we just spent an amazing and relaxing week in lima for month 2 debrief. every two months on world race we get a debrief time with our squad leaders and coaches. it’s time to rest, recharge, and get some awesome words of wisdom from our fearless leaders.
lima is an amaaazing city with so much incredible history and food! AND i got to see two friends from home who happened to be in the city!
we left wednesday morning for a 60 hour adventure to our teams destination for month 3 – santa cruz, bolivia! we arrived at the bust station bright and early wednesday morning and began the day with an attempted robbery. thanks to some brave n-squad men, the offender was caught and items were retrieved! we then hopped on a quick 32 hour bus ride to la paz, bolivia.
when we got to the actual border we had to get off of the bus and walk through the border, then proceed through 17 different customs desks to get our passports and visas stamped. ok, maybe not 17…but definitely at least 5. some of us experienced some pretty awful altitude sickness. i honestly thought my brain might explode out my eyeballs. but no worries, coca tea does wonders for that and the nice bus lady magically provided me with a steaming hot cup. so sweet.
after arrival in la paz thursday night, a mere 35 hours after beginning our adventure, we immediately bought tickets on the next sleeper bus to coachabamba. that’s fun to say huh? just try it. the 8 hour bus ride in fully reclined, blissful sleep inducing seats was awesome. what was’t awesome was when some of our squad mates had expensive things stolen while they slept like babies. no bueno!
we arrived in coachabamba at around 7 am friday morning and purchased tickets for our final 10 hour bus ride to santa cruz. at 8am we hopped on our very hot, not so air conditioned, windows stuck shut bus. due to police stops and inspections [which involved dumping out our entire packs and answering questions about myself like if i have a boyfriend and why my middle name is rose] we made it to santa cruz in true south american fashion – only 2 hours late!
sweet sonia, the director of ywam, picked us up about an hour later in a taxi and 20 minutes later we arrived at our new home! we were greeted with hot pizza, cold showers, comfy bunkbeds, and fast internet – thank you Jesus! we are happy, happy girls.
[our beauuutiful home sweet home for the month!]
on monday we begin ministry! this month we will be doing construction/painting [i am gonna be a pro at this stuff by the end of the year] and working with an orphanage for special needs babies. we are so excited to get started and experience more of bolivia!!
