My mom and I had to make a pit stop at Nora and Wilson's to borrow their internet. Nora had informed my mom that Emmanuel church was in need of a computer because theirs had just gone kupuht.. we found one and brought it but...it is all in English, so while my mom is diligently working on setting the computer to Spanish I thought I would update everyone.
I saw a comment about our "change of locations". I am sorry that I didn't explain more before, we were at a fun little internet cafe and the keyboard was Bolivian style, and lets just say things got a little confusing. We originally believed that we were going to be staying at the Instituto de Americano which is where our group stayed last year. Upon arriving in Cochabamba, Nora informed us that 3 days before arriving the bishop gave the dorms to a conference of pastors and we were instead going to be staying in the parsonage of the very first Methodist Church in Cochabamba, Iglesia Metodista El Salvador. Being fairly against change I wasn't too excited to not know where we were going...but it was really a blessing. It's a beautiful 2 story house with hard wood floors and a nice yard. A pro is that Dehlia lives right next door, so it is easy for her to come and cook and we have gotten to know her and her family (Betzabeth, Priscila, Ruth, and Samuel) extremely well. They have been great guides for us, Priscila and Ruth have been great translators as well. Another would be the awesome shower situation..other than having 8 women and only 2 bathrooms. I got really used to taking ice cold showers last year and I was looking forward to having a nice chuckle after the "newbies" took their firsts. But, alas, the bathrooms were equiped with nice new shower heads that sprayed out nice hot water for everyone. Be jealous Chris, Ted, and John because you sure would have liked it last year. The con's of staying at El Salvador are that it is a little secluded. We don't get to see as many of our friends from last year, and definitely don't get to spend as much time with them when we see them, and we can't walk to E.C. Norte (only the coolest little grocery store in Cochabamba), but...we do get to walk around the plazas and see the nightlife more.
We have been diligently working these past few days at Luz de Vida and it has definitely been an experience. I will try and post some pictures of all the hard work. Basically what we do everyday is go out to the site and then Adan (the mason) has us move this HUGE pile of rocks out of the way. We normally set up a beaver line and pass them down. Kelly keeps us entertained by singing "Jesus is the rock and He rolls my sins away!" or by giving us small challenges to see who can throw the rocks the furthest or with the best style, etc. Needless to say it is hard work but it is still fun. We will also be able to find great work when we come home in the cement making department, I don't know how many wheelbarrows we have filled with cement...but it is a LOT. The steps are. 1/2 a bucket of water, 2 buckets of gravel, 1 bucket of sand/dirt, 1 bucket of cement, 1 more bucket of sand/dirt and then maybe some more water depending on how much it sticks inside the mixer. (see, I told we were good, I remembered that all on my own!) Sometimes in the afternoon Janet goes over to the house where Luz de Vida is currently meeting and helps them with their baking. They have started a bread (or pan in espanol) business and they are great, people line up outside to buy it. Janet Childes (as we so fondly refer to her as) is teaching them how to make cookies and brownies. They LOVE them. We had a trial run...soooo good. Fun Fact: they don't have brown sugar here.
Yesterday was church day and boy did we have church. We first went to Luz de Vida and met with their group. Kelly preached and did a fantastic job comparing a rock with our foundation to God and bread to the body of life. The rock came from our worksite and Nancy (program coordinator of Luz de Vida) said she was going to keep it forever. The bread came from the church, and Nancy made sure everyone knew that she wasn't going to keep it, she would just probably eat it, and we all had a good laugh. As you all should know by now, it was Friend day or "Feliz dia de la Amistad", the children of Luz de Vida wanted to do something special for us, so while outside during sunday school, they made us little cards. They were very cute and much appreicated. Another fun fact: kids have the same "issues" worldwide...my card was spelled perfectly, just from right to left. From there, we loaded back into Nora and Wilson's awesome Bolivian jeep and took off for Emmanuel. Talk about a long service -we got there at 10:30 and left at 12:30.. It was a great service though, I think part of the problem was that they kept having to pause in their sermon so that Nora could translate for us. I hate to admit this to everyone out there reading...but I kind of cant remember a lot of what was preached about at Emmanuel, but I do remember that it was from Luke (which they call San Lucas) and that I really enjoyed it at the time and that I felt it was a very moving sermon.
Yesterday we also got to do a little sight-seeing.
We went to the Cristo! After climbing up the 10 flights of stairs, one of which is entirely too sketchy for most, I found that we could only get to the armpits of Jesus again. I was slight crushed...I was really hoping to at least get to the shoulders if not His head... the climbers of the group were Sarah B., Vickie, Ruth (Delhia's daughter) and myself. We took some great photos out of the little "peep holes" and inside as well..hopefully I can post some of those as well.
The next stop was La Cancha, well, it wasn't really a stop..we could only drive through. La Cancha is a market, or really, THE market and it isn't necessarily the safest part of town espeically for the Americans who stand out by height and skin color. Nora breifed us before we went, on keeping our windows rolled up and not laying stuff in our laps because people could walk by our cars and steal them. Needless to say, we had no problems and got to see what the true Bolivia is like. Probably one of my favorites that we have done so far.
To end the night on a good note we all went to Globos Ice Cream and had a nice tasty treat. I was really adventurous and got...chocolate, but others got Maracuya (a Bolivian fruit that is citrus-y) or Lima (lime).
Sarah and I made a detour from the group last night and attended the youth group meeting. Wilson (not Nora's Wilson) the youth group leader had invited us (Ruth Ann as well, but she still wasn't feeling up to par) to join them for their evening gathering. I am so glad that we went, it was such a great experience. We recorded one of their songs, if it turned out, I will maybe pass it along. The dynamic of the group is fantastic, they love being there and they love being around each other. Last fun fact: they have a youth president, someone that the youth voted for to represent them at the church.
Today we all went to Emmanuel to play with the little kids. It was a much needed break from the worksite and I enjoyed seeing all the babies. You can't help but smile when you look at them. They are so full of life and they just love you. It's so great to see them run up to you (a complete stranger) and give you a hug and yell "HOLA!!!" Today will be a day that we will look back on later for motivation. My mom and I had to "skip out" a little early though so that we could work on the computer and get it working in tip-top shape. Hopefully, the others enjoyed it for us though.
Sorry for the long post, but I felt like I should give you guys a real update this time. This afternoon we start Vacation Bible School, so hopefully all goes well!
As always, prayers are always welcome!
Michelle
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