Arrival in Bolivia

The rest of orientation was good. I made lots of new friends there and it was sad to say goodbye to them so soon. Orientation had lots of sessions about cross cultural communication and living with host families as well as worship services and sessions about Jesus' call to peacemaking. Each morning we had worship in different styles from around the world and we learned lots of new songs.

Thursday the Bolivia SALTers and YAMENer flew to Bolivia. We left MCC in Akron at 9:20 am and we arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia at around 8:00 am on Friday. Everything went smoothly. I was worried about the process of getting the visa to enter Bolivia, but it is really quite a simple process as long as you have the $135 in nice new US bills. The Canadian (Jada Dyck), the Nicaraguan (Consuelo Mendoza), and Natasha Diener all got through really quickly because only citizens from countries where Bolivians are required to pay for a visa have to pay for a visa. Natasha already had a visa from a previous visit. The other four Americans, myself, Karla Santiago, Becca Martin, and Vicencia Abundis, quickly caught up to the others by having an airport worker help us bypass the luggage inspection point. He just walked us right passed a long line of Canadians who looked frustrated as we just walked by. Of course the airport worker asked for a tip when got to the parking lot. I didn´t have any Bolivianos yet, but one of the MCCers obliged and gave the man a tip, he deserved it.

We were all quite tired on Friday because we had traveled all day the day before. We were introduced to the MCC headquarters in Santa Cruz where we are staying for the next few days and we met the MCC Bolivia team which includes North Americans as well as Bolivians and a couple from Honduras (who happen to know Nelson Weber). We went out for supper where most of us had a dish called "Majadito" which has rice with beef pieces served with a fried plantain, fried egg, and a piece of boiled yuca. It was quite good. To drink we had "mocochinchi" which is a drink made from dried peaches. Afterwards we took a "micro," (a van sized bus) to an ice cream place. The ice cream place was very Americanized. We were surprised to here that there are no McDonalds in Bolivia. There used to be a few, but they didn´t make it. There are a few Burger Kings and quite a few other burger chains. Like in Peru, fried and rotisserie chicken joints are everywhere as well as "Chifas" which are Chinese restaurants. So far Bolivia seems exactly like Peru to me. Well that´s all for now. More to come when there´s more to tell.