You can take the boy away from sports but you can't get the sports out of the boy!!!! Carl has coached one sport or another for over 35 years. He loves playing sports, coaching, and now a new experience, he is the sponsor of a soccer team. The other day one of his worker at his school came to him and asked if he would be the benefactor/sponsor of their city soccer team. After some discussion of what this would involve Carl jumped at the opportunity. He bought them uniforms, and off we went to their first game. I could not believe that once again I am sitting on bleachers!!!! But, it was a fun sport to watch and the team did wonderful, winning their first game 3-0. So proud of them!

Carnival is huge in Bolivia, in fact they lost a war once because everyone left their post to go home for Carnival. This country put a high value on party and being with family.

The following pictures are of Carl's school celebrating Carnival. The dances are traditional and have specific costumes for each dance. It is all taken quite seriously. The children learn how to dance very young and keep dancing until very, very old.

We had so much fun with this, but I think Carl and I were the comic relief of the whole event.

WOW, I WANT TO BE JUST LIKE THEM WHEN I GROW UP!!!!!! This precious couple we met on the street. He was walking his beautiful dog, and I just had to pet it, then conversation and next thing I knew we were invited up to his apt. to meet his wife. As it turns out they are professional ballroom dancers, she is American and he is Bolivian. He lived in the US for over 40 years and ran the Arthur Murray studio in D.C. and she was his dance partner. They later opened their own studio and were very successful. Once making a dance tour around the world. He actually taught Jackie Kennedy to ballroom dance before her husband's inauguration. He is 80 and in the pictures below we were celebrating her 75 birthday. Now let me tell you, can they dance! I am sure they are somewhat limited due to their age but as the pictures show, they hold nothing back. I would give anything to Tango as well as they do. As usual at any event we had a ball and met many new wonderful people. There is almost always some other expat there and as you can see Carl and Jon were so busy catching up on U.S. news, Bivivian and I had to do a lot of dancing on our own. Great evening!!!!

Many of you have inquired as to whether we felt the earthquake which recently hit Chile. As you can see from the picture we along with Evita and Chica slept peacefully thru the whole thing. It hit Chile (to the West of us) in the very early morning and was felt as far away as Buenos Aires (to the East of us). It had to have traveled right under us, but to former California's I guess we just didn't notice. However, poor Chile did and it is a very serious situation there. Keep them in your prayers.

As promised here are a few more pictures of the house. Notice all the Llama, Alpaca, and Vicuna furs. They are so beautiful and unbelievably soft. I am having a King size white Alpaca spread made for our bed, should be ready in May. I am using my Vicuna spread over a chair right now, you can see it in the picture of the bedroom. They will be coming home with me and I am sure I will enjoy them for many, many years.

Notice the views out all of the windows. At night the city lights are beautiful. They really like their fireworks here, so very often we are treated to a fireworks display. The sunsets are truly remarkable and I just can't resist taking picture, have more pictures now than I will ever be able to paint. However, each evening God just keeps creating a new photo opt.

We are so enjoying the yard, well I am. Carl has never enjoyed yard work, if he had his way we would live in a Patio Home with cement all around. Good news is, here we can afford a gardner and plants are very inexpensive, so I am in heaven.
The gardner comes on his bicycle, with his electric lawnmower strapped to the bicycle and his tools in a pack on his pack. He usually arrives at 7:00 in the morning and is done about 5:00. He is 66 years old and does not stop working until I bring him out, drinks, lunch, and some treats. Now remember he had no power tools except his lawnmower which is so small it cuts about a 12 inch wide path. Most of his work is done with a machete. Hard work and a long day all of 200 Bs. (about $30) and we way overpay what most people do. The really good news is, the yard is looking wonderful, I have 13 new rose bushes blooming like crazy, there are fresh bananas on the banana trees, the poinsettias are starting to bloom (these are trees and the whole top will be flaming red), and the cala lilies are long stemmed and pure white. Life is good in the Wieburg garden!

Here are some pictures of the house we have moved into. We are really enjoying the yard, especially Evita, she just runs and runs. Not much space in the apt. for her Chariots of Fire runs. I will try to get some better pictures of the house, I have planted 13 rose bushes and a million other plants since these pictures. Carl is questioning this activity since we will not be here that long, but as usual he is a good sport.