I've been in La Paz now for exactly 2 weeks. It has been another difficult transition time, but also an exciting and life-giving time. While I struggle to find my place here with friends, ministry, church, housing, etc, I am also just so thankful to be here, to make a longterm commitment to this place that I love so much. I have a pretty random schedule these days as I have to stay flexible in order to work on my residency process. But this flexibility has allowed me the time to wander around this amazing city and spend time connecting with old and new friends.
This past weekend was super full, but with so much goodness. On Saturday I met up with a Bolivian friend that works with the ministry here. The current hope is to look for an apartment in her neighborhood. For one, it's on the border between El Alto and La Paz so it provides access to work in El Alto as well as to fun and friends in La Paz. Also, there are several young single women that live in the neighborhood. The biggest question around housing has been whether it would be possible to have a tight and encouraging community that is also close to El Alto, in order to get to know the lifestyle of the people and be close to the women we work with. Anyways… on Saturday, my friend gave me a tour of her neighborhood. We also got to visit a few available apartments. Most were really small and dark, but we saw one that was brand new and sunny and nice! We'll see what happens with it… Then we went to a family's house that my friend knows from church. We ate lunch and enjoyed fun conversation with the whole family.
Saturday also happened to be Day of the Dead here in Bolivia. You can read more about the tradition here. A friend of mine invited me to accompany him and his cousin to the cemetery. They brought flowers for their grandma's grave and prayed for their friends and family and all the people at the cemetery. The place was packed! Flowers and bread everywhere, fervent prayers recited aloud, and bands playing and singing to honor the dead. It was a pretty crazy experience, but I really appreciated it. I think it's so cool that time is set aside to remember loved ones that have passed away and honor their memory. I was thinking about my grandma that passed away a year and a half ago… and my granddad that misses her so much!
After wandering through the crowded streets, we eventually found streets that were open to traffic. I found a minibus and made the journey to another friend's house on the other side of town. Her husband is out of town, so she hosted a girls night. We played some board games, had some wine and chocolate and watched a movie. It was really nice!
Sunday I went to church and got to connect with old friends. After church, I went to lunch with some great friends and made some new ones. We laughed and ate and had a great time. After lunch, the guys went to go play soccer. And while I really wanted to join them, I didn't have any shoes with me. So instead, I got to join the girls for an impromptu visit to the zoo! The zoo here is actually really big and has mostly animals native to Bolivia. The jaguars were my favorite. We walked and walked and eventually had to rush home. Unfortunately, it took us quite a while to find transportation. Finally, a random minibus driver had pity on us and agreed to take us back to civilization.
I made it home around 6pm, and was totally exhausted, but also so thankful for a fun and beautiful Bolivian weekend. (Really wish I had pictures to share with you… sorry!) I'm looking forward to next weekend when I get to get out of the city and do some backpacking!
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