Month 8 launched our final continent, South America, and our first stop was Bolivia. Bolivia is this sweet little hidden gem. Its beauty and its people are radiant. Like, comparable to New Zealand. And y’all know I LOVE New Zealand.
Our journey out of Rwanda was a solid 3 days. We flew through South Africa, Brazil, and Chile, and eventually arrived in La Paz. We stayed in La Paz for 24 hours to adjust to the elevation and rest up, then took a bus to Apolo, where we lived for the month.
Apolo is a tiny little small town situated right smack in the middle of the mountains of Bolivia. If you’ve seen the new movie The Jungle, it’s the location on the edge of the jungle where the backpackers started their trek. Or so I’m told. I’m 9 months removed from pop culture, but I’ll take the people’s word for it.
Apolo isn’t the easiest to get to. It’s 14 hours on a bus via treacherous mountains. Seriously, I’ve never had a good enough reason to use the word treacherous until today. The town doesn’t have wifi, and up until a few years ago, it was literally only accessible by boat or plane. Talk about taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth!
It’s the cutest town and I can’t wait to give alllll the deets, but first I have to give y’all a glimpse of World Race travel. It was straight out of a movie.
Bolivia happens to be home to the most dangerous road in the world, Death Road. It’s a one lane road through the mountains that is only accesible in the right weather and road conditions. If this wasn’t it, it was definitely a sister or close cousin. It was barely big enough for a car, let alone a giant bus.
Now I’m no stranger to carsickness, so I come fully stocked with Dramamine at all times. But this was a whole new level. The kind of ride that makes you wanna hold the barf bag for a perfect stranger because it’s just that bad.
20 minutes in, it became clear that no amount of Dramamine would be adequate for this journey.
A woman had joined us with a bag that smelled like raw meat. And I’m not talking about a perfectly rare steak at Stoney River. If you’ve ever left the States, you may be familiar with the rancid smell of raw meat at markets around the world. And if you’re not, take my word: it’ll make your stomach churn. It is ROUGH.
Let’s all take a moment to pray for the poor souls who will be eating said meat.
Anyway, I was determined to stay awake and enjoy the trip. So I fiercely prayed for the Lord to keep my stomach in its proper place as I gazed at the beauty around me.
Y’all, these mountains were breathtaking. I like to think they reflected the Garden of Eden: jungle-ish trees and plants, wild banana and orange trees. In three hours I counted over 15 waterfalls. And not your typical rinky dink fountains. Like Niagara Falls type stuff. Okay, maybe not that dramatic, but they were amazing.
So we’re trekking through these mountains, roughly 7 inches from tumbling off the cliff at any given moment. Like, if your driver sneezes too big, you’re doomed. And we arrive at this tiny little two building… village… if you can call it that. We queasily wobble out to hit the baño and stretch our legs. I climbed back into the bus almost immediately to attempt to get some carbs in my belly. As I’m sitting there, a chicken wanders up to me, just minding its own chicken business, strutting and clucking. Shortly after, a man comes by attempting to get this chicken back in its box. But the chicken is not having it and almost joined me in my seat. So obviously I squealed. The chicken squealed. The man grabbed the chicken, and back into this tiny box it went. It escaped two more times before we left that stop.
In between the chicken chaos, a woman and her baby boarded the bus, grabbed their belongings, and got off. I noticed, but I was a little distracted so I didn’t pay much attention. Her spouse(?) boarded a while after and panicked when we started to leave without his companion. He stopped the driver and ran off. He ran back totally distressed, but the entire bus was yelling ‘vamanos, vamanos!’ (Give the man a break, folks! He’s clearly having a rough day!) We eventually left the man, all his stuff still on our bus. I can only make assumptions of what I think was going on, but I don’t imagine a woman bails on a 14 hour bus ride with her baby in a two-building town for no good reason.
Sooo… maybe pray for them real quick after our stinky-meat-eating friends, too!
Anyway, the ride was bonkers. And I realized my life is a lot like that right now. And maybe yours is, too.
Maybe you’re on a path that’s curvy and bumpy and feels like you could tumble at any moment.
Or maybe you’re the chicken, just relentlessly trying to escape whatever bigger forces are keeping you tied down so you can just do life in freedom.
Or maybe you’re the wife and baby, running away from something you’re afraid of. But you’re brave enough to enter into unknown territory.
Or even the man, who has no idea what’s happening as he has a terribly bad day.
Whatever the case, let me remind you what the Lord reminded me of today. It’s easy to get caught up in the uncomfortable moments of life. If you focus on your queasy belly or risk of falling, you’re going to miss out on the absolute beauty that life has to offer.
(Okay, so maybe that doesn’t work for the chicken in his cardboard box, but he seemed to be handling his own pretty well. And if you’re that chicken, keep fighting, friend! The Lord is going to bring you into freedom. We aren’t meant to live as slaves, bound by stuff… or chickens… stuck in boxes.)
The last few months for my family have been a stressful, winding road with a lot of unknowns around the curves. And then last week, it felt like we tumbled: my brother-in-law received an official leukemia diagnosis. But as we learn how to maneuver life on the side of the mountain, I invite you to join us. Scary moments are going to happen. As followers of Christ, we are not exempt from trial and pain. But we are free from living in fear because we’re promised deliverance from that pain. And it can be absolutely breath-taking if you’ll just lessen your grip and look out to see God’s glory all around you.
