Snapshots of colony life

My brother Willmar recently took a 15-colony tour of some of the 50+ Mennonite Colonies here in Bolivia. Here is a quick sampling of the many fine photos he took.

Above: Gathering sorghum sheaves in Valle Nuevo Colony.

1941 "H" John Deere tractor purchased in Kansas by Abram Teichroeb in Valle Nuevo Colony.

The Friesen family of Manitoba Colony looks at photos on the camara of Kennert Giesbrecht, editor of the Mennonitische Post.

 

School teacher Johan Peters also works on his cousin's farm in California Colony.

The kids of Peter and Neta Guenther take a buggy break in Fresnillo Colony.

Maria, Tina, and Lena Blatz of California Colony pose for the camara. 

Justina and Hein Loewen take faspa out to the field in Santa Clara Colony.

There's something about shades

J. July 2011.

A. May 2012.

J. May 2012.

Toews fest

One of the best things about living in Bolivia has been the opportunity to get to know my mom's extended family. Long ago, in Paraguay, her mom's sister (Margaretha Schroeder) married her mom's brother (Julius Toews). These are my double great-aunt and -uncle. They began their family life in the same village - Schoenfeld, Menno Colony - as my mom's family; their oldest two girls were like sisters to my mom. The Julius Toews family then moved to Bolivia in the mid 1950s, as others were doing, in pursuit of a simpler, less "worldly" life. They first settled in one colony near Chorovi, and today live in the colony Canadiense 2, or Morgenland - as do six of their children and their families (one son lives close by in Campo Leon and another is in Paraguay).

This family has been extremely welcoming of us and my brother's family. We are always invited to weddings and to family fests, which take place on/around all the major holidays. We have had countless meals and terere sessions in their homes. Some have been like parents to us and grandparents to our kids. We will surely miss them once we're back in the U.S.

But in the meantime, we finally took the initiative to host them - all of them except the parents and one son - for the Toews Easter fest. So a few weeks ago, we all gathered on "our" yard at MCC for a day of visiting, drinking terere, eating a Bolivian feast prepared by our MCC colleague and his wife (Marcelo and Paola Beltran), playing a quiz game prepared by Ramont (how many times do you bake tweibach?), singing,  eating faspa, and so on.

Here are some snapshots of the day.

It got cold (and other happenings)

It's been freeezing for the last several days. As in, mid-60s. We (most of whom stem from the northern U.S.) all know how ridiculous that sounds, but it truly has been hard to stay warm - and more so, to keep the kids warm enough at night. (Along those lines, any advice for how to get a 2-year old used to a blanket? Jonathan gets quite distressed if he wakes up and finds one in his bed.) However, it is very nice weather for bundling up and sitting outside on a Sunday afternoon, drinking hot mate and visiting with folks staying on the MCC grounds.

Jonathan's begun climbing trees recently. Or rather, his older cousins lift him into the tree and he hangs out there for awhile (with occasional monkey sounds).

 

He also loves looking through our photo albums. Here he studies some photos from Oma and Opa's visit to Bolivia.

Anna got some new shades this weekend.

And Willmar was regaled with some delicate strains of song on his 37th birthday this week.

Six months

Anna is now six months old (as of Sunday). She's becoming quite the interesting, endearing little person. At this point she:

- Weighs: 14 pounds (maybe. She hasn't been formally weighed since she was 6 weeks old, and this time involved me stepping on a scale with her, then without her). Length: even less certain (though her big toe has poked through two 3-6 month sleepers).

- Teeth: 0

- Naps per day: Usually a 20-minute one in the morning and a 20-minute one in the afternoon. BUT, her schedule is rather unpredictable from day to day (much to the dismay and befuddlement of her very scheduled parents). Suffice it to say that she's a bit of a marathoner when it comes to being awake.

- Nights: I bathe Anna around 5-5.30pm, feed her, and then put her exhausted little body to bed - she then plays for a bit with her hands until she falls asleep. I wake her up to feed her around 9pm, and she usually wakes me up to eat once between 3 and 5am.  We're all on the couch at 6am, the adults drinking mate to start the day. It's really quite nice now.

- Crying: Not much (more of a low-level but persistent groaning when something's amiss).

- Eating: Mama milk every 3-4 hours during the day, and just starting pureed vegetables in the afternoon. She's doesn't seem too excited about solid food yet.

- Thrush: Thankfully, thankfully faded out after about 2.5 months of agony for both of us. No other ailments or illnesses (except two baby boils, but that's another story).

- Nicknames: Anita (Spanish diminutive), B'Anna (by Jonathan, when not using the first one)

- Activities: Sitting, sucking on her hands, jumpy-swing, sucking on her German board book, plinking on the xylophone while in the walker, sucking on her organic rag doll, laughing at Jonathan, sucking on colorful plastic rings pulled off that Fisher Price tower toy, etc.

- Cuddly-meter: not so high. Like Jonathan, she doesn't just melt in your arms or whatever it is that babies do. She's quite schteiv as they say in Low German, her toes are always curled under, and she's been locking her legs into standing position for the last several months. Even so, it's really fun to nuzzle into her neck and make noises while doing so - it usually even earns a few snorts of laughter usually reserved for Jonathan.

Oh how we love you, little Anna!

Perhaps we should have used the #2 rather than #1 buzzer attachment.

April and May Menno Bote

The May issue of the MCC Bolivia publication Menno Bote is going to press today. This month features some of the hundreds of photos taken by Willmar and Kennert Giesbrecht, editor of the Canada-based Mennonitische Post. Over the course of five days last week they visited some 15 Mennonite colonies, held three "Post-Treffens" (including one here at Centro Menno), and drank who knows how many gallons of tereré.  This issue also has an article originally run by Mennonite Weekly Review, written by Robert Yutzy, called "The high cost of being right." Translated into German, it seems to apply directly to colony/church life here (and everywhere else, of course).

Other items in the May issue include a chapter from the "Steps to a change in thinking" resource book for those struggling with depression; a chapter from the book Amish Grace; an article based on the Dinah character of Genesis, encouraging young people to speak up if they've been sexually abused; an article describing how to improve legume pastures for livestock; children's puzzles; a short history of where the term "Old Colony" comes from; an article on the 1952 Bolivian nationalist revolution; an MCC news release on women living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria who have begun sewing businesses; classified ads (mainly selling tractors); and national and international news briefs.

Here also is the cover from the April issue, which featured an article by Mennonite History professor Royden Loewen, who was recently in Bolivia to work on his forthcoming book on "Horse and Buggy Mennonites."

Also in that issue we ran a few infographics to visually portray who subscribes to the Menno Bote. The three word clouds on the bottom show what the most common first and last names are; the bigger the name, the more common it is. The circle of circles shows which colonies have the most subscribers; the bigger the circle, the more subscribers. And the line graph at the very top shows to which countries we send the Menno Bote. (You can click on the image below to enlarge it).

So that's how it is

We recently got stopped while driving for a fairly routine document check. The first officer had the usual questions about the black license plate (MCC vehicles have NGO plates), then asked for Ramont's driver's license. He studied it, then took it to another officer. This one brought it back to our window and said it was no longer valid.

Why?

The transportation minister who signed the license is no longer said minister.

Time to chuck out all those dollar bills with Lloyd Bentsen's signature on them...

By the way,

 

Anna is sitting without support these days. It's funny how it happens with second children, even by two parents who are of the same ilk. With the first child we work and work to reach milestones like rolling, sitting, eating solids, crawling, walking, etc. We celebrate each step and faithfully record it in several places. And with the second child? Well, we're not really sure when these things happen(ed) because we're still watching the first child. So a few days (?) late, here are a few snapshots of Anna sitting comfortably on the lawn this afternoon. 

She also now spends more than just a few seconds on her belly. Now it's long enough to rub the puppy's nose in the dirt. 

 

Oh, and she started eating solid foods.

Or rather, I began feeding her rice cereal this week (about two weeks short of six months). You can see from her hand statement how far that went. With Jonathan I skipped the cereals and went straight to vegetables and then fruit, which worked well. Out of a vague sense of guilt that he's barely on the growth charts for his age, I thought I'd try the iron-fortified cereal with Anna (I know, it's not all that rational). Given her complete disinterest in the cereal, we're going to start with squash as soon as I can get to the market. 

As for Jonathan these days, here's a sneak preview:

Paraguayan Visitors (or, The Post My Mom Has Been Waiting For)

My maternal grandmother, nine pairs of aunts and uncles, and loads of cousins and their kids live in the Chaco of Paraguay. A healthy representation of them came to Bolivia to visit us over the long Easter weekend. Two pairs of aunts/uncles, three pairs of cousins, and seven children joined the nine of us (the Neuefeld-Harder-Schrocks). We really enjoyed the time together - lots of visiting, some touring of the Mennonite colonies, a bit of the Good Friday processional downtown, marketing, and lots of tereré drinking and snacking. Here are a few photo highlights:

 Ramont, Jenny Dueck, Patrick Friesen, Hein Dueck, and Willi Toews toured some colonies on "Quiet Friday." They saw exactly three living souls out and about.

On Saturday we visited our mutual cousins in the colony Canadiense II (Morgenland). Our hosts were Peter, Lena, and Helga Fehr and Abram and Anna Falk.

Here we are drinking tereré and visiting at the retirement cottage of Julius and Greta Toews, my great-aunt and -uncle.

The Fehrs have been instrumental in building a new colony hospital in Morgenland. They gave our group a tour of it when we visited. In the foreground are Helga Fehr, Hannah Neufeld, Anna ([not] wearing what we all wanted to be wearing) and me, Lena and Peter Fehr. In the background are Marta and Hein Dueck, a nurse from Germany, and Abram Falk.

The Fehrs had arranged for us to have a churrasco/asado for lunch in the Buena Vista settlement near Morgenland. Here is the new-ish little restaraunt operated by Wullie Detweiler and his family.

And here is Herr Detweiler baking the meat he himself had butchered and prepared.

Our visitors also toured the buildings-in-progress of Guia de Paz, the future drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation center for Low German Mennonites. Left to right: Jenny and Elly Dueck with André, Patrick and Cordelia Friesen, Hein Dueck, Willi Toews, and Marta Dueck.

Our kiddies got better acquainted with their second cousins. Jenny and Elly's kids are both 5 months older than both of ours. Here Ryan gives Anna a few pointers about a body-size volleyball.

We finished off the meals on Saturday night with pacumutos grilled by our co-worker, Marcelo Beltran. Here we are visiting under the hatata beforehand, with our apartment in the background.

 We're grateful that our relatives took the time to make the journey, and very much enjoyed the time spent getting to know them better.

Also, we're really quite thrilled with our new silver and palo santo guampas - thanks!

Radio day

On Palm Sunday, we Centro Menno staff spent the day at the Radio Transmundial Bolivia grounds near Pailón (about an hour east of Santa Cruz). RTM Bolivia does programming for multiple people groups and languages: Quechua, Spanish, and Low German. When we lived in Charagua, we'd often sit outside in the dark evening listening to the week's news in Low German (that radio station also had Guaraní programming). On this day, RTM was hosting a pastor couple from Canada - he preaches in Low German, and she does children's stories on the radio and has a Low German cookbook that is popular around here.

Jake Fehr, director of RTM Bolivia speaks to the crowd.

Aside from a morning worship service and afernoon music program, several organizations that work with Low German Mennonites in Bolivia had set up tables with resources to sell, give away, or describe what they do (all we needed was for Jesus to clear away all the money boxes...). So we brought samples of Menno Bote, Das Blatt, and the Mennonitische Post to give away, as well as some of the books we sell and so on. Willmar also helped with a table that had more information on the Mennonite drug and alcohol-rehabilitation center, Guía de Paz, which is being built.

MCC Bolivia table.

Several hundred Mennonites from around the area came for what turned out to be quite a festive day. There was twangy music in Low German. There were lots of salchichas (hot dogs), guiso, ice cream, and soda pop. There was lots of sun, lots of misquitoes. There was some good visiting. And perhaps most importantly for us, there was a unique opportunity to hang out with folks from organizations that Centro Menno hasn't always hung out with.

Recently

Anna is starting to sit for a few seconds without support. And she really loves her feet. And her brother.


Jonathan really, really loves his "buck-up truck" and the accompanying car keys. Love is a bit of an understatement.


MCC Bolivia-ers really like to celebrate birthdays - most recently March and April ones. This included our newly 2-year old, who was more than a little enthused about another birthday cake and candles.


Anna apparently did not love said birthday cake.

[Mama loves all the new photo manipulation options on the updated Picasa.]