Look out!!! It's a Toucan!

This is Guambe a kind of resort that we visited for a day(the frenchies decided we needed a break from Cotoca)

It was beautiful. It was green(unlike Cotoca) and had big clean beautiful swimming pools(Taylor and I thought we may have forgotten how to swim but it turns out it came right back to us)

It was a great day

This was my favorite part of the day because it's the first time I (Kyria) have seen a toucan they are incredible birds BUT what made even more special is that I think this toucan decided that it wanted Taylor's lovely long hair to make a  bird nest and decided to chase her around the place and attack her twice. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. Even if nothing else good happens in Bolivia I will be satisfied.

- Ahem!! I (Taylor)would like to interject here. This being attacked by a toucan was no laughing matter. Imagine that huge beak coming at your head... Thank goodness Kyria came to my rescue and Smacked the thing with her backpack. Toucans may or may not be an endangered species...Don't worry he is still alive. After we got home that night I did some deep reflection on my past bird experiences... Here is why I should keep my distance 1) apparently Kerina says I had an experience in Belize but I can't remember. I must have blacked out...

2) Perth in Western Australia- a magpie dive bombed my head as I was coming home from work...

3) Grafton Australia- I had more unpleasant magpie experiences at the Carroll's house. 

4) Rabid toucans 

 Whoa to me if I ever am around a Condor or an Albatross! At least This peacock was very pleasant. The peacock and I made friends because I apparently know 100 of it cousins in Palos Verdes California. 

Lots of butterflies

Monkeys(Monos)

French butterfly (or papillon)

Karen the hair stylist

Once again here is Karen. She is constantly sitting me(Taylor) down to braid my hair. Kyria as well. She is amazing in what she does with braids. She also cut my hair in the photo above. Karen is convenced that I am not white because I have too much hair for a white girl according to her standards. 

Taylor's hair dryer

Meet the congregation ( some of them)

Karen in the pink( bachata extraordinaire)

Chihoko in the green( Bolivian Toyoko for you Californians who know her)

Maki in the white and Ciho in the purple

( these two Japanese sisters visited the Cotoca for two weeks. Ciho was great to have around... She make me (Taylor) feel like she was not the only giant around town. )

Left to right : Julian in the purple Ariel (the little merman) Elian(not alien) he is doing English lessons with Me(Kyria) Isaias(grey jacket)works distributing purified water around the town needless to say he is loved by all us foreigners who have to drink purified water and finally Michelle Julian's Tio(uncle visiting for 3 weeks from France) doesn't speak a word of Spanish but was happy to teach us French. (Taylor Is now saying oui instead of si)

We just had our CO visit here. Ramiro y Claudia are their names. They were very encouraging to us here in our new assignment. They seemed to have smiles on their face at all times. We had a great week. Next to Claudia is Julia (grey top) then Nina her sister and little Ailene who happens to never look at the camera. 

And last but not least!! One of the newest members of the congregation, Kyria Turnewitsch, giving her first talk. She did amazing. Her Spanish is getting better every day. 

¡Que Lastima!

Here are some pictures of our finished apartment: 

Taylor's room

Living room 

Kitchen

Dining room. 

It WAS beautiful. Great natural light and air flow. Why am I talking in past tense you may ask? Well let me tell you...

We decided to move into this place on a Friday. We went to the city and purchased a fridge and an oven and moved all of our belongings to our new apartment. We cleaned like mad for 3 days straight. Taylor got real sick on Wednesday when we decided to go shopping for more items needed in the apartment. This shopping place is no place to be trifled with. It is called Barrio Lindo. It is huge and very easy to get lost. Anything you want you have to bargain for and fight for a good price. It was probably about an hour and a half in, when Taylor was arguing with a lady about a bed set Kyria wanted that Taylor went green and felt the fever come on. We rushed through the rest of the shopping and when we got home Taylor had a high fever. Kyria forced pills into her and she slept for a long, long time. 

Just as Thursday comes along and Taylor feels better our landlord is showing the upper apartment to some people. We had weary suspicions and knew something was not right. 15 minutes later the land lord comes in and tells us we have to move out... He is breaking the contract and we have less than a week to find a place. He had a better offer...This is when Taylor's illness seems to resurface in full force thinking about how it took us 6 weeks to find a place. Lots of prayers and minor heart attacks later we found another house. The next morning we found a delightful little house right next to the Main plaza which is prime real estate. The owner trusts foreigners so he lowered his price for us and is in the middle of fixing up minor problems in the house. The downside is that it is situated right next the the massive Catholic Church which at this very moment is having some kind of Rock and roll party. 

Positives: we have a better land lord. 

Closer to our territory.

More character. 

High vaulted ceilings. 

Gardening space. 

Doors that almost close( we are trying to make a positive out of a negative)

Things we miss from the other apartment:

Airflow

Natural light

Separate bed rooms 

Hot water.

Super clean with no bugs ( so really it's not that bad. Only minor adjustments...)

The carpenter telling Taylor how bad the wood is in the our new house. You have to fight with the windows to open or close them. 

Taylor is just a few inches taller than this carpenter...

Potential nice garden 

Our first dinner in our new house. Kyria, Julia and Nina. These are the girls whose house we watched for the first month. Kyria made pesto and Taylor made French bread. 

More pictures of the new house to come soon. Sorry for the long wait. Moving twice in one week while being sick was quite the experience. We are sooo glad it's over. 

Ciao amigos!

The longest day

This past weekend was action packed to say the least. We had to clean the house where we stayed for the first 6 weeks and find a new apartment to rent. On the morning of our big move (you would be surprised  how much stuff you accumulate here in a short amount of time) we had a minor setback... In the disgusting disease and mosquito ridden thing that is the pool in the old house was a flailing bird. The poor Pajarito had fallen in and could not fly out. He was filthy. Kyria jumped in to rescue the evasive bird who did not want help.  

We washed him. He bit Kyria. 

All clean! 

Shortly thereafter he escaped again but at least he was clean and could fly. Happy ending. 

This is our empty new apartment. It is 4 blocks from the Kingdom Hall and 1/2 block from at least 4 families from the hall.  It gets beautiful light and lots of fresh air.  We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Taylor scrubbed the fridge and sink so much that now her hands are shedding the top layer of skin. We walked back and forth between the 2 houses 3 times. ( About a mile each way, however feels like 6 when your carrying a table and chairs and or 10 packs of flour and 10 packs of noodles ) we will explain bulk buying later. We will post pictures of our apartment all completed soon. We hope. 

At the end of this long day we were delighted to find a Mariachi band serenading us below our balcony.  It was such a pleasant surprise.