A Wonderful Visit With My Parents

This morning at our house there were lots of hugs, kisses, and tears and we said goodbye to my parents who have been visiting with us for the past 3 weeks. (Obviously the reason for my lack of posts recently....that and puking my guts up from morning sickness. On that subject, ladies we MUST campaign for a new name for this horrible loosing of the contents of our entire stomachs....it doesn't just happen in the mornings!!) Anyway on to brighter things. We all had such a good time with my parents. We showed them the sights, sounds and even smells of Coch. I think they probably could have done without the smells. We took them to:

• the Christo (the large statue of Jesus that is like the one in Rio de Janeiro only a bit bigger),


• our favorite places to eat (after a few days of letting their stomachs adjust),


• La Cancha (the biggest outdoor market in all of South America and the source of many of the smells they could've done without) where they saw raw meat hanging and I mean all the parts....tongues, intestines, hearts (which by the way taste great!!), etc. among other things....everything from DVDs (copies of course), bed sheets, microwaves, televisions, and handmade furniture to donkey jaws, blocks and blocks of used clothing and let's not forget the ever popular witches' section with everything they need for all their potions...really...including dead llama fetuses.


• see a glimpse of the famous Carnival parade...but only a glimpse since the streets were crowded and dangerous from tens of thousands of water balloons. At any given moment we could see hundreds of them in the air at once. Most people cut us slack since we had the honeys with us, but we were still hit in the crossfire. Carnival is the biggest celebration here in Bolivian....bigger than Christmas. Joe and/or I will write more on that later.


• our church. They enjoyed the service and paid close attention despite not understanding a word.


• a super bowl party hosted by friends that work here for the DEA.


• the bike trail where they watched the kids ride.


• the Saturday market where we buy our fruits and veggies. They got to meet the 'wheel barrow girl', Sondra, that helps us carry our things in her wheel barrow.


• a nice place a bit out of the city near a large lake to enjoy a Sunday afternoon


• and numerous other adventures that I will think of as soon as I post this blog. :>)
  

We were all thrilled to see them and enjoyed our time together. We are grateful that they took the time to come and visit us and see where and how we live. They are bringing back lots of pics and memories to share. The time they spent here will live in the Holman family's hearts and memories for years to come and will brighten our days as we think back on the fun times we shared here showing them the sights, playing cards and dominoes, and just hanging out.

For some pics of their time here check out Joe's blog. I hope to post more here later as well.