Hola Lake Forest! Greetings once again from Cochabamba, Bolivia!
Bullet points only today: (Tired!)
- Today was exciting. One group finished digging the trench for the new water line and even helped lay most of the pipe as well. Soon they will no longer need to carry water to the orphanage's bakery -- it will arrive with the turn of a nob.
- Another group made amazing progress on the stone patio I mentioned yesterday, with several people working overtime to complete a section. It looks so nice and will make a big difference for the center.
- We had another wonderful afternoon conducting a sidewalk Sunday school. Today we went to a tiny church in a more rural area with some picturesque farm fields and vistas, but the same poverty, albeit on a less populated scale. This is an area that suffered some bad flooding in the spring, and at least a couple people died, we are told. Now it is the dry season and we had to combat high winds and dust storms for most of the session, but the kids still had a great time and so did we. I was sad when it was over, thinking this was our last chance on the trip to spend time with children from around Cochabamba, but happily, they added a sidewalk Sunday school to our schedule for tomorrow, so now I'm happy again.
- This evening John Hernandez treated staff and our team to a fantastic, huge meal at a local restaurant. We got to see a part of Cochabamba that was much like middle-class America, with a shopping mall and multiplex theater. Most of us thought we had lost a little weight on this trip, thanks to the manual labor, but trust me, that was blown at tonight's dinner.
- On the bus ride home from the restaurant, the team youth and the younger members of the center staff kept us entertained singing 80s pop hits and show tunes. Strange, they are becoming more energetic as the week rolls on. If we left them here for a month they'd probably fix all of the world's problems and be selected as new cast members for "Glee." It's been so fun to see these kids grow closer to each other this week, and to see them laughing and having a great time together. They have confronted abject poverty with open arms and love, and still have joy and laughter to share. Praise God and good on them!
- Tomorrow is our last full day at the Bolivia Life Center. That is a sad sentence to write even though we do miss our homes and families very much. Our schedule tomorrow includes some touristy things: We'll go to the 130-foot-plus statue of Christ here in Cochabamba (much bigger than the more famous one in Brazil) and we'll also go to market to hunt for souvenirs. Then we'll do one more sidewalk Sunday school, though I don't know where. Finally, in the evening, we'll have a big pizza party with the boys here at the orphanage. It will be hard to say goodbye.
- Our flight schedule home changed, due to the airline, not us. Instead of leaving Bolivia Friday evening and flying all night to Miami, as originally planned, we'll leave very early Friday morning, with an all-day flight to Miami, where we will stay in a hotel for the night, flying home as scheduled on Saturday midday.
- I tried again this evening to post photos. No dice. We'll have to post photos after the fact, once we get back to the States. Sorry about that, but stay tuned!
- This trip already feels like a blur. I can' believe it is almost over already. Thank you, Jesus, for giving us this experience.
