We went to the meeting Saturday, it was very nice, but so crowded because of all the visitors for the Kingdom Hall construction. I don´t think everyone got a seat, but we came early enough so we did have one :)
Sunday we worked in the kitchen all day, starting at 6 a.m. The kitchen they use is actually from the house of a family from the hall, but it has a nice big kitchen and dining area. Everyone leaves the work site at lunchtime and comes to the house for lunch, but they have to do it in two shifts because there are about 50 workers, who don´t all fit in the dining room.
Today we worked at the construction site, doing whatever they needed. We did some site cleanup, helped shovel sand and rocks to make cement, and layed cinder blocks for the foundation. In the middle of the afternoon it poured so we all huddled into a tiny shelter to wait it out. After the rain stopped, we had to continue working for a little bit, and it was incredibly muddy all over the site. We had to help dig the rainwater out of the trenches with buckets so they could continue working on the foundation. Now we are muddy and tired, but it was so worth it!
It is also very interesting working on this project, because there is a group of 20 some brothers and sisters that bethel organizes, and they all travel together all over the country working on one KH build after another. They have to stay with families from the hall and deal with whatever circumstances they get. They take the lead in the build and help the locals with safety and construction. Also, they invite volunteers from other congregations to come and help each week. And of course the locals from the congregation are working too. There are a few people who are helping with the project, who are originally from England and some from Denmark. It´s really interesting to work with such a mix of people (and languages), but of course it works so well because we all serve Jehovah.
We will be working through Thursday of this week, and then on to Rurrenabaque for the remainder of our trip. The computers are painfully slow, so it´s not worth uploading many pictures. I´m sorry, I will try to upload more when I can.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Friday, January 17, 2014
Day 3
We met for service at their (tiny) Kindgdom hall this morning. I see why they are building a new one. They had a nice big group for service, although, I believe many of them were from Santa Cruz and are up here to help build the hall for a week. We split into different groups and walked to the territory, the whole morning, from about 9 to 11 a.m. It was getting hot at that point and our feet hurt so bad, but it was definitely worth it!
It was so nice to meet the brothers and sisters and learn about them. At the end of the morning, a few from the hall were so nice and offered to go out to lunch with us. They took us to a delicious Chinese restaraunt and were very fun to talk to. They tried hard to communicate with us, either in English or in Spanish, so that we could understand. I even got some of their humor haha.
We got invited to go hiking up one of the mountains later this afternoon with a group from the hall. I´m sure it will be beautiful!
Tomorrow we will go in service again for the morning and then their meeting is tomorrow night at 7:30. Then they work on their new Kingdom hall on Sundays through Thursdays.
I forgot to bring my camera cord with me to the internet cafe (sorry) but I will try hard to remember next time so you can see some pictures!
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Day 2
Hello everyone!
I´m sorry if I type random symbols, the keyboards are different here haha. We arrived into Santa Cruz yesterday, Jan 15 at 5 a.m. after traveling for roughly 24 hours! So the little sleep we did get on the plane, was not nearly enough, we were exhausted, but not done traveling. A brother from Santa Cruz who drives taxi picked us up and drove us to the bus station and was very helpful. From there, we took a shared taxi to the town of Vallegrande. The roads were full of potholes and the ride was extremely bumpy, but we were so tired we managed to drift in and out of sleep. The ride was about 5 hours long, and it was beautiful! We drove up into the green lush mountains, which is where Vallegrande is located. We were dropped off at the house of a Witness couple from the States, where they helped us find our hostel and the Kingdom Hall and a few other things around town. We then slept all afternoon, woke up for dinner and a shower (much needed) and then went back to sleep for the night, a good ten hours.
Today we are just finding our way around and getting some things we need. They don´t have wifi anywhere so we are using an internet cafe. Hopefully I will be able to take some pictures and post them in a few days.
The weather is great! It feels like in the 70s and sunny, I love it!
Also, we are the only white people in town pretty much, it feels strange, but everyone is very friendly and helpful. No one speaks English, only Spanish, so we are doing our best at speaking and understanding, but it´s not perfect.
The cost of living here is very cheap, we had lunch yesterday for about $1.50 American dollars.
We are hoping to meet for service tomorrow through sunday, and go to meeting saturday night. Then they work on their new Kingdom Hall Monday through Thursday, so hopefully we will be able to do that next week.
That is all for now, I hope to put pictures up soon for you all to see, it´s beautiful here :)
I´m sorry if I type random symbols, the keyboards are different here haha. We arrived into Santa Cruz yesterday, Jan 15 at 5 a.m. after traveling for roughly 24 hours! So the little sleep we did get on the plane, was not nearly enough, we were exhausted, but not done traveling. A brother from Santa Cruz who drives taxi picked us up and drove us to the bus station and was very helpful. From there, we took a shared taxi to the town of Vallegrande. The roads were full of potholes and the ride was extremely bumpy, but we were so tired we managed to drift in and out of sleep. The ride was about 5 hours long, and it was beautiful! We drove up into the green lush mountains, which is where Vallegrande is located. We were dropped off at the house of a Witness couple from the States, where they helped us find our hostel and the Kingdom Hall and a few other things around town. We then slept all afternoon, woke up for dinner and a shower (much needed) and then went back to sleep for the night, a good ten hours.
Today we are just finding our way around and getting some things we need. They don´t have wifi anywhere so we are using an internet cafe. Hopefully I will be able to take some pictures and post them in a few days.
The weather is great! It feels like in the 70s and sunny, I love it!
Also, we are the only white people in town pretty much, it feels strange, but everyone is very friendly and helpful. No one speaks English, only Spanish, so we are doing our best at speaking and understanding, but it´s not perfect.
The cost of living here is very cheap, we had lunch yesterday for about $1.50 American dollars.
We are hoping to meet for service tomorrow through sunday, and go to meeting saturday night. Then they work on their new Kingdom Hall Monday through Thursday, so hopefully we will be able to do that next week.
That is all for now, I hope to put pictures up soon for you all to see, it´s beautiful here :)
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