Last week I was up in Cochabamba helping Julie, my old boss from last year. We were sitting in her living room yesterday typing out an operations manual for the Centre, to leave when she goes home next August. It was raining pretty hard, so Julie went out on her front steps to see if the water was rising. Being that this has never happened in the 6 years she’s lived here, I just smiled to myself and was amused. Her house is a good foot and a half up from the sidewalk. But…it’s Julie’s nature to worry about these kinds of things sometimes.

A half hour later or so, I looked over and noticed that there was water coming in under her door. I yelled at Julie that the rain was coming in, and to grab some towels. Then I noticed that the water had already travelled the length of her house and was starting down the hall towards her bedrooms. The power bar for all the electrical cords for her TV and DVD (and both our computers) was already sitting in the water. I opened the door, and a wave of water and mud and leaves and branches rushed in. The whole yard was full of water (up to my knees) and still rising. We tried to build a dam of towels by the front and back doors, but finally gave up…the water was rising too quickly. We were actually laughing because it was such a crazy thing. Then I noticed that the water was about to rise over the electrical outlets that were built into the baseboards of the house…so I stopped laughing and quickly ran and shut off all the power for the house.

I waded out to the road where a number of the men on our street were trying to pry the covers off of the sewers, so that the water could drain off more quickly. Other people were building dams in their front doors as well, and bailing water out of their houses. There wasn’t much more we could do, so we just stood around waiting for the water to start to recede. My favourite moment was when the water was first rising, and Julie kept pointing it out in her house, “Look….there’s water in the corner! And look, it’s over there! And in my kitchen!” (Imagine that in a very British accent). Since we were already standing in 2 inches of water, this all seemed a bit obvious to me. Finally I was like, “I know Julie…the house is flooding!” We have the moment on video, so we got a good laugh out of it. Eventually the water receded, and then came the fun part of trying to get the water and mud back to where it was supposed to be.

All things considered, the clean up went fairly fast. There were three of us and the floors were all ceramic tile or wood (except for the large rug in the living room, which we had to drag out), so it only took a couple of hours to get things more or less back to normal. It was quite the moment as you can imagine. I included a few pictures for you to check out. We were talking afterwards about how much more terrible it could have been, and what it must be like for people who experience real flooding. It makes you thankful for sure.

So I’ve moved into my house now, but I’m having a bit of a “Love/Hate” thing going on. Have you seen the movie “Madagascar”? Where Melvin the giraffe goes running by yelling “Nature! It’s all over me! Get it off! Get it off!” I never thought I’d become that guy, but ya…that’s me. It started with the lizard eggs in the electrical box in my kitchen!? I thought they were bird eggs and couldn’t figure out how a bird got into the electrical box. Then the boys threw them at each other and when the eggs broke, little lizards ran away. That wasn’t so bad, but the infestation of cockroaches coming up out of my shower drain? Honestly…that’s just wrong. Picture for a moment, me going Rambo with a can of Raid at 2 in the morning in my boxers. Or maybe don’t. If you put a crumb on the floor for more that two minutes, you’ve got a black crawling mass of ants fighting for it. And every night there always seems to be some new, ridiculously large “touch me and I’ll eat you” bug sitting on my bed.

Yep…just call me Melvin…

What else you ask? Sure you want to know? Well….there was the night my ceiling fan exploding in the middle of the night. When we installed it, it sure seemed like all the blades were going to miss the ceiling beams. And the guy in the paint store really enjoys giving me random paint colours no matter what I ask for. Or how about the 13 wires coming out of the ceiling electrical box in my office (as compared to the normal 3) none of which actually carry electricity?

It’s fine.

My yard is still a jungle and I’m still beating back the spiders who’ve lived in the house for the past 10 years (“Get it off! Get it off!”). My back yard smells a bit like a bathroom when it rains and the bar next door seems to enjoy playing traditional Quechua music as loud as possible (imagine Japanese children breathing helium singing in Spanish…no lie). When I flush my toilet the whole house shudders and the toilet kind of moans for awhile while the tank refills.

There is a “love” part though. The renovations have come along well (okay..more or less), and the improvement is like night and day. The paint colours are good and make the house look 100 times better….although, if I have to explain one more time why I painted one wall a different colour than the other three in my office, I may smack someone! One boy thought I should have at least painted the opposite wall the same colour so that we’d have kind of a checkerboard effect. =)

I’ve already started buying furniture and appliances, which is fun. I’ve never really done that before. I had a couple of visiting missionaries ladies with me when I was buying my TV and for some reason they didn’t seem to share my excitement very much. But when we got to the linen department and I had to pick out sheets and towels….wow, they really came alive! (Can someone please explain this to me? This probably has something to do with why I’m still single…)

The best part of having the house is being able to pull back a bit when I need to. I can’t even tell you how much that’s lowered the stress levels here. Living and ministering at the home 24/7 was a bit too much some days. I’m also really looking forward to being able to have different groups of the guys over for supper and a movie once in awhile. They need to have a place to go and hang out too.

Anyhow…that’s where it’s at. If you have a moment, if you could pray for safety and protection for me and my house, that would be great. The first night I probably got up four or five times in the night because I heard noises outside (I later realized it was a neighbourhood cat sliding around on my roof. The tiles are clay and the roof is steep, so she can’t really get a grip…but she insists on trying…). God has given me a lot of peace since that first night, but prayer would still be good. =) As a gringo (white guy) I stand out a bit and make a bit of a target.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! I appreciate all your prayers and letters. It’s great to know that people back home are thinking about me and praying. So thanks! Take care and enjoy spring, which I heard has finally come…although more snow is probably just around the corner. =)

Hasta luego,

Ken