Three stories from our life in the village:
1. One day I walked into our room and found Jo (my hilarious teammate) sitting upright on her knees on her small wooden twin sized bed. She looked at me and said “Kim! I was bending down behind the bed to grab my sports bra that had fallen and to my horror and surprise, I found a chicken just laying underneath the bed!” It was about maybe 2pm in the afternoon. Jo has a huge phobia of chickens. If one even flaps its wings too fast she will jump, scream and run. I tired to hold in the laughter and asked her, “Wait it’s still there now? What is it doing?” She looked back at me and said, “I don’t know I think it has a home under there, I even think it lays eggs there!” I wish I could record her voice and play it for you. I always die laughing at her commentary because it is so animated and said with a tone that conveys how hilariously ridiculous life has just become. I am still trying not to burst into laughter as I stoop down to look and sure enough, I see a chicken (we named Gertrude later on) just straight chillin’ underneath her bed. In an effort to rescue Jo from impending doom, I stick my arm underneath the bed and yell “shoo!” The next few events happened so fast. Somehow in the next five seconds, the chicken flapped itself in a frenzy out from underneath the bed, Jo screamed, leapt off of her bed, threw her computer down and darted out of the room. I was so startled by the noise, Jo’s rapid flight for safety and the frantic flapping of wings that I ducked and covered. Ricardo (a ten year old boy who lived in our house with us for the two weeks) rushed in hearing the commotion. Jo is gone, Ricardo is on the scene and Gertrude is now stressed in the middle of the room with toilet paper stuck to her foot (probably from underneath Jo’s bed). We try again to get her out of the room, but she takes flight again this time onto Emmy’s bed and then again across the room, over Kristen’s tent onto to Taylor’s bed. Ricardo rushes toward Taylor’s bed and tries to grab her. I get out my phone to catch the last few seconds of this hilarious happening. In that time I notice half of an egg in the middle of room, chicken poop on Taylor’s bed and a small piece of toilet paper with reminiscence of chicken poop on Emmy’s bed. I knew I could lure the chicken out with food, so while Ricardo is now trying to grab her from underneath Taylor’s bed I run to get food. Not long after I leave, I hear Ricardo chasing her out the front door and Jo asking from around the house, “Is it gone now?” The next few minutes consisted of me laughing at how wild and adventurous village life is and scrubbing both Taylor and Emmy’s sleeping pads with soap and water. Gertrude would visit us again from time to time, but we learned how to coexist together. I would catch her underneath Jo’s bed sometimes, but somehow she knew not to be there when Jo was. (See video below or visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4DkSnt_VHs&t=3s )
2. On a hot day off I decided to walk down to the lagoon to jump in and cool off for a moment. I got down to the lagoon and there were about six young children already there playing in the water while their parents did laundry. Naturally within minutes, I became a human jungle gym. Somehow the wrestling match developed into a game where I would sit down in the waist deep water and let the children grab onto me as best as they could. I would get clobbered with arms and legs all gripping so tightly onto my neck, back, chest, arms, and hips. I would then count “uno dos tres,” stand up and each of the children would try with everything they had not to slide off of me. Whoever was left on me after a couple of seconds won the round. The children would scream, laugh, grab my clothes, pull their friends off with them and then do it again. It was hilarious. There was a tiny girl no older than four who had the sweet spot of right against my chest. Her arms were solid around my neck and her legs were stiff around my waist. She never gave up her spot and won every time. Every time I stood up, all of her muscles would tense and she would laugh the most genuine laugh in my ear as she watched her older friends slide off of me back into the water. Her laugh was the most contagious thing. She would get thrown around a lot in the water by her older friends. She was enjoying being the strongest. She was so adorable and so tough. That moment was special because it was a random happening of the day that was filled with so much life and joy. Those moments really convey how beautiful village life is to me. A life that is mostly outside. A life that is always for and with other people. A life that is humble and filled with simple moments of joy.
3. One morning we were asked to go along with a couple to help with gardening. We said yes and followed a man and his wife along a path back behind the lagoon and into the jungle. The path got less defined and more crowded with trees. We walked through the trees and started to climb up a small hill that gave us a beautiful view of larger rolling foothills off in the distance. We kept walking up and stopped just as we reached the top. The back side of the hill was open to the sun and was where the couple had been planting the coca leaf (for medicinal purposes). We were asked to clear the back side of the hill of sticks and weeds. For the next couple of hours we got dirty and sweaty picking up logs, sticks and vines throwing them down toward the base of the hill where the trees of jungle were thick again. After the hill was sufficiently cleared of clutter, we were handed machetes and pickaxes and asked to cut down the weeds. The machete and pickaxes were each used for specific plants. I realized that you don’t just swing a machete at anything in the jungle, this is methodical. We hacked and hacked until lunch time approached and the hill looked pretty clear. The man we were with motioned for us to follow him and we walked down to the left, off the hill down into the trees until we found a small stream. He sat down next to the stream and we followed suit. A couple of moments later, his wife brought a huge sugar cane from within the trees that she had cut down and began to peel it. We spent the next thirty minutes chewing on sugar cane with this couple after a good mornings work. That moment was so peaceful and filled my heart up. How have I ended up here chewing sugar cane next to this Bolivan couple? How could I have ever found this place or been able to experience this type of life? God, you are so incredible. I am so blessed. You are a God of immeasurably more than I could ever ask or imagine. I felt the Lord in the stillness of that moment. How incredible are these people who have found life here deep in the jungle! This was their regular routine and we had the pleasure of joining them in it. Even though we were mostly silent and exhausted from the work, we were sharing life with these people. In that moment I saw how ministry is a simple yes to what God has for you that day, and connection with people can even be in small moments like those.
