As we enter our last day here in Bolivia, I wanted to share some highlights of our time here. First…..
Food!
Favorites: Saltenas (meat pies), chuleta (steak) y costillas (ribs) de llama, churros con dulce de leche (fried bread filled with caramel), passion fruit
Not so favorite, but noteworthy: Chunos (to the best of our knowledge, a potato that has been harvested, dried and then reburied, and then dug up once more to be rehydrated) They are black and they taste like dirt. Mmmmm! Thanks to Chrislyn’s sister Elizabeth for the recommendation.
(There are chunos in this bag. The smiles are before we tried them.)
Weather
It’s been cold. Right when temps are reaching their highs for the year in the USA, it is winter here in Bolivia. And with an elevation of 12,000 feet above sea level, heat is hard to come by. In addition, it can be quite windy here. Just yesterday, the wind was blowing so hard that we had to wear buffs over our faces just to keep the dust out of our eyes while we were walking around town.
This is seriously how we walked into town.
Home living
We walk a mile to get a hot shower. When we do this (every 3-4 days), we also take advantage of this opportunity to do our laundry by hand in the shower. The toilet at our host home does not flush with the tilt of a handle, but rather with the dumping of a bucket into the toilet bowl. This has been a new experience for many of our teammates. There is such a thing as the “one flush club” and I’m proud to say that I’m in it! Cooking happens outside over a propane burner. All of our groceries come from one of the open markets in town. A place where one can often find that the meat in a butcher’s shop will stare back at you. (Just today we recognized a snout, eyeball, hoof, and other cow unmentionables) When shopping, all prices are subject to bartering, an activity that requires poker-like skills.
(sorry, no picture of the toilet, laundry or butcher shop….)
Ministry
During the course of the month, we have engaged in many different ministries to many different people. We undertook a project of clearing an 8 foot high pile of trash, mostly composed of thousands of plastic bottles and the wreckage of an old collapsed building. After clearing the trash and leveling the huge mound of dirt, we worked on constructing tables and benches that the children and youth of the church will make use of when they gather each week. We held community English classes, with our pupils ranging in age from 5 to 70. We also spent time in street ministry, home visits to members of the community, and leading Bible studies and church services. With each different ministry, we’ve found such reward in the service and have been so blessed to share life with the people of Uyuni this month.
This pictures does not do it justice. These are the bottles after we cleared them from the dirt pile.
Some of the youth group
Teaching English
The Sights
The largest attraction, by far, is the salt flats. They are the largest in the world and can even be seen from space, though I can’t personally vouch for that claim. They certainly were impressive in size with nothing but flat, white, salt for miles and miles. There was a distinct crunch with every step you took. The stark surroundings made for some great picture opportunities if you were willing to channel your creative side.
Also quite unique and entertaining was the “train cemetery” on the edge of town. There are probably one to two hundred very dated locomotives and train cars there to be explored and photographed. It was something of a grown-up’s playground as we were able to climb on top of the cars, jumping from one to another, climbing inside the cars as well.
Uyuni Life
We immediately took to the Bolivian lifestyle and particularly the slow pace of the town of Uyuni. We walked everywhere we went, I imagine we averaged about 3 miles a day. The town of Uyuni is home to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of stray dogs. You can’t walk a block without seeing a dog napping in the sun, digging through the trash, picking a fight with another dog, or just tagging along with you as if you were its owner. The other distinct thing about life in Uyuni, at least for the time that we were there, was the very apparent civil unrest. The recent decision of the mayor regarding the location of a soon to be built bus station had caused quite a bit of tension in town. The resulting blockades almost kept us from going to Uyuni and were a visible presence each day that we were there. Towards the end of our stay, the protests were growing in size and zeal. We heard rumors of potential violence and as a result made the decision to head back to the capital, La Paz, a few days early.
Despite all of this, we never felt any aggression directed specifically toward us and I can definitely say that we greatly enjoyed our time in Uyuni. We will greatly miss the people who so graciously welcomed us a part of their community for the short time that we were there.
