Saturday morning Yoli went with Josie to buy bread. Jadzia and Ludi were still sleeping on the other side of the city at their sleepover. Yoli had seen on WhatsApp that Tío Efraín, Doña Lucila’s half-brother, was in town and had brought a pig.
Zegarra’s Factory
Also spotted on our walk home from the book fair: Zegarra’s Factory, a boxing gym that shares the name of Yoli’s family. We stopped for a few minutes to watch a couple guys sparring inside
Anita’s gourmet
I didn’t realize my mom had opened up shop down here!
(A nice-looking bakery we passed on the way home from the Feria Internacional del Libro de Santa Cruz)
Electric showers and a book fair
We got off to a slow start Friday. Eventually it came time to run the kids through their first showers of the trip. Electric showers.
Longtime readers of this blog may recall that relatively few homes in Bolivia have water heaters. Those who want warm or hot showers install an electric shower head, which uses a heating element to warm the water.
We are a pretty big family
Thursday was a welcome change of pace. We went back to Lucy’s house, but this time Noemi had arrived with her children: Abi, Raquel, Genesis, and Melody.
We started off by playing games. Noemi’s kids are chess players and have won some competitions. Yoli brought along a Mancala board, and we taught them how to play.
Laid-back Wednesday
We got a late start on Wednesday. For lunch Yoli bought a chicken and cooked it. Chickens here come with the feet attached, which fascinated the kids.
My, how big you’ve grown
It has been five years since we last brought our children to Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Everyone and everything has grown so much since then.
Our youngest son is going into third grade. He plays baseball and is really into ships during the colonial era. Our oldest daughter will soon be a teenager in years, though perhaps she reached that milestone emotionally some time ago.
Our two oldest remember their Bolivian family and bits and pieces from our previous trips. The two youngest, though, don’t really. Although they have each been here multiple times, they were very small.
So it was definitely time to return. Plus our niece Abi is going to have her quinceañera while we are here.
I came into this trip with some trepidation. Would the kids enjoy it? Would they connect with their family? Would it turn out to be one giant groan-fest? Life here is different, traveling is hard, and dealing with adolescence is bad enough back in the comfortable environs of home.
El Jordan’s workshop for boys
For many years we have supported El Jordán, which calls itself “a crossing ground for those who desire to change and find freedom from the daily struggles of life on the streets.”
These struggles include drug addiction, delinquency, abandonment, and abuse.
Initially the ministry reached out primarily to “street moms” and their children in Santa Cruz. These women could come to El Jordán, take classes in practical skills like baking or sewing, and get medical and dental care for themselves and their children.
In recent years Corina and Marco have added a center which focuses on boys from ages 12-16. Until this trip, Yoli and I had not been able to see this boys’ ministry. But Monday, Marco took us out there.
Sunday with the family
We spent Sunday in Yoli’s neighborhood.
We headed to her parents house first thing, and they showed us the new store and kitchen which are nearly finished. The old kiosko still stands, but it will be removed before long.
To get ready for lunch, we had to start moving some things into the new kitchen, like Doña Lucila’s little old propane stove. Her daughters all want her to replace it with a new stove, but she refuses because it was a wedding gift. And besides, it still works fine, she says.
25th class reunion
This year is the 25th anniversary of Yoli’s high school graduation (or “promo” as they call it here).
Getting together with her classmates was one of the things that motivated us to come on this trip. I haven’t mentioned it so far in our blog entries, but coming to Bolivia in the summer first required us to travel to Washington DC to get Yoli a new Bolivian passport and ID card (“carnet”). We turned that into a family vacation as we try to do, and we had a lot of fun. But dealing with the Bolivian consulate was decidedly NOT fun. They informed us that they had no record of our marriage, despite all the paperwork we did six years ago, when we last traveled to DC. We had to do everything over. Getting all the necessary papers required more money and a couple months.
All this to say that: it takes a lot of time, effort, and money to travel here. It’s more than just buying a (pricy) plane ticket and getting on the plane.