Second Campo Trip

Though I was a bit nervous before going it turned out to be an enjoyable trip. I thought that I would be taking the 3 hour journey on stone roads to Ravelo in the back of a lorry (which I thought was called a 'turno' in spanish) turned about it was in a bus with ok leg room. All the word 'turno' means is whos turn it is to take a vehicle on any given route, but this word is also used to refer to the vehicles as well! Very confusing.

A question for the walkers amoung you.

If you start walking at around 3500 metres above sea level is that called hill walking or mountain walking?

Well whichever you call it that was what this trip was about. Much walking to look at some of the areas of woods that FH has been helping the communities near them to conserve so they don't cut all the trees down at once.

On Wednesday we arrived at Ravelo at lunchtime, ate and then walked out of the town to some hills in the distance. When we got there we used GPS (Global Postioning Satilites) to accurately measure the area conserved. In all we walked for 2 1/2 hours. Not a lot but I'm still getting used to living at high altitude and it was only a warm up for the next day. In the evening we went to a community 1/2 an hour further on and stayed there for the night.

The woods (only low growing trees) we went to on Wednesday in the distance (pic below left) , and my boss Sergio (right) and David one of the technicians.

Thursday we started off on motorbikes and went to a community and found someone who knew the area we wanted to go and look at. Then we went to a high point on the bike and looked over the conservation area. We then started an hours desent to the river at the bottom of the conservation area. I had jelly legs by the end of all that down hill walking. We had lunch (sardine rolls and biscuits Sarah had made before I left) in a beautiful spot by a stream with pools.

Then set off along the river to record the missing information for this area. The techicians went off with the GPS and the camposino (what the country folk are called) and my boss and I took photos and drawings to record the different types of vegetation and to look for erosion. This was tiring enough, but we then had to get back to the community! The technician walked straight up a 60 or 70 percent slope to continue collecting the GPS data and to measure the area and my boss and I followed a path by the river back to the community. Unfortunately it was too good to be true and we had a steep climb back out of the valley to the community. By the end of it I felt that I had almost walked too much that day! I then got back on the motorbike for a 40 minute ride back to Ravelo, to catch the 3pm bus back to Surce, with less leg room and people standing in the isles all the way back to Surce.

See the bottom of the valley follow that along and around the corner some and thats where we started from and we still had a load of climbing to do!

Needless to say I slept well that night.

As I write this Alana is playing next to me with some bottle lids and keeps saying gras (her form of Gracias (Thank you)).

E is for Escalator

It is interesting to think that we are now more advanced than Aberystwyth as we now have an escalator in Sucre, the only one for who knows how many miles around. It has caused quite a bit of excitement in the city as it's the first time many people both young and old have ever seen one or even experienced one. To the point that there is a security guard stationed at the bottom helping people to get onto it.

So why do we now have an escalator, well its all part of a new super duper shopping mall, which by Bolivian standards is huge, (but by UK standards quite small). So instead of our small pokey supermarket we now have super SAS with probably the same amount of merchandise just more spread out. A shopper can now choose from a range of different trolleys from little ones for children to push around (though many adults seem to like stooping over these) big ones with baby seats and even ones with little cars underneath, which seem initially like a great idea until you realise how easy your little one can either escape or help themselves to items on the lower shelves without you realising a thing.

We now also have what we think is a three screen cinema (yet to be tried out) with its own food court as well as other services and shops that are opening up in the available spaces. It has caused quite a stir so far as well as traffic jams. But makes like easier for us as we are now 3 blocks closer than the old supermarket.

Moulding Chronicle May 2008 Letter No 5

Dear Friends,

LOOKING BACK OVER 6 MONTHS

In April we hit the land mark of 6 months here in Bolivia. The day itself 21st April passed unnoticed but now seems like a good time for us to give you some reflections on this time. It has been a harder time than we expected it to be but we can both say that we have seen God leading and protecting us through this time. We hope that the next 6 months still with its challenges will see us begin to thrive here.

Ed There is a word in Spanish 'Esperar' which means two different things in English, to hope and to wait. I think that this is probably a good word for these past months. We arrived in Bolivia and found life challenging, missing family and having different things making us feel unsettled. Through this time I had to hope and trust in God that He would carry my family and I through this time, again and again He did, though we didn't feel particularly close to him.

Our last year in the UK was very busy, visiting people at weekends and just generally being busy. Here in Sucre there is not that much to do at the weekends and I have had to learn to wait and to rest (partly due to life at high altitude). To be content to spend time with my family going to the park or a café for a Saturday morning and not rushing around. It's getting better but it is difficult to change something that has been so ingrained in my life for many years that 'I must be busy.'

The final hope has been that I would see Sarah happier here and having purpose. It was her passion for mission that started us on this road, but me who walked straight into the 'missionary role' with job and purpose.

Sarah It has been a tough 6 months what with one thing happening after another. However, it was whilst suffering with shingles that something suddenly changed, my perspective had shifted from feeling, lonely, insecure and so far from home to a more realistic analysis of our life here in Sucre, which actually has many positive aspects such as being able to do a job share so Ed gets to spend some quality time with Alana, learning a new language and culture amongst many more.

As yet I still have no defined role, and get frustrated as I keep pushing doors that don't open, but I have to keep reminding myself that God has called us here as a family and that he has his plans and purposes for each one of us.

In adjusting to life here one of the biggest struggles for us both has been in adjusting to a people orientated culture, not an easy task for two introverted task orientated individuals from a very task orientated culture.

Alana on the other hand is just enjoying life and all the new and exciting things that she discovers. Her vocabulary has also increased to about 6 words now including water, coca cola and pear.

Phase 2

Every new international staff member is required to attend an extended orientation period of three weeks, taking a more in depth look at FH as an organisation, how to live and work in another culture as well as many other things.

Within a matter of weeks our 3 week phase 2 programme set to take place in Peru, changed to a one week intense programme here in Sucre with us and the other Brit family.

This resulted in a very full week with lots of running around in order to fit around the children's schedules. However, it was a very positive week learning more about FH as an organisation, how our world view shapes the way in which we do things and more about ourselves.

I think we all came away from it feeling challenged about our own world views and the things we do as a result. The other point that stuck with us was about the need to change a persons values and beliefs in order to bring about positive changes in a persons actions. Something vitally important for an organisation such as FH which is involved with development work. A bit more info about this can be found on our blog.

Praise God For:

An encouraging and challenging time during phase 2

Beginning to feel more settled and at home

Opportunities to explore more of the area

The friendships we have with other expats

Please pray for:

Opportunities to get to know more local people and the courage to take those opportunities

Edwin, one of the shoeshine boys Sarah often chats with in the plaza

Our health, as we have all been suffering with colds and Alana with a bad cough

Ed, Sarah & Alana

Phase Two

 

Every new international staff member of Food for the Hungry (FH) is required to attend an extended orientation period of three weeks, taking a more in depth look at FH as an organisation, how to live and work in another culture as well as many other things.  For us however, things were a little different and we had a select numbers of the topics all crammed into one week taking place here in Sucre.

 

It would take too long to tell you about it all, so we have just put together a short snippet of what we looked at. 

 

Servant hood

We are here in Bolivia to serve the people of Bolivia, and so first of all it is important that we understand clearly what it is to serve. Every morning we studied together a chapter of Darrow Miller's book 'SERVANTHOOD: The Vocation of the Christian.' These provided a thought provoking look at what attitudes we as servants should have, different areas of serving and most of all how Jesus served and what we can learn from him and then be challenged to implement into our own lives. 

 

Food for the hungry

It is important for us to know what is the ethos behind the things that we do within FH, and what the mission, vision and values are. We knew some of these things before we arrived, and it was this small glimpse of what we saw that drew us to work with the organisation.  In a nutshell FH exists to work with the poorest of the poor and help them to solve their own problems and improve the lives of their children and their community in four basic areas of need physical, spiritual, mental and social. The vision of FH worldwide is a vision of a community – a vision of what a biblically based community can look like.  

 

During our phase 2 programme we learnt more about the structure of FH and how it as an organisation is seeking to meet needs in the way that God wants needs met, and how FH as an organisation is continuing to evolve and grow.

 

One of our days we spent with a very humble man called Arturo Cuba who works for FH teaching and training staff about worldviews. A worldview being our inner belief and value system that dictates how we as individuals and communities act and react to different things. Apparently from as young an age as 7 a worldview has been set from what has been learnt and observed up to that point.

 

Arturo was talking about how it is possible to change a worldview, but that there needs to be a willingness to change which can and often means being at odds with the culture, resulting in actions and practices that need changing.  This was an important concept for us to come to grips with as we seek to understand the people here in Bolivia, and for those who put together programmes and projects for FH to be involved with. 

 

For example – a sanitation project may be set up to install toilets in every home that are more hygienic than defecating all over the yard.  However, it is unlikely that they will be used as defecating into the ground goes against the worldview and understanding of the sacredness of 'Pachamama'(Mother earth).   In order for the people to understand and use a more hygienic way of doing their business, then their worldview, their system of beliefs and values first need to change.

 

With this in mind Arturo expresses the need to base any value and belief systems on the bible.  Another example we looked at was with regards to children not going to school.  When you keep asking the question Why? you eventually come down to the belief in a very fatalistic society that this hard way of living is how life is, and its never going to change.  If you can change this belief, then the society slowly changes, people realize that it doesn't always have to be this hard, that there is a way out, then they begin to see the benefits of the children being educated and thus send them to school.

 

Family

We also looked at the importance of family. Making time for our family and not putting work above it, and also involving our children in the decisions we make, as much as they are able to understand. This led into looking at realistic expectations of what we hope to achieve during our time here, whether that be speaking the language, making friends in a culture that is very family orientated and not easy for outsiders to make enter or how much we can do in our jobs and the time frame for that to happen.

Happy day :o)

A warm sunny Saturday in May

On the 10^th May 6 missionary's decided to be tourists for the day and went off for a 3 hour horse ride from Sucre to Yotala, about 18 Km from Sucre. The 6 included Sarah and myself, and we a great time trotting and cantering through some beautiful countryside and enjoying seeing it at a slow but bouncy pace. As well as the views it was an opportunity to get to know each other better while avoiding inch long thorns and going down some steep paths. The last part of the ride was going along the riverbed next to Yotala and cantering through the river, which was great fun. We then met up with the rest of the families that didn't come on the ride (including Alana) and enjoyed a long and leisurely lunch.

Ed's first Campo Trip

Finally after many weeks of talking about it at the end of April I finally got to go into the Campo (rural areas) for 3 days and see some of the areas that I have been making maps of, with my own eyes. The purpose was to help teach some of our (FH) technicians and some of the government workers in the Municipals of Ravelo and Ocuri, about the mapping programmes we use. This was an interesting trip to the world of different cultures, granted the roads are not that good out here and the guys from Ravelo had a flat tyre, but still it was an eye opener.

Monday 28^th - April I left the office at 8am for the 3 hour drive to Ckara Ckara (where we have an office/house), stopping off on the way at a couple of offices to collect some computers for the training. It was great to see the countryside at ground level and not just from the air. The first part of the journey was through mountains, zig zagging down the side of one hill to cross a river and then climb back up the other side. Then just before we entered Ravelo (the first notable sized settlement since leaving Sucre 1 ½ hours earlier) the terrain levelled out and the rocky land gave way to large areas of cultivated land of wheat, barley, oats, beans, peas and a number of other crops. It was quite a change.

Ckara Ckara is a small drive through village with huts made of mud walls and corrugated roofs. The FH two storey, brick walled office stands out like a sore thumb. The village itself is in a flat plain and is very windy at this time of year, which brings in lots of dust storms especially coming off of the roads. That said it is a beautiful pace to look at. The office, you know how it is in the UK in Summer you need to take a jumper to church because it is always cold inside well the office there is even worse. Outside it is warm and sunny and a T-shirt is enough, but inside I had to wear a thermal T-shirt, shirt, jumper, thick fleece coat and a hat in order to be just about at the right temperature.

Once we arrived we sorted out the room and computers and prepared for a 12:30 start. That time came and went and no one arrived. Finally at 1:30 we decided we would have lunch, a lunch Bolivia style with lots of boiled rice and potato and a fried egg!!! An hour later the guys from Ravelo arrived. After they'd had lunch we started training but the Ocuri guys didn't show at all (our guys were coming the next day). A few hours later we went to one of our work areas to collect some data using GPS's and returned to the office after dark. As we drove the only signs of life was the occasional lamppost marking a community that had electricity. We worked until 9 and then the plan was that everyone would sleep over at the office, in order to start at a reasonable time the following day. However, the Ravelo guys had other plans despite the fact that they had a flat tyre and a spare tyre also with a hole in it! So our driver took them back to Ravelo returning to us past midnight.

Tuesday 29^th - The plan was that we would start at 8:30 with a full day of training! Well plans can change, and they usually do here – several times! 9:30 the speaker for the morning arrived, 10:30 one of our guys arrived followed half an hour later by another of our guys and then at midday the guys from Ravelo arrived only 3 ½ hours late! So eventually we got started. I did some teaching which I enjoyed as they were a group that wanted to learn. That night we finished at gone 11 and the Ravelo guys thought that it was unlikely that they would be returning for the last half day of training.

Wednesday 30^{th -} Last half day training with our 3 Technicians for Natural Resources. Despite not having any of the previous guys return we had a very positive day helping our own technicians get to grips with the programmes. Including an unprompted clearing of the office, when we saw water coming through the ceiling because the night before there was no water on the top floor and someone had left a tap on. So after brushing water down the stairs and out of the front door we carried on, before packing up and getting a guided tour back to Sucre with my boss showing me the different areas where we are working.

So that was the first trip, it was a good time and I look forward to exploring more of the campo.

Moulding Chronicle March 2008 Letter No. 4

Dear Friends,

Since our last letter at the beginning of the year we have been enjoying the space and freedom of our new home, as well as experiencing many new changes.

Once our formal language study finished Ed began work with FH. He plodded though the first couple of days not knowing what he was supposed to be doing as he had no supervisor, but the second week he joined with others on a training course about using the computer system he is to be working with.

A month down the line and he has started doing bits and pieces of work on different projects. He yet awaits a trip out to the 'Campo' (rural areas) the dates of which keep changing.

After a tough month settling into the role as full time mum, other opportunities have opened up to give Sarah some other focus outside of the home. The first of which was starting on a 17 week Pregnancy crisis training course. With homework, books to read, videos to watch and an exam at the end of it, it should provide good practice for Spanish if nothing else..

Sarah has also started working one day a week with \FH whilst Ed is home with Alana. She is working on the Child Development Programme in Horno Ckasa (a poor district on the outskirts of Sucre), though as yet she doesn't know what this work will entail.

Sarah also has joined the (very competitive) ladies volley ball group on a Monday evening. Wednesday evening we take it in turns to attend a bible study group.

Alana is doing great, and is growing up fast. She has now moved into a big bed of her own which she has taken to well despite one night slipping off and ending up underneath. She has stared going to nursery 2 mornings a week so at last she has some little friends to play with, and she seems to be enjoying it.

Ciria

One of the customs here in Bolivia is to have help around the house, as things get dirtier quicker and take much longer to clean without the use of machines. Very often they are young girls who need to earn extra money so that they can complete their studies. So in order to keep in with the culture 2 mornings a week Ciria comes to our house and helps me with all sorts of chores from, cleaning, cooking, ironing, and childcare as well as being a great source of company and encouragement.

Ciria is a mature student and a single mum with 2 children of her own to care for, Immanuel (3) and Rachel (5mths). She has a hard life with a difficult family background, with parents who are split. Her mother lives and works in Spain, her father lives local but she has little to do with him. With her mother away she has been left with the added responsibility of also looking after her two younger brothers and younger sister.

We praise God that though she works for us and helps us out a lot, our home becomes a refuge and safe place for her, as well as providing her with a job and money to help her finish her studies.

Praise God For:

· Our house

· Ciria, and that she enjoys coming to our house

· The arrival of another British family working with FH who have become good friends

· The nursery, that Alana has friends to play with

Please pray for:

· Clarity and focus in our jobs

· Opportunities to arise through the pregnancy crisis training course

· Good friendships

Ed, Sarah & Alana

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D is for Dinner

It’s not really the main topic I want to write about but just happens to fit in here, what I want to talk about is one of the oddities of Sucre. It has just one supermarket and so you would think that is great thinking of UK supermarkets always (well pretty much always) having what you want. But not here, one day you may find in the supermarket (or in fact in the city generally) for example chedder cheese, and you think I don’t need it today but I’ll get some next time. So next time you go in you can’t find it and you may not find it again for weeks or months. The other week Melissa (another Brit working with FH saw some Cheerio’s in the supermarket, but thought normally they are to sweet for my children so I’ll not get them, she then told this to a friend who said don’t be silly go and buy some there not in very often. So she went back and bought some.

So what are some of the things we have gotten excited about seeing in the supermarket. Kellogg’s Cornflakes, Coco Pops and Frosties, Shredded Wheat bite size, taco sauce and wraps, prawns (though not brought because they were to expensive), mushrooms (tinned and fresh) and today best so far baked beans, not quite heinz, but they were good enough. We have been here almost 6 months and have missed baked beans so coming home tonight to find Sarah had found some was great, so guess what was for tea tonight?

This constant flux of goods available to buy brings out some interesting behaviour. Firstly when Sarah finds something new and good she’ll buy 2 or 3 of them, as she doesn’t know when she’ll next be able to buy, then debate with herself whether to buy more or is that just greedy. Secondly she’ll get excited about it because it is something we are missing from the UK, or something new she can make. Thirdly as today with the baked beans she almost considered calling Melissa to tell her they were in and did she want any. Sarah has never got so excited over food shopping, but as she says ‘it keeps food shopping interesting, because you never know what you are going to find!’

D is also for Dinosaurs

On the outskirts of the city there is a large quarry for cement. Over the years they have found a number of dinosaur footprints in the quarry that have been studied by many scientists from across the world. In the past it was possible to get up close to the quarry face and see the footprints up close (you may still be able to but we didn’t). Now we think that it is only possible to see them from a distance, from the new visitors centre that has been constructed in the last few years. A few weeks back we went to visit with another Bolivian family and their two young boys. Alana enjoyed the visit and playing with the two boys. She also managed to get a piece of all of our ice creams; I think it’s the blue eyes and the pretty face that do it (Ed wasn’t so fortunate!!!).

The visitor centre begins with a zigzag path including a timeline of events, leading up to the entrance of the park that includes life size scale models of the different dinosaurs found here (along with recently added sounds). There is also a T-rex, whose footprints haven’t been discovered here, but was thought to be too famous not to include. From the quarry you also get some great views looking back over the city and the surrounding countryside.

D is for Dogs

There are lots and lots of them here and very few of them would get anywhere near crufts as they live on the street and some look in need of a good wash and brush up. Some of the Dogs have homes and spend their days sat outside their gate watching the world go by, and then at night they are brought in to protect the house. Others roam the streets in packs, or on their own and will literary eat anything they find. After the Carnival and the many water balloon fights, there where many multi-coloured dog poos around the city!!!!

All this said people do love their dogs and the dogs seem very loyal to them even if they don’t get treated well. We have seen many people walking around carrying in their arms dogs that look to young to have left their mothers and also dogs that get to where their own special clothes!!!!!