A collection of thoughts: A Bundle of Laughter, Pasta and Goodbyes

Bolivia is beautiful and proving to be a totally worthwhile experience. What’s left of the skin on our fingers will be relieved to find that nearly finished with sanding, plastering and painting. The mornings here are busy and our siesta at lunch is proving to be a necessity for sanity. With the painting all but finished, we have begun weed-hacking to brighten up the grounds and mural painting to brighten some of the rooms. Then come the afternoons, these continue to offer us with opportunities to play football and basketball with the local kids and also spend some time in the orphanages nearby. These moments are precious, and as time is rushing by, it is there on those pitches and courts we find ourselves we making the most worthwhile memories.

The ‘experience of the week’ competition was won by me finding myself locked in the boot of car yesterday for 20 minutes in the blazing lunchtime sun (there weren’t enough seats in the back, so someone had to be noble enough to get into the boot). After a good long wait and a respectable score of 102 on Flappy birds, Tom and Hayley noted my absence and ran down the street calling my name. Hayley thought I had been kidnapped and nearly had meltdown which was fun to watch through the waterfall of sweat cascading down my forehead and the waves of nausea rushing over me. I have never been so close to death, yet laughed so hard.

Our cravings for Western food are causing no end of grief. Much to my dismay and guilt, I ravished kilo worth of mints in just a few days, and much to both of our dismay and guilt, we have eaten all the Haribo sweets that were in our suitcases for the kids here. Tom is still pretty keen on steak, but my ‘steak-buds’ have abated and I am beginning to enjoy a varied breakfast which includes lots of papaya and this dubious lump of fried potato, cheese and meat, which is best described by our American friends as a ‘weirdo-hashbrown-meat-thing’. Our favourite food here is alligator, closely followed by ‘Saltenas’ - which are baked, heaven-sent pastries filled with the most delicious chicken, vegetables and whatever else the Bolivians can find. On the most part we are more than content with the nourishment here and we have had the chance to eat some mouthwateringly tasty food. Also frequent trips to Craig and Amanda’s house offers us the chance to divulge in popcorn and if we are lucky, a proper cake.

Craig and Amanda have been missionaries here for several years and are a delight to spend time with. Craig is from Scotland and offers us the standard full-range of British humour with a Scottish twist which wonderfully compliments the lack of political correctness here in Bolivia. Amanda is the other half to Craig (or vice-versa), she is well adjusted to the humour, and offers us a gauge as to whether or not we have crossed the line - both ourselves, but mostly Craig, are still learning. Aside from questionable humour, its great to be able to share our experiences with them and watch a young couple at work, who have left their homes to serve the Lord in a difficult and impoverished part of the world.

Some updates on various issues (mostly for our mother’s peace of mind):

Tom’s insatiable desire for plain pasta and eggs has somewhat relented. Though yesterday, he ate plain pasta while the rest of us dared to venture out for some proper food.
Being locked in the boot is usually a one-off occurrence.
We have run out of toilet paper.
We have run out of contact lens solution.
We are running out of toothpaste.
We are gathering pots for all these things and hoping that the Lord provides some sort of ‘widow-with-oil’ miracle. Don’t stop fill every pot.
Love you Mum. Stay strong.

On Sunday, we said goodbye to our good Bolivian friend Paulo. He is 19, good at everything and heading off to university. If I’m honest its like looking in a mirror and seeing a Bolivian version of me… just without the ears and nose which an unfortunate sequence of paternal genetics has graced me with. The language barrier has proved no hurdle to our friendship and he has been great fun to have around. We have left him armed with a quiver full with a borderline-offensive words, which will make him a match for any cheeky Brit wishing to dispose their wit upon a situation. Also, we said goodbye to Chiki, who has also been a lot of fun to spend time with. He speaks good English, and we both feel confident that we have done him a service by adding these to his vocabulary too... All of us guys have spent many happy hours and late night playing table tennis, watching movies, escaping on milk-shake trips into town, and we even nearly got caught up in a protest with them too! Its strange to see how close you become to people in such a short amount of time. The American girls left yesterday too, which will be incredibly sad for us. They have been the best of companions with which we have spent immeasurable amounts of fun and laughter with. Many a long morning of painting has been brightened by their presence, and aside from the country music, the never-ending discussions on hygiene issues, bringing stool pots to dinner, forgetting to let us out of the burning boot of the car, the illusion that America is the greatest country on earth, the constant ‘where-sweat-is-dripping-from’ updates and more, we will miss them lots. You guys are our amigas and dare I say… bro-beans/ friends, if you ever come to England there will always be space in our hearts to wish you luck in finding a place to stay.

Aside from the work here, we have found Bolivia to be a great place to pray, seek God and gather perspective on our futures. Philippians 2:12-13 talks about ‘working out your salvation with fear and trembling’ and that has certainly been something we have the opportunity to do, particularly with the rapid approach of Bath and Cambridge in mind. I’ve found that the key to doing this comes in the last phrase of the verse, ‘for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.’’ Working out our salvation is to understand the reason for which we have been saved - which is His good pleasure! ‘God takes pleasure in all his work because it reflects his righteous character and infinite capacity’, so our aim for these remaining weeks is to both delight ourselves in the Lord and also be His delight by letting Him use our work here reflect His love and joy. Pray for us, but more so for the missionaries and the Foundation, the reality is that the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.