A high altitude adventure

 The middle of March was my first road trip with the new car.  I was hesitantly optimistic, but kept waiting for something to go wrong.  Nothing did.  At least nothing major.  We made it all the way to La Paz (one of Bolivia's two capitals) without any breakdowns.  What a different way to experience Bolivia!

 A few hours into the trip, we stopped at some large rock outcroppings to stretch our legs and explore a little.  Most of the trip was between 13,000-14,000 ft, which is a bizarre experience when you're driving along an interstate type road.

Collin and Matias had fun climbing around on the rocks, and scrambling up steep slabs of rock.   They also investigated some moss that oozed pine-smelling sap and was hard like a rock.  We saw all sorts of different alpine flowers and other interesting flora.  Much better than a rest-stop along the interstate in the States!

Very bright sun at 14,000 ft!

 These alpine flowers almost looked like unopened crocus buds and were all over the tops of the rocks where we climbed.  The vibrancy of color and rich verdant hills were a breath of fresh air, contrasted with the smog-filled and usually brown hills of Cochabamba.

After driving around 6 hours, we started winding our way down into the valley of La Paz, situated at around 12,000ft.  My old Cochabamba housemates, Drew and Ann, recently moved there with their daughter, Sofia.  We spent the weekend with them, heading out into the mountains all day Sunday to explore the alluring peaks around the altiplano.

Ok, so I'm pretty far behind my generation in learning how to take selfies.  I got myself in the picture, but not the mountain!  Oops.

A cemetery near Huayna Potosí (19,974ft mountain in background) for miners massacred in a miner's strike at the Milluni mine many decades ago.  The cemetery is littered with empty soda bottles, small "trago" bottles (hard alcohol) and other trash.

We drove up and over a pass, which then opened up on a glacier lake filling the upper valley.

The lake is then used to power a significant portion of the surrounding area, spilling hundreds of feet into the valley below and powering the hydro-electric plant on the valley floor.

SNOWBALL FIGHT!  One of the few places in Bolivia where you can have a snowball fight because there's actually snow on the mountains.  Matias has been begging for a snowball fight ever since we left the States in January.

I went on my own little hike up the mountain a bit further to see the glacier on Huayna Potosí (not very notable in this pic, but it's the big blog of white on the mountain). I was rewarded by some biscachas (Andean mammal that's a visual mix between a rabbit and a squirrel) bounding around on the rocks as I climbed.  And a peek at the high-altitude chalet used as a base camp for Huayna Potosí climbers.

We even drove up to one of the highest motorable roads in the world, topping out around 16,500ft.  It was bizarre to be up so high without exerting any effort.  It was easy enough to drive up, but a wee bit sketchy as we tried to drive down and out the other side on crumbling roads.  After an hour+ of attempts to find a road that led all the way down to the altiplano, we finally gave up and went back the way we came.  Our extra detour put us back in the city just in time for rush hour traffic, a lovely way to end our smog free day in nature.

After applying for Matias' new passport at the U.S. embassy and going for a ride on the new gondola transportation system in La Paz, we headed back the 6+ hours home.  Driving in Bolivia is always an adventure, even with a working car.  The four lane, interstate type highway suddenly turned into a rutted, dirt road detour around construction work, with little to no signs other than a hand-written speed limit of 10kmh (6mph).  This was no surprise to me, as the day before I was driving everyone down from the mountains on a newly paved four lane road which ended without warning at the edge of a steep gully.  Bolivia isn't big on traffic signs.  We eventually connected back with the paved highway, now only two lanes, and wound our way down 5,000ft to the valley floor of Cochabamba without incident.  Yay for successful road trips!

an old church and cemetery along the road home

Campamento: also known as the weekend of NO sleep!

 This year, we had our first ever weekend camp at The Center to end our year together.  Almost 70 of our 80 kids at The Center came, and it was a whopping success, despite exhausted volunteers and Center staff:)  The theme of the camp was "Knowing Jesus", and I think lots of the kids came away with a deeper understanding of who He is and His love for them.  Read on to see some of the highlights of the camp.

"Welcome to Camp 2016!"

The kids arrived bursting with energy and excitement, blankets tucked under their arms and huge smiles on their faces.  We started out with a time of singing and learning about God in creation.

acting out the moves to "Every Move I Make"

putting the creation story in order, days 1-7

 I was in charge of one of the four teams the whole 36 hours, and quickly learned that all my camp experience from working and attending camps over the years in the States was not much help at all.  Leading a group in Spanish, with different Bolivian classic games, I had very little to offer and spent the first half of the day learning from the other leaders. Each team had to come up with a cheer, and all I could think of was the "¡Olé!" soccer cheer!

part of my team, the YELLOW team

dolly relay: push your teammate down, around a cone and back without spilling them on the ground!

 For lunch the first day, a local Bolivian ministry, Ciudad de Refugio, came up to The Center to make hamburgers.  It was a really nice gift to not only not worry about preparing lunch, but to see the body of Christ working together to serve the kiddos

some volunteers from CDR

boy it was windy!

 In the afternoon, we played more games.  A favorite was water balloon volleyball.  Watch the video below to see how it's played!

popping balloons by hugging

put on as many clothes as possible

 We FINALLY finished all the activities by 10pm, and I was ready to go straight to bed.  The 5 girls in my room took their time getting ready for bed, and after reading them a "Frog and Toad" bedtime story, we finally turned the lights out close to 11pm.  The room next door kept erupting into loud screams, giggles and yells, which triggered the girls in my room to scare each other, just as the others were drifting off to sleep.  Before 6am, I was woken by the sound of a soccer ball on pavement.  My girls were up and out the door by 6am, a good hour and a half before wake-up call was scheduled.

Veronica, my only student from this year who slept in my room

Cristian enjoying warm oatmeal milk with bread for breakfast

Irineo washing his plate

each kid washed their plate and cup after each meal

the chefs

The second morning was a pizza relay game series.  Before starting, each team dressed two "chefs" with newspaper and then played the series of games related to making pizza.  They made lemonade, caught the wild pig for the bacon (or lunchmeat slices of ham as Bolivians are accustomed to eating on pizza), milked the cow to make cheese, and several other games.

One of the relay races: mouth lemonade

1st: squeeze a lemon into your mouth

2nd: add a spoonful of sugar

3rd: slurp some water with a straw

Mix the lemonade ingredients together in your mouth, swallow, then yell "LIMONADA!!" (lemonade), and run back to your group so the next person can make lemonade in their mouth.

fill a bottle with "tomato sauce" one spoonful at a time

knead the dough, rolling over all your classmates:)

 Several volunteers from The Center church stuck around after their own short church service to play games with the kids and serve lunch: a hearty meal with fried meat and egg, rice, plantains, rice, salad and a traditional cool drink.  As soon as everyone sat down to eat, the blistering heat turned into a downpour.  I ate under the stairs to avoid the rain:)

After lunch, we played another round of team games, including stacking and unstacking a pyramid of cups with a base 8 cups wide, acting out the lyrics to the songs we learned during camp, and many others.  The kids had a blast!

move the oreo down your face and into your mouth without using hands

jump around until all your ping-pong balls bounce out!

before they left, each child left a painted handprint on the wall with their name

drawing chalk pictures

Christmas was the much awaited time for the kiddos, and each of their faces were aglow when they walked up to receive their gift.  It was a great way to end a fun weekend together and it felt like this year, more than others, the kids really understood the true meaning of Christmas.  Thank you to all who gave!!