Easter Break

Well....I guess I have a lot to update you all on. So here I go.

Right before Easter break, we had field days at CCS. I was only there for Thursday, the first day, because I left for La Paz that night.

This is little Vadhir - can you tell he's a stinker! I love this picture though. It says a lot :)

This is Nicole, jumping at the standing long jump pit (where I raked and helped measure all of Thursday).

I went to La Paz (the capital city) for Easter break with another teacher friend, Christine. All of the new short-termers were required to go on a "ministry exposure trip" to see different ministries of SIM. It worked out wonderfully for me to go visit Kep and Debbie James, missionaries who work in La Paz, and are from Parkside Church (my home church in Ohio). So, Christine and I left for La Paz on Thursday night (March 25). We travelled by a luxurious bus all night - I think it was the most comfortable I have ever been in a moving vehicle. Pretty amazing, I know. We arrived in La Paz at about 6:30 in the morning (Friday). Funny story: I happened to wake up and see that there were not many people on the bus. I didn't think much of the fact that the bus was stopped, because the bus had been stopping at various points along the way all night long. The lack of people however, did prompt me to ask the driver "Excuse me, where are we?" (using my limited Spanish of course). She proceded to tell me that we were at the end, in La Paz. Praise the Lord that I woke up and asked where we were!! We might have kept sleeping long past La Paz! Ha!

Only part of the huge city of La Paz. Unlike Cochabamba, La Paz is built up onto the mountains.

So, we got a taxi to the James' house and froze our little buns the whole way there. We couldn't believe how cold it was compared to Cochabamba! We ate breakfast at the James' and crashed for a little bit, until we left in the early afternoon to go to the Yungas (a beginnings of the Amazon jungle in Bolivia). A medical team was also there from Parkside, so we were able to travel along with them and "help" them for the next couple of days in the jungle. The altitude changes that we experienced on the journey there were incredible - we were already extremely high in La Paz, and then we travelled even higher into the mountains (where it was even colder!), and then we went back down, into the Yungas. My favorite part about the ride there, is that I got to see Llamas!!! Woohoo! For the first time, after being in Peru for one week, and Bolivia for three months, I finally got to see Llamas!

We set up "camp" at the James' family/conference type camp (El Puente, which means "the bridge" - which I didn't learn until after I got back to Cochabamba) and hung out for the night. On Saturday, we travelled down the road a few kilometers to a little school situated in the beautifully green mountains and the team prepared to clean the locals' teeth. Christine and I learned how to change the novacane syringes, but we mostly tried to talk with the people and the little kids most of the time.

We met a very nice Bolivian couple from the James' church, Eric and Alison. They were very patient and kind in helping us practice and learn Spanish. I found out the Eric is actually coming with Kep to the pastor's conference at Parkside in May! So I might get to see him again :) In the afternoon, Debbie, and two of her children (grown) Andrew and Heather put on a kids program, with puppets, songs, a gospel message, and games. We had fun playing the games with the kids, even though it took us longer to figure oujt the rules! Later that evening back at the camp, we sang songs to the Lord together, both in Spanish and English. I must say that this is one of my favorite things. The glory of and worship of God transcends language barriers! I love that.
Debbie leading the singing during the kids program.

I think that this is my favorite picture of the whole trip :)

On Sunday the team set up their dental stuff again and helped the people who came. While they were having a service for the people who came, Christine and I had an awesome opportunity to hike up a waterfall with Heather and her fiance, and member of the Parkside team. It was pretty awesome! On the way back down, we got to slide down some of the rocks - weeee!

Back in La Paz on Sunday night we stayed with the James' and then Monday after shopping for a little bit at the large market, and eating at a fancy hotel where we could see out over the city, Christine and I met up with a group of teachers from CCS who had just arrived. We spent the next couple of days together: on Tuesday we travelled about an hour and a half out of the city to some ancient ruins called Tiwanaku. The ruins were from before the time of the Incas and Aztecs - who were surprisingly ony in existence for a very brief amount of time compared to the Tiwanakus and the other people groups who came before them. The ruins were a place where the people gathered for ceremonies to worship the sun and Pachamama - the god who is still widely worshipped today. It was sad to learn about how the people tried to appease Pachamama by making human sacrifices (not anymore), and engage in meaningless practices that are still a huge part of many of the Bolivians' traditions. Syncretism is a big problem here (old unbiblical traditions and practices mixed in with Biblical truth). Anyway, the ruins were cool, and it was fun neat to see a different part of Bolivia, even though I haven't been that cold since I left winter in Ohio!

Christine and I left La Paz on Wednesday and took a bus back to Coch. I got to see snow when we travelled through the mountains!! I was quite excited, since I missed all the snow at home. We arrived quite tired and ready for the last few days of break to relax.

On Thursday, Helen (my cooperating teacher) took me out to her son and daughter-in-law's farm for the afternoon. It was neat to see how much they had on one farm (ducks, chickens, turkeys, goats, cows, a horse, rabbits, guinea pigs, llamas, corn, potatoes...!). It was neat. On the way back though, we got a flat tire. It was an adventure, and could have been a lot worse, but it was resolved rather quickly.

The farm - Coachaca (Daniel lives here, is Helen's grandson, and therefore is one of my students) Daniel is the boy in the middle... we had to get the goat untangled from the barbed wire fence!

On Sunday my neighbors (those who live next to me and in the apartments accross the street) and I walked to a international church where we had a little informal Easter service with discussion and singing. (Because it was voting day, the use of vehicles was prohibited.) In the afternoon, we had a barbecue for lunch!

That was kind of a lot. To make this post lest overwhelming, I'll write another post for this past week. :)

KP