Recovering in Sorata

We spent the last week in Sorata...a truly beautiful mountain town. It is located north of La Paz, Bolivia at the base of Mt. Illampu (a 21,000ft + peak)...above is a view of the mountain from the town square. We spent most days just relaxing, reading and eating. Fortunately, with some good drugs, my intestional problems seemed to have subsided. The last day before leaving we managed to hike up to a alpine lake in the shadow of Mt. Illumpu...quite stunning. We were hoping to spend a couple of nights there, but due to my slow recovery and the crazy politics of the guide services in Sorata we ended up just doing a day hike. Just a few days before we arrived the community guide association decided to raise their prices by 4 times. Thus we went with a "non sanctioned guide" for a cheaper price, but had to sneak into a taxi to get out of town, only to be "discovered" during the hike by a sanctioned guide who proceeded to chew out our guide. It was quite interesting to be in the middle of small town politics, but sad to see how the community was essentially shooting itself in the foot in regards to tourism. Below is a photo of us at the base of the mounatain - it was great hike although we were both sore after hiking down 5000 feet back to Sorata.

Tomorrow we are going to Huayna Potosi. Jen will hang out at base camp (and maybe try some ice climbing the first day), while I attempt to climb the mountain. I don`t feel that confident at the moment. My plans in terms of proper conditioning and acclimatization have been messed up because of my illness, but we will see what happens. After the mountain we come back to La Paz and immediately head out for a three day jungle/river trip, followed by a three day "Pampas" tour (think grasslands, swamps, and lots of animals). And then we try to exit the country as quick as possible. Thus you may not hear from us for a week or so...

Parasites!!!

Tomorrow I was planning to climb a 20,000 ft peak, but alas the parasites in my stomach had different plans. We are now in La Paz (largest city in Bolivia). It is a bit of a rat race here, but a necessary stop to plan mountain/jungle tours. I have been feeling sick for over a week and finally went to the lab this morning to get checked out (always fun to catch a sample of your diarrhea). With my lab results, I went to a doctor and he confirmed that I wasn´t the only one eating what I have been putting in my mouth for the past week. I am on drugs now and hopefully will be feeling better in a week or so. In the meantime we are planning to go to Sorata to recover - a beautiful little town in the heart of the Andes. Hopefully by the time we return my body will be up for the climb...if not we head to the jungle to catch a little malaria, which always mixes well with parasites. - Andrew

Potosi & Mine Tour

From Sucre we headed to Potosi...the true heart of Bolivian history. Potosi was founded in the 16th century after the discovery of silver in the nearby Cerro Rico (photo above). At one point in its history it was among the largest cities in the world (160,000), but it has experienced a number of tragic booms and busts and now is a relatively "small" city of about 150,000. We found it to be a weird, although charming, mix of a rough and tumble mining town and a picturesque Spanish colonial town. We enjoyed it so much that we ended up staying much longer than we anticipated. Potosi also claims to be one of the highest cities in the world. At 4060 meters (13,200 ft) we were practically on the summit of Mt. Rainer. It makes it a wee hard to breath at times, but you adjust fairly quickly.





While in Potosi we went on a tour of one of the mines. The mining history in Bolivia is rather dismal at best. In its "heyday" the Spanish used the indigenous people for what amounted to slave labor. They (the workers) would stay in the mines without seeing daylight for up to 4 months at a time, working 12 hour rotating shifts. They estimate that millions have died from working in the mines over the course of the past 400 + years. Most of the functioning mines today are run by mining cooperatives. Conditions are pretty much the same as they were 200 years ago. This is partly due to economics, but it is also a conscious choice by the workers themselves to not change....same age-old problem that improved technology often means less jobs. Thus many cooperatives spend little money in trying to improve the working conditions. They just introduced the electric wench in some of the mines about 8 years ago, if that gives you any idea of where they are technology wise. Our guide explained that about 50 men could take out 120 tons of ore in a week. Compare that to the open pit gold mine in Nevada where my brother used to work...they extracted 120 tons in two shovel fulls (about 5 minutes).

We were warned that the tour was not for the faint of heart. There were some pretty tight spots, but nothing that made us feel too claustrophobic. The fact that you were breathing asbestos and arsenic was of greater concern to us. In places the asbestos literally covered the walls of the tunnel. Most miners only make it 10 to 15 years before they die or "retire" from silicosis pneumonia. Above is a picture of of us sitting inside one of the shafts...the small hole to my left is what we had to crawl through to get to the next level. We also got to blow up some dynamite at the end of the tour and see one of the refining plants...even that felt like 19th century technology...with all the waste going directly into the "Rio Negro"...black river.

On the Road Again

It was a rough transition to start traveling again after being "settled" in Cochabamba for over 4 months. We started our last month of traveling by going to the beautiful city of Sucre, Bolivia. There is a strict building code in downtown Sucre and it feels very much like a Spanish colonial city...beautiful white washed building (see photo above). It is the "true" capital of Bolivia according to the constitution...something they are quite proud of. One of the guides at a musuem we visited said that Sucre is the only capital of Bolivia, but it just so happens that the president lives in La Paz, the congress meets in La Paz, and all the foriegn embassies are in La Paz. Rather confusing...as is most of the history of Bolivia.

While in Sucre we experienced our first robbery...but not from a common criminal. The Bank of Bolivia ATM (oldest bank in the country) refused to give us our money...but still deducted it from our account. In our attempt to rectify the problem we go to the bank, wait for over 40 minutes for someone to tell us that we have to go to another obscure office that is in charge of all ATM transactions. After two attempts we find the place...down an alleyway to an unmarked office in what looked like an abandoned building. Of course no one is there because it is 1:30pm...we still forget that everthing shuts down between 12;00pm and 2;30pm. We return in the afternoon and encounter a woman working way in the back of the office. At her desk are no less than five phones all with different colors of tape on the receiver (black, gold, red, etc.) and approxiametly 15 old computers and servers stacked in random corners of the room. We explain our problem and give her our debit card, which she uses to pull up all our atm withdrawls in the past few days. Under the one in question it says "hardware malfunction". She will write VISA who will contact the Bank of America, who will write her back and some how we will get our money back. We can now claim we have seen the interworkings of VISA transactions in a foriegn country. ...Compared to the 10 minute call we made to our bank today in which we were told the money would be credited to our account by tomorrow...some things are more effecient in the US!

God´s amazing grace

Apologies for not writing sooner...our last 2 weeks in Cochabamba were a bit of a whirlwind. We worked up to the last week, then attempted to go to Sucre for a 4 day trip (thinking we´d leave our stuff in our apartment since it was paid for, only taking small bags). We packed everything sometime around June 29, went to the bus station and then found there were no tickets...after wandering aimlessly for about 30 minutes, we just got on the trufi and went back home. Andrew felt defeated and I felt relieved...I wasn´t ready to leave anyway. After sleeping on it and talking it over, we decided to just stay through the 5th of July and leave with everything a week later. Sunday, at church, we knew it was exactly what we were supposed to do. We were able to make plans to meet with people for dinners to say good-bye, to plan days to visit the kids at the different homes to say good-bye, and time to clean the house and pack up without all the stress and pressure of some time constraint. It was exactly what we needed...a week in Cochabamba without work and time to just do the things we wanted before leaving. We´ve struggled with many different emotions...at one moment we want to stay here or return to work in Cochabamba as we´ve been so comfortable, while at other moments we are ready to get back to the states to see family and friends. We both felt pretty strongly that we will be back to Cochabamba in the future; thus, it didn´t feel like good-bye, but we´ll see you later. The kids were so kind, writing us cards and giving hugs and loves...the Baker girls even performed a dance for us and made us a cake on our last night. Our landlords even had us over for lunch the day before we left and we spent about 4 hours just talking and sharing about our lives. The Thompson´s fed us and took us to the bus station on July 6th and we headed for Sucre with all our bags loading us down. Can´t believe we´ll be back in the states in 30 days (less now).

Reflecting, we´ve seen how God has been in control the entire way these past 6 months. He has protected us and kept us safe in this huge city, where daily people told us about getting robbed or bothered by attempted pickpockets. He helped us to meet incredible Christians doing amazing work with children who have experienced horrific pasts. Here is one recent situation I wanted to share, that we´ve seen prove His amazing love and grace. It involved a tiny baby named Victoria. About 2 weeks ago, Victoria was brought to Jennifer´s orphanage after some folks found her in a bag down by the river that runs through the center of Cochabamba. Now if that wasn´t enough, the doctors predicted that Vic was about 4 hours old when the people heard her crying (remember temperatures here get down to about 40 at night as it is the middle of winter here)...come to find out she was in the bag with her ambilical cord and placenta still attached. Much longer and she would have been dead. Doctors said she was tiny, about 5 1/2 lbs, but doing all right and after a thorough check up, sent her on with Jennifer (this all happened around 5pm on the night we were having a family celebration for all the employees of Jennifer´s houses, as she just opened a new Casa de Amor III with the Alseth family). Thus, Victoria was brought to the party and loved on from all the tias and staff, a new member of the Casa de Amor family. Strangely though, Victoria has lots of scratches on her arms, legs, hands, and quite a big bump on her head, and after about 3 days with the Alseths, the little bump on her head started moving down. Thus, back to the doctor she went, this time for an x-ray of her tiny head. Next day, x-ray comes back from the technician, showing a 1 1/2 inch fracture in little Victoria´s skull on the side where the bump had been...Vic hadn´t been left by the river, she had been thrown there--a good 20 foot drop to the river bank...tough way to start life. But God´s grace is so amazing...He saved Victoria (a fitting name given her at the hospital)...He sent strangers to find her, He brought her to doctors that cared for her, and now to a family who will love and care for her until a permanent family can be found. This is just a little glimpse of the amazing stories we experienced throughout our 6 months here...each child had a story, some we knew, some we only knew a portion of, yet God saved them, just as He says, ¨he will raise up the needy and the lost, he will have compassion on the orphans...¨Psalms 73:12-13. This has been a life changing experience for both of us, from teaching us about raising children to teaching us to trust all that God has in store for us no matter where we are in the world.

We´ll continue posting as we make our way back to Peru to fly out on Aug. 6. Thanks for coming along on this wild ride with us...we can´t wait to share more with you in person. -Jen