We have been in Bolivia for a little over a week in tourist town of Rurrenabaque. We had to travel on Death Road on an 18 hour bus ride here which was the scariest experience of my life…you think I’m exaggerating, but trust me. Google it. The Lord protected us and we arrived in Rurre at the terminal and loaded 9 gringas,1 Bolivian translator and our host’s son, Jere (JJ) into cages on top of motorbikes with our packs and drove to our ministry host. As we pulled up to Case de los Niños at 7am on Wednesday morning, our quiet and shy host Frans, was sweeping the sidewalk like he does every day. His wife bursts through the front gate and immediately hugs and kisses us. It only took about 2 days for her to call us “my children!”
We sleep in a room with bunk beds that has absolutely no airflow and I have never experienced this much humidity or sweat or bug bites in my life, and I’m from south Texas! We have slept in our beds with minimal clothing, in our hammocks, and in the daycare room with fans blowing 1 foot away from us; anything to sweat the least. Deysi and JJ love to practice their English and are gracious when we practice our Spanish. Every day we wake up and start cleaning at 7am. This includes sweeping the courtyard, cleaning the classrooms and prepping breakfast for our team. JJ is an accomplished maker of pancakes. They are so sweet to cook food they know we love. One night, we even had American hot dogs (I have no clue where they found them) and marshmallows roasted on a campfire. We have fresh squeezed juice and homemade peanut butter every day. They are so sweet to us. One of our favorite Bolivian meals so far was sopa de mani (peanut soup). Most meals include plantains and today we ate fried cow liver.
Frans and Deysi have been missionaries here in Rurre for 11 years. It was only a field and a road when they got here, but it is now a quaint town that attracts tourists for excursions to the jungle. Deysi led a girl to the Lord 2 years ago and they opened this daycare, Casa de los Niños. We help with the kids and have taught songs and basic life lessons. The first day, my teammate Sally taught about cleaning up toys when they are done playing with them. Now every day, we hear the teachers and kids singing “Limpia, limpia, vamos todos a limpiar!” Our main duties include painting murals for the kids to learn, sanding and painting fences and stairs, fixing holes in the roof and cleaning. We have several artistic people on our team and we love that we get to use those gifts to bless them, especially Eva. Outside of the daycare, our first weekend we taught and performed a dance to a worship song and shared what the World Race is at a community movie night.
We also love having our nights free to explore the town. It comes alive at night with people everywhere, projectors in the street showing the upcoming election progress, motorbikes parked along the curbs, and loud music and street food on every corner. I’m always surprised to see new restaurants and storefronts open out of nowhere when the sun goes down.
It is a blessing to serve alongside people who love the Lord and give to their community with the love of Jesus. Friday, we will ride a boat into the jungle for 4 days of ministry there. We don’t know where or what we will be doing but we are pumped to face the heat and bugs with enthusiasm!
