Y’alllllll these past couple of days. I don’t think I can put them into words. We didn’t have wifi last month and I confess I was not super motivated to blog. I loved absolutely every moment of my time in Argentina. In between ministry, endless pick up volleyball games, spending time with my squad and YWAM hermanos, the last thing I wanted to do was sit and blog. Apologies! And apologies to my own self because the longer I go without blogging the harder it becomes. THERE’S TOO MUCH TO SAY! TOO MUCH HAS HAPPENED.
Instead of trying to recap a month’s worth of feelings and ministry (without the assistance of photos or videos) I’m just going to recap our travel days. I want to give an illustration of how traveling across international borders with 50 people looks like, and how even if we’re not doing ministry Jesus is still so very present.
*Please remember that for the 80ish hours I was traveling all I wanted to do was be back in Argentina*
On Wednesday, December 6th our 50-person bus pulled up to the YWAM base ?at 2:30 pm?. We spent about 30 minutes packing things in, saying goodbyes, taking photos, in my case just sobbing all over everyone and helping translate goodbyes between our squad and the YWAM staff.
*Jesus is worth it*
We finally got everyone on board and in their seats by 3 when we had to leave. As the bus began to pull away there were still YWAM staffers literally on our bus praying over us and our travels. I was waving my last goodbye at Joni out my window when I hear our logistics coordinator shouting my name.
“Katie! Listen up. Someone already broke the toilet so we can’t use it to go number two for the whole ride.”
And I laughed and laughed at the fact that we collectively destroyed another bathroom within minutes of having access to it. And then I realized that 24 hours on a bus that is carrying 50 very weak-stomached Americans may not be ideal.
*Jesus is worth it*
I hadn’t slept the night before because we decided to do an all-night worship session in the main building on base. It was incredible and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything, but my physical state may have contributed to my emotional fatigue and just overall how exhausted I felt on that first bus ride. I slept a little bit here and there, and for a few hours during the night. I slept as substantially as I could sitting upright and my body oscillating between freezing cold and being drenched in sweat.
*Jesus is worth it*
We learned earlier in the week that while we hoped the bus would take us to La Paz from Mendoza, Argentina, that it would be dropping us off at the border of Bolivia and we’d have to cross over on foot and find new buses to take us to our final destinations in Bolivia. Cool. We can handle that. Our logistics team had already been to the Bolivian consulate in Argentina and applied for individual visas for each person in our group. They had already gone to the bank to get the $160 USD in *mint* condition each individual would need to get their visa. We had our letters from our hosts in Bolivia ready to go and signed saying that we had a place to stay and a purpose in being there.
*Jesus is worth it*
We get off our bus at 2pm Thursday, December 7th with the hopes of walking through immigration quickly, as our packs are heavy and we’re eager to get to where we’re going. Unfortunately, we didn’t have every document we needed to enter the country. In addition to what we had, we needed more copies of letters, passports, and proof of yellow fever vaccinations. Also, they were just not equipped to handle 50 Americans coming into their country at one time. We spent about 5 hours at the border while trying to make copies of each document at a local Internet cafe and get everyone through immigration. During this time we had to dodge the monsoon that came just in time to force me to dig through my 65 liter pack for my rain jacket, only to find out that the storm would be over by the time I put it on.
*Jesus is worth it*
There was no prepared food being sold on this street and we’d gone about a day living on peanuts and pretzels and I wasn’t feeling particularly energized by that. Also it’s very common to have to pay to use the bathroom in South America, even if the toilets have no flushing mechanism beyond a jug of water you fill up and pour into your toilet. Soap? LOL. Nah.
*Jesus is worth it*
We finally all make it through immigration by the grace of the Lord and have to walk about a mile and a half to the next bus station. We get there ?at about 6:30? to find out that there is no direct bus that will take us from where we were to my team’s final destination of Santa Cruz. Cool. Let’s take two buses. The one we found that had enough seats for us would leave ?at 8:30 Thursday night? and get into Tarija ?at 2:30 am Friday morning?. The woman who sold us our seats assured us we could sleep on the bus ?until 6 am? instead of having to move into the bus station at that time. That apparently was something she didn’t have the authority to promise and she ended up having to talk to the bus driver to let us stay on ?until 5 am?, after then we’d have to get off and go into the station and wait to buy tickets for our next bus.
*Jesus is worth it*
Guys. This bus. Taylor calls me Nellie when she senses I’m getting nervous about something. I get nervous a lot. This bus though. I can’t even describe it because Nellie knew enough to knock herself out with melatonin before getting too far into it. I remember never actually fully falling asleep because of how much the bus was jostling us around. It took everything I had to stay in my seat. In the moments I wanted to look out the window and see the insanity that must be going on outside on this dirt, mountainside road the Lord protected my nervous heart. It was either took dark to see anything or I physically couldn’t open my eyes they were so tired. I finally fell asleep when we pulled into Tarija ?at 2 am? and slept until we got out ?at 5 am?.
*Jesus is worth it*
?At 5 am Friday morning? we get into the bus station and wait for the kiosks to open so we can buy our third and final bus ticket. The ride to Santa Cruz would take 12 hours and there is no bathroom on this bus, but it’s alright because it’s supposed to make a stop every 3 hours. That bus left ?at 10:30 am? and would get us into Santa Cruz ?at 10:30 pm?. Alright. We spend the next five hours in the bus station waiting to get on that last, sweet bus.
*Jesus is worth it*
I’m honestly not sure I will ever show my parents the videos of this bus ride. It should be known that every one of these buses is a double decker where we sit up top and our bags go underneath. Ol’ Nellie was in the front seat with a wonderful panoramic view of everything. Why was that my seat?? I probably spent the first two hours of that bus ride praying. We were driving up and down mountains, on one-way dirt roads that were under construction and for some reason served two lanes of traffic. We PASSED everyone we came up behind. I didn’t understand what was happening in the mind of our bus driver. Even the woman from Bolivia I was sitting next to who assured me it’s “safer to drive this way” started throwing up from the unavoidable motion sickness. IT WAS A TREAT. I’m not sure I’ve ever truly relied on Jesus to keep my safe like I did on that bus. I was declaring truths and scripture left and right. He literally kept us from flying off that mountain.
*Jesus is worth it*
Another fun moment was finding out we’d only be making one bathroom stop during the entire 12 hour trip. One of my sisters may or may not have had to take inspiration from a scene in Dumb and Dumber in order to make it through the trip without an accident. Thank the Lord for sturdy plastic banana chip containers.
*Jesus is worth it*
GUYS. We made it to Santa Cruz ?at 10:30 pm on Friday night?. It was so far the most on time we have arrived anywhere in South America. We get picked up by our hosts and learn that the trip to where we’ll be staying is about an hour, more or less. We got home at 12:30 am this morning, Saturday December 9th. 82 hours of traveling later. We’re here. And Jesus is worth it.
And we have WiFi which is a major praise. But even if we didn’t He’d still be worth it.
Paz y amor, y’all
