Bolivian Life: Day to Day

Having solved continental humanitarian emergencies, quelled a rebel uprising, built a damn across the Amazon river to provide a sustainable energy source for the next century, and eating vicious man-consuming alligators (the last of which is actually true) this week hasn’t provided us with anything too dramatic or exotic, its just been nice to settle in further and get more of a feel for the work here. So rather than giving you a snapshot of an adventure, let me tell you what happens in the day to day rhythm of our time here. The mission is a Christian mission called ‘Fundacion Totai’, it serves three main purposes, 1 - as a medical centre; 2 - as a sport’s outreach, primarily basketball and football, to the kids who live in the city; 3 - as an education provider/outreach for these same kids (community classes and also OANSA, which is a scripture-learning club). The mission is centralised in a big building on the outskirts of Trinidad. In this building there are two floors, the first consisting of three offices, a reception area, a few different clinics (which meet a wide variety of needs), an operating theatre and also a ward. This floor is also home to a wonderful cafe, which serves the most amazing grapefruit and lemon ‘refresco’ and also a wide variety of meals. Tom and I are currently choosing to eat steak for breakfast and steak again for lunch - delicious! The second floor can be found up some stair cases, and through some new and dubiously plastered corridors (we are still learning the trade). These stairs will take you to two places, the first being two church rooms, which gets a good attendance on Sunday, and gets pretty packed on Saturday for the youth club. The second of the stairs will take you to two apartments, one of which is occupied by a pastor and his family, the other of which is occupied by two couples, a niece to one of the couples, and two strapping English lads who have been able to maintain a ridiculously high standard of cleanliness in their room. There is also a separate room outside of these two apartments, which is occupied by three American girls called Haley Ann Marie… Brittany Ann Marie… and Juliana Ann Marie…, who are on a similar 2 month programme. They are very good company, and its a relief to partake in some English-spoken banter, even if our humour may sometimes cause offence or not make any sense to them.

A normal day consists of team devotions at 8, a big breakfast of steak and two eggs, maintenance work from 9:00 - 12:00, steak and rice for lunch, then basketball, football, community class or bible studies from 14:00 - 17:00, then of course dinner, which we either make ourselves or go out and buy, steak here is around the £1.50 mark. Unfortunately, Tom’s approach to food is more mechanical than most, so for the last two weeks we have been eating pasta and eggs… every day. Yesterday, I surreptitiously bought tomatoes and peppers for some variety, which was a start, but please pray that my dear mission’s partner comes to the point in his life were he recognises the need for a diet more varied than just plain pasta and plain egg, and also that different shaped pasta doesn’t necessarily mean a different flavour (my faith for this needed revelation is slowly dwindling).

The work here is such fun, but also busy, we are blessed to sleep and eat very well. The primary obstacle is our lack of Spanish which is getting in the way of our communicating, this could, however, just be down to our lack of using the cold shower… we are trusting that in both cases progress will be made. What’s great to see is that the communication barrier hasn’t prevented us from making good friends, and the pictures below should show that we have made many from both the mission and youth work. We are praying that we can use these great opportunities to engage with them in a way which points them to Jesus. Our aim here isn’t to make a huge impact or change the world, but just to simply give our all to a community of needy people who need Jesus just as much as the neighbours on your street. There’s nothing particularly glamorous or exotic about the work, but its an inspiration to see the workers giving everything to engage with a needy city, bringing people to Jesus through a wide variety of outreaches and helping people find hope in often difficult circumstances. Seeing God at work is always a wonderful thing, and our hope for the next two months is we become increasingly able to share the joy and hope there is in following Jesus.

Prayer:

1. Please pray that Tom and I make good progress with the language
2. Please pray for the continued success of the work and that it continues to make much of Jesus.

Tom stepping out in faith to try something other than pasta and egg.

Deep Fried Alligator is Delicious!

Working on the world's most rickety ladder (We are fine Mum...)

Youth Group with our fellow American volunteers, my poor attempt at an 'American Smile', and Tom highlighting just how un-photogenic we British people are.

With some of our Bolivian Friends at Youth

Tom getting comfy 'Bolivian Style' after a long day of work...

Peeling an unbelievable amount of grapefruits, for some amazing 'Refresco'!

Community class with a few of the local kids

Fishing for a Predator

Four of us squished into the back, three in the front, and the boot was loaded with fishing gear and coca cola. We drove for an hour and a half down roads for whom tarmac was a fantasy. Before this were a range of worn-out, bumpy roads, travel for a while down these and you will soon find the humble, yet fascinating city of Trinidad. I won’t dare go into all the differences between this city and Swindon - they are innumerable. Every street is full of motorbikes, dogs and has a dusty road. Often the three are combined in one sudden moment, the biker’s accelerating wheels kicking up dust into the sky while being frantically chased down by a barking dog - an amusing sight… unless its you, but that’s another story.

The city soon dissolves into countryside, houses turn to trees, people disappear leaving us a curious variety of birds and animals to watch, and the clouds roll back to reveal the blazing sun. The place isn’t dense jungle, but it is certainly exotic. Thinking about it, its a strange thought to think we are finally in the Amazon Basin, having pointed to maps, read books, listened to missionaries, we are actually here, driving down earth’s bumpiest road, crammed into a 4x4, the tires sending dust flying high and the speakers blaring out One Direction. There is wildlife everywhere to see, the track is lined with a variety of small lakes and muddy swamps, the lakes - full of alligators, the swamps - full of pigs. Scraggly cows munch on the sparse green grass, huge cranes tower over head, and there is even a mockingbird gently hovering over an assortment of flowers. This landscape is by all accounts humble, yet magnificent.

Bumped and bruised, we finally arrive at our destination, a mud-stained river, rushing away out of sight into the vast jungle. In these waters live creatures which are small but vicious, a missionary tells us of how they bite so cleanly that first, you see the blood, then feel the pain. So with warnings in mind, we take a deep breath, don our strongest Australian accents, and start searching for the ‘critters’. We pull pieces of meat onto barbed hooks, throw out our lines, and wait for bait to be snatched, uncertain of what exactly what will come out of the water. 

We know one thing for sure, we are here to fish for a predator - the Piranha.

The Beginnings of the Jungle

The Mud-Stained River

The First of the Catch

Descaling the Critters, Tom Getting his Hands Dirty

Gutting the Piranhas ready for Sunday Lunch

First Impressions

We find ourselves landing in an airport as dusk is breaking, a luminous display of orange and yellow greets us, sweeping across the darkened landscape - we have landed in the heart of a La Paz. We sit for a while, waiting an hour in our little plane, the second of four stopovers. As the sun breaks the horizon, sunbeams begin to stream through the windows and we are gifted a view of the scenery around. It is beautiful, the red-brick city ends more promptly than expected (night time lights can be deceiving), and from this city scene migrates the edges of high plateau plains suddenly dropping to reveal a background of snow-topped mountains gently poking their faces over the edges and towards the sky. These mountains seem to be tender giants, but as we take-off we begin see the true enormity of them. They are so high that even at the plane's cruising height it seems as if we could reach out our hands and join the clouds in brushing the tops of the mountains. Soon, these very clouds envelope us, the turbulence takes over and we pray. Eventually, we sweep out from under the clouds to reveal jungle of some description, not a thick mass of trees and foliage, but rather what remains after Bolivian civilisation has carved out its home. Here lies another city, Santa Cruz, our home for the night.

One can’t help but imagine the feelings of Jim and Elizabeth Elliot as they flew into Quito, Ecuador for the very first time. They too would have seen very similar scenery and no doubt felt inadequate in comparison to the landscape - so many people, so much to see, and so much work to be done. I can’t help but admire their faith and bravery, stepping out into an unknown land and facing an uncertain future with the certain hope that their God would provide all their needs. Tom and I have much less uncertainty involved in our trip, yet with such a landscape and all these thoughts in view its hard not to feel humbled and inadequate. Though not pioneers, we are taking little steps of faith, ready to see God at work, raring to go and excited about the next two months.