All Better

At an unexpected turn in events, I am doing miraculously better. I can walk around and eat stuff. Also, today I found out that I'm not playing guitar this Sunday AND Monday is a holiday, which means I don't have language school SO I'm going to the Yungas jungle this weekend with some college-age Bolivians for a retreat. Thank you for your prayers.

A Much Unneeded Break

Lately I've been telling myself I need to take a break. I've been going full-blast 24/7 with events and Spanish school. Today I finally get my break, whether I like it or not.

I was awake all last night with a churning stomach. It sounded like an alien colony discussing their maneuvers throughout my body. Then at 7:00 this morning I had to get out of bed to answer the call of some explosive diarrhea. I must have lost about five pounds. Now I'm in bed writing this blog because whenever I get up and try to move around it feels like gremlins are trying to scratch their way out of my gut with garden rakes. It's not very fun.

Perhaps i should describe what's going on around me. I'm in my bed, which is in my room. I've got a dresser to my left with a mirror on top and a night-stand directly to my left. My bed is up against the wall on the right and sometimes I can hear the plumbing. My door is wide open. It's hard to keep it closed. Upstairs I can hear Sergio listening to some loud Spanish pop singer.

Greg just called and they've got a doctor's appointment set up for me at 4:00. I can't wait.

If you would like to pray, please pray. I think I have explained enough. You should be able to take it from there.

Thanks,

-Clay

Out of My Element

One thing I've noticed is how drained I have been lately. Everything will be going perfectly fine, but suddenly I feel the need to sleep. Not just that I feel tired, but I'm hit in an instant and I need a place to lay down and sleep. Unfortunately, I don't usually get to humor this desire and I get a little dizzy.

I'm pretty sure the reason I've been hit with this is because I am always around a lot of people. I'm not a big party person. I like an occasional get-together with a few people, but being hit almost every day with a fellowship of ten or more people really takes a toll on me. I'm much more of a one-on-one kind of guy. Tonight was really fun, but it was hard on me. We had a "community group" which is basically a get-together of Christians from the area. There were a lot of the teachers from Highlands school and some people from my church. There were about thirty people total. It was very structured. The guy leading the whole thing was very much a fan of structure and season. Because this is the time between Pentecost and advent, he was a little uninspired because this is the time that ordinary church life happens. It was still pretty cool though. We had a strict outline, almost word-for-word, of how the get-together would be done with lyrics to all the songs, call and response time, prewritten prayer, and a time to break into small groups. It was very traditional, but it wasn't bad. I had a good time, yet I still wanted to fall asleep in the middle of it.

First Great Day of Spanish Class

Not my first day, but the first day that I actually felt I made a lot of progress. For some reason, when I get a sheet of paper in front of me that is supposed to teach me Spanish, I can't learn a thing. It's not like learning a language, it's like doing math. Plug in the verbs, figure out the formula for a sentence and write it down in the blank spaces. Then you want to discuss it with me? Impossible. I have no clue what just happened.

The first fifteen minutes of class were a struggle, going through homework and walking through some scripted conversations. Eventually, I was just so exhausted from doing language math I couldn't talk anymore. Maria, my teacher, then just started talking to me and I was forced to rip my eyes away from their futile scanning of the paper and look at her. Suddenly the stuff she was saying was making sense. We were talking about how the culture has changed in the nuclear family of Bolivia; how family gatherings use very informal greetings now instead of the formal titles and greetings they used to use for parents, elders, etc. I told her about how it was the same in the United States. I mentioned how it probably had something to do with the hippies.

Then we took off! Maria actually went to college for one year in San Francisco in the 1960's. She had a lot to say about the lifestyle of the hippies. We talked for most of the class. We went from hippies to New York City, to New York City vs. Chicago, to Al Capone and prohibition. In the words of Katsumoto, "this was a good conversation".

Later that day, I hung out with Ramiro. Even he noticed my Spanish was much better than usual. I just hope I can do it again.



Grace and Peace,

Clay

Too Much To Learn

I was excited about playing guitar in church, but I had practice today and came out less than hopeful. Fifteen minutes is not enough time to learn how to play latin style guitar on songs I have never heard, nor understand. On top of that, they don't have notes like we do in western music. They have a staff, but the notes are not C, B, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Instead they do their music and write their chords with Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do. So you're not playing in the key of F, you're playing in the key of So. They're expecting me to play on Sunday, but I don't really want to. I need more time to practice. Fifteen minutes is not enough time to practice. That's not even half the preliminary time I spent preparing for practice back home. There's no way I can learn these songs. I don't even have a way to listen to them. It is impossible. They don't really have a band at this church. It's a guy playing latin style acoustic and a drummer playing extra extra quiet. Not that it's bad music, but I don't think they really understand playing with other people.

I also had a rough day at Spanish class. I was really tired and couldn't remember anything. It was horrible. Thankfully, there was a huge march today and everything was sort of shut down, so I had some time to come home and sleep for a couple hours. Well, I guess I shouldn't be thankful for the huge march. It's a pretty big deal. They were expecting 30,000 people to march on congress, but there's actually over 100,000 people. Pray for Bolivia and pray for God's peace to be on this city.

Soccer in El Alto and Shoe Shiners

Yesterday was quite an adventure. Ramiro used to be a shoe-shiner and lived a good portion of his life on the streets. He invited me to come play soccer with some of his friends in El Alto. El Alto is unique for the area because it is very flat. It's also much higher than La Paz, and therefore has less oxygen.

We took a bus up to El Alto and walked about a quarter mile to the soccer field. Once I saw the size of the field and felt my heart rate from the light walk we had taken, I knew I wasn't going to be able to play. I'm glad I didn't. All of Ramiro's friends are shoe-shiners from the streets, so I was envisioning a rag-tag bunch of guys getting together to play a pick-up game of soccer. How wrong I was. It was a finely orchestrated event. All of Ramiro's team gathered around as they passed out custom made jerseys and uniform shorts. Then came a long, strategic placement of the opposing team's stat cards to figure out who would cover who. Then the game started with full officiation. Within two minutes somebody got a yellow card. It was an intense game with people using their feet like paint brushes whisking the ball over heads, between legs, and in crazy directions that did not make sense to the laws of physics. In the end it was a tie, 2-2, much like the Bolivia vs. Uruguay game.

What really surprises me about the whole thing is that these people are content with a tie. They feel satisfied in knowing that it was a complete game and their abilities were very similar to the opposing team's abilities. In the U.S. a tie means that the whole event was a failure because one team was not able to triumph over the other. We crave someone to win. We would like our team to win, but if not, it's still okay, just don't let it be a tie! We invent a thing called overtime or go into the next inning to ensure that someone loses and someone wins. We cannot accept equality in sports. How far does this sentiment extend in our society? Does it exist with the way we view our neighbors? Can we accept a tie with the size of our houses, or the status of our cars? In the end, it is not a question of equality, it is a question of values. I don't fully understand why Ramiro and the shoe-shiners were satisfied with a tie game, but for some reason they were.

In Bolivia it is customary to celebrate a triumphant game of soccer with the inebriation of the whole team, but Ramiro cares about his fellow shoe-shiners and over time has redirected the drunken ritual to a new outlet. To celebrate our tie, we all went to a wally-ball court and shared bananas, apple juice, and bread. I don't know how many games of wally-ball we played, but by the end I was almost dead. I'm happy to say I was able to hold my own in wally-ball, although I wasn't as fluent with my feet as the rest. After that, everyone went their separate ways, and me and Ramiro went to downtown La Paz and walked around a bit. We were both too tired to actually do anything so he dropped me in Alto Obrajes, and I took a trufy up to sector A and went home. It was a good day.

There was also Fa's birthday party that night, but you've read quite a bit of this blog and I'm ready to wrap it up.

Tomorrow is the big march on congress to pass the referendum (see Oct. 14 post). The congressmen have been camping out in the building for the last couple days, and downtown La Paz is congested like crazy right now. Schools are closed and I may or may not be going to my Spanish class tomorrow. There's a chance I'll go and spend the day with Faith and Greg at their house.

My First Solo Flight

Well, actually it was more of a solo ride... and with other people... but it was still a landmark moment. I took a trufy all by myself up to Alto Abrajes (where I live). It was a little nerve racking. You pretty much just sit tight, then once you start recognizing the scenery, you say "esquina, por favor" and they drop you off at the nearest corner. It costs 1.5 bs to use the trufy and once I got out and looked at the change from my ten, I was thrilled to find that the driver hadn't cheated me.

I also had my first Spanish class today. My tutor's name is Maria Theresa. She's a really sweet older woman with a beautiful home full of amazing art she did herself. She studied art in college and painted professionally, but twenty years ago she fell and messed up the tendons in her hand so she couldn't paint anymore. She has only just recently begun to paint again. She's very very nice. Her home is pretty empty, like the guest house in Cochabamba, because there are much less people coming to Bolivia, and thus less people who need to learn Spanish.

I can't believe it's already been almost two weeks here. Time is flying by.

Grace and peace,

Clay

Yo Quiero Aprendar el Lenguaje!!

Today was a good day. Greg sent Ramiro over to pick me up and we went on a quest to find a good printer for the office. I learned a lot today. I learned where I live - en el Alto Braje - and some streets like Calle 10 y Hernando Silas. The corner (esquina) of Calle 13 y Hernando Silas is Plaza Lobo. Calle 10 goes from Braje to Alto Braje. Ramiro also gave me a list of trufy numbers that I'll need to know to get around. A trufy (public transportation) costs a flat rate of 1.5 Bs. Seven Bs is the equivalent to one dollar, so it's a great way to get around if you don't mind sharing a small van with 18 other people.

I'm going to start language classes here very soon. We've decided that one month of intensive studying will be the most effective way for me to learn Spanish, given my budget. Five days a week, two hours a day with a private teacher. I'm looking forward to it. I'm ready to dive right in. I'm craving vocabulary and grammar right now. I've been filling out a notebook of different words I've picked up. Talking with Ramiro today was great because he just started his English classes this morning. He had a bunch of questions for me and we figured out a lot of verbs together as well as how to put some sentences together. It helped a lot. He was really struck by the fact that we say "I have no food" instead of "I no have food". I also taught him about the difference when saying "ser" in English (to be). I never thought about how confusing it is that we say "I AM; he IS; they ARE" but he got it down pretty good.

Oh, by the way, nobody probably even knows this but Bolivia is playing Uruguay today. All radios are tuned to the game and people are crowding around t.v.s in the city to watch. Imagine the most die-hard Cubs fan you know, now mulitiply that enthusiasm by three and then make the entire population just as passionate and you'll get a faint idea of how big of a deal this is.

Monday could be a big day for Bolivia. Thousands of people are going to march in La Paz to pass a referendum which could lead to a new constitution that gives more power to the indigenous people of Bolivia. It is supposed to be a peaceful march, but there is some skepticism about the intentions of the marchers. It's actually not considered a huge demonstration for Bolivia, but lately things here have been getting pretty heated.Here's a news link about what's going on. I'm sure there will be plenty more news on Monday.

Grace and peace,
Clay

Going Away Party

Today started off with church. A lady named... Cathy, I´m pretty sure... translated the sermon for me. She works for SIM and is very friendly. She invited me to go to a party for this lady from England who was leaving. The lady´s name was Caz (short for Caroline) and her parents were visiting from England. I talked to them for quite awhile which was a lot of fun. The house the party was in was really small and packed. The real fun started when everybody got out guitars. We played a bunch of worship songs, most of them oldies from the 90´s - Shout to the Lord/Ancient of Days era. They did know some Hillsong, but those were the only newish songs they had, but it was a blast. I was able to play most of what they played, but there were a couple songs I had never heard before that I had some trouble with.

This was one of the most fun worship experiences I´ve ever had. There was a guy named Calil (something like that. It sounded like Carl but wasn´t) and he showed me some new stuff I´d never played before. Sergío (older brother of the family I´m staying with) left early, but I stayed and kept playing. We probably played around twenty or twenty-five songs. I got a ride back with Fá (a girl who plays drums)and now I´m blogging.

I was actually feeling pretty down today after church, but now I´m feeling energized and refreshed. It was a good night. Now to remember all those names...

My Bolivian Family

Today was my big moving day. We had a family fun day at the church. Tomorrow is the church´s fifth aniversary so they´re having a bit of a shindig today and tomorrow. It was pretty fun. There´s this thing called altitude, but I still don´t belive in it. It´s supposed to take three months to fully adjust to the altitude, but I decided to play soccer today. Other than being out of breath after three minutes, I think I handled it pretty well.

After a long exhausting day of soccer and games, I was introduced to my Bolivian family. The dad´s name is Jorge and the daughter´s name is Stephanie. I can´t remember the mom´s name or the younger son´s name yet. They´re a very nice family. I felt a little bad for them. They´re trying very hard to be nice (which they are), but tonight they set up a sort of ¨United States¨ dinner. They had some interesting hotdogs, cold cereal, and hot chocolate. I´m sure they were trying to make me feel at home, but I hope they don´t try too hard. I´d much rather have whatever a Bolivian family normally has for dinner. They are really nice though. That´s the main point. They couldn´t do more to make me feel at home.

I must apoligise now because from this point forward I have a feeling my blogs will become increasingly sloppy in terms of grammar and vocabulary. I´m starting to pick up on the broken English that the Bolivians use while communicating with me. It´s getting harder to... finish this sentence with words that Bolivian´s will understand, so I´m not even going to try. lo siento. no comprende.

Please pray that the Lord will refresh my mind when I most need it to be refreshed. I understand that being mentally drained is sure to happen, as it is right now, but I don´t want it to be like this all the time.

The above paragraphs seem a little dark, but overall I´m having a great time. I´m very glad that I´m here.

La Paz: Back Up to 11000 Feet

I'm back from Cochabamba. It was a hectic couple of days. Lots of traveling around, meeting new people, introducing myself, and listening to different tips on living in Bolivia. I was shown the ropes of SIM ministries in Coch by a nice woman named Amalia. She was very busy taking me to tons of different places. We went to the SIM Boliva office, the Christian school they run, and this morning we even managed to drive the two hours out of the city to see the camp. The ride there was with the camp director in his Toyota suv. The ride back was in a minivan (called a truffie) with eight other people- three in front, for in the middle (where I was) and two in the hatch back. I left for La Paz today at 2:00 and Ramiro picked me up from the airport.

I didn't take any pictures of Cochabamba, but I've got four months left to accumulate vast quantities of pictures, so I'm not too torn up about it. Cochabamba does have the biggest statue of Jesus in South American... and I think maybe the world. It's bigger than the one in Brazil. Anyway, that was Coch. It was more exhausting than anything, but I got some good orientation training.

Tomorrow I meet my Bolivian family. I don't know what to expect, but it should be pretty cool. It's late and I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

Cochabamba: only 8000 feet

I've been debating on whether or not to post tonight. There's plenty to post about, but I haven't even started my orientation yet, which is the whole reason I flew out to Cochabamba in the first place. I think instead of relaying some boring, hard-to-understand facts, I'll share a bit of what I've been thinking lately.

First off, to let you know the context around which my brain has been maneuvering, I'll let you know that I am currently reading God Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile by Rob Bell and Don Golden. In it, they talk about this pattern God has of redeeming his people. Starting with the Exodus from Egypt going onto the Babylonian captivity and eventually coming to the ultimate in redemption, the redemption of Jesus. Jesus' liberation was not the conventional liberation brought about by spears and chariots. War and conquest only ever resulted with a failed system. Solomon became insanely rich, but instead of using his wealth and power to help the oppressed (like God helped Israel out of Egypt) he used it to preserve his wealth and power and eventually ended up oppressing other people. Jesus' liberation transcended the broken system of violence and erupted in an empire of peace.

Anyway, it's a great book. I don't know if it has much to do with what I'm thinking, but now you know my influences.

It has been pretty nerve-racking being here alone without a team or certain group that I am traveling with, but this is not a bad thing. It may be lonely, but it is a chance for God to grow me, to stretch me, and for me to depend on Him. I think this is what James is talking about when he says to rejoice in these trials of various kinds. It is in our weakness that God works. God listens to those who cry out. How can we cry out if everything is fine and dandy? How can God work if there is no cry for help? It takes a little testing of one's faith to get into a taxi and trust that he's taking you somewhere you're supposed to be. It takes a little testing of one's faith to be immersed in a culture and language you don't know and know that your God is still with you. All this traveling around has been hard, but it has been good. I am thankful that I have this opportunity to have my faith tested in these various trials.

Tourism Tuesday

I got a big mental workout today. Greg took me to his office and I got to sit and listen to a meeting discussing building plans for the school. As attentive as I was, I couldn't follow a tenth of it. After the meeting Greg sent me off with Ramiro to go buy some guitar strings and get a feel for the city.

What an experience. Ramiro knows hardly any English at all, but we did fairly well at communicating. I had to work hard to bring up any high school Spanish I could remember. It was like looking under my bed for some old Spanish only to find that a nasty pizza had rotted on top of it and I think some milk too. Overall, it was a lot of fun. We managed to communicate. He was able to ask about my family. I was able to tell him what my mom, dad, and brother do. I was able to ask him about the street system. He was able to explain it to me. It was really a perfect combination because Ramiro is about to start an English class and I'm trying to learn Spanish. Together we made a lot of breakthroughs (if only I could remember what they were). Needless to say, by the end of the day my brain was dead... but it was good.

We got guitar strings and took a tour of the city, but that's hardly worth reporting on yet. Pictures speak loudern than words.

Tonight was also a lot of fun. Greg asked me to lead some worship after dinner. It was just us - Greg, Faith, and the girls - but it was good. It helped me to overcome my fear of playing in front of small audiences. A youth group of 150? No problem. A family of five? I am near wetting my pants. Thank you God for the courage and strength to get over the hurdle of self-consciousness. If you would like to pray for me, please pray about that. I am a bit of a perfectionist and it takes a lot for me to risk my pride to play in front of people or to attempt to speak what I know will be a horrible piece of Spanish gibberish. I am very thankful that I was able to talk all day with Ramiro. I have been praying hard-core for the humility to try speaking Spanish with people and the Lord has helped me a great deal in that.

Grace and Peace,
Clay

First Day

Well, not exactly the first whole day. I've only been here for about 13 hours (I got here at 5:20am), but already I'm getting a feel for the place. I'm really glad I haven't had any symptoms from the altitude change. Apparently, most people get really sick or get bad headaches. I haven't had anything except a little indigestion from eating the airline dinner at 11:00 at night.

I'm staying with Faith and Greg for the first couple days. On Wednesday I will be going to Cochabamba for the missions orientation.

The landscape is really cool here in La Paz. It's like driving through a city built in the side of the Grand Canyon. The mountains are really big. Oh, another thing, the sun is incredibly hot. I was out in the sun today for probably 45 minutes max, and I'm already turning red. Greg was telling me that there's something like 50 times the amount of UV rays at this altitude than at sea level. I'm gonna have to get some sunscreen. Today I got to see a school that Greg helped to get going. We also went and visited some of their friends. I did really good at smiling politely while everyone else went crazy with Spanish.

Today has mostly just been a recovery day. I slept most of the morning, but nevertheless it has still been a fairly full day. I know I have four months, but I still feel bad that I didn't take any pictures today. It's a really cool place.

In Christ,
Clay

The First of a Few

So begins the first of a few posts I will be making about Bolivia. For those of you who don't know, I am going to Bolivia on a missions trip for four months. I have never been on a missions trip before, the main reason being that I find it hard to invest the time and money of a shorter 1-2 week trip, but this should be quite an experience to go for four months. I'm excited.

My departure for Bolivia has been post-poned due to civil unrest, but I will be leaving in two days. I have no idea what to expect. I will be staying near LaPaz, which is in the mountains, so I think it will be pretty cold, although they are entering into summer right now so maybe it won't be too bad.

Quite a few people have asked me if missions is something I am considering going into long-term. It would be nice and pleasant to say yes, but in truth I do not feel so much that God is calling me to long-term missions. My heart really goes out to the church in the United States. I feel that God is calling me to contribute to the rejuvination of the Western Church. I'm not too sure what that will look like, but I know a part of helping the Church in the U.S. involves experiencing the Church elsewhere. What is God doing in other parts of the world that we can learn from? I will be helping at a church plant outside of LaPaz and I'm really excited to see how they function as a body of believers. I have never known anything outside of the Fox Valley area (and Carbondale, IL). I can't wait to see what's going on in Bolivia.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me out in making this trip possible. Please pray for me that I will be safe in Bolivia, and pray that God will use me to impact one person. That is all I am asking for. Thank you once again. I will be keeping up to date on this blog as often as possible. Grace and peace to you.