My Life as a Country Music Song

I've decided that I may have missed my calling as a country music writer. Here is my recently inspired country song:

"My wife stuck in bed all day,

'cause doc says baby needs to rest.

My dog got diced to pieces

By some wild animal.

Left my heart out in the campo

While I'm stuck in Santa Cruz.

And I ain't go'n nowhere

'cause my truck broke down again."

Maybe I'll stick to being a missionary, I would not be able to stomach the music needed to make this a country song anyhow. But yes, this is what life has been like lately.  Jenna is still on bedrest but thankfully we think this is the last week!  If the baby does not come on his own in the next few days, we are planning to induce on Saturday.  She will be at 37 weeks at that point which is considered "full term".  At this point the risk of infection is greater than the benifit he would gain from staying in.  We are looking forward to finally meeting him after all the gray hairs he has given us already.

Simon did get diced up pretty bad the other day.  Last Friday we recieved a call from our landlords that they had not seen Simon in 2 days, very unusual for Simon.  I went out to our house the next day and spent some time walking around calling for him.  That dog will do anything to be with me.  After a little while I looked out in the backyard to see a muddy and starved dog dragging himself out of the pasture out back.  I aproached cautiously and when I got close he colapsed exausted but happy to see me.  He had a broken back leg as well as claw and teeth gashes all over his body.  After a couple days of a good diet and some vet care he has perked up a lot and is starting to look more like the Simon we know.  Now I have two bedrest patients to take care of here in our little room in the city!

Yes the car broke down again! I took it into one shop to get the power steering fixed (for the 4th time).  Next I need to take it into a glass repair shop to have the sideview mirror replaced that had been smashed.  Then I need to go to an electrical repair shop to have the alarm fixed or turned off to keep it from constantly going off.  Then eventually it might be nice to take it to an AC repair place so we can have AC again, but that one is kind of low on my priorities right now.  No one stop repair place here, you have to find a specialty shop for everything around here.  I'm not a big fan of malls and Walmart but sometimes there is something to be said for convienience!

Life has been a bit crazy lately and it seems keeping up with life has been taking up all my time, but soon we will get to go home with our little guy in our arms and I'm sure it will all be worth it. 

Baby Blues

Jenna next to a "pregnant" Toborochi Tree

After several false alarms we a back to waiting for baby to come. Jenna is getting tired of her bed rest but we are grateful that we are almost to 36 weeks, a much safer point in the pregnancy to have the baby than 32 weeks when we first thought he was coming. Even though it is still a little early, it is looking likely that we will induce this coming weekend since amniotic fluids are rather low and the baby has developed to a healthy point. It is wild to think that we will at any moment have a kid! We are looking forward to meeting him, and to getting back home! Until then, Jenna is devouring books and movies.

While stuck here in the city, I've been taking care of Jenna and running various errands like getting our car fixed, again, and again, and again. This car is making me miss my first car that I got at an auction and hardly ever caused me problems. Then again, I never drove it on Bolivian roads! This week I'll probably be subbing for a teacher at the mission school who is out sick. I am also hoping to finally get the garden put in at the children's center in the Barrio Bolivar community. This has been one of those projects that keeps getting pushed off and might yet again get pushed off if baby decides to shake things up again!

Babies and Bot Flies

As most of you already know, our little one scared us the other week when it looked like he was coming into the world early. Things have calmed down since then and I am happy to anounce that we have made it to 34 weeks! After the steroid shots and a little extra time cooking in the oven, he should be in good shape now for whenever he pops out (if only it were that easy). We are still hanging out in the city and Jenna is still taking it easy and is on bed rest. Some of the ladies here threw her a shower. All I know about the party is now we have lots of clothes... lots and lots of baby clothes!

In between taking care of Jenna, I have been busy helping with a group of 8 students from Palm Beach Atlantic University who are down here over their spring break. The first three nights they spent staying at our place out in Pailon and working out in the Poza Verde comunity. Each day I drove out to help direct a variety of projects we had going out there. They helped fix up a house for an Ayoreo pastor who is moving into the community, dug a pit for an outhouse, put in posts for a chicken run, clear brush from the Soy field (they loved using machettes), and ran some kid programs. Not only did I enjoy having the slave labor for a few days but it was fun watching them love on the kids of the community. It has also been encouraging watching them as their eyes have been opened to some of the needs in the world. It is one thing to hear about broken people, it is another to see and experience what they go through. Watching the college group has reminded me of my own journey to where I am now and of why I am here. It has also been fun pretending to be in college again, hanging out until 2am chatting.

*WARNING* This next segment could be disturbing to those grossed out by the idea of parasites and their removal from body parts. Discretion is advised.

In the past month I have had enough parasite experiences to last quite a while. The first was what I thought was a small splinter in my little toe. I poked at it a bit but when it did not come out, I figured it would work its way out. In a day or so it started to look a little infected but still nothing to worry about until it kept growing and I could not seem to pop it out. One day I decided to show the missionary doctor here and when I took my sock off, a bunch of small eggs were falling out of my toe. Niguas! Small fleas that burrow into your skin and start reproducing. Mine had been there long enough to start several generations of young and quite a collection of eggs. Doctor Toni kindly removed the colony from my toe. Next, our dog Simon came down with a nasty case of Mange, also a parasite. After changing his diet and frequently bathing him, we were able to get the mange under control, but not before another visitor took up residence. One day I noticed two large holes in the side of his face with squirming creatures inside. Bot Fly larva! I covered the holes with gel to force the larva to come up for air where I could then pop them out. There are supposed to be 1 maybe 2 larva per hole. I pulled a total of 7 out of two holes! To wrap up the month of parasites, I discovered I had amoebas living in my digestive system. Gotta love the tropics!

Some of the bot fly larva I pulled from Simon's face