Update



My Boys

Wednesday might have been my favorite day so far here at Familia Feliz. I knew as soon as I stepped out of my house this morning at the break of dawn, that it would be a good day because I saw clouds. Clouds are a beautiful, beautiful thing because they block the intensive rays and heat of the sun.

Other than waking up to a new type of sky as there has been not a single cloud since I’ve been here, but I woke up to a new person, Joel.  Joel is the usual parent of the household. However, his sister recently died and he was visiting home for a few weeks in Brazil. Geraldo, My bunkmate for the first few days here was simply filling in for Joel while he was gone. Joel is only 22 but looks much older. He is extremely nice and is helping me with my Spanish which is in desperate need of help. The kids respect him and look up to him. However, it is quite obvious that he rules them with an iron fist. They don’t even try to get away with anything. Which is extremely nice in many ways, but my favorite is that our room is a “red zone”. The kids do not DARE go in or even open the door. This provides a great escape if I need one and also helps assure me that my things are safe. Even if they didn’t fear my room, I trust these kids so much. They are so respectful and kind not only to me, but to each other.

Early this morning, a bunch of us helped water the orange and watermelon groves again. Then Eric, me, and 2 of my boys went to the Chaco (a huge area of jungle that they burned down a ways away from the orphanage that they will use to plant rice) where we buzz sawed some trees and stacked the wood over a massive expanse. Following that, we went directly to the cocina (kitchen) where Eric and I were about to learn how to make bread. This by the way is a job that has been vacant for quite some time because of how much EVERYONE hates that job. But of course we welcomed the challenge. Eric and I got all the ingredients with the help of the cook (Carmen), and a few of her family members, and began mixing. Let me tell you, making bread by hand with no machines, and no oven is HARD. We were pounding away, kneading this bread for about 30 minutes. And lucky me, Eric had to leave to go take care of his kids for a bit. But it turned out to be ok. Just before my arms detached from my body, Carmen said we were done kneading. We then had to form the bread which I am apparently awful at. I tried and tried, but to no avail. So I ended up just letting Carmen’s family roll the bread while I put it on the pans.
The only fun thing about this process was the Diaz family (Carmen and her family), they were so much fun and we were just talking in Spanish back and forth about tons of different things! Turns out the Lisandro Diaz is an administrator for the Madidi National Park and because of my boyish charm and my wicked good looks, offered to take Eric and I on an excursion that tourists pay big bucks for! Ok, maybe it’s just because he is nice, same thing.

After we finished making the bread (which is a 4 hour process) I went into casa grande and met with Calvin and Erin because Friday, a neighboring village wants to come by and have a sort of festival kind of thing or something. So as it turns out, I will be playing a ninja and a very fat many in a veggie tale type of reenactment of the Good Samaritan. It should be interesting….
In the afternoon, as we do every afternoon, we played futbol (soccer to the Americano gringo). I scored a goal!!!! That’s right! My skin may be white, but my feet are Bolivian! Anyway, that was fun, but also extremely hot. So when we were done, I was REALLY hoping that my trickling shower would be working (because it’s a hit or miss. If you’re lucky, you can get a little water), but of course, it wasn’t. So I took a shower in the sink behind the house. I had to take my shower a little earlier because every Wednesday night, they have a vespers program which was very nice.
At this moment, I am finishing off my day with my hijo’s and my new friend Joel watching a Disney nature movie that is in Spanish that they had from previous missionaries or something. Life is Good and God is good. I still don’t know too much about the program because we haven´t gotten a chance to talk to the director or her sister. They seem to keep pretty busy. We still have not gotten “official” assignments or even had a conversation with them quite yet. We are simply keeping ourselves busy and helping whoever needs help.

Thursday Sept. 20, 2012
                I had a very interesting start to this day. After I woke up at 5:30 with the boys to have worship, I went into my suitcase, and the first thing I saw was a tarantula IN my suitcase! Kind of startled me, but not to fear, my wonderful kids love to beat the snot out of those things! Today was a big day of work for everyone. The kids do not have school on Thursday because Friday afternoon they do not work in the fields (as they normally do) in order to prepare for Sabbath. So today, we all went up into the Chaco and cleared brush, chain sawed trees, stacked wood piles, and burned everything else. It amazing how much quicker things go when you have 70 kids helping you. They also had a great time having soot battles and sneaking up on each other and smearing ashes in everyone’s faces.
                After the Chaco, guess what we did. Yup. You guessed it, soccer. These people have a crazy addiction to it! However, this game was only for the adults, volunteers, and the older kids. For this game, they went big, they brought out chalk and actually put lines down on the field! I don’t know what exactly it was that they used for the lines, but they were using an old coke bottle with holes in the bottom to lay the chalk. Unfortunately, I didn’t do so hot this game. I represented “gringo’s” all over the world! However, I’m giving a terrible name to Wayne Rooney who is a professional soccer player. Because as of Wednesday, when I wore a Rooney jersey, some people are now referring to me as “Rooney”.

That evening I got to talk to the director for a bit! We got a couple of our immediate questions answered as far as some finances, water, and scheduling go. However, we still don’t have a more permanent job description. For now, it seems as though we will be working in the Chaco, and making bread.
                For dinner, we had arroz con leche. That’s milk mixed with rice. It is some sort of soup. And let me tell you, if you don’t like rice or soup, you will flat out not survive here. We have had both almost every single meal! ALL of the meals are steaming hot. In spite of it being about 27 thousand degrees outside.

Friday Sept. 21, 2012

                Today, a neighboring tribe, the Saboo people came to visit to strengthen their relationship with us. They simply joined in on all of our daily activities. However, we did things a little differently. After morning worship in front of the school, it was show time. There were 3 Christian skits performed, and I was in the 3^rd one. Our skit was a spoof off of the good Samaritan. I was a Ninja hiding in the mountains before on sprung onto the passing traveler. It was a lot of fun.
                The rest of the day was kind of a dead day. So I took advantage of it and did what any adventurous person in the jungle in a foreign country would do……..I took a nap. That was of course, until I was jolted awake by the loudest thunder that I have ever heard in my entire life! Good thing I was already covered in sweat, or else somebody would have noticed why I was REALLY wet. The thunder was the start of something glorious! Rain! Oh, and it poured. At least for a while. Which was very nice as it cooled things down a bit.

                That night for dinner was, what do you know, chocolate liquid (or a brown liquid that they CALL “chocolate”) mixed with rice. That is what they have for dinner every friday night. After dinner I showed the kids pictures of Europe and Africa before we all went to sleep for the night.

Saturday Sept 22, 2012

This morning nothing too exciting happened. We simply went to church, sang our normal 45 songs, then a sermon, then lunch. But after lunch, I took my boys on a hike into the jungle. They were very excited are were my guides. We went deep into the jungle and found some vines to swing on, chased some cows with horns, and picked fresh fruit. It was wonderful. I had a blast! later that evening, we looked at pictures on my computer.

Sunday Sept 23, 2012

Today was pretty much a dead day. I relaxed, and slept a little bit. But Eric and i started to build him some shelves for his room since he is still living out of his suitcase. Again, there is not too much else to report for this day other than in the evening, I watched a pretty cheesy spanish movie with my kids as they LOVE movies.

P.S. If anyone just happens to be so moved as to send me a care package, please let me know. The mail is sent somewhere else and I have to be aware so that I can go pick it up. Great things to send are food. Food/snacks are like gold! haha but I am not starving and they are feeding me. So no worries mom and dad ;-)

You stay civilized…..planet earth!

Work Plans

Entrance to Familia Feliz. (Church is on Right)

Rio Beni the banks of Rurr

I want to start this post with a forgotten story from my arrival. On Friday night when we arrived, eric and I were split into 2 different houses. As soon as I walked into my house, my kids were so excited to show me how many pullups they could do (which turned out to be 2 by the strongest kid). They then wanted to see how many that I could do. So I was able to get 20. However I was pretty exhausted, especially since it was 90 degrees with not breeze. But then they decided that they wanted to do pushups too! blah. I was barely able to do 30 before I was completely exhausted. And then I felt it. It was happening. I was about to puke. I knew it, so I casually walked outside so no one would know. However, as soon as I walked outside, I saw a flashlight and I was hoping so much that it wasn't Melissa, Joy, or Erin (the 2 directors and the girl that has been way more helpful than either of them). But what do you know, it was Erin. She saw me with her flashlight and called out my name. I instantly thought "oh great, I'm about to puke in front of this girl on my first night. She is going to think I am such a pansy." And what do you know, I puked right after we made eye contact. Then things got a bit worse. Joy was a short way behind Erin and saw me puking too! It was like a bad dream. And Erin refuses to let me live that down. But oh well, such is life.

The Sunday Market on My Day Off

I am continuing to enjoy familia feliz. The children are super well behaved. They clean and work without being asked. They just do things and share and follow directions. It's amazing to notice the differences between these kids with no TV, no computers, and no other worldly influences and the kids in the States. Connection? Anywhoozers, yesterday we woke up yesterday at 5 am (which is the case every single morning) and Eric and I were asked to help Juan and a few kids water their orange groves, and watermelon patches. After that, our next job was brutal. We had to help Max out in the Coco chopping down trees, sawing them, and stacking wood. What made it so bad was the fact that there was ZERO shade, ZERO clouds, and it was the hottest day since we arrived. It was quite exhausting. But following that, we were able to cool off in the creek behind the big house for a few minutes and then relax for a bit. Later that afternoon, a group of us all got together and played futbol (soccer)! And let me tell you, these kids are good!

After speaking with Joy, it sounds like Eric and I will become bakers and make the bread for the whole orphange which is not an easy task by any means. Everyone dreds doing that. But we will learn all about it this afternoon. Erin has also said that they will finish out the second trimester without me since they are almost done. And at the beginning of the 3rd trimester, I will start.

Things are going great here in Bolivia at Familia Feliz and there are many adventures to be had. Oh. and by the way, my kids have already started calling me pa pa.!!!

P.S. you can click on any of the pictures that i have already posted and it will make them bigger for you.



You stay civilized........planet Earth.

Welcome to Familia Feliz

 

Our first sight of Rurrenbaque

Hey all! I have officially arrived at Familia Feliz and have now spent 2 nights there. Eric and I are SO excited to finally be here. It has already been such an amazing experience. We got in late Friday evening and got there in time for the 3 ours of generator power that they have each night. Eric and I are staying in two different houses with 2 different "families".
He is with 12 young boys, a mom, a dad, and their baby girl. I am across the campus with Geraldo, and 8 awesome boys. I am already having so much fun and the week hasn't even really started! Friday night was very relaxed and we just unpacked a little bit, met the kids, and went to bed pretty late. However, going to sleep is not as easy as you would think as it's 100 degrees (not counting the extreme humidity). Sleep comes very slowly. Once i fell asleep, I was awoken at 3 am by DOZENS of howling roosters. It was the worst thing ever!
I finally needed to crawl out of bed around 7:00 to be at breakfast by 7:30. Breakfast by the way was a bowl full of mixed, fresh fruit. Papaya, banana, and pineapple are in an abundance down here. After breakfast, I went to take my first shower here in the jungle. This "shower" is more like a trickle of cold water out of a shower head. But atleast I wasn't alone in my first shower, a tarantula decided to join me as I bathed......wasn't a big fan of that. But anywhoozers, I got dressed and walked to church with my new amigos.
Early service starts at 9-9:40. This consists of singing song after song after song. Then at 9:40, the little ones leave for sabbath school while the rest of us stay in the church for more songs and a "brief" worship from the boys dean (I have learned that the prayers and sermons here are VERY long winded). After Sabbath School, church started at 11. This is when Calvin, a young man from Australia, gave a very good sermon about hurtful words and being kind to one another.
Calvin is here voluntaring 4 weeks of his time to shoot a promotional video for familia feliz as they only have 1 sponsor. Needless to say, it's hard to support an entire orphange with 90 kids with one sponsor. 

After church, we had lunch. Lunch was some bolivian pasta, topped with a cheese sauce and beans. After lunch, there was about 2 hours of just down time where i just kind of wandered around doing nothing and hanging out with the kids. But around 3, we all loaded up into the big truck they have and drove to a creek to swim in. It was not very deep, but in the heat, it felt absolutely amazing to lay in the water and have it just wash over you. This was a good time to spend with the kids as we threw sand and dirt at one another , and picked each other up and threw each other into the water. It was quite the afternoon.
Saturday evening was very basic, I actually ended up playing chess for about 2 hours against 3-5 bolivians at a time. I won all 3 games......no big deal. haha. Later, Eric and I just talked for about 20 minutes about our experience so far. It hasn't been long, but we have both already grown attached to our kids.



My House with 3 of my boys

Before I forget, I want to describe the absolute beauty of this place. Both nights, when I went outside to brush my teeth, I looked up into the sky, and it was remarkable. I have never in my life seen such a clear sky. The stars are so clear and there is no pollution. The Milky Way (i'm pretty sure) is in clear view. I wish i could get a picture of it. I will try in the future. Other things to note, is there is a banana farm right behind my house. It's WONDERFUL!!! Behind Erics house is another smaller banana farm, but also a pineapple farm.
There are already so many great things about this place. The only thing as of now that will be hard is the extreme heat and the roosters. The heat will eventually get better, but because of our impecable timing, we got here right at the beginning of the hot season. So it will be pretty miserable for quite awhile. Erin is a student from southern who has now been here for over a year. She has been very helpful to us but is leaving in 2 months. So hopefully she will show us the tricks of the trade soon! Calvin too unfortunately is leaving today. So the english speakers are taking a hit hard. But I suppose we will survive :-) anyway, I will try to post a couple picture. I hope they go through..... stay tuned!!


The People We Got Very Close To



Our epic flight

OH!!! I almost forget to describe our flight from La Paz to Rurr. It was very sketchy to say the least....It was an unmarked plane, JAM packed with 19 people. When I stepped off os the plane, I realized that we were parked on a dirt runway. Wonderful right?






P.S. it sounds like I might be teaching some english and maybe preaching a sermon here and there.....yikes!

P.S.S For those of you that were asking, the mailing address for me is:
      
Unidad Educativa Familia Feliz
Chad McLennan
Km. 13 Carretera a Yucumo
Rurrenabaque, Beni, Bolivia

You stay civilized.......planet earth!!!!

here

i am sorry, but i don´t have a lot of time to blog right now. however, i am just letting everyone know that we are here and have arrived safely onto the dirt airfield. it is extremely hot but beautiful here.

On Our Way

On Wednesday September 12, Eric and I went to the airport in Santa Cruz to purchase a ticket to Rurrenabaque. However they do not offer a direct flight, so we had to fly back to La Paz (again), then catch a flight the following day to Rurr. However, in order to save about $400, the airline suggested that we ship our luggage instead of bring it with us. So we had to go back to the hotel, grab our luggage, bring it back to the airport, ship it, then go back to the hotel.
Needless to say, this is a little stressful. Not only is it difficult to travel with over 100 Kg of luggage, but we are now having to trust a foreign airline in a foreign country with ALL of our luggage. Not to mention, we would have to spend 1 night in La Paz as a layover. So we are without our luggage for 2 days!
After shipping our luggage, we went back to the hotel and then explored for a little bit. However, our flight left at 8:20 the next morning. Meaning, we had to be at the airport by about 7:00 and the airport was a 20 min. drive away. Our alarms however did not function that morning (as always seems to happen at crucial times) we woke up at 6:45 and panicked, not knowing if we would make our flight, we threw everything together, ran downstairs to check out and caught a taxi. Fortunately we made it!
We got onto our flight to La Paz with no problems, arrived to La Paz, and checked into the same hotel that we had stayed at before we went to santa cruz. Since we still had the whole day ahead of us, we decided to be extremely adventureous and took a very very long nap. But later that evening, we went back out to the "Black Market" and bought a few gifts and things we could use for the orphange.

But today is the big day. Today is the day that we will arrive in Rurr, get our luggage, and meet everyone at the orphange! We are so excited to finally be getting to our destination and to start working (sounds weird right)! As of today, Eric and I have 259 days left until our return to the states......well, thats IF we decide to come back....

Please continue the prayers as we are about to get into the heat of our mission trip. God has been very good so far and has been watching over us and protecting us through each step of the way in this visa saga. Thanks again to everyone and we will keep you posted.

P.S. from now on, the posts will probably be happening about once a week as we will now be having limited internet. Thanks again for all the support!



You stay civilized.....planet earth!

We have to do what for a visa??!?!?

Mount Illimani soaring into the clouds over La Paz



Ok, well the last couple of days have been quite hectic. We were able to get in touch with Gospel Minitries International who has an office in Santa Cruz Bolivia. They instructed us to purchase a plane ticket from La Paz to Santa Cruz so that they would be able to assist us through the process.
On our last day in La Paz, Eric and I decided to go to the mercado negro, for those of you that are spanishly impared, thats the black market. It was quite exciting! We were able to purchase goods for some amazing prices! What is the quality of the things we purchased.......that is TBA.
Late that evening, we were able to fly out of La Paz and fly to Santa Cruz which is fortunately only an hour flight. Once we arrived, Eric and I were not exactly sure where to go or what to do. We simply googled a hotel, flagged down a taxi driver, and asked him to take us there. We had no reservations, had no idea where it was, where we were supposed to be the next morning while all the while it is very late at night. Fortunately, the hotel we found had an available room and was fairly clean.
The next morning, we woke up around 8 am and called Jiminna, our contact through GMI. She is the one that we would be spending our entire day with trying to take care of this visa process. She was nothing short of an angel sent to us. This visa process is supposed to take 10-30 days, however we were told that she could take care of everthing in less than 1 week which was great! What we didn't know was that less than a week literally meant ONE day! Needless to say, this was a VERY busy day.

We had to exchange $500 each in order to cover the cost of our visa's. We then had to go all over town via taxi to have blood drawn at a "hospital", keep in mind that Bolivia is a 3rd world country, so you can only imagine how inviting this "hospital" was. From there, we went to a lawyer here in town to take care of about 7 legal documents in order for us to stay in Bolivia. We then needed to get passport pictures taken, then we had to go across town to get a background check done at the police station. Following the bacjground check, Eric and I went back across town and stopped at Interpol to get a national background check. We then were advised to purchase a plane ticket. However, by that point we were both a little tired so we agreed to wait until tomorrow to do that. The plane tickets are set prices, so it doesn't really matter when we purchase them.
So the plane from here is to purchase a plane ticket tomorrow, and once we are done with that, we will be able to spend the rest of our time before our flight to explore (which will only be a few hours). Stay tuned!!!


P.S. One thing that I have forgotten to mention in my blogs, is that the roads over here are absolutely insane!! It is terrifying to cross the street or be in a taxi. There are literally no laws over here. We were told that the "rules of the road" are based on respect for others, and who has more money. We even saw a full sized bus full of people slam on its breaks, and skid about 20 feet up towards the curb and other cars!! just thought i'd throw that in for you guys.

You stay civilized........planet earth!!!!

Sabbath

 

 Sabbath 9-8-12



         Today we woke up around 9:15 not exactly sure what we wanted to do for the day. But we decided that if there was an Adventist church nearby that we wanted to go. So thanks to the amazingness of Google, we were able to find one that was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel. As we made our way to chuch in the beautiful weather, we thought that people would think that we were some important people due to how much we stood out. Here we are, 2 white men dressed up in church attire walking through the streets with our Bibles in hand amongst an ocean of Bolivians with ratty clothes trying to make ends meet. 

           As we were getting closer to the church, we weret passing a young man our age. Normally you don't really notice who you are near and who is walking on the street, but this guy did. As we were passing him, he hit me on the arm (which kind of startled me) and as I looked at him, he said (in english) "Hey! we are family!" I was very confused until he held up his Bible and pointed to mine. So then I instantly realized that he was an Adventist.

             Alfonso, our new friend is 19 years old and is a student here in Bolivia. He spoke quite good english and is exceptional on the piano. He was very nice and invited us to sit with him in church. Folling church, we invited him to eat with us back at the hotel which he greatly appreciated. On our walk to the hotel, he told us a lot more about Bolivia and Evo Morales (the current president). He was extrememly nice and Eric and I think that it was very lucky to run into him.

           After lunch, Alfonso went home and eric and I went up to the room to have some Bible study and then get some rest as we were very tired. Later on, we woke up and decided that we wanted some Ice cream, so we walked about 15 minutes the the main road that runs through La Paz. It was quite the happening place! We found a delicious ice cream place called "Dumbo's" which had gelato style ice cream, and AMAZING cakes that simply blew our minds. After ice cream, I got some pizza (dessert before the meal.....yeah i know....awesome). We then started back for the hotel so we would't be out late at night in the depths of La Paz  on all the backroads.

          This morning we switched to a little bit cheaper room to save a little money, so that took some time, but after we were finished, we went to the hotel restaurant (again). For lunch, they had a buffet, however it was loaded with meat of all kinds, but as we walked in, a waitress rushed up to us and asked if we would like her to make a special vegetarian dish for us as she knew we were vegetarians. This obviously made us feel quite special as the restaurant was packed and she recognized us.

         As for the rest of the day, we are mostly just louging around and resting up. We will probably go out again later tonight.

• You Stay Civilized......Planet Earth

Visa Trouble

Today has been a very trying day to say the least. Eric and I went to the immigration office this morning to get a 1 year visa which we were told was very easy and would not take more than an hour or so. However, after we got there, they told us that we needed to get blood drawn, get and AIDS test, go to Interpol and get a background check done, consult a lawyer and have him issue us documents, and various other tasks which is supposed to take about 20 days. Needless to say, this sent us into a little frinzy as our flight to the small city of Rurrenabaque leaves on Monday.
After consulting Southern back in Tennessee, we have decided to cancle our flight to Rurr until all of this Visa stuff is worked out. We have sent an email to the head of the orphanage to which we are going and hopefully she will be able to help us through this process.
However, on the bright side, the weather here in La Paz has been absolutely beautiful. It is normally very very cold here as we are at a very high altitude. Altitude sickness is a serious problem for tourists that visit La Paz. But fortunately, Eric has not experienced any symptoms and I have only gotten a head ache. It is a little difficult to walk up hills as the air is thinner and we get fatigued VERY quickly.
The hotel staff here has been extremely helpful to us and always goes the extra mile to make sure we are comfortable. There is also a delicious restaurant here in the hotel that is not too expensive which we have eaten at a couple times already.
The good news about having to stay longer here in La Paz is it gives us more time to explore and enjoy the city and all of the handcrafted goods around. We were able to purchase a few goods from some local artisans and enjoy some authentic bolivian treats. Furthermore, the people here overall have been very hospitable and are very welcoming. It is fun to look at Eric occassionally and see him standing 2 feet taller than everyone around him ;-)
Please continue with the prayers as we are trying to work things out to open the next chapter of this story.

The Big LONG Travel Day

our view of La Paz

I woke up yesterday morning not believing that it was time to go. But I packed up the rest of my things, met my dad for lunch, and then the travel saga began.
This trip by no means was a walk in the park (but really, is any type of travel?) It all began in the roanoke airport where there was a misunderstanding on their part about my visa.
The lady that was helping me had to call her supervisor, and then her supivisor had to call HER supervisor. but it finally checked out. However, as soon as i was cleared, my flight was delayed due to the democratic convention in Charlotte NC. This was not good due to the fact that my layover there was extremely short. But i was able to make my connection thank goodness.
Upon arriving in miami, I met up with Eric which was a big blessing. we got on the flight only to find that we were sitting in opposite rows, both in the middle. Poor Eric, he is 6' 7'' and was trapped between 2 people (as was I)  in a very narrow seat with hardly any leg room for a 7 hour redeye flight. Needless to say, neither of us got hardly any sleep.
When we did awake from our drowsy "sleep" the pilot was letting us know that the plane was malfunctioning and was no able to land in La Paz. So we flew to Santa Cruz and were grounded there for 8 hours until they could get us a flight back to La Paz. (Things are about to get better for us. dont worry)
After arriving to La Paz we were able to call the hotel who thankfully spoke very good english which is getting to be a relief whenever we hear it. However, I have to say, both Eric and I have been quite proud of ourselves for how much spanish we are remembering and at our ability to somewhat communicate. Anyhoosiers, the hotel sent a cab to pick us up and our driver showed us around town which was super beautiful and we took the picture above. We then went out for a bit and explored a little bit of la paz. we then came back later in the evening to have a quiet dinner overlooking the city lights and are now in bed after a very long 2 days.

You stay civilized......planet earth.

Packing

Hey guys! I'm just finishing packing up all my things. I have 2 suitcases filled to the max. 1 with clothes and shoes, and the other with supplies and gifts for the kids. I have just about everything a mountain man would need to survive! From bug spray to duct tape, to Advil.

I am flying out of Roanoke, Va on Wednesday afternoon at 4:15 pm and will meet Eric in Miami Fl. From there, we will begin our journey into the unknown lands of the Bolivians! We will arrive in La Paz at 5:15 am Thursday morning and will need to take care of a few things upon arrival. We will then charter another flight on a small aircraft bound for Rurrenbaque Which is in northern Bolivia and just east of the Madidi National Park. From there, we will take a 30-40 min. bus ride to Familia Feliz (the orphanage that we are working at).
Eric and I are so excited to be going out into the mission field and to be serving God in the best way we know how. Please continue to pray for us and keep checking back at least every week or 2 in order to see whats going on!