Everyday Rincon

During the past few days I have experienced so many new and unusual things, but for the locals it's been normal everyday stuff for decades. I have my own room in younger girls' dormitories. They wanted to give me a house at first  but then a Brazilian couple said they plan to come here and the house will be given to them. But I'm very happy that I can live close to other people, I couldn't sleep alone there in the middle of field where that house is. Falling asleep is my biggest problem. My room has an aluminum roof and EVERYTHING that happens on the roof makes a very loud noise. When it rains, when a branch or a fruit falls on the roof, when a bird walks or grasshopper hops... it sounds really scary. Some insects sing especially loud at nights and every bird caws... small animals walk through grass, horses walk by your windows and they are barked at by 6 Rincon dogs. And it is COMPLETELY dark during the night and tiny bugs hop on my blanket. It takes some time to fall asleep. It gets easier every night but anyway - every night is a challenge. Both my windows have a mosquito nets that save me from death as Ms. Velta said. :) But all kinds of tiny creatures find their way to me. I guess they all want to taste the new, white blood :D The best thing was when one night as usual I felt something was walking on my blanket. I opened my eyes (even though it's a stupid idea because you can't see anything) but this time I saw something! I wiped it away and all of a sudden a small flash light was in front of me! I closed my eyes, rubbed them, opened again because I thought it wasn't for real. But I saw that tiny flash light again. And then it started to hop on my blanket! Later all the locals laughed at me, when I told this. It is a very common bug here. I'd say it's a remote relative of Latvian fire fly. Yes... there is no lack of live creatures. I meet new miraculous things every day... a butterfly in the size of the palm of my hand lives in my room for the 4th day already, outside next to the sink crawls a 7cm (2.7 inches) long fluffy spider. When I open the doors of my closet I see a 6cm (2.3 inches) long cockroach, a 1000-legged worm crawls outside my door, a HUGE toad jumps through Ms. Velta's garden, he's about as big as a children bowling ball. Every place is full of unusual creatures! You're never alone :D You get used to it after a while... I'm still in the process.
When you don't think about all the insects, bugs and amphibians, wonderful people walk around. Currently there are 3 local Latvians in the mission - Velta, Janis and Harijs. Undine went to see her dentist in Corumba. Pastor Samuel flies to many local authorities to deal with paperwork. But these 3 Latvians and an old man Romans from Hungary are wonderful people indeed! They all are 74 or older. But they work and serve more actively then an average 20 year old European! Both gray haired men always greet me kindly and have wept several times upon looking at me... I am an answered prayer for them... and I'm very happy I am! They tell me adventurous and exciting stories about the good old times... if anyone could write them down, they would make a fantastic book! And they work all the time. We see each other for lunch and dinner, they eat quickly, say "Provecho" and rush back to their work. I'm helping Ms. Velta these days - I do everything that needs to be done. So far I have cleaned a house no one has lived in for a long time, I cleaned the toilets, windows and furniture, helped in the local shop, pealed corn cobs, made corn juice and done other smaller or bigger things. When you work you're sweating all the time here! I have to wipe my forehead often because it's covered in sweat! But it's easier to bear the heat here than in Latvia in July.
Every day is pretty much the same because we have our meals on the same time. Breakfast at 7:00AM, lunch at 11:00 AM, dinner at 5:00PM. At 5:30PM it gets dark and electricity is provided for all the houses. It goes off at 8:30PM and everyone goes to bed. Other live creatures become active then... at least those who live around my room ;) School will start on February 1st. Then the electricity will be provided until 8:00PM and we will have to get up a little earlier in the morning. But it's easy to get up in the morning because the light is bright outside and the temperatures are rising. When the school starts about 120 kids will live in the dorms - so my social life will be more active. They let me live in the dorms because there I will learn the language easier since the girls will want to talk to me all the time. That's their nature! On the first night here a local girl came to me and I showed her my pictures and tried to tell about my life in Latvia in my poor Spanish. I learn new phrases every day. I love when the old Latvian men forget that I don't speak Spanish so well yet and they smile and look at me and tell me something in Spanish. Of course, I can't interrupt their story so I just nod and smile. Until Ms. Velta comes and tells them that I don't understand it all :D Then they try to translate their stories into Latvian. Usually they talk to each other in Spanish except when they don't want the locals to understand, then they use Latvian.
I'm writing all this on a Saturday night. I don't know when I will get to post this because pastor will fly back only on Tuesday or Wednesday.
By the way - you can write me letters! Yesterday pastor flew here from Corumba and brought some mail. I was surprised there were some letters from Riga. Now I know that I can receive some mail from Latvia (and other places) too! You have to mail these letters to Corumba, Brazil. Pastor goes there once a week to get mail and send letters. So I will be able to mail something too! My address is:

LIENE SVOKA
CAIXA POSTAL 101
CORUMBA
MS 79301-970
BRASIL

I will be veeeerrrrryyyyy happy to receive something! And I will definitely try to send something myself! So feel free to leave your addresses here for me... ha ha... maybe I will send YOU something from jungle :D
I have so much more to tell but the power generator will be switched off soon and I need to finish.
I hope I will get to use the computer again soon!
I am happy, I have enough food and clothes, I'm a little hot but satisfied with life here! But I feel like in a totally different world. And their Latvian is totally different. In 6 months I will speak like a Latvian from century ago :D I will have to write down my new vocabulary one day!
I send you tropical greetings from Rincon del Tigre, Bolivia!