Thoughts and Stories

Whew... it's almost Christmas. I hadn't quite realized how much of the Christmas spirit is initiated by commercialism. Heh... I kind of miss it. But, anyways...Christmas is coming and I'm getting pretty excited to see how the celebrations go here in Bolivia. Apparently it's mainly celebrated on Christmas Eve. Stay up late with the entire family and eat a HUGE meal at midnight and then sleep all of Christmas Day (because it's so hot... and you've just eaten a ton of food). Sounds great!


Bolivia is cool. I like it. On my "culture shock chart" I'm on the part that's going up and leveling off. As in... things are getting better (not too homesick) and I'm beginning to find a rhythm in my Bolivian life (some things are beginning to feel normal... more familiar). That feels pretty awesome. I'm sure I'll still have some more downs and ups, but I'm feeling so much more comfortable here. Now, just to learn the language!!


This past weekend all us SALTers went to visit another SALTer and some other MCCers in Moro Moro (a tiny town off in the foothills of the Andes). It was suppose to be a 10hour bus ride, but both the ride there and back turned out to be shorter than that! yay! It was an amazing drive... through gorgeous, green hills and the view of mountains in the distance. It was also a little dangerous with enormous cliffs falling off the road and lots of twists and turns and ups and downs. Thankfully the bus drivers take this road quite frequently and there were no close-calls.


Anyways... the town is amazing! Although I'm glad to be living in the city, I was a little jealous of the Bolivian life MCCers in Moro Moro get to experience. The town is so tranquillo and people greet you on the street and talk with you and it's all so exactly what you'd expect to see in a town in the mountains. Fantastic! I'm not sure how to explain it exactly. Staying in Moro Moro, you can begin to forget about North America... and all it is is Bolivians in Bolivia, living the Bolivian way. It was pretty cool.


We ended up doing about 8 hours of walking/hiking around the town and to other small villages close by. Our first full day there we ended up walking 6 hours to and from La Abra (spelt correctly?). What a hike! We were all so tired and sore and out-of-breath!! Well, all except the MCCers from Moro Moro, who do this sort of walking all the time and think nothing of it. It was so gorgeous, though. As you climbed the mountain/hill you could look across the valley and see farms stretching across the hillsides and tiny cattle far away and then you could turn and see the farms and cattles sitting right beside you along the road. The dirt along the road was also pretty cool... it changed colours quite consistently: from brown to red to purple to white to red to rock to purple... heh, that was the first time I can ever remember seeing purple dirt. It was kind of pretty. Our second day there, we hiked 1.2543 hours (or so) up to see a cool rock that looked like a Tortoise... well... the tortoise was kind of a sad looking creature. We made the most of it though and took a lot of pictures of it and laughed at our enjoyment of it. Good times. We played lots of Scum (card game) and ate some amazing food and then came back home to Santa Cruz and the heat.

I'm learning lots of things here in Bolivia that I didn't think I would... things not entirely Bolivia-related... like how Americans say "washroom" instead of "bathroom." Who knew?! Interesting. Thanks to my American friends down here, I have an increasing - although still very limitted - knowledge of American politics and economics. I never had in interest in such things before, but my friends make it sound so very interesting... It's also cool to hear American opinions on American issues. I have also aquired a growing reading list, thanks to the extensive MCC library and my many very well-read friends here. Who would've thought the non-fiction genre could hold so many interesting books!?

The past two days (Monday and Tuesday) I played piano for a youth camp at their evening rallies. It was a lot of fun... even though... well... it was a good Bolivian experience where no one knew exactly where my music was, or when we were going to start playing, or what we were going to be playing - neither did anyone know the order of songs or even which song would be played until it showed up on the wall behind us. I'd been able to practice with the rest of the band twice before Monday and we'd practiced about 4 songs. I ended up playing only 1 of the songs that we'd practiced and there ended up being quite a few songs I couldn't even play because they didn't have music for them. I was so impressed with everyone else in the band, though. None of them needed music. They either knew the songs so well or had such a great ear, that they didn't need to see any chords. Despite what seemed to me, at first, as disorganized worship leading, everyone had a lot of fun and I think everything went super well! I really enjoyed both nights. It was especially cool when Oscar (worship leader) was introducing the band and asking people "And, what's the name of our drummer??" and the kids would scream the answer... , he asked "And, who do we have playing piano?!" the response was amazing! All (I'm fairly certain just about everyone screamed back) the people from my church screamed, "Heidi!!!!" I'm not being vain, it actually was the biggest response of all...I'm pretty sure. I was so... touched. Wow, I thought, people know who I am and they're excited to know who I am. That really felt amazing. It showed me that I'm a wanted part of my church. I can't really describe how fantastic it was to hear that response.

Anyway, things are going really well down here. I feel like I've actually got (or am getting) a real life in Bolivia. I'm going to work, I'm talking with friends, I'm doing some traveling, I'm hanging out with my family. God is taking good care of me.

God is good - He knows what He's doing - I can trust Him