I have a love-hate relationship with Bolivia right now. Thursday I was pretty much all excitement and Friday the excitement was still there, but along with it I experienced frustration, exhaustion, soreness, and then late Friday night--violent sickness. It was not fun.
Friday morning was wonderful. We went to the Vargas family’s house in Valencia, a suburb of La Paz that is just beautiful. The area was more secluded, peaceful, and was at a lower elevation so there was more green everywhere! They had beautiful landscaping and flowers around their house which you don’t see much in the city. The Vargas’ have three sons, two whom have graduated from Highlands (that’s the school I’m teaching at) and are now in college in Canada (that is where Mrs. Vargas is from originally and she met Carlos Vargas, a Bolivian, after serving in Bolivia for 11 years). We met their youngest son, Jeremy, who will be in 10th grade at Highlands. The Vargas’ have developed a passion for retreats and hosting retreats in their home. They see the value, really the necessity, in getting away from busyness and devoting time as a group or individually to prayer, Scripture reading, meditation, journaling, and self-expression. They charge the equivalent of a couple dollars for people to stay and eat at their house for the day and a few dollars if people stay overnight. They said it was free to any of us Highlands’ teachers if we need to get away!
We spent the morning making art, listening to Scripture being read to us by Mrs. Vargas (Lectio Divina), reflecting on the passage and journaling/praying on our own, talking and praying through our fears, concerns, and praises in small groups, and eating a nice, light American lunch of sandwiches and chips and Coke and Crush! (In Bolivia, lunch is their biggest meal and consists of a lot of meat, potatoes, and starchy foods…something I don’t think I’m going to want to eat all the time!) Our whole time there was just wonderful and a great time of reflection, prayer, processing, quietness, and peacefulness.
We left the Vargas’ after lunch and headed back to La Paz where we were assigned a partner (or partners in my case), given instructions for a scavenger hunt around La Paz, and dropped off to complete it with the final destination being the restaurant Sol & Luna (Sun and Moon). We had to try to be there by 6:00. This was Day 2 for me (Day 4 for everyone else besides Bekah), I had not gotten a tour of La Paz like the rest got on Tuesday, I know next to zero Spanish, and I am directionally challenged. I would have died on my own. Thankfully I had Maegan and Jay with me. Jay was a HUGE help because he’s lived in La Paz for 4 years with his wife! He is the new middle school Bible teacher (and might be doing some high school Bible along with my director), so he is still doing all the “orientation” stuff with all of the other new teachers (it’s 6 single girls who have never been to Bolivia, 5 of the 6 just graduated, and then Jay, a married man with 2 sons who is probably extremely bored with this orientation. ha) So basically Maegan and I followed Jay around to the places we were supposed to go and then he left us at the post office because he had to get back to his family or maybe his youth group (he is also a youth pastor and is going to try to do both jobs this year).
Maegan and I were left to finish the scavenger hunt and get ourselves to Sol & Luna. It was a bit frustrating trying to find certain streets and Maegan and I asked directions a few times (I was so proud of myself even though all I used was “Donde esta ____” and Maegan helped translate their response. Haha.) We had to do a lot of walking and climb some pretty steep hills, which is not easy at an elevation of over 12,000 feet. I finally spotted Sol & Luna and it was only about 4:00. We were the second group to get there (though Jay, Maegan, and I had taken our time since Jay knew where everything was and he wanted to point out different things and show me the market they went to on Tuesday. I think we would’ve won). We sat there for a little bit and Becca gave me and Jess a little Spanish lesson. My legs were aching and I was so tired and hungry. While we were waiting, I grabbed a package of cookies at a tienda (little stands you see everywhere with food, drinks, and various small things to buy) and Becca and I went to go see the Witches market a few blocks away where they have alpaca heads and trinkets and various pagan ornaments and things. It was really interesting. We also stopped at a few different stores to look at alpaca sweaters. We headed back and saw that the third group was back and then waited for Sarah, Isaac, and Tom to arrive (the veteran teachers).
This restaurant was more “touristy” and it seemed almost everyone in it was white. They had different dishes from all over the world that they served. I ordered ratatouille, a French dish that sounded good and that I’ve wanted to try for awhile (probably ever since the movie “Ratatouille” came out!) and a dark German beer (though it was a little too dark for my taste). The food was delicious and I very easily ate it all because I was so hungry!
I came back and Skyped with my parents and watched a little bit of Monday’s episode of the Bachelorette with Bekah (though hulu and abc.com do not stream internationally so I had to find another site to get it on! And our internet has been horrible so it wasn’t streaming quickly at all.)
Sarah and Bekah had gone to bed and I was just about to go to bed as well when suddenly I felt sick. I will spare you the details, but I was pretty violently sick just about every 2 hours and I don’t remember ever being as sick as I was. I was miserable. Saturday morning Sarah knocked on my door at 8:30 to wake me up to go out to breakfast with the group and I told her I had been sick all night. She was so sympathetic and caring and made me some coca tea (a medicinal tea made from coca leaves that helps with altitude sickness—which she suspected I got), and brought me water and crackers. I was able to eat just part of a cracker and drink a few sips of tea and then I fell asleep. I slept until about 4:30 and Sarah gave me a Powerade she had bought for me and made me more tea. I ate some more crackers, drank some tea, water, and a little Powerade and fell asleep again. I woke up around 7, right when Sarah and Bekah came back from “community group” at a local pizza place. I was feeling better and a little stronger so I took a shower, Bekah made me some soup, and the three of us watched one of my favorite movies—“Lars and the Real Girl.” I read for a little bit in bed and then went to sleep and woke up around 9 this morning feeling a lot healthier and stronger. I am so thankful for my roommates’ love and care and for nursing me back to health! I was able to eat cereal and drink some of this yogurt stuff that has probiotics in it (I’ve been drinking it every day—I like it a lot and it helps to keep your system healthy and wards off bad bacteria). I decided to take it easy still this morning and not go to church, though I really wanted to. But I think it’s wise to rest and take it easy today. I’m planning on finally unpacking and getting my room organized and later on, Sarah, Bekah, and I are going to go to the ketal (grocery store) to pick up food for the week.
Tomorrow morning starts “Work Week”! Sarah says we will basically be living at the school, getting our classrooms ready, preparing curriculum/lesson plans, learning procedures, having staff devotions every day, etc. I hope I am feeling up to it all. Right now it’s freaking me out that school starts a week from tomorrow and I feel totally unprepared. But I guess that’s what this week is for—preparation. So I think it’s OK that I feel this way. I just have to take it a step at a time, ask a lot of questions, pray a lot, and remember back to classes, labs, student teaching, and all of my past experience for ideas and how I want to run my classroom.
I’m frustrated that I really only had 2 days of orientation into Bolivia and now I’m thrown into “school mode.” It doesn’t seem fair to me and I am wrestling with God as to why I had to get here late and why I had to get sick so that I missed out on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and going to church this morning. I guess it teaches me further dependence on God and on the people around me, but I hate that just about everything is so unfamiliar to me. I want that time that I missed out on and I want to be as knowledgeable and familiar with getting around La Paz and with the language as everyone else seems to be. Please pray that I will get over my frustration, that I’ll feel physically and mentally ready for this week of preparation, and that my excitement will remain despite the difficulty.
I am still in awe that when I look out any window in my apartment I see the beautiful mountains; I am amazed by how wonderful, loving, and hospitable everyone I've met here is; though not knowing Spanish frustrates me, I love it; and I have peace this is where I am supposed to be.
Sending so much love to all my friends and family all over the world from my apartment in Calacoto (I spelled it wrong in my last post),
Jules
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