Cochabamba sits about 9000 feet elevation, a welcome change from the 15,000 feet we were at last week. This past weekend we were sent to the area of Chapare, about 3 hours east of Cochabamba. We climbed to about 10,000 feet, then within 2 hours we descended to about 750 feet
The road isn't the best and is heavily used by trucks, and it is the highway to Santa Cruz. It is amazing more people aren't killed on the steep passes. With the elevation there were great mountain scenes. When we descended and arrived in the jungle, it appeared we were on a Caribbean island with one obvious exception. No Caribbean ocean or beaches! This jungle area is a prime coca growing area and much different than the coca grown around the jungas in La Paz.
Most of the coca is taken to the mountains to be processed into cocaine The assistants, Elder Avila and Elder Tanner, were aware from being in the Sacaba stake (which is east of Cochabamba ),that members were there living in the jungle. They had traveled there the week before and found a few of them, but it had been raining and made finding the rest impossible. President Dyer had asked us to go with them this weekend to see if we could locate these people and hold a Sacrament meeting. We stayed in the Hotel Victoria, in Villa Tunari which was a nice place. It has an open air restaurant and large pool. After checking in we traveled to Ivigarzma about an hour further east.
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| Rio Espiritu Santo II. (Holy Ghost River II) One stop Baptism and Confirmation! |
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| Alvina |
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| We couldn't understand where the parrot's membership records were, so he said he would write it for us |
We met up with Alvina, a stout no nonsense Cholita, who lived in a nice house with a tienda out front She had a parrot that liked to bite my fingers.
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| Elder Beau Tanner |
Her family are all members. She has four children. She said her husband was a member but had a drinking problem. Not an uncommon situation in this country. Each of us received a large coconut to drink. (Drink #1) Mine had a hole in the bottom, and I was hoping most of it would leak out but it seemed to self seal. She then took us to another member, Simone, who owns a farmacia in the town. He immediately closed up shop to talk to us. He had only been a member for a year, but his wife had been a member for 20 years and most of his children were members. He, as well as Alvina was excited to see us. He stated that they needed to have missionaries in the area to establish a branch because they needed leadership direction He gave us a Bolivian energy drink (Drink #2). Alvina then took us to the mercado where she had several relatives working. They gave us a popular Bolivian bottled juice, Del Valle Tumbo, (Drink #3). Next stop was a tienda next door, where we met with Alvina's brother. He gave us cold Pepsi (Drink #4) We then went to other neighbors who gave us Coke (Drink #5) Rude in Bolivia: not to offer food or drink, and extremely rude: not to eat or drink it all. It was so hot, I think we were dehydrated because none of this fazed us.
Elder Avila loving his nap and Coke. He's finishing his mission next month and as an assistant this week. We have spent a lot of time together and we will miss him. He is from Guatemala. In high school his father lost his job and he couldn't afford to go to school. He hated music but was told he could have a scholarship if he played an instrument. He took up the Bass and practiced 12 hours a day for three months, got the scholarship, and now plays professionally. He is hoping to go to BYU.
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Lorna and Jack inspecting the pineapple crop. It was over 90 degrees the whole time with about as much humidity.
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We then went back to the pharmacy to pick up Simone. He took us to a farm he owned about 20 minutes out of town. His farm worker, Juan is also a member.
There is no electricity here, and the houses are raised up to stay out of the water during the rainy season. Juan didn't know we were coming to visit and we could see him working in the field. When he saw us, he looked like he had seen a ghost. He said "I knew the Gentiles would come here some day".We returned to his house where he had his scriptures, Liahona magazines and lesson manuals on his table.
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| Juan, Simone, and Alvina |
He said he had read the Book of Mormon 30 times. He then said he needed to tell us about 3 dreams he had. In the first one President Hinckley appeared to him. The second one President Monson appeared, and the third one President Eyring appeared to him. They all had different messages but the theme was he needed to put his house in order. I made the mistake of stating that President Eyring used to live in the town where I grew up. Now he expects me to call up Thomas S when I get back and relate his dreams. He then gave his apologies that he chewed coca leaves all the time so he could work harder. Lorna was a trying to follow the conversation and was a little confused. She thought they were all appearing through his TV, which really would have been a miracle since he didn't have one. Or maybe he did and was picking up a session of conference. Of all the well educated people we met that weekend he was the only one that was a little out there.
It was dark by then. We dropped off Simone and Alvina in Ivigarzma, and everyone agreed to meet for sacrament services at Alvinia's house on Sunday. When we returned to Villa Tuanari. Elders Avila and Tanner went to look for some monkeys carved out of coconut shells they had seen at a few places in the area,
and we went to get a table at the restaurant where we at lunch. The only safe looking place in in town. As the elders were running down the street they heard a lady calling after them. Turns out her name was Rosie, and she was a member who was a teacher had an eight year old daughter. She couldn't believe there were missionaries in Villa Tunari and agreed to come with us the next day to find other members. The next morning we met up with Sylvia, another teacher who was a return missionary. Rosie and Sylvia had never met, but both taught physics and chemistry in schools that were near each other, so they became quick friends with so many things in common. They both went with us, and 20 minutes later we arrived at this home. This extended family were all members, and Sergio (in yellow and black shirt) is a return missionary.
From there we traveled about an hour a half. We thought we we traveled into Brazil it took so long and there were many detours. They are building a highway to Trinidad which is to the north and very remote. We had lunch with the Condori family picture above.
The father, Eusebio is also a teacher. He and his wife Maria Azucena have three children, Haydee, Harold, and Joel. They have a cell phone, but no reception. There is one tree in the town. If you climb onto one specific branch and hold your phone at an angle you can make a call. If someone else in town is on the branch in the tree, you have to wait. Everyone we visited that weekend was so excited to see us. We were able to make contact and visit everyone the Elders had been able to locate, so we felt like the day had been a success. We got back to the hotel late in the afternoon and wanted to go to a monkey refuge,
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We gave this guy a ride with his coca production and bike. Trying to do our part to help the Bolivian economy
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| We gave these People a ride out of the deepest part of the jungle |
but the it had just closed. We were surprised, however, to see many monkeys in the trees outside. We then happened to find a place in the jungle where they had a zip line, Bolivian style. Because Bolivia is known for its high safety standards, getting up on the platform was more dangerous than the zip lines. The best part of the place was the swing at the end.
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Boyhood home of Bolivia's president.
 Here is a picture. (Stop reading President, you don't want to send us home) This is a platform 60 feet high, welded Bolivian style. It is about a 45 foot free fall before you swung into the jungle. We have a video taken by the Elders of Jack, however the sound needs editing before we can post it!
Everyone had agreed to meet at a place called Castillo the next morning so we could travel together to Alvina's house for Sacrament meeting. In order to make it all work we had to leave our hotel about 7:15. Unfortunately we came out to find a flat tire, third one this week. Jack changed his clothes and we sent the Elders ahead in a taxi. After we got it changed we met everyone and loaded up. We had 9 in the cab and the back of the pick up full of people as well as a taxi.
There were already a lot of people at Alvina's when we got there. She and her family had set up chairs and had everything ready. She had even baked bread for the Sacrament. We had a great meeting. Brother Ramos from the High Council in the Sacaba Stake was there and everyone was so happy to be attending church and meeting new people. We handed out videos and other materials they could use. After the meeting they decided they wanted to get together during the week and have a Family Home Evening and made plans for other activities. Luckily, there are several who have been given permission to have the Sacrament in their homes. We don't know what will be the outcome, if the missionaries will be able to go full time into this area, but we feel that because of the ground work Elder Avila and Elder Tanner did in locating these people and bringing them together to meet each other, they will be able to go forward and help each other until the time comes when they have enough members to have their own branch in the Chapare area.
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1st Sacrament meeting in Chapare area. |
We picked up 23 chairs which were made for the missionaries at La Cancha. This is Nacho and his wife Claudia securing our load. Nacho buys quite a lot of the larger items for the mission.Once again we look like the Clampets, or every other car in Bolivia.
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