Troy Wetherholt is one of our summer interns in Ixiamas, Bolivia. He arrived in Bolivia June 12 and will post to our blog about his experiences. Troy joins Becky and former intern Olivia (summer 2008), who returned for a month this summer.
My work in Bolivia for the two months I am here is to install wells in communities that need a clean water source. Bolivar taught me about the process of digging the well and how the pump works. My first week here we made parts of the pump from pvc pipe, leather and flipflop sandles. My training would be put into practice when members of the Puerto Russo, a jungle community, came to talk about installing a well next to their school. (Picture at right is the school in Puerto Ruso)
Our current intern in Ixiamas, Bolivia, is 2008 Practicum graduate Becky Forrest. Becky served on short-term mission trips in 2007 and 2008 in Ixiamas. She is now in her second year as an intern. The joys of having power on a regular basis after the blockade opened up and the arrival of fuel was short lived. One of the generators went out of service, and we now hove power on a day and off a day. We are not sure how long this will take or even if they plan on repairing the generator because we have power headed this way from the big hydro plant near LaPaz, which we have been told will be here before the end of the year. This also brings water shortage because we are not able to pump water up to our holding tank. In the United States, we take so many things for granted. Winter is almost here with the cool south winds. I never realized how cold 65 to 70 feels when you are accustomed to the 90’s, and suddenly you have 15 to 20 mph winds and then the temperature drops 20 degrees. Two walls of my room are screened windows, so I close the curtains, duct tape them to the wall to keep the wind out, and pull out my wool blanket and fleece. In a few days, it will be 90 again. You can imagine how good that cold shower feels good on those days! That is winter in Ixiamas. Tom and Peggy recently traveled to Zambia. While there, they were able to meet the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s team of Engineers Without Borders and spend time on the project site. Dave Barnhart, of Trinity UMC in Birmingham, will be helping lead the first SIFAT short-term mission team later this year. Dave joined Tom and Peggy to visit the site and help prepare for future SIFAT teams to stay in Lusaka. Below, Dave shares about his experience with Tom and Peggy in Zambia.
I’ve had the opportunity to shadow Tom and Peggy the last couple of days to see what goes into laying the groundwork for a successful mission trip. There’s a lot of work that mission teams never see! It’s like putting together a puzzle, fitting resources together with people and organizations to make a big picture. Only in this case, the puzzle pieces keep changing shape, and you don’t really know what the final picture will look like. You simply have to trust that God’s got the picture on the front of the box, and when it all goes together, it will be better than we imagine. When you put together any puzzle, it helps to get the corners and sides done first. EWB and Harbert Construction, the local churches and SIFATÂ have done marvelous work in putting together the first pieces. The past few days we’ve done some networking with WorldVision, Zambikes and other local potential partners. One of the engineering students told me that he was surprised at how much of the work involves diplomacy and learning how to navigate both local culture and our own. I’m only here for a short time. I already can’t wait to come back. See Tom’s photos after the jump! Auburn UMC sent a team of college students, vets, medical professionals and others to Quesimpuco, Bolivia, from May 14-24. Because the project is in such a remote location high in the Andes Mountains, internet access is unavailable. Team leader Scott Middleton has been contacting his wife Lindsey, who is sending us updates, via satellite phone. May 15 Update
I am happy (and relieved) to report that the team made it safely to Quesimpuco about an hour ago. No car troubles, no one got sick, and they made the trip in 10 hours and 45 minutes – in other words, they’ve had a really good day! They have already unloaded and are now getting settled in for the night. They will attend church in the village in the morning, enjoy the official village “greeting†and then get set up for the week. There will be no call-in to the AUMC services tomorrow – they will do that next week from La Paz (where the Bishop of the United Methodist Church there apparently is planning a dinner for the team!). They will also have a visit this week from John Funk, a missionary in Bolivia with the Board of Global Ministries of the UMC. I think we’ll all sleep better tonight, knowing they all are safe and sound — and that each team member is exactly where God has placed him or her. They probably won’t check in for another day or two, so I’ll send another update then. If anyone would like a visual of Quesimpuco as you pray for the team, Scott found this image on Google earth – it is a few years old and predates the bridge site, but it’s an amazing illustration of how far this team has gone to be the hands and feet of Christ: click here. May 17 Update Hello again,Scott had a lot of information to share when he called tonight, so I literally took notes! Today, there were about 35 optometry patients, 50 dental patients, 220 animals at the vet clinic (but word has gotten out – they are expecting as many as 1,000 tomorrow!) and about 120 kids at VBS. Some team members also built new pews for the church. When school let out this afternoon, the students came up to play, so I think they enjoyed some quality time with the high school kids, as well.
Yesterday, the team enjoyed the village greeting, which was apparently interrupted by rain (unusual for this time of year), and then went to church. They set up the clinic for today, and then went back down to the village for evening worship. Scott said the weather is windy and cold, and it took 3 or 4 calls before the satellite phone could get through. He called about 8:30 our time (they’re an hour ahead of us) and said that everyone else had already gone to bed. In other news, the Bolivian government is preparing to build a hospital and new elementary school in Quesimpuco and will apparently be tearing down the Catholic church to do so. For those of you who have been before (or who have, like me, just seen lots of pictures) this will include tearing down the bell tower, which is probably the biggest landmark there. This will leave the Methodist church as the only house of worship in the village. The missionary delegation (not sure who that entails besides John Funk and his wife) will arrive tomorrow and stay for a few days, and they will have Market Day on Wednesday. I think that covers all my notes! It sounds as if everyone is in good shape and they have all earned a good night’s rest. Scott said he will check in again, probably on Wednesday. I know we will all continue to lift up the team in prayer! A short-term mission team from the University of West Alabama’s Wesley Foundation will be in Ecuador May 8-15. Please pray for them as they serve the children and adults at Dulce Refugio in Villaflora, Quito. They will be posting throughout the week about their experiences.
May 13 Today was the last day at the worksite. It was an emotional experience. The construction team was again ahead of schedule. The rebar on the roof is now in place so that the next team may place concrete blocks and pour concrete. May 14 This morning, we woke up as usual, yet there was a difference in today’s plan of activities. Today was the day for the zip line through the cloud forest at Tucanopy. As we were on the way, the bus wasn’t able to accelerate uphill. So we’d coast to the side of the road, restart the bus, and try again only to coast to the side of the road and repeat the process. We were able to pull off at a stopping point to wait for a replacement vehicle. The two-hour ride ended up taking much longer. However, we were still able to proceed with the initial plan. A few team members were a bit hesitant about being attached to a cable and having to slow themselves with a leather brake. We all made it safely back to the beginning after flying through the rain forest. Lunch was homemade pizza prepared at the site. The pizza was made with ingredients from the reserve. Delicious! Because of the bus breakdown, we were unable to take the nature walk and had to return to the Hotel Tambo Real to pack up and eat our last meal here. We are getting ready for devotion at 7 pm. We leave for the airport at around 8:20 pm and fly out of Quito at 11:30 pm. We should arrive back in Atlanta, GA at 6:02 am, according to Delta’s flight information. Devotion this evening was shared by Dan. The two questions were used to sum up both the day and the week. |