Campamento!

Bolivian camp...where do I start. I don't want to bore you with a long drawn out description of camp, which most of you have already experienced, so I'll skip the play-by-play and just hit the highlights.

- The Trip -

We left on the flota (bus) Saturday afternoon, and arrived in Concepcion five long hours later. The ride actually wasn't too bad, and the drunk guys on board were great entertainment.

Marco, Betsy and me chill'n in the back of the bus

- The Town -

Concepcion is a beautiful little town with dirt streets, a lush plaza, and a lovely Catholic church. We walked around a bit when we first arrived, before the paint really started to fly.

Let me explain. During Carnival (Saturday through Tuesday) the goal of most people seems to be to get as dirty and messy as possible. After the kick-off parade on Saturday night, the "teams" (social clubs or just groups of friends) begin a huge war. It starts inocently enough on Sunday with water guns and balloons, then Monday they add paint and foam, and Tuesday basically anything goes - and you do not want to get caught in the cross-fire.

Paint-covered celebrants take a break from the action in the plaza

- The Camp -

To avoid the messiness (and then carnal motiviation behind it) most churches hold campamentos during Carnival.

I'd been told horror stories about Bolivian Campamento, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had an actual bed to sleep on, our meetings were held inside a very nice, finished church, and we even had hot water for showers! As for the actual activities...for anyone who's ever been to camp you know what to expect. Early wake-up calls, morning and evening services, crazy team games, sports tournaments...we had all that and more. Add to that the fact that everything is happening in Spanish, and you'll understand why I got home completely exhausted.

This particular relay consisted of wearing a sombrero and bat sunglasses while balancing a pencil on your lip and racing to the end of the field and back again.

I did get a few breaks from Spanish, thanks to Laura and Elliott. Three gringos at one campamento...I think we broke some sort of record! We didn't find out that Elliott would be there until right before we left, (he's a SAM missionary stationed in the little town of San Javier, several hours from Santa Cruz) so it was a fun surprise.

The three gringo amigos

To be continued...