Back from Bolivia!

Hi all! Sorry it's been a while since I've written. We just got back last night from a 10 day trip to Bolivia...it was awesome!

Our trip had two parts, kind of. The first was definately like a vacation. We flew from Lima to a town about an hour from Lake Titicaca (one of the highest navigable lakes in the world). We took a bus from the airport to Puno, a town on the Peru side of the lake. Right off the bus in Puno, we decided to visit the Floating Islands.

You may have heard about these in your fifth grade social studies class or something. Native people have made large islands out of water reeds. These islands just float in the lake (well, they are staked down to the bottom so they don't just float everywhere, but you know what I mean)and the people actually live on them! It was crazy! When I say large, I do mean large. Ten to fifteen families live on each island. They have a telephone and post office (both in little reed booths), a school, medical clinic. The entire group of "islands" is called Uros (I'm not really sure how many islands there are in the group...quite a few). The people live on fish, mostly, and the other staples that they get in town when they take the fish there for trade. They navigate the river in large boats made of reeds. Some of the boats have been fashioned to have llama heads or look like other things. Really, I cannot do the islands justice with just an email desciption. Maybe you can check them out on a website or something. If you ever find yourself on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca, you must visit!

On Wednesday morning, we hopped on a bus to drive from Puno to Copacobana (a tourist town on the Bolivia side of Lake Titicaca). The view on the ride over was amazing! Lake on one side, countryside and mountains on the other. We saw a lot of people and farms on the way...I can't imagine living life as simply as these people do. Small fields, sheep and cows staked out along the road, women in bright colored skirts, hauling packages, children, you name it, all wrapped in brightly colored blankets that are tied onto their backs. We were all very curious how they wrap those things and get them to stay on (and how many times they drop their kids befor they get the hang of it...just kidding)

At one point on the ride, we actually had to cross the lake. We all got off the bus and boarded a small boat that took us across. Our bus floated across on a larger, barge-like boat. It was really funny to see the bus floating on the lake ahead of us.

We had a little problem crossing the border. Aaron (a fellow team member) and I accidentally only got 60 day stamps on our passports when we entered Peru in August. We were supposed to receive 90 day stamps. Since we were on day 67 of our trip, that was a problem. At first the immigration officer told us we would have to go back to Puno (about a 1.5 hour bus ride) to fill out a form of some sort, but after some talking (and a little money to help things along), they gave us some other form to fill out and let us go through...just had to keep the day exciting, you know.

In Copacobana, we shopped, ate fresh fish at the local market (I don't usually like fish, but this was amazing! The lucky fish was probably still alive the morning of the day that I ate it)...I have to say something about the local market. It's a large room where about 10 local ladies each run a little lunch counter. They all serve variations of the same things (trout), so when a person walks in (especially a bunch of "gringos") they all start to call out to you, trying to get you to eat at their counter. All their food is prepared in a little makeshift kitchen area they have in the middle of their little group of tables and benches...it is so neat!

Ok, back to my story. In Copa, we hiked, swam in Lake Titicaca for five minutes to win a bet (it was a little chilly, let me tell you...a lake at about 12000 feet in the spring time...brisk!), shopped, ate, read, caught up on sleep, watched the sunsets and looked at the stars (both of which we never see in Lima)...it was just a great time of rest and relaxation.

One morning, we took a boat out to the Isle del Sol (Island of the Sun). It's an island in the Lake Titicaca, beautiful for hiking around and such. Some people live on it, for the tourists. There is even a hotel and "resort" area...very fun.

On Friday, we hopped a bus to La Paz, Bolivia (the capital). Word Made Flesh (the organization I am here with), has a field in El Alto (a "suburb" of La Paz) that works with women in prostitution. La Paz is situated in the Andes Mountains. I think the elevation of the city is around 13000 feet or so. El Alto is another part of the city that sits on a plain in the mountains just above the city. You can get La Paz to El Alto in under 30 minutes by bus, but in that short time, the elevation changes almost 1500 feet, if I remember correctly. It was crazy to think that I spent the week at the same elevation as some of the mountains that people in Colorado will climb. Needless to say, I spent much of the week out of breath from the altitude...climbing a flight of stairs usually required a short rest break afterwords! The landscape in the area was amazing though...mountains (several 20,000 plus feet peaks) to be seen in every direction...it was awesome!

The Baker's (Andy and Andrea and their adorable son Eli) are the couple that runs that field...they are awesome! They arranged housing for us with local families. I stayed with Vicki and her three kids: Jordan (who is almost 9, his birthday is on Nov 1), Elba (6 years old), and Brianna (20 months old...I called her Brittney for 3 days and Vicki never said anything...I was a bit embarrassed about that one). Staying with Vicki in El Alto was fun and a great learning experience, but it was not easy. Vicki's family is very poor. Her husband works down in La Paz and only comes home on Sunday so he doesn't have to pay for bus fair every day. Andrea says that Vicki lives on about a dollar a day right now. The house had two rooms: the bedroom that I stayed in and the other room that had a pink curtain down the middle...living/dining room on one side, family bedroom on the other. The kitchen was a lean-to addition on the front of the house. The bathroom was a cement "room" in the corner of the front yard (aka, dirt and rock area inside the steel gate).

I've always thought of myself as a person who would be good at living very simply, but this did take some adjustment. The only running water was the shower in the bathroom (which had great pressure, but I could never figure out how to get the warm water switch to work, so I took refreshingly cold showers all week), and the water hydrant just outside the bathroom...no running water actually inside the house. I definately cut down on drinking things before bedtime because running outside in the cold in the middle of the night to visit the bathroom was not high on my list of things to do while in Bolivia.

In spite of all the beautiful things in nature around me, El Alto was a very dreary, hard place for me to be. Almost all the houses were just dirt-colored brick because painting a house takes money that could be spent on other things. Many of the street are dirt (which is so strange to me, considering that El Alto is bigger than Omaha by quite a bit). There are big piles of rock, trash, random dogs wondering the streets...it's just a very poor place.

Many of the people there look older than they actually are, I think. For example, Vicki is only 25, but I never would've guessed that. I think the combination of the very strong sun (which was nice, compared to the overcast skies we have in Lima all the time, but also meant that sunblock was an absolute must!), and hard, physical labor that lots of people have to do, makes them age quickly. I can't imagine living like that. Once again, makes me feel very blessed to have grown up and currently live where I do. Things are so easy and convenient back home...I was definately missing that this week!

While in El Alto, we did several things. We spent two days at the center that the Bakers run for women who are in prostitution in El Alto. One day we walked down several blocks of a street near the center. Andy said that we passed at least 10 brothels on our little walk, although you never would've known it. Prostitution is legal in Bolivia, but that still doesn't make the conditions that these women work in any better.

It's hard to explain the ministry that the Bakers have to the women. In a nutshell, they build friendships with the women, so the women know that they are valued and loved by people, and more importantly, by God. Most of the women don't want to be in prostitution, but making a living is very difficult in Bolivia (I believe that Andy said it was the poorest country in South America), so they often have very few options in order to make money to support a family. Once again, this whole experience is teaching me that one of the biggest things God calls us to do is to love people right where they are at because through the relationships that genuinely caring for people will build, God will be able to work. Again, it's hard to explain all the thoughts that are running through my head...I guess I'll have to save that for conversations when I return.

On Tuesday, we took about 10 of the women to a ropes course outside the city for a day of fun, teambuilding activities. That was a hoot!

We also had an "observation day" where we walked around La Paz and El Alto, just taking in life there, some free times to be with our families, community night where we cooked a meal and hung out with the Bakers and some other Americans in El Alto...overall it was a great, eye-opening, learning experience, that (just like the rest of this trip) has left me with more unanswerd questions...but I'm getting use to all that now.

The trip back was a crazy one. We caught a bus in El Alto (after running around the huge outdoor market for about 20 minutes, looking for the bus area), to Copacobana...then another bus to Puno, where we learned that there wouldn't be any flights to Lima for two days after the next flight which left in 1.5 hours...problem was, we were at least 45 minutes away! We found two taxis, told them to get us to the airport as fast as they could...they did, we made the flight, and found ourselves back in Lima at 8pm last night...whew! What a day!

So, that's what I've been up to for the last two weeks. Today we are taking a rest day (I even cheated and took some laundry to the laundramat instead of handwashing this morning), having lunch as a team to discuss our trip, and then who knows. We have about six weeks left, and I know that time will fly by, so before you know it, I'll be seeing you all stateside again. Thanks, as always, for your messages, thoughts, and prayers. I'm loving it here, but miss home a lot, so I love hearing from you! Until next time...