Fail

i havn´t been up to a whole lot the last couple days. today was two big events in bolivia. the bolivian election and the final futbol (soccer) game from japan. my brother here invited all his friends over last night and they slept in the t.v. room. last night they were out throughing eggs at cars or something. this morning at 7 am the game started. i woke up a little late and only watched the last half. brazil beat germany two to zero. it was cool, everytime brazil scored fireworks went off all over the city. today was also the election, and that means nothing is open and there are no cars on the street. there are a bunch of teenagers playing fubitu (soccer with a small ball) down in front of this apartment. actually they have been there almost all day, i think i will go watch in a bit. i went for a walk to get some stuff i left at toms house and it was pretty cool because i didnt have to be careful to cross the street like i usually do. there was also no church today. earlier i walked with my parents to where they voted. i dont know if i mentioned this in my last post but i think i forgot to say about the day we were leaving for the altiplano a bomb went off a couple blocks down from toms house. i walked by and there were police there and everything but i couldnt figure out what had happened. then later someone told me and i went back with john and investigated. almost every window in someones house was blown out, even at the back of the house. it broke a wooden gate, so it must have been somewhat powerful. i guess no one was hurt though.

jordan, it is good you graduated, have fun in ontario. i am at another internet cafe with some other white people. i just got back from a place called ante which is a small village in the altiplano. the altiplano is a big plane high in the andys mountains. i left a week ago before that i did some cool things but i cant remember them all because it has been so long. but i remember my trip to the cancha (the big market) with a guy andrew. we walked around and bought some underwear and stuff for our trip into the country (the altiplano which i was just talking about). after we bought patatoes and meat on a stick which some lady was selling on the side of the street. it was pretty good. we sat down to eat it on this cement thing in a very very busy area and some lady offered us some seats. they were just those little fold up lawn chair things but they were okay. she asked us where we were from, and some other people came over and talked to us for a bit. we bought this orange juice that this guy was sqeezing. all pure oranges for only 1 boliviano (which is only a couple cents). we asked for disposable cups but he didnt have any, he said the glass ones were clean (yah right). some other guy came over and tried to sell us some braclets, which i ended up buying one, actually i am still wearing it. oh yah, and also before our trip to the altiplano me and andrew also hung around with lisa again (the girl from england) we ate at this restaurant called casa de campo (country house) i ordered pato (duck) that night my stomach was nasty to me, and my mother here said it might have been because duck is hard to digest if you eat it right before bed. oh, i just read the end of my last post and i didnt write about the orphanage. the orphanage was probably my highlight of bolivia, i might go back there later next week. me and two other girls went there. it is a great place, kids stay there who´s mothers are in prison. (the kids elsewise would have to stay in the prisons too) we took the kids back to the prison (they only stay at the orpanage for 8 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon) and usually i dont think people are allowed in the prison (not guys anyway, its a all ladies prison) but shirley (the lady who runs the orphanage) said pick up and kid and just walk in, so that is what we did. oh and one day i walked just by myself up to to the christo (a big statue of jesus up on a hill) there i took a few pictures. these people said some things in english, so i decided to talk to them. anyway, now about my trip to the altiplano. well, before we left the two jeeps we were going to take (gregs and toms) both got the windows stolen out of them, on seperate occasions. so because of that we didnt know if we would be going or not. but, they ended up getting their windows back, off the the stolen market. the stolen market is what the missionaries call the used store which sells stolen things. anyway, we left and drove for quite a while, it was pretty fun because it was alot offroad driving and the there was a lot of dust. i was in tom´s jeep and for some parts we drove on greg´s tail with the lights off because it was actually easier too see that way, since there was so much dust and the moon was pretty bright too. sometimes the road would dissapear in front of us and we would hit a bush, that was pretty funny. we ended up in the place we were staying at like 2 in the morning i think, it was real cold. sleeping was pretty cold too, but not as cold as when we had to sleep in tents, which i will tell about in a second. anyway, the first day we were there we went to a church conference. (which is like where a bunch of people come from all different churches) anyway we went there and our group did much the same thing as chapary (the jungle area). they also sang alot and there was preaching. we had a meal of soup and llama. anyway, the next day we went to a place where we were putting a roof on a church and putting down flooring and stuff. that is where we stayed for two nights and it was pretty cold, i had to use lots of blankets. oh yah, back track a bit, we also stopped in a city called oruro on our way to the altiplano. there we borrowed some blankets which was a good thing. anyway, yah so for a few days we worked on the church. for part of the second day i was feeling sick so i slept alot. before we left the place where we were building the church some of our stuff went missing. we offered money and to who could find it and it showed up. (except my hand sanitiser and work gloves, which someone said some lady had them but no one at the time knew whos they were) anyway, after the church we went and piled these rocks for some reason. we were pretty dirty. that night we sent off fire works and it scared the sheep and they knocked over their rock fence. it was pretty funny, no sheep ran out though they just knocked over the fence, then we repaired it. in the small villiages the people will come and stare in your windows. i guess they want things. we gave someone some bread and all of a sudden out room was filled with people, that was cool. after we left the altiplano we were heading for lapaz (a big city here) and tom had a flat tire, and we used up the spare. we hit this big hold and a chunk of bone popped the tire. anyway, later tom got a leak in his gas tank so we couldnt go to lapaz. tom went back home, and greg drove us to this resort with hot sulfur bath springs, it was pretty good. it was good to get clean. then this morning we came home. greg also got a flat tire. when we got back we went to the cancha (the market) and i bought a new wallet as mine is garbage, and i also bought a shirt which is too small for me. am i supposed to but things for people at home?

for some strange reason i cause my computer to not work way to easily. I think it is a sign that i shouldn't use it so much, but after a week or more of not using it i have finally got it going again, i have yet to find out whats wrong with my other hard drive , but i will probably find that out soon enough. I leave 2 full days before I leave, my room is a wreck, because i have half packed my stuff the rest is laying on my bed. dresser or floor. What to do next year what to do???

I Graduated suprisingly. I landed with a fifty in the course that i needed. Safegrad was fun i mostly played basketball and walk around. There was some crazy army dude on the base climbing along the window sill on the second floor of a building while we were there. everyone was yelling for him to jump, he ripped off the screen to a window and smashed his arm through, when he came outside i tried to explain to the stupid guy that he was bleeding. anyhow, prom was last nite, i didn't have a date but i hooked up with a chic for a couple dances. The party afterwards was pretty crazy, i remained fairly relaxed despite the many disfunctional people. I go away to Kingston, On. on monday, canada day. i went to court a while back for the snowmobile i was guilty but didn't have to pay the fine because i didn't have full time employment, and it was a confusing issue as well it was my first veichle i had own, the judge also felt that i didn't appear to be the type of guy looking to beat the system. ( i had a shirt an tie on that day) I fell off my bicycle tonite when i when a little of the side of the road and fetch up in rut where the side of the road was washed away. my dad said i flew about 15 feet, it was good that i summer saulted so i only got a couple small cuts on my hands. my helmet got slightly cracked too.

I am not totally sure but i think this is what jochi is.

one thing i forgot to say in the last post was that i played some bolivian futbol(soccer) which was pretty fun, it was pretty dusty though. anyway, yesterday (saturday) we went to the jungle. we were pretty crouded, like sardines in the vehicle. the jungle was pretty nice it is very different from where i am right now, and very different from the mountains. when we got to the jungle we stopped at a restaurant where i ordered something called a Jochi (pronounced Hochie) it was pretty good, they told me after it is the world´s largest rodent. anyway, in the jungle it is very muggy and you feel sticky. it had rained before we got there so the trails we hikes on and the roads were somewhat muddy. we went down this one trail (they charged me 15 bolivianos to take my camera) and saw some mokeys. one of the guys had a package of crackers and a monkey jumped on him and took the crackers and started eating them on the guys shoulder. when he tried to stop the monkey, the monkey smacked him in the head it was pretty funny. after we went down the trail a little further we found a lot of monkeys and they climbed all over you, trying to find food or whatever. i was chewing gum and a monkeys reached into my mouth and tried to steal it, it didnt taste good. then after that he climbed down into my sweater and came out the bottom. the monkeys would reach right into your pockets looking for things. anyway, after we hiked for a bit Tom (the missionary who took us) started running so me and a couple other guys tried to keep up with him, it was difficult to run because it was so muddy. there was also these big parott birds in a cage. the cage was covered with a tarp but up and the top it wasn´t and there was a ladder there so i moved the ladder over to where i could get a good picture of a yellow bird. then after i climbed up and was trying to get a picture lined up a guy said, look to your right. there was a big red bird there that could have taken like my fingers off in one chomp, scared me. anyway, i got some pictures hopefully they turn out okay, i finished 2 rolls today i might go somewhere and get them developed soon. after the trail we went to the church and they had a service where they greeted us. we did a drama that went actually quite well. then someone explained it. someone who knows spanish quite well gave their testemony. we sang them some english songs, and tried to sing some songs in spanish for them. after that we played some games and went to bed. today we woke up and walked down to a market that didnt seem too special. after that we went on another hike and some some caves and different trees and stuff. then we went and bought some snacks at a market place. i bought some bread which were out in the open and had lots of flies eating off of it. i also ate some cheese, which hasn´t done too much to me yet but who knows. after we ate we went down to this river where a girl from the team was baptised. Casiano (a spanish pastor who the girl is living with) baptised her. The river was called the holy spirit river, so that was pretty neat. umm, then we came back to cochabamba and had some pizza. tomorrow the group isnt doing anything so i think after my spanish class i might go to an orphanage here if i can find it. that´s it.

tomorrow we are leaving for chapary the jungle area at nine thirty a.m. the last two days we´ve gone out to the bible school and help do some work making cement sidewalks. Tom(a missionary here) brought them a cement mixer but they only used it for a while, it was faster to do it by hand. the people at the school never drink liquids with their meals, it causes for a pasty mouth and i have to find some simba(a pop here) to wet the starch foods. we had a couple different kinds of drinks they made today, they had a fruit type drink that was okay and they had like a oatmeal tasting water drink that was good. they had a few good wheel barrels with rubber wheels but they also had a few that had metal wheels. we are practicing a drama to do in chapary, we did it at the bible school tonight it went okay. it is like one of those silent plays that has a meaning which is explained after it is over. well, that is about it.

ive been pretty busy lately. umm, okay last thursday it was a girls birthday and the family she is staying with was having a birthday party so we all went there and ate some tastey cake and played hacky sack. last friday we went to these two villiages and went to these old catholic churches. they are still being used and everything. in one of the towns there was a parade going on, it was some sort of religious parade with fireworks and a preist guy was burning insense or something. it was interesting. on saturday we sorted used clothes which are going to be given to people in chapary which is the jungle area of bolivia and that is also where we are going this saturday coming up. sunday i went to church and then i went to the cancha which is the big market, i bought a superman tshirt and also a blue one. it was interesting, i like shopping here, i will probably buy some bolivian type things later. monday i had an extra spanish class where i missed a couple last week when i went to poquata. after i came back to the apartment i was staying at my family was out so they left a key for me with the gate opener guy(freddy) but it was the wrong key so i was locked out. so i decided to walk down to the IC norte which is the supermarket here and get some food. i saw charlie one of the missionaries here and he got me to buy some octopus in a can with garlic sause. i tried them the next day, besides the stink they were mighty fine. anyway, after the IC norte i went to charlies house and ate supper there, we had chips with bean dip and cheese and halopania peppers. it was a tastey meal. tuesday i ate at a restaurant with the group. someone ordered a super barito and a big huge salad and i said if they ate it all i would buy them a banana split. i didnt think they would eat it all because it was pretty big, but they did. after that we went to sort more clothes and we finished that. after me and a guy from the group went to a cafe called the metropolis cafe and we had some pizza and some smoothies. they were busy and the pizza took a while to cook so we asked for some cards and played some cards while waiting. we were there to meet up with this girl from England who has been traveling for 4 months around south america, her name is Lisa. she showed us her pictures and told us about her trip. today we had a team meeting and prayer meeting. umm what else.. ive been playing lots of mario cart on the nintendo with people i live with. some of the people in the group have gotten some pictures developed. we talked to a taxi driver about christianity. oh, one of the guys from the group is staying in like a palace, i went to where he is staying the other day. anyway, that is about it i am heading to bed. oh i think tomorrow we are doing some work at the bible school here fixing something, but i am not sure i guess i will find out in the morning.

Two exams left a chemistry one and a Culinary technology one. not too much studying involved in the second one, but as for the first one i may need to study through osmosis. I will remember to keep my books open when i go to sleep. I doubt that will work so i will probably try an read over the review.As for finding a lady for the prom. thats next on the agenda along with buying a suit for the occaision, someone gave me the advice that everyone in grade eleven wants to go, so i should try an hook up with one of those ladies. it i get rejected ask ask again.hopefully someone will say yes. The plane leaves July first. The other night I was promoted to Corporal. i guess that means they expect me behave more responsible. Me and Andrew are in the same platoon for our course, hopefully the same room too, that will be found out soon. I just went bicking out to passakeag and back and the May flies were late this year. the frost early tismorning was crazy as well. something to remember about american money and coincidences of events in the states.

Keep us posted

ive been kinda busy lately not much time to write emails or edit this or whatever. sunday i kinda had like a flu or something that kinda sucked because i had to sleep alot. then sunday night greg muir asked me if i wanted to go on a few day trip with him up into the mountains to a villiage called poquata. anyway, so i felt good enough to go. we went up it took about 7 or 8 hours to get there i think. it was a nice village, i thought the roads were pretty crazy as they were strait down on one side. but, the next day we went out farther where the roads were not even as good as those ones. it was fun. with us went greg, me, john (who is a missionary here) and canciono(who is a pastor) and his wife Elli. The reason we went out was to take John out who was staying out there. anyway, i had to sleep in the same bed as john, which was alright for a couple nights. oh, also caciono´s sister and this other guy domicio came some of the way with us. domicio was a nice guy he was missing hand but can still ride a motor bike. he goes across the mountains telling people about Jesus. so tuesday we went a ways past poquata to a villiage where there was a little school and we visited it and Greg told them about the coloredless book in spanish and some of the local people came to greet us. we gave them some school supplies and stuff too. then we went to this house where they let me help skin a sheep. then we ate it, it tasted okay. they also cooked some potatoes buried the ground. like they light a fire then put the potaoes on then cover it with some sand. they let me help dig them out, it burnt my fingers a bit. they told me to eat one, it tasted alright but it was gritted coming out of the sand, and my hands were all black. we also ate some llama. i ate some of the corn but i stayed away from the salad Greg said it might be bad on the stomach. actually on the way to poquata we stopped at a tole bridge and an old lady was selling some cheese and corn. we bought some, it didn´t give me diareah but it made my stomach pretty strange feeling. john was hitting the baño quite a bit, he said, ¨no more cheese from the old ladies¨ it was pretty funny. we had some other tastey food like this peach drink which was okay. umm, coming back some of the country people had blocked the main road. so we went down this dirt road but they blocked it too. then we went down this four wheeler type road that had some pretty steep parts, greg had it in four wheel drive low geer and we hardly made it. he said it was the steepest road he had been on. anyways, we got back after a while it was a fun adventure. i will write about thursday onward later as i am going to go watch a movie.

well school is going today. only 2 days four hours left.

yah im still in bolivia. this morning i got up and went to the hospital in a town outside cochababma. it is where Mario my father works. He´s been going to work lately to look at these twins that were born. I went in the hospital and he got a needle in the butt to help his sore throat. i thought it was kinda weird to get a needle just for a sore throat but the thing is he works with a lot of pregnant women and babies so he cant really afford to be sick. then we went to the market on the corner and it was pretty nice, we bought some fruits and vegetables. i took a picture of that. later i went to Chito´s (my brother) school. There was some people playing this game like soccer except with a small, hard ball and is played on a basketball court. we watched them for a bit, and he showed me around his school. it is cool, its like a big courtyard in the center with two basketball courts in it. and then all the classrooms are around the outside. i took a picture of that too. Anyway just a little while ago i went out to eat at this restaurant, i ate a lot! Tengo mucho llano. I am really full. tomorrow they are going to make peanut soup, which kinda sounds weird but they tell me it is really good. next weekend they said they would take me out to a restaurant where they make really good meat and they will give me some hearts or something like that. they said they would wait until my body got used to stuff here and i wouldnt get too sick or something. oh yah and i took my first taxi here down the road. the taxis here are white with a green stripe. tomorrow will my first time going to church here. i think next week i am going to start doing more things with the team i came with, like do ministry in the parks, and other stuff. hmm, some spanish... estoy muy bonito y tengo un grande nariz chau