House Rules

1) “Siempre Digan ‘Por Favor’ y ‘Gracias’”

(“Always Say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank You’”)

2) “Obedezcan Rápidamente”

(“Obey Quickly”)

3) “Dejen de Quejarse y de Estar Reclamando”

(“Don’t Whine and Complain”)

4) “Amarse Unos a Otros Como lo Hizo Jesús”

(“Love Each Other Like Jesus Did”)

Welcome Home

On January 18 our plane landed in Rurrenabaque early in the morning of a stereotypically muggy day. While I had food poisoning and almost passed out in the one-room airport, I thought, “Welcome home!” Arrival at Familia Feliz commenced the blur of kids clambering all over, answering a million questions, unpacking, cleaning, and getting barely debriefed.

In one month, campus has changed! Not only are new kids starting to pour in, but 30 volunteers from Canada and our sister school here have flooded campus for a month-long mission trip. They have replaced our sagging church roof, dug a new septic tank, repainted buildings inside and out, put in new windows, and redone electricity! While none of this has touched Las Lilas yet, it’s so fun to see things done besides the mere survival we usually accomplish!

The changes Las Lilas have experienced are internal. Our new house parent to replace Teacher Abi is named Esmeralda, a twenty-three year old single mom of eight-month-old baby Abi. At first I was worried about this new arrangement, as the plan is for her to be more permanent and if she isn’t great it could hurt the kids for years…but now I’m thrilled. She sat me down Saturday night and we went over all our expectations for everything from punishments to chores to rewards to who’s cooking when and how many movies they can watch. She’s gonna be great, not to mention the fact that she’s already running a tight shift and super clean house!

Double the number of girls from last semester sounds daunting. And it will be at first I’m sure. Eight of sixteen Lilas are here, and the rest are about to start trickling in as vacaciones comes to a close. This little yellow house with nine beds is about to be flip-flopped and bursting at the seams!

With new beds needing to be put in this house comes the need to rearrange it. The indoor living room and kitchen-ish area will soon be a bedroom, the fridge moving outside. Thus comes the need to finish the outdoor kitchen, building a $450 counter, tiling the floors, constructing a half wall all the way around for a semblance of normalcy…Fundraising for this house has naturally fallen to me, and I’m so excited to see what God can do in these next few months and what lasting gift I can leave here!

#1: Siempre Digan “Por Favor” y “Gracias”

“The mosquitoes are terrible now!” Hermano Juan told us at the airport. “Worse than when you left!” What an exciting phrase to hear from a local! Thank you, Hermano Juan. Wanna know something even more fun? One of the Canadians who was an SM here years ago said you can identify two types of mosquitoes: the ones biting during the day are dengue fever mosquitoes, and the ones at night are malaria mosquitoes! So now one can diagnose themself upon impact and have a specific prayer request! Thank you, Sara.

These thankless mosquitoes aren’t the only ones who need to learn to ask politely. Las Lilas are well-trained to say please and thank you, but every new kid makes us all seem to lose our manners and have to review the rules of manners otra vez. I have no cute example story, as gratitude was more of a first semester issue.

#2: Obedezcan Rápidamente

The funniest thing that shouldn’t be funny is Edith, one of our new eleven-year-olds. She is the shining star of obeying quickly, and the way she does humors both Emilianne and me. Por ejemplo, Edith came over to the cooking table, grabbed the lighter, carried it back to the table and began to heat up the prongs of a fork. We both said a forceful NO. Bracing ourselves to answer a stream of “WHY” and whines as is normally the case from the girls, we are stunned by her every time and get a little whiplash when her reply is simply, “Okey.” *walks away with zero trace of attitude*

Teaching quick obedience is good, but aside from that, there’s nothing quick about the Bolivian lifestyle. Except tooth extraction. On Tuesday I took Sarita and Miriam to the dentist to have their teeth examined, as they were in pain and teeth looking bad in general. I was ready to wait a long time during each exam, but Mirian came out faster than I could pull out my journal to write, mouth full of cotton. Where does it hurt? *points* Out comes the tooth. The fact that she has another mouth issue means another visit Thursday because it was almost time for lunch break, after all. In went Sarita, who wouldn’t open her mouth and cried. It was with sympathetic looks that the hygienist said, “You work with her?” I’m proud to say that she obeyed me quickly, but that took a hug and much prodding; opened her mouth and pointed to one of two rotten teeth. Out it came. I was surprised they’d even had time to numb it. Guess who else has to come back Thursday because the dentist didn’t have time to extract the other? Right.

Something else quick was getting medicine. I walked next door to the pharmacy and handed them the prescriptions, which they filled in a matter of seconds. Really, though, I could have walked in without the papers if I’d known the medicine names. I watched as locals did just that, marching in and paying peanuts for potent drugs with no party involved batting an eye. Rápido es.

Something not-so-fast is making things with a blender. The first problem is that there are none. Well, at least in Las Lilas. The second issue is that the one puréing device we do have is a BabyBullet, belonging to Esmeralda for Abi to have baby food. As it’s gone unused as of yet, we whipped it out Monday to blend our frozen bananas for “ice cream.” The BabyBullet worked pretty great at first, but after getting halfway through the bananas, the base was so hot it needed to wait another thirty minutes to complete the job. Right now, you’re probably envisioning me standing placidly at a countertop with my little blender and frozen bananas, portioning out ice cream into expectant hands. LOL. Picture me instead squatting on the floor of my room under a fan in the corner next to the power strip that is plugged into an extension cord running from the only working outlet in the house. The waiting empty cups spread out beside me, bowl of bananas on the other side, overheating lidless blender in front of me straining to finish the next little batch as I stir with a metal spoon and pray it doesn’t touch the blade. That’s more accurate.

#3: Dejen de Quejarse

Complaining (in a whiny tone) is my number one pet peeve (well, right after the phrase “¿Qué vamos a hacer?”). And Las Lilas are teaching me patience. And alternative methods of doing things.

One source of contention is always chores. There are big chores, like washing all the dishes from cooking meals, emptying out the trash buckets, or cleaning the bathrooms (an extensive process of sweeping the entire cement and brick cubicle with shower water); then there are small chores like washing the stove, wiping the table, or sweeping the patio. Sure, big kids get big chores and little kids get little chores, but they still don’t love their assignments. SO, we have put them on a weekly rotation for these chores — a welcome reprieve after they had the same ones for all of first semester. You don’t like the mountain of dishes? Great, you can sweep next week!

I’ve always envisioned myself as the parent who has my kids playing outside most of the day, making crafts and cooking the rest of the time. Coming to Bolivia I realized these girls don’t play outside (except in the tree) because it’s hot. Touché. However, I wasn’t about to turn them into iPad kids. I was so good about holding my ground on limiting movies last semester, but when break rolled around and we were fresh out of anything to do and I only had three older girls, I say with shame in my voice that we averaged one movie a day. But when Esmeralda moved in, we looked at each other and said, “One movie a week!” I am validated, praise God. But now the issue is what movie. For these girls, one chance a week is high stakes! One wrong choice and it’s a whole seven days to recover (after all, what if Nemo suddenly turns out to be a tragedy)! As Lilas don’t run well as a democracy, we now have a chart with everyone’s name. This week was Sarita. And because it was her name, it was her choice. Boom. Effective forced sharing. And everyone is SO excited for their week to pick the movie!

#4: Amarse Unos a Otros

“Kiiiiiss, Teacher, kiiiiiiiss!” Milenca called out in English after I told them all good night and was about to crawl in bed. She ran over and turned her face up for me to plant a kiss on her forehead. “¡Cuarto!” Four besitos more. Then Sarita ran over: “¡Cinco para mi!” Five besitos. Edith looked up expectantly, “Cinco.” Five more. My natural instinct is to dole out lots of hugs while maintaining a conservative demeanor, but my reality is that meeting them with enthusiastic kisses and slightly uncomfy love is a hundred times more meaningful for both of us in the end.

Baby Abi has brought more love to this house than anything. Watching the girls love on her is the cutest thing you could witness. Maribel is especially attached to singing her baby songs, carrying her on her shoulders, and doing a photo shoot of her every single day (my poor iCloud storage). I can’t help but grin watching them.

Miriam is the sixteen-year-old older sister of Edith and is staying in Las Lilas for vacaciones. She’s a former Familia Feliz student who now attends secondary school at Guayará. She’s the queen of random hugs, back rubs, head pats, and making you feel like your time with her makes a difference. Making bread with Emilianne and me on Wednesday, she decided to rub flour in our faces. I was washing the dishes and at first grinned and shook my head. But my thought was that a more dramatic reaction would speak more to her, so I followed with Emilianne and a handful of flour and ran all across campus chasing her. I’m so glad I did because those belly laughs have to build abs!

Lilas never are lacking love, and usually it’s just adorable. Nicol walking around blowing kisses is the number one most hilarious thing to watch. Lips pursed, eyes closed, head up, she’ll wander in the general direction of where she last saw you, wagging her head from side to side, *smack smack smack smack smack.*

Home is Where the Heart Is

Chikangunya is a mosquito-borne tropical disease that leaves aftermath including severe arthritis that, if not treated, can lead to lifelong pain and put a halt to all growth. So when 11-year-old Nora came the same day we got back with just those symptoms, Nurse Sierra kicked treatment into high gear. As she’s malnourished, we put her on parasite medication, and she also is on anti-inflammatory prescription. Along with this, we took the poor little thing from being a practical carnivore to vegetarian to a special anti-inflammatory diet (no white rice, white flour, sugar, or seasonings) in the span of a weekend. She is the pickiest eater I've ever met, then we do this! Disaster. But only from the emotional perspective; reality is that her pain has gone from her barely moving and sleeping all day to being able to fight when at the table or when I come in early morning and Sierra late at night to give medication. I’d call it a win. She would not. Meanwhile, we have a beautiful girl who came not knowing who Jesus was to having family worships twice a day and soaking them up. Also a win.

Milenca welcomed us back almost immediately with another round of antics. I was once again doing dishes and look over to see five girls around the hammock laughing hysterically. Curious, I wandered over. To my shock, amazement, and amused horror, Milenca was missing half an eyebrow. She held up a razor in a giggle fit. “Where did you get that???” “I took it from the Harding House.” “Why did you do that???” “I was wanting to shave my forehead but was sitting in a hammock and couldn’t see what I was doing.” Oh, how logical; of course! But not to worry, she went to the bathroom, broke open a charcoal tablet, and made a makeup. When she sweated off her new eyebrow, Maribel came to the rescue and cut off hair from the nape of Milenca’s neck and glued it on. “Number one hack cosmeticians don’t tell you,” observed Treson. Anyway, we’re back.

These kinds of things win my heart every time. Over and over I wake up to the same sounds with the same view at the same early time only to fall in love again. And what is beautiful is that Esmeralda’s heart is here, too.

The fact that my heart is with these kids makes this place feel like home. Not that it feels like my Tennessee home by any stretch of the imagination, but that the word home has come to have a depth of meaning to it that I never realized could be applied to another place. Home now means security, peace, abundant love and memories, and a resting place for the soul. That’s why Familia Feliz is home.

Love from this home,

Katie-Jane

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