I had another decent night's sleep and a hot shower. Life is good.
There were more traffic disruptions today, so I arrived at La Villa at
the end of devotions. From there I went
to help Diego get a picture of the kids in one of the houses. The church that supports them sent
personalized T-shirts and hats for each of them. Corralling and getting dressed about a dozen
kids for a photo is non-trivial. It took
about 30 minutes to get a picture with at least most of them smiling.
From there, we went to try again to get kids to make
Easter cards. The last time, we got
about five made and two of those were by Diego and me. This time Diego was better organized
and had lots of markers and paper. We
had about eight to ten kids at a time making cards. Diego had other things he needed to do, so I had a wonderful
time helping the kids. I understand
color names pretty well, so I was able to find the right marker or piece of
paper. I was even able to answer simple
questions like how to spell my name and how many children I have. We had a couple girls I called máquinas de
tarjetas that turned out cards like machines.
We ended up with twenty or thirty cards which Diego now has to translate. I saw at
least one card to Guillermo (me), so I considered it a successful morning.
When I was leaving, Diego said his wife (of about a month
and a half) and his 3-year-old daughter were going to be out in the evening, so
he invited me to come into town for dinner.
He said he'd call
later to make final plans.
I again walked back to La Morada, but this time I did not
have a backpack. I just brought my point
and shoot camera in my pocket. And, I
made more of an effort to walk in the shade when I could find it. As a consequence, I arrived back at La Morada not dripping in
sweat. I was happy to have been able to
explain successfully to Doña Celia that I would not need dinner since I was
going out with Diego.
Around two, Diego called to say he would have to cancel.
That left me in the awkward position of having to explain things to
Doña Celia. I decided it was easier to skip
dinner since I've been eating too much anyways!
At about 6:30, Doña Celia saw I was still in my room and asked where Diego
was. I settled for saying that he could
not come because of his wife. She
insisted on making dinner. Life is definitely
hard here!
I finished a second book (The Next Christians: The Good News about the End of Christian America). The basic premise of the book is that 20- and
30-something Christians are about doing things, not talking about them. I’m not sure how much I agree, but the
stories were inspiring and I’d love to hang out with those folks. If nothing else, I am getting a lot of
reading done. I need to get WiFi access
to get a few more books downloaded to my iPad.
Maybe tomorrow I will get into town.
I called Susie again this evening, as I have every
day. It sure sounds like she is having a
tough week. Sadly, like pretty much
everything while I'm in Bolivia, it is out of my control and beyond my ability
to change or help. I fear that is what
God is trying to teach me.
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