Bolivia video from church

The impact

I think the biggest thing that struck me was the people's love and joy for God. It sounds very cliche, but it is true-you go to bless but are blessed in return. I now have many many pictures and emails and memories. :) I think what God did for me through this trip was give me confidence that I could do all things through Him and that He is with me, so that as I head off to college, I can look back on this trip and remember that God was with me in South America and He is with me here.

Peru and returning home

Bus picked us up, we flew to Lima...waited around for six hours and wanted to check in our luggage so that we could go sightseeing. But the American Airlines counter didn't open till 7:00 (it was 3:00) so it didn't leave enough room for us to sightsee and we did not want to cart our luggage around Lima. So we played Presidents and bought dinner. Surprisingly it was very American-starbucks, Papa John's, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts...! We waited till seven when we walked downstairs and joined a long line. When they started letting people into the counter, the line just got incredibly longer. And we found out that our flight was delayed for an hour. After that, we went through security and and security and security! We got to our gate and waited and loaded and flew for five hours. We got dinner and we watched the Bounty Hunter (it was available; we didn't actually watch it). We landed in Miami and had to unload, pick up our luggage and walk for a mile to passport control, go through customs, check our luggage onto the plane, then walk for another mile to our gate. Which, by the time we got there, was loading. :P It took over an hour to walk and get through customs. :P But this plane was AMAZING. Everyone had a personal touch-screen computer and you could use the touch screen or use the remote control in your arm rest. :) Those five hours went by quickly. They had games and movies (albeit only a few of the listed were actually available; Mom and I watched the Ghost Writer) and music and TV shows....And when we arrived, we had to wait quite a while to get our luggage and then we walked out to the curb and almost immediately Chris Sikrowski, the Young Adults pastor at church, drives up in Cory's truck. We load up and Cory drives about half the team. Willie also came with Chris to pick us up. A few minutes later, Eric drives up and loads the rest of us up. We beat them to curch because Cory dropped Herb off at his house. Aftrer everyone is picked up at church, Cory drops our family off at home where we are heartily welcomed. And then we went to In'n'Out. :)

Peru

So yesterday we landed in Cuzco and got picked up around 12ish...we came to the hotel, got our rooms. Cuzco is a tourist spot; there are venders everywhere and everyone can speak good English. They have a tea here that's available in the lobby...it's lemon cocoa leaf tea. (cocaine is made from the flower-not the leaf). And there is free wifi but only in the lobby. one group left at 1:30 to sightsee and then came back and whoever wanted to set out at 4:00 then met at 6:00 for dinner. I had got this headache (altitude sickness) in La Paz and it left on the plane but I got it even worse in Cuzco. I had set off at 1:30 to sightsee but by 3:00 I came back with Cry who wanted to take a nop before registering for classses. I came back and took an hour nap. I had meant to go out with the 4:00 group but was too tired and so I kept sleeping. I slept until Jason called at 6:00 to check up and make sure I knew about the dinner plans. I didn't. I went down to the lobby and we had a meeting...one group had had a late lunch, another had already eaten dinner, Cory felt sick and went to bed and ordered room service, Mom was tired and went to bed (she had had a late lunch), and about four set out for dinner. I was so out of it that I just came back to the room and ordered room service-I got chicken soup with vegetables and noodles. It wasn't that much soup but it was super good and came with two rolls. Kailey skyped and I took a shower at 9:00 and by ten we were in our room. She ordered oxygen before she skyped-you get ten free minutes of oxygen. And she didn't feel sick, she just wanted to be able to say that she had oxygen. :) This morning we got up by 3:30 or so and had breakfast at 4:15. We left by five via bus and drove for about an hour to the train station through windy roads at dawn and were the last ones on the train at 6:30. We were two minutes late. We rode for two hours then got to a town where we got on buses and actually drove up the mountain to Machu Picchu. The history of this (it's one of the 7 Wonders of the World!) is in the second post. It was as amazing as the pictures make it look. The altitude is 8000 feet versus Cuzco's 12000 feet. They let you get really close and you can touch the rocks. It was gorgeous. We stayed up there till about 12:30 when we split up. Half of us went on a hike up another mountain right next to Machu Picchu that has an astounding view and half of us went to the village to have lunch. I had chicken and beef quesadilla. this morning a tour guide had picked us up and he stayed with us from the pick-up at the hotel to the drop-off at the plaza. So after lunch, we caught our 2:12 train ride and then got on the bus at the town and drove for another hour to the plaza, where we decided to just go to dinner directly, instead of getting dropped off at the hotel. We ate at a very nice, but expensive, restaurant. I had alpaca. There were also wild llamas at Machu Picchu today, just walking around. Daniel kissed one. After dinner, we did more walking around and went home to the Novotel (our hotel). We are going to have a debrief session tomorrow at ten and we must be packed and ready to go. A bus will pick us up at twelve to get to the airport by one for our flight that leaves at 3. This hotel is much nicer than the one in Bolivia. I am homesick for the La Luz Divina church people, though. :)

La Paz

Hola, mi amigos!! I am currently sitting in the La Paz airport awaiting our plane that will take us to Cuzco. Our one-hour overlay turned into a three-hour overlay. Luckily we were just going to hang out and sightsee today. Tomorrow we are going to Machu Picchu. We are all suffering a little bit of altitude sickness...headaches and stomach aches.
Last night we had a good party...we ended it at ten. We got down to the lobby and loaded in the buses this morning around four. Many people from church were there. But even more were there last night and we had lots of pizzas and sodas. We have had about three good-bye parties: the normal Sunday night where Cory preached, last night, and this morning at the airport. We had another hugging and photo session after we checked our bags and before security.

Monday

We worked half-day today and had lunch and sung worship songs (soooo good; thank you Jason and Daniel! they played with an electric guitar that Luis brought out) and socialized and then Daniella organized us so that we sat in a circle and played Hot Potato. Anyone who got stuck with the "hot potato" when Jason stopped the music (he was playing acoustic guitar) had to do motions to a song about a duck. You had to hop on one foot, then on two feet, then flap your arms and peck at food and dance or something. Luis y Daniella y Mary Lou (we prayed for her) y Leo y Roxianna y Elda y Walter y Hugo y Tatiana y Marienta/Marrianna y Juan David y Elias were there. Mary Lou also brought some family members to help with the food. For lunch, we had peanut soup again because she thought that Ed would be there today. He is coming in tonight. We also had the empanadas (I am seriously going to look up Bolivian restaurants at home) and, of course, soda.

Cory has said such funny things...he pretends to be on the Nature Channel and in an Australian accent says that we're on a safari and "Ah, the sound of the Dustin." *silence* (Dustin doesn't talk much) and the sound of the Kailey (giggles) and the sound of the Lynne (stoppit! stoppit! said very quickly). Lynne has been the mother for the entire team.

We completed about three more rows of bricks today. It was fun and the window is taller than I am.

We are going shopping at 3:30 at the jewelry store. The stores here take siestas during the middle of the day. We got back to the l'hotel at 2 and took showers and packed and took naps. At 7:00, I think, we are going to have a pizza good-bye party here. It was going to be at the church but it will be a lot easier for us to have it here.

If anyone is on facebook and hasn't yet looked at the pictures, look at Herb's, Cory's, and my mom's pictures. Public look is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19499&id=1724721374&l=8a5ea4a79e

Pictures of Sunday

Us with Pastor Walter's family (Walter, Elda, Tatiana, Adriana, y Elias) and then our team picture with the worship team. Luis is center bottom, in front of Kailey and Dustin, next to Elda.

Sunday

This morning Willie, Dad, Herb, and Philip left. They were in the lobby by 5:30. At 6:00 they called Pastor Walter. He was on the way, almost there. He showed up at 6:30. They went to the airport in time, it was deserted, they got on, saw Willie through security, got a text that he was on the flight. He should now be at home. The rest of us slept in till 8, 9, 10, 11...then got out and walked and ate lunch. Herb, Lynne, Dad, Mom, Abby, Philip, Kailey, Cory, y me all went and ate at a Brazilian restaurant. It was really yummy. You went by a buffet table and put stuff on your plate and paid by the weight of your plate. It was delicious. We were done eating by 2:30 so Lynne, Kailey, y Philip went to the hotel while the rest of us went to get water and Herb some chapstick at HiperMaxi. Then we went back to the hotel. And we got picked up for the church's anniversary service at 3:00. They had a birthday cake and we sang in Spanish and English and then all the kids got to blow out the nineteen candles. Then a lady (I think it was Elda) stuck the cake in both pastors' faces. :D Then four men went on stage in traditional Bolivian costume with traditional instruments and did about four songs. It was quite cool. A rice dish with french fries, hot dogs, vegetables, and raisins was passed out and so was maize and coca-cola. Then we were greeting, trading emails, and taking pictures for quite a while. We took a few team pictures and many, many individual ones. All this time, people have been gradually leaving the church. The pastors' families invited us to the backyard and we were served the cake and coca-cola. We talked and talked with ourselves and the pastors' families and Kailey was playing with Yaseet, an adorable little boy (Susanna's son). Then we headed back to the hotel, rested for fifteen minutes, and had a meeting. We talked and Abby said her devotional, and then we prayed for Lynne. Then we came to our room and I started to pack up and took a shower.

Saturday pictures

Today a man came and carted away all the large tree branches that were in front of La Luz Divina. The picture of the ice cream brand was at HiperMaxi, their supermarket. The top picture is of the ice cream. The next one is of Pastor Hugo. I am not sure who the lady is, but she may have been someone who was giving her testimony. The girl in Mom's lap is Adriana. Dustin is on the cart with Mom and Abby.

Friday pictures

One of these pictures is of Abby at the gas station. When they fill up their cars, no one can be inside because the fuel might explode. :D

Saturday

Well, today we worked half-day. We put up more rows and worked hard. We took a break and had saltenas. We worked for another hour and had lunch. We got in taxis and came home to the hotel. I was in a taxi with Herb, Abby, and Philip. Our taxi driver didn't know where the hotel was so we got a tour of Santa Cruz. :) There's a cool library with a cube on the roof that has little to support it. We were the first to leave church, the last to arrive at the hotel. Half of our team is still at the church, playing soccer at the cancha with some church people. We ate at Picolo's and I had chicken nuggets. :) But they were shaped like chicken fingers and about twice the size of a US chicken nugget. Kailey had that too. Those that went to the hotel instead of play soccer were Kailey, Mom, Dad, Philip, Abby, me, and Herb. Lynne also came and ate with us. John Mark stayed at the hotel. When we got to the hotel, we took showers and rested and then we went to HiperMaxi which is their supermarket and got agua (water) and treats (chocolate :) ). We also stopped to look at Andrea, a jewelry store, but it was closed. So we will try to go on Monday. We really want to go there for a Bolivianite, an exclusive gem mined only in - that's right - Bolivia. By the time we got back, the boys had gotten back and left for dinner so we waited for them. They came, we gathered on the second floor and went around in a circle, saying the things that we most appreciate about Willie, and we prayed for him. Then we played Presidents. Then everyone went to bed but Abby, Philip, Willie, and I. We stayed up another hour or two talking and laughing. The boys went to eat at some restaurant where they had duck. Dad, Herb, Willie, and Philip will get picked up by 5:30 tomorrow morning by Pastor Walter to take Willie to the airport. He will fly to Miami and meet his uncle who will fly with him to LA.

Friday

Typical day today. We started laying bricks. Last day of VBS. Had fifty then fifty again I think. Had peanut soup for lunch with cookies y three different kinds of empanadas. Danielle was late in the morning (and she's only 28!) and so we (mom, roxianna, susanna, kailey, me) went into the school to get them and kailey got mobbed. seriously. we were taking pictures and they were all pressing up against her so much. I may post a more detailed post tomorrow, but it's already midnight. We went to roky's for dinner and ate and then did ice cream. Willie is going home Sunday morning. Kailey had a migraine. We were invited to evangelistic service tonight at the cancha. only Paul and mom went-the rest of us were too tired. They sang and Hugo preached and they showed movies...as evangelism tools. They had a lot of speakers so that the whole neighborhood could hear and come. Mom said that Brenda and Adriana and Elias and the kids were asking where we were. Tomorrow we're working part-day and same on Monday. Tuesday we're flying to Cusco at 7 in the morning...meaning that we're waking up at 3 or 4. :P The Santa Cruz airport is in the middle of a field a ways from the city. We're going to stay in a hotel in Cusco then go up to Machu Picchu on Wednesday and stay Wednesday night in Cusco then fly to Lima and from Lima to Miami Thursday. And from Miami to LA and we'll arrive at 11:00 Friday morning. And we're all planning on getting In'n'Out. :) And being able to flush toilet paper and brush my teeth with faucet water and walk on sidewalks and drive with seat belts and safety rules that are obeyed. Those are just certain aspects, but I will definitely miss the people y the language y the love y the novelty and difference. I feel completely safe here and can just enjoy the experience. People always say stuff like "I went to serve but I got served" or something and it's cliche. But it is so true. Yeah, we're building a house. But they're feeding, teaching, driving, communicating, caring for us. One nice thing, though, is that we (as a team) know more spanish than they know english. That way it's not like "Oh, we came to help you but you have to climb over the language barrier for us." I am learning so much Spanish....

Okay, yo cansado. Buenas noches.

Dinner

Tonight we went to Pastor Denny's church (the church I visited Sunday morning). They had songs, welcome, and a psalm and then we went out next to the sanctuary where it was basically a covered patio and we ate a rice dish called "mahow". There was also salad y fried plantana. (Plantane; a banana). Then Cory asked about the church and its needs...it needs a new building and wants to have many more people. One can definitely feel the love of God at La Luz Divina; here there doesn't feel like there is as much love. They are across the street from a market and on Sundays they take the market sellers' children into Sunday School. There is a new law in Bolivia that churches must do a "social work" or forfeit their land and so this church is thinking of setting up a day care for the children whose parents work in the markets. It sounds like many pastors live behind their churches and that they all have a different vocation besides pastoring. Pastor Denny is the one with four daughters-Carla, Erica, Niecey, y Sarah. Philip y Lynn translated for us.

video of the kids at VBS

These are the morning kids singing a song. Danielle is the one leading.

Thursday pictures

Here are the pictures...one is Mom, Danielle, Pastor Hugo, and Juan David. One is a horse-drawn carriage. One is the 106 kids. One is the completed cement floor with the bricks all set up for tomorrow.

Also, Pablo (Paul) took the kids at church some alphabet beads and ribbon and they made all the team members individual bracelets with our names. :)j I'll post a picture of mine.

Thursday

Buenas tardes, mi amigos! I am posting this in the afternoon so that hopefully I will go to bed earlier tonight.

Today Dad woke me up at 7:30 (our alarm went off at 7:40) and we had breakfast by eight. Daniel felt better and went and worked with us today but Jason stayed behind with his sickness. Had about 50 kids at the morning VBS, they did the cross craft. Had lunch-chicken, rice with ham and vegetables, tomatoes, mango, cookies. Finished the concrete floor today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sooooo excited. Tomorrow we start brick-laying. At the afternoon VBS we had 106 kids. We made a heart craft to remind us of Jesus' death. Cory popped his shoulder out and had to rest. He tried to work with one hand but it wasn't working out so well. Providentially, he did it right before lunch so he had to rest for awhile. Today was the most humid it had been-we all feel hot and sticky. We left around four-thirty and right now, we are taking our showers. At 6:30 Pastor Denny (sp?) will pick us up to go have dinner at his house. We wrote our church name y Leo (a Bolivian man) y Marvin (19-year-old) y a verse in Mateo (Matthew) but we didn't all sign it because they are going to put tile over it. The building is going to be two-story with the bottom story being Sunday School rooms y the top floor being the pastor's house. Right now they are living in Sunday School rooms behind the church. Last night some Bolivians stayed up until two o'clock putting tiles on the floor in the sanctuary. The first night we were there the floor was a little more than halfway tiled and the rest was concrete (which, when we ran on it, kicked up A LOT of dust). The next day they had put six more tiles and Tuesday had completed that row (maybe 13 tiles). Last night they put in another row. The tiles are about twice the size of a pillow...roughly the size of a pillow. They cost 17 US dollars each. The church sells produce and whatever profit they get goes to buy the tiles. The VBS kids weren't as well behaved this morning. They weren't as good in the afternoon either, but I expected 50 kids to be better than 106. Danielle y Roxy are amazing.

Pardon. (sorry) I know I am hopping around from one thing to another, but I just need to get all my thoughts and memory out before I forget. I don't ever want to forget a single detail of this.

Funny story: Tuesday Abby drank gasoline. She didn't want me to tell but now I can. It's funny because there's no danger. She didn't swallow it. Extra gasoline was being stored in water bottles. We needed the gasoline to run the cement mixer. (We are borrowing an electric one right now because the gasoline one is giving us too much trouble.) So she poured some gasoline into her water bottle and tried to drink it. It fell out of her mouth. She poured another sip. It fell out as well (and people don't believe in God or angels). Then she tasted it. And started throwing up. Lynn came outside (we were all starting work) and told us that Abby just drank gasoline. Of course, we all thought that she was kidding. Needless to say, we no longer are storing gasoline in water bottles and Abby now smells every water bottle she drinks.

kids

Si, Lillian, the kids are amazing.

Wednesday

This is going to be a quick synopsis because I am sooo tired.

Got up at 7:30. Ate breakfast. Had bread, jam, hot chocolate (they have unsweetened cocoa and then you add sugar). Left hotel at 8:30. Started working on concrete immediately. We bless you, cement mixer, to keep working. It kept dying today. We got about two sections done today, too. Daniel was sick (probably from overworking himself) and so stayed behind. Morning VBS we had 60 kids, afternoon: 50. Morning: colored y stuck cotton on picture of sheep (good shepherd, salmo 23:1). afternoon: glue cross on paper, write romanos 6:23. "muerte" (look it up; I don't know what it means atm ;) ). Did puppet show both times, morning got yesterday's, afternoon got today's. Kids are so adorable. We ended the work day at 4:00 today so the team came down to the cancha around four and we were still going so the team got introduced. Lynn translated for us in the morning y Philip (Phillieppae) translated in the afternoon. Played "Presidents" tonight-I played for the first time and tonight was Philip's first time playing also. We had to be back to the hotel by 5:30 because a souvenir-seller from Cochabamba came and sold us things. He is a Christian from a church in Cochabamba and sells us souvenirs for a discounted price because it's a guaranteed sell for him. Ed y Lynn usually have their teams buy trinkets from him. So he came and set up in a room off of the lobby in the hotel and set up on the floor y mesas (tables) y chairs. Mom and Dad y Abby y yo (me) bought A LOT of stuff. Afterwards, Lynn ordered pizza and Daddy y Philip y yo walked a few blocks to a supermarket and bought soda (like a lot) y drinking yogurt and bon-bons and a mint chocolate bar. Philip would tell Daddy something he "had to try" and Dad bought it. ;) I love my Dad. :) Then we came back and waited for the pizza while Victor (the souvenir-seller) cleaned up what was left of his merchandise. His family owns a store and he makes the fur slippers and the rugs out of alpaca fur. He brings all his stuff in bags using the buses. So when he was done, the pizza arrived and we summoned everyone down (Daniel came down and ate but Jason was late) and ate. Victor ate with us. I sat in between John Mark and Philip. There was pepperoni and a sausage-mushroom pizza and there might have been other kinds as well. Then we were done and walked up to the second floor to play "Presidents". We didn't have a meeting tonight. We also had a lady from the church wash our clothes. She took the clothes after breakfast and we got them by this night! We would put them in individual bags and she would wash them bag-by-bag and by hand and then hang-dry them and she wouldn't get them mixed up. What else? Dad came by this morning before we went to breakfast and dropped

Pictures of Tuesday

moving bricks, kids, and...I forgot his name. Honestly, I feel like a celebrity, like I'm on vacation or something, not that I'm helping. They all want to take our pictures and take pictures with us. It is so sweet.

Pictures of Wednesday

Light pole, kids, puppets, and a souvenir-seller with rugs that he made.

Tuesday

Well, this morning we got up, ate at the "l'hotel" restaurant and met in the lobby at 8:30. We have a deal that started on Saturday that the last person down has to do twenty push-ups and it has continued. I was the last one down tonight. Anyway. Another thing is that Ed was gone today-he was in La Paz.

So we got picked up and taken to church. We started grading, I think they call it, leveling out the dirt. And then they got the concrete mixer going and over the course of the whole day, we completed the second half of the first section, the whole second section, and a fourth of the third section. We are expecting a lot of progress tomorrow because we were becoming efficient. We had two children's programs today: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the morning one we had 30 kids and in the afternoon we estimate that we had forty. In the morning, we winged it. Daniella, Pastor Hugo's wife, sang head-and-shoulders-knees-and-toes and if-you're-happy-and-you-know-it. Then Daniella introduced Mom, Kailey, Lynn, and I and we all said a little something with Lynn translating. And then (we hadn't had time to prepare) Mom and I (with Lynn translating) made up a puppet show between a "Pastor Walter" puppet and a little girl "Lucilla" puppet. It was lame. It was about the good shepherd and how God is our shepherd. "Pastor", I think. Then we passed out coloring pages of Salmo 23 and two crayolas per child. They colored and when they were done, Mom and Lynn had the children stand up when the words that were on their picture were called out. We did this at the "Cancha" which is the basketball court. There is a plug across the street so the people from church (Louis y (and) Marvin y some other boy that I can't remember helped bring all this) set up an extension cord and mic, CD player, y speakers for the program. And took it back in between the programs. Anyway, after the coloring pages, they returned the crayons (I think they call them "crayolas") and got a snack. It's called "cereal" I think but it looks like green packing peanuts. Like the styrofoam ones. It tastes like plain cereal. In the afternoon we had so many kids that we didn't have enough cereal so Daniella gave them orange juice or something instead. The afternoon was much more professional. We had the Spanish puppet shows on CD so we played that and Daniella y some other Bolivian lady did the puppets (they could understand the English :D). Louis y Kailey y "yo" (me) held up a white sheet so that we had a puppet "stage." But the wind was so strong that the sheet would puff out one way so that you could see the outline of the puppet-movers and then the other way so that it was rather difficult to hold. In the afternoon program, there were only about three kids at 3:00 so by 3:30, Daniella y Mama went to the school (on the other side of a dividing wall between the school y the cancha) and Daniella talked to the teachers (mystro) and brought kids out all lined up. These kids were so good and so attentive. They stayed on the bleachers and paid attention and participated and they were of all ages. Gah, I am so tired writing this. Our Wifi at the hotel is not working currently so this will probably get posted tomorrow night but at least I'll have it written down.

Okay. So after VBS we worked, we stopped, we waited for transportation, we played volleyball y talked, we loaded in the cars, took half-hour break for showers, went to Chuy's for dinner, except John Mark. He watched TV. Ordered chicken. It's a fast-food place with basically only fried chicken. I had rice y sprite y fanta y pollo (chicken) y banana y french fries. Then we walked back to the hotel and Daniel y Willie stayed while the rest of us walked a couple blocks to the ice cream place. Which had a long line. So we turned around and walked about halfway back to a restaurant with ice cream. I got maracuya, a fruit ice cream like passion fruit or mango. We ordered, got them, and walked back to the hotel and had our meeting. Jason gave a very nice devotional about Christ's younger life being relevant. Then we went to our rooms.

Men with cement mixer

The missionary, Ed, is in the orange shirt and one of the pastors (I think it's Walter) is in the yellow shirt. I am not sure about the other senor.

me with Mabel.

This girl is so cute. Her name is Mabel, and she is dos, two. Her aunt's name is Priscilla and her grandmother is the pastor's wife who cooked lunch for us.

Mom at corner store

 

Love,

Rebecca

beckyelsiewebsite.posterous.com 

beckyelsie.blogger.com

"An enlightened people will never suffer what was established for their security to be perverted to an act of tyranny." George Nicholas, speaking of the Constitution of the United States at the Virginia convention for ratifying the Constitution in 1788.

right now

right now it is eleven-twenty and some sort of singing is going on upstairs in the restaurant. We can hear it and it sounds like opera singing (male opera). Because the hotel is so open, the sound carries quite well. This concert started around ten-thirty. Culture in Bolivia is muy diferente.

Digging

View from the back of the yard before lunch

picture of Mom cooking with Danielle (pastor's wife)

Mom in front of the kitchen

Today

So this morning we got up at eight and had breakfast and by eight-thirty were getting picked up by the pastor and some of the church congregation. We started working - which meant breaking up the dirt and making it level so that we could pour concrete over it. Daniel had experience in this and was quite helpful in directing all of us to do what was best-we were using shovels, pick-axes, and rakes. Mom, Abby, and I went with Daniella to a corner store and her "casa", her house. She prayed with us about the children's program that we're going to have and showed us some things that they have done with the children in the past. Then we went back and helped prepare some food. (Mom helped, Abby helped with the digging, I took pictures. :P) Then Pastor Walter's wife brought food and we set up lunch and then called the men in and ate lettuce, tomatoes, chicken, beef, potato balls, banana, mandarin oranges, "y" (and) "arroz" (rice). And had agua y Coca-Cola. (water and coke). Then I went out and started helping with the digging. Earlier, some people had gone with one of the pastors to buy some bricks (we lay the bricks on top of the concrete). So we removed bricks that were there previously, dug the dirt, removed the dirt via wheelbarrow, leveled it and then tamped it with blocks of concrete. Meanwhile there are boundaries marked by string and the ground has to be ten centimeters (approx. 4 inches) below the string. Then, when we were about halfway done with the second section (there's about four or five sections), we started mixing the concrete, rolling it via wheelbarrow to the corner of the first section, and smoothing it down. So first I helped make the concrete, then I migrated to smoothing the concrete (it was soooo much fun-it was Herb, Willie, Abby, Philip, and I). Then they ran out of gasoline (which runs the cement mixer) so the work on the concrete stopped. Then somebody brought more and we started again. After awhile, they ran out of cement (one makes cement by mixing two buckets of cement, two buckets of water, I think, six buckets of rock, and four buckets of sand) so the work stopped for good. We were done (it was around four or five now) and I went inside to rest. We waited for the pastor, Ed, and the taxi for about an hour in which we socialized, talked, and gave English lessons. All day long, Ed and his wife Lynn (I'm not sure on the spelling) and Philip had been translating for us. Ed left and went with the pastor to change money in the afternoon though, so Philip was getting called from all over to translate for us. (thank you, Philip!) He is fifteen years old, and going into his sophomore year of high school. Then after we got picked up, we got dropped off at our hotel, and had fifteen minutes to take a shower and then we went to Roky's for dinner. We ordered big meat dishes to share (it feeds four to five people) and a few people ordered individual dinners. We also got to try Inca Kola (a yellow sugar drink) that is popular in Peru. I was so tired and was just spacing out at dinner after I ate. (I think that in these three days, I have drunk more soda than I normally drink in a month.) Anyways, after dinner we came back and had our meeting in which Daddy gave a "two-minute" devotional on keeping a bigger picture of God's work in our minds and shared God moments that we've had. Mine (which I didn't share) was that Louis (nineteen I think) was so excited and showed his English work to Herb. He and Herb talked in "Spainglish" lol. Philip was sitting there with us though and followed the conversation so he helped pick up loose ends of the conversation. That's all I can think of right now...I'm trying to write everything down before I forget. Cory advises journaling so that when we get back and have so much to talk about, we can still remember the details. This blog has become my journal (hence the monster post :D). I actually brought two real journals but haven't written anything since the plane ride between Miami and La Paz (which, btw, was the worst plane ride I have ever had. I don't know why though. I think it's because I was so tired and couldn't sleep and my body was tired of having to stay in the same position.).

And thank you guys so much for commenting and following-I feel really loved and cared for and that people are genuinely interested in what I have to tell.

Playing cards

The first floor is the lobby, with the front desk, TV, newspapers, and computers. Second floor has rooms and this neat lounge area. Right now they are playing "Presidents", a card game that Cory taught us. The third, fourth, and fifth floors all have empty space so you can look down and see this lounge area. We all have rooms on the fourth floor and on the fifth floor is the restaurant with the patio with the view of the city. Names by bottom-left to bottom-right is Dustin, Kailey, Jason, Cory, Willie, Abby, Mom, and Dad.

hadey

Her name is pronounced "Hadey" and she is adorable. We met her at the church today. The missionary, Ed, said that there were about 230 or 250 churches in Bolivia, 18 of which are in Santa Cruz.

Something interesting about the streets down here is that they name streets after dates. For instance, the hotel is on "21 de Mayo" (21 of May) and a few blocks over is the 21 of September. One of the drivers from church last night said that one date was the independance of Bolivia, one is of Santa Cruz's founding, one is a religious celebration...etc.

Another view of the bus

Getting picked up from the airport at Santa Cruz, inside the bus, getting picked up by church people. Wow, I was just thinking that you guys that are following are probably getting so many notifications that it's a pain-sorry but it's just so much easier to post via email and more than one picture is too big. :( In this picture are (left-to-right) Daniel, Cory, Daniel :), Marrienna, Carla, and the driver.

Waiting at the LAX airport

I found some pictures that were older...so these pictures are (needless to say) not in chronological order. Note: these pictures are from three different people taking pictures on their own cameras. Names: Cory, Beth, Willie, and Jason.

Pablo

Here is Pablo, a friend that Paul made at church today. We split up into two groups and six went to each church with either Ed the missionary or his son Philip to translate for us.

View from the top of the hotel (the restaurant has a patio which we are standing on)

Kailey and I in Santa Cruz

Kailey Tindle and I walking around near "the plaza", the exact center of Santa Cruz. (don't worry-we had Mom with us :) ) browsing the shops and booths.

Abby's hotel room - mine is identical to it

I am rooming with Kailey; Mom is with Abby. Cory is with Daniel, Dustin is with Jason, Paul is with Willie, and Herb is with Daddy. I may have gotten Cory and Jason switched up.

inside the bus

I'm in the front, Kailey's is behind me, Dustin is behind her, Jason is next to her, and Willie is behind Jason.

oops; didn't finish my sentence. It's a cross between an amethyst and citrine. (yellow color to purple; pretty).

Here's a picture of the bus that took us to the hotel with all of our luggage on top.

Dinner last night at the hotel restaurant. I had spaghetti with chicken. And it only cost a few bucks because the exchange ratio is 7 bolivianos for 1 US dollar. :) 

Other interesting fact about Bolivia: they mine for bolivianite. It is a gem which comes about by a cross between an amethyst and a 

 

Love,

Rebecca

beckyelsiewebsite.posterous.com 

beckyelsie.blogger.com

"An enlightened people will never suffer what was established for their security to be perverted to an act of tyranny." George Nicholas, speaking of the Constitution of the United States at the Virginia convention for ratifying the Constitution in 1788.

 

Love,

Rebecca

beckyelsiewebsite.posterous.com 

beckyelsie.blogger.com

"An enlightened people will never suffer what was established for their security to be perverted to an act of tyranny." George Nicholas, speaking of the Constitution of the United States at the Virginia convention for ratifying the Constitution in 1788.