April 7, 2017 - Writing Break in Samaipata

A Writing Break in Samaipata

You make plan after plan, thinking all your time will be spent writing, but things get in the way. 

My friends, Fernando and Mariela, have a beautiful little house in Samaipata, Bolivia.  Samaipata is still in the Santa Cruz province, but a three hour drive out of the plains and into the mountains.  It is a small place of just 4000 people.  It looks like the old Bolivia that I knew in the 80s.  Houses are simple, in most cases.  Streets are relatively quiet (you can walk down the middle of the street, unlike Santa Cruz where that would get you killed).  Their garden just might be one of the ten most peaceful places on the planet!

I planned to write a few hours each day, but things distracted me, like sleeping late, looking for breakfast, deciding which hammock to take a nap in, and stuff like that.  I have been doing a Bible reading for Lent, with the intent of reading the entire New Testament during Lent.  I was doing that too, but the hammock I was reading in, hypnotized me into sleep more than once.

But that did not mean I was not writing.  I had a stack of notes that I had made over the last few weeks and one page of notes I made in November that I found recently.  I have some completed chapters and some just with a description of what I want to accomplish.  One of my days in Samaipata I got really energetic and put all the notes in the various chapters, even creating whole scenes with dialogue and description.  I was having a blast getting all that recorded.

Then the unthinkable happened.  Word shut down on me.  I don’t know what happened, but one second, I was typing and the next Word shut down.  When I reopened my novel, there was nothing on it from that day.  Those notes had added over 10 pages to my novel and they were gone.   I was devastated!  I was running around the house shouting, “No, no, no!”

But I stopped myself and reminded myself that “all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord.”  I love the Lord.  My first two novels are clean, but could not be termed “Christian.”  I am praying and asking people to pray that this novel is accurate to the Bible, has a message of redemption and forgiveness, and an enjoyable read too.  I want to finish it in a month or so, but I have no deadline.  So why would it matter if I lost a day.

The next morning I woke up, bought breakfast in the market, came back to the Little Garden of Eden, and started recording my notes again.  On my second try, it was better than the day before.  Instead of adding 10 pages, I added 12.  Sometimes you just have to trust.

Now if I can just get out of that hammock!

My third novel will be completed soon. Until then, read one of my other novels, already in print.

April 6, 2017 - Settling In

Settling In

I was so ravaged by mosquitos my first day in Samaipata that I thought I would go insane.  If one wasn’t biting me on the leg, a fly was buzzing my face, or a gnat trying to land in my ear.  I couldn’t take it.  I was on a mission!

My first day was exhausting, but productive.  Approaching 60, things make me more tired than in the past.  I tried a nap in the hammock, but every time I dozed I either felt that fateful bite on the ankle or heard the buzz in my ear.  So at 8:30, after a meal of curried chicken, I was ready for bed.

The night was cool and quiet.  Sleep came quickly.  Until I heard the buzzing again.  I saw that Fernando and Mariela had these Raid tablets.  I didn’t know how they were used.  I expected some sort of apparatus that is plugged in, but couldn’t find anything.  I used more Off cream, but I had already used so much that my eyes were turning red.  I took an allergy pill, which makes me sleepy.  Somehow, fatigue and allergy pills, I fell asleep.

I awoke hungry for eggs.  I remembered a nice restaurant on the plaza where I had a good “American” breakfast.  That includes eggs, bacon, bread, juice, and tea.  Perfect breakfast.  But through the whole meal I was attacked by flies.  It seemed to me they were laughing at the Off cream.  So I was off to find something to combat mosquitos and flies.

There is a little grocery store on the plaza.  The lady sells everything, only it is about the size of an average living room.  She was on the phone, so I looked around.  I saw some Off spray and some insect spray for the room.  I got both.  Finally, she got off the phone and I asked if she had any mosquito candles or something like that.  She dug out an apparatus for the Raid tablets.  I bought one, only to discover the one at the house ten minutes later.  So while I am here, I have two to use and can bring one home with me.

Meals are cheap here.  I can probably eat nicely for 100 to 150 Bs. a day, but eating like that is not my goal.  I want to write and have wondered if in the future I could live here for a few months.  The only way to know is to do the things I do at home, like cook.  After a shower, plugging in the Raid, and washing some clothes, I went to the market so I could buy a few things to cook.

The market is about a 7-minute walk from the house.  I bought eggs, cheese, butter, and rice.  With butter and eggs, I can make scrambled eggs in the morning.  With rice, I can make an easy dinner.  My plans were to eat a nice lunch and skip going out to eat for breakfast and dinner.  Along the way home, I stopped at a pasteleria and bought a slice of fig pie and another of apple pie.  Lastly, I stopped at a pizzeria and bought a pizza to bring home.  With ample food, I can write a few days.

I know this is a boring blog.  I’m only talking about the ordinary things of life.  But it is those ordinary things that make the extraordinary events so important.  We forget that we have to do things like wash clothes, clean house, and go to the market.  We want every day to be a glamorous party.  That is not the reality of life.  How we settle in and make a life for us is much more important.

Now that the bugs are under control and I have food, I can spend the next seven days writing.

I hope soon to have my third novel in print. You can order my first two while you wait.

April 5, 2017 - Learn Something New Every Day

Learn Something New Every Day

Happy birthday to me.  I have one year left until I turn sixty.  I read graffiti once that read “I’m fifteen, half my life is gone.”  According to that kid, I have been dead for thirty years.  Age, I believe, has more to do with your mind than your physical age.

Let me share a few things that are different now at sixty minus one from when I was thirty.  I’ve had three goals in life: travel the world, live in a foreign country, and become a writer.  At thirty, I had visited twelve countries, and five of those just airport stops.  I had lived in Bolivia for nearly five years at that time.  At thirty, I still dreamed of writing a book, but I had nothing so far.

At almost sixty, I have visited thirty countries.  I was in Mexico before thirty, but now I’ve been on four other mission trips to Mexico, three other visits, and have driven across Mexico from the Texas border to the Pacific coast.  I have been on a mission trip to Trinidad, plus visited two other Caribbean islands on a cruise.  Before thirty, I was in Greece on an airport stop, but I have been back two times, including taking my two nieces with me one time.  I’ve been on a mission trip to Lithuania and two to Nicaragua.  I have been on two trips to Spain, visiting most of the main cities.  I have had memorable trips to Germany, Brazil, and Romania.  I can conclude that after thirty, I have seen more of the world, more than double of what I had seen at thirty.

The Konigsee in Germany near the Austrian border

At thirty, I had lived in Bolivia for nearly five years.  I didn’t do much while here, though I did see La Paz, Cochabamba, and Sucre.  I have returned at fifty-eight.  I have not seen a lot more of Bolivia, but I have seen it more deeply.  I used to look at the statues around Santa Cruz and think “that’s nice.”  Now I wonder why this statue exists, so I research it.  That research makes me love Bolivia more.

Since thirty, I started writing.  My recently published novel, “Spartan Sisters,” was written in my mid-thirties, and I wrote “Mojón con Cara” in 2016.  I have five novels in various stages of completion and have a list of a dozen more that I want to write.  All of these have been written since I was thirty.  I have to finish those, right?

The last few years of teaching, I taught my students that they should always learn something new every day.  I would always tell them if they come in my class knowing it all, then they are old.  That always shocked them, because they think age is a physical thing.  I always used my grandma as an example of being young.  Until she had her heart attack three years ago, she used to read the bible through two times a year, using a different version each time so she would get a better grasp of what the writer was trying to say.  At fifty, she decided to learn Hebrew, so she could better understand what the bible said in the original Hebrew.  At fifty, I would not have called her old.  At ninety-five, she sleeps and watches TV; she is now old.

At thirty, I thought I knew the bible backwards and forwards.  I knew it all.  Now at almost sixty, I feel I know nothing.  I am in awe at how much there is to learn about my Savior.  I understand why my pastor preaches through a book of the bible and takes so much time doing it.  It took him two years to preach through Mark!  Yes, there is that much to learn in that book of sixteen chapters.

So if you are one of those who think you know all there is to know, I have news for you.  You are old!  I am young and have so much more to learn.  I cannot imagine thinking that life ends at thirty.

Learn more about my novels on my Amazon author page.

April 4, 2017 - An Interesting Turn of Events

An Interesting Turn of Events

I don’t know how to explain it, but I have felt really tired the last few weeks.  Drained more than anything.  I know it was so necessary for me to return to Texas to be with my mom after she broke her hip, but it left me exhausted.  I needed a break.

Upon writing this blog, I have been back in Bolivia for three weeks (and a few more since writing it).  Several are disappointed at me for not returning immediately to the Learning Center to work, but the thought of spending hours preparing for a class, leaves me drained.  My sleep patterns are off.  I am sleeping about 10 hours when I do sleep, but that might mean waking up at 6 am or 11 am.  I usually take short 15 minute naps in the afternoon, but lately they turn into 5 hours.  You can imagine how happy I was when Fernando gladly gave me the keys to his little house in Samaipata.

I woke up early and was able to get out of the house by 7:15.  I had to give my taxi driver directions to the trufis to Samaipata, but we found it quickly enough.  They were ready to go, but needed one more person besides me.  After a 10-minute wait, I felt an overwhelming desire to get on the road.

I went to the driver and said, “How many more passengers do you need?”

“Just one.”

“I want to be in Samaipata by 11:00, so I am willing to pay for one more person.”  It is not a costly journey, only $4.50.  Paying for a second person so we could go was only $9.  It costs that much to park at the Dallas Zoo! 

In two minutes, we were on the road and there was room to spare.  My paying extra did not get me shotgun, but that didn’t matter.  There was an old man sitting next to me.  I say old, but he could have been my age.  He kept looking at me throughout the journey.  It felt like he was asking himself, “what kind of person pays so much for a trufi to Samaipata?”  I didn’t care.  I was on the road.

We slowly worked our way out of Santa Cruz.  It is less than 10 kilometers from the center to be out of the city, but that took 20 minutes in traffic or longer.  Then we passed La Guardia, El Torno, and arrived at Angostura, where the road is no longer straight.  Our driver seemed to zip past every car.  I was surprised that we passed the house with the peacocks, one of my mental landmarks, in less than two hours. From there it was just past Las Cuevas and a little waterfall and we were in Samaipata.  He did the entire drive in less than two and a half hours.

I wasn’t in the house five minutes before I was heading to the Plaza.  It was not even 10:30!  We had driven so fast that we made it 30 minutes early.  Samaipata is small.  That means restaurants don’t serve a lot of people.  The girl working at the Café 1900 looked surprised that I wanted lunch at 10:30.  They wouldn’t start serving until 11:30.  So I’d just have to wait.

That is about the time that the trufi driver came up to me in the Plaza.  It is a small town, easy to see people over and over again.  He said thank you.

“What for?”  I asked.

“I was just told that about five minutes after we drove through La Guardia that they shut down the highway.  If you hadn’t have done what you did, we’d be in La Guardia waiting in the hot sun all afternoon.”

The cool breeze, under the shady trees of the plaza hit my face.  I could imagine baking in the tropical sun, instead of sitting in the shade of the Samaipata plaza.

I saw two other passengers of the trufi drive that afternoon.  I wonder if they knew that the highway was closed? 

I don’t care.  The hammock is calling me.

Here you can find a link to my Amazon author page. Book 3 is coming soon!

April 3, 2017 - The Chiriguano Statue

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The Chiriguano Statue

The Chiriguano is a frightening statue on the rotunda of the Second Ring and the Avenida Grigota, which passing the Chriguano becomes the Doble Via la Guardia.  To the west of the statue is the crowded Ramada Market.  A little research and I find there is an interesting story behind this statue.

The Indian stands defensively dressed only in the bow and arrows on his pedestal around one of the busiest intersections of Santa Cruz.  He faces west, but probably should be facing east.

The statue symbolizes an event in Santa Cruz history, when the Guarani were attempting to repel an attack of the Incas, who were stationed at Samaipata.  The Incas, realizing there was a fertile land stretched out before them had decided to leave the Andes Mountains and conquer the savannahs of what is now Santa Cruz.  Everyone the Inca had encountered up to this point were either conquered with might of their army or cowed into submission with diplomacy.  The Guarani were to prove a different story.

Part of the ruins of Samaipata

They fought ferociously, defending their homeland from the invaders from the mountains.  The Inca had never encountered a people like the Guarani.  They were becoming desperate, when they were able to capture one of the leaders of the Guarani.  This man was brought before the general of the Incas, stationed at the fort of Samaipata.  The general asked him to surrender and convince his people to do likewise.  The man refused.

“I chiri huano!” the general cried.  “Leave him tied up.”

The man was left tied up, naked.  The nights in Samaipata can be very cold.  That night was just such a night.  In the morning he was found dead from exposure.  To his people he would forever be a hero.

Not long after, the Incan soldiers were recalled from this re mote settlement to the center of the Empire.  It seems a handful of strange foreigners had killed the Emperor and effectively conquered the entire realm.  The Guarani of the West were never conquered by the Inca.  The Inca never made it farther west than Samaipata. 

But the Guarani were eventually defeated, not by arms, but by the advance of the smallpox epidemic accidentally brought by the European invaders to the Americas.  One wonders what might have happened if the disease had not wiped out so many indigenous tribes.  Would there be a Republic of Guarani in Santa Cruz now?  We'll never know.

With this story, the Chiriguano becomes one of my favorite statues.  I love those who will willingly die for their homelands, like this man.  I don't know his name, but he is a hero.

Translated and adapted from an article on stcrzysustradiciones.blogspot.com.

 

April 2, 2017 - The Avion Pirata

The Avion Pirata

Come to the First Ring with me and you will see a little plaza that has an airplane sitting in the middle of it.  An airplane?  Why?  Let me tell you the story.

The Avion Pirata was a Lockheed Constellation that had previously flown for Braniff International Airlines before being sold to the Empire Supply Company in 1960.  Planes like this one and others were used to transport contraband items to Argentina and Chile, both under oppressive dictatorships at the time.  Usually they would land and take off at the Trompillo Airport on the south side of Santa Cruz in the middle of the night.  Money was exchanged so, of course, nobody seemed to care.

Except one flight took off in the middle of the day on Saturday, July 29, 1961.  That was something that just could not be allowed to happen.  When the dispatcher at the control tower asked why they were making an unauthorized flight, they said they were just making a practice flight.  He ordered them to land, but they ignored the order.  The order was repeated and was ignored again.

Two P-51 Mustang fighter jets were sent to chase the plane.  The plane continued to ignore messages from the tower to land, so the P-51s began to take a few shots at the plane.  Damaged, the plane turned around in the direction of the Trompillo, but the plane dived to try to get the P-51s off their tail, causing one jet to crash.  Captain Alberto Peredo Céspedes, the pilot, died as his plane crashed.

Cespedes is on the far right.

The plane landed safely and the crew was arrested on the spot.  Mysteriously, all five crew members disappeared without a trace in November of 1961, most likely money exchanged hands again.

How was a pirate airplane allowed to land at a military facility?  There was corruption in the ranks. The investigation that followed led to the arrest of 85 soldiers and the dishonorable discharge of another 130. 

Several years later the plane was moved to Boris Banzer Prada Park on the Avenida Uruguay, the eastern section of the First Ring.  It remains a favorite tourist attraction of the people of Santa Cruz.

Adapted from an article en.wikipedia.org

 

April 1, 2017 - The Second Commandment

The Second Commandment

Some Christians are under the misunderstanding that the Ten Commandments were written for the people of the Old Testament; since the coming of Christ, these commands are null and void.  They will point out for example that Peter was ordered to ignore the command against eating unclean animals, so that he could witness to Gentiles. 

The New Testament makes it clear that obedience to the Ten Commandments is not optional.  Note what it says in Revelation 22:14 from the New King James Version:

“Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the Tree of Life, and may enter through the gates into the city.”

The Books of the Law, contain three types of laws.  First, there are the moral laws, which apply to all people at all times.  Second, there are the civil laws, which were for the governing of the ancient nation of Israel.  The third group contains the ceremonial laws.  These surrounded the worship of God for the nation of Israel.  The ceremonial laws are found in Leviticus, mostly, and since Christians worship the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus, these laws are no longer binding. 

The food laws of Leviticus 11 fall into that category.  As a Christian, I have been a part of more than 10 missionary outreaches and have lived in Bolivia for more than 5 years.  Sometimes the food put in front of us can be kinda scary, but eating food set before you is one of the best ways to make friends and eventually share the gospel with them.

Let's get back to the commandments.  The Second Commandment is about worship.  It reads like this:

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the father to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love a thousand generations of those who keep my commandments.”

This commandment deals with our relationship to God and causes us to ask a lot of questions.  How do we perceive God?  How do we explain Him and our relationship to Him to others?  It says idols are false, but may we use pictures and other images to represent God?  And most importantly, how is God to be worshipped?

This commandment reveals to us that we must be careful not to reduce God down to an image, a statue, or a painting.  It is like God is telling us, “Don’t tell me what I look like.  I will tell you what I am like.”  We can learn about God by studying his word, most especially through knowledge of His Son, because Christ is “the image of the invisible God,” Colossians 1:15. When we turn God into a painting or statue, there is a tendency in our unrepentant nature to connect to the artwork, rather than the Living God. 

God sent His son Jesus, so that we can know what God is like.  “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all,” 1 John 1:5.  In John 14:9 Jesus says, “He who has seen me, has seen the Father.”  If you want to know what God is like, read the four gospels.  You will see him on every page.

In the beginning, God created us in His image.  His future plan for us is that one day we will be like Him.  1 Corinthians 15:52 and 53 says it like this: “In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be CHANGED.  For the perishable, must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”  Our goal, as believers, should be for us to become more like God, so people can see Him in us.

“Now we are the children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when he appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”  1 John 3:2

Lastly, this commandment shows us that God holds every one of us accountable.  The Bible makes it very clear that we are not an island.  It is not about us, but everybody we meet on a daily basis.  We can’t expect to keep our heads down and leave everybody alone.  We are accountable for every action and every idle word. 

The second command lays the groundwork for the idea of accountability.  If we choose not to obey this command, there is a promise that not only will life be difficult for us, but for our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.  You might think your sin is between you and no one else, but it affects others, our families and the people that surround us.  For me, it makes that lie no longer a white lie, those moments of lust as great as cheating on my wife, or my anger at the driver next to me as if I have murdered him.  God will always hold us accountable.

And what if we choose to obey his commands?  The Bible is clear that he will bless our children.  In this command, it says unto a thousand generations!  This is the secret to obeying the Ten Commandments.  Obedience means God will bless.  He is not obligated to do it, but He promises that He will.  Grandma is not obligated to give her grandkids something nice for Christmas, but you are crazy if you don’t think she will spoil them rotten.  God wants to make our loving grandmas look like scrooges. 

So remember these things.  God is not a statue or painting.  If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.  God wants to use us to show the world what He is like.  And God wants to bless us more than we can imagine.

Here is a link to my Amazon author page.