God's Pruning

These past two weeks have been wonderful, crazy busy, and hard too. Last blog, I discussed in my blog how I had struggled to figure out what to do at times bcause the garden wasn't keeping me busy at the moment while we were waiting for everything to grow. That all changed now. Suddenly everything took off, and I could hardly keep up. I have chosen to write this blog post in a bit of a journal format going day by day through last week.

Friday was a very busy day. Sophia and I had the blessing of too many grapefruits and oranges for the two of us to eat before they went bad. So I decided to make juice. Squeezing that many grapefruits by hand gets a bit tiresome after a while, but the juice was sure good. In the afternoon, I had a garlic bread-making session with Laney, an SM teacher who wanted to learn how to make garlic bread. It turned out really well.

Below: It takes a lot of grapefruits just to make a couple bottles of juice.

We have started a tradition where every Friday night we have a student missionary get-together after the kids are in bed. We eat yummy food, enjoy getting to sing songs in English, and debrief about how our weeks were. Ever since our first get-together when I brought garlic bread, everyone has decided that we must have lots of yummy food at our get-togethers. Last Friday night, everyone ended up bringing food without realizing that the others were also bringing food. We ended up having cornbread, chocolate chip cookies, garlic bread, Italian oregano bread, chocolate bread, granola, and fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. It was truly a delicious and unexpectedly huge feast.

Below: Our unexpected SM feast :)

Sabbath was lovely because it was one of the first Sabbaths I have had here where I am not leading in the service. Although I enjoy leading out, it is nice to get a break sometimes. For two of the weeks since getting here, I have found out on Friday that I was supposed to preach the next day, on Sabbath. One time I found out on Friday afternoon, and the other time I found out around 10:30 pm on Friday. That did not provide an ideal amount of time to prepare a sermon. Needless to say, I breathed a bit of a sigh of relief when I was not assigned to preach this week last-minute.

Below: At church with Diego :)

Every Sabbath lunch, I eat at the Flores house. We made rice, lentils, and salad for lunch — a pretty typical meal for Familia Feliz. I always have to skim lots of bugs off of the top of the water while the rice is boiling because they like to live in the rice bin. Later that afternoon, I brought out my guitar and enjoyed playing and singing songs with the little girls.

Below: Playing a song with Pinkie.

One thing that is so cute about the Flores’ little girls is that they love trying to copy our English sentences. Lauren (one of the Flores' house parents) decided to teach them to say "Hey girl, what's up?", and they absolutely love saying it now. Since they do not know what the phrase means in English, they even greet the male sm's with a cheerful "Hey girl, what's up?". We find it quite amusing.

Below: Joanna and Raica in their pathfinder uniforms. Two of the girls who love to copy our English phrases.

Later that Sabbath evening, a beautiful storm blew in and cooled things off a bit. There was so much wind, and the little boys loved playing in it. The entire girls' side of campus was empty because the girls were hiding in their houses from the wind. But the little boys saw the wind as a great opportunity and promptly grabbed plastic bags, attached them to strings, and flew their “kites”.

On Sunday, I really meant to do my laundry, but somehow it did not happen. I spent my morning planning for the week in the garden and making pasta and sauce with Sophia for lunch. Then in the afternoon, we pulled most of the kids together and had an SM jam session while the kids played in the field with a soccer ball. Kelsey, a house parent in the Flores house, brought several violins with her in hopes of teaching the kids how to play. We enjoyed trying to play fiddle tunes together on the cheap, tiny violins. Then I went to water the garden and found a rip in the hose. By the time Teacher Hafet, one of the long-term volunteers, got it fixed enough for me to water the plants, it was dark and mosquitos were everywhere. I have found that I really hate watering plants once the sun goes down, because so many bugs come out.

That evening, I did not want to hop in the cold shower, but I was dirty from the garden and needed a shower. At times, I love the cold showers here because it is usually so hot, but when the weather decides to cool down a little, the cold showers are brutal. This was one of the brutal nights. It was 71 degrees, and I’m sure you are realizing now that my body has definitely acclimated to the hot weather for me to find 71 cold. The cold shower made me absolutely freeze. It also did not help that partway through, I looked up at the ceiling to see a large tarantula, about the size of my hand, enjoying the humidity of the shower as well. That tarantula is one of 2-3 that live in our house. I finished that shower extra quickly because of the cold water and the “friend” that had decided to join me.

Below: We have lots of tarantulas who live in our house. Here is one outside of my mosquito net at night.

Monday, after my regular gardening duties (watering, thinning plants etc.), I went and watched the Lillas house for a bit for Carlie since her co-parent, Emilie, was gone on her day off. I helped make bread dough and generally supervised her girls and 2 year old, Santi. Then Carlie and I made enough breadsticks to feed the house of 20 girls and 1 boy. They turned out so well that they were even reminiscent of Olive Garden breadsticks, so we will definitely be making them again.

Below: The breadsticks!

Below: Santi wanted to watch the breadstick making process. :)

That evening, I decided it was time to start fighting the leaf-cutter ants because they have gotten to a few of my plants. They haven't done anything major, but they were starting to get a taste for some of the squash plants the kids planted with Teacher Hafet before I arrived. I started trying different strategies to try to convince them to move elsewhere. As I watched them, I was amazed at them and their abilities. If they weren't a threat to my plants, I would think they were quite amazing. If you ever get some free time, do some quick research on the leaf-cutter ant, and I think you will agree with me that they are impressive.

Below: The leaf-cutter ants at work! The black dots are the ants and the green spots are the leaves they’re carrying.

Tuesday, I did more garden work and some weeding with the kids in the morning. In the afternoon, we got a delivery of oranges, so I sorted those oranges with the older girls. One thing God is teaching me here, is to be okay with taking life slower. Between the girls and a couple other volunteers, it took a solid 20 minutes just to decide how they were going to divide the oranges among the houses. And then took nearly a whole hour in total to divide and take all of the oranges to the houses with 8+ girls helping. Work is much more of a social event here than in America. I am learning to appreciate the opportunities to build relationships when the focus is not so much getting the work done in a timely manner, but instead taking our time and enjoying the process with each other. The girls managed to practice extreme self-control and only eat one orange each after they had finished sorting them instead of eating about three each while they were supposed to be sorting. I was very proud of their accomplishment.

Below: Several of the Lillas girls leading song service on Pathfinder Sabbath.

Then I headed to help Kelsey at the Flores becuase her co-parent, Lauren, was on her day off. We made cornbread, beans, and rice for supper. While the cornbread was baking, one of the older girls found me and pulled me aside. She whispered that it was her friend's birthday today, and she was wondering if I could take her to the store to get a gift for the friend. I said yes, and we headed to the store with three other girls tagging along. This "store" is not what you may be picturing. It is a small room with a roof made out of tree branches and a floor made out of dirt. It is right across the street from Familia Feliz, and we love taking the kids there for a little treat sometimes. Those four girls stocked up on lots of snacks, gum, and popsicles they were going to give to their friend for her birthday. I was so happy when the girls asked me to go to the store with them, because I have been praying for opportunities to connect better with them. I think the Lillas house is the most difficult to truly connect with, partially because it is a rather hard stage of life for the girls, and they are also very tired of American volunteers trying to speak their broken Spanish to them (understandably so). Hence, I am very happy that I am becoming friends with them. When we walked back, I went to the Flores to continue helping Kelsey. At worship that evening, the two littlest ones in the house couldn't keep their eyes open any longer and both fell asleep on me. After the girls were put to bed, I once again dumped boiling water down the ant holes and tried some ant killer on their holes and pathways in hopes that something would work.

Below: Pictures from our store excursion. In the first two photos, you can see the gate and entrance to Familia Feliz in the background.

Wednesday was a full day. On Monday and Wednesday mornings, the girl SM's have been trying to get together to workout at the Lillas house. We thoroughly enjoy that time together, and we know it is good for us to exercise frequently. All of the kids are at school during that time, except for Santi since he has not started school yet. He got lots of entertainment out of watching us do so many exercises and even getting down on the floor for push-ups and other exercises at times. He always stands watching us when we workout, with a very confused look on his little face. We imagine that he is thinking that the girl SM's act awfully weird while the kids are gone at school.

Below: A picture of me, Carlie, and Kelsey squished in a tiny taxi. They are two of the girls who come to the workout.

Then, I ate lunch at the Leones. Hermana Emi (the permanent house mom of the Leones) is so kind to feed me lunch everyday. This particular day, I was a bit late getting to lunch, so she had already made up my bowl by the time I arrived. Unfortunately, she rather largely miscalculated the amount that I was actually going to eat, and, because it is very rude to not finish your food here, I had to stuff myself with tons of food. It was very yummy, but much more than I had room for. Consequently, nearly five hours later, I still felt entirely stuffed full of food and had no desire for supper. I did lots of laundry in the afternoon for a couple hours.

Then, I went to clear a field with machetes with the older boys. We are preparing to plant a lot of fruit trees in that field as a long-term investment in the food sustainability of Familia Feliz. It was incredibly hot and hard work, and after the boys had each eaten several oranges they found on a tree, they were a big help as well. (As you may be gathering, citrus is generally the enemy of work here since it is much more desirable to eat an orange than machete a field.) At the end, the boys all teased me because I had only ripped skin off of one of my fingers by the handle of the machete rubbing on it. They enjoyed teasing me that I clearly must not have been working hard enough because all of them had at least two spots with the skin rubbed off. Then, I went to work thinning , transplanting, and weeding with the older girls. It was a beautiful, cool evening, and although I had a bit of trouble getting them to work at first, we eventually got a lot done. It helped that there were no citrus trees near the garden to tempt them to eat instead of work.

Below: A rather blurry photo of Teacher Hafet helping the us machete clear the field.

That evening, I finished watering with Teacher Gaby (my assigned garden helper) and one of the girls who came to hang out with us. I also found that the ant poison worked, and I think we have successfully eradicated the colonies that are near enough to the garden to be a threat.

And that brings me to Thursday, my day off, which is when I started writing this blog. I want to close this blog post by sharing something that God has been teaching me this week: Teacher Gaby and I started pruning the orange trees this week. It was so hot outside, but I enjoy pruning a lot, so that made it more pleasant. As I worked, I was struck by the symbolism in pruning, and I now see more clearly why Jesus uses it as an object lesson in the Bible. As we prune the orange trees, we are doing several things. We shape the tree by cutting branches that are growing in the wrong directions. If the branches bend towards the ground, for example, they will eventually bring disease or pests to the tree by touching the ground. We also have to de-clutter the branches by taking out branches that are making it hard for air to get through the tree. It’s important to keep good airflow by taking those branches out to prevent fungi and pests from getting in the tight spaces and hurting the tree. We also cut off any branches that are dead. All of this cutting does two things: it promotes leaf and fruit growth, and it makes the tree so much more beautiful, clean, and prepared to bear fruit.

Below: Looking over part of the garden before much was growing, and on the far left side you can see the orange orchard we are pruning.

It amazes me to think that there are so many similarities between that tree and me. At times, God allows me to go through difficult experiences that may hurt at the time, but will ultimately prove to have been so worthwhile in the future. When He “prunes” us, He is preparing us to bear more fruit and grow to become more beautiful, strong, and healthy followers of Jesus. My time in Bolivia has definitely included some “pruning”, but I am so grateful that God is growing and shaping me into a spiritually healthier, stronger person who will hopefully be able to bear more and more fruit for Him and His kingdom. Currently, I’m in a bit of a pruning phase as for almost all of this week, I have been sick with dengue. (Hence why I did not write much about this week yet.) Thankfully, in times of pruning God gives us the strength and the people we need to help us get through it. He is continuing to prove Himself faithful to me time and again, and for that I am so grateful!

Below: We managed to squish 7 people into a tiny Torito (3 wheeled taxi), for the 30-40 minute drive back to Familia Feliz from town.