Bolivia 2013: Independencia

Hello from Potosí! It blows my mind when I think of the last 48 hours that I even got here! On Thursday, I bought a plane ticket and then it turned out the plane was full. Thursday afternoon I bought another plane ticket, got to the airport at 7 am for the 8am flight, and left the ground at 12:30 pm after the flight was delayed approximately 6 times. I then got in a taxi and drove 2.5 hours to Potosí, only to find that the taxi driver knew nothing about the streets and was from Sucre. After getting Mary on the phone, talking through directions, and going around many a block, I finally made it! God is good.

Within the first 3 hours of my arrival, I had hauled my 50 lb suitcase up three flights of stairs to the Hawthorne’s house, sat in on an informal English class that Mary is conducting with some Bolivian girls, went to visit the clinic, met Esther (the physical therapist), sat in on an appointment with one of her patients, walked back to the Hawthorne’s, got my suitcase back down the stairs to a taxi, dropped Mary’s friend off at the bus station, and arrived at my home for the next month. In the next couple hours before I went to bed, I unpacked and set up my room, locked myself out of the kitchen, used a ladder to climb in the window, and attempted to figure out how to do dishes without a sink or a faucet. LIFE IS GOOD. And I’m amazed I don’t have altitude sickness.

Here’s a run-down of my living situation and what I’ll be doing for the next four weeks!

The home of Eysel (the nurse at the clinic) is a very common set-up in Potosí. There is a door in the wall coming off the street, which opens into a sort of 2-story courtyard with various doors in the adobe walls. Eysel lives on the lower level, and my room is directly above her. There are two other ‘homes’ within the larger complex, as far as I can tell, and other members of Eysel’s family live there. There is a sister, some in-laws, and Eysel’s adorable 8 month-year-old, and they all have separate living spaces opening out onto the courtyard, which is chock full of clothslines, cleaning supplies, and wash buckets. The bathroom is on the lower level, and consists of a toilet, a sink, a free standing bathtub, and a shower head that sticks out over the open tub. It wasn’t made for tall gringas like me, so showering is a great quad workout. I also have…drum roll please….my own kitchen!! It’s adorable, and is quite well stocked with all the necessary non-food items, but I must admit I’ve never thought about a kitchen without a faucet. There’s water next to the bathroom downstairs, but it really is a conundrum as to how you rinse dishes without getting everything dirty again.

Everyone talks about how cold Potosí is, and when I looked at the forecast before I came I laughed because the coldest it ever gets at this time of year is like, 45 degrees. Hah, I’m from Cleveland, it’s all good……. Never, EVER underestimate the value of doors that close all the way and this one thing called heat. It’s amazing how cold 50 degrees is when there’s no insulation…But my bed is wonderfully warm, and if there’s one thing us Clevelanders can do, it’s layer =)

Ok, now for the schedule part. This is about to get all kinds of crazy.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Go to the clinic in the morning with Eysel and work with Esther all morning. Eat lunch either at the clinic, the Hawthorne’s, or at a street vendor. Bus over to another part of town and meet with a Spanish tutor for 3 hours in the afternoon. Figure out how to cook dinner without burning the world.

Tuesday: Study the cultural history of Potosí with Mary in the morning; work with Esther in the afternoon. Repeat food attempts.

Thursday: Sight-see in the morning, clinic in the afternoon. Decide that food is too much work and forget about it.

Weekends: Sleep? Hahah

So yeah! It’s going to be a whirlwind of a month. Today I went shopping in the market with Mary and tried to get various useful things. I got some fruits and veggies, but I haven’t found the purifying stuff that you soak them in yet, so for now I’m just staring longingly at my avocados. Afterwards, I went back with Eysel to the house and couldn't figure out what the eating plan was, so I ate cereal alone in my kitchen and suddenly felt very lonely. This is the first place I've ever been in my life where I literally know no one. And although my Spanish is getting better, I definitely don’t understand everything, and I’m in sort of a constant state of wondering whether I missed something (like whether I was supposed to eat with Eysel’s family…). At the same time however, I felt very strongly last night that this is going to be a rare and precious time of communion with Jesus in a solitude that I’m not going to encounter many more times in my life. I reallyyy want to make the most of this, and pursue the things that I feel like God is beginning to teach me, so prayers for that would be greatly appreciated, as always. In terms of the trust thing, that’s already uncomfortably necessary, even down to eating and getting where I need to go. Cheers to independence! And praise to the Sustainer.

I love you all more than words can describe, and I appreciate your community so, so much, especially now that God has taken me out of that community for a time.

In His peace,

Cat