I remember, as a child, the delight and excitement we would have when, on those hot summer days, we would hear the jingle of the Ice Cream truck as it played it’s tinny, hokey, children’s tunes at top volume. That particular sound could draw groups of kids that would make the Pied Piper twist in envy! We KNEW what that sound meant! And we wanted what that sound promised… yummy ice cream and cool popsicles!

I guess some things are universal. Because…

Ice cream is a big thing here in Cochabamba. Folks love their “helado”. No matter where you go, whether it’s the main park/shopping areas (Recoleta, Prado, etc.), Ferias or La Cancha, you’ll see folks on bicycles or motorcycles with their styrofoam boxes of ice cream strapped behind them. The boxes often have the names of the major Ice Cream chains, like Donal’s or Dumbo’s, or they’ll just have “Helado” stamped on the side. They don’t have canned children’s songs to blast out, so they squeak their “oogah” bike horns or hawk their wares verbally.

The other day I saw the most interesting site as our taxi was pulling away from our home. We passed a lady dressed “al campo”. That means that she was dressed the way they dress in the “country”… regional hat, shell pattern crocheted or knitted top and dirndl/pleated skirt, usually scarlet or burgundy in color.

This lady had an ice cream cooler strapped TO her and she was honking the oogah horn. She WAS the ice cream truck!

You have to admire that kind of determination and drive to earn and succeed. I was so touched by that sight. If I weren’t so paranoid about buying anything to eat from the street, I’d have gotten an ice cream from that lady! As it was, I prayed that the Lord would honor her hardworking ethic.

When I get tired, trying to learn spanish with no class available, the Lord brings to mind this picture… the lady selling the ice cream from her back; the little boy who knows no English other than the word “MONEY”; the legless lady at the Feria each Saturday who can only sit in her wheelchair and hold out her coin cup; our taxi driver who is a hardworking man who loves his wife and his Catholic church; and so many more people. God reminds me of the many people with whom I would love to share the Gospel… if I only knew the words they needed to hear.

THAT is what drives me on to learn as best as I can. Please pray for us. And please pray for those people who need to HEAR what we need to SAY… in SPANISH.

There are so many things that are different when living in another place than you’re used to… city, state, COUNTRY!

One of the things that is different here is the trash collection. They don’t pick it up for you. You have to hand each bag UP to the trash guy, and if you have a lot, then you’re doing a lot of work.

They don’t take boxes. So, you’d think that soon you would be overrun with boxes, right? Not at all! We had been told that all you have to do is to put the boxes out at night, and by morning they are GONE. There was a bit of “sniggering” with the information, but we ignored it.

Well… we put out several boxes one night and thought nothing more of it. The next morning, our buzzer intercom from the gate sounded. I lifted the telephone to see who might be coming to see us at about 6 am! Someone spoke, and I didn’t recognize their voice. I didn’t understand all the spanish, but he kept saying “cajones”, which I thought meant “drawers”. He also said “caja” and that means “box”.

At last I understood! He was ASKING if it was okay for him to take the boxes! Now isn’t that SWEET!? I was so touched by that thoughtfulness. wow… we’ve lived in cities in the U.S. where stuff on the curb was considered “fair game”, so you don’t dare leave anything anywhere near there! Folks come, pick through it, make a MESS for you to clean up and never even think of asking or saying “thank you”!

But here… in Bolivia… not only did the man ask if he could have them, he also said “thank you”. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, “muchas gracias, senora” means “thank you very much, ma’am”. Now THAT is consideration and polite behavior!

Ya gotta love it.

Yesterday was my oldest child’s birthday. She’s had a few of them. One might say that she’s “over all that”. She’s 20-something, about to graduate from College, supports herself… so she probably didn’t notice.

But I did.

We all miss her so much! So what did we do? We had a party FOR her!

As I mentioned yesterday, we got Lorien a cake! Not just ANY cake… we got her a “6-layer fruit and whipped cream and glaze and moist cake from Dumbo’s” cake! It was 100Bs. That’s a lot here. Actually, at $12.50 for a cake, *I* think it’s a lot! But it was worth it!

They asked me what name to put on the cake. I told them “Lorien” and then spelled if for her, in spanish. Don’t ask me how, but L-O-R-I-E-N became “LOREON”! lol… I guess we’re fortunate that it wasn’t L’Oreal, a name that they DO know here.

The cake was huge. When I say “6 layers”, I’m not joking. There are about 6 layers of cake with filling in between each layer. The cakes are about 8″ tall. The cake that they use is moist to begin with. [I WISH I knew how they DID that! lol... Our NEW MAID comes tomorrow... maybe I can ask her!]

Then there is a yummy layer of something moist and sweet. It looks like pudding. For these really nice cakes, they also use some whipped cream between the layers. And there is fruit. We chose “frutilla”, which is strawberry. So there was something like strawberry jelly with the pudding/whipped cream in between each layer and most of the layers had sliced strawberries too.

Then on top of the perfectly smoothed whipped cream icing covering the cake, there is a draping of strawberry glaze artistically poured over the top and partially down the sides in a lovely swirling kind of effect. It’s as if a wavy circle of red were draped on top of the cake, extending over the sides.

On top of the glaze there is a rosette of whipped cream in the center, with 5 or 6 rosettes around the inner perimeter of the cake. In the center of each rosette is a frozen fresh strawberry.

It makes cutting the cake a bit interesting, but we weren’t going to stand upon principles! We lit the ONE candle that they gave us and sang Happy Birthday to Lorien…. took some pictures and dove into that cake!

wow… it kind of goes against the grain to throw something like that away, but there just weren’t enough of us to eat it! The refrigerators are kind of small, so we couldn’t keep the cake. We ate the biggest pieces of cake we have EVER eaten before and then thought good thoughts and sent up prayers for our precious daughter and sister, Lorien.

We love you precious. We miss you and wish you were with us.

[Quick definitions (transcendent) --adjective:   beyond and outside the ordinary range of human experience or understanding]

Today, after our trip to La Cancha to get the kitchen glass cabinet door fixed, we stopped to get a cake for our daughter’s (Lorien’s) birthday today. [Happy B'day sweetie!]

As we sat at the sidewalk table, waiting for our taxi, a young boy came by begging for money. That he wanted money was obvious by the universal upraised palm and pitiful expression accompanying the waving up and down of said hand.

The young boy accompanied his thinly-veiled demand with many spanish words. We did our standard “no entiendo” ["I don't understand"] when we feel that giving would not be appropriate.

So he thought he would help by interpreting. He leaned in and said firmly, “Monn-ee!” I leaned in and replied just as firmly, “NO!”

I followed it with a smile because he was so cute! In my broken Spanish, I asked him why he wasn’t in school. He said that he got out at 12:30. I don’t know if this is true or not, because I haven’t heard of other schools letting out for his age group, so I asked if he was 9 years old. He said that he was and I told him that my son was 10.

Seeing an opening, he asked for a “helado”. We did the “no entiendo” thing again because I really wasn’t sure what he was saying. So he pointed to the ice cream cone picture on Lorien’s torte box (birthday cake) and said “helado”! Steven wanted to give him something, so we asked how much an ice cream was and what was his favorite flavor.

Well… that fellow-chocolate lover went away with 5 Bolivianos! lol… We really hoped that he wasn’t going back to a drunken father to turn over his earnings. That happens so often when children are begging money. But instead we saw him with a group of kids his own age and his face was beaming.

I’m sure that part of it was, in his mind, having “won” over the Gringos. Whatever… if that had been MY little boy, I would want someone to care about him.

I can’t care for every child in the entire world.

But when God allows one of the little ones to cross my path, I will try to love them as He would want me to love them.