January 5 - I'm Home

January 5, 2017 - I’m Home

This is a repost of my blog when I first arrived home in Bolivia in July, 2016.

I was sitting in my room at the New Tribes Mission House, enjoying the breeze and listening to the sounds of the city; honking horns, whistles of guys who park cars, cars accelerating.  I could hear a parrot from somewhere around there.  The dog at the compound, Watcher, occasionally barked if someone came too close to the gate, but he is really a sweetheart.  They just don’t know that.  It was around 70 to 75 degrees, with a nice breeze blowing.  It was Saturday morning. 

Debbie and her kids, Shekinah and Joash, met me at the airport the day before.  Because the flight was coming through La Paz, they were expecting me at 10:30, three hours late.  Luckily Debbie was following my progress online and saw I came an hour earlier.  Really two hours late, but … go read yesterday’s blog.

I was so tired, but so excited to be home.  I probably talked a mile a minute on the drive to the mission house.  I was staying across the street from one of my favorite little plazas in Santa Cruz, at the New Tribes Mission House, a place that reminds me of the mission homes from the 80s.  I guess some things don’t really change.  There were trees blooming all over town, the hot pink tajibos (pronounced ta- he- bows). 

I was tired and debated what to do.  Part of me wanted to take a nice long nap, only I was afraid if I napped I would sleep until evening, so I decided on a different plan.  That started with a nice hot shower.  Then I walked to the Plaza.  First, I wanted to get a new phone.  My iPhone was locked for a few weeks, waiting on ATT.  If I want to talk or text friends here, I needed a cheap phone.  I got a nice little phone, with a lot of texting time for $70.  I might be told by someone that I spent too much, but I was mostly seeing phones for $250 or more.

I had a good lunch of empanadas at a restaurant overlooking the Plaza called La Pascana (soon this would be my favorite restaurant).  Empanadas are like a turnover, but filled with savory ingredients.  In this case, chicken.  Often in Bolivia the fillings are more like a stew filling.  At least that is my interpretation.  They are usually very juicy, but not greasy.  I had three of them for lunch and three for dinner.  The doors of the restaurant were open so I could enjoy the breeze.  It was winter here and many people were wearing sweaters or jackets, though it was only about 75 degrees.  To me the weather was perfect. 

While back at the mission house, I talked to Richard, the man in charge, about my laptop.  It has the three-pronged plug.  If I were to use it as is, I would destroy my laptop and blow out the lights at the mission house too.  So I went searching for a converter.  I saw no shops that looked like they could help me, so I strolled through Siete Calles Market in hopes of finding one.  I found a stall that sold phones and accessories, that looked promising.  A girl working there referred me to a man.  I showed him a picture of my plug and he said he could find what I was looking for.  He vanished.  The girl said he’d be back.  Five minutes later he came back with a converter. 

I went back to the Plaza later to meet a friend.  Ximena is a real estate agent and is looking for apartments for me.  She had one to show me my first day there.  It was a beautiful $600 a month apartment on the 7th floor of a building across the street from another one of my favorite little plazas with beautiful toborochis and tajibos.  The apartment was furnished, and included cable and Wi-Fi.  It was modern and clean, included cleaning and laundry service for a cheap price.  There was a convenience store on the first floor that was open till 10:00, a pool, and the roof had a 360-degree view of the city.  The roof would be a nice place to write in the mornings. 

I liked it but I wanted to wait till I saw the others she had.

But by the time I got back to the mission house I was exhausted.  It was only 7:00, but I was asleep in minutes.