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Thu, 17 Jul 2008
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 Ametrine |
P.S. If you want to see what Bolivianite looks
like, you can google Ametrine, or you can check out
www.anahi.com. Anahi is the name of an Ayore
princess who, according to legend at least, married
a Spaniard. When he decided to return to Spain
with his new bride, the tribe--which had welcomed
their marriage--was upset at his taking her away.
The chief of the tribe had given Bolivianite
crystals to the Spaniard as a wedding gift, but he
didn't pay much attention. But as the tribe
pursued him to kill him, his bride put a crystal
into his hand and sent him away. Allegedly, the
man got away, and the tribe killed the princess
instead. The Spaniard didn't open his hand and see
the gem till after he was gone. . . and realized
what a beautiful thing it was--two blended stones
that were inseparable without destroying them. . .
representing the love of Anahi for her husband and
the love of Anahi for her people. If you go to
www.anahi.com, there are two sides to the website,
Bolivia and USA, with some different jewelry on
each side. If you pick the Bolivia website, you can
still
choose English language. But they have different
designs for the different countries.
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Posted 20:40
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 Having fun |
Recently, we celebrated our FIFTEENTH WEDDING
ANNIVERSARY! So that was very cool. One of the
things we did was have dinner at a beautiful
restaurant. Another was that we went with our boys
to the Anahi gem manufacturing plant to see
Bolivianite crystals (also called ametrine) being
made into gems(15 years. . . crystal anniversary .
. .get it? I don't think Tom planned it that way;
he just thought it would be a fun tour. But I
thought it was a very clever way to spend part of
our 15th anniversary celebration!). It was very
cool. Definitely a trip worth taking. The plant
is packed with millions of the rocks. . . that is
impressive on its own. But then to watch them
sorted, cut, faceted, prepped to be made into
jewelry. . . it's quite a process. Bolivianite
stones sell here from less than two dollars each to
over $7,000 each. . . depending on quality, cut,
polishing, size, setting etc.. They say that lowland
Bolivia is the only place in the world where this
particular gem is found and mined--it is a blend of
amethyst
(purple) and citrine (kind of gold-colored) that
grow together in a specific pattern. Anahite--also
a Bolivian gem--is prepped at the plant as well.
It is pale lilac, not dark
purple. One of my favorite finds was burned
citrine. . . they tumbled the stones and then
heated it a gazillion degrees. . . then set them
into necklaces and bracelets. They looked kind of
like pale honey throat lozenges :-). They were
BEAUTIFUL! And since citrine is not a high-demand
gem--and some of the ones there had internal
fractures, they sold us a whole bag full of them
for ten
dollars (I think the tour guide thought we were
going to do some major anniversary shopping . . .he
was mistaken . . .all I really wanted was the bag
of citrine stones!) I tried to find a picture of
them online to share with you, but the "burnt
citrine" pictured online doesn't look at all like
what we bought. Maybe I'll take a picture sometime
to show you. When Tom and I get a little
more time, he said he can try to drill them for me
and we can set them. . . I worked in a jewelry
store and love crafty stuff like that. . . and he
is Mr. Handyman and a whiz with power tools. He
has done some jewelry making in
the past, too. For now, though, back
at work, we are amping up our schedule for Vacation
Bible School! This is the fourth one I've helped
with at the English church here (well, one I didn't
help much with, so maybe 3 1/2?). The theme this
year is "Treasure Hunt for Truth". . . don't look
for it online because we made it up! It's a
Biblical archeology theme about the truth of the
Bible. Starts NEXT WEEK! Anyway, I guess I'll get
back to cleaning house and making treasure maps for
VBS. Blessings to you all this week! Keep smiling
bright!
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Posted 20:25
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Tue, 08 Jul 2008
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 News |
Bolivia is still about where it was. . . quieter
maybe. The ambassador is back from the USA.
However, while he was traveling/ gone, the Bolivian
President offended the Peruvian President, and the
Peruvian President removed their ambassador from
here. It really seemed like Evo was just trying to
get people upset. Work them up a bit, and get them
agitated! We are still low on fuel here, but other
than that, most issues have died down a bit. All
of the governors but one said they would submit to
the revocation vote after all. It's about a month
away. There was a garbage strike in town. . . I am
SO glad that is over! YUCK. It STUNK, more than
usual. Other news, we are SO HAPPY about the
flawless, beautiful rescue of more than a dozen
hostages--taken by the FARC and rescued years later
in an operation led by the Colombian military.
Beautiful thing. I saw that made USA news, too.
No shots fired, just tricked them . . .great.
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Posted 15:10
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 New Photos! |
There are four new photos in the new album
"July-September." The website has a new format--if
you click once on the photo, it will bring it up
with captions/ etc.. If you click it a second
time, it shows a larger version--but without
comments. Happy belated fourth of July!
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Posted 15:04
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Mon, 30 Jun 2008
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 Prayer Requests |
By the way, I updated our prayer requests page, if
you want to take a look. Have a great day!
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Posted 09:53
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