Adventures in Bolivia: June 2014

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Memories of a Lullaby

24/6/2014

Memory I

1998/1999

Mom bringing me to bed, sitting by my bedside in the dark, singing lullabies to me. "Guten Abend, gute Nacht, mit Rosen bedacht, mit Nelklein besteckt....." was I singing, too? Probably.

Memory II

2000

Dad telling us bedtime stories in Allensbach with a few words that we gave him as help - as always super funny, making us laugh more than put us in a sleepy mode. Summer nights are the best nights for stories.

Memory III

2002

Already a bit older, we played a game with Nana in Allensbach that had something to do with winning the white, shiny beans that we kept safely locked up.

Memory IV

2005

Making banana bread with Phyllis, her teaching me the secrets to the deliciousness, and me taking good mental notes.

Memory V

2005/2006

Sleepover at Phyllis's in the green room, Loly sleeping on my tummy.

Memory VI

2004

Phyllis teaching me how to pronounce "vote" with the American V sound and not the German W sound.

Memory VII

Phyllis dressing me up for modeling like a little girl in one of the old paintings that she had to reproduce for her painting class....and her wandering why I didn't have one of the fancy American dresses so typical for little girls.

Memory VIII

2005

Phyllis talking me to her sun-filled studio upstairs to paint, me admiring all her kitty paintings and sketches. You're not only a true artist, Phyllis, but also a great inspiration and role model for me. I look up to you. Thanks for all your love and life lessons.

Memory IX

2005

Admiring the stars through the skylights from my bunk bed in Huron Ave.

Memory X

Now

With my head down on my diary writing last lines and with all these memories floating through my head I am gently drifting to sleep.

Memories Of The Morning Rituals

Memory I

2001

What is nicer than to be woken up by daddy on a cold winter morning, lazily get out of bed to go to school, drag naked feet across the cold hardwood floor that I so adored, and then eat breakfast in the warm kitchen while the day slowly begins outside? I think, for a 6/7 year old that's a pretty good start to the day.

Memory II

2000

The smell of Nivea brings back the memory of my kindergarten, of playiing outside and nourishing both rough hands and baby butts with Nivea. Or, sometimes, nourishing faces before making masks out of plaster.

Memory II.I

2000

With Nivea also comes the memory of baking in the kindergarten, all squished into the little kitchen, asking what to do. I think one of us kids decided to see what butter tastes

like pure and concluded that butter is not to eat.

Memory III

1999

Making egg warmers out of felt and soap water. It was so much fun to mix the colors of wool endlessly and endlessly, until finally forming shapes and a less abstract object.

Memory IV

1995-2008

How did I get from morning rituals to good night stories? Who knows how the mind works. It was always an act to go to bed, but made a bit nicer by daddy tucking me in. How did I call it? Einmummeln? Thanks, Dad, for making feel warm and loved all those nights.

Memory V

2001

Mom was out one night, and I was waiting for her to come back sitting upright in my bunk bed. I remember this very clearly - I refused to lie down without Mom being there. So I sat up, with my yellow "Felix" rabbit blanket in my lap, and counted. I got until 45 and fell asleep.

Memory VI

Now

Skipping many years, sitting in the micro to my work writing into my little yellow notebook with the sun shining in my face.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Big Hearts

I learned something today, something that I have known inconciously, but that just poped into my head as a thought today. I learned that there is nothing greater than telling someone how much they mean, how much they mean. it takes a big heart to take up all the love that sticks to the walls of my work, to the faces of the people that come to visit, and most of all, the grat people that come to work and inspire every day.
We celebrated Doña Marcia´s birthday today, just in a small circle. For me, however, it wasn´t just a birthday celebration. It was much more. Not only is Doña Marcia my boyfriend´s mom, she is also like a third mom to me and I love her a lot (thrid mom because I have my real mom-the best mom I could ever ask for, my host mom who has helped me through a lot of things and who I also love, and Doña Marcia). Now, the little birthday breakfast touched me a lot, because we went around the group of coworkers saying what we love about Doña Marcia without anyone anouncing it. It was so nice to hear what everyone had to say about her, and she was really happy and touched as well.

In the afternoon I had another nice experience. If you´re all touchy about details you an go ahead and not read this part, but I{m going to write it down anyway because it´s part of the experience.
I was relaxing, reading a book in my lunch break when one of my favorit girls comes to crouch down beside me. "Que haces??" what are you doing, she askes me. I tell her that I am reading my book and she looks at me a while before puting her fingers in my face. I was a bit taken back at first, but then I realized she was fixing my pimples!! That´s a gesture of complete trust and caring that I have only seen between mother and children here. I was touched at the bottom of my heart. I love my work, from the tip of my toes to the ends of my hair.

If I am lucky, I get to stay till December.