All fine here...

Nothing super interesting to say. Just changed the name of the blog from Bolivian Chronicals to Pozo Chronicles. Happy to be back. Still adjusting and there are lots of people to miss. But we are having fun living in Fae and Lances Basement. Finally getting things settled in. So from now on this blog will be just a family news type blog. Sounds kind of dreary when I put it that way doesn't it?But I will be sure to post lots of pictures of my kids, so that should be fun. And we'll probably have some Spanish readers, so we may post some things in Spanish, if we remember to do so. Anyway, thanks ya'll for keeping up with us in our adventures. Your support has meant a lot.

reflections

Well, I'm back in the states. We're in Orlando for a week before we head back to Utah. We're spending some time in Disney world and Universal, just enjoying a vacation before we get back to real life. Its been a blast so far. Charlie's family is here with us too, and its been really fun so far.

As I reflect on our experience in Bolivia, I've come up with some lists. What an exciting way to sum up my trip, huh?

Things I'm kinda looking forward to getting back to:

dishwasher
garbage disposal
clean water from the tap that doesn't have to be boiled and filtered
flushing the toilet paper
Walmart
dollar hamburgers
being able to drive
snow


Things I'm REALLY looking forward to:

My family


Things I'm sad about leaving behind

My other family
My primary kids
Greeting with a kiss
My cute apartment and the view out the window
The constant language immersion


Things I gained that I'll have forever...I hope

A better understanding of my husband through his culture
Better Spanish
My kids becoming Bolivian
A close relationship with and love for my in-laws
A love for the culture

We have really really enjoyed our time in Bolivia, and its hard to get back, even though we are excited to see my family and friends. We know it was the right place to be because we were so so blessed for it. See you all soon! After a quick trip to Walmart of course.

Faralee's Awesomeness

My wife is just awesome...she made this paper tree and all our house Christmas decorations:

Thanksgiving me all your money

The title doesn't actually have very much to do with this post, its just a silly quote from the Office.

We had a huge party for thanksgiving. We had upwards of 50 people there. Weren't sure we would have enough food for everyone, but it turned out fine. My mother in law Maria and I put a lot of thought and work in to the food and the guest list. We cooked turkey and ham (my own personal thanksgiving tradition since I don't really like turkey). And we had candied yams, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and many different choices of pie. Plus a few extras to such as rice. Overall, a very thanksgivingy kind of meal. It was yummy, and people ate or tried almost everything. So I felt it was a success.

During the planning process and during the festivities, there were a lot of discussions about the meaning behind thanksgiving and the traditions. With a name like thanksgiving, many people supposed it was a religious holiday and some even thought it was of LDS origin. I explained the basic history / myths behind it. But most people were unsatisfied with my insistence that it was all about the food. My family doesn't have a lot of traditions for thanksgiving outside of the meal, and spending time together. And this was very frustrating for my in laws I think. In the end, they just decided to derive their own meaning and traditions from the holiday. On some level, I felt a little offended at this, since its kind of my holiday. But I have decided that if they decide to take the holiday and make it their own, at least they took the important part of it, the gratitude part. I think they aren't really able to appreciate the food part for a few reasons: One, they don't really like the traditional food; Two, the whole idea behind a harvest festival doesn't really apply here. In Bolivia, you can harvest food almost all year round. That isn't true in many other parts of the world, including the States. So at the one harvest time a year, we have festivals and parties. We have songs about the harvest, harvest oriented games and most importantly, huge banquets in celebration of the harvest. That way we can use up a little of the excess food while it is fresh, and also we can give thanks. Now-a-days, we can eat fresh food at almost any time of year, so perhaps the concept of the harvest festival doesn't really apply to us anymore either. And I do want to make it a holiday more and more about the gratitude. But I also intend on letting it be about the food too. It's a part of my heritage. The food is a gift. I'm grateful for it. And I believe that eating it can be a celebration.

And I'm grateful for my in laws who indulged in me and my wishes for a traditional thanksgiving dinner, if not because they understood it, because they love me. And also cuz, you know, they love a good party.

Its already November??

Ok, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, so this is a very long post. And it's actually about Halloween. I didn't post a few weeks ago because I was waiting for pictures. Truthfully, I'm ashamed to admit that despite how hard we worked on our costumes, we didn't get any pictures of Charlie or I. We did get some of the kids, so you can see bits and pieces of us on the sidelines sometimes. Oh wait, I just remembered we did get one picture each, here they are. Aren't they nice?

We look pretty authentic, right? Silly for us to choose costumes that nobody understands but us. But the only way I can get Charlie to dress up is if I appeal to his inner nerd (I know, its kind of outer too). Our first year of marriage he dressed as a Borg, the second year he was a Jedi and the third year he was a star trek commander. Several of those costumes he still tries to convince me that he should be able to wear them to other things too like Church. I never let him though. What a mean wife.

Anyway, with this latest installment in a long line of nerdy costumes; nobody got it, which we knew would be the case. But Charlie got lots of funny suggestions about what he might be, things like Rambo and an Indian terrorist. And no matter what the suggestion was, Charlie always told the people they were right. They would go away like, "Yes! I knew he was a homeless arms dealer, I just knew it." People didn't ask me what I was, but I'm pretty sure everyone thought I was a Gypsy since that is what I would have thought if I didn't know.

We had a surprising amount of activities planned for the Halloween weekend, and we went to most of them. We had a dance, and a party at Lydia's school, and a party with some friends, all on Friday. I didn't think they did Halloween very much here, but apparently its gotten very big in the last few years. Though they don't have a lot of costume variety. There are basically like five different costumes to choose from at the stores. So people try to get creative. We entered Lydia in a costume contest at a school party (before you ask, she didn't win) Lydia was dressed as Cinderella and she was one of two princesses out of at least a hundred other little girls. That never happens in the states, you usually have 30 percent princesses and 30 percent fairies and the other 40 percent fairy princesses. I've never seen so many little girls dressed up as witches and zombies in my whole life. Lydia was like that girl from Labyrinth in the ballroom scene. But I guess a zombie is an easy do-it-yourself costume, since all you have to do apparently is dress in black raggedy clothes and paint your face white.

The next day, all the stakes in La Paz hosted a big Cultural Dance show, with each stake in charge of different dances. It was great, but we didn't stay for the whole thing, since it promised to be upwards of three hours. Then we went home and ate pizza and watched a "scary" movie with Charlie's family: Casper. I know, you are shaking in your boots. But those are the kind of Halloween movies I like.

On Sunday I had my primary sacrament meeting presentation. It went very well, I thought. The kids sang great. We had to skip a few of my favorite songs because our transitions were painfully long, but I felt pretty good about it when it was over. After church, we went over to the in-laws as usual, we carved our "pumpkins" which were actually yellow peppers, and ate pumpkin soup out of a green pumpkin that the girls had painted (they don't have orange pumpkins here). Even the two pickiest eaters Michelle and Jason actually liked the soup, plus everyone loved the carving activity, so I felt like the day was definitely a success. I stressed a lot over the weekend Because of getting costumes done and activities planned getting ready for my presentation, but all in all, everything worked out great and we had fun.

I'll catch up on other more recent stuff later, but now its Charlie's turn to post some pictures. Right baby?

So there.

General update here...

Well, I decided it was time for an update so here it is.

We've now been here for 7 and a half months. Only three more to go. We have loved out time here, and if there weren't so many issues with immigration (both here and in the US) We would probably stay longer. Lydia speaks Spanish better than I do of course now. She is still going to school, and loves it. Owen mostly speaks English, but he has says a few Spanish phrases now and then. Still spends most of his time walking around as someone else, Yoda or Spiderman or Ironman usually. When I ask him to do something like get his shoes or even lay down, he says, "I'm too tired". Me? Well my spanish is nowhere near up to par with the kids, but I'm much more comfortable in everyday conversation and in church than I was. I am now able to go grocery shopping alone and even take taxis without Charlie. Those may sound small, but they were huge milestones for me. Golly, only took me seven months. As for Charlie, he works a lot. Its good to be busy I suppose. He just got a new contract for a building that he will be overseeing alone. Trying to move things along quickly (which is not really the regular pace here in Bolivia) But even if he gets things done faster than usual, he'll still have to stay here until march. But we already have our tickets home so he'll come and help me move in and then go back. I'm not very good at being without my Charlie, but we make things work the best we can. It'll be no fun without him, even if it is only for 8 weeks.

Anyway, thats all I can think of right now.