anyways, we whipped through security in Miami and got in to our hotel at about 9:30 instead of 4:30 so we just ran to a gas station next to the hotel and grabbed some junk food and went right to bed. The trip home from Miami the next day went smoothly without any delays, and we were all happy to land in Saskatoon. We immediately grabbed our bags, and headed to the joint Wendy's/Tim Hortons on Miller for a real burger and some coffee for the road.
The first day or two of being home, have been a little strange, especially grocery shopping, which made me pretty grumpy the first couple of times. In Bolivia, there is no choice for what kind of food you get. If you want peanut butter, there is one kind. Here there are 15. I also got really annoyed at the huge lineups at the tills. In the market, there are a ton of people, but you get things done in a hurry, and in the small supermarket, there are very few lineups and very good service.
I am sure we will all adjust to normal life again in a few days after returning to work and school, and hopefully will not forget any of the good and bad experiences that we have had while we were in Bolivia.
I would like to finish this blog off by quoting one of my favorite authors:
"Don't cry because its over. Smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss
We Are Being Invaded
Sorry for not posting last night, but it was way too busy around here for that. We have been invaded by a group that just arrived and they were unloading, moving and just generally everywhere last night so it wasn't possible to get to the computer. We now have 17 new teenage girls and two chaperons as roommates. To make room for them all, Lukas has moved to the couch in the living room and Logan and Jordan have moved to a big foam mattress in our room. It also means that kitchen space and dishes are in short supply.
Everybody knows I love spending time around large groups of people, so I have resorted to finding a chair outside to get some cave time. Its not working very well however because somebody is always coming outside to wander or just to chat.
This afternoon, we are headed over to Jorge and Vivianna's place for coffee and then we are at Kens place where his boys are cooking us a big supper since we will be heading home soon.
Everybody knows I love spending time around large groups of people, so I have resorted to finding a chair outside to get some cave time. Its not working very well however because somebody is always coming outside to wander or just to chat.
This afternoon, we are headed over to Jorge and Vivianna's place for coffee and then we are at Kens place where his boys are cooking us a big supper since we will be heading home soon.
New Houses and The Clasico
Today was a very full day and everyone is tired and cranky as I write tonight's post. We started the day out with the usual Sunday routine of church where Melody taught the little kids to sing This Little Light of Mine and they performed it at the end to great applause. Following church we went for the usual after church lunch which consisted of.........chicken, yuca, rice, plantain and french fries. I can tell you that when we get home, we will not be eating chicken any time soon.
As soon as we got dropped off from lunch by Ken, we were immediately picked up by Corrina for our afternoon visits to some of Melody's students houses. The two we went to see today are Jenny and Sandra. These two are both married with kids of their own, but attend El Jordan to learn new things to bring money into the house. Sandra just moved out of the one room that her husband, 3 kids and her had been renting that shared a bathroom with 4 other families into their new house that they had been building for a while. Their new house is a simple 4 room brick house that her husband and his friends had worked on brick by brick as they could afford them over the last couple of years. Its very basic, but a HUGE step up for the family.
One of the biggest differences for them is to have an indoor kitchen. They still don't have running water in the house, so they still have only the one outdoor water tap but the kitchen is still a big step up for them. Melody spent lots of time with Sandra, so seeing their house and saying goodbye to Sandra was quite an emotional moment for them both.
We also got over to Jenny's new house which isn't finished as of yet, but any time they are not working, they are at the new house working on it. Jenny is the oldest student at El Jordan, and has been married for 18 years. Jenny says it is only in the last three years that her and her husband have really started to believe that they are worth anything in the world, and that any money they have is important and valuable to them and not to waste it. Jenny's husband is a welder, and the way the pay system works here is that they are paid 14 times a year. Once per month, and a second pay cheque at Christmas. The 14th pay cheque is almost another bonus cheque, but the way his company works is that they pay it out every 5th year for the past 5 years. That means that they get a big cheque once every 5 years. Instead of wasting it as they had in the past, they immediately paid for a plot of land. Ever since then, they have been buying building supplies every time they have any money and have been building their house ever since.
Its been two years of manual labor, but they now have a very small 4 room house almost ready to move into. It does not have an indoor kitchen or bathroom, but is a giant step up for this family. When we arrived, they were taking a break in the future living room. Here are some pictures of what two years of sweat will get you.
They only have a couple of things left to do before moving in, but they are not the cheapest items. They need to buy windows which will be single pane with wood frames, and they need to either cement the floor or tile it. After that they will be moved in and they are really looking forward to it. Right now, 6 of them live in one room the size of their new living room.
We finished up the visit, and made our way to meet Jorge, his son, Tonchi and Ken to go to the Clasico soccer game between Oriente and Blooming. I can honestly say I have never been to a sporting event with the atmosphere of this soccer game. One end of the stadium is painted blue for Blooming, the other end is painted Green for Oriente and the people who do not want to get trampled sit on the sides. We were on the sides, but they fans are rabid no matter where you sit in the stadium.
From the minute they enter the stadium until the time they leave, they are chanting, singing, banging drums or blasting off fireworks. On the way in, I had bought a Blooming flag to wave, but the police on the way in took my flag stick leaving me with only a flag. They took my flag stick, but you can take FIREWORKS and lighters in. Boy do they light fireworks. When the teams come out, the ends of the stadium light up like they are literally on fire and a giant smoke cloud goes over the field.
A couple of things worried me. The first is that the sections of the stadium are separated by chain link fence, and on top of the fence is barbed wire. I have seen the videos of the South American soccer riots that ended with people trampled or squashed on the fence, and that was the first thing that jumped to my mind. Didn't happen today however. The second thing that worried me was that they had police in full riot gear with helmets and shields every 20 feet along the side of the field. Again, we didn't need to worry, because they spent the whole time watching the game. Our officers would never go to a raiders game and just watch the game. They would watch the crowd the whole time. :)
The game was high spirited because the two teams hate each other, and two red cards were eventually given out. One to the Oriente goalie for a vicious elbow to the jaw on a player trying to head a ball, the other to a Blooming player who tried a slide tackle about 2 feet above the ball which resulted in the Oriente player going off on a stretcher and not returning. Oriente ended up winning the game 2-0 which made Logan happy since he was the only one really cheering for Oriente. The final goal was right in front of us and was a beautiful bicycle kick goal. Even though Blooming lost, we still exited the stadium blowing our Blooming horns. A good time was had by all.
As soon as we got dropped off from lunch by Ken, we were immediately picked up by Corrina for our afternoon visits to some of Melody's students houses. The two we went to see today are Jenny and Sandra. These two are both married with kids of their own, but attend El Jordan to learn new things to bring money into the house. Sandra just moved out of the one room that her husband, 3 kids and her had been renting that shared a bathroom with 4 other families into their new house that they had been building for a while. Their new house is a simple 4 room brick house that her husband and his friends had worked on brick by brick as they could afford them over the last couple of years. Its very basic, but a HUGE step up for the family.
Its been two years of manual labor, but they now have a very small 4 room house almost ready to move into. It does not have an indoor kitchen or bathroom, but is a giant step up for this family. When we arrived, they were taking a break in the future living room. Here are some pictures of what two years of sweat will get you.
We finished up the visit, and made our way to meet Jorge, his son, Tonchi and Ken to go to the Clasico soccer game between Oriente and Blooming. I can honestly say I have never been to a sporting event with the atmosphere of this soccer game. One end of the stadium is painted blue for Blooming, the other end is painted Green for Oriente and the people who do not want to get trampled sit on the sides. We were on the sides, but they fans are rabid no matter where you sit in the stadium.
From the minute they enter the stadium until the time they leave, they are chanting, singing, banging drums or blasting off fireworks. On the way in, I had bought a Blooming flag to wave, but the police on the way in took my flag stick leaving me with only a flag. They took my flag stick, but you can take FIREWORKS and lighters in. Boy do they light fireworks. When the teams come out, the ends of the stadium light up like they are literally on fire and a giant smoke cloud goes over the field.
Arachnophobia and Waterfalls
Melody taught her class this morning, and it went well. I could go into more detail, but I can't write very much about painting fingernails cause I'm a guy.
At noon, Ken came over and we were supposed to grab lunch quickly and head out to some waterfalls in the middle of the jungle a couple of hours away. Well, first we had to give Ruddy some money to buy us some tickets to the soccer game tomorrow night, then we had to pick up Roberto from work, and then we had to go back to Ruddy to give him more money because they had upped the ticket prices since last season. To keep it brief, we ended up hitting Burger King (the only fast food joint here), and eating on the road at 2:00.
The road to the waterfalls is the same road that goes out to El Camino, but instead of continuing on that far, you ironically turn at the exact spot where Logan split his head open a few weeks ago. Keep on going until you get to the river, drive THROUGH the river, then you get on what they call a road in Bolivia. Basically, it consists of a series of large rocks, mud pits, mostly dry creek beds and pot holes. It had rained earlier this week, so anywhere that was shady, was foot deep mud and anywhere sunny, was foot deep dried ruts.
The road was entertaining enough, but this time of year in the jungle is also giant spider time apparently. All along the side of the road every 10 feet are huge 5 to 10 foot wide spiderwebs with very large scary spiders on them. We stopped and took a bunch of pictures which I will upload tomorrow when I get my camera back from Ken. He borrowed it to take passport pictures for his boys because he is trying to bring them to Canada later this year. Anyways, these webs are the kind that you see on Discovery Channel or Nature Channel. They are very impressive, especially in the sunlight, and are much stronger than the little webs we have at home. I poked at one with a stick and really wasn't able to break it without swinging the stick at it. Then I ran back into the truck when the spider started running from the middle of its web to where I was whacking.
We continued on the road for the next hour or so and we all took turns whacking our heads on the windows as we hit the big bumps. I took the worst knock while I tried to take a video of us going through a really bad section of mud when the truck slid into a really deep rut and I smacked my head on the outside of the front window. The kids thought it was hilarious however until they smacked their heads on the windows too.
We finally arrived at the entrance to the waterfalls where they have some bbq and camping sites and everyone had to go to the bathroom. Of course, as is the tradition in Bolivia, the bathroom will cost you 1 Boliviano, and only after paying, do you get some toilet paper. If you need more, you pay again.
From the parking area, its a bit of a walk down a jungle path to the start of the waterfalls. The only problem was that over the path, are the same huge spiderwebs with the same huge spiders. Not just one or two, but 40 or 50 of them. Lets all take a moment to flashback to the single large spider in our house and Melody's reaction to that. Now lets all picture that reaction times 50. We eventually got her to go down the path and we got to the waterfalls and started the long path up to the top. It was frequently slippery, but thanks to firm grips on the childrens' hands, nobody was injured other than some dirty clothes. Several places along the climb, there are pools of water that are deep enough to jump into, and there were adventurous people doing so all the way up. Lukas wanted to walk over by one, and proceeded to slip and slide about 5 feet down the falls before he got his footing back.
We kept on going and eventually reached the top with the biggest of the waterfalls and a nice pool at the bottom. The kids splashed around a bit, and Ken showed the path up the cliff to jump into the pool at the bottom of the falls. Lukas wanted to climb all the way up, but we stopped him half ways where it got a little steep and slippery. Ken went all the way up and after some prodding, jumped the 20 feet or so into the pool. I have a nice video of it that would take about 3 days to upload, so it will have to wait until we get back to Canada. By the time we got back to the city, it was 8:00 so we just grabbed some food at a restaurant and went home.
It was a good day, and we are all really looking forward to finally seeing a professional soccer game tomorrow after our visits to some more of Melody's students houses in the afternoon. The family is split on who to cheer for because it is a Classico game tomorrow which has the two Santa Cruz teams playing each other. Logan and Jordan are cheering for Oriente and the rest of us are cheering for Blooming. No matter who wins, there will be fireworks a plenty. (no, really they regularly shoot off fireworks in the stands at soccer games here)
At noon, Ken came over and we were supposed to grab lunch quickly and head out to some waterfalls in the middle of the jungle a couple of hours away. Well, first we had to give Ruddy some money to buy us some tickets to the soccer game tomorrow night, then we had to pick up Roberto from work, and then we had to go back to Ruddy to give him more money because they had upped the ticket prices since last season. To keep it brief, we ended up hitting Burger King (the only fast food joint here), and eating on the road at 2:00.
The road to the waterfalls is the same road that goes out to El Camino, but instead of continuing on that far, you ironically turn at the exact spot where Logan split his head open a few weeks ago. Keep on going until you get to the river, drive THROUGH the river, then you get on what they call a road in Bolivia. Basically, it consists of a series of large rocks, mud pits, mostly dry creek beds and pot holes. It had rained earlier this week, so anywhere that was shady, was foot deep mud and anywhere sunny, was foot deep dried ruts.
The road was entertaining enough, but this time of year in the jungle is also giant spider time apparently. All along the side of the road every 10 feet are huge 5 to 10 foot wide spiderwebs with very large scary spiders on them. We stopped and took a bunch of pictures which I will upload tomorrow when I get my camera back from Ken. He borrowed it to take passport pictures for his boys because he is trying to bring them to Canada later this year. Anyways, these webs are the kind that you see on Discovery Channel or Nature Channel. They are very impressive, especially in the sunlight, and are much stronger than the little webs we have at home. I poked at one with a stick and really wasn't able to break it without swinging the stick at it. Then I ran back into the truck when the spider started running from the middle of its web to where I was whacking.
We continued on the road for the next hour or so and we all took turns whacking our heads on the windows as we hit the big bumps. I took the worst knock while I tried to take a video of us going through a really bad section of mud when the truck slid into a really deep rut and I smacked my head on the outside of the front window. The kids thought it was hilarious however until they smacked their heads on the windows too.
We finally arrived at the entrance to the waterfalls where they have some bbq and camping sites and everyone had to go to the bathroom. Of course, as is the tradition in Bolivia, the bathroom will cost you 1 Boliviano, and only after paying, do you get some toilet paper. If you need more, you pay again.
From the parking area, its a bit of a walk down a jungle path to the start of the waterfalls. The only problem was that over the path, are the same huge spiderwebs with the same huge spiders. Not just one or two, but 40 or 50 of them. Lets all take a moment to flashback to the single large spider in our house and Melody's reaction to that. Now lets all picture that reaction times 50. We eventually got her to go down the path and we got to the waterfalls and started the long path up to the top. It was frequently slippery, but thanks to firm grips on the childrens' hands, nobody was injured other than some dirty clothes. Several places along the climb, there are pools of water that are deep enough to jump into, and there were adventurous people doing so all the way up. Lukas wanted to walk over by one, and proceeded to slip and slide about 5 feet down the falls before he got his footing back.
We kept on going and eventually reached the top with the biggest of the waterfalls and a nice pool at the bottom. The kids splashed around a bit, and Ken showed the path up the cliff to jump into the pool at the bottom of the falls. Lukas wanted to climb all the way up, but we stopped him half ways where it got a little steep and slippery. Ken went all the way up and after some prodding, jumped the 20 feet or so into the pool. I have a nice video of it that would take about 3 days to upload, so it will have to wait until we get back to Canada. By the time we got back to the city, it was 8:00 so we just grabbed some food at a restaurant and went home.
It was a good day, and we are all really looking forward to finally seeing a professional soccer game tomorrow after our visits to some more of Melody's students houses in the afternoon. The family is split on who to cheer for because it is a Classico game tomorrow which has the two Santa Cruz teams playing each other. Logan and Jordan are cheering for Oriente and the rest of us are cheering for Blooming. No matter who wins, there will be fireworks a plenty. (no, really they regularly shoot off fireworks in the stands at soccer games here)
The Internet Tubes Are Unclogged
Now that the internet appears to have straightened itself out, here are the pictures that I tried to upload with yesterdays blog post.
Everybody say "AWWWWWWWW, isn't he cute."
And here is a picture of all of us with them. Note Lukas having a moment of self reflection. (grumpy moment)
And here is a picture of all of us with them. Note Lukas having a moment of self reflection. (grumpy moment)
Company Is Coming. Where Are The Ribs???
Today was all about hosts and guests. We started out the day with a visit to Martha and Margoth's house that they share with their three kids. Both of these ladies were in Melody's classes and were kind enough to invite us over for lunch with their family at their house. The two families share the house so they can afford a place to live. The house is basically two rooms, one of which is a bedroom and the other of which is another bedroom/kitchen, then in the back is a bathroom. The running water is in a tap in the yard which doubles as their sink area.
When we arrived, they had a nice little carbon fire going with a grate over top. Down here, they don't use briquettes or wood, they use carbon which is basically pre-burned wood. It lights really easily and burns nice and hot. Its perfect for outdoor cooking when you don't really have an oven or a fire pit to contain the wood fires. We all sat down and chatted for a few minutes (Ken acted as translator), and then they put the meat on the grate. They cooked up some beef skewers and some sausages over the fire, and when they were almost done, they brought out a lettuce and tomato salad, arroz con queso (rice with cheese in it), and boiled yuca.
Bolivians are a very gracious culture when it comes to having guests, and this was no exception. The food they put forth is probably the most and best they could afford, and it was all very good, especially the skewered beef. There weren't enough forks to go around, so I ate my food with a spoon and knife, and we had to share cups. We have had the cheese rice many times since we got here, and today was the first one that I actually liked. They also had a fresh batch of chicha to drink. It was the first opportunity we have had to try it, but unfortunately, it was not to our liking.
After we ate, the kids got a chance to play with the 4 and 5 year old girls and to kick the soccer ball we brought around with the little boy. We thanked them very much for their kindness after a little conversation, but we had to get going because we were having Tonchi, Jorge, Vivianna and Noelia over for supper tonight at our place.
Our guests for the evening had requested something that they wouldn't get in Bolivia, so we had decided to make lemon potatoes and pork ribs for supper with a spice rub that I use at home. The only catch is that they don't really eat pork ribs here, so we knew it would be a challenge to find the ribs as well as the spices that I needed for the rub since most of the food here uses next to no spices. We made our way to the first butcher shop and when we asked for pork back ribs, she held up a strip of some kind of pork meat, so we knew we were not going to find them there. I am pretty good with my meat cuts, and I think that one may have been something we would have made sausage or dog food out of.
We then tried the supermarket and we managed to find most of the spices I needed except for onion powder which apparently doesn't exist in Bolivia that we are aware of. We also went to the meat counter to ask about the pork ribs. First of all, the supermarket here doesn't really carry much pork. This is a chicken and beef kind of country, but they did have some pork today. Sure they have ribs.......they are attached to the side of the pig. They just aren't detached from the side of the pig. So, that was when Ken remembered his friend whose family runs a pig farm and has their own butchers on site.
Ken called his friend and very carefully explained that we were looking for pork back ribs. She called the butcher at their place and he said "Sure!!!! I know exactly what they want!!! Skin off right??" I had Ken confirm the description again, and we ordered 5 kg of ribs to be picked up later in the day. Total cost $12.
Ken showed up at our door with a bag in his hand and declared "Here they are."
I brought them into the house where Melody and Lukas were peeling potatoes like crazy, and since we were running short on time, had everything laid out to season the ribs and throw them in the oven. I opened the bag........now this is the scene in the movie where the camera starts in close on the actors face and his eyes get all wide and then the camera pulls back from the look of astonishment on the actors face. Then it cuts over to the image of what the actor is looking at. So to give you that image, I opened the bag and there before me was a 5kg side of pig with one rack of ribs still attached to the side of the pig. ONE!!!!! We are having 7 people over for supper and I have ONE rack of ribs and a side of pork meat that is unbutchered.
Has anyone seen the show on Food Network called Dinner Impossible. Now I know how he feels all the time. I got the sharpest dull knife I could find out of the drawer, and started to disassemble the different muscle groups from the side of the pig, and carefully removed the rack of ribs so we would have that one pristine rack to be served. Then I ripped, tore, hacked and darn near gnawed off the silverskin and fat layers from the pork so we had a bunch of nice rib thick pieces of pork. We threw the spice rub on as fast as we could and threw them in the oven. Think the fun was over???? Nope.
.
Remember that ovens here are propane? The problem with propane ovens is that the temperatures are very difficult to keep constant, and its almost impossible to have a temperature in the over below about 350. For ribs in the oven, I want 300 degrees, no more, no less for a good 2 to 2.5 hours. When I checked them 1.5 hours in, they were done, and the sugars in the rub that were not on the meat had turned to a black caramel that had coated the bottom of the aluminum cookware. But at least I still had that pristine rack of ribs as my show piece.
Roll the clock back about an hour from where we are and we will now talk about the potatoes. We made lemon potatoes and had them ready for the oven in the other suite which they said we could use as well. The time comes to put them in the oven, and we go over to do so and find out that the oven is too small to fit both pans of potatoes in on the same rack, and there is only one rack. ARGGGGHHHHH. I managed to wedge in the rack and the broiler pan as a second rack and get the door closed.
Everything finishes up fine just as the guests arrive, and we manage to put out a meal of bbq pork pieces, lemon potatoes, green beans and ONE PRISTINE RACK OF RIBS.
So, whats the moral of the story??
Next time, just cook chicken, yuca, plantains, french fries and rice.
p.s. I tried to put pictures in, but the internet tubes were all clogged up today so it was taking too long.
When we arrived, they had a nice little carbon fire going with a grate over top. Down here, they don't use briquettes or wood, they use carbon which is basically pre-burned wood. It lights really easily and burns nice and hot. Its perfect for outdoor cooking when you don't really have an oven or a fire pit to contain the wood fires. We all sat down and chatted for a few minutes (Ken acted as translator), and then they put the meat on the grate. They cooked up some beef skewers and some sausages over the fire, and when they were almost done, they brought out a lettuce and tomato salad, arroz con queso (rice with cheese in it), and boiled yuca.
Bolivians are a very gracious culture when it comes to having guests, and this was no exception. The food they put forth is probably the most and best they could afford, and it was all very good, especially the skewered beef. There weren't enough forks to go around, so I ate my food with a spoon and knife, and we had to share cups. We have had the cheese rice many times since we got here, and today was the first one that I actually liked. They also had a fresh batch of chicha to drink. It was the first opportunity we have had to try it, but unfortunately, it was not to our liking.
After we ate, the kids got a chance to play with the 4 and 5 year old girls and to kick the soccer ball we brought around with the little boy. We thanked them very much for their kindness after a little conversation, but we had to get going because we were having Tonchi, Jorge, Vivianna and Noelia over for supper tonight at our place.
Our guests for the evening had requested something that they wouldn't get in Bolivia, so we had decided to make lemon potatoes and pork ribs for supper with a spice rub that I use at home. The only catch is that they don't really eat pork ribs here, so we knew it would be a challenge to find the ribs as well as the spices that I needed for the rub since most of the food here uses next to no spices. We made our way to the first butcher shop and when we asked for pork back ribs, she held up a strip of some kind of pork meat, so we knew we were not going to find them there. I am pretty good with my meat cuts, and I think that one may have been something we would have made sausage or dog food out of.
We then tried the supermarket and we managed to find most of the spices I needed except for onion powder which apparently doesn't exist in Bolivia that we are aware of. We also went to the meat counter to ask about the pork ribs. First of all, the supermarket here doesn't really carry much pork. This is a chicken and beef kind of country, but they did have some pork today. Sure they have ribs.......they are attached to the side of the pig. They just aren't detached from the side of the pig. So, that was when Ken remembered his friend whose family runs a pig farm and has their own butchers on site.
Ken called his friend and very carefully explained that we were looking for pork back ribs. She called the butcher at their place and he said "Sure!!!! I know exactly what they want!!! Skin off right??" I had Ken confirm the description again, and we ordered 5 kg of ribs to be picked up later in the day. Total cost $12.
Ken showed up at our door with a bag in his hand and declared "Here they are."
I brought them into the house where Melody and Lukas were peeling potatoes like crazy, and since we were running short on time, had everything laid out to season the ribs and throw them in the oven. I opened the bag........now this is the scene in the movie where the camera starts in close on the actors face and his eyes get all wide and then the camera pulls back from the look of astonishment on the actors face. Then it cuts over to the image of what the actor is looking at. So to give you that image, I opened the bag and there before me was a 5kg side of pig with one rack of ribs still attached to the side of the pig. ONE!!!!! We are having 7 people over for supper and I have ONE rack of ribs and a side of pork meat that is unbutchered.
Has anyone seen the show on Food Network called Dinner Impossible. Now I know how he feels all the time. I got the sharpest dull knife I could find out of the drawer, and started to disassemble the different muscle groups from the side of the pig, and carefully removed the rack of ribs so we would have that one pristine rack to be served. Then I ripped, tore, hacked and darn near gnawed off the silverskin and fat layers from the pork so we had a bunch of nice rib thick pieces of pork. We threw the spice rub on as fast as we could and threw them in the oven. Think the fun was over???? Nope.
.
Remember that ovens here are propane? The problem with propane ovens is that the temperatures are very difficult to keep constant, and its almost impossible to have a temperature in the over below about 350. For ribs in the oven, I want 300 degrees, no more, no less for a good 2 to 2.5 hours. When I checked them 1.5 hours in, they were done, and the sugars in the rub that were not on the meat had turned to a black caramel that had coated the bottom of the aluminum cookware. But at least I still had that pristine rack of ribs as my show piece.
Roll the clock back about an hour from where we are and we will now talk about the potatoes. We made lemon potatoes and had them ready for the oven in the other suite which they said we could use as well. The time comes to put them in the oven, and we go over to do so and find out that the oven is too small to fit both pans of potatoes in on the same rack, and there is only one rack. ARGGGGHHHHH. I managed to wedge in the rack and the broiler pan as a second rack and get the door closed.
Everything finishes up fine just as the guests arrive, and we manage to put out a meal of bbq pork pieces, lemon potatoes, green beans and ONE PRISTINE RACK OF RIBS.
So, whats the moral of the story??
Next time, just cook chicken, yuca, plantains, french fries and rice.
p.s. I tried to put pictures in, but the internet tubes were all clogged up today so it was taking too long.
Wooden Slides and Termites
Following the daily homework routine, we made some cheese empanadas for lunch (oh I am so making these every second day at home). Ken came by and we took the last of the school supplies and muffin crayons to another home for boys and girls. This particular place would be where I would want to be if I were a homeless Bolivian child. Most of the kids there are there because their parent or parents are in jail, they were on the street, or they were recently orphaned and the authorities cannot find any other relatives to take them.
The way this place works is that they have several small houses on their complex. In each house, they have a combination of boys and girls of various ages along with a "parent" figure who is a volunteer. Each house lives like a little family with the boys and girls treating each other like brothers and sisters. All the food is prepared in a single large kitchen, but it is all delivered to each of the "homes" and they eat with their family at a table in the home. The kids all go to school, if they are old enough, at a school about 2 km away. They either walk, or take the bus to school. When they get older, they get paired up with a mentor in whatever area of a career they are interested in. One girl, who is a sister to Andres from Ken's place, is working with an oncologist. The kids intern with the mentor for two years and then when they are old enough, the mentor will help them get into college.
For the little ones, they have a baby room, a pre-school room and a kindergarten room. Just outside of that building, they have a small play area with two swings and a wooden slide. Yes, I said wooden slide. No, I don't mean the slide is made of wood and then the part you sit on is metal, I mean everything is made of wood. Doesn't that sound like a fun time kids? Whhhheeeeeeee slivers!!!!
They have a couple of small round buildings that house their tools etc, and washing machine. All the clothes are hug out to dry in a gazeebo type building.
The best part of this home, is the way that they raise money to keep their heads above water. Walking around this large piece of land, you would think you were in the rain forest. There are big and small trees everywhere along with all kinds of flowers and butterflies. The reason for that is that they supply trees and plants for landscaping to make money. The net result is a very beautiful home for boys and girls who need one.
The only problem that I found with this place, was the giant termite mound on the grounds. Don't believe me, here is a picture. Note the scared look of Lukas trying to get away from the termite mound.
That big mound of dirt next to Lukas is the giant termite mound. The locals assure me that this is a small example. They commonly reach up to 20 feet or higher.
So let me get this straight, they have giant termite mounds here. Hmmmmm. Lets build a slide out of wood. Great idea. What could possibly go wrong??
After we finished up at the home, we headed to the Ramada. Nope, not the hotel, the market.
The Ramada market is my least favorite of the markets we have been to for a couple of reasons.
1. It winds through a series of streets and between buildings and is very easy to get lost in because you rarely see the sky through the blue tarp roofs.
2. It gets really hot and stuffy under blue tarp roofs.
3. They put the stores so close together, that there is usually only a foot or two between the stalls to walk through.
4. The stalls are never in the same place twice so its like the maze in Harry Potter that changes every time you turn a corner. The store you wanted to go back to from last week, isn't where it once was.
Anyways, the Ramada market is also the place to get shoes. Both Jordan and I were in need of new shoes, so we headed down there and after about 40 minutes of being lost in the maze, we found the place we were looking for, right next to the stand selling aborted llama fetuses. You heard me right, they sell aborted llama fetuses in the market. (time for the segue into Mutual Omaha's Wild Kingdom) You see llamas regularly abort their fetuses in the wild for some reason or another. The Bolivians have always believed that they are good luck, so when they start a new building, they put an aborted llama fetus in the concrete somewhere for luck. Think that would pass code in Canada??
Anyways, back to the shoes. Jordan found some little Reebok runners she like for 10 bucks, so she was happy. I had seen some sketchers behind glass that I wanted to look at last week so after the 40 minute search, we had arrived at the same store. We know they are real sketchers because the real ones are always locked up in a cabinet, just like any other real items down here. We asked if we could try on a pair of size 9 shoes, and were told that they only have the one pair. Turns out that they only carry one pair of each style of the real shoes, because most Bolivians can't afford the real deal. Lucky for me, all their Sketchers are size 9.
Of course, I forgot to wear socks today because it is 30 degrees again, so normally in Canada that is not a problem because they have the "store" sock for you to wear. Guess what??? Another difference from Canada. They don't have a store sock. They have a plastic bag. So I slipped on the plastic bag and tried on the shoes. Its a little hard to decide if you like a shoe when you look in the mirror and see the shoe and a plastic bag on your foot. I eventually decided on which shoe looked the best with the bag and bought them. Sketchers at home normally cost in the $130 range, but in Bolivia, they sell for the low low price of $47. Sold.
Tomorrow we have a lunch appointment at the home of some of Melody's students, and then we are cooking a Canadian supper for some people from Ken's church. Should be an interesting day.
The way this place works is that they have several small houses on their complex. In each house, they have a combination of boys and girls of various ages along with a "parent" figure who is a volunteer. Each house lives like a little family with the boys and girls treating each other like brothers and sisters. All the food is prepared in a single large kitchen, but it is all delivered to each of the "homes" and they eat with their family at a table in the home. The kids all go to school, if they are old enough, at a school about 2 km away. They either walk, or take the bus to school. When they get older, they get paired up with a mentor in whatever area of a career they are interested in. One girl, who is a sister to Andres from Ken's place, is working with an oncologist. The kids intern with the mentor for two years and then when they are old enough, the mentor will help them get into college.
For the little ones, they have a baby room, a pre-school room and a kindergarten room. Just outside of that building, they have a small play area with two swings and a wooden slide. Yes, I said wooden slide. No, I don't mean the slide is made of wood and then the part you sit on is metal, I mean everything is made of wood. Doesn't that sound like a fun time kids? Whhhheeeeeeee slivers!!!!
So let me get this straight, they have giant termite mounds here. Hmmmmm. Lets build a slide out of wood. Great idea. What could possibly go wrong??
After we finished up at the home, we headed to the Ramada. Nope, not the hotel, the market.
1. It winds through a series of streets and between buildings and is very easy to get lost in because you rarely see the sky through the blue tarp roofs.
2. It gets really hot and stuffy under blue tarp roofs.
3. They put the stores so close together, that there is usually only a foot or two between the stalls to walk through.
4. The stalls are never in the same place twice so its like the maze in Harry Potter that changes every time you turn a corner. The store you wanted to go back to from last week, isn't where it once was.
Anyways, the Ramada market is also the place to get shoes. Both Jordan and I were in need of new shoes, so we headed down there and after about 40 minutes of being lost in the maze, we found the place we were looking for, right next to the stand selling aborted llama fetuses. You heard me right, they sell aborted llama fetuses in the market. (time for the segue into Mutual Omaha's Wild Kingdom) You see llamas regularly abort their fetuses in the wild for some reason or another. The Bolivians have always believed that they are good luck, so when they start a new building, they put an aborted llama fetus in the concrete somewhere for luck. Think that would pass code in Canada??
Anyways, back to the shoes. Jordan found some little Reebok runners she like for 10 bucks, so she was happy. I had seen some sketchers behind glass that I wanted to look at last week so after the 40 minute search, we had arrived at the same store. We know they are real sketchers because the real ones are always locked up in a cabinet, just like any other real items down here. We asked if we could try on a pair of size 9 shoes, and were told that they only have the one pair. Turns out that they only carry one pair of each style of the real shoes, because most Bolivians can't afford the real deal. Lucky for me, all their Sketchers are size 9.
Of course, I forgot to wear socks today because it is 30 degrees again, so normally in Canada that is not a problem because they have the "store" sock for you to wear. Guess what??? Another difference from Canada. They don't have a store sock. They have a plastic bag. So I slipped on the plastic bag and tried on the shoes. Its a little hard to decide if you like a shoe when you look in the mirror and see the shoe and a plastic bag on your foot. I eventually decided on which shoe looked the best with the bag and bought them. Sketchers at home normally cost in the $130 range, but in Bolivia, they sell for the low low price of $47. Sold.
Tomorrow we have a lunch appointment at the home of some of Melody's students, and then we are cooking a Canadian supper for some people from Ken's church. Should be an interesting day.
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