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