Mrs. Jody McDaniel came to Quebrada Leon, asking forvolunteers to come help for a couple weeks at Familia Feliz. It needs a lot of help, especially since theschool year is coming up. We were giventhe okay from Dr. Kim to go and help. Jacques, Tabitha, Greg and I went from Quebrada Leon. Another group will follow in a week orso. All expenses incurred during thetrip are to come from our own pockets.
Feb 5
We left Quebrada Leon before 7am. Some of the people going out to shop for foodwere with us and that made it a bit tight: Bolivian style. We went to the channel to meet up with theothers and to leave with them. 10 inall. We also dropped off our bagsthere. I met the man, Mr. WarrenMcDaniels. He already knew who I was anda little about me. Haha I was lost for a bit there because I didn’teven know who he was. I also met SamuelJimenez who was going with us. The mainbuilding at the channel is very nice! Very American and clean. It haspadded carpets!! Lars had to go toimmigration to get his visa figured out. Me, Greg, and Warren went to Santa Cruz to buy the bus tickets and tolook around the city. I wanted to get myphone unlocked for the trip. Warrenshowed us around, especially the good food places. We went to Irish Pub for lunch. I ordered a nasty plate of spaghetti, got fruitdrinks, fries, and Greg had lasagna. Then, we went and got Warren’s favorite drink, chicha. It’s a roasted corn drink; it reminds me of aKorean morning rice drink. It’s veryvery close. I got to see a cello at alocal music store. It wasn’t a full size(probably a half size), not tuned, no bow, and missing the D string. I played a C major scale on a upright Yamaha! Again, out of tune but still, I got to play areal piano in Bolivia! Haha All day long, I kept my eyes open forsuperacidos candy but to no avail. Westopped by a store selling canon dslrs! They had Canon 7D’s and 5D mark ii’s! The owner was Korean and so Greg and I started to talk to him about whatwe’re doing in Bolivia. He gave usbusiness cards to the Korean restaurant! Win win! We had amazing icecream at a place called vacafria. We bought some snacks for our busride at a small HiperMaxi nearby. Wewere walking back to find a taxi when one of our friends back at La Guardiashowed up! He gave us a ride to ramadafor free! Greg did give him some moneythough, which he refused at first. J At the bus terminal, we were able to purchasetickets to Trinidad for 70bs each with Bolivar! Cama too! (sleeping buses) I didnot get to unlock my phone but we got everything else done and had fun in theprocess. The cheapest place to unlock myphone was charging $50 US dollars. Anyways, we got back to the channel by 6pm. Mr. Warren had hired a micro bus to take usand all our luggage to the terminal. Lars could not come with us due to additional papers needing to befilled out with immigrations. Very sadthat he cannot come. Jacques and Tabithawere going to meet us at the terminal. It was a tight squeeze in the micro. Bonnie and Nelly were going with us as well. So it was Warren, Warren III, Greg, Samuel,me, Nelly, Bonnie, Jacques, and Tabitha in all. We made it to the terminal with 10 minutes to spare. We had thought of trying to sell Lar’s ticketbut were not able to due to the time constraint. I dropped the container containing cakesquares and some came in contact with the dirty floor. Sad day.. We all got on the bus in one piece and ready for the night ride.
Feb 6
Welcometo Trinidad! It was 6am when we arrivedin the small, dusty town without much to look at. We were attacked by people trying to sell usbus fares to any place that we wanted. Ihate that. We eventually found ticketsto Rurrenabaque for 100bs for each person. It was leaving around 10am so we had a few hours to beforeboarding. We got a taxi to the cityplaza and looked around. The plaza waspretty, but I wasn’t too impressed by the catholic church there. Greg and Warren wanted to sight-see. Samuel and I used the internet café until wehad to head back. I uploaded somepictures on facebook and used the bathroom for free. It was too early to skype anyone backhome. The Durante’s bought some fruit atthe tiny Mercado. I tried a cup ofpineapple juice. On the taxi ride backto the terminal, our taxi driver told us that there are many anacondas in thewater surrounding the city. I’m so gladI don’t live there!! As expected, we goton a nasty bus. The metal parts wererusty and many parts were just about to come apart. I was so glad to be wearing shorts with theintense heat that we couldn’t escape from. Today was Warren’s birthday! Tabitha got a candle and stuck it on a bun. XD Weall sang happy birthday on the bus for him. Quite the memory for him I’m sure. Haha I did not get to sleep muchdue to the heat. Every time I woke upfrom a nap, I was drenched in sweat. Literally drenched. The Durante’sbought some fans and Tabitha lent me hers. Phew! Our bus broke down at oneplace because of a faulty pipe for the water. We were on the road with the intense midday sun for a couple solid hourswith swamps on either side. A coupleherds of cattle came by and we saw plenty of wildlife including capybaras!(World’s largest rodents) We made a stopfor lunch, but we all just ate snacks. We were way behind schedule and the bus driver was anxious to getgoing. J It was getting cooler in the evening andthere was lightning and thunder along the horizon. One section of the road became very muddy andone of the buses in front of us got stuck in heavy mud. A lady in the bus supposedly owns this entireroute and she couldn’t leave that bus behind. So our bus had to pull it out. Everyone in the other bus had to get out and the bus personnel wereworking with shovels and pick-axes. Itstarted to rain heavily as well. I feltbad for the people outside… they were in the rain more or less than an hour aswe tried to pull that other bus out. Atone point, we got stuck as well. -___-;; In the end, we pulled the other busout and we were finally on our way again.
Feb 7
Itwas past midnight when we had to get out of the bus. We had to wait for the other bus toRurrenabaque. They unloaded things fromunder and on top of the bus. In the end,they told us they’ll take everyone heading to Rurrenabaque in the samebus. I think the other bus wasn’t comingfor a long time. We all got rows toourselves since the bus was quite empty. I woke up before 6am and we were stopped in the road, waiting for it toclear: again, in mud. I was so tired andfelt incredibly filthy not having been able to shower or to brush in a fewdays. We took showers in our ownsweat. Familia Feliz was on the road toRurrenabaque and had the bus stop by the road. We have arrive, finally! So sickof traveling~ As much as I wanted towash up, I waited until after supper/after working. We got to settle in our respected homes forour stay here at Familia Feliz before starting work. I got to see and meet Eric Morris and ChadMcLennan from Southern! It’s weirdseeing people from our school so far away and in such a place as this! But awesome at the same time. ^^ After lunch, we got to start working by cleaning out the casagrande. Filthy! It seemed as if no one has paid any attentionfor years. We brushed, mopped, white-washedthe walls, and combed the ceiling/corners or cobwebs. We all wore flip-flops/sandals to do thejob. We used lots of soap and Clorox andreally made the rooms much better. I cutmy right arm by the end of a broken broom (metal). At least I got it from working and notsomething dumb. Haha! Chad had a bandage for that. First impressions: this place needs help,volunteers, and money. Our house that weare staying in reeks of fungus, as do all the other buildings. The water pressure is very low and theelectrical wiring is in terrible shape. The kids need basic necessities such as clothes, toiletries, schoolsupplies, etc… The place needs tiles as well. The babies crawl on cement floors with mosquitoes biting them. The mosquitoes get in through windows withripped screens. Mildew is every presentwith countless spiders lining the walls. Termites are eating away at the supports and their trail/tunnels areeverywhere. Anyways, we have bunk bedswith suspended mosquito nets! Woohoo! I got top and slept wellon a decent, hard mattress with most of the insects outside. :D
Feb 8
Wehad a meeting to discuss the work needing to be done. With so much to do, we employed some of thekids here to help us. Some were helpfuland obedient while some just had to talk too much and be obnoxious. :D Ihelped clean out the storeroom and the large storage bins of dry foods. Greg and I spent most of the afternooncleaning the bins with soap and water. We killed plenty of spiders and cockroaches. =/ Ihelped with cooking food for Sabbath before joining the others forvespers. Stephen, the baker, was veryfussy about it because it was past sundown. True, but we can’t let the kids go hungry and waste food too. It was our fault though. Anyways, vespers was very nice. It was outside and we were all in a circlesinging songs before a short worship talk. Then we went around saying happy Sabbath and giving/getting hugs. J I took a much needed shower afterwards.
Feb 9
Thechurch here is very nice. It{s on campusand is full of benches and tiled floors. We started off with 8-10 songs before Sabbath school: adults andchildren are separate. Then mainservice. Samuel led song service and Mr.Warren McDaniels gave a good sermon. Samuel has a good voice! Afterchanging into cooler clothes, we had lunch. Jacques made some really good potato dish and I took the chance to takephotos of the kids and helped Warren record interviews for the video. I visited a creek behind the casa grandewhere Eric was watching the kids play. The water was very nice and cool but the mosquitoes were terrible! Now this is more like what I would envisionfor a rainforest. Haha! There are lots of undergrowth and vinestangling and connecting the trees. Also,lots of birds, insects, lizards… humidity! It’s very very humid.. The kidshere have this bad smell…idk. MelissaHarding, the former director, adopted 11 kids as a single person! One of her girls, Graciana, is so cute! She was born without a leg and is missing afew full fingers but is so bright and optimistic! Really would adopt her if I could. Melissa showed our group a video of what theplace looked like in the beginning. Whata blessing~ Really amazing what God cando. =) We went out with Chad and Eric to Rurrenabaque to play volleyball, aswith almost all the volunteers and adults. It is really a badminton indoor court but fun none-the-less. I ended up using the internet the entiretime. I don’t like volleyballanyways. XD I uploaded photos and skyped with myfamily. Got back very late.
Feb 10
I got up past ten.. Woah! I actually got some breakfast beforeworking. I helped to watch the kids,feed them, clean some more, and learn how to make bread from Steve. Found out that Steve sure loves to talk. Not just bread but everything. Juan and his wife lives with 9 boys, theirdaughter and Chad and Eric in one house. I really like to observe them at meal times. Very cool how they sing before meals and areso quiet. J We cleaned the last couple places in casagrande for the day. In a storage room,Chad found some really cool dental supplies. The lidocaine was all expired but I got a few simple dental tools! Way too awesome. Anyways, we cleaned out the rooms…scrubbedthe walls with soap. It is veryrewarding to work at Familia Feliz because you’re helping all these kids. Some of the kids randomly run up to you for abig hug. Something that I didn’t expectbut I don’t mind. ;) The Clorox stings your hands. We need rubber gloves. I really like the bread here. It’s so fresh and tasty, even though it’svegan. Eric is a funny guy…what acharacter. I wish I knew Chad at Southern! Really cool guy and we share a lot in common(dental school). ^^
Feb 11
It’s Monday and Chad and Eric get their free daytoday. Warren, Greg, Aly, Mr. Warren,Stephen, and I went along as well. Wewent to a French-bakery for breakfast..best pastries ever! It was so good that Greg had 4 pastries. Haha! We had banana smoothies that weren’t too exciting. Satisfied, we went to use the internet. I had to use the restroom while I wasuploading a bunch of photos on facebook. That guy wasn’t going to let me use it at first, the public restroom. -_____-;; Flushed with a bucket of water and was a much happier man. =) Iended up paying 13.5bs for internet, the most I’ve ever paided/used theinternet in Bolivia. I got to seevideos from the CKSDA banquet. I laughed so much~ We went to Flippers to get some of Chad’sfavorite tamarindo juice. I think it’smy favorite now; I had two glasses. Wehad lunch down the street where I ordered a nasty spaghetti dish. They had free wifi so that was nice. Worst server ever. Eric had problems with the guy before and hejust doesn’t like us. Anyways, we boughtsnacks, fruit, and a hammock for Aly afterwards. I bought 3 grapefruits for 10bs from theMercado and Oreos at a supermarket. 9bsper package. I still can’t find thesuperacidos.. Around 2pm, people werestarting to come out with water ballons and water guns. We got so wet as we were riding in the backof the pickup. Greg got it bad with blueand red dye water on his shirt. I waspegged hard by this one kid as Chad was picking up a package. Man, I wish I had water ballons to throwback. =P The people there were using slings made from socks or something. Anyhow, with those, they could throw theballons a good block away! Quiteamazing.
Feb 12
I worked behind casa grande with Chad and a coupleof the older boys. We didn’t do a wholelot but Chad and I got to talk about school and future schooling. LLU! The boys were throwing small fragments of wood into the brick oven fireand almost killed the flame. I had tofix that problem.. Juan, his wife,Tabitha, Jacques, Mr. Warren, and others went out to town. It was rather quiet on campus. For lunch, we had foccasia* bread withvegetables inside the bread! That wasEXTREMELY good. After lunch, I took anap and helped the others clean the classrooms for school. I was sweeping the floors in all theclassrooms. The last room didn’t haveany chairs or desks set up, and for a good reason. There was a wasp nest in an old mattress inone corner of the room. I swept half theroom before I was attacked and stung on both feet and my right elbow. Ouch!! It felt like I had small embers on my skin. It got swollen pretty big in an hour. I rubbed salt on it to ease the pain, and eventually,Samuel helped put on charcoal and salt bandages on my bee stings. The one on my elbow was the worst. I actually had a difficult time gettingsleep. There was also a firefly insidemy mosquito net, flashing its butt. -____- Samuel had some Venezuelancurrency which he gave to me. A singlepeso and a hundred peso. I did pay himin bolivianos later. J It’s around 18 Venezuelan pesos to adollar. Oh Chavez.
Feb 13
I woke up to the sounds of children arriving forschool. I only had screen and nocurtains. Grrr Why am I getting up so late.. =/ Juan put up a large pole with the Bolivianflag on it. Melissa, Samuel, Eric, andMr. Warren were teaching. All grades upto 8th. I watched the littlekids until lunch time while the others were working. Bismark is such a cry baby. We also got a few new girls stayinghere. I watched Jeanette for most of thetime. Everytime I took my camera out totake photos, a mass of kids would be all around me in a matter of shorttime. Couldn’t really take too manyphotos, unfortunately. In the afternoon,I worked with Chad again in the back of casa grande. We cleaned up the rest of the wood and burnedtrash in barrels. We burned a few oldmattresses as well. Chad had a lightermalfunction on him and partially melt on his hands. Ouch! He ran cold water on it for a good while. All the kids seems very excited to haveschool. They need school suppliesthough…donations!!
Feb 14
It’s Aly’s last day at Familia Feliz; she’s goingback to Australia in time for school. Ihelped move bed frames and watched the kids. I got my gloves too so I could handle things without getting cut or toodirty. I did cut my foot from a veryrusty old shelf we were moving. Yay forNeosporin! >< Thank goodness I got my tetanus booster. I helped around in the back of casa grandewith cleaning and cooking. The backlooks so much better! Me, Chad, Eric,Ali, Jacques, and Tabitha went out around 4:30pm. We had to drop off Ali at a hotel afterhaving supper, buying stuff, and getting her checked in for her flight. The airstrip is a cut grass field… Amazonasis the name of the airline. Howappropriate! Anyways, I got absolutelysoaked on the ride to Rurrenabaque. Getting the full experience of the rainy season. Haha Iwent to call LLU but the power was out in the whole city due to the rain. I had to wait for 45 minutes before callingLLU. I got to check my stuff online fora couple minutes before heading to the restaurant to eat with the other 3. It was 16bs for a 3 minute call and 2 bs for15 minutes of internet. :/ Jacques and Tabitha ate and did their stuffon their own. Eric’s parents were buyingdinner. Besides the 3 appetizer dishes,we all ordered pasta dishes. ThisItalian restaurant served us quickly and the portions were large! Ali basically nibbled on her food: at leastit seemed so. We had 4L of lemonadew/mint and strawberry lemonade. Wedropped Ali off at a hotel and said our goodbyes. Probably my first Aussie friend. ^^ Wegot back 10:30pm and got to sleep around 11pm. No shower for me. Greg wasalready sleeping.
Feb 15
Well, I got up at 6:30am! Turned out that we didn’t have worship. I fed Jeanette before going back to myplace. I was working with Chad again andwe decided to meet up at 9am to clean some trash by the toolshop. I got my gloves that I brought fromQuebrada. We picked up lots of scrapmetal and loaded them in the back of the pickup. It sprinkled a little, making work a bit moremiserable. We made a short visit to theback where they have their refuse dump…horrendous! It’s just a long trail of old mattresses,plastic waste, kitchen waste, diapers, and you name the rest. It’s right by the banana plantation. All that needs to be burnt ASAP. The campus looks much nicer with the grasshaving been cut. Chad, the two Warrens,and I went out to town to run errands with them. We couldn’t dump the garbage at the dump…such a disappointment! We ended up goingto Narguila’s to use the internet for a major part of the day because of thedownpour and shops being closed. I gotto Skype again with my family. I’mgetting spoiled: internet too often! Wegot back to campus as vespers was commencing. We unloaded all the food items, gas, etc before joining them. Melissa Harding was giving the worship. Thank goodness my clothes did not getwet. Greg got mine with his off thefence right before the downpour. =D My towel suffered but I’m notcomplaining. I took a much needed showerand dried off with a shirt. I sleptaround 11pm.
Feb 16
I woke up early but did not have breakfast. The second group of volunteers are here! Mrs. Jody, Lars, Elijah, Michael, Alana, andher two friends. :D I wore the same and only shirt I haveappropriate for church service as last week, but thankfully today wasn’t toohot. After singing many hymns and ashort mission story, we had Sabbath school led out by Chad. It was on children and how we need to helpraise them with Biblical principles. Itwas very interactive~ Brother Jacquesgave the sermon about how we are filthy rags. Don’t judge others! A very simpleyet important reminder on who we are. Wehad a very delicious lunch… pasta, bread, potatoes, and salad. Warren, Alana, and her two friends weretalking in Creole. Oh my! Can’t understand 98% of what they weresaying, though they claim it is mostly English. -_____-;; I changed into coolerclothes and spent most of my afternoon in our room. I was starting to get homesick so I went tofind Eric so that I could give him the photos that I took at Familia Feliz thusfar. We had Sabbath evening worship atsundown. Feliz semana! =) Oneof the older boys, Jorge, wanted to wrestle with me, then Elijah, andSamuel. He kept saying that its not overand that he won’t give up. Haha! I think its good for boys to wrestlearound. Good way to use that E. I got to take pictures with Graciana and afew others!! Yay! After a shower, I packed up most of mybelongings. We’re leaving tomorrow!
Feb 17
We got up really early to leave and packed up therest of our belongings. Al my clothessmell…really bad. =/ We went to town after saying many goodbyes. Almost all the volunteers were going out withus. A very fun truckload! Jacques and Tabitha bought tickets toGuayara-Merin leaving around 9am. Webought our bus tickets for 7pm. We tooka group photo before heading off to Narguila’s for breakfast and internet. They weren’t open yet and so we all went tothe market. It was a very small marketwith few choices, but Greg bought a large bacai to eat. Haha! It wasn’t too good or sweet though. We bought some snacks for the trip at local stores before heading backto Narguila’s. We had a continentalbreakfast served by our “favorite” waiter… -______- I took a photo of him to remember just howbad a server he was. My orange juicecame after the pancake, bread, and tea. Haha! Only in Bolivia,Rurrenabaque, and at Narguila’s. XD We stayed at the restaurant using theinternet til lunch time. We did go fortamarindo juice at Flippers. Yay! I had vegetarian lasagna for lunch. Too much nasty cheese. Used more internet and went to Flippers againbefore supper with Greg. Some of theguys went to play volleyball in the meantime. Michael and Lars were so serious to play. Greg and I ordered spaghetti to-go fromJuliano’s, the French-Italian restaurant. Food was ready in 5 minutes, all packed and good to go. We walked to the bus terminal after sayinggoodbye to all our wonderful friends. They went back to Familia Feliz. Bus was present when we got there at 6:30pm but did not leave until past8pm. Jacques and Tabitha were stillthere!! Their bus arrived shortly afterpast 6:45pm. So late! We ate our supper before boarding: verydelicious and filling~ We took the 18hour bus ride through the death road to La Paz! One more thing off my bucket list is I don’t die. =D Hopefully, we’ll get to buy “I survived the Death Road” shirts aftermaking it though.
Feb 18
I wasn’t able to sleep much and awoke aroundmidnight. I could not see much out but Iknew that the road was very treacherous and rocky. Death road? One thing for sure was that I wanted to see it, and not sleep throughit! I saw many signs saying peligrosoand etc… Parts of the asphalt road were crumbling near the edge and somesections were narrow and very muddy. Ifell asleep after a while and woke up again around 5am. We were going on a narrowish road with thecliff to the right. We were slowly goinghigher and higher. Once there was enoughsunlight, I started taking photos and videos. I couldn’t take very many though due to the rain. When we stopped for breakfast/restroom break,it was pouring. I got soaked justrunning to the bathroom, which wasn’t too far away. I had Oreos for breakfast…>< I found out later that the floor was verywet… the rain got in through small cracks in the windows. It got Greg’s backpack and my camera bagquite wet. My passport got wet!! Oh well. Once we passed the Death road, I crashed. Parts of the road were very scary, almostunreal. Crazy that people drive on itand that there are many semi’s and buses like ours. Many times, I could not see the road underour bus out the window. Yikes! I woke up when we arrived in La Paz. Kind of chilly but refreshing. I changed my fliflops for sneakers and thenwe caught a taxi to the Korean restaurant. Same place. =) I had daen-jang soup again and Greg hadbibimbap. We shared a tangsooyook. 175bs poorer and we headed to the busterminal in another taxi. We were ableto get a bus to Santa Cruz directo with Bolivar for 150bs. Sweet! Leaving 4pm and arriving next day at 10am. We had a couple hours and found free wifi inthe terminal! Fast too! Amazing~ Greg and I used the internet until we had to go. XD Thebus was very nice, though it did not have a functioning bathroom. We stopped in El Alto to pick up a few morepeople. Again, a bunch of people came inasking for money or were selling items. This time, I did not fall asleep: too much on my mind. My future!! Anyhow, they played an old American Western Movie, in Spanish. Terrible story line and a waste of mylife. We stopped for supper around8pm. I was dying to use therestroom. Haha! I ate a grapefruit that I still had fromRurrenabaque for supper. I crashed inthe bus after that.
Feb 19
Cochabamba! It was 12:30am and Greg was sound asleep. I could again see the large statue and thecity lights reflecting off the lake. Thebus driver was going slow and ignoring all the red lights. lol Idid not sleep until past 1:20am or so. Iwoke up around 6am and in time for a potty break and breakfast. We didn’t eat but we drank the yogurt thatGreg bought. Thankfully, the day was nottoo hot, it was actually nice. Wearrived at the terminal a minute early, 9:59am. We got a taxi to HiperMaxi for 15bs. There, we bought some snacks and necessities while waiting until 12pm. Greg wanted to go eat at the Koreanrestaurant. We took another taxi, givingthe driver the restaurant business card as it had the address. We were the first customers as the restaurantwas still closed until the Korean owner came to open the door for us. We got a table in a private room with woodenfloors. (we took off our shoes) It so reminded me of home! And Korean culture~ We had bibimbap, dukbokgee, andsoondoboo. The side dishes were verysimple and not numberous but tasty nonetheless. I love the Korean metal spoons! And the tea cups. They’re so niceand pretty: perfecto! Greg wanted to goto vaca fria for icecream but we didn’t go. I was already content and very full. Greg was disappointed. lol We got a couple taxis back to El Torno andwaited to get on a bus to Quebrada Leon. We were waiting for 30 minutes or so when we saw the red truck go by uson the main highway. Greg chased afterit for they didn’t go too far. PTL We took all our belongings to the truck. Phew! Victor and Pastor Marc were out on errands. Sad part, we ended up waiting with them untilalmost 6pm before heading back. -____- When we got back toQuebrada, all I could say is that I felt so happy and relieved! After saying hello to the missed friends, wegot a piece of cake. Delicious! Oh and we found out that Justin M. decided tostay at Quebrada Leon now. We droppedoff our bags up in our dorm room before joining the others for worship. The only person missing was Andres. He’s in Santa Cruz. I played the piano again! I missed it.
Well, that’s the end of ourshort mission trip within our mission trip in Bolivia. Thank you Familia Feliz for theexperience! And it was nice to see you, Chad and Eric! God bless!!
Feb 5-19th
