Hey Everyone,
I copied Andrew and wrote about some moments I experienced. Some things that Andrew wrote about really touched me too. ALSO, we are planning to have a night here in SLO where we can present pictures of our time in Bolivia and be available to talk to. We'll post when we know the date. God bless!
Chad Carpenter
Most Beautiful Moment:
The Hawaii of Trinidad is located on sandy beaches in the middle of the Mamore River. There are pink dolphins swimming up the river. This site was contrasted by a drowning incident that we witnessed that evening as the colored sun set and the dolphins swam upstream seemingly unaware of the occurring tragedy. Many left in tears that evening and that bus ride home reminded us of the shortness of our lives.
Silliest Moments:
There are many. One is Gaucho the dog who belongs to Lucho and Lorna. Gaucho followed us everywhere including on the bus, to school every day and to eat lunch with us and the kids. He walked down the street with us and over to a church family’s house to have dinner one night.
I also got a haircut for $2 with my name shaved on the back of my head. I looked pretty abnormal, but it was worth it.
We also went to the circus in Trinidad and there was this robot guy dressed mostly in white who could do some really extraordinary moves. He even came into the audience to chase the Bolivian girls. They ran because he was so scary and unpredictable.
Difficult Moments:
To say the least it is very awkward trying to bring up God in a language where you are not a native speaker. I found it difficult to accurately translate the power of our God in our lives and to accurately tell how much he means to us. It was hard to translate as fast as you were thinking and I ran into many stumbling blocks where I had to go around the idea or try to explain the concept because I didn’t know how to call it. Through this, I became intrigued and fascinated by their language and I learned it was a unique part of who they are. I learned to be satisfied with appreciating the gift of language they had and I thanked them for that. As Carlos Hugo, the pastor said, we will all speak one language in heaven.
Thoughtful Moments:
All of Carlos Hugo’s sermons hit us like a rock and knocked us down. He talked of thinking lovely thoughts (Philippians 4.7-9), forgiveness and how close to his heart these things have hit. Carlos Hugo had to forgive his Dad for abusing, threatening and disowning him. I wish I could have caught all the details because he speaks so fast, but his delivery and presence were enough to communicate what I did understand of his message.
Every family that we encountered through the church gave more to us than any of us would have probably given them if they came to the US. They made us dinner and invited us to their homes to serve us and talk. Now I feel bad for all the times I was shy and didn’t feel like talking because I was afraid I would sound incompetent.
Bolivian Moment:
A very Bolivian thing they do in Bolivia is fit whole families on a motorcycle usually 4 and sometimes 5. When we first arrived the image of seeing a whole family on a moto was comical, but we quickly became used to it.
We also had breakfast one morning with the teachers, pastor and secretary of the school. They brought out the food and much to our amazement it was chocolate cake and coca-cola. You should have seen our faces.
Most Fun Moment:
We had camp with the older high school age kids at an unfarmed plot of land called Chaco. There was a lot of vegetation, a few ponds, parrots and macaws that flew over and woke you early in the am. Even a group of monkeys decided to wander through our camp in the surrounding trees. We danced during worship with the kids, performed skits, played soccer and participated in many games. Just being there with them was worth it entirely.
Carli, Stephanie, Bryce and I were able to go to the Laguna with a church family who had 2 kids. The Laguna is only a few feet deep so the kids are able to stand. We played horsey and chased them all over the Laguna. That afternoon felt much longer than a simple afternoon because we had so much fun with kids.
Most Exciting Moment:
4th of July we found a lot of cheap fireworks. They were cheap in the money and construction aspect so that made our 4th of July was very exciting. One firework was named the “Statue of Liberty” and you are supposed to hold it like the Statue of Liberty and it shoots 3 pops out of the top, but these shot 2 out of the top and 1 out of the bottom straight at your foot. Thankfully, nobody was injured. We also had a firework called “Big Daddy” that had a 5 second fuse followed by a huge ear splitting crack. We tried to light as many of those as possible as the same time.
Most Frightening Moment:
We drove motorcycles around the outskirts of town and I had one close incident that frightened me. I also watched other members of our team try to mount and drive a motorcycle without success. We also saw huge anacondas at the animal park and I just hoped that I would not encounter one in the wild.
Favorite Day:
A lot of days were my favorites. One day we got a lot of fresh fish at the river and took it home so it could be made into 3 different dishes, one of fried fish, the other was balls of fish meat that were fried also. The 3rd dish was a fish soup with lots of sauce that tasted extremely delicious over rice. I also liked the days we were able to eat lunch with the kids. We served them food and talked when we got a chance because they never stopped talking to us. We were able to meet a lot of kids at the school and we continually interacted with them as soccer practice, basketball practice, church, youth group, prayer meetings, in home church family dinners and soccer games.
Powerful Moment:
We went to a lady’s house to pray for her because the day before she lost her baby giving birth. The lady was still sore and it hit us hard the limited medical expertise and how the 2 extremes, life and death, were more evident in a 3rd world country. We prayed in Spanish and English and it didn’t matter because what we were saying was for the Lord, our God, in heaven.
Brief Summary of Our Trip:
1st week: We got adjusted to the town of Trinidad and began to paint the long term missions house that was a few minute walk from La Palmera.
2nd week/3rd week: We continued to paint the house and also went out to Chaco to prepare for camp by clearing out the weeds, wiring electrical and painting the tree trunks with bug repellent.
3rd week: A couple, Lorna and David, came from England to help us out at camp. We were all leaders and darn good ones too.
4th week: We started working on the garage for the truck and school bus/van across the street from La Palmera.
5th week: The weather was cold and we were bummed because the little kid version of campamento was scheduled for this week, but the weather was so cold that kids up in La Paz were dying because it was so cold outside on their way to school. Thus there was another week of vacation from school for the kids. So we continued working on the garage when we were able, but a few days it was even too cold for the locals to be outside.
