Month 2 was filled with many fun memories, experiences, and challenges. I loved the DR and the people. We didn’t have a ton of interaction with locals but one of the best things were when a couple of the kids we taught English to, ran up to me and gave me hugs or jumped on my lap while I was getting WiFi. We left early last Thursday morning to travel to our next month and country. Instead of Ecuador, our route has changed and we are now in Bolivia. We will work our way up from here.
Travel days are always the craziest! Not only are you saying goodbye to new friends and family you made that month, but going through customs, preparing heart and mind for the next ministry, traveling with 47 people, and sometimes battling sickness. This time, we got to fly into Miami from Santo Domingo before heading to Bolivia! I honestly didn’t want that at first because I wasn’t sure how I would respond to coming back to the states for a couple hours and then leaving again. But, God was so gracious and provided some amazing things. Some of you knew that my air mattress had a hole in it in month 1. I was able to still sleep ok but last month I was mostly waking up on the ground..haha! My sister Cassandra and her husband Brad happened to be driving through Miami on that day from a business trip! Seriously, God!?! We were’t sure we would be able to meet up until I landed in Miami, but a teammate and I were able to go out of security for about 45mins and see friends and family. It was such a blessing! Not only did I get a new mattress and spork (because I broke all 3 of them already!) but most of all I was blessed with familiar faces and embraces. We even skyped with my other sister Kelsey and her kids! It was so encouraging and refreshing! The goodbyes were hard and I am even dropping tears as I write this but they were all happy tears. It was the moment when I knew without a doubt that I was going to Bolivia and the next 9 months and not looking back. That God has called me to this and I did not waver. Yet, the familiarity, security, and love that my family provided in that moment was what I needed and the emotions were from happiness and gratitude. Thanks guys! I love you!
After a 24hr travel day, we finally arrived in La Paz, Bolivia on Friday morning. We knew we would deal with altitude flying into La Paz which is the second highest airport in the world, but none of us really understood what that would look like. As we were flying in, we were eye level with the majestic, snow covered mountains and then all the sudden without little decent, we landed! The first breath of crisp clear air was refreshing until you realized you were out of breath just walking on the tarmax! We spent the next 2 hours standing in customs. The altitude was affecting all of us, a squadmate throwing up in a plastic bag in the corner, headaches to make you feel as if you will faint and just doing all you could to remain awake and alert. It was an experience! We finally met up with our driver from our ministry site, Geronimo. He lead us to a van which they call a mini bus. We are working with another team again this month so there were 12 of us. He jumped up to the top and we started handing him our 40ish lb bags. When everything was mounted ontop of the minibus, he asked through a translator if we had any rope! Fortunately I almost forgot my clothes line in the DR and so I had been carrying it around for the entire last day! Another girl had one handy so he strapped them all down and we headed off to our new home for the next month, El Alto where we will be working with 3 drug rehab centers. This ended up being really long so there will be more stories soon!
