And a Happy New Year!

Happy new year to all our readers. I can say that now because I know we have some. For us it was very happy indeed. We spent 40 Euros and bought fireworks, marshmallows and had a party. It's amazing the firepower you get for a measly 40 Euros here in Bolivia. It's also amazing that when you buy them it's written "For professional use only" and that doesn't seem to disturb anyone. We had enormous fireworks exploding from our sport field, the likes of which would rival those on the 14th of July in size. Needless to say, Nicolas was happy... After the display we roasted marshmallows by the fire and then went for a night time swim in the pool. All in all it was a pretty good night regardless of the fact that it was over at 11:00.
Other than that, I'm sorry to report that things could be better here at the Bolivia Childrens' Mission. I don't know if I've ever written about the situation with the man that started the home, but to make a long story short, this was his ship, he abandoned it and now it's run off course. Peter went on holiday to Australia 6 months ago and never came back. He keeps saying he's going to, but Nicolas and I don't believe it. A ship without a captain as any manager will tell you is not one that you want to be on and I second that. (Can I second what I just put forth myself?) Anyway, until recently, the staff were all fighting amongst each other, the resources were being misused for lack of communication and now I've learned that the government is going to take 11 children out of this home and into a new one because they have come 3 times to inspect the home and sent letters to notify us that certain things were unacceptable. Certain children were sharing beds and a letter stating that this had to change was sent and discarded as not important by people here at the house, so now we really risk losing 11 kids that Nicolas and I have grown to love. All of this when we have extra beds sitting in the garage and a spare room that served only to house Peter's things and other house hold things that can easily put elsewhere. Anyway, the volunteers cleared out all his stuff, re-arranged the storage room into a bed room, set up 4 new beds and hopefully solved the problem. The government is coming this week, but with all the staff on holiday, there's no guarantee that they're not going to take the kids anyway because when they visit, the only adults they're going to find here are the gringo volunteers that speak Spanish like, well... gringos. I can see it now. "Who's in charge here?" A sheepish reply from us "No one really. Well, some guy that lives in Australia..." That's going to go over well. It's just so frustrating. Nicolas likes to say that Bolivia is the richest nation in the world that won't stop shooting it self in the foot and it's true. Richest untapped lithium deposits in the world? Bolivia. Most petrol per square kilometer in South America? Bolivia. One of the only countries in the world to have every kind of ecological zone and countless natural resources, almost all of this wonder is squandered. Lack of education leaves Bolivia's people blaze to the luck they have and ambivalent to the treasure their nation is. The number of times I've seen people throw whole sacs of garbage from their car window. People burn down acres of rain forest to grow cocoa leaves that will eventually be cocaine, not to mention that public pissing and shitting is commonplace. It's truly abhorrent and our foster dad here in Bolivia understands it.

We live with a family that have come to be dear friends to us. The dad is a botanist and engineer. He works with the government teaching people from the country side, (Campansinos) sustainable and diverse farming techniques. The mom works in an x-ray clinic and they have a daughter that is 17 and a son who is 13. We love our time with them and look forward to the day when they'll come and visit us in France.

Anyway, not trying to be depressing, just discouraged that we are officially running the show. We will be moving into the house next week to be here full time because there is literally no one else. I'm tired and just can't get over the feeling that this is not what I signed up for. Am posting tonnes of pics of Christmas and our town where we live.