Return to Urubichá

I recently had the opportunity to visit Urubichá again after almost 3 years.  When our ministry plans changed direction in 2013, I made a rather hasty exit -- packed up the Patrol, threw all my tools and gear in the trailer, and hit the road for Santa Cruz.  Although the transition to ministry at Etnos has been bittersweet at times, I haven't truly regretted that decision.

However, I was excited to go back for several reasons:

1.  Since I left, Emilio and Marlen have finished culture/language study and started writing chronological Bible lessons.  They have a small group of believers meeting in their patio each Sunday and have a kids' program on Saturdays.  I was eager to see and hear how things are going for them.
2.  Margarita joined the team about a year and a half ago, and Eliana moved out there in June.  The purpose of the trip was to evaluate their progress in the Guarayo language.  My role was to accompany Judy, our language consultant, and learn how to do evaluations, a natural extension of what I am already doing in the training center!
3.  My parents are here for a few months to visit us and help around Etnos and I was able to take them along.  They haven't spent much time out of the city on this side of the country, so it was a great opportunity to introduce them not only to a place so important to me as Urubichá, but all of the countryside along the 210 mile trip as well.

The Guarayos team (l-r): Eliana, Margarita, Esteban, Emilio, Ninoska, and Marlen

On the trip out to the village, it occurred to me that this was the first time I was going to Guarayo country without planning to live there.  That realization gave me the freedom to look at everything through different eyes and I found myself much more relaxed.  I definitely took a lot more photos (Click here to see 80 of the best).

We drove on Saturday and arrived just before the kids' program.  They were having a special game day to encourage more kids to come, and there were a ton!  The younger ones and the gals played board games while Emilio reffed a soccer tournament for the older boys.

On Sunday, we joined the group in the family's patio. Unfortunately, most of the congregation was at a big event at another, Spanish-speaking church in town.  Even so, we enjoyed our time and were treated to several Guarayo worship songs, a violin duet by Esteban and Ninoska, and Emilio teaching in Guarayo.

On Monday, the work started.  Judy and I spent a couple hours with Eliana that morning, asking her to do a variety of activities using the Guarayo words and phrases she knows.  Then, in the afternoon, we invited a bilingual Guarayo lady to come listen to the recordings and talk to us about how Eliana speaks.  We also visited a couple from the church, Hermenegildo and Matilde, to get their perspective.  She is doing great!

Judy, Eliana, and Rafaela

Urubichá is known for making the best hammocks in Bolivia. Matilde is finishing the one in the background.

On Tuesday, it was Margarita's turn!  She is also advancing very well!  She is fairly well conversational and speaks rather fluidly.

Judy, Margarita, and Esther

Of course, no trip to Urubichá would be complete without going to the baroque music institute!

A highlight for us was to find Esteban giving a violin lesson to a 5-year old student.

Behind the music institute, there is an artisan institute that offers woodcarving classes for the men and weaving, sewing, and needlework classes to the gals.

Guarayo men hand-carve wooden boxes to sell

Guarayo girls with their needlework samplers

Eliana is using the weaving institute as an opportunity to spend time with the ladies, building crucial relationships and listening to language as she weaves.  She recently started a new bag and showed us the process of setting up the vertical threads on the loom.

That evening, we spent some time on the plaza and stopped in to see the church and watch the Urubichá youth choir practice for the following night's performance.

The region's reliance on timber and woodcarving shines through, even in the Catholic church

On Wednesday, our final day in town, Judy and I spent some time talking over the results of the evaluations with the gals, giving them suggestions for how to continue improving in their studies.  We visited the Rio Blanco in the afternoon.

That evening, we went back to the plaza and joined a packed house for a performance by the choir.  They sang an amazing rendition of the Kyrie from Domenico Zipoli's Missa in F.

Our plan for Thursday was to take some final photos of the team and hit the road by 8:00am for the ~7 hour drive home.  We had been gone for 5 days already, and I was eager to be back with Kaylee and the girls.  We were also taking Eliana and Margarita back to Santa Cruz with us, for a missions conference that started that evening!

However, first thing that morning we got news that there was a big blockade in San Julian, a town about halfway home.  Apparently, the soy and sunflower growers were upset about prices, among other things, and applied Bolivia's normal form of protest:  block the highway until the government agrees to help.  I was unsure how to proceed -- whether we should stay another night and see if it died down, or go look for a way to go around.

Then Emilio got a phone call, in which he learned that a group in Urubichá was planning to block the highway in Ascención due to a timber dispute.  So we decided to get out of Dodge.

We drove as far as El Puente, home of Bolivia's nicest gas station (in my opinion). After fueling up, I asked about a way to get around San Julian and one of the old timers told me about a route that cut cross-country to Montero.  I have often wanted to find a way through there, so of course we decided to try it! :D

Lunch in Nucleo 29

It was an exciting, crazy drive through farm country on bumpy, dusty roads.  We had no map, no GPS (mine was stolen recently), no road signs, and for most of the journey, no cell coverage.  I lost track of how many times I stopped and asked people for directions.  We had to flip a couple of U-turns, but we never got truly lost and never got bad directions.

For me, the highlight of the trip was crossing the Rio Grande on a barge, my first time!

The AC conked out around noon, so the inside was just as dirty as the outside!  We made it home in 10.5 hours, hot, filthy and exhausted, with just enough time to shower, change, and grab a bite to eat before the conference started!!

I spent some time on Google Earth figuring out as much of the route that I could. Due to a recent, significant change in the course of the river, I was unable to complete the center section, but it gives the idea. :)

Update from Urubichá

 I left Santa Cruz on Monday, with Emilio.  He had come out to share at a church and have a meeting with his pastor.  We made it in one piece with no problems, and all the stuff arrived safely!

What's more, I have internet here.  I'm currently sitting on my borrowed bed with the laptop on a toilet box, because I didn't bring any furniture.

This is what the house looks like on the outside:

 This is the kitchen:

 Looking the other way.  This is the living/dining room:

Me, with all my stuff in the living room!  We were thankful to find out that there is a 4th room that they are willing to rent us for an extra $35/month, that we will mostly use for storage and maybe office space.  That brings our little house up to almost 850 square feet!

The big plan is to get this place painted and put in a bathroom.  Emilio has been helping me.  Here he is scraping the ceiling, knocking down the dirt and nastiness that has collected there, as well as the old plaster that someone put there to try to control it.  We are just going to staple up plastic sheeting to cover it.

Yesterday, a funeral procession went by.  My internal language/culture learner wanted to rush after it with a camera and notebook, but I was hot, sweaty, tired, and very dirty.

This morning, Emilio and I drove out to Ascencion, our "big town."  It's about 25 miles away, but it takes almost an hour to get there on a dry road.  He took me to his regular hardware store and I was amazed at how much stuff they have.  I really should be able to get whatever I need there.  I bought plaster, drain pipe, portland cement, and chicken wire.  Then we went to a sawmill and bought wood for building the bathroom.

There and Back Again (Adventures on the Road)

Kaylee already posted about her thoughts and feeling regarding our trip to Urubichá, but we decided that we should also write about the trip itself, as it was very stressful (especially returning!).

We set out from Cochabamba on the 15th of February, headed for Santa Cruz.  It was an uneventful trip and we felt quite comfortable on the road, since we had been over the same 300 miles just five weeks earlier.

On the morning of the 17th, Kaylee and I said goodbye to our girls and my parents and got on the road to Urubichá.  The first 185 miles to Ascención de Guarayos is on one of Bolivia's major highways and is paved pretty well all the way.  Then you turn off the main road and go another 25 miles on dirt.

I recently purchased a GoPro camera and have had a lot of fun filming our latest driving adventures (more about that in this post, including the video of me getting the Patrol very stuck in a big mud hole).   Take a drive-through look at the town that is going to be our shopping headquarters and the first part of the drive to our future home:

There is a gas station in Ascención, but it didn't have any gasoline!  We had filled up in San Ramón, 150km back, but thanks to a wonky gas gauge, I thought we had less than a quarter tank left.  By the time we actually got out to Urubichá, it was reading empty.  According to our coworkers and the people in the village, the fuel truck would come on Tuesday (the day we planned to leave), but there would be a huge line of cars waiting and not all would get gas.  So we purchased 50 liters from a friend, enough to get us back to San Ramón.


Here's a video of Urubichá, taken as we left town:

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, other than never being sure about how much fuel we had and a couple of problems due to my international driver's license.

Uneventful, that is, until we reached Villa Tunari and were on the last leg of our trip home to Cochabamba.  We got about halfway up the very steep climb out of the lowlands and ran into a huge line of trucks, buses, and cars.  We weren't sure what was going on, so we decided to stay wait and see what happened.

During rainy season, that particular road is fraught with landslides and unstable areas.  When there is a problem, the truck traffic starts to get backed up and the little cars and even the coaches start to pass them, often packing up 3 lanes wide!  Even after the roadway is passable again, it takes forever to get the traffic mess untangled!


We waited for 2 hours and, since it was already 4pm, decided to turn around and find a place to spend the night in Villa Tunari.  The idea of spending the night on a mountain, in the car, with 3 little girls and limited food and water did not appeal to us.  This is what happened when we turned around:

Thankfully, I was able to get through to my brother on the cell and find out where they have stayed in the past.  We ended up in a very nice bungalow-style hotel with a great pool, a good restaurant, and nice rooms with AC.

The next day we tried again in the morning.  This time, we took a chance and followed some other cars up the wrong lane as far as we could.  We didn't even get to the same spot as the day before!  Kaylee asked a trucker how long he'd been there and he replied, "Since 3am!"  A police officer was coming through the traffic on his motorcycle, informing everyone what was going on and it didn't look promising, so we turned back, checked back into the hotel, and enjoyed another afternoon in the pool!

On Sunday morning, I went down to the roadside restaurants near the hotel and talked to several truckers about how the road was.  They all said that the problem was fixed for the time being and traffic was slowly making its way through.  Sure enough, we made it home, with no trouble!

We didn't know until later, but when we turned around on the second day, we were 14km (8.7 miles) from the actual problem!!  That's a lot of trucks!  This is what the situation looked like (click photo to enlarge):

Roadtrip!

Just a couple days after Christmas, we had to go to Santa Cruz for a conference. We jumped at the opportunity to take a roadtrip for the first time in about 2.5 years! Poor Lydia (and maybe Addi too!) didn't even remember what a roadtrip was!

From Cochabamba to Santa Cruz is about 300 miles, but it took us 11.5 hours to get there! If you watch this video we made along the way, you'll see why!  It only covers the first half of the trip, which is the most exciting anyway, as we make the climb to 12,100 ft and then make the rapid drop to 700 ft.  It was made even more exciting by the fact that I had no clutch for the worst part!

We also took lots of pictures, of course!  They include some from the road, the zoo, and other things we enjoyed in Santa Cruz after the conference was over.  Click here to see the full-size photos, or enjoy the slideshow below:

Meet the Patrol!

This afternoon, we finally took possession of our new vehicle, a 1997 Nissan Patrol Y60.

I know, I know.  It's not a Land Cruiser.  I told you that you'd be surprised.

From the very beginning of our vehicle search, the Nissan Patrol has been on our short list, along with 4 Toyota models.  In the past six months, I had narrowed our search to the 80-series Land Cruisers, mostly based on personal preference.  They are fantastic vehicles and I would still love to own one.  However, I just haven't been able to find one with what we want for less than $20,000!  That's a lot of money to spend on a 15 year old vehicle, even though it is one of the stoutest in the world.

This Patrol belonged to friends and coworkers of ours here in Cochabamba.  They recently decided to get a newer, smaller vehicle that was more suited to their needs.  They offered up the Patrol for a price that we would be crazy to refuse!  The remaining money in our vehicle fund will be used for upgrades and future repairs.

Besides not being a Toyota, it's also not a diesel.  It has a 4.2 liter TB42 straight-6 gasoline engine that has been converted to use vehicular natural gas!

Natural gas is incredibly cheap to run here.  The problem is that it lacks the power of gasoline or diesel and eventually starts to eat the engine.  We're not quite sure what we're going to do about that down the road (diesel swap, maybe?), but for now, we'll enjoy the benefit of cheap fuel!

The tank does take up a large chunk of the trunk:

The girls love it.  Addi's big thought for the day was, "We don't have to ride in taxis anymore!"  She and Lydia love having car seats, something Lydia doesn't even remember.  Kaylee is glad to be able to go places without (average) a child and 2 bags on her lap.  I think Anne appreciates the freedom of riding by the window, by herself.  I'm just glad for something to drive!

We just want to say a huge THANK YOU!! to everyone who made this possible.  Because of your prayer and financial gifts over the past year, we now have the ability to get around much easier.  Our kids are safer.  We will waste less time (waiting for taxis).  We can be more flexible.  After almost 2 years without our own transportation, it is truly a blessing.

Vehicle Update: Good News!

After talking about it for over a year, we finally have some good news to share about a vehicle purchase!

 However, we're still in the midst of doing paperwork and transitions and things, so we aren't going to spill the beans just yet.

I will tell you one thing: I'm as surprised as you will be at what we're actually buying! :)