Baby Bureaucracy - Part II

Getting Noah's Bolivian ID and passport was relatively easy, aside from having to wait hours on end in a government building (like going to the DMV) and the ride home turning into a 5 hour trip (normally 1 hour) because of a road blockade by discontented citizens which forced us to take a detour through corn fields on roads so dusty we had to use our windshield wipers to clear off the snow-like dust and farmers charged us tolls to pass through their lands. No, that was easy. The next paperwork battle was preparing for, no not starting, but preparing to start the US paperwork.

So to get Noah's US passport, SS card, and Birth Abroad documents, we have to go to a US consulate with, of course, all kinds of ID and documentation, one of which is our marriage licence. Good thing that was one of the important papers we brought down with us for getting our visas and Bolivian ID. Too bad we could not find it. We found all the other papers we used for getting our Bolivian Visa when we first got here, just not the marriage certificate. We searched everywhere. We had one of our administrators look for it too since he had all the paperwork at one point. We also had our lawyer look, who was also in possession of these papers at one point. No luck until a few days later when the lawyer called and said he found it in the wrong folder. Great news except just hours before we had contacted friends and family in the US to track down our other copy and overnight it to Jenna's mom who is coming down next week. Now it is off to La Paz to visit the consulate to actually start the process. The consulate here in Santa Cruz and the next closest consulate in Cochabama are closed at the moment so we are stuck flying to La Paz. We are hoping and praying this part of the process goes smoothly.

Baby Bureaucracy - Part I

How to get a Bolivian Birth Certificate:
1. Return to the hospital and ask
2. Be told to go home for different ID
3. Return to hospital to receive form
4. Go to Notary only to be told to go to the Department of Health
5. Go to Department of Health to have form stamped
6. Go back to notary to be told I need my wife and two witnesses along with their IDs
7. Find witnesses and return to notary to sign and thumb print all kinds of papers
8. Be told to come back at the end of the day
9. Return to notary to receive birth certificate only to find he was registered as a she
10. Go back the next day to get corrected certificates

This was just the first step, now on to Bolivian ID and Passport then US Passport, birth certificate, and SS card.

It's A Boy!

It's a Boy! Oh wait, you knew that already?  Well did you know his name is Noah James Weigner?  That's right!  And he weighed a healthy 3 kilos (6 pounds, 10 ounces) and was 50.5cm long (20 inches).  After about 26 hours of labor Jenna got up to relax in the shower.  About 10 seconds in the shower and "Uh oh, something is coming out!".  No one was ready.  Our OB/GYN, Dr. Vidal, had gone to visit another patient thinking it would be a few more hours yet.  Fortunately Toni, a doctor with our mission, was with us at the time.  She sent me off to find some nurses.  The ONE TIME I needed to find a nurse, there were none to be found.  Every time I stepped out of the room before, both this time and the 3 nights Jenna was in the hospital before, there were nurses in the nurses' station, usually 3 or 4 watching Soaps.  Not this time.  After running up and down the halls for a little bit I finally found one coming up  the stairs.  She rounded up the troops and our room quickly flooded with medical staff and equipment.  Dr. Vidal made it just in time.  The nurses were a little off guard for two reasons: One, women who go to this hospital almost always opt for a C-section, and two, the few live births they assist happen in a delivery room.  There was no time to get to the delivery room and so they had to make do where we were.  It was fun watching their looks of confusion and disbelief.  Fortunately, our doctor orcistrated the whole ordeal and with a few pushes, Noah was out, blue as a blueberry, and crying his little head off.  It was one incredible moment when they held him up.  It was amazing to see finally him and such a relief to see the worst of Jenna's pain over with.

Mom and baby are doing well.  Mom handles food, dad handles diapers, its a good arangement (I've got the easy end of the bargen).  Right now life consists of figuring out what life looks like as parents and working out the never ending mountain of paperwork required for having a baby here.  Thursday morning we are planning to head home.  Oh it will feel good to be home!

To see more baby pictures check out our Picasa album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/JayWeigner/NoahJames?feat=directlink

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

Trip to San Jose, Fua and Santiago

WARNING: This will be a LONG post. :-D

You just never know what you will find on the road in Bolivia.....

Always up for an adventure, Jason and I joined our team (Mercado family, Massey family, and Joe and Julie Kidd) for a trip to visit several towns to the East of where we live. Although it was hot hot hot and we didn’t have air conditioning, the trip went well. Day1: Today the adventures included driving. Not just regular driving on pavement, but driving through large construction sites with no cones or traffic directors (meaning we were driving next to or behind the very large machinery doing the work!), and over a mountain ridge on a dirt road which resulted in our friends turning literally orange in our back seat because of all the dust that came into our car! They looked like they had put on way too much self tanning lotion. We passed areas that looked like small rivers where only 2 weeks before, when the road wasn’t completely ready, Jason had driven in the team’s exploratory trip. God was gracious and we had no car problems. Once we got to San Jose, our resting point for the evening, the guys went to get the wood from the carpenter that had been ordered ahead of time and found it only to be half completed. So the men took what was available out to Fua to have ready for the next day and told the carpenters to finish the rest by the next day.

Day 2: This day our team went to work in Fua, a small Ayore community about 40 from San Jose. The primary goal of the day was to put up some walls on the church building and by the end of the day (after a few generator problems) the guys got quite a bit accomplished. Jason had a blast teaching the Ayore kids to use old 2 liter bottles of soda cut up to scoop a pest beetle off of the community’s pepper plants so they would be able to produce peppers for them. Toni Mercado and Julie Kidd set up their medical supplies and were able to help out lots of community members by examining them and handing out medication. I was able to count pills and write instructions for people. Bush medicine is very interesting, that’s for sure!

Ayore girls playing a hand game

Jason, Joe and Julie Kidd taking some measurements

We also had along Cesar and Mirta, the couple who lives near us in Poza Verde, and they hung out for the day. In the afternoon Mirta led some singing in Ayore, and Cesar gathered the people for a little church service. We met at the entrance of someone’s house since the church building was still being worked on. It was an awesome little service, simple, but so beautiful. Cesar started out by telling a story- a story that even had me captivated- and then used that story to make a poignant point about the need to come to Jesus. He has amazing abilities to make stories have a point, one thing that I really appreciate about indigenous cultures.

"Welcome to the church. No spitting."

All in all it was a good, long, hot, tiring, special day. I love just spending time with people here and not necessarily having an ‘agenda’. There are some really fun things that go on.

Hanging out with the town, watching the guys do the church construction

So Day 3: The men went in the morning back to Fua to work some more on the church. The ladies took the morning to go to the Ayore part of San Jose to do a little singing, service, and seeing medical patients. We were waiting for some of the Christian ladies to come back from an appointment so Toni and Julie started doing medical work. Emily, Toni’s daughter, brought a guitar and so they asked me to play a few songs. I tried to pick ones I knew in Spanish J We had just finished up the medical attention when a truck full of politicians drove up and wanted to talk to the Ayoreos (who were of the opposite political party). Toni decided it was time for us to leave so we headed out and spent some time at Mirta’s family’s house in San Jose before meeting the guys for lunch. That afternoon we spent driving to Santiago, a small town another probably 2 hours down the road. The scenery was gorgeous! Think US southwest, but greener. That evening Jason, Ken Massey, Toni and Placido met with a local leader in Santiago. They spoke with him about what some of the needs in the area are so that we can potentially partner with him in the future. Historically our mission had a big influence in the Santiago area so we are looking to potentially expand again in that direction. While this meeting was going on, I went to visit the memorial for the 5 men (from New Tribes Mission) who were martyred by the Ayore back in 1943 when they were first trying to contact the group. For those who are interested in more of the story you can read “God Planted Five Seeds” which details their experiences and what happened. The memorial was simple, a wooden cross mounted on a large limestone outcropping with a small plaque next to it. It definitely makes you think about how much these missionaries gave up for the Ayoreos in order to reach them.

Toni Mercado, our team leader, working with some of the medical patients

Day 4: We awoke to find out that there was a bloqueo (blockade) on the other side of San Jose and that our chances of getting home this day were slim. So we took our time getting back to San Jose and took a little detour to a town called Chochis where there are super cool rock formations. We found a little sanctuary and hiked around a bit (well, they hiked, I walked on the paths). The views were beautiful and it was a lovely day. We eventually got back to San Jose and got another phone call that the bloqueo would be open for 2 hours, so we quickly scrambled back into our cars to head that direction, hoping to get through without problems. As we approached the bridge where the bloqueo was, we found only twigs as remnants of what had formerly been there. A long ride back and we were finally home again, again without any problems.

(View of "Devil's Tooth" in Chochis)

Overall, great trip. It was fun to spend time getting to know another Ayore community and seeing some of the historical areas of Bolivia where missionaries first were trying to contact the Ayore. It was great to spend time with our teammates, getting to know them better and doing service together. Lots of adventure, lots of uncertain moments, but through it all, God was present.

Thanks for your prayers as we went!