Outside My Southern Comfort Zone: Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias

This is a common sight here in Bolivia. A Cholita carrying her baby on her back.

This week I learned a great lesson. Just when I thought I have found the best chicken place in the world I stumbled across an even better place that I automatically fell in love with. The lesson I learned is that even though you think you have found the best place, you still have to try new places because you may stumble across a restaurant that will knock your socks off. This place was amazing. They fix pollo a la leña. Basically it is a rotisserie chicken but cooked with a wood fire. When I walked in, I already knew that it was my new favorite restaurant because of the smell. It smelt like walking into Hillsborough BBQ. My mouth was watering as I was waiting for my plate. And when I finally got to take my first bite I was speechless. If you ever come to visit me in Bolivia I will definitely have to take you there….. You can tell that Christmas is getting near here in La Paz. Everywhere people are setting up Christmas trees and Christmas lights are strung across the streets and store front windows. Justus and I mustered up the will power to decorate our Christmas tree in our office. It was SO MUCH FUN…. I am really excited to see how the Christmas season is here in La Paz.

My new Favorite Restaurant

Doesn't that chicken just look amazing?

This Picture needs no words.

This week we had Atapi with many of the families from our project. Atapi is kind of like a potluck lunch. There were about 150-200 people there and many brought typical Bolivian dishes. Justus and I were a little afraid to eat because we didn’t want to upset our stomachs. But it was a great time with the families and talking to them. It kind of reminded me of Thanksgiving and since it was the day after. This was my first day in my life ever working on Thanksgiving Day (Bolivia does not celebrate Thanksgiving, it is an American holiday). It was no problem though. I was still able to celebrate on Saturday with a bunch of people from church. Everyone prepared some different dishes and we ate very well. I prepared my pumpkin cheese cake but I did not have pumpkin, so instead I used Zapallo. It is like pumpkin but different. Also, I fixed Homemade Stuffing and some amazing Homemade Gravy to pour on top of everything. I was thoroughly impressed with how they turned out. It can be pretty difficult to cook certain dishes here in La Paz because you can’t always find the things you need. Not as convenient as it is in the States. Tonight the Germans and we Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving with a feast. We are preparing many of the traditional Southern thanksgiving foods and deserts. I am truly excited to be able to share their first Thanksgiving with them. Should be an interesting event indeed!

Our Thanksgiving Lunch with People from church.

After Thanksgiving Comatose.

A lot of families putting their food on the table for Atapi.

So we didn’t have a turkey like I said we would. It is a little more difficult than we thought it would be. Turkey is very expensive here. A small turkey would cost around 100 dollars. So we just went with the cheaper option (CHICKEN). I was in El Alto in the middle of nowhere searching for a family last week when I heard a familiar sound. It sounded like a turkey gobbling. Then I heard a hen clucking. I had to find out where this noise was coming from. So I walked around the dirt roads looking. Finally, I turned a corner to see a gobbler and a hen sitting on the side of the road. I crept slowly by them as they glared at me. I was pondering catching the gobbler and bringing him to the house, but it was a 2-3 hour ride home in minibus. I thought it would not work out to well for me, so I returned empty handed.

Random Turkeys in El Alto.

So this past week Justus received a donation from Germany. His mother collected 530 dollars from their church in Germany to donate to help some of our families. We used the money donated to buy some desperately needed things for some of our lesser fortunate families. I spoke of a family in an earlier blog that has 9 members. A mother and her 8 children. All 9 of them live in a small room and slept on 3 very thin mattresses on the floor at night. So with some of the money we bought a bunk bed. We tried to call the family to let them know we were bringing it to them but their phone did not work (I have run in to this problem many times). Luckily I remembered where her house was. We loaded the bed on top of a taxi and headed to their house. Finally at their house we knocked on the door and waited hoping they were home. Once the mother opened the door she saw what we had brought. We toted it into the small room and began assembling the pieces. It was a little difficult putting it together with the limited amount of room but we got it assembled and slid into place. They seemed very grateful that now they did not have to sleep on the floor. It was a great feeling to be able to take someone’s donation and use it to help a family in need.

What the Family use to sleep on.

Waiting at the door with the new bed.

Justus and I assembling the bunk bed.

Bunk Bed completed.

Looks like she chose the top bunk.

Happy Photo

The next day we had 2 families meet us in El Alto at La Feria. It’s like a giant flea market. We met them and walked until we found the place that sold small stove tops. Both of these families did not have anything to cook on other than fire. And they both have many people to feed in their families. They were extremely grateful for these gifts because they badly needed something to cook on but were not able to afford them. Afterwards, we started searching for another bunk bed to buy to donate to another family with many children. We finally came across a nice bunk bed and bought it. Then we searched for a taxi. After bargaining a price we loaded everything on top of the taxi and headed for the other family. Luckily, I kind of remembered where this family was to. We were only lost for a few minutes… Again we knocked on the door and waited for an answer. The mother was not home but many of the kids were. We hauled all the pieces in and assembled it while the kids watched. They were so excited to try out their new bed. It is amazing how someone so far away can help to make a difference here in Bolivia by taking the initiative to collect some money to send here and help. I hope we have more of these opportunities in the future to buy some direly needed things for these families. Thank You to all who donated to help these families!