greeting Poppy at the airport
From washing clothes to playing in the sandbox, my dad's visit made our daily chores and activities more rich. Matias was beyond thrilled to have almost 2 weeks with his Poppy.
My dad and Matias came up to my work one day (courtesy of our newly working car!)
My students promptly gathered 'round to teach Matias how to color better.
He made some new friends, gathered flowers in a basket the kids made for him, and had a great time. Meanwhile, my dad engaged with the students, encouraging them in their work, and took some invaluable pictures of the work we do at The Center.
Thanksgiving was the last day of classes with my kiddos, but we still managed to eat a somewhat traditional meal, sans the turkey. My dad even brought down cranberry sauce from the States to top it off!
After dinner, we didn't waste any time decking the house out for Christmas. We decorated my 4 year old Christmas juniper tree, got out the advent calendars for Matias, and had our first advent service together as a family a few days later. Advent is one of my favorite times of the year, and it was so special to celebrate the first day with most of my family.
sticker advent
pocket advent
And what's a family vacation without flexible fun with Bolivian policemen? On our way to a much anticipated camping spot with Matias, Collin, my dad and I, we were
hit by a dump truck who tried to overtake us as I turned off onto a side road. Any further, and the car would have wrapped around a concrete post just feet from where we stopped sliding. Any faster, and the car would have flipped. Any lighter, more modern car, and the impact would have been much greater, injuring my dad and I (on the impact side). And the glass, which we thought was tempered, broke into big pieces and flew through the air without leaving more than a scratch on my dad and brother. So many "what ifs" and "could haves", but all leading to SO MUCH GRATITUDE that we're all ok.
The most stressful and
upsetting part of the accident was the aftermath. We were shuttled to two different towns, looking for a place where the police could do a blood alcohol test on both drivers. The second town, Punata, was a good 30+ minutes away and was able to give us the test, but left us 30+ minutes away from our impounded car with all our gear in it. I was asked to return a few days later for an informal "reconciliation" meeting, which turned out to feel like an
ambush where I was treated poorly as a woman and a foreigner. Collin backed me up, but I still left feeling shaky and wondering how the truth got so twisted that an accident I was a
victim of suddenly became my fault. Ambiguous laws were cited, although not one policeman was willing to actually show me or read me the law I'd broken, and after
tears and much
frustration, they let me take my car and hoped to wash their hands of me, passing me off to insurance. Over two weeks later, we're still in limbo, waiting for answers and some form of justice.
By the time the police rigmarole was over, it was already late afternoon, we didn't have a car and had all our camping gear with us. We decided to make the best of it, hired a taxi, and drove a short ways out of town to pitch our tent somewhere where we could at least have a fire and sleep in our sleeping bags. It wasn't half bad! Certainly not the remote and wild camping experience we were hoping for, but better than being at home.
Plus, streams in Cochabamba are definitely NOT clean enough to wade in, let alone have water wars!
My dad also got to visit both of my parents' Compassion kids, one of whom just graduated from the Compassion program and we got to say goodbye over a yummy meal of corn, potatoes, fried cheese, hard-boiled eggs and fried beef jerky.
Matias learned so much while his Poppy was in Bolivia, and still pretends to make his plastic butterflies fly over to real flowers to get nectar, as he learned from Poppy while studying snapdragons.
Thanks for coming, Poppy!
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