Big Big House

Dear Amigos,

The team arrived on Friday, well almost all of them. One guy will fly back home to recover from illness, and the guy who was taking care of him will come tomorrow. It’s been fun having a team around, we really like just having a full house (well I do, at least). They’ve just been a huge encouragement to us. Plus, everything gets done faster! They take turns cooking and cleaning up every night and we have never eaten better here at the Hacienda!! They’ve been in Peru already and spent a lot of time being sick. So hopefully this time around will be a better experience of South American food. (Un)fortunately (depends on who’s perspective you take) Vick just gave birth so she will not be cooking for all of us when we go out to the Chapare. We did get to see the baby last week. She had a beautiful baby girl which everyone was happy about. We basically just love kids anyways, so boy or girl is good news!

We got a dog here at the Hacienda. He just showed up one day. Not sure if he’s a stray or not, but he seems to like us. I’m happy! I always wanted a pet here at the house. He even knows tricks!! We haven’t named him yet so I’m open to suggestions…

We go out to the Chapare on Monday. I just might be there for 2 weeks. So I’ll be sure to post and update when I return.

Easter was a great day!! I went to my church for the service, the church doesn’t have a pastor at the present moment, so there was a guest speaker. Then we had lunch with all the IT Bolivia people. It was really yummy! And we had a birthday party for Matt (whose birthday is on Easter). Then I went and played volleyball with the New Tribes people who play every Sunday night, afterwards, the AIM team had a worship service here in the living room. It was beautiful. Beautiful day, and a beautiful time to remember that it’s in Christ alone that we have freedom.

So, hope you all are enjoying the day, and anticipating springs arrival!

Love you all lots!

Kristen

Dear prayer supporters,
Greetings from a far away land! The team arrived safe and sound on Saturday afternoon. There are 8 college students (2 of them grad students) who decided to spend their spring break here in Bolivia with some amazing little kids, a goofy missionary and us interns. We spent a day at each of the two finished orphanages doing some odd jobs (painting, planting trees, washing windows, etc.) and then we played with the kids (that´s Michelle, Mike and Me varnishing the porch at Villa Israel). It was very neat to watch the team interact with the kids. Most of them spoke at least a little bit of Spanish but even the ones that didn’t tried really hard and ended up making friends with the kids in spite of the language barrier.
We then spent the better part of three days in the Chapare (and en route—it takes much longer by bus!!) working at Remberto’s site (where I went immediately following my arrival here in Coch). The orphanage is very close to being done. We put the first coat of paint on the walls, cleaned some more bricks, painted all the remaining wood with diesel to keep away the termites. We intern girls and the missionary’s daughter took turns helping Vick cook. She will give birth to her baby on Wednesday by C-section. So pray for a good surgery, a healthy baby, and a quick recovery for both. She is such a strong woman! The mosquitos were much more vicious than I remember (as was the rooster!), though I came out of the jungle with a very very small fraction of the amount of bites received by some of the other girls.
Saturday we went to see some Incan ruins, and we did a "bread run" where we gave out bread, chocolate milk and bananas in a smaller town, then we went to baby-washing, and dinner at the Timmers. The team left early Sunday morning.

This week is Spring Break at the International Christian school here in Coch where the majority of the missionary kids here attend. So we have a little more time to hang out with them.

We are going like crazy trying to get ready for the next team of 27, scheduled to arrive Friday or Saturday. It´s a good thing I like to do laundry!

We´ll have teams with us from this Friday through the end of April so I apologize in advance if I don´t get to write very often...

Thanks for your love and support. I don´t know what I would do without you guys!!

Keep on keeping on yáll!