Inca Ruins

In Bolivia, if you are upset about anything really, the way to get your point across is through a road blockade.  What does it do?  Well, it just makes things a little more difficult and makes people curious (or annoyed) at whatever stance you are trying to make.

So on Wednesday, since we had road blockades (and therefore no school or work for the team), a group of us went out to see some ancient Inca ruins outside of Cochabamba.  It took about 1.5 hours to get there, mainly on a windy road going up through mountains.  It was a fun adventure and a great way to get outside of the city and enjoy the holiday protests!

Second Round of Impressions

I think that you have to live a month to start to understand a culture and a year to truly grasp it. We are only at those beginning stages of exploring Cochabamba and immersing ourselves, but we've seen and noticed quite alot. So here is a continuation of interesting observations:

1. Bolivia is pretty stinky. I remember meeting people in Bogotá who had mentioned this and it's true. Don't get me wrong, sometimes a woman walks by with the most beautifully scented perfume, but unfortunately this is not the norm. I think it's just part of the poverty culture and one of the reasons our "baby washing" ministry is so popular.

2. Water is not your friend. This is a weird one. You learn very quickly to close your mouth in the shower, thoroughly dry your hands and dishes and to use the disinfecting wash for your fruits and vegetables. Only agua pura is your friend.

3. Pizza is crazy popular here :) Every Saturday night we go out for pizza with the team and the list of options is quite long. It's good too!

4. Cochabamba is a religious meca. The most pristine property here is the Mormon temple. They have a huge missionary dorm and the greenest grass in the whole city. There is also a huge number of Jehovah's Witnesses and of course, Christian missionaries. The people themselves are mainly a mix of Catholicism and Indigenous beliefs. It makes for very interesting conversations and assumptions.

5. The people here are just as annoyed as the Americans about the lack of governmental relations. It turns out that there is a huge Cochabambino population in Arlington, VA and they have just as many travel restrictions as we do. So the consensus is that the governments should work things out instead of punish the people. Pretty sure this opinion is not so popular in other Bolivian cities, but it's nice to be on the same page here.

That's all for now! We'll be updating this week on all of the work we have been doing thus far :)

Scents of the Season

Thank you so for your prayers about our health. We have finally been feeling better and it is amazing how much better you feel, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally when your body is functioning at normal capacity.

Since we've been feeling better, we've finally been out of the house and enjoying ministry time as well as Cochabamba. As we were walking home late last night after a great time with a fellow team family, we passed a I-think-Mexican-but-I'm-not-sure restaurant. It smelled like our Halloween Party chili, the day after the party. The day when you clean up and seriously look forward to the leftovers. It was funny in that we both instantly recognized the smell and started talking about fall food and my quite stronger than normal love of anything pumpkin- especially pumpkin lattes at Starbucks. And then it hit me, that even though JM and I have sworn off seasons as being highly overrated, fall is one that we both love and will miss. Yes, we do get back in the middle of November and yes, Starbucks will still be serving pumpkin lattes, but we will miss when all of DC turns into a beautiful hue of gold, pumpkin scented everything and oh yea, Halloween. So enjoy fall for us as we enjoy "the dry season" and know that we're kinda jealous.

Our Love Hate Relationship

....is with food!

JM: "Why can't I just sit down and eat without being scared of my meal? I'm hungry."

So the Hulsey stomaches are not yet at 100% greatness. We just go in and out of being sick. Oh yea, fabulous stuff. In terms of adjustments, this has got to be the hardest one we have faced thus far. Also because it makes us much less productive people. So please keep our stomaches in your prayers. It may be the norm, but it's a hard norm to get used to.

Along for the ride

p290.mov Watch on Posterous

In ministry, you never know how you may be used :)

Initiation

Yep, after being fine the whole time in Colombia, the Hulseys are sick, sick, sick to our stomaches. We thought we may be some of the lucky few that made it a couple of weeks in, but alas we are not so blessed. Sadly, this all stems from one of the best restaurants in town. We were very excited to go to Kabob's last night as it's a team favorite, but we should have known better when we looked around and saw that no one was eating their lettuce and tomatoes. With a Bolivian diet being so rich in starches (bread, potatoes, corn, meat- yep, that's about it) we were overjoyed to dig into our veggies. Sadly, whatever nutritional value those vegetables should have had, I'm pretty sure they left our systems quite awhile ago. Lesson learned.

Sore & Tired but with Full Hearts

Today we had the great opportunity to go with Steve (the construction guy) and two other couples out to two of the orphanages being built about an hour and a half outside of Cochabamba, in a predominantly indigenous village.  It’s a very poor village and one of would love to capture with a lens.  We saw quite a lot of livestock, women washing clothes in the river, and beautiful scenery.  We got to work on the two orphanage homes all day and then took a hike up a steep hill before we left.  The hike was gorgeous and surprisingly we made it up without altitude sickness (it’s at about 11,000 feet).  It was a tough day of labor (the hike didn’t help our legs either), but we came home very blessed that we could serve in this way.  

The sweet lamb grazing on the orphanage property.  

The calf hanging out by the basketball courts...because thats what calves do of course!  

See the full gallery on Posterous

The hill we climbed.  If you look closely, you can see the crosses on the very top.  

The crosses up close (at the top of the hill).

Looking out onto the valley below.  

Pic at the top (really proof that we made it there).