On Friday I rode with Jeff Sutton, the aviation director, out to the property for the new TV station and sanitarium. It is a beautiful and sizable plot of pastureland just south of Santa Cruz toward La Guardia. They had just gotten the pump going on the well, using a diesel generator. The only structure they’ve started building so far is the guardhouse, but they are beginning to collect materials for the station facilities. I was able to see and visit with Luis Alfredo, Victor, Elizabeth, and Carina, some of my students from the last time I was here. They are now graduated and either working or studying here in Santa Cruz.
En sabado we went to church in Barrio Lindo, which means beautiful neighborhood, and the garden in front with its cypress and lilies and pristine shrubberies seemed to validate the name. As is typical, however, the compound walls are topped with razor wire and broken glass, which I hope is not symbolically significant.
Sometimes one can learn from the simplest things. On our way to church yesterday I noticed a number of people working in the street. Some washed the windshields of the taxis, some sold oranges, crackers, picolé, or newspapers, while others rode unicycles and juggled batons in front of stopped traffic at an intersection. They don’t wait around for some grand work, something that seems important. They take what they have, go out in the street, and make the most of it. Jeff told me they can actually make decent money that way.
In the afternoon we went to visit a grandma from the church named Fructuosa. She is dying of cancer, yet she was happy to have a house full of visitors. Her daughter was there, and she showed us a beautiful tablecloth her mother had just finished making. “When she is hurting she just sews faster,” she explained, going on to share that when the pain is the greatest is when she sings the loudest. Grandma shrugged and said simply, “the hymns are a great comfort.” And so we sang. I played their little electronic keyboard with no pedal that sounds like a kid’s toy in the aisle at Walmart, and she was thrilled.
In the back was a beautiful patio and fruit trees that she had planted, but she mentioned nothing of this to us. She was much more happy about Veronica, the young woman sitting by her side who she met in the park and brought to the Lord.
When we left, she asked if I would come back. “I hope so,” I said. “That’s a good answer” she replied.
This morning I helped Jeff and his wife Fawna and their two little girls move from their apartment next to the TV station here in town to a house outside of the city. It took two trips in the van, and Jeff and Fawna both commented on how annoyingly easy it is to accumulate stuff.
On my way to help them, about a block from their house, I was hailed by what looked like a taxi, and I thought, this is backwards. There was a driver and an old man in the back wearing glasses. “We are with the national police” the driver said, and leaned across to show me his ID. “Here, look at it” he seemed proud, though to me it seemed hecho en casa. “We just have some questions for you because there a lot of people carrying false passports and papers around here lately” he said. Yeah, and you’re one to talk I thought. “Do you have your passport?” he asked.
“No, I don’t carry it because it’s not safe. A lot of people get robbed,” I said, thinking of all the stories I’ve already heard from the Suttons and the other volunteers, most of whom had been accosted at least once during their stay here, one even as close to the station as the front gate.
“That’s okay,” he said “where are you staying? What hotel?”
“Ninguno” I said. “Me quedo con amigos no más.”
“Where?” he wanted to know. I made a vague motion with my hand. “Can you show us?”
“Mejor que no” I told him. “If there is a problem, give me a telephone number where I can call you.” I kept waiting for him to pull out an arma and tell me to get in the car, or at least to give them everything I had, which was only 14 bolivianos (not even $3.00) but he just smiled.
“No, that’s okay.” He said. “We’re just asking,” and he motioned for me to go.
That’s about all the adventure I’ve had so far. It’s so much more fun this time around to be able to communicate more with the people. I’ve also been able to visit with Victor, Luis Alfredo, Carina, and Elizabeth, four of my students from 2006 when I was here last. I asked the Lord to give me an opportunity to be a blessing here and not just be sitting around waiting, and so I’ve kept busy enough. Today I helped one of the brothers with some maintenance projects at another volunteer’s apartment. And the good news is that they just told me not to buy a bus ticket because I’ll have a flight out tomorrow!
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