Tuesday I was in the city and I went to talk to my “diesel guy”. I was already pretty low, but he said I’d have to come back that night or early the next morning. Since I had a Bible study at the home in the evening, I told him I’d be back in the morning.

That night I was telling one of the staff that I was going to have to leave my house at 4:45 AM to drive into Santa Cruz for diesel. She proceeded to tell me that I wasn’t going to be able to. At midnight blockades were going up to protest the shortages of diesel (I’m just telling you…I’m not trying to explain anything. Like why, since our lives are already difficult enough without fuel, blockades will make things better?! Sorry…I ranted there for a minute…). Anyhow, I realized I’d have to go back into the city that night. So I grabbed Rudy (one of the guys that lives with me) on my way past the house and at 10 PM at night, took off for the city again.

You have to understand that it was 50 km or so back to the gas station, and I was already well below E on my gauge. I figured I’d just drive as close as I could get to the station and then come back with fuel in my jerry can. My other plan was to pray a lot…which I did. As it turns out, I can go 50 km when I’m below E…at least that night I could. I don’t plan to test God’s graciousness again if I can help it.

So then I found out that my diesel buddy wasn’t working until the morning. The boss lady was a fairly…serious lady, but I turned on the ol’ “I’m just a dumb gringo guy who really needs your help” charm and she relented and said that if I could wait a couple of hours, she’d see what she could do.

At 1:30 AM I finally was able to buy some diesel. Unbeknownst to me however…the blockades had started to go up. The first one I passed was fine. It was mostly just some street kids who saw an opportunity to make a few Bolivianos. When I gave them a 5 b coin, they were like little kids, “That’s for all of us right? He said that’s for all of us!”

Then I came to the second blockade. This one was more serious. There were burning tires and lots of guys with big sticks. It looked like they’d already been doing some drinking and such, but I didn’t really have a choice. I needed to get past them…the blockades were supposed to be up for a couple of days. I just drove right up to them and rolled down my window….

“Hermanos (brothers)! Good evening! How are you this evening?”

“Pay us some money to pass!!”

“Of course! No problem!”

(Then ss I’m sorting through my change, one of them saw a 5 b coin.)

“Give us the 5 bs!”

I, however, realizing that I was going to need the 5 bs to pay for the toll booths I need to go through to get home…. “No no…I need that money. But here take this…”

And…I proceeded to give them 2 bs but in small change so that there were lots of coins. Fortunately they were mostly too drunk to realize that they were getting short-changed and they happily waved me through. =) Well, I’m not sure if “happily” is the right word…I just started driving and they let me go.

Ah, but my life makes me laugh… One of my friends told me today that we tend to be more entertained by life’s challenges and therefore don’t see them so much as crisis’s. I think that’s true… =)

Yesterday I was very happy to have the diesel. The line up at the gas station by my house must have been two km long. They say this should all be better by next week. Just so you know and aren’t all worried for me…this diesel thing is very unusual and shouldn’t be a problem after this.

There you go… The main reason for this e-mail are the attachments. One is a letter updating you on my plans to open a new home. The other is the official proposal I made up for the project. Between the two of them, hopefully most of your questions will be answered. If you aren’t able to open these attachments, let me know and I’ll get them to you in another format. They’re PDF’s so if you have Adobe Reader on your computer, you should be fine.

I also sent out a link the other day for a new video e-mail thing I’m trying out. Ha ha….today I had over 200 “Failure notices” in my inbox. So something obviously went wrong importing my e-mail list into the new program. If you got the link…consider yourself lucky. I’ll try to figure this all out next week sometime. But it’s cool. You’ll like it!

Thanks for taking the time to read this and the attachments. If you have any questions, please let me know! I’m excited about what God’s got planned for the future!

Thanks for praying!

Ken

This is just a quick note to let you know what’s been going on lately. We’re still experiencing huge fuel shortages. Line ups of trucks and busses are everywhere as soon as a little diesel appears. They tell us this should be over (or at least better) by next week…but we’re all just waiting and seeing. I thought I had a good source of diesel last week, but it’s been hard to get a hold of the girl who was helping me…so…who knows. I made it home on a wing and a prayer last night.

I was sick last week too. Some kind of bacterial thing that caused sores all over the inside of my mouth and on my hands. Yea…it was as pleasant as it sounds. But it’s a lot better today. I couldn’t really talk or eat much all last week. I’m on the mend though.

I had an interesting experience last week though. One of the little guys from our second home was graduating from kindergarten (a big deal here) and we wanted to let his family know. I ended up driving our two social workers and this little guy and his two older brothers out to visit their family.

They lived an hour and a half off the main road back into the hills. After bumping and banging along, the oldest boy finally told us to stop in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. We all piled out and started walking down this little sandy trail through the brush. Then the boy stopped and warned us that his grandparents had “very bad dogs” that we needed to be careful of. The social worker handed him a stick and told him to go deal with the dogs since they didn’t know us. As our reluctant protector walked away I could hear him muttering, “I don’t live here…they don’t know me either!” But after listening to some serious barking and growling and picking up sticks of our own, we heard him call and everything was fine.

These grandparents were two of the sweetest, oldest and shortest people I’ve ever met. Grandma only came up to the top of my stomach probably. They were also likely the poorest people I’ve met since coming here. Their house was just a clapboard building with big gaps between the boards. When I was sitting outside, I could look into it and out the other side through the holes in the walls. It looked like what we would consider a cow barn in Canada. As soon as we arrived they put out chairs for us and served us some….thing to drink. I’m not sure exactly what it was. I wanted to be polite, but I’ve just gotten over a parasite and I wasn’t eager for another little buddy to take up residence. So I did the “pretend you’re drinking but don’t open your mouth” thing. Then later I did a little “tour” of the place…walking around, looking at the view and such…and when no one was looking I tossed the contents into the bush. Not classy but it got the job done and no one got their feelings hurt.

Right away Grandma went scurrying around gathering up eggs from her chickens to have something to serve us. That’s a huge thing here. So after awhile we were invited into the house for a bowl of corn kernels and a couple of little hard boiled eggs. The corn kernels are big (more like field corn) and you just take a handful and munch on them like you would finger food. My only challenge was that the floor of the house was dirt and the back two legs of my chair kept sinking in and nearly flipping me over backwards. I finally balanced on my chair, wedged it against a little table and didn’t lean back. Again…not classy but it got the job done.

It was a very fun experience. The kids were so happy to see their grandparents. Their mom had died of cancer three years ago, and then their dad took off. Grandpa and Grandma just couldn’t afford to raise them, so they ended up in care with us. It didn’t matter that the walls had big holes or that the floor was dirt…they all gathered on the big bed (the only real furniture in the house) and had a great visit with their grandparents. We stayed a couple of hours and then it was time for the trip home.

Grandma walked back out to the truck with us and as we packed up to leave, two local ladies walked by with a load of vegetables and fruit from their fields. You could see the pride on Grandma’s face as she told them that these were her grandsons. Obviously the ladies remembered the boys and there were lots of “Look how big they are!” and “So handsome!” for the guys (which they all enjoyed). Then we were all given a watermelon and we were on our way.

A couple of things stood out in my mind as we drove home. First…they had nothing and yet they were so generous with us. The ladies we met on the road as well. So happy to be able to share with us. And secondly…they were so happy and content. I can’t even imagine what this family has been through and what it takes just to survive from day to day. And yet they are satisfied with their lives. Genada (our social worker) commented on it a couple of times. Just how content and joyful they all were as they sat and visited. It was sobering and challenging for me to see that.

I just finished reading a good book, “Under the Overpass”. I highly recommend it. It’s about two guys who choose to live as street people for five months and their experiences and observations. There are different thoughts and themes throughout the book, but one idea that resurfaces is being content no matter what our circumstances (Phil. 4:11-12). The guy ends his book by writing this: “I dare you to ask yourself a reality-rattling question: What would I do during my day or in my life for God if I wasn’t concerned with what I wear, what I eat, where I sleep, what I own, what people think about me, or what discomforts I face?” The guy gets to ask the question when you realize what he put himself through and what he experienced. It was a good question for me to ask myself too. I get too caught up in worrying about the future and all that. To be content and aware of the here and now and what God desires for me in this moment…that should be the focus of my heart.

Anyhow…enough preaching. But it was a good experience. Some other day I’ll write a bit more about some of the other things God laid out for me through that book and what I see day to day here.

A couple of notes. I’m sending out a video e-mail today as well. Thanks to a couple of friends of mine, I’ve been given the opportunity to send out video clips. You can click on the link and watch a little video of my life here. I hope to send out other videos as the days go by…interviews with some of the guys…funny things that happen. Just to warn you, once you go to the site, it does take a few moments for the video to buffer even with high speed. But hopefully this will work well and give you a glimpse of life here. This first video some of you will have already seen though. It’s the one I showed when I was home this summer. But watch it anyhow! =)

As well, my letter about the new project I’ve working on, will go out this week. I know I said that last week….but now I’m saying for sure this week. =) If you know me at all you’ve got to be smiling right now…

Thanks for praying everyone. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.

Luego!

Ken

It turns out I know someone (Isabel) who knows someone who used to work at a gas station a couple of years ago but still is friends with the people who run the place. Some gas stations are keeping back diesel for their “clients” and actually do have some stashed (buses and taxis need to keep running). My friends and I went down to the station and convinced the guy to sell me a tank full. It helped that both the girls with me were cute. They also convinced him to let me fill up three 10 litre jugs for future use. I found out after that he wasn’t supposed to do that. I wondered why as soon as they were full he made me put them in the cab of my truck.

I also found out later that the bus parked at the pumps between us and the office where the boss lady was sitting, waited until the transaction was completed so that the lady didn’t see what was happening. It was all very Mission Impossible/James Bondish. I wish I could cast myself as the Bond character…suave, debonaire…sophisticated in the way the world works. But…since I didn’t really know what was going on….

At any rate, my truck is on the road and happy. It really is a relief not to constantly wonder if you’re going to make it home or where the next tank of gas was coming from. Two and a half weeks of running under the E is too much.

Have a good day everyone. The sun is shining here again today and the world is good.

Luego,

Ken