HEFY BOLIVIA 2014

THURSDAY

We landed in La Paz from Miami after a seven hour flight at about 5:00 in the morning and it was like 40 degrees which I was not expecting AT ALL. The altitude definitely hit me, and while were in line to get our visas, a boy from another humanitarian trip passed out! I felt headaches and shortness of breath but this kid collapsed and it was so scary. After we went through customs and got our passports stamped, it was too late for breakfast. We had to drop off our stuff at the Hostel and then get back on the bus toward Lake Titicaca.

The streets were lined with people ALL THE TIME and I don't think there were any traffic laws. At least none that anyone (including our bus driver) obeyed.

We had a few minutes to drop off our stuff and change at the Hostel called "Grandma's Inn" in Spanish. It was surprisingly nice, but we wouldn't get to stay here until the next night. We drank Cocaine tea because our leaders told us that it would help with altitude sickness and suppress hunger. It was pretty flavorless, but most of the members of my group hated it! It was hilarious. I'm pretty sure that some of them were afraid that they were actually taking cocaine.

So our tour guide, Pablo, told us a little bit later in our trip, that Bolivia is a superstitious country and they do really strange and superstitious things, like burning these strange stillbirth alpacas as a sacrifice. Needless to say, I was sufficiently creeped out and wondered what kind of people I would be meeting on this trip.

We drove for several hours to Lake Titicaca, and then took a boat to an island on the lake. We went to a town called Copacabana and ate lunch there at a precious little restaurant.

This was like a chicken soup. It was pretty decent and pretty different at the same time. This would be our main dish for the next few days.

That is fried trout with some rice, french fries, and bean things. It was pretty good until I found bones in the trout and that freaked me out.

After lunch we traded our American money for Bolivianos and then boarded a small boat to head for the Isla de la Sol, or Island of the Sun. The ride was about 45 minutes and freezing with super harsh winds.

When we got to the Island, I had to use the bathroom. When I found a bathroom, I found out that I had to pay. I later found out that I had to pay for almost all other bathrooms that weren't in our hostels. Then we explored some ruins that were once a temple, built by the Incas or something like that, I couldn't understand what the tour guide was saying.The ruins were cool though!

We then hiked uphill for like half an hour to our hostel called the Hostel Maya.

This is our tour guide Pablo, he was amazing. He told us everything we needed to know about everything.

There were also alpacas. And llamas. Everywhere. I loved it.

The rest of the group went on a hike, but I was so exhausted and starving that I couldn't have even tried. Actually I probably could have tried but I didn't want to.

The sun began to set and our view was AMAZING.

I loved how the colors complimented eachother.

The moon was HUGE reflected over the lake. I'm so proud of this adorable alpaca picture I took.

When we went to bed that night I looked into the curtains to see out the window and discovered a bunch of dead bugs. It was almost the scariest moment of my life. I had one of the moms in my room and later that night her daughter threw up so she had to leave. Most people were cold the first night, but I was really warm. 

FRIDAY

The next morning for breakfast we ate bananas and bread with jam. The bread there was waaay dense though and I can't say that I enjoyed it.

We also had cocaine tea! So I took a trendy photo of it.

A photo of the sunrise over the lake. It was so incredible.
After breakfast we took a 3 hour hike. I'm not 100% sure what the final mileage of the hike turned out to be, but I wrote in my journal that it was 10 miles (or that it felt like 10 miles) so that's probably pretty accurate.

The hike consisted of a lot of ups and downs. But more ups. The views were incredible though.

Our tour guide told us that these were offerings that the people here would make to Mother Earth, so naturally, a few members of our group made their own.

Here is me again in those super fashionable shoes.

These were home made bricks that people on the island used to build houses.

Rachel making an offering to Mother Earth!

Thousands of years ago the people who occupied the island cut these sections out of the mountain so that they could farm.

This labyrinth was also built thousands of years ago. It was made by the Incas I think but I could be wrong. I should have probably paid more attention. But they were super cool and they overlooked the gorgeous lake!

Madison and me!

My trendy shoes plus my dinosaur socks were a combo that could not be beat!

I spent the entire lake time laying down on the beach, enjoying the sun and the beauty. Other members of my group skipped rocks and stuff but that didn't really appeal to me. Actually I am just really bad at rock skipping.

Thriving

Also, selfies.

After the Lake, we all got on the boat and headed to a legendary fountain of youth on the coast about 15 minutes away. We had to climb about 500000000 stairs (after our 3 hour hike). When we got to the fountain it was a huge disappointment and I didn't even bother to take a picture apparently because there isn't a photo in my card. But I took a picture of this little native girl who didn't look very enthusiastic to see any of us.

This is Anna about halfway down the stairs!

After we were done at the fountain we went back on the boat and took a 5 minute boat ride to lunch!

Here is the classic meal, soup and meat! Served with Fanta, Sprite or Coke. Every meal everywhere offered those three sodas and those only. At lunch we met a little girl. She wouldn't tell us her name, but she was two years old. When we started to leave and get back on the boat, she wanted to come with us! Her mom got mad at her which was really awkward so we left quickly. We waved from the bus and she waved from the shore.

After lunch we jumped on the boat to Copacabana and then on the bus. Then we took another boat back to the shore that we were initially on when we first came to the lake. We got back on the bus and it drove us to La Paz. We got on a gondola that took us over the city.  

We got off the tram and walked through the city (at night) to a Cuban restaurant. Almost everyone ordered sandwiches and got their meals quickly. Anyone who didn't order a sandwich, which was a few of us including myself, didn't get their meals for a while. So the few of us waited while the others went to the Hostel "Grandma's Inn" where we dropped off our stuff the day before.

SATURDAY

I slept next to the window in the Hostel. I actually adored this little place. In the morning I enjoyed a hot shower and corn flakes for breakfast.

After breakfast we headed to this cool valley that was made out of something like sandstone that eroded every time it rained! We met this precious little girl there.

The hike was amazing! It was really scary too though. There were certain points where we could have easily fallen in.

There were deep places where it would go down and you couldn't ever see the bottom.

After the hike, we took a bus ride back to La Paz.

We went to a lookout point and looked over the city. I was amazed at the crowding of the houses and buildings. At the same time, it was really cool to be able to look out and see the whole entire city of La Paz.

These were our awesome leaders! From left to right: John, who served his mission in Bolivia 30 years before our trip, to the day! Mary (front) who always made us laugh but had to leave early to take care of her daughter Tilly! Trish, who is my queen. Julianne, who was so organized in everything! And Sam, our fearless leader and trench-monkey. All of them, individually and collectively, impacted my life and I am so grateful for them.

After the lookout we went back into the city! I tried my first Saltena, and it wasn't bad at all. We passed through a pigeon park and I caught this little jewel on camera. There were pigeons everywhere.

We visited the cathedral of La Paz which was built in the 1600s and I fell in love. Cathedrals are my favorite, no doubt about it. I absolutely adore stain glass windows. They touch me like nothing else can. These were particularly beautiful, but I wasn't able to gather much history about them from our tour guide.

The cathedral is conveniently located next to the government building where the president works, so there are quite a few protests that go on outside of the government building and the cathedral. When protesters were repressed, their blood was shed on the steps of the cathedral. I found this fact shared by our female tour guide particularly disturbing and haunting.

We passed through the pigeon area again.

We finished touring and went shopping! I didn't get very pictures shopping though.

We happened to be in the city of some kind of holiday where they had a HUGE event and parade. We passed through the parade on our way to lunch. Our pizza restaurant overlooked the street the parade was on so we got to watch the whole thing!

The pizza was really good, but really really different than American pizza.

This was a really creepy dog that was in a store I was shopping at, underneath a blanket. The blanket moved and it seriously scared me to death.

This was a gorgeous cat I wasn't even allowed to touch because it probably had diseases. 

 After shopping and spending WAY to much money (I bought 4 scarfs) we caught our flight to Santa Cruz. It was a 45 minute flight and when we got there we met Brigham, our coordinator. There were also a couple camera men there filming us for a documentary or something and that was so weird. We went to a chicken restaurant and I tried the ketchup and it tasted really terrible. I've never tasted anything so bad. It gives me anxiety thinking about it.

We finally arrived at our hostel in Santa Cruz, which was pretty nice. The man who owned it was German and his name was Tom. He had a bunch of my favorite artists hung around the hostel so it was really fun talking to him. (Monet, Van Gogh, Klimt, etc.)  The water pressure wasn't the best, and all the showers were cold, but it worked for what we needed.

SUNDAY

We had church the following morning. I found it really interesting how similar the church was there to the church here. The ward we attended were inner-city so they were better off than the kids we served on the outskirts of Santa Cruz. They still didn't have very much though. We learned about the Priesthood at our lessons in church and after it was all translated, I realized that they learned about the exact same things as we did in Utah. One particular experience that struck me was the story of this little baby girl. Her mother was the Young Women teacher so she talked about she never thought that she could have children and for six years she and her husband tried without success. She was told she couldn't have kids. And then she just got pregnant! She didn't have any medical procedures performed but she she got pregnant and she felt like it was a miracle. As I was listening to this story I was able to recall several stories from my own ward that were exactly the same! The Lord loves his people no matter where they live or what they have and will bless them all.

That day I was able to email my parents and I told them all about how amazing my time was. Afterward we went to a fireside. At the fireside I began to feel really nauseous and wasn't able to participate in some of the activities. When we got home I puked 6 times. 

MONDAY

The next day was our first day at the work site. When we got there, the kids ran to the window to say hello. For some reason that touched me. They were all so excited to see us and hug us, and they didn't even know us. They had a hello celebration and wouldn't stop hugging us. I felt so loved and so happy, even though I felt so sick still. While the others started working, I had to sit out. I felt like I was going to puke again and I was really tired from the night before so I sat on the ground and fell asleep. I played a little bit a little girl named Camilla who would later come to mean a lot to me.

The workday ended and the group went to family home evening at the member houses in the ward. I stayed home and slept until the next morning.

TUESDAY

I felt so much better the next morning after sleeping so much but I was still weak from not being able to eat a lot. I was able to work but we weren't allowed to bring our cameras to the work site for the first few workdays because the leaders were afraid that it would get stolen. I had to sit down a few times during working and I still had some stomach issues which lasted the whole rest of the trip, but I still enjoyed all of it. That night we played soccer with the ward and I was TERRIBLE. It was so fun talking to people there though. Or attempting to talk to them because my Spanish is a tragedy.

WEDNESDAY

Most of the workdays were the same. We would work on the foundation of the school and then teach the kids English. I loved getting to know the kids and seeing what they like and don't like. We taught animals, colors, and phrases!

That night was game night and we had a potato sack race, a three legged race, a balancing egg race, and so many more American type of games that seemed to much more fun than when I played them in America. The youth there were really competitive but so were the "gringos" and we won a few :)

THURSDAY

I finally got to take some pictures at the work site!

Madison and Rachel working on the foundation!

All cement was mixed without a machine. We mixed it with our shovels and it was so difficult.

Alli and Anna dug trenches that held the iron and cement support!

Deema is a trench monster

Thursday was the dance. It was way more fun than any dance I've ever been to and I was really able to get out of my comfort zone. The Bolivians were super shocked by our crazy dancing because their dancing mostly consists of small complicated sidesteps. Most of the Youth were hesitant to come and dance with us, and I was able to get out of my comfort zone by dancing with people I didn't know and forcing kids I didn't know at all to dance with me! I was also able to attempt to learn one of their dances. But I can't move my hips for the life of me so I probably just looked ridiculous.

FRIDAY:

Rachel teaching third graders!

The kids at the school really loved to get their photo taken. We had a half day of work and then we had to catch out flight to Cochabamba. A few of our group mates had to stay behind for seven hours because someone bought out their tickets. Gratefully, I wasn't one of them.

We visited the Palacio Palladio, which was a mansion built for a wealthy miner in the 1920's. They commissioned artists from Europe to come to the house and design different rooms like different eras and cultures of art. It was heaven and hell for me because it was so gorgeous and amazing to see Renaissance art and then mosque style art, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside!! There were military guys there making sure no one took pictures and I wanted to cry the whole time. 

We were allowed to take photos of the exterior though, which was almost as great as the interior.

They also had a local contemporary artist in the outside exhibit  that I thought was super interesting and thought provoking.

This was one of my favorite building which looked Muslim-esque. It was so cool.

What is art?

After the mansion we went shopping and then met up with the people who had a later flight and got icecream. Let me be the first to say that the ice cream was weird. Greatly appreciated after all the food we had to endure, but weird.

It looks normal. It wasn't.

SATURDAY

The following morning we went to the same place we got icecream and got these impanada things that were full of cheese but the cheese tasted bad so I didn't like them. We also got cake and really good strawberry juice, so I ate that. Cake for breakfast. #noragrets

After breakfast we went to the temple which was on a hill overlooking the city. It was such a gorgeous temple and it was so spiritual. When I looked out over the city and saw all the smog and business, I felt really safe and at home. My homesickness basically disappeared and I had a really spiritual experience.

They had this painting in the temple, and it's one I've never seen before. I was touched by the painting itself because it's very impressionistic and that's one of my favorite styles of art, but I was also touched by the message. Jesus is surrounded by white sheep on all sides of him and yet he holds the black sheep. The sinner. I thought that it was a particularly interesting painting to have in the temple because we usually focus on the purity and worthiness you need to have at the temple and we focus on baptism. And those are all important, and we do need to be worthy to enter the house of the Lord, but this painting, I felt, reflects something that I've always loved about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can come to him with all of our flaws and screw ups, and he'll make us better. And I've always believed that the temple is not a place to be perfect, but a place to become better. And I was able to gain a greater testimony of the importance of temple work. (I got this picture off of the internet I did NOT take a picture inside of the temple)

I love our group.

I got sick right after the temple and right before lunch. I was in the bathroom for 20 minutes and felt like complete poop for the rest of the day. On top of that we had this really weird meal that consisted of dry meat, eggs, potatoes, and weird cheese.

Tender moments :')

Everyone got these cool necklace things when we were shopping, but this one kid in my group who really wanted one, couldn't find one. I bought two of them for really cheap (10 bolivianos and a little over $1 US dollar). So I offered to sell it to him. He offered me 100 bolivianos for it, and I could not refuse an offer like that. I gave him 20 bolivianos back because I felt like I was scamming the poor kid, but at the same time I thought it was absolutely hilarious that I made 8 times the amount of money I spent on it. They supposedly brought "good vibes".

We took the Gondolas up to the Jesus Christo statue which was way cool but I still wasn't feeling great.

The Christo was so cool. It was smaller than I expected, but it did not disappoint.

The Christo was also on a hill overlooking the city.

When we got home I took a picture with the precious cat at the hostel, Max.

SUNDAY

We went to church and had a fireside and I WASN'T sick! It was wonderful.

MONDAY

We worked on the school some more and tried to focus on having positive attitudes for our last week there. I was able to go to Family home evening and give pictures from the Deseret Book of Christ. They don't have any pictures of Christ or anything in their church so I knew that the pictures were hard to come by and greatly appreciated.

TUESDAY

When we got home from working I gave all of the girls the candy I brought for the kids, because the kids had such rotten teeth there.

We had the talent show that night and it was SOO FUN! I was in the cup song. Unfortunately I have no pictures or videos of it! Hopefully I'll be able to upload some of my other videos later :) This is Danova and Sam dancing to the boys' singing. Hilarious.

These dancers were amazing! They did some traditional dances that were really elaborate. I have no idea who that guy in the front of them is...He wasn't in our group yet he looks suspiciously white.

Sam, being trenchmonkey. Classic.

That night we stole Sam's mattress and put it on the roof. He didn't really react so it wasn't that funny.

WEDNESDAY

Rachel donated a bunch of toothbrushes to the school and taught the kids how to brush their teeth through a precious song! She asked me to photograph and videotape it for her senior project. I'm grateful that I was able to be a part of it because it was really cool to see her take charge and teach them.

I love the kids there with my whole heart.

This is a just a small glimpse of the condition of the teeth there!

It doesn't look like a lot but we did a ton of work for the foundation of this building.

Madison got hit in the eye with a shovel! It was such a miracle that it didn't hit her actual eyeball.

That night was our last night meeting with the ward so naturally, Alli, Parker, and I had to match for the occasion.

We went to a cool little Mexican Restaurant for dinner that night which was the best food we had the whole time. It also had a whole wall of Frida Kahlo pictures so I loved it even more.

At the activity we got in a circle and played a few games. Then, all of the "gringos" and a few of the locals were able to share some especially memorable times from the experience. I felt so grateful to these people for taking us in like family and feeding us. I think we all wanted to repay them. We found out that the young women in their ward are doing a temple trip and raising money so they can go. It was only about $50 American dollars each person, but it was a lot for them, so our group donated a sum of money to help them. It wasn't like we could ever repay them, but it felt so nice to be able to help them.

Many tears were shed in goodbyes. It was difficult and drawn out because everyone wanted pictures, but when we finally left it was even harder. One of the leaders, John, told me that's how a mission is only worse. You serve a people and fall in love with them and then one day you just have to get up and leave. You might not ever see them again.

FRIDAY:

I staged this picture. I was done working with the cement but I wanted at least one picture of me working so here it is. And it's precious.

They had a goodbye celebration for us at about lunch time and it was very emotional. We collected donations that would be handed out by someone else that the kids wouldn't go crazy over the toys and stuff, but I kept a few of the toys I brought to give to some of the kids who meant the most to me, or I felt prompted to give.

Goodbyes are so hard.

This little girl was seriously the cutest darn thing. I was giving out pipecleaners as bracelets and the kids were goin nuts over them and this little girl comes to me with some other little girls. They ask me if she can have one. Her mom was one of the sweepers of the school so this family was there all the time, and I could tell that they were especially poor, so I gave this girl one of the bears I brought. The mom was so grateful.

It started to pour after the goodbye celebration!

Kyle, a member of our group, donated TONS of soccer equipment for his eagle scout project. And soccer is like the religion there so people were freaking out.

The kids loved giving us goodbye gifts as much as we loved giving to them!

Passed through a small shack and found this little gem :) she was in such a deep sleep. It was such a tender moment!

More playing and more goodbyes!

The group received an award for everything we did, but especially Kyle for all of his amazing donations!

After we said goodbye to the kids we went shopping a little bit more and then went to dinner.

Our view from dinner was way cool!

This was the steak we had for dinner. It was pretty rough. I didn't eat most of because in the middle of our meal, our leader John choked on it and I lost my appetite.

This is the last photo I took in Bolivia. This is the room I stayed at in Santa Cruz, which became like a second home to me (spiders and all). By the end of this trip, I felt a real connection to this country and the people here, too. All I can say is goodbye for now, Bolivia, because I'm definitely coming back. :)