Lots of Changes!

You can start reading our new blog titled Lorrenza (that's what most people call me, or Loli or Lorenz) as this one will be pretty much abandoned now. I won't post much here after this.

I ended up not being able to do anything with the au pair agencies, as the only one willing to work with Bolivia is based in La Paz and I'm not willing to live there.

We moved in with my friends, and then moved out to the 12th ring and stayed with Karl's godfather (padrino) Cristobal and his family for a while, until his padrino's son Vidal started picking on Karl too much. Machetes are not cool toys to play with! So we moved in with Elly until the school I was working for told me I had to move closer.

I taught 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades in English, all classes in English, and the subjects were English, science, social studies, and creative writing. Loved the topics, loved the kids, had a few problems with discipline (these kids do NOT want to learn, in many instances) and got super sick.

The school nurse insisted I go to the doctor's and they sent me, paid for everything, even took me there so I would know where it was at. She kept saying it was a parasite, I told her no, didn't think so, a parasite would make me hungry and lose weight, not have a lack of appetite and lose weight, plus fever, headache, exhaustion, I told her it was stress. I was so tired I was drifting off to sleep in class, standing up talking to my students. The doctor ran tests for HIV, dengue, yellow fever, which I have a shot for, TB, and parasites. Everything came back clean. He asked me what I thought it was. I told him stress. He said yes, I think so too. He told them they had to take away my worst class, and they did. 4th Green English. No reduction in pay, either.I still had them for science, though, but many of the kids were upset they were losing me for English.

English was five times a week, science only two, and for a half class at that. I didn't like the English books, though. It's a program called Thumbs Up and it had to many situations that were either way over my students' heads, or too babyish for them to take seriously. That link is to the only version I could find on Amazon, and it's for third graders. I don't expect perfection in the books I use to teach, but I do expect something realistic. These were written by UK writers (but published in Mexico, and printed in China, WOW!) and I was constantly having to explain that in America, we don't write colour, neighbour, honour, and so forth. The school had no UK teachers, only those from the USA and Canada. It wasn't just the workbooks, either, it was the readers we supplemented the class with.

Anyway, we moved back to living with my friends, but at a different location. They own two houses, and another lot. We had been living with them, right behind the family store. Now, we were back in the same house, just a different room, that we lived in when we were here in 2009. Completely different people. We could have our cats, and Karl seemed to start a collection right away.

The neighbors, mostly young guys, hated them, threatened to kill them. I told the one, who were are now friends with, (we're actually friends with all of them, even the one I had to lock in his room to get him to listen to me) that the cats were just as precious to me as his family jewels were to him, and I knew he slept outside, and was drunk quite often, so it might be best to leave the cats alone for his own children's futures. He quit messing with the cats.

The landlady gave us three baby chicks. They grew up. One is an adult, one died before he got out of chickdom, and the other, well, our friend bought him, and then ate him. Karl cried a long time over that. He didn't seem to have any problem spending the money, though, and even insisted on getting an extra 5 pesos, about 80 centsUSD out of him for the bird. Then, instead of doing as I asked, he took the five pesos outside and promptly lost it. The other is the neighborhood terrorist now. Everyone is afraid of him. Us? We walk up to him and he bows his head a couple of times, and we scold him, then grab him. Most of the time. Sometimes he runs away. Bought him two hens, and they've had several chicks each.

The neighbor guy ended up taking a liking to me, and I gave him a chance, spent a bit of time with him and then he took that inch and tried to turn it into a lifetime journey, screw the proverbial mile. He needs a post all his own. Yeah, with video even.

The neighbor guy got so bad in trying to court me that I couldn't work, got behind on the rent, and they kicked him out. He'd stand outside in the road and whistle songs to me after that. *sigh* All over a dinner we didn't even eat together. Yeah. Bolivian men are a strange kind, but some are pretty cool, like my friend Juan Pablo. He lived in the UK and speaks English.

Then, we were told we had to move. They want to build a second story onto the place where we were at. They already did the same at their place, and then the neighbor lady across the street did the same thing.

Now, we live around the block, but it took us a long time in finding it. Maybe more on that later, not sure, it's a very long story and was very tiring to go through. But, there are kids here for Karl to play with, and we can still have our cats and the chickens. Some of the people like cats, too, which is very cool.

But yes, for everything that has been going on, and I will be posting after the fact, now that I have time, thanks to a very nice-paying client, I can get caught up on everything. You can find that over at my Lorrenza blog.

Making a new profile at IZEA.com

IZEA is a platform for creative individuals to break away from their usual websites where they've been working from, and sometimes found themselves in a rut at, and hook them up with those individuals and businesses who need creative talent. I'm new there but so far it seems like a good place to be. I wasn't too impressed with WriterTown, because the sites they send people to requires setting up additional profiles, and there's also competition, with sometimes the job turning out to be a phishing for details on pricing, sample articles, and so on. Not cool. IZEA doesn't have that, and besides, it has a free version, instead of only offering a paid version like WriterTown. Plus, when I emailed WriterTown to close my account, they didn't, which got me socked for a $29 NSF fee. But anyway, here I am now, all moved to IZEA. I haven't had a chance to check the site out yet because I'm working on three articles, one on Minecraft and what parents should know, a thermal materials product review, and gasp, an article about sexual mental health, i.e. penis size and does it matter. That one is a rewrite, and wow, did the original author have some horrible English skills!

Our Move to Bolivia

My son and I first came to Bolivia in 2009 so I could work on a graduate project. We fell in love with the country and its people, and didn't want to leave, but our visas ran out and so did our money. We had to use the tickets we had to return to the USA. We planned on being back in the USA for only six months. It ended up being three and a half years! We just made it back to Bolivia at the end of May, 2013, and we're so glad we never gave up on returning. If we had, we wouldn't be here now.

When we here before, on our first trip, I learned that there are certain things we needed, and I tried to prepare by collecting or buying these things. These included an electric stove, plastic plates and bowls, a tray, cookware, a decent can opener... Important things like electrical adapters, flatware (that I had to borrow from my landlady here) and so on. The only thing I actually got to bring, thanks to my horrible roommate and her friend, our landlady, was the electric stove. Those two are an entire story all on their own. Anyway, having to buy these other items is putting a bind on what we can and can't do here at first.

If I were to do it all over again, I wouldn't let my son bring a suitcase and a half of toys. I didn't realize how many he was bringing until after we were here and we were sorting our things. Toys are much much cheaper here. I bought him two Ben 10 sets for around ten dollars! One of them was $28 in the airport, but I'm glad I knew better, and promised him the same in Mercado Seis. It was there, too, and the other set I got him, all for 70 Bolivianos, or Bs (pronounced beece, rhymes with Reece). I spent less than that on groceries, and 360 Bs on clothes to replace the ones American Airlines lost. The clothing alone was about $51 and some change.

I'm looking for work, while trying to explain to prospective employers that I can't work yet, because I have to go through immigration first, and get our first year visas. I need the letters that state I will be working for them, but not start until granted permission from immigration authorities. So there's the original job, working in my friend's daughters' school they founded, teaching English to kids. Except I haven't been able to contact them on Facebook to confirm, and the emails I've sent have bounced back. I'm going to have to visit to make sure they are still there (can't work for someone I can't find) and that they still have the school up and going.

Then there's the au pair companies who need someone to verify and test their potential au pairs on their English usage and comprehension. The oen I've been talking to the most is based in La Paz, so I'm hoping I will be able to travel and add to their base, and include Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Cochabamba and places in between, as well.

When I was reading through the BoliviaBella.com website, I found a post regarding needing teachers in Santa Cruz to work with employees of different companies. This would let these companies compete in the global market, so I'm hoping the pay will reflect that. If it does, we'll be able to buy our desired farm that much quicker. I've already spoken with the man who is starting the service up, and another lady who will also be teaching with him. He's a native Bolivian, and she's from New York, but has lived in Indiana, which is where I am from. I got an email from her earlier and she is the best friend of the lady who runs the BoliviaBella website, so we might have already met at Thanksgiving in 2009.

But why Bolivia? A few years ago, a good friend of mine who has been like a second mom to me for many years (yes, I call her Mom) posted on Facebook that she was moving to Bolivia to start an orphanage. I'd been unhappy in the States for some time, and had always wondered about people who moved from one country to another. My first 'boyfriend' in elementary school was from Trinidad, so to me it was quite normal to just pack up and move from one country to another. But when I was presented with the opportunity to actually go to Bolivia to do some data collection for my graduate project, I jumped at it. We loved it so much we didn't want to leave, but had to. Now, we're back, and we definitely want to stay.

You can do things in Bolivia that you can't in the States. I don't mean just little things, either, like get great tans and fresh air. It's important things like controlling your own food production, or at least knowing the food you are buying in the store is good for you. No additives, no hormones, no antibiotics added to the meat. Chicken actually tastes like chicken here! And the laundry soap is better, too, by the way.

When I get enough money saved up, which is always fun because I'm self employed, we're going to be able to buy a farm close by to where we are now. Walking or biking distance. Read: self-sufficient! Big time self-sufficient. I've already gotten seeds for luffa, kiwi, tomatoes, and many other vegetables. Even have tobacco seeds. Flower seeds, too. Two big bags full of seeds. There are three growing seasons here, not just one, so I'll be able to get quite a bit grown, and that means nice easy money doing something I love to do. My son wants to have chickens, so we'll have that, too, and that's extra income, plus we get to consume part of the product there, as well. Plus there's still teaching, and comprehension assessments for the au pair agencies, also.

You can start reading our new blog titled Lorrenza (that's what most people call me, or Loli or Lorenz) as this one will be pretty much abandoned now. I won't post much here after this. 

Dirreciones a mi casa en Santa Cruz de la Sierra

More Pics!

   

La Paz at night.

 Sunrise in La Paz airport.

 Mountains between La Paz and Santa Cruz.

Arrival at Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, South America

Karlitos in front of the Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz yesterday morning.

We're on Our Way!

Grandma Dolly got us to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and even though the staff wanted to argue with me about the bike trailer going free, it went free.  Here's the link they couldn't find, though.   It's down towards the bottom, if you want to see it, hit ctrl+f and type in "Stroller Acceptance For a Ticketed or Lap Child" and at seven years old, he's definitely a ticketed child.

All three filghts were great, the airports themselves were ok, with the exception of Chicago's O'Hare.  I found out later, after dumping a bag in the bathroom, and throwing away a bunch of books, and our favorite blanket, that the AA people at O'Hare flat out lied to me.  Lazy butts!!!  When I calm down, I'm calling to complain.

Karl made friends with a young man going with a group on a missions trip to Bolivia.

More pics soon!

Also, the day before we left, Grandma Judy got me a  new laptop and a MagicJack. You might want one, too, before going overseas.
 Here's a review I wrote a while back on ReviewStream.com about MagicJack.

Sudden Move

Paid the bills today and half an hour later, there's a knock on the door.  Someone called in about Cubby barking.  It's Animal Care and Control.  She saw the cats, and called her supervisor.  He came in and called City Code.  The came out and called CPS.  City Code condemned the house.  Here I am with CPS and about a dozen other people in the house, so I got bold, and told the CPS lady she had to help us.  And she did.  She got us out of there, and quick.  We ended up at the Y Shelter for Domestic Violence.  Everything is going to be ok now.  The entire time, I'm praying.  It works!

Bought the Tickets Today!

Yup, I bought the tickets to Bolivia.  It's gonna happen!  We're MOVING back!!!