July 12, 2023
Dear Diary,
Hello from Cotoca! It’s so good to be in another familiar place! Monday we girls went shopping with the pastor’s daughter and got some souvenirs and snacks for the road. In the afternoon three of the girls and the pastor’s wife headed to the bus station to begin their overnight trip to Cotoca. The rest of us ate pizza and packed up so we were ready to leave on Tuesday.
Tuesday those of us who were still in Tarija got up bright and early and loaded ourselves and things into the pastor’s van and we headed towards Cotoca around 6:20 a.m. It’s supposed to be about a 10 hour drive, but after about an hour one of the girls thought the pastor was going so fast we’d get there in just 4 hours.
At one point the road turned to dirt and then was pretty narrow and windy along the side of the mountains. We prayed for safety and hung on. Along the side of the road you can see places where vehicles have gone off the edge… a bit frightening to think about. But the scenery was beautiful and I was reminded of the goodness of God.
About half ways we really needed gas and had to drive around through a town asking at different tiendas (stores) trying to find someone who had “gasolina” for sale, we also heard from the other girls that they had arrived, but all our luggage did not, so we had a prayer meeting for gas and the luggage. We found gas fairly soon and continued on our way wondering about the luggage.
It was fun to follow our route on the map and go through towns that I remember from the last time I was in Bolivia.
After one bathroom stop the pastor asked us to sing so he got out his phone and we sang with some Spanish hymns he had playing. We arrived in Santa Cruz around 4:00 p.m. and then went to meet his daughter and pick up our luggage, which had come on a later bus. We picked up two more people and, with the van packed to the gills drove the last hour or so to the church in Cotoca.
For me it was so much like coming home, but to the other girls it was a new place, new people, new schedule, etc. the girls who had arrived before us had spent the day cleaning and getting ready for us and that was very nice. There is something about the location that seems sort of secluded and like you are out in the middle of nowhere and definitely had more of a primitive “missionary” feel to it. But it can also be lonely or depressing. I’m glad we’re doing our trip in this order with slowly getting more and more primitive so it wasn’t a huge adjustment all at once.
We had supper and figured out where every one was going to sleep (I get my tent again, but this time with another girl), then we had a church service where we got to see more of the church people and invited the children to a Bible class today. It was so much fun to see familiar faces and be able to greet the children by name. Often when a group like us Congress they don’t know anyone and have to make new friends so I’m enjoying coming back to show them I’ve not forgotten them. After serving everyone bread and tea and saying goodbyes we met in the girls’ room to talk about what they thought of the ride and our new location etc. and then we went to bed.
Wednesday, today, we got up and had breakfast, devotions, and worship and then the pastor told us to pick all the limes from the tree behind the church and juice them.
Then we worked on clearing a path by the side of the church for a sidewalk to keep the rain from washing away the dirt.
We also planned our first children’s class and one of the girls did an object lesson with money and talked about our value and how it doesn’t change no matter what happens. Then we played some games with them. When we ran out of planned things to do we all went to the soccer court at the school and played until 6:00. The pastor’s wife asked us to make breakfasts and suppers and she’ll make lunch, so now the leader of the day is also in charge of planning/making supper.
After supper we gathered in the girl’s room again to go over our day and now we’re going to bed. Goodnight.
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