getting some pictures of the city

Remembering to take the camera is the first hurdle to overcome. Then remembering how to download the pictures - actually I DON"T remember, I always end up asking Daniel to do it. And now trying to remember how to post the shots....will I ever learn?
In case they get posted, I have a picture of our new road, which is now a tree-lined boulevard, a picture of the city in which you can see a new highrise going up, and a new gas station near the house where we can get both gasoline or natural gas pumped by the attendants.

stark differences

Moving back and forth from Santa Cruz to the States provides, of course, great joy in reuniting with family and friends. Visiting in Saginaw, MIchigan, our familiar home town was not only as special as licking a Mooney's chocloate almond ice cream cone, but during this last visit I became aware of sutil differences between the two cities that for some reason stood out like massive boulders hovering over the diverging roads that Robert Frost wrote about in "The Road Not Taken" balancing ever so delicately between crashing down to destroy the road or remaining fixed as part of the breath-taking scenery.
Saginaw is a modern city by world standards, but certainly a depressed city with its problems of joblessness that is played out with crime, lack of hope, and diminishing population. Santa Cruz is also a modern city, but instead of dimishing, it is growning faster than it can seem to cope. Construction everywhere, cars hopelessly crammed into streets not adequate for the two-car families that is common today. Disorder at every corner, but progress humming to the tune of bulldozers and cement mixers.
One difference that stood out to me was simply -the people. Everywhere you look you see people in Santa Cruz and they are mostly young people. This is a culture of the young. In Saginaw it seemed that no matter where we went, the majority of people were older. The recent statistics from the city of Santa Cruz cite 110,000 university students studying in 16 different universities. 60,000 of them in the state-run Gabriel Rene Moreno U which is free. There are 400,000 school age children. The city cannot keep up with the demand for school buildings. Students in many schools are sitting on the floor as desks are scarse. Saginaw is closing and consolidating schools.
You can drive around the Saginaw area and see so much open space, closed busineness boarded up or cowering shyly behind For Sale signs that have been up for more than 2 years in some cases without an interested buyer.
Yet Saginaw has wonderful public services such as the police, hospitals and my favorite, the libraries. Santa Cruz operates on a meager financial diet and does not have an adequate organizational structure to make these necesities a reality for many, especially the poor. Most home-owners hire their own private guards. (See the picture with the small brown guard house on the corner - a very common site)
And the traffic? You MUST tailgate here in order to move forward in the congestion. You cannot hope to find adequate parking spaces.
We left Santa Cruz in 1984 when the city was just emerging from being a 'pueblo' to becomming one of the fastest growing cities in South America. The city is slowing evolving, but each time we step away and then come back, it seems that the changes and differences stand out more to me.
Years back, Daniel and I once had the chance to move to the Dallas,Texas area to work for SER National. We decided not to go because we didn't think we'd like living in a big city. So here we are now in Santa Cruz with a population of about 2 million.
"Two roads diverged, and I took the one less traveled"

a good read and lots of hugs

In my opinion a warm hug and a good read are two of the best comforts of life. Without either on a regular basis my spirit dries up. That's why I am so glad for the opportunity to be the 'abuelita' (grandma) at Talita Cumi Children's home here in Santa Cruz. When school is in session I try to go two afternoons a week to help the first graders with their homework, assissting with about 6 precious children making their way through the Bolivian school system of lots of repetitive homework. A good story is usually in my bag along with some flash cards or other learning games. These last couple of weeks has been winter break and so I've been going out just to play games with the kids.
For some reason I usually end up spending more time at the boys' side of the home. We play dominoes, bingo, or a bowling game I made for them out of empty yogurt bottles and a tennis ball. They love playing and keeping score is helping them with their addition facts.
I get lots of hugs, of course, which really fuels my tank and I feel that being a grandmother to these children is probably just as much good for me as it is for them. Plus it gives me a great excuse to buy children's literature which has always been a great love of mine.
Anyone interested in reading more about Talita Cumi Children's home, you can find them on the internet and even see pictures of the children. (www.talitacumi.org) Anyone interested in helping me with read-a-louds in Spanish that would also be greatly appreciated.

wandering 7Calles district looking for shoes

Shopping for shoes has never been fun considering I have a right foot size 4 1/2 and a left foot size 6 1/2. Usually when looking for a new outfit, I have to buy the shoes first and then can get the rest. Most of the time I just wear cloddy black tie shoes that accomodate my leg braces, but which certainly are not feminine or elegant, even if they are recently polished! However, there are times, I decide to liberate my feet and go with a simple flat or sandal for short periods of time.
Yesterday, I decided it was time to try to find a simple flat to wear to both receptions, so black would have to be the color.
I headed to a popular shopping district which has several shoe 'stores' and several less expensive shoe 'stands.' The problem is explaining to the employee that I must have two pairs of shoes, exactly alike in the two sizes. Not too complicated? Well, usually it is. The clerk will often bring me two pairs of the same style but of different colors, or two pair of the same color, but different styles. It doesn't seem to matter how carefully I try to explain myself.
I had almost given up.
Outside a open-air shoe stand a young girl was dancing to samba music blaring from the small portable stereo that was, I suppose, the attention getting, customer grabbing technique for the business. Maybe she wasn't the clerk, but just someone who liked the music, I thought, after looking at several pairs and no one coming forward to assist me. Finally I asked her if she was working or just dancing in the street. She quickly, then, changed her activity and helped me look. Yes a nice size 5 black right, but the left a different model... How could she think I'd use two different styles? I know I had explained it carefully to her. I was about to give up, since i had been shopping around the area for more than two hours - and at that in simple sandals since you can't very well try on shoes wearing full leg braces, when I saw the solution. She had brought me two pairs of basic black falts with different toe decorations.....just take the shoes to the corner where there are several cobblers benches set up to make on-the-spot repairs and have them switch the bows to the correct shoes~ So paying about 30 cents to the cobbler I had the shoes I needed. And they were less than I had budgeted to pay, so with a feeling of acomplishment I treated myself to some cunape and empanadas de queso for afternoon tea. Ah, feet up, shoes off, rest for the weary shopper!

the 'great' 3-D experience

Just had to experience the new movie craze here. The 3-D pictures. To say I was disappointed is an understatatement. OF course, I can't complain with movie prices so much less her than in the US. The 3-D cost us about $6 a ticket compared to 4.50 a regular movie. And I have broken the popcorn habit and so that saves us even more.
We were handed some really nice glasses and as I sat remembering the 3-D experience we had years ago with our kids at Disney or MGM, can't remember which, with Miss Piggy and the Muppets and some really flimsy glasses I was hoping for a similar thrill. NO chance. Only a few scenes seemed to be truly 3-D and you could enjoy the movie without the glasses. No really great special effects although the comedy of the movie UP was good in most places. For me, the greatest entertainment was listening to the little girl sitting behind us comment with her mom during the movie. iI was constant chatter, a shrill, uninhibited voice truly enjoying and trying to understand all of the movie. It made me think of my own grandchildren and of times we have seen moviews together. "Why is he doing that?" 'Oh, did you see that!" "Watch out!" I smiled and hoped the mom realized what a treasure it is to spend fun times with an inquisitive child. So let's hope there's a good movie to take the grandkids to during this trip....or rent considering movie prices in the US.

the '

family happenings

It has been a busy time for us, an emotional time to be sure as we got ready for a visit from our son Andy at the end of April and then for Kate, Miguel and Javi mid June. Javier was the first of our grandchildren to visit our home here in Santa Cruz and that was especially exciting for us. I wanted everything to be just right and once they got here, it was so much fun, just having the three of them under our roof. As Javi is less than 2 years old, there isn't a lot of really 'touristy' things to do here, but we just wanted to have him in our living room playing with his cars or throwing a ball in the backyard. Then we went with them to Cochabamba, the city where Daniel and I first met, worked and lived. Seeing old friends is always an interesting experience, especially if you see someone after quite a few years. Time changes us all in many ways.
We rushed home from Cochabamba to greet family from La Paz who came to spend some vacation time with us. It is a pleasure to be able to host family and share experiences with them. Unfortunately the great weather we had with Kate and Miguel has disappeared and our highland relatives are shivering from our damp cold. They had never experienced this much cold on previous visits. And, of course, most tourist attractiions are closed. The bonfire on the night of San Juan helped ward off the bitter cold.
How I yearn for and enjoy these kinds of times with family, but I also look forward to a few days of quiet here next week as we begin to gear up for our trip to the States.
I've become rather rusty with blogging and need to relearn all of this so that I can post some pictures.

Here I Go Again

I quit blogging a couple of years ago. Not sure why, maybe I thought no one was reading. So if you read this, please comment so I don't go into a two-year silence thinking about all the things I'd like to write about, but not motivated by an audience.

In quiet evenings hunched over the computer installed in our tv room closet, I think about so many people I know, have known, wondering about the pattern of their lives. Maybe someone ocassionally wonders about mine.

Mine has become pretty simple: gardening, trying to capture a butterfly or hummingbird with the camera, always amazed at the beauty around us; working with the youngest students at a local orphanage, hoping and praying they will catch on to not only the techniques of reading, but more importantly to the joy that the printed page can bring; ocassionally working with a private student; enjoying being a homebody in our condo home, making homemade soups and baking bread; reading the newspaper in Spanish,trying to make sense of the Bolivian politics; and lastly,trying to learn to be patient with a body that is slowing down at age 60. In all of these activities, trying to live out my faith and stretch myself personally.

As I write this I have a cast on my right hand (minor surgery). So I must have REALLY wanted to get this blog up again, since I am pecking so slowly at these keys. SO here goes, I press the "publish post" page. Now how do I let people know I'm back on the web?