Hola amigos! Month one of the race is over and we are a few days into our ministry here in Peru. I have yet to blog so I’m going to attempt to recap everything that happened in Bolivia. Fair warning it will be a long one.
Fun fact: In the first ten days my team spent more than 70 hours traveling.
Flight from Atlanta to Miami- 2.5hrs
Flight from Miami to La Paz- 8.5hrs
Then we took this vehicle from La Paz to Apolo, there were 11 of us total:
The entire journey took 14hrs. We traveled along a paved road for maybe 4hrs then spent the rest of the journey on a one lane dirt road through the Andes, at many points the road was on the side of the mountains and one wrong move would have sent us tumbling down a giant cliff.
We finally arrived in Apolo around 11pm on the 4th and met the 40ish people staying at the hotel. We then were approached with the question from our missionary contact, Phil Kittleson asking us if we wanted to join in on a 2 day hike to the most remote village in Bolivia. Obviously we agreed, so after a late dinner, more greetings, and packing for the trek we slept a few hours and woke at 4am.
The entire group loaded up all of our daypacks, tents, food, and tons of gear to give to the people of Mojos into three vehicles. Each truck loaded up 15 people in the back and we either stood or sat on top of all the gear for 4hrs during another trip on a one lane treacherous dirt road.
We arrived at the village of Tuichi where we waited along the shore to cross the river. Some of us brave folk decided to wade across the strong current to save time. It got up to my chest but thanks to a sturdy stick I made it across without falling. The others waited for a raft made of five logs to take them and the gear across.
We finally got everything across, got the big gear packed onto mules and started our hike about 6hrs later than we had planned. Our hike was 31miles one-way. We had originally planned on hiking two days but ended up taking 3 days. On my birthday and my teammate Susan’s birthday we hiked 15 miles and spent the night on a black sandy beach. The whole crew sang happy birthday to us and we ate our mashed potatoes and drank hot chocolate by the fire. The next day we hiked a little longer and arrived in Mojos:
Our day and a half in Mojos went by extremely fast. We had an amazing time ministering to the families of Mojos and enjoying the fellowship with everyone. Too soon we packed up again and hiked 31miles over two days back to Tuichi. Again we waded or took the raft across the river and then trucked back to Apolo. This time I waited for the raft to carry me across.
Fun fact: I counted 32 bug bites JUST on the bottom half of my right leg after our hiking trip.
The next day we said goodbye to the other group as they packed up to head back to the states. Team Tonka also packed up everything from the hotel to move to the church where we were staying and ministering from the rest of the month. We met Pastor Max and his wife Claudia and spent the rest of that evening there. The next day with Pastor Max we trekked two hours in a small taxi to a village to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the village’s church. We started service at 8pm, ate dinner and cake around 11 and then our team went to bed. Although we went to bed, the service kept going until 4 in the morning.
We returned to Apolo, went back to Hotel Landivar to eat lunch and get ice cream. Susan and I got to celebrate our birthdays officially because the hotel owners Mickey and Cuca gave us brownies and put a candle on it. They all sung to us again. We blew out the candles. Then blew them out again and again because they were trick candles. HA HA. I believe this is the day Jake rented a motorcycle. He took me for a couple rides. We watched most of the World Cup final, ate dinner and then attended the Sunday night service of the church where we were staying.
For the rest of the month we worked with a couple of different churches to do ministry. We painted Pastor Max’s church. We also painted two rooms at the Baptist church and a mural at the Lutheran daycare. I preached at the Assemblies of God church and Pastor Max’s church. We also shared our testimonies at the AG church, sang songs, and did a skit. At the Baptist church we sang, preached, and held a “happy hour” service with the kids. We led Sunday school for the children at Max’s church. On the last day of our stay in Apolo we gathered all the pastors of the different churches for banana boats and ice cream. We were glad everyone showed up.
On our second day off we went to a local waterfall. It was absolutely beautiful. It was fun swimming and jumping off cliffs despite the freezing water. Most of the team also enjoyed the two-hour walk back to Apolo.
The team definitely felt more blessed by the Bolivians than us being a blessing to them. We ate really well. We felt very welcomed. Everyone said hello and good morning/afternoon/night. During every church service we would each be greeted with a handshake-hug-handshake as well. It seemed to be the standard Bolivian greeting.
After we left Apolo we took the journey back to La Paz where we would meet up with the rest of F squad. It took only 13 hours to get back in a double decker bus. Thankfully the road was a lot drier. Our contact Phil met us at the bus stop and brought us back to his house where we spent the next two nights. Sam and Susan left us after one night and took a weekend to go to Machu Picchu. The rest of us hung out with the Kittlesons and they showed us around. We visited their English speaking church Sunday and went to the mall to eat American food.
Then after some discussion Phil took us two hours driving to go experience “Death Road.” It got its name because of how many deaths had occurred on it. The road overlooked a huge cliff. The major problem with this road compared to others was that the traffic used to be extremely heavy. Now they have a highway that connects A to B. But it was still interesting to go down the old road and hear some of Phil’s crazy story about people he knew or times he helped people who had had accidents.
After death road we made another somewhat impulsive decision with Phil’s suggestion to go eat dinner with his eldest son. Phil has three sons, the two youngest we had met on the Mojos trip. So we trekked another hour (ish?) to meet his son Phil Jr. in Coroico. There we ate dinner and Phil Jr. joined us on the car ride back to La Paz.
Fun fact: The highest pass during this car ride was 15,230ft!
At the high pass we decided to stop and ended up taking dozens of pictures with the stars. If you know me at all you know it is one of my favorite things to do. This was definitely a highlight of my entire month. Here is one of our pics:
The next day we said goodbye to the Kittlesons. Jake went and got his tattoo redone while the rest of us (minus Sam and Susan) went quick shopping. We only had an hour but all managed to find some really cool Bolivian things. Then we met the rest of F squad at the bus station. The rest is history!
Hopefully I’ll be better at blogging more frequently this month.
I miss my friends and family mucho. Thank you for all your support. I would not be here without you all.
On a side note, I still need $3000 to make my next deadline. Please if you could consider donating click “support me” at the top of this blog. Thanks again!
Much Love!
Leesh
