Regresamos

Our time in Bolivia has come to an end. Our bags packed, our goodbyes said, and with our souvenirs we closed the door to the guest house. Our ride to the airport is a long and bumpy one. There was a protest going on and most of the roads in Quillocollo were blockaded with tires and debris. Our driver, Manual, navigated through the busy streets finding unblocked routes getting us to our destination. My heart is heavy, my mind is torn between all the new memories from the last month and all of the tasks have to do when I return to my home. My emotions are high; I’m excited, sad, joyful, and somewhat fearful.

The biggest fear that I have about returning is that I will return to life in the states the same as before. I try thinking about all of the things I’ve learned and the transformations that have taken place and try imagining what will be different, but I don’t know what being different looks like. I know in my heart that the work I did in Bolivia was there to prepare me to do the work that exists in my life. I also don’t want to work on some kind of emotional high that leaves me burnt out and spawns no real sustainable change.

I’m still trying to figure out what this whole month has meant for the rest of my life, what will be different, or what will improve. I know that without a doubt that my trip was meaningful and purposeful and God had a reason for me to be there, but as I return home, I realize that it is time to start life again, to jump into the ruts and routines of the daily life. But I pray that in my ruts and routines I show God’s love, provide for the needs of others, and truly live a life of service to the people in my reach.

Thank you for reading this blog,

Thank you for your financial support,

Thank you all for your prayers.

Commitment

Throughout the weeks we’ve been in Bolivia, we’ve seen half the volunteers go and have welcomed new groups to the house. Volunteers for this organization spend on average 3-8 weeks at a time. Enough time to get a sense of the culture, get sick from the food a couple of times, and expand their spanish vocabulary. Helping out in the city, working in the orphanages, and doing clinics merely scratch the surface of the kind of work needed here. Don’t get me wrong, I feel that my month in Bolivia has done a lot of good. However, my experience here has led me to the conclusion that missionship, if thats a word, isn’t something that you do for a month or even a year. To truly make an impact, to truly know a culture, to truly be a missionary, it requires your life. You must go into it without a timetable. My friend Amy Johnson spends her days with street kids, loving them, listening to them, and building relationships. Another friend, Andrea, is a networker who knows people from all around the city who have needs and others who can meet needs. She works at a church with youth, does translating in a hospital, disciples orphan girls, and is a wife and mother. Andrea’s husband, Monty, runs a carpentry that teaches street kids a sustainable craft and also focuses on getting them off of drugs and off of the streets. Further, the furniture they build is for orphanages. They are able to do this work because of the commitment they have to the people, the work, and their purpose. 

Our experience at home with ministry and service are usually limited to sunday mornings and the occasional service project. We do children’s church on sundays which is an amazing experience and opportunity to serve but it is limited to one day. I’ve come to see that ministry is an active presence to a community in need. 

With all of this said, I’ve come to understand that in order to make a difference in the lives of people, not just their situation, it takes time and commitment. Although Ashley and I don’t feel a conviction to live  in Bolivia for the rest of our lives, we’ve come to understand that true ministry is much more than a service project and more of a way of life where ever I live.

Street Kids

Today we had the privilege to teach street kids about sexual education and basic hygiene.  We worked last night on our presentation and tried to make sure we included all of the facts about STDS and proper teeth brushing rituals. Our ride to Cochabamba was one filled with nervousness and final preparations. When we arrived in near downtown Cochabamba in a small park with many trees, we met up with Ami Johnson, a independent 29 year old missionary who focuses solely on street kids.  She gave us some insight on what to expect and warned us to make sure we don’t leave things sitting around that could be stolen. After the short meeting she left to meet the kids on a street corner a few blocks away.

The kids work on various street corners either juggling fruit in front of cars in busy intersections or washing car windows. This particular group lives under a bridge in a small tunnel. Ami told us that most of the kids are between 9-18, all are sexually active, most to all have STDS, they have lice, are malnutricitioned, and 100% of the kids are addicted to sniffing shoe glue. These were very disturbing facts which were difficult to fathom. 

About 15 minutes after she left, 2 taxis with about 20 kids crammed like sardines in the small subcompact arrived at the park. They started walking towards us, some with their window squeegees in hand  all with dirty clothes. We brought a soccer ball so many of them started to play around with the ball in an open area of the park, others came and introduced themselves to us, whereas many just sat down on a ledge next to a flower garden and talked to each other. After a couple of minutes I went up to the ledge and started talking to them. As I was making small talk with a boy probably 15 with a large stained faded blue coat, I noticed he had a small plastic bottle hidden in the sleeve of his coat while he surreptitiously placed it under his nose and breathed in slowly. I in mid-sentence lost my train of thought and mumbled in my words for a few seconds until Ami came up and sternly told him to put it away until they leave the park. Needless to say, he was sniffing a shoe glue locally called Clefa which is  very potent and very dangerous. After about 5 minutes I started noticing that everybody had one of those little plastic bottles and would constantly breathe in the fumes.

I’ve known for quite a while that street children in South America sniffed glue, I’ve read articles about it and have been told by many different people at home and here. However, when I saw the faces of young teenagers stumbling and slurring their speech, it occurred to me that knowing the facts doesn’t mean a thing until you see it right in front of you. 

We were told that we had about 30 minutes before the kids would get bored and stop paying attention. When we started, we lost their attention in about 4 minutes. It took games, skits, interaction, prizes, and pictures of infected penises for them to stay engaged about half of the time. Some would just walk around, some would climb in the trees and all of them would sniff their glue. After our presentation was over, we passed out some toothbrushes and toothpaste, gave them some food and got to interact with some of the kids.

One boy, Mosais, was timid and friendly, he asked us about a couple of American movies and let us take pictures with him. He stood  out to me from the crowd because he really appeared as if he hated the lifestyle he was living. He looked as if he had hope of getting out of the streets. Many of the kids have accepted and enjoy their life of sex and drugs and having nobody telling them what to do, most to all street kids do not live past their 30s. Mosais is the only one in the group I felt had a chance of truly overcoming this dangerous lifestyle. 

As we said our goodbyes we starting walking towards the main road, Ami flagged a taxi and many of the kids crammed inside. 2 kids, Alexandra and Jose walked next to Ami and held her hand. They would touch her long blonde hair, sniff it, and smile.  After a couple of blocks the rest of the kids disappeared from our sight.  We walked down the long busy road, boarded a small bus, and left traveled home.

Dia de San Juan

Today, in Bolivia, is the Dia de San Juan, a winter solstice,  which is celebrated like independence day and Martigras combined. It is a holiday in which you burn all of your trash and old junk, shoot off sub par fireworks, and drink a lot of alcohol. Also, they spraypaint cows pink, I’m not sure why. We celebrated this holiday by staying at the house, eating dinner, talking, and shooting off a couple of bottle rockets. Its kind of weird because San Juan is only acknowledged this day because he is apparently a patron saint of rain. However, this day has caused me to think about Saint John and has compelled me to read 1 John, this is what stuck out in my reflection of the day:

4:11-12 Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 

This afternoon, Me and some other volunteers got to hang out with some of the girl orphans at the Casa de Alegria, we joked with each other, played soccer, and just acted goofy. The girls from the orphanage have had a hard past, most are young teenagers, abused, neglected, and forgotten, these girls have had a harder life than I will ever know. However, today we were normal people, hanging out, joking, and having a good time. The struggles from the past and present were put to the side, the differences in language and culture were ignored. Today, I truly felt God’s love and I realized that showing God’s love is the most satisfying thing a person can do.

Funny Story

So we’ve recently been attacked by terrible little creatures known as ‘bed bugs’. Throughout the last few days I’ve woken up with 5-10 fresh red bumps on various parts of my body. Right now the count is about 38. they look similar to mosquito bites and itch just as much. The house host, Tomas, tells me that they’ve washed sheets, deep cleaned mattresses, and fumigated rooms yet, somehow they tend to show up.  After 3 nights of ignoring the problem, last night we decided to address the issue. My first suggestion to effectively fix the problem is to burn everything in the room. However as I was fetching for the matches, that idea wasn’t necessarily um… accepted. So our next idea was to change beds. The good news is, there are bunk beds in our room besides our modest twin size bed. So Ashley and I, last night, slept in the bottom bunk of the bunk bed. With fewer blankets, a smaller mattress, two sick coughing people, and no sides on the bed, this certainly made for a great night sleep. I am certain that all of this is happening is because nobody blessed our night by saying “Sleep tight, Don’t let the bed bugs bite”.  

Anyway, we’ll see how tonight goes, thanks for reading.

Sickness

Please pray for us, Ashley and I are dealing with some sickness down here. I’ve had a cough and have been pretty weak the last few days and Ashley, within the span of 24 hours went from feeling great, to having a bad sore throat and a weak body. We went to the hospital tonight which isn’t to big of a deal because its about 50 yards away and got her checked out. They gave her a shot of steroids for the inflammation and sent her on her way with a bill for 21 bolivianos and a prescription for some antibiotics. Ashley with a sore butt, and I with an emptier wallet we walked back to the house ready to end the day. We are praying that we will be healthy enough to work on monday.

La Cancha

This post is from Friday but we didn’t have internet:

This morning we visited La Cancha. 

La Cancha is a giant outdoor market in downtown Cochabamba. Ashley and I went with Iris, the Guesthouse host, and Milenka, a worker at the girls orphanage. Walking though the confusing maize of different types of shops selling things from shoes to llama fetuses. The market was booming with people walking around searching for the best deals and merchants selling various types of foods and drinks. We were trying to get some quotes on the supplies that we need for the Casa da Alegria. Iris, who happens to be a master haggler, strategically questioned the quality and price of each product as we browsed each shop. A couple of times I looked through countless DVDs including the new Startrek and Wolverine Origins all for about 5 Bolivianos (75 Cents). When we were walking past one vender, an old Qechuan woman with a cart selling sugar cane, Iris took out a Boliviano and gave it to the woman in exchange for a bag of cut sugar cane, a common snack in this region. We chewed the cane as we walked through the crowded streets with cars zooming by just inches from us. We ended up in the clothing district to find the best deals for sandals for all of the girls and workers at the orphanage. After comparing prices at 5 to 6 different places we ended up buying 24 pairs of sandals for 220 Bolivianos. For just over 30 dollars we got shoes for a whole orphanage.

Casa de Alegria

This Post is from Thursday but I couldn’t load it because the internet was out:

Much of our time here in Bolivia is centered on working with orphanages, on Thursday we visited an all girls orphanage, called Casa de Alegria, that housed 18 girls all who have been sexually or physically abused. The orphanage was really run down and had many broken windows. Walking past the 2 story peach colored house which resembled a rundown hotel, we entered the tall black gate where we could see several girls tilling the land in order to plant a vegetables. As we walked passed the half tilled earth we meandered into the inner courtyard in which we could hear women in the kitchen preparing Cui, a small animal similar to a guinea pig for lunch. We walked up the steps and looked into the girls bedrooms where pictures of American actors, paintings by some of the girls, along with pictures of Jesus lined the walls. One of the ladies, Andrea, had a list of all of the basic needs which needed to be met; simple things like mirrors, sandals, windows, and seeds for their garden. Andrea explained to us that sometimes street kids would throw rocks at the house and break the windows, sometimes into the girls rooms while they were sleeping. This orphanage is rather unfortunate because it doesn’t get government funding, and it is not affiliated so it doesn’t get funding from the states. After about 30 minutes of planning our work, we left excited and optimistic about our plans for the following week.

Day 1

Day one of this adventure started yesterday at 2:00 and is still continuing on through this night. Our travels have been mostly uneventful with the exceptions of Ashley having her maiden name on the passport which caused some problems on our way there, getting some altitude sickness during our quick layover in La Paz, and further the trouble with customs here in Bolivia as we tried to bring down some medical computer equipment. For much of our flight I was either praying, sleeping, or cramming various spanish vocabulary as if studying for a final.

Our 45 minute drive to the hospital guest house was more than exciting; the sights, sounds, smells, and atmosphere of a new world brought into question my bodily senses. Today I smelt new aromas, tasted new delicacies, and witnessed beautiful and profound vistas. The emersion into a new culture leaves me nothing less than overwhelmed and excited. 

After arriving at  the house and receiving our orientation from the clear and hospitable host Iris in spanish of course, we ate a homemade authentic Bolivian lunch on the grass with the other volunteers and basked in the warm  winter sun. 

After lunch, we took a trip in to Cochabamba and visited El Cristo de Concordia which is a giant statue of Jesus rightfully placed at the head of the city on a large hill overseeing the people. Then we stopped for some ice cream at a shop in the downtown. 

Although I saw many sites and various things to mourn over, one scene tonight stuck out to me: One of the countless street children in the downtown area stood in front of our car juggling limes until we gave him some money. Children were begging for money various ways throughout the whole city, however, when I looked into his eyes, I didn’t see a child seeking approval or trying to entertain strangers. I saw an empty person who has been numbed by this desperation to survive the next day.

Today has been a blessing. 

Thomas

Welcome!

Welcome to the Bolivia Blog. This blog is meant to keep you updated on everything that is going on during our trip to Bolivia. Thanks for reading and please pray for the planning process and stay tuned because June 8th is coming up fast!