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Beckyelsie

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beckyelsie

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Beckyelsie

This year's trip to Bolivia

So, this year Abby and Mom went but Dad and I stayed home. :(

But, they have a blog you can follow if you want to know what's going on down there. :)

lavidaboliviana.wordpress.com

Page 1 of Abby's Bolivia newsletter

You can click on the picture to make it bigger if you want to read the words.

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

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.