Flores de Potosí... y mucho más

At the beginning of January, I went to Potosí again (a mainly rural, mountainous department of Bolivia).  Most of these pictures speak for themselves.  I can't take credit for most of them; there were some excellent photographers on the trip.  I enjoyed, though, taking pictures of the mountain wildflowers I saw and learning their names.

carteritas or p'olqo (baby booties in Quechua)

reloj

k'ayku k'ayku (means "sour sour" in Quechua)

q'ela (a form of Andean lupine!!)

In Khari Mayu Tomas Frías, the church is fairly well established and they were celebrating their anniversary when we arrived.  They had cooked a whole lamb in a soup for us and gave us the head, considered the most prized part of the lamb.  I had already eaten my weight in ch'uño (a freeze-dried potato) and when I tried to chew the lamb, my teeth bounced right off the meat!

pretending to eat the sheep head with Kristen and Dr. Jorge

women spooning lamb out of the soup

Even though most of the team members were Bolivian, I was one of two people who spoke Quechua, so I ended up leading worship in Quechua one night in one of the communities.  It was nice to feel like I had something to offer on the trip.  I really enjoyed talking in Quechua to the kiddos and some one on one with the adults.

In every community, we passed out fresh fruit to the kids, something they rarely get in their remote communities.  I've never seen kids so excited about mangoes and bananas.  Dr. Jorge convinced them that scrubbing their faces with the banana peels was good for their skin, so many of the kids vigorously rubbed their faces with the peels, covering their faces with white banana!

Over half our team is pictured above...  We hiked through one of the communities, praying for families, new believers and lightning strike victims.  Many families in the communities we visited had been affected by lightning, either killing their livestock or striking their homes or family members.  Most communities we visited had recently lost one or more members in the last year to lightning.

One of my favorite memories was an afternoon rainstorm that drove us into a one-room adobe house to take shelter with a few women from the local church.  They had known we were coming by at some point that morning and had prepared sheep cheese, raw onion and tomato to eat with dozens of boiled potatoes for breakfast.  All the girls arrived first, and it was up to me to translate for all of them, as the women only spoke Quechua.  The two women joked about coming to stay with me in Cochabamba, talking of how they'd fix their hair and showing me what special skirts they would put on.  My Quechua is still limited, but we were able to hold a conversation for 20 minutes or so, laughing and joking.  They were so sweet and we really connected, using Quechua as a bridge across SO may cultural differences.

carrying luggage and supplies back from an overnight in a remote community

For more pictures and videos, click on the link below.  A good friend of mine, Kristen, put together this video from our time in Potosí:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_HUTneLsNM&feature=youtu.be