With all the reports and things I had read on Bolivia, I was convinced it would be excessively dangerous, full of mean rascals and scammers, and altogether not so lovely (especially in comparison to Chile and Argentina). And to be fair Bolivia is distinctly unique and carries a deeper burden of poverty, however I’ve been blown away by the kindness, hospitality, and beauty here.
We arrived on overnight bus from La Paz to the tiny jungle town of Apolo at 4am, two hours earlier than we had anticipated. It was pitch black outside and we didn’t know if/where our ministry host was meeting us. It was an intense ride through the jungle mountains with bumps and curves all over the place and many stops with turning the lights on and allowing people to get off (in the middle of the night in the middle of the jungle. Scary) with loud Bolivian flute music playing over the speakers so we had not really slept. The bus driver told us we could stay and sleep on the bus until 6:30. Praise the Lord! When we got off the bus at 6:30am, it was at least light out as we wandered the town with our huge packs on the back and daypacks on the front (along with added extra stuff we carried in our arms, like pillows, snack bags, etc). We asked the bus driver to point us in the direction of the Lutheran church. He pointed and we walked as the town slowly began to wake up. Birds I had never seen or heard before began their morning greetings. We walked on worn down brick streets, passing banana tree plants, palm trees, exotic, brightly colored flowers. We were in a completely new environment than La Paz.
Seven of us sleepily trudged along until we reached an evangelical church, not the Lutheran church. Sigh. With our broken Spanish we asked a man walking in the road if he knew where the Lutheran church was. He did us one better and asked us to follow him as he walked us there! Praise! As we went down a slippery hill and took care to not slip in our treadless Chacos and careen down the hill with ALL of our belongings strapped to us, we could see the church ahead with several families setting up their market booths and goods to sell right in front. We were quite the sight to see and drew a lot of attention. As we walked up to the church, families greeted us and a little boy even ran up to give me a high five. The gringas had arrived and the whole town now seemed to be aware even though it was only 7am!!!
When our pastor host came to let us in, we discovered he spoke no English. He left us to get settled and he went in search of an English translator. Several hours later he returned with a post-it note written in English, “please come with me to Landi Var hotel. They will translate for us.” Here is where we met Juan Fernandez Bocangel, our Bolivian God-sent angel.
Juan is originally from Apolo but went to seminary in the US where he proceeded to get married and pastor a church in Minneapolis for several years. He now lives in La Paz with his family and visits Apolo for the month of December each year. He just happens to be friends with the pastor of the church we are staying with. He shows up to translate and ends up learning how there is little to no plan for us to do anything in Apolo until our host’s son, Odell, comes to help us trek to the Mojos. He tells us we were supposed to go visit the village of Huratumo but we don’t have a translator. He explains he has some personal commitments, but he will see if he can arrange things so he can take us. Say what? He is willing to move around his schedule to help take us to visit Huaratumo. We meet his sister, wife, and daughter and talk about some attractions and things to see and do in the town before we begin to walk back to the church we are staying in.
On our walk back, Juan’s sister, Sarita, helps us get our SIM phone card set up, when Juan and his family end up pulling up next to us in their SUV and offer to take us to the convent known for their cornbread, jams, and tangerine wine (one of the things we talked about earlier). Sure! We all pile in and some of us hang off the side to the convent, purchase some local delicacies, when he offers to take us to the local coffee shop, Madidi Cafe. Sure enough he ends up taking us to get locally grown and roasted DELICIOUS coffee (and even picks up the bill). Next he asks if we want to try some Bolivian coquis… not a misspelling of cookie. They are actually female leaf cutter ant butts! But of course we want to try them. We end up back at the hotel with a pot of freshly roasted coquis and they were actually delicious. We spent the rest of the evening talking about his missionary work in Bolivia and our backgrounds and reasons for doing the World Race.
My love language most strongly presents and receives itself through acts of service. The fact that this stranger but brother in Christ would drop everything to help us out and welcome us to Apolo was incredibly endearing. The story doesn’t end there. He continued to stop by and check in on us, help us get a painting project started at the church, take us back for more coffee, host a game night for us, and get everything organized to take us to Huaratumo and personally accompanies us there (which is a story in and of itself). I’m amazingly blessed and in awe of his family’s generosity and kindness towards us. Our goal is always to come and bless others, but I feel like we are always the ones who are so wildly blessed. It just doesn’t make sense!!!
Juan has inspired me. How can I become one who is equally willing to drop everything to help others? Juan didn’t preach a sermon to me, yet he showed me more of who Christ is through his kindness and actions towards us. That is my goal and hope as I meet others across the world. Let them see Christ in me!
