The Bolivians at the SCCLC
I am feeling very welcome at the Christian Learning Center,
SCCLC. I have people that are taking
care of me and treating me like family.
So I thought I would write a blog of just saying thank you. I said before, I am not mentioning complete
names; I don’t want to go to each person and ask if I can mention them in my
blog. Some people will know who these
are and others will not.
First I have to mention the guys who treated me like family
when I was here in the 80s. Carlos is
still here, married to Sandra, and their two kids are in the school. Carlo’s mom, Aida, whose has since gone to be
with the Lord, treated me like I was a family member, regularly inviting me to
dinner and once when I came back to visit, asking me to stay in their
home. Carlos is the middle child. The older son, Mario, lives in the States,
and the girl, Marisol, lives in La Paz.
They still treat me like family.
Debbie was a missionary kid when I taught her in the
80s. Today she is married to a Bolivian
pastor, Percy. They have three kids, the
oldest in college, and the younger two at the SCCLC in high school. Debbie is an American by birth, but has spent
so much of her life here, is married to a Bolivian, and is the pastor’s wife of
a Bolivian church of around 400, that she is as about Bolivian as it gets. Debbie has been continually taking care of
me, as well as giving me room to be independent here. And I love her church.
Yaskará is the school secretary. Daily she asks how I am doing in English and
expects me to respond in Spanish. If my
Spanish has errors, she corrects it. Any
time I ask her a question, she stops what she is doing and gives me her
undivided attention, even if that means taking me across campus.
Jhonny, yes that is how he spells it, works in the school
office in finances. I get a good
Bolivian handshake from him every day.
What is a Bolivian handshake? Part is what you expect, right hand
grasping right hand. The left hand that grips the right shoulder. He goes to Debbie’s church so I see him on
Sunday’s too. He and his wife lost a
baby in March, but he is never without a smile.
Rolby is the gate guard on duty during the day. Some mornings I arrive before him, but not
that often. Usually I take a taxi from
the school and he can call one for me on a walky-talky. Like these others I am mentioning here, he is
a Christian. I have been invited to his
church as well as a few others, though I think I will stick with Berea.
Martha shares a classroom with me and teaches Spanish. If you can imagine the difficulty sharing a
classroom with another teacher, she seems to make it easy. She is always with a smile and helpful
suggestions on how we can make it work.
She has a 12th grade boy I will be teaching this year. One day she brought me homemade tacos –
yummy! And she has invited me to go with
her and some friends to Samaipata this weekend.
Fernando and Mariela are one of the nicest couples I have
ever met. Both are gentle and
soft-spoken. Mariela teaches Spanish
and, with Martha, plans many of the acto civicos for the school. The acto civicos are like governmentally
established days where schools are to honor the nation, kinda like Veterans’
Day or Memorial Day. Fernando is in
charge of technology at the SCCLC. I
have been surprised that the SCCLC is as advanced as Nash Intermediate is
technologically.
Today I got to know the kindergarten and pre-kindergarten
teachers. Andrea is a beautiful young
lady that I discovered knows many of the Bolivians I know. She told a hilarious story about the year she
lived in the States, not knowing how self-service gas stations work. They are still full service here in Bolivia.
She has a bit of a run-in with the pump and found herself covered in
gasoline. She and her husband pastor a
church. Joyce is a pastor’s
daughter. In the 80s I attended Pastor
Raul’s church. I discovered today she is
a friend of his family, since her father was a member of the same church
organization. I was hoping to visit his
church one day, but discovered Pastor Raul died two years ago. He was one of the few men I called Pastor.
There are others I am just getting to know, like Matilde,who
gave me a cup of cold water today when she saw I was getting too hot. Remember what Jesus taught about giving a cup
of water in his name? There is Daniel
who will be teaching 6th grade and Ingrid and Elizabeth who work in
the office. Macario is in charge of
maintenance. And I can see a few faces
in my mind, but I don’t have the names to go with the faces yet.
I will end with the gardener, Felix. He is a little old man about half my
height. Seriously, I doubt he is over 5
feet. Every day he is meticulously
caring for the beautiful plants in the garden, and by garden I mean the school,
because it is a beautiful little garden.
When I shake hands he grasps my right hand in both his hands, smiles,
and tells me something about his garden.
When I get to Heaven I want to work in gardening and it would be an
honor to work next to Felix.
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