Arrival at Santa Cruz (Tuesday, June 10)
After a tiring plane ride through the night, our team of five arrived at the Viru Viru Airport in Santa Cruz, Bolivia at 6 am. We got off of the plane rather sleepy and were dreading customs from the horror stories we had all heard in some of the tour books and from other travelers. Fortunately though, we were blessed and made it through uneventfully. Just after clearing customs, we were greeted by Therese, a long term missionary that had come to meet us, as well as Romina, a native Bolivian. We were immediately introduced to the Bolivian greeting custom of giving a kiss on the right cheek. After checking in our bags at an overnight storage place, we waited in the airport for another of our teammates, Rachel, arriving from London just a couple of hours later. It was just as well too, because we were all pretty tired from the long flight, so we just rested. Rachel arrived right on time and after she had dropped off her bag at the storage place we headed into Santa Cruz.

The first place we stopped was at a hostal (guesthouse) that Therese had booked us at. The hostal was very beautiful with all sorts of tropical plants native to the region and a well maintained courtyard with the rooms surrounding it. Then as we were walking towards the desk to get our keys, a bright colorful bird caught my eye and I realized it was a toucan! At first I couldn’t believe it was real, because it was so clean that it almost looked fake. But, when I saw its head move, I realized it was real. Immediately, I thought to myself, “man, this is going to be cool”. I put my bag in the room and got out my camera for a few pictures of the birds. After a few shots we relaxed for a bit. During that time, one of my teammates, Joy, came around a tree one the toucans was sitting in, and she came so close to the bird it was startled and pecked her on the head out of self defense. Immediately, the rest of us started laughing hysterically at the incident. Joy was ok, but we were all careful after that when going near the trees.


Toucan

After a little bit more time, we decided we were rested enough and wanted to go explore Santa Cruz. As we were walking around the city we noticed that traffic didn’t seem to have much order at all, cars just sort of “went for it” across the intersections and hoped other cars would stop. This made crossing streets rather exciting and I think all of our team got caught frozen in front of a car at some point wondering whether to stop and let the car pass or quickly go. One of the girls, September, was rather indecisive about crossing each time, so we had to keep an eye on her and made sure she crossed with one of us. We found later that the major intersections had traffic lights that were for the most part observed and some of the others had police officers directing traffic. Therese told us that Trinidad, where we were going, was much better because everyone drove motorcycles, or “motos”, instead of cars. I think we were all relieved to hear that, since it was taking a lot of focus to cross safely.

     
Church in Santa Cruz                                                 A Plaza in Santa Cruz

Our first destination after leaving the hostal, was an artisans market that Therese knew of. There were some beautiful works, but unfortunately I didn’t have any suitcase space, so I made a mental note to myself to return at the end of the trip when we would be returning to Santa Cruz. Then, we decided we were hungry and went to go look for a lunch spot. I had wanted to go try a Brazilian restaurant, but all of the ones mentioned in the book were not at the mentioned locations. Therese was rather frustrated with the book, and decided just to look for a restaurant by walking around. So, we settled for a restaurant that served a beef dish or chicken dish with rice. As we quickly discovered, rice was a major staple food that was eaten at nearly every meal. In the afternoon, we headed back to the hostal and relaxed. After an hour or so, a few of us headed out with Therese and Romina, who were going to meet Romina’s brother, who was serving at a military base in Santa Cruz. In Bolivia, all males are required to serve a two year military term between the ages of 17 and 20, or pay a large fee to get them excused from duty. After we returned to the hostal from visiting, we decided to just head to a nearby plaza and have pizza for dinner since we had done a lot of walking and didn’t really feel like searching for anything. We had to get up rather early the next day to catch our flight to Trinidad, so it was just as well.

Arrival in Trinidad (Wednesday, June 11)
The next day we woke up at 6 AM to catch our flight to Trinidad. We had taxis take us to the airport and then we boarded our flight to Trinidad. As we found out, we actually had to make a stop in Cochabamba. In Bolivia, the airports have a tax that you have to pay each time you leave, so we paid our 15 Boliviano tax and then boarded the plane. When we got to Cochabamba it was absolutely beautiful, there were mountains surrounding about half of the city. Geographically, Cochabamba is the point where the Amazon jungle, the Andes mountains and the southeastern lowlands all come together. I felt right at home, with having the mountains nearby. It was also special for our team, because September was born in Cochabamba when her parents were missionaries there. She only lived there for eight months though, so she didn’t remember anything. I think she felt a little humbled being there because it was so pretty and to know that it was her birthplace just made it that much more special.

After a brief layover in Cochabamba, we boarded the plane for Trinidad. As soon as we stepped off of the plane, we were hit by the heavy humid air and it took me a few minutes to adjust to it. Being from a high altitude, I wasn’t used to the extra oxygen. Once we were inside the terminal, we were greeted by Lucho and Lorna, the founders of La Palmera, as well as a bunch of kids from the secondary school. Lucho had brought them in this large truck (or “camiona” as we came to know it). Immediately, they insisted on carrying our bags for us and took care of picking up our luggage. It was so nice to have someone else carry our bags for a change. We all boarded up into the back of the truck with our bags and headed off to the school. The kids wasted no time in asking us questions, and immediately we were all searching for the Spanish to respond to them. It was really hard to understand them because they weren’t speaking very clearly and they seemed to randomly drop syllables, plus the engine from the truck was blaring very loud. After a short ride in the truck, we pulled into the playground of the school and were told to get off. The kids followed us with our bags as we were taken to our rooms where we would be spending the summer. Once I got into the room I met Paul, another missionary from England, who had been there for 10 months already.


CCC La Palmera

After getting settled in, we headed down the “comedor” (cafeteria) for lunch with the kids. As we walked in, all of the kids started shouting “tio” (uncle) and “tia” (aunt) at us and motioning for us to come sit next to them. We weren’t sure who to sit with, so we all just spread out and sat at different tables. After sitting down, Lucho introduced us and they sang a prayer song to bless our food. We had this dish called majao for lunch, which was basically rice with dried beef mixed in and lots of spices added. It was pretty good, although there was a lot of it to eat. I chatted a little bit with one of the guys at the table, but didn’t really say too much since I was pretty hungry.

Then after lunch we basically spent the rest of the day relaxing since we were still a bit tired from all of the traveling. In the afternoon, the kids were practicing dancing for La Santísima Trinidad, a festival that was coming up the next day. We watched a little, but not too closely, since we knew we’d get to see the finished dances the next day, and we were also tired. After a relaxing afternoon, we had dinner over at Lucho and Lorna’s, which that night was steak and fries, which I thought was excellent. At their house we met some other people, Eleanor and Fiona, two girls from Scotland who were working when we arrived. They were both there for an extended period of time as well. Also joining us for dinner was Lucho’s mother, from Colombia, who was visiting.

First Full Day (Thursday, June 12)
Well, after months of planning and preparation, we were about to be formally introduced to the vision of La Palmera and the potential areas of service for the summer. Lucho talked with us for about an hour about the history of La Palmera, which was a rather amazing story, and a testimony of God´s work in Trinidad. He told us that the school originally started in his house with about 9 students back in 1985 and has grown to over 300 students in a much larger building now. I thought it was rather interesting to hear how the church, health center, school and football (soccer) school are all intertwined, I had never heard of anything like that. After he had done this, he went around and asked all of us what our skills were. When he got to me and I said computers, his eyes lit up and he got really excited, apparently there was a bunch of computer work to be done. For me, it was a blessing to hear that, because I had thought that I wouldn´t get to work with computers for the summer, although I was open to not working with them either because I knew I would be spending a lot of time in front of the screen when I started a job back home.

After the briefing, we had the rest of the morning off to kind of ponder what we wanted to do. Then, we had lunch again with the kids, and again they all wanted us to sit with them.

After lunch, the school was holding the festival. It was very interesting to see all of the different costumes, dances and just to experience the culture. Many of the girls were all wearing very brightly colored dresses, but some were wearing other costumes for their dances. The guys were mostly wearing white shirts and pants, with red bands around their waists. There was one dance where the kids wore a white sheet with a headdress made of feathers. Nikki, one of the workers at the school told us that the headdresses were traditionally made of the feathers of the macaw parrot, but because of the rareness of the parrots and their protection, that is unheard of anymore. There was also a contest between the girls of the school, called El Chiche, during which the girls performed a traditional dance and some designated judges decided who was the best. There were two age groups for this, one for the younger girls and one for the older girls. After the festival, we just relaxed, ate dinner at Lucho and Lorna’s, and then attended the evening Bible study.

Display Setup for La Santisima Trinidad	Dancers
More Dancers	More Dancers
More Dancers

Friday, June 13
Friday was a half day of school because the city was celebrating La Santisima Trinidad. This consisted of a parade in which all of the schools competed for best dance. However, La Palmera does not believe in competing for these kind of events, which is why they held their own celebration the day before. Additionally, they did not require their students to march in the parade, but they gave the kids the afternoon off in case they wanted to march on their own.

Since we had the afternoon off, Therese took us into town to show us some good shopping spots for food, good restaurants for eating, and other miscellaneous things. More than anything, it got us familiarized with Trinidad. We also got to try cuñape, a roll made of yuca (yucca) flour and filled with delicious Bolivian cheese. I think this snack ended up being my favorite Bolivian food, although there were many other things I enjoyed too. We did catch a bit of the celebration, but it was very similar to what we had seen the day before, so we weren’t as interested in it. We did manage to get on Bolivian TV, some of the people from the school told us they saw us walk by the camera. Having light colored skin in a town with very few tourists made us stick out considerably.

Lucho's Bird, a red macaw	Statue near school
Fountain in Plaza

Then that evening, we went with the kids from the school to a Brazilian circus that was in town, which was quite the experience. The first act were these scantily clothed women that came out dancing. Seeing this, I’m sitting in my seat thinking, “is this the kind of Godly example the kids should be seeing?” That was the only real questionable act though, although everything seemed very hokey compared to a circus that would be seen in the States or Canada. Still, I took it as a cultural experience and enjoyed the moment.

Saturday, June 14
Saturday was our day off, and boy did I take advantage of it. I spent most of the day just relaxing, until “jovenes”, the youth group that met at the church. Jovenes was a lot of fun, they sang lots of fun worship songs, played some silly games, but at the same time did some very in depth studies of the Bible. It was good to see that sort of balance between fun and seriousness. That night we also got “initiated” into the group, but I have been sworn to secrecy as to what the initiation consisted of.

Sunday, June 15
Sunday was our first “Holy Day” in Bolivia, and it was a very different experience. At La Palmera, they have two services each Sunday, one at 10 am, which is used for singing worship songs and giving the sermon and then another one at 7pm for Communion. Both lasted about two hours. At the morning service, more people tended to show up, since the kids had Sunday school during the sermon. For the service on this day, Lucho had each of us get up in front of the congregation and share a bit about ourselves. I wanted to see if I could do it entirely in Spanish without any translation help, so I just started saying stuff that I remembered from my studies. Later that night, one of the girls, Becki was very surprised that I knew that much Spanish and she was a little annoyed that I hadn’t helped with any of the speaking prior to that point. I had a good laugh over it. Truthfully though, I was having a hard time understanding the Bolivian accent, so I was trying to keep my conversations to a minimum until I became more accustomed to it. After the first service we just relaxed, although at 4pm there was basketball over at Diego´s, the doctor for La Palmera. I played that day and ended up jamming my thumb fairly bad. For dinner, we got to have some more Bolivian snacks, cuñapes, and also empenadas, a breaded fried pastry with cheese in the middle, which were quite good.

Additionally, we were joined by another team member, Phil, who was from Australia. He was a very easy going person, and from what I gathered, a very typical Aussie.

Monday, June 16
The kids had Monday off in honor of the holiday that they celebrated on Friday. I soon realized that the people of Bolivia celebrate many holidays, so the kids are always getting days off. The day was not without excitement, however. Lucho took us to a spot on the Mamoré River, the major river that flows near Trinidad. We piled into the camiona and took a ferry across the Ibaré River, which was next to the Mamoré. The ferry was a very interesting cultural experience, because it was just a huge raft with two boards on each side to load the vehicles that wanted to cross. The entire raft was then pulled by a tiny motorized canoe, and it was amazing that it worked.


Rio Ibaré Ferry

After proceeding a short distance further, we parked the camiona. We all got out and brought our stuff for swimming, camaras, etc. and boarded another ferry, this time without the truck. The ferry dropped us off at a spot that was a huge mudfield, because it had just recently been exposed from the falling level of the river due to it being dry season. We had lunch there and got to try salteñas, a breaded snack filled with meat, potatoes, eggs, and a sticky sauce. They were pretty good. After eating lunch, we set out for the mud and did some swimming in the river as well. Everyone got muddy, whether they wanted to or not. The reluctant ones (me included), were tackled by Paul and Phil and wrestled until they were satisfied that they had dirtied us sufficiently. Then after we had been sufficiently dirtied and gotten the swimming out of our system, we noticed some dolphins swimming near our area, chasing after the fish. I ran back to our stuff to grab a camera for some photos, but I was unable to get anything on film other than lumps in the water. It was very exciting to see dolphins though and just watch them chase the fish.


Rio Ibaré


Rio Mamoré


Rio Mamoré - Mudfield


Paul and Phil enjoying the mud

Just a short while later, it was 4:00, the time for our departure from the area. However there was no ferry heading towards us, all we could see were the boats off in the distance taking cars across. Eventually Therese and Phil got a little impatient and decided they would swim across the width of the Mamoré River to the shore and get their attention. They made it safely across and when they reached the ferry station, the guys were in disbelief that they had swam across the entire river and at first thought they were joking. Therese and Phil asked where the boat was, and apparently the guy who had promised to come get us at 4, had left earlier in the day and forgot to tell someone else about us. It was a good thing Therese and Phil swam and reminded them about us, or we would have been stuck there.

Tuesday, June 17
Well, we had been in Bolivia for one week and we were all starting to feel settled in to the city life of Trinidad. This particular day was the first full day of school we had spent with the kids since we had arrived. I spent the day meeting with Elías, the computer instructor. La Palmera had just gotten a computer lab before I arrived and so they needed help in planning a curriculum for the kids. I helped advise Elías on what he should teach the kids, and I figured typing was a good place to start. I kind of told him what my big plan was, to teach them typing and then teach them the basic Microsoft Office applications, and he agreed that would be a good thing. I also helped translate a few letters for sponsor children with Joy and September. At La Palmera, supporters from the U.S., Canada and the U.K. can sponsor children, by paying a $25 monthly fee, which goes into the general fund for the school, and gives the supporters a more personal relationship to the cause by allowing them to keep in touch with a Bolivian kid. In the afternoon, we visited the fùtbol (soccer) school and Kenny, talked with us a bit about its purpose.

Wednesday, June 18
Wednesday, we had a normal morning and then in the afternoon, we loaded up in the camiona and headed to some property north of Trinidad that was owned by Walter's dad. Walter was a volunteer and former student at La Palmera. It was an interesting experience because it was in the middle of the jungle. Walter’s dad had just recently started a small ranch and had moved out there. While we were there, we got to eat traditional Bolivian food, and pick fresh grapefruit. After dinner, we built a campfire and all of us shared our testimonies, including Lucho, who had a very interesting one. About two thirds of the way through the sharing, we heard this noise to one side of us that sounded like a stomach growling, and then about a minute later heard it on the other side. Nikki, Walter’s wife got this weird look on her face and later we realized why. Apparently a young jaguar had passed between our campfire and our tents, and that was what was making the sound. Nikki and Walter didn’t want us to be scared though, so they didn’t tell us until the next day.


Vaca Ranch


Vaca Ranch

Thursday, June 19
We were awakened very early to the sound of roosters crowing. At first it sounded neat, but after I realized it was only 4 am, I was a little annoyed that they wouldn’t shut up. As a result, I didn’t sleep very well and woke up tired. I had slept in a tent with Phil and we had an uneventful night. In the girls tent however, a frog managed to work its way underneath their tent in the middle of the night, which gave Fiona, one of the Scottish girls, quite the scare.

Breakfast was incredible, Walter’s family cooked us sonso, a dish that is mashed yuca made into a large patty with cheese in the middle and then baked in an oven, in this case an adobe oven, which made it even tastier. A couple of the team members, Fiona and September weren't feeling well, so they didn't try the food. September in particular was very sick to her stomach. Later that morning the group went off to look at banana trees, but I stayed with September and talked with her, because I knew how lonely being sick was, especially in a foreign land with no family around, and I wanted to do what I could to make her feel better. When the group returned, we picked tons of grapefruits to haul back to the school and loaded them up into the back of the camiona. After we had picked all of the grapefruits in sight, we set out with Walter and his brother on an excursion into the jungle (complete with machete and rifle). I thought we were going to see lots of birds and small animals, but the extent of our wildlife viewing was a large spider web and a few parrots that we spooked. Still, I enjoyed the dense vegetation and truly appreciated how beautiful everything was. The excursion was tiring though, because we were walking full speed in both directions in a very humid area. After we returned, we had lunch and then loaded up to go back to La Palmera.

Jungle Hike

Spider web seen on hike

We returned to La Palmera to find the power out, which meant we couldn’t shower because the water ran on an electric pump. So, we had to trek across the playground to the pastor’s house and use his shower, which he was very generous in sharing. While in Bolivia, we learned to shower quickly because we had had several incidents where water was lost in the middle of our shower and we had to get out before being finished. . . it felt like being in the military. Every time we stepped in the shower, the thought would enter our heads as to whether the water would hold out, nevermind the temperature, that was usually cold.

Due to the length of my trip, I am going to skip ahead to camp, since the days between here and the beginning of camp were pretty uneventful.

Monday, June 30 – Friday, July 4 - Campamento (Camp)
We were well into our trip when the time to have the annual winter camp arrived. All of us were split into four teams, rojo (red), verde (green), amarillo (yellow), and azul (blue). Each group had an animal representing the four tribes in the Bible, found in the books of Numbers and Revelation. The animals were the lions, oxen, men and eagles, respectively. I was on the red team with Joy. Our camp was held at this military base outside of Trinidad, called the Loma Suarez. Before we even left the school to go though, I had some excitement. As all of the boys were fighting to load their stuff into the bus and get on, I got pushed back and started to lose my balance. I had no choice but to put my foot in the open sewer to break my fall. Immediately, sewage went all over my leg and inside my shoes and socks. This is probably the grossest thing that has ever happened to me. Hugo, the head administrator yelled at me to go clean off quickly and I ran back into the school to wash everything off. Immediately, I threw away the socks, and did my best to wash the shoes off. Then I ran up to my room and grabbed another pair of socks and washed my hands. When I came back down, the buses had left, but fortunately the camiona with all of the girls gear was still there, so I climbed on the back with a few other people. On the way to the camp, I thought the camiona was going to split at the sides it was so full of stuff and the wooden frame that was holding everything together was sticking out both sides of the truck at an angle less than 90 degrees. We survived the short trip though to the Loma Suarez and we got all settled in at our campsite. I had to explain why I didn’t ride the bus to many of my teammates, and they all felt sorry for me that I had to experience the sewage.

Camp at the Loma Suarez	Camp at the Loma Suarez
Camp

Camp consisted of lessons and worship in the morning, athletic time in the afternoon and then more worship and games in the evening. The theme for the camp was prayer, so all of the lessons had to do with prayer. It was ironic for me, because I had written on my forms before coming to Bolivia that my prayer life was something that needed improvement. It’s funny how things work out sometimes.

One of the nights, our team (of missionaries) was told that we were responsible for the games that night, and this was about 45 minutes before we were to do them. We scrambled around trying to find stuff to do. Fortunately, September was a summer camp counselor back home, so she knew of all kinds of fun games to do that didn’t require a lot of materials. We did one game with hula hoops, where you stand in a circle holding hands and have to pass the hoop from one person to another while holding hands. I demonstrated this with a couple of the other missionaries, and then went and played with the red team. During the demo, I did it perfectly, but when we did it for the competition and the hoop came to me, I had thought that I had stepped through and went to stand up and I heard the hoop snap. Oops! The game was over shortly after that and I took the broken hoop back smugly to the team (of missionaries). All of my teammates were laughing at the fact that I was responsible for the broken hoop.
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On Thursday, Lucho taught us a new worship song, called the “maliante” song. Joy invented choreography for this song and everyone seemed to love it because all of the kids were following it by the end of camp. As was typical of Latin American worship, it was a very upbeat song which made it even more fun to dance to.

Fourth of July (Bolivian Style)
By the time camp ended on Friday, we were all exhausted from keeping track of kids all week and keeping them out of trouble. It was fourth of July though, so we had a special celebration at Lucho and Lorna’s. We ate American barbeque style, with paper plates and we had potato chips (crisps), hamburgers, beans, macaroni salad and soda. Before the meal, Lucho had all of the Americans sing our national anthem (there were six of us). Then after dinner we lit sparklers and Iain, Lucho and Lorna’s son, launched a few of the big fireworks. Once the excitement had passed, Iain broke out his guitar and we sang worship songs for awhile. It was so nice to sing worship songs in English and I could tell the rest of the group felt the same way because even though we were all tired, we just kept singing and singing. Eventually, fatigue set in though and we all went home and crawled into our beds.

2nd Campamento
Well, after a weekend of rest, it was time for the second camp for the younger kids. This camp was a blessing because it was held at the school, which meant we could sleep in our beds at night and we didn't have to worry about the kids going places they weren't allowed. At the same time though, it took more energy to look after the younger kids and keep them from getting into trouble. All of the leaders were on the same teams again, and the theme for the camp was prayer once again. Fortunately this camp was only two days, so it made it a lot easier to get through. During the camp, one of the girls on my team, Natalia, decided that I was going to hang out with her and she came up to me and grabbed my hand and insisted on taking me around with her friends. The girls on my team all thought that it was cute that a 2nd grader was leading me around.

During the afternoon the second day, we took the kids to the Laguna Suarez, a manmade lake that is no more than three feet deep the whole way across. The kids seemed to enjoy it a lot and we had a good time playing in the water. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a southern wind came and all of the kids rushed out of the water to find their towels. It was the beginnings of what was known as a “Sur”, a burst of cold air coming up from the south. I was pretty excited, since I had been really hot the previous few weeks and September, who also was struggling with the heat was happy about it too. That night the temperature dropped into the high fifties-low sixties and I was actually a bit cold.


Laguna Suarez

I awoke Wednesday to find the sky overcast and the temperature still quite cool. It was so nice to put on my fleece jacket and actually be comfortable. The Bolivians were all freezing and kept asking me if I was cold. I kept telling them that the weather in Colorado got much colder than this, so it was nothing to me. Camp ended that morning for the younger kids, so we said goodbye to the younger kids and they all went back to their homes.

Lorna’s Birthday
Not much happened in the days after the little kids camp. We were getting prepared to head to Rurrenabaque the following Tuesday. Rurrenabaque (or Rurre for short) is a small town right on the Rio Beni, and would take about 15-20 hours to get there . . .all in the back of the camiona. Before we left though, we got to celebrate Lorna’s birthday. Sunday night before her birthday, at midnight, Iain, a bunch of the other Bolivians and all of the missionaries gathered outside her bedroom and serenaded her for about half an hour or so. Afterwards, Iain lit off some fireworks and we had snacks outside on the porch and then headed back to sleep.

The next day, after sleeping in, we went to a party for Lorna held at her house. We showed up about the same time as the caterers and it was quite the display of food being brought out. All kinds of food, including a roasted pig was brought onto the table and we were all anxious to eat what was there. Everything was so good and I think all of us were quite stuffed by the time cake was served. After the party, I spent the rest of the day relaxing, since I knew the trip to Rurre would be long and tiring.

Rurrenabaque Trip (Tuesday, July 15- Monday, July 21)
We all had to get up at 5:45 the next day to head to Rurrenabaque. We all expected at least a 15 hour drive and we wanted to get there by bedtime. Groggily, we all loaded up into the camiona (all twenty of us), which had been lined on the floors with thin mattresses to make the ride at least a bit more comfortable than the wooden boards we were used to sitting on. It was also a moment of sadness, because Rachel was leaving before we would return, so we all had to say our goodbyes to her.


La camiona

Once we were on the road, everyone laid down in their sleeping bags, except for a few of us. By the time I felt like laying down there wasn’t any room, so I just decided that I would enjoy the early morning and watch the sun rise. Not very far into our trip, we had to make the river crossings across the Ibaré, Mamoré and a third river. After we had made the first crossing, I got to see one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever experienced. There was just enough light that you could see the treetops, as well as the fog that was hanging over them. After the third crossing, we all managed to find space to rest, until we were awakened at a small town about two hours further, called San Ignacio de Moxos. We got out and had breakfast there, which for me was a yummy egg sandwich. San Ignacio is the cultural capital of the Beni Department (like a state or province), and it annually holds one of the finest cultural festivals in all of South America at the end of July, Fiesta del Santo Patrono de Moxos. I took a few shots of the town, including the church, and statue in the middle of the plaza, which was of a machetero, people with the big headdresses, that carry a wooden machete and have bracelets of seeds around their ankles.

After breakfast, everyone was either resigned to being awake or not as tired because most people broke out their music, as well as reading material. The ride after breakfast was very exciting, we saw all kinds of birds, and even some South American cattle, that have humps on their backs, almost like a camel. I was enjoying the sights of the Bolivian countryside, it was so beautiful.

About 2:00, we pulled into a restaurant in the town of Yucumo for lunch. Yucumo was an interesting town, because it sits at the point where the road splits and one way goes to La Paz and the other way goes to Rurre. We were told that apparently the road between Yucumo and La Paz is pretty dangerous, and very frequently people are killed in accidents on it. The restaurant was very entertaining, they had two parrots, one of which could mimic, so a few of us had some fun whistling at the bird and getting it to echo our whistle back. Immediately after it did so, we started laughing, and then it started mimicking our laugh, making us laugh even harder. At this point in the trip, we received some great news, that we were making excellent time and that we would be to Rurre by dinner time, making the trip only about 11 hours, four less than the minimum we expected.


Yucumo

Mimicking Parrot

Blue Macaw Parrot

We arrived to Rurre at about 5:30, and it was such a blessing to be done with the trip. When we got there, Mark, who was the missionary in charge of the school, was not there, so a few of us decided to walk around the town. Carlos Hugo, the pastor from La Palmera, who had come with us, has a brother who lives in Rurre, so we set out to meet him. Just walking around the town, I could see how wealthy the town was from all of the tourism. Tourists use Rurre as a starting point for many jungle tours, so as a result, the town has become quite wealthy from all of the money spent there. There were no open sewers on the major streets of the city (woohoo!) and they were paved with concrete as well.


School in Rurre

The next morning I woke up and headed over to the school, since all of the guys were staying with Carlos Hugo’s brother. When I got there, I had a quick breakfast of bread and hot chocolate (very typical), and noticed an unusual number of kids hanging around for a day that they had off. Just a short while later more kids came and I suddenly realized that camp was starting that day. As I learned to do quite a bit in Bolivia, I just took a deep sigh and said to myself, “ok, here we go again!” Everyone was equally surprised, apparently there was a big miscommunication between Mark and the staff at La Palmera. Thankfully, Mark had already appointed leaders from the school, so we were just basically helping with whatever was needed, which was nice to not have to worry about kids for a change. At the same time, we felt a little helpless for being brought along all the way to Rurre and not really be needed. I quickly shook off the feeling though and decided it would just be a time to enjoy a different town and get some relaxation as well.

The camp schedule was worship and lessons in the morning and then sports in the afternoon. Mark had decided to do the “Olympics” as the sports theme, so the kids were all doing long jump, high jump, sprints, relay races, a marathon and even javelin. Additionally, he added in soccer, basketball and kickball (which I helped coach).
Having the camp only during the day really made the time go by fast and before we knew it, Friday afternoon was upon us. After the camp was over, some of us went over to the house of Carlos Hugo’s brother. There, we got to help prepare a traditional Bolivian meal for dinner. We made empenadas, as well as a dish called masaco, which consisted of mashed up fried bananas, small pieces of charque (jerky), and optionally with cheese. It was such a fun time cooking food that I had never cooked before and I was constantly asking for help. Lucho, Lorna, Iain, and Iain’s girlfriend, Nicole, all came over and joined us as well for dinner, since the trip to Rurre was more of a vacation for them than anything.

After dinner I went over to a local bar and played pool (billiards) with some of the Bolivians. At first, I had a hard time adjusting to the Bolivian style tables, which had narrower pockets than the American tables I was used to. Eventually though, I was having better accuracy and was sinking balls left and right.

Chaco Excursion
The next day, we got up and went on a riverboat ride up the Rio Beni to some land that Mark owned. The riverboat ride was one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced, the scenery was absolutely incredible and I felt humbled in the presence of it. In the foreground was the river with the jungle along its shores and behind it were the beginnings of the Andes Mountains, which had a bit of snow and even a few clouds hanging on the tops of them. Words can’t begin to describe the beauty of it, and it reminded me of the Rocky Mountains back home.


Rio Beni

Rio Beni near Rurre

Chaco

The chaco itself was also very pretty, lots of banana and palm trees with an open grassy area, that we later played volleyball on. In the afternoon, I walked down to a stream that was nearby and hiked along it for a little bit. I saw a really pretty butterfly, tons of spiders and even a crab! It was nice to hang out at the stream and just stick my legs into the water, since it was such a hot day. At the end of the afternoon we headed back to the shore of the Rio Beni, where Mark was doing a few baptisms and then we loaded up the boats to head back to Rurre.


Rio Beni near the Chaco

That night for dinner, I went to a pizzeria with Joy, September, Jolene and Fiona. We had a good time just chatting about life back home, listening to American music and enjoying really good pizza. After we had all finished the pizzas we were sharing and our waiter came to get our plates, September said, “Queremos mas” (we want more). The waiter gave her a friendly look at first, thinking she was just complimenting the food, but after we kept staring at him he realized we weren’t joking and went to get the menus for us again since we were still hungry.

Back to Trinidad
Well, our time in Rurre was nearly over, we just had church in the morning and then we would be packing up and leaving to head back to Trinidad. Church for the first time actually made sense to me and I enjoyed hearing Lucho speak. Phil and Fiona gave their testimonies, which I had heard before, but it was good hearing them again, I could see that God had been at work in their lives.

After the service was over, we packed up and loaded up in the camiona for what we hoped would be another 11 hour ride back to Trinidad, putting us there right around bedtime. However, about two hours into the trip, we pulled onto the side of the road and Lucho got out with Walter and they both proceeded to open the hood of the truck. I then realized we were having a mechanical problem. As it turned out, the fan belt had snapped and the engine was starting to overheat. At this point in the trip, I think God decided we needed a little more patience because we had to wait while Walter hitched a ride to Yucumo, the closest town, about 20 minutes away to get a new fan belt and bring it back. Immediately, Carlos Hugo, the pastor, broke out his “Commentary on the Old Testament”, and started reading. Now, to picture this, we are on the road where both sides are pretty much completely uninhabited and the jungle is pretty thick. The bugs are everywhere, and the heat is miserable. The one thing that was amusing was that we were near a village called “Rio Colorado”, that Joy and Jolene and I thought was pretty neat. We got out of the truck and had Lucho take a picture of us underneath a sign that said “Rio Colorado”, since the three of us were from Colorado. After a few minutes, Lucho realized that we were next to a mechanic and he comes back to the truck and says “Ok, you guys, we have broken down next to a mechanic”. He went to check it out to see if the mechanic could be of some use to us when Walter returned with the belt, but as it turned out the mechanic was only open Monday through Friday. By this point, the truck had been turned off for some time and so Lucho decided we would go a bit further and see if we could find some other form of civilization. We went another kilometer or two and we came across a small school, where some kids were playing soccer. Also there were some ladies selling food to eat for the people watching. The food they were selling quickly became our lunch, it was patties of yuca, filled with stuff on the inside. I didn’t care for it too much, but it’s surprising what you’ll eat when you’re hungry. A little while after we had been there, Walter returned with a fan belt, so all of the guys (me included) went over to the hood to see how they could help install the new one. We really needed a wrench to loosen a nut that would allow one of the wheels the belt went around to move enough to get it on. However, Lucho had left his toolbox back at La Palmera, how much I’m sure he was kicking himself for forgetting it. After some pleading with one of the people watching the soccer game, we were able to acquire a wrench that we thought was the right size. After getting it underneath the hood though, it was obvious it was a bit too small. We tried to get another size, but the guy was being pretty grumpy about loaning his tools, so instead we all just piled in the camiona and decided to drive and just flag down the first vehicle we came into contact with.

We hadn’t gone more than a few kilometers when we saw a huge eighteen wheeler, and the driver kindly got out and offered his help. He didn’t have the wrench we needed, but soon after he got out another car came by which did have the right tool we needed and then the truck driver was able to fix the problem. We gave him our thanks and very jubilantly set out to make up lost time. Glancing at my watch, I noticed it was about 5pm, and we had broken down at about 2pm, making it almost three hours that we had spent dealing with the broken fan belt. The whole ordeal I think gave us more faith in God, because he had delivered us from a situation that was quite serious. The rest of the trip home was uneventful and we arrived back at La Palmera just after midnight.

First Day of School (Second Semester)
We woke up the next day bright and early for staff devotionals at 7:30, and it came way too early. After the devotionals and breakfast I crawled back in bed for another hour or so, just to get myself caught up on sleep. Afterwards, I met with Lucho and we started to plan out the website that I was going to make for La Palmera. He showed me some examples of sites that he liked and I kind of collectively took all of the things he liked and tried to form in my mind a model that incorporated all of them.


Flag ceremony at CCC La Palmera

That evening, our team came to a very depressing realization, that we only had three weeks left in Bolivia, our trip was two thirds over.

This is another point where I will skip ahead, because of the lack of noteworthy events.

San Ignacio de Moxos
On July 30, Lucho took us to San Ignacio de Moxos for Fiesta del Santo Patrono de Moxos. This was a huge festival, dating back to 1689, and little has changed about it since the people of the town are very preserving of their history. We saw many people dressed up in costumes, similar to the ones we had seen for La Santisima Trinidad, but these ones were even more diverse. Around the plaza, a bunch of merchants had setup tables selling jewelry, toys, food, and other items. We had gone for the parade, which was taking place in the afternoon around the town. I hung out with a bunch of the guys and we had lunch, and later we wandered around the plaza looking at the stuff the merchants were selling. After a little browsing, the parade was getting underway, so I wandered over to a sidestreet with a few other people to watch. I got some nice photos of all of the costumes and the celebration in general.

Statue of a Machetero	Church in San Ignacio
The Parade	The Parade
The Parade

After the parade was over, it was almost time for us to head back to Trinidad. I stopped with a few of the British girls at a restaurant, where we had drinks. After we finished, we headed back to the local Christian school where we loaded up into the camiona for the trip back to Trinidad. On the way back, Lucho was driving very fast and the bumps hurt a lot worse each time we went over them. One of the bumps jolted us so much that one of the wooden boards broke! After a two hour ride though, we made it back safely to La Palmera.

Bolivian Independence Day (August 6)
After another week had passed, we were given a day off in honor of Independence Day, during which the Bolivians celebrated their independence from Spain, which they gained in 1825. We woke up in the morning to find everything overcast and very wet. It had rained the night before, so things were quite soggy. The girls were busy in the morning painting the inside of the church, and I took the laptop I was borrowing in there and worked on the website some. Around lunchtime, we all headed into town and caught the end of the parade around the plaza, which some of the La Palmera students had participated in. We had lunch at a restaurant on the plaza and afterwards headed back to the school. A depressing thought occurred to me and the rest of the team that day, that we were down to our final seven days in Bolivia.


Celebration in front of Government building

The Last Week
The last week was very hard for all of us, since we had to go through thoughts of returning to the States and Canada, leaving the loving atmosphere of La Palmera. At the same time though, we began to become closer again as a team and really cherish the last moments together. At jovenes on Saturday, at the end of the time, I was asked to go up and sing. I at first thought the Bolivians were just joking, since several boys had been pleading with me all summer to sing for them, but after everyone kept staring at me, I decided to swallow my pride and go up and sing for them. Fortunately I was given the words to the song and it was one that I knew well from singing throughout the summer. After singing a few lines, I decided I would throw in a little dancing for added entertainment value. Apparently this sent the rest of my team over the edge, because they immediately started doubling over in laughter. After I had sung the song once, I got a loud ovation from everyone and then I headed back to my seat in disbelief that I had actually done what I did, but happy that everyone enjoyed it.

For church the next day, our team was in charge of leading the service. I had been appointed the leader of the service since my Spanish was the best in the group. I was constantly wondering if I was saying the right things, because people would just sit there and stare at me. Everytime I’d tell the congregation we were going to sing a song, they just sat there and I’m thinking, “did I forget something?”. Then when the welcoming time came, instead of saying good morning, I said welcome again and everyone laughed. Apparently I provided more entertainment value. Phil gave a very moving sermon on our image in God, and I could tell everyone enjoyed it because several of the elders continued speaking about it at communion.

For lunch, all of us went to La Estancia, a really yummy steakhouse on the other side of town for a birthday celebration for myself and two others. Our birthdays were all about a day apart, so it was a great way to celebrate all three of our special days. I really enjoyed the fried yuca that was served with the steak and I stuffed myself so full that I barely left room for cake. After we were done eating, we took various group photos of everyone since it was our last meal together as a big group.

Me, Karen and Craig, all celebrating our birthdays

Lucho and Lorna with our team

Later that night at communion, Lucho and Hugo invited all of us up front and presented us with books about Bolivia (in Spanish of course), but they had lots of pictures. After the service all of the Bolivians came up to us and signed the blank pages found in both ends of our book as memories of our times together. It kind of felt like high school yearbook signing, but I was glad we signed each other’s books.

Saying Goodbye
The next morning, it was incredibly difficult to stomach the fact that we were leaving, since the summer had been such an incredible experience for us. Some of the team members were crying and even I was feeling empty inside. Boarding on the airplane, my eyes got a little watery, and I realized that my mission was over. I spent the whole flight silent and put on a half depressed, half pessimistic look on my face. We did get a bit of good news though, a few of the Bolivians, as well as Paul and Phil were meeting us at the airport in Santa Cruz, because Paul had to go and straighten out a ticket fiasco with his flight, which was scheduled to depart at the end of the week. So, when we arrived at the Viru Viru Airport of Santa Cruz, we were quickly cheered up by the presence of the few guys that had come along. We got checked into a hotel and then went into the city for some shopping, since we were all still short on souvenirs. That night for dinner, we ate at an Italian place and most of us had either pizza or pasta. Then just after dinner, we went back to the hotel and we were forced to say more goodbyes to the guys who were heading back on the bus to Trinidad.


Main Cathedral in Santa Cruz

B-Day in Santa Cruz
The next morning I woke up and was still a bit depressed to not be in Trinidad, but I was also happy because it was my birthday! At breakfast, the girls all sang happy birthday to me. I think at that point, I was glad to be heading home because I was thinking about my family and the fact that this was the first birthday I had celebrated away from them. In the morning, we went back to the artisan’s market that Therese had taken us to when we were in Santa Cruz at the beginning of the summer. I got a few things there for family and so did a few of the girls. For lunch, the girls let me pick where we wanted to eat, since it was my birthday, so I decided we would go eat at this ice cream place, which had a quite extensive menu. After lunch, we wandered around some of the same shops again, and I purchased some small wood carvings, as well as an alpaca sweater. Then, we went back to another ice cream place and had cake and ice cream. At some point, a couple of the girls had purchased candles and these funny glasses that were supposed to display a happy birthday message when the candles were lit. However, it didn’t work and all it resulted in was some extra blowing on my part, I think I blew out each candle about five times. It reminded me of the time my family gave me trick candles.


Blowing out candles

It was a birthday to remember and before long it was time to head to the airport. At the airport, our team checked in our bags, we paid our $25 airport tax and then went to the airport restaurant for one last team reflection time. We went around the table and we each shared our most memorable moments about each person. Then, just a short time later, we boarded our plane and left Bolivia.

Reflection
Visiting my fourth continent was an incredible experience for me and God taught me a lot about breaking my pride, but at the same time he also gave me confidence in his will and his plan for me and the beauty of his vast creation. The poverty was not as affecting as I thought it would be, probably because I had experienced similar poverty before in South Africa/Zimbabwe. I grew closer to the Lord through all of the frequent worship we did throughout the summer and now have a greater love for him than before I left. I additionally learned a lot about the Lord through reading the entire New Testament, which was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I also achieved my goal to solidify my faith and seeing how God has worked at La Palmera I think provides witness to his existence. Seeing the poverty and how much that even $20 could provide in places like Bolivia, I made a vow to myself never to live a life of excessive materialism, but to only take what I need and to give the rest back to the communities that have so dearly affected my life, including La Palmera. The passage in the Bible that probably best describes this is Matthew 6:19-21, where Jesus says,

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (New International Version)

Bolivia has definitely found a special place in my heart and I will never forget the truck rides, river swims, the conversations, the scenery or the kind people that have so dearly touched my heart because those are gifts that no one can take from me. I know there is much more work I can do in Bolivia and I would like to go back, but as to whether I’ll return, that’s in God’s hands.

This concludes my journal, I hope you've enjoyed it.

Arrival at Santa Cruz | Arrival in Trinidad | First Full Day | June 13 | June 14 | June 15 | June 16 | June 17 | June 18 |
June 19 | 1st Campamento | Fourth of July | 2nd Campamento | Lorna's Birthday | Rurrenabaque Trip |
Chaco Excursion | Back to Trinidad| First Day (2nd Semester) | San Ignacio De Moxos | Bolivian Independence Day
The Last Week | Saying Goodbye | B-day in Santa Cruz | Reflection