Isabelle's time here is half over (ðŸ˜) - and that means we move to Santa Cruz to help the Derksens! At the end of last week we finished up school with the Neufelds and moved all the books back inside, as I won't be back for six weeks or so. Then on Sunday we drove up to Santa Cruz and the Guesthouse, where the Friesens had been since Wednesday. The afternoon was spent pleasantly with both families, and in the evening the Derksens came too. We quickly took a picture of everyone together, and then Isabelle and I babysat while the adults had a team meeting. That was fun! Both Isabelle and I realized how much we had missed having conversations with young people when we sat down with the older kids and just talked about books and movies. (Of course, we also played some epic games of Froggie and Janitor and Mafia.)
That night I said goodbye to the Neufelds, as they were heading back to Charagua the next morning, and went home with the Derksens to babysit the next day. That was - well, nobody died. No, it was good. In the afternoon Jake and Anita went out again, and this time I got violently sick and couldn't get off the couch except to run to the bathroom, so the kids babysat themselves that time. Thankfully Seth and Alia ran down to the store once the parents got back to get me some poweraid and that helped.
That was Monday; on Tuesday I felt better and in the afternoon the Friesens came by and brought Isabelle, who'd been with them at the Guesthouse. We took the kids swimming, even though it was barely hot - Santa Barbara has a pool.
Oh! I need to tell you about this place! The Derksens live in a walled-in, regulated neighbourhood called Santa Barbara - very safe, very quiet, very clean and nice. There's a speed bump right in front of the house, there's a park just around the corner, and a pool just up the street. One gets to know the cats and dogs as well as the nieghbours.
And you'll be interested to know that Santa Cruz is set up in circles. By which I mean that the main streets are circles and they divide the city into rings. The Guesthouse is in the fourth ring, Santa Barbara is in the eighth. Inside the smallest ring is the plaza, the biggest and most beautiful in all of Bolivia. We'll be taken to see it yet.
Where was I? -oh yes. The Friesens had to bring Martin to the airport. He is flying to Canada to try and finish a huge complicated adoption/immigration process. They've been trying to adopt their youngest two girls and get home on furlough for a long time now, and were hoping to have been gone long ago. Their two oldest boys are already there and they still hope to be home by Christmas.
I must tell you about the electric showers. You cannot go any longer without hearing about this fascinating piece of life in Bolivia. Since the houses aren't rigged up to have hot water, the shower heads are rigged up to heat the water as it comes through, via electricity. So the faster you have the water running, the colder your shower will be, and vice versa - which is great but often the finicky water pressure decides the temperature of your shower for you. Low pressure = scalding hot shower. But it's so exciting! The handles are often wrapped in layer upon layer of electrical tape, and if you're not careful, you can get shocked so bad there's a lasting bruise. (It's 220 power here, as opposed to 110 back home.) Just don't touch the shower head, whatever you do, or who knows what could happen.