Escape from Santa Cruz

Greetings dear friends and supporters (and curious strangers)! I hope you all had a very blessed Easter. Mine was unusual, but wonderful. SCCLC had Thursday, Friday, and Monday of Easter weekend off, so Laura and I made plans to escape the city for a while. We were originally going to take an all-night bus cama (bus w/beds) to San Ignacio, but found out that there weren't any going Friday night, which was when we wanted to leave (Laura's church had a paseo all day Friday that she wanted to go to). So we decided to really live it up and use some of my orientation money to pay for a SAM Air flight instead.

We left Saturday morning from the airstrip (only a few miles away from SCCLC). Greg Dahl, one of the main missionary pilots, flew us. The flight was only about an hour and a half long (compared to an all-night bus trip) and the weather was nice and calm so I didn't have any motion sickness (it was my first time up in a small plane, and I'd been told horror stories so I was expecting the worst).

Don't I look so official and ready to go?

Here's Laura and I after a safe landing in San Ignacio - notice the very red dirt that got all over everything

The weather was perfect...very hot, but that was okay because our hotel had a pool! I tell you, missionary life can be so rough sometimes. Our room was right off the pool, and we even had a shower tub (with almost hot water) and cable TV! Did I mention I really didn't want to come back to Santa Cruz?

After checking in to the hotel Laura and I walked out to the church where she had spent most of her time working last summer (she helped lead a summer team of college students for six weeks in San Ignacio). She saw a few people who remembered her from last summer, and we had a very nice visit with one woman in particular who filled us in on all the local news. After our long, hot walk we decided to find moto taxis back to the market. (A moto taxi is actually just a motorcycle which takes one passenger at a time. Most of the small towns have them in place of car taxis or micros). So we flagged one down and I had my first ride on a motorcycle. It was great fun...I felt really adventurous! I didn't trust my balance enough to ride side-saddle like many of the women do, but fortunately there was a metal rack behind me that I could hang on to instead of the driver (I think that would have been a little awkward). I missed the photo op, but hopefully when I'm in San Xavier next weekend I'll get another chance.

Easter Sunday was very different from any I'd had before. The Bolivian idea of a sunrise service is to get up at three in the morning and sing and pray for three and a half hours until the sun comes up. Since Laura and I were on vacation we really didn't feel up to that. Instead, we got up around eight and walked down to the represa (not as impressive as the one in Concepcion, more like a reservoir) and had a silent retreat for a few hours. It was wonderful...uninterrupted time with God. I spent a lot of it just reflecting on my experience here and thinking about the lessons God has tried to teach me - which I haven't been very good at learning. God really convicted me about loving others - not with my selfish, half-hearted love, but with His pure, compassionate love. That's the love that's been modeled so much to me during my time here, by both the Bolivian people I've met and the missionaries I've gotten to work with. I wish you could meet them. I know we think of missionaries kind of as super-Christians, like they're somehow on a different plane than us "normal" Christians. They're really not. They're just ordinary people, the kind that live next door or go to your church or serve on PTA committees. They have the same struggles and trials as anyone, and react the same way that all humans do. They're living their lives...just thousands of miles from "home."

I signed on to do this "missionary thing" for a year. But to most of the missionaries here it's not a "thing" they're doing, it's their life. Bolivia is home. Sure it's a lot harder to live here...and they don't have any special powers that make it easier. It's just a choice they've made in obedience to God's call.

Okay, I know I've gone off on a tangent. Anyway, we spent most of Sunday afternoon just lounging and napping (I took advantage of a hammock that was hanging near the pool). That night we attended a service at the church Laura worked with. I think everyone had partied out with the "sunrise service" though, because it was pretty empty, and only took about an hour (definitely the shortest service I've experienced since coming to Bolivia).

Me and Laura in front of one of the really intricately carved collumns in front of our hotel

Here's an arial shot of SCCLC as we passed over it in the plane

We reluctantly boarded the plane Monday morning and returned to Santa Cruz. It was such a wonderful break, too short of course, but great. Now I'm back in the classroom, teaching again after my three week break (thanks Denise!). I'm really enjoying getting back to teaching...I really don't know what I'd do if I couldn't teach. Just three weeks and I was going nuts!

Next Friday I'm driving with Dana 1 to San Xavier to visit Elliott (I tell you, I'm making some great progress on my list!) and then going to Jr/Sr banquet Saturday night. I'll have some great pictures to post next Monday, I'm sure!