We're back...

So we made it back to Bolivia with no problems and got to see a very lovely town. There was no trouble at the Bolivia border so we are now legally living here again. We didn't even have to pay the fee we anticipated for staying longer than our visas permitted.

The town we went to was called Arica, Chile. It's the northern most big town in Chile and was the closest for us to get to. It was a very nice town and we had fun exploring the city. It was on the beach but also sort of in a desert. It is winter now here in South America so it wasn't tourist season and we were practically the only North Americans there. Everyday started off cloudy then became sunny around lunch time and warmed up to about 70 degrees like clockwork. So it wasn't exactly swimming weather but very nice for strolling around. Even though we didn't go swimming in the ocean it was just nice to sit on the beach, see the waves and smell that salty, ocean smell. And we did a lot of walking over the three days we were there...a couple miles each day probably. The city was built perfectly for walking everywhere...so we did just that...got a map and walked everywhere.

It took about 13 hours to get there and the bus ride was long but very pretty. Here are some pictures of the way there...

Yes, that is snow. It was very cold for some of the trip.


The City

The main street of the city was a pedestrian walkway and it was always filled with people. One thing that made us realize we were used to Bolivia was that it was really hard for us to get used to the fact that pedestrians had the right-of-way in Arica. Another thing we had to get used to was that nobody ate dinner until at least 8:00 and some restaurants didn't even open until then. So we had to force ourselves to eat later so that we weren't the only ones in the restaurants.

A beautiful church in the main town square.

The big hill that the city was originally built on.

Our favorite store in town.


The Beach

I thought that this scene was interesting and a wonderful illustration. The blue little building is an alter or memorial to two people who had passed away and below it it says "Christ lives".


One cool thing was there were interesting and inspiring phrases painted all over the city. This one says "Our character is the result of our conduct". It was just one of many.


El Morro

So we decided to hike up to the top of El Morro which was
this hill where the city was originally built.

The beginning of the path. Looks very inviting, huh?

The path from about half-way.

The Chilean flag at the top of the hill.

The view of the city from the top.

A statue of Christ that overlooks the city.

The view from the other side.

So now we are fine for another 90 days then we need to leave again and come back. Then when we're in the States we have to get a visa that we can use to get our one year visa. All of this is because Bolivia just recently changed their immigration policies for US citizens. And we didn't find out the changes until last week when we tried to get our visas in the same way that all our other teammates had but it didn't work for us. It's quite interesting being told that you need to leave the country and there is really no way around it. We maybe know a little more how immigrants in the US feel.

So we think we figured out the best and cheapest way to get all of this business taken care of. Hopefully it all works out. Thanks for all your prayers for this step...we really appreciate it.

Off to Chile in the morning

We just wanted to let you know of our visa situation here and maybe ask for some prayer. We knew we would be the first on our team to deal with new visa laws because we were the first to arrive after Bolivia changed it's immigration laws regarding US citizens. We were not sure just how much these new laws would effect us but have now found out that these new laws effect us quite directly. In the past, someone living in Bolivia could obtain a tourist visa at the airport then use the 90 days this visa allows to apply for a one year visa. So this is what we did. When we went to get our one year visa, we were told that we need a different kind of visa to obtain the one year visa. We were also told that we can only get this certain visa if we go to the States or another country. So we decided that we could get this visa once we are in the States next December.

The problem is that we now have gone past our 90 days of being here on a tourist visa and are paying each day now just to be in Bolivia. Luckily with our visas we can leave the country and then come back and be good for another 90 days. This seems like our only option for the time being because its the cheapest and most sensible. So we are going to the closest town in Chile for a couple days and hoping that we will be able to get back into the country with our existing visas. Two different lawyers have told us that we should have no problem but you never quite know in South America.

We're sure an adventure awaits us and we'll tell you about it when we get back.

Chile, here we come!

A day with the kids from Muyurina

We had all the kids from one of the homes over to our house this weekend for an afternoon. It was a very fun afternoon and we just thought we'd share some pictures.

This little one is Lily. She is the baby of some of our friends
(and teammates) Nate and Kate Spies.

Roasting some coffee

This past weekend we had a chance to roast some coffee with our team leader Mike. The name of the coffee is "Bolivia's Best" and is one the business' that helps support our orphanages. Most of the unroasted coffee is shipped to the States where it is roasted and sent out to whoever buys it (look below the pictures for information on how to buy it). All the proceeds go to the orphanages. Anyway, we roast some of it here in Bolivia as well which I love cause we can buy it here and have it to drink.

If you know me, you know that I have worked in one coffee shop or another since I was 16 so I loved seeing the process of roasting. And for those of you who are also interested, here are some pictures...

Juan, our coffee roaster, has some coffee trees in his backyard.

The coffee cherries up close. Juan said that these cherries would be red in a few months.

Our unroasted coffee. These beans come from a different part of Bolivia called Yungas. They are shipped to the States to be roasted in Michigan and then some is shipped to Juan to roast here in Bolivia. They looked like peanuts.

First step: pouring the coffee into the roaster.

Then the roaster gets to work.

Once it's ready to come out it starts popping like popcorn. Then it's poured in this bin that helps spread out the coffee to cool quickly. It is really hot and steamy when it comes out.

Cooling.

The very beautiful finished product.

Last step: weighing and bagging. I felt like I was back at work.

Also, if you're interested in buying some of our coffee you can go to
www.boliviasbest.com
and buy some. And just so you know, it is very good coffee!

My first futbol game

So we spent a quiet afternoon at a soccer game here in Cochabamba. Well, it wasn't quiet. No soccer game in Bolivia is quiet. But it was fun and it was my first soccer game in Bolivia. Unfortunately our team lost...badly...but it was okay. On the plus side the view from the stadium is just beautiful because it's surrounded by mountains. I couldn't really capture that in my pictures though. There was a lot of chanting, singing, fireworks, flying objects (example: full bottles of shaken up coke) and craziness from both teams' fans.

But the big finale came once we left the game. We were walking out of the stadium and were on our way to find a place to eat dinner. As we were walking in this very crowded area there were suddenly tons of people running from something. There were at least 100 people running as fast as they could and we couldn't figure out what it was. At first I thought it was an out of control cooking fire or something until we saw people covering their noses and mouths. And we soon found out why. As we crossed the street...bang...the tear gas hit us all of a sudden. And I now know why they call it tear gas. It hurts! So we all started running away as fast as we could to get out of there and away from it. And eventually we did.

So I guess that's something that doesn't happen every day.

Dedication of House Number Five

There is a team from North Park here right now. They are a great team and it's a lot of fun for Matt and I to make connections with them. You know how the Covenant is.

They have done a lot since they got here but one special thing that they were a part of was dedicating and praying for House 5. We went to the future site of House 5 and took some time to pray for the house, the building, the house parents and especially for the children that will one day live there. It was awesome to be a part of the dedication and to think of how children that might be losing their parents and losing hope as we speak will have hope soon because of living at this house.

Mike talking to the team

Part of our team including me, Mike and Bonnie Timmer, Gracey Timmer breaking ground, Kristen, Michelle, Tiffany, Andrea and a couple of kids from Villa Israel. Villa Israel is one of the orphanages and is not far from this new site.