en Cochabamba!

hola!

we arrived in santa cruz, bolivia sunday morning, august 16. when i stepped out of the airport i thought, huh, kinda looks like florida. santa cruz is extremely flat with scrub grass and palm trees. we were picked up by a family of mccers and brought to the compound. we stayed there until tuesday, getting oriented with MCC Bolivia and life in santa cruz. i´ll write more about santa cruz when we move back there. then on tuesday night we packed our bags for 2.5 weeks and hopped on a night bus to cochabamba, a 10 hour bus ride. but surprisingly the ride was very comfortable because the seats were like lazy boy chairs.

we arrived in cochabamba around 7:30am and it was so cold! cochabamba is in the mountains and it is the end of winter here, so its cold when the sun is not out. the mountains here are beautiful! they are a light brown sandy color with a little bit of snow on the peaks. at night you can see all the lights from homes going up the mountians, almost like christmas lights. we are in cochabamba to attend a language school and cram as much spanish verbs, grammar, and vocabulary into 4 hours a day as possible. we attend class in the morning and then are free to explore the city. since i came to bolivia knowing absolutely nothing (besides bueno), after 3 days i can tell i´ve learned alot. they have us writing and speaking small simple sentences. one other girl and i from SALT are living with the same host family. they are very patient and generous, spending plenty of time helping us with spanish. there are 2 little girls and a loco chihuahua puppy, poncho.

we are getting to know the transportation here, which are micros (small buses), trufis (communal taxis), and taxis. we accidently rode one bus all the way to the end of the route way out of the city and had to pay again to get back on :) but hey it builds character and it was like a really cheap tour of the city! we have also explored a little this massive market called la concha, which has everything in huge amounts. since 1USD=7 bolivianos, buying presents for home is affordable! i plan to study some spanish this afternoon and then we are off to explore more of the city!

during my daily devos, i found this verse that i end up reading every night and get great encouragement from.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13