The Fishers in La Paz, Bolivia

We just wanted to post that we will be coming back to the States on Friday morning. We currently still feel safe here, and our school is operating normally. But with the possibility of the situation deteriorating and the likelihood that the costs for flights later on may be outrageous, we decided to take what we hope is just a two or three week visit to the States and then return to Bolivia to continue our work here. Please pray that we will be able to easily retrieve our passports from the Bolivian immigration office tomorrow. We will post again when we’ve returned to North Carolina.

We attended the meeting this morning for US citizens. They did not give too much new information. They did indicate that the explusion of the ambassador is serious in that this has not happened anywhere else in the world in the last 20 or so years. The other issue is that the US congress will vote soon to decide whether or not to continue to trade relations with Bolivia. This decision would also affect the many aid and anti-drug projects that the US funds here.

The situation within Bolivia may be getting better. The opposition governors met with the Vice President of the country into the early hours of the morning. They are supposed to sign an agreement tonight to resolve some of their issues.

Currently, our area remains peaceful and we hope to resume classes at school tomorrow.

Just wanted to update the blog on the latest with the political situation here. The US embassy has announced an authorized departure for spouses and children of US embassy/government employees here. That means they will pay for them to leave and go back to the States for at least a 30 day period. There is a meeting tomorrow morning for US citizens here to give more information. Tomorrow and Tuesday will be crucial to determine if the situation is getting better or worse. South American leaders are meeting in Chile tomorrow to try to prevent more violence here. Our area has been peaceful and life has been pretty normal. There is the possibility of a protest at the embassy and in other parts of La Paz tomorrow, so our school has been cancelled. We will probably make reservations on a flight for later in the week as a precaution in case the problems escalate. Please pray for peaceful solutions here, wisdom for us and school leaders and that we can retrieve our passports from the Bolivian gov’t in the next couple of days.

Some of you may have heard about Bolivia on the news, so just thought we’d let you know what the situation is like here. We have been mostly unaware of what has been going on because we don’t have a TV and don’t read the newspaper in Spanish. We did stock up on some food last night at the suggestion of a Bolivian friend. Today we checked the internet news and talked to a few friends who have lived here awhile and realized the situation is escalating with the ambassadors being respectively kicked out of Bolivia and then the US. (more…)

I was reading an interesting article by John Staddon in The Atlantic (that I bought at the airport in July when I scooped up as many magazines as possible before boarding the plane to La Paz) about why there are so many traffic accidents in the United States. He was comparing the States with England, but I could relate in thinking about driving here in Bolivia. (more…)

Lately, actually getting our hands on our own money has been a little bit difficult around here, and we have to pay cash for almost everything, so that’s very important to us! To being with, the ATMs will only let you withdrawal the equivalent of about $300 at one time, and they charge higher fees here for every withdrawal. That can obviously add up quickly.  (more…)

You may be surprised to discover that we have the women’s workout chain “Curves” here in Bolivia about 5 minutes from our apartment (by taxi!). I have been debating about whether to join. I used to go in the States during my pre-Avery days and really enjoyed it. My extra pounds from our Stateside visit this summer have not dropped off as quickly as I had hoped during the last month, so I decided to take the plunge and join. Also, my good friend told me that her husband’s friend opened the franchise to raise money for Christian ministries and to provide good employment opportunities for young Bolivian women from a local church, so that was another good reason to join. After some confusion about my consultation appointment due to the language difference and them showing up late (the doors were chained when I arrived on time for my appointment), it was pretty much like in the States. Thankfully, the lady who signed me up spoke English, and the body measurements and weight she took didn’t bother me. Since they were metric, I had no idea what they meant! I wasn’t sure if the altitude would bother me since I haven’t really exercised here, but it didn’t, so that was good. They did make me try to jump rope and do the hula hoop, so that was amusing. I’m looking forward to getting in shape and moving my “curves” to the places I want them!

We are going to try to post more photos, so here are some of our neighborhood and of things we’ve done this last week. . .

To see the photos, click here.

Yesterday was a low-key and slightly eerie day in the Fisher household. No one was allowed to drive yesterday due to the referendum vote on the President. Our neighborhood is usually quiet for being in the city, but it was extremely silent yesterday. Also, no one was allowed to gather in a group so we just spent the day together as a family. It was midday before we even saw people out walking around. The voting places are in schools so that Bolivians can walk a short distance to vote. From what we could gather, the voting was generally peaceful and the President received enough votes to stay in office. He is very popular in our area, so there shouldn’t be protests near us. We had our first day of school today as planned, so all in all, a pretty boring political milestone in this country! But you never know what will happen next, so we’ll be thankful for now and hope for the best!

Avery has been asking lots of science related questions lately. Some of them are about things I studied about 25 years ago in school, so I don’t exactly have an answer on the tip of my tongue. I’ve very thankful that we can get online for a quick and easy way to find information, especially since we’re in Bolivia. Can you imagine we used to have to go check out a book from the library to get information?

Some recent questions from Avery:

Why are the seasons opposite in Bolivia and the United States?

When will the caterpillars come out again here? (and several other life cycle of the butterfly type questions!)

Where do babies come out? (I didn’t have to look that one up!)

And my personal favorite. . .

How do people who are missing a leg sleep? (Not sure where that one came from!)

It’s fun to see the world from the eyes of a four-year-old!