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Tiwanaku

We took a trip to Tiwanaku to show the kids their Bolivian Heritage


A sunset view of La Paz

The one below is a door from the Puma Punku Temple





Thi one below is the entrance to the Akapana Temple


The courtyard below the temple


high abo


















Here we are eating Llama



Our next house:


Old Spanish church


The cholitas selling bread made on the earth

Gringos don't dance

I was just discussing with my sister in law Meli one of the differences between Utah and Bolivia. Bolivians are dancers, and Utahns are Singers. At the Stake Talant show we went to a few days ago, 90 percent of it was dancing. Nobody else sang except Lydia. In Utah, Im betting that would be the opposite. The thing is, there are a lot of great dancers in Utah (have you seen So You think you can dance the last few years?) But the average Utahn basically only knows how to sway and tap their foot. In La Paz, on the other hand, Even someone like Charlie who hates dancing knows how do do several somewhat complex dances. And they dance regularly, small or large gatherings, even with the lights on in your living room. (We are too ashamed to dance with the lights on in Utah.)

Singing, on the other hand, is almost the exact opposite. There are plenty of great singers in Bolivia, but in general, not so much. You're lucky if they sing on key; reading music and singing parts is incomprehensible. Of course there are bad singers in Utah, but the percentage of great singers that can read music and sing parts is definitely in the majority. I was in this ward in Bolivia for a total of ten minutes before they called me as primary Chorister. He didn't know anything about me besides that I was a Gringa. Well, so happens I do know something about music. Their chances were pretty good I guess. Oh yah, I guess revelation helped out too... hm...

Just kidden, I love it and I know its where I'm supposed to be.

teeny people

I wish sometimes that I could sneak take a picture or video of Owen when he's praying. He doesn't actually close his eyes, he just sort of squints. He repeats back just the last word of every sentence until about halfway through when he gives up and starts just saying "yah" instead. Its so funny, my cute little man. Especially when Lydia is the one doing the helping.

Events

Lots has happened this last couple of weeks. Here is a pictmary(pictorial summary) of what happened:

EASTER
Making eggs and egg hunt






Ward activity to start a ward-wide fast:




Grandpa VS Dad - the ultimate ping pong match


Dinners at home
Jason and Owen playing the organ

Yummi noodles (Aji de fideo)
El dia del niño (childrens day) April 12

Salteñas y papaya salvietti

General Conference

Spanish is hard

Every day Lydia comes home knowing a new word or phrase in Spanish. The little smarty pants. I do pretty well, but occasionally, I do have some problems caused by my meager language skills. I don't go out much, mostly because I don't have a car, but also because every time I try to go out and be independent and do stuff on my own, something always happens that shakes my confidence to try it again. Like the first time I went to the market alone, and the raisin lady told me a price but I misunderstood so I had to give her the raisins back because I didn't have enough. She was pretty annoyed at me. And the kid who I thought wanted to watch my car for me while I was shopping actually wanted to wash it, which I didn't have enough to pay him for either. I still try to put myself out there occasionally when I can muster up the courage, but I have to admit that I am easily scared off. But I enjoy my time with my kids, and -who am I kidding- I didn't get out much when I was in the states either. Life as usual.

I also sometimes agree to things I don't actually mean to agree to. Like when the primary president asked if Lydia could sing, I said yes. But she wasn't just asking if Lydia knew how, she wanted to know if she would sing for a stake activity. So when I said "Si", I accidentally kinda agreed that Lydia would sing alone in front of the whole stake. Lydia loves to sing, but shes won't even sing for group primary presentations. I don't know why. Shes not that shy, she just doesn't like to be bossed. Well, it turned out that the program was only like a week away. Not a lot of time to prepare. So I relied heavily on bribery. Every time we practiced, I made it very clear that if she would sing loud and pretty in front of everyone, she would get a whole bag of candy. It worked, she sang beautifully while I played guitar. I was way way more nervous than she was. I knew she would do it if she had the proper motivation.

Charlie and I had our fifth anniversary. Pretty crazy that so much time has passed! Have we really been married that long? Next month is Owens second birthday. I can't believe my babies are getting so big.

Anyway, I guess since time is passing so fast, I should really work hard on improving my Spanish, huh? When am I gonna get another chance at total immersion? Not total, but partial, anyway (I speak English to my kids, thats probably not going to change.) But maybe when we leave here Lydia will be so good at Spanish, that she can translate for me. That would be nice.

Update

Things are going pretty well; I think we've done a pretty good job of adapting so far. Except that we're all sick. The first few weeks we were all fine, and then suddenly all of us got what you call in Chinese 'la dudzi'. literally it means sour stomach. Its been pretty constant for Owen and Charlie since then, for me off and on. Lydia was fine up until yesterday. But then it got really bad for all of us. So yesterday was really crazy: two sick babies and a sick mommy. And Charlie, though he hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, ended up having to work all day from 8AM to midnight. Charlie's mom was super nice and came over to bring me some lunch and juice and stuff, and to take all our dirty clothes to get washed. I can't even say how grateful I was for that chicken soup. So we just rested and watched movies. I wished desperately that I could watch some new TV shows when the kids were asleep, but of course there's no way to legally watch any shows on-line or for download here (not available outside the US, besides that the internet isn't fast enough anyway). Not even Netflix is available. If we had cable, there would be few shows available, but we don't. I haven't ever done the less legal route. I don't really know how its done frankly. I need help. Any pirates out there willing to guide a pirate in training? I really hate to go that rout, but even if I went out and bought movies at the store, their copies anyway. Is it still piracy if the country your in doesn't have the same copyright laws?

One thing, that I am suprised to find that I like is the lack of indoor heating. I know that sounds silly, but in Utah, it gets so cold and they have to turn up the heat inside. Which means you bundle up when you go outside, and then un bundle when you go back in. I'm used to it, but I realize this means sweaters are useless. Thier too warm inside, and not warm enough for outside. Button up sweaters are fine because they can be remove. But I love love love sweaters of all shapes and sizes. They are one of those things like shoes that I almost always love and have a hard time not buying. But how sad I have been that all my cute sweaters are only good for the two seconds it takes to walk to the car.

Well, here, I put on a sweater and I wear it ALL DAY. It makes me so happy. I hate that I have to wear socks all the time indoors (I'm kind of a barefoot girl) but its worth it to get to wear my sweaters. I'm gonna make some slip on booties for myself and the kids that we can wear inside all the time, so that should be better.

Anyway, hopefully we'll all feel better in a few days, and life can go back to normal. I love it here, and though I am painfully homesick for my family, I am trying not to let the time go by too fast, because I know I'll miss it.