Running with the Bulls

I’m so tired of the Patriots. Here in Bolivia, NO ONE was rooting for them to win, but they still did. Then again, no one wanted the Rams to win either. Here, “Superbowl”, just means you can make even more rice and still only have to wash one dish. Terrible joke... I don’t blame you if you don’t get it. The point is, as far as the locals are concerned, the Superbowl doesn’t exist. We were lucky enough to get the evening off to go into town, and even luckier to find a place which was showing it… in Spanish and with lame commercials. We only got to watch the first half, but it was a good year to miss the ending as: 1. The Patriots won, again. 2. I heard it called the most boring Superbowl in recent memory. And 3. The halftime show was ridiculed across every social media platform in existence. Still, it was fun to get away with some of the other SM’s to enjoy an American tradition.

Although we’ve been hard at work preparing campus for the kids to arrive, we’ve had our fair share of fun, too. Every so often, a herd of stray cattle will wander onto campus in the middle of the night with the sole purpose of pooping on every inch of cement we have, or so it seems. In dire situations such as these, we are sure to be awakened before dawn by the dogs. Once the cows have been located, a wrangling effort is put together to chase the cows back out onto the street. (You may be thinking that cows don’t belong on the street either, but here, cows have the right of way, and it’s common to wait up to ten minutes for a herd to cross the road.) It may not sound like much fun, but it’s an experience that must be had before it can be judged.

Another especially enjoyable experience occurred about two weeks ago. Us volunteers and the remaining kids headed into town, and found that there was a huge festival going on in Rurre. The celebrations were scheduled to last all week, but our particular trip coincided with the amateur motorcycle race. About 20 participants came out with souped up dual-sports to compete for the grand prize of a brand new scooter. Adding to the excitement was the fact that the race took place in pouring rain. From our viewpoint, there were a couple of minor accidents, (the drivers got back up and kept racing) but, all in all, it was a really cool event to spectate.

The pouring rain didn’t just complicate the race, it stuck around for several days and caused the river to rise to its banks. After four days and nights of constant rain, flood conditions threatened and eventually arrived as the rains continued up-river. I haven’t been to town since, but apparently, the streets have a few inches of water covering them. Many students weren’t able to make it to registration due to the flooding, and food prices in town have started to inflate with the bad conditions. Thankfully, following the four straight days of rain, we had several sunny days that seemed to dry things up a bit.

Another consequence of the rain is an increased amount of bugs--especially mosquitos. With all the standing water on campus brought on by the rain, we essentially have a mosquito breeding farm. Thankfully, my relationship with bugs has changed as I’ve spent time here in Bolivia. We have so many bugs here that every time I call my family, they always complain about the loud birds chirping in the background. Those “birds” are actually cicadas, frogs, and every other noise-making bug known to man. Each night before I go to bed, I tuck my mosquito net under my mattress. and spend about 5-10 minutes killing a number of bugs that somehow made it inside. You may be thinking I’m fed up with the bugs, but I’ve really gotten used to them. I’ve trained myself to block out the constant background noise they make, so much so, that I get confused when my parents call and ask what’s making so much noise--I don’t hear anything! I’ve also gotten to the point where I no longer duck and run when a wasp gets a little too close. Now, I just wait for them to get close, throw a swift back-hand, and stomp on them before they know what hit ‘em. I guess they were right when they said Bolivia would change me…

Speaking of mosquitos, I should probably give an update on my illness mentioned in the post, “Hospital Run”. Two weeks later, I am still feeling great and feel like I have gained all of my former strength back--though, probably not all of my weight. After receiving all the blood tests back, the doctors weren’t able to determine the cause of my illness. It turns out they didn’t test for Zika or Chikungunya, but my personal diagnosis is that I had the latter, (mostly so that I can claim to have had a real tropical illness as opposed to just being “pretty sick”). The fevers and headaches are the main symptoms, but Chikungunya often causes sore joints, sometimes called “Chikungunya Arthritis”. Several days after returning, I developed an inexplicable soreness in my wrists and feet, which continues to affect me two weeks later. Call me a hypochondriac, but at least I can pretend that I had a legitimate disease.

I’m quite fortunate to be feeling better; with a full house of boys, classes to prepare for, and my new position as co-treasurer, there is a lot to be done. Tasks that have all been made harder by my slowly dying computer. I made the mistake of eating some bread over my laptop keyboard earlier last semester and now have ants that crawl up out of the keys every time I open my computer. One even made its way between the glass covering the screen and the screen itself. Thinking it was on the outside, I smashed it, and now have permanent ant guts inside the glass that protects the screen. My keys have a mind of their own and will sometimes type at random--especially the “m” key. It got so bad, that I felt the need to buy a separate keyboard, (laid out for typing in Spanish) and spend a couple of precious hours trying to figure out how to disable my laptop’s standard keyboard. Thankfully, the crises have all been averted for now, and I am free to work on my classes and budget spreadsheet at will.

This year, I will be teaching Chemistry and Physics to all of the high school grades, which, has proven to be extremely exciting to prepare for. It’s nice to finally be teaching a subject related to my major (Biochemistry). I’m equally excited to be the new co-treasurer with the new SM from Walla Walla, Alyssa. During the past week, we counted up all the money and accounted for the many debts and loans which, formerly, were kept track of via a paper trail. We digitized everything, and I created a monstrous spreadsheet that will track all of our spending, saving, and automatically divide up all the donations we receive into the necessary spending categories. It was A LOT of work, but it should make the finances here a lot simpler to track.

My new relationship and view of insects has me thinking about my relationship with God. I often feel like our relationship can be pretty one-sided--I seem to be the only one doing any talking. It would be a lot easier if God could just tell me His will so I didn’t have to question if I truly am following His calling for me. Through the counsel of others and my own study, I’m convinced that God still speaks to us, but I just don’t seem to hear it. Maybe His voice has become like the bugs to me. It’s definitely present, but I just tune it out as background noise. I definitely have some work to do to train myself to hear His voice, but I think fellowship with others can be helpful too. Just as my parents point out the annoying bugs in the background every time we talk, other believers can help me by pointing out God’s voice where I haven’t heard it before. God still speaks, it’s only a matter of learning to listen.

TL;DR

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmy computer has been having sommmmmmmmmmmmme issues. Thankfully, I got it fixed just in time to begin planning my Chemistry/Physics classes and work on the new budget spreadsheet I made for Familia Feliz’s finances.The latest and greatest entertainment here in Bolivia consists of running with the bulls and amateur motorcycle races. We’ve had flood-causing rains recently resulting in transportation difficulties, raised food prices, and a mosquito plague. I’ve recovered completely from my illness, only to find that the doctors are at a loss for what I had--my guess is Chikungunya. Hearing is a lot harder when you don’t know how to listen.