I have been Uyuni, Bolivia for a week and if feels like I’ve been gone for more than a month. We landed in La Paz Friday morning. My team, team Rak Chazk, and team fearless laughter we’re suppose to take a bus that evening to head to Uyuni but we found out that there were protest going on outside of Uyuni that had many if the roads blocked. We spent the night in a hostel in La Paz. The next day we found out the protest had ended so we got bus tickets and had until 7 pm to explore La Paz and El Alto. We took a sky lift to El Alto and walked around to try to find a place to view the mountains. As we were walking, an older gentleman directed us behind shack looking buildings. Once we got back there we were on the edge of this cliff that had the most amazing view of La Paz and the mountains that surrounded La Paz. The view was absolutely breathtaking!! What a wonderful reminder of how powerful and mighty our God is. After taking in His creations we rode the sky lift back down and explored the city some more.
After a couple of hours it was finally 7! It was time to load up the bus and make our way to. Uyuni. The bus ride was an 11 hour, freezing cold, bump ride. The window right at my seat would not stay closed because of all of the bumps we were going over. I’m pretty positive that we were not on paved roads the majority of the time which made it impossible it sleep at all. When we arrived in Uyuni it was 6:05 am and 12 degrees F outside. We stood outside of the bus stop for a while until our ride came to pick us up. When our ride showed up, I think my heart stopped. Parked in front of us was a pickup truck. This one truck was sent to bring all 13 of us and our stuff to the house we would be staying at. So not only was it 12 F but we had to ride in the back of a truck to our home for the next month.
The place that we are staying is really nice for the town that we are in. We have 6 twin beds and 3 twin mattresses for the 13 of us. We have a toilet that does not flush. To flush you have to pour a bucket of water in it and hope that gravity will do the rest. There is no sinks or showers at the place that we are staying at. We have the option of bucket showering but he highs have only been in the mid 50’s so it’s too cold to try and consider that. We found place that has hot showers for 10 Bolivianos for 15 minuets of showering (that just over 1 US Dollar).
Uyuni is in desert which means it warms up during the day and gets really cold at night. This first week has been tough because it’s practically the coldest week of the winter.
Our ministry this month is with Pastor Rolando and the church he preaches at, The Assembly of God of Uyuni. Sunday, when we arrived, we had 2 hours of rest before it was time to go to church. Nobody here speaks English so communicating has been really difficult and worshiping was even more difficult. One of my teammates, Mary Chandler, translated the sermon. After church we had time to go back and rest.
Monday is one if our free days. On the 7th, Pastor Rolando gave a run down of what our week would look like in ministry and then gave us a tour of the town. He showed us where the market was, which banks to use, and good restaurants to go to.
Tuesday we did some manual labor in the back of the church yard. There was a pile about 8 feet or taller that consisted of thousands of bottles, trash, wood with rusty nails, and other various pieces if scrap metal. We spent 3 hours working and only managed to get halfway through the pile of trash. We had a break from 12-3 and cooked some lunch. We cook on a stove ( about a foot tall) that is connected to a propane tank. Around 3 on Tuesday we taught English classes to members of the church. It was mainly children and a couple of adults. We started out with introductions/greetings and numbers. The kids loved it!!
Later Tuesday night we found this amazing pizza place right down from the road from the place that we are staying. This was the freshest pizza I’ve had. There was no kitchen, he made the pizza right in from of us.
Wednesday we had hospital ministry at 12. There were only 10 people in the hospital at the time. There are not many modern technologies in the hospital that we went to. No monitors and no electronics in rooms. We also taught English from 3-4:30 again. We we’re suppose to lead a worship service later that night but nobody showed up because of the cold weather.
Thursday we had the morning off. We taught English again at the same time, and then had street ministry. I passed out over a hundred of tracks. This was definitely a challenge and different for me but afterwards, I was really excited about what just happened.
Friday was another day off and another blog in itself. Keep your eyes open for it!
Also coming soon….How God is changing me in Bolivia.
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