Life’s Perpetual Homework, by Dana

Our new life in Cochabamba has the four us learning full throttle each day, all day.  We are now living with host family Grover and Nelvia Arancibia Cruz, and their two adorable boys Matias (5) and Nicolas (3).  They are teaching us more about Bolivian culture, food and customs.   The Arancibia Cruz home is in a section of Cochabamba called Barrio FerroBiario, about 8 kilometers from the heart of the city.  Therefore Quinn has gotten even more proficient dealing with public transportation and fare negotiation with taxis.

Each morning the four of us go back into the city together so we can all go to school.  On the way to catch a bus, there’s an abandoned railroad behind the Arancibia Cruz’s where we have seen the same shepherd a few mornings with his flock.  After finding and hopping a “micro”, we get to a large rotunda where we hail a taxi and negotiate a price.  Once we get to Despartad (our children’s school), we walk the kids to their classroom and greet their teachers and other parents.  One endearing aspect of Bolivian culture is their insistence on greeting each person, as if each person matters.  I find this to be just like God’s heart.

While it’s my goal to achieve a “3 year old’s level of Spanish fluency” it’s going to take quite a while for me to get there.  Learning Spanish starting from ground zero, is simply tough.   Living with a Bolivian family puts us in a permanent soak of learning.  Looking back at our lives in Helena, I can see how my normal life was so often in auto pilot.  Before I never had use much brain power to go to the grocery, bank, get daily directions, make friends, how to cook, get safe water, how to decipher our children’s homework directions, decide what is acceptable to wear, bring to a party—well the list goes on.  And while I’ll admit that this commitment/preoccupation with learning is a new phase in my life, I am sure it’s more of the mindset God has wanted me to have all long.

I am finding inspiration for learning in our host family.  Grover, has the heart of a scholar.  First of all, he’s fluent in four languages (Quechua, Spanish, French and English), and his home office shows his love of learning.  While he did not have an ideal upbringing, living with many different family members, he achieved many accomplishments, including being ranked number one in Karate for the whole country.  On the cusp of training for Olympics to compete in Karate, he decided instead to pursue his study of the Bible.  He is now a teacher at a Christian school, and hosts many families like us.  He teaches and preaches at his church, works with the young adults and occasionally does translation work.  Grover is a very bright, humble, hardworking man dedicated to giving his boys (including one more on the way) a stable and godly childhood, different from his own. And God has surely granted him a gem of a wife.  Nelvia is also a treasure of grace, hard work and kindness.  And (lucky us) she’s an incredible cook!

Here’s some more inspiration to continually learn what God’s gentle heart wants to teach you:

Proverbs 13: 20a  “He who walks with the wise grows wise.”

Titus 3:14  “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good…and not live unproductive lives.”

Psalm 25:4-5 “Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are my God and my Savior, and my hope is in your all day long.”

Psalm 90:12  “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”