BBQ, Bolivian style

On Sunday, all of us joined Randy's small church for a BBQ and day at the park. We started the day with some worship songs and a breif sermon on the beauty of God's creation. Then... it was all about having a blast in the park. David set up his slackline right next to the canyon below the park. (A slackline is like a tight rope but a little wider and less tight.) It was a huge hit with all of the guys. Then we all got together to play some games on the futsol court. (refer to previous blog for definition of futsol) The games were kinda fun... but the real fun began when we all split up into 3 teams and played some incredible games of futsol. Of course my team, "Los Patos" ("The ducks"), completely dominated! It was a blast. After the games we enjoyed some ice cream and then all hell broke loose! This weekend just happens to be a crazy holiday around here. They call it Carnivales, and it's pretty much a crazy party to satisfy all of your sinful tendencies before lent begins. Which of course includes a week-long, country-wide water fight! More on this concept to come soon. Anyways... all of the kids and a few of the adults came very prepared for a very intense water war! Within minutes everyone was completely soaked! In this type of situation it ususally works out to be all of the Bolivians against all of the gringos. This was the case to an extent... but really it was everyone for himself in this game. Man was it crazy... I've never been so wet in my life. (And of course I decided to wear jeans that day... Idiot!) When the water war finally began to wind down... the BBQ was served. Man... can Bolivians eat. Everyone got an incredible steak, two baked potatoes, a sausage, a huge ear of corn, and a salad. Whoa... it was great! Another sweet cultural experience in Bolivia.

Noche de Basquet

On Friday night we planned a crazy event.... For our monthly outreach, Randy invited all of his basketball teams to an entire night of Basketball! The festivities were to began around 8pm and last until 6am the next morning. The night was full of fun and adventure, but of course many things did not go as planned. First, when we arrived at the gym to set up we realized that the gym had been double booked and we wouldn't have the court until 10pm. This wouldn't have posed much of a problem because there was another court outside that we could use to keep ourselves occupied until the indoor court was available. Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived, the rain began. It was raining harder than I've ever seen it rain in Bolivia. The roof of the gym just happened to be made out of tin as well, so... as you can imagine, the rain created an incredibly loud racket in the facility. The players slowly began to arrive and the rain let up soon enough. We began our first round of b-ball games around 10pm. There were 43 athletes, ranging in age from 8-24, that made up 8 teams. Also, all players, coaches, and volunteers were put onto two major teams - Green or White. All of the events of the night were assigned a certain point value. All night it would be a point battle between the white and green teams. Also, a captain was assigned to represent the two teams. At the end of the night, the captain of the losing team would be forced to completely shave their head. Ross represented the white team and a Bolivian volunteer Kavil would represent the green team. I was on the white team and coached a young team of shoe shiner guys. They were totally fun, but not fantastic b-ball players... it also didn't help that their coach knew less than they did about the game. We were the first team to play... and we lost pretty severely to a younger, but more experienced team of guys. This seemed to be a common pattern for the white team... and it was not looking good for the future of Ross' locks. My team was more into playing futsol (which is a small-scale version of soccer). So, between games we would sneak out to the outdoor court to play some good ol' futsol. It was super sweet! Around midnight we reconvined in the gym for a game of old school dodgeball - green vs. white. Again, the green team dominated! Next, we all gathered around to watch a homemade film, featuring our own Randy Davis. It was an awesome video that told about his love for basketball and how it has affected his life and his spiritual journey. It also invited anyone interested to lunch with any one of the YFC volunteers to discuss what they believe and what we believe. Some of the kids seemed a little to young and immature for the video, but 3 of the shoe shiner guys (William Wallace, Ronald, and Oliver) accepted the invitation and plan to meet with Randy soon. After the short film and a little talk from Randy's dad, the Parillada comensed. (Parillada means BBQ) We grilled up 50 sausages, and had a great feast. After the BBQ, the second round of games began. This time my team of guys faced an eclectic team of female athletes. Incredibly, we finished on top with a pretty decent lead, thanks to the amazing shooting skills of a little guy named Wanka (Juan Carlos). It was a great victory. The last game of the night featured the two youngest teams of the crew... and just to keep things interesting, both captains played for their teams and the point value was upped! The winner of this game would be the ultimate champion of the night! It was a very tough match, within one basket most of the game but... in the end, Kavil and his little green team pulled out the victory. So, as promised, Ross was subject to a very public head shaving! Man it was funny... but Ross looks alright without any hair. To close the crazy night, we started a movie, "The Incredibles" around 430am. Almost everyone slept through the flick... but what would you expect? The movie ended a little after 6am and we had everyone out of there and the place cleaned up by 7am. It was a crazy adventure, but so fun!

DANCE PARTY!

On Saturday night, we went to a crazy dance party in downtown La Paz. It was hosted by a Christian organization and featured some local dance teams. It lasted from 4pm to 12am. Man... we danced the night away to salsa, rigaton, rock, techno... and more. I don't think I've ever danced so much in my life!!! I love to dance, so this night was such a blast. I don't really understand the Christian culture here in Bolivia. A bunch of people go by the standard that Christians do NOT dance. (Which was definately a huge bummer to me!) But then there are activities like this that totally go against the norm. Whatever... I don't understand, and I may never get it, but all I know is that this was an amazing dance party, that will go down in history!

English Classes

This week we begin our third week of teaching english classes here in La Paz. Ross, David, Hannah, and I teach at Randy's tiny church in the middle of downtown. We have about 30 students ranging in age from 5 to 45. Our students are mostly composed of members of the church, shoeshiner boys, and YFC volunteers. It's quite an experience... especially since none of us have any experience in teaching. Sometimes class is a little bit rocky and chaotic, but we seem to be getting through to the students... and we are making some friends in the process. Everyone seems very eager to learn, which makes our job that much easier. Tomorrow we are splitting the class into two levels to cater better to the students. We will have to plan twice as much, but I'm excited to see the progress of the students, especially in the more advanced level. Pronunciation seems to be our biggest hurdle. I never realized how illogical english pronunciation is until I was asked to teach it. It's crazy... but so fun and rewarding as well. The picture shows Ross giving a short lecture to the class. More updates to come.

Check it out...

Hey, if you haven't noticed, I have added various links to the side of my blog. Check them out if you desire. They may give you more insight into life here in Bolivia as well as give you a new and different perspective. Enjoy.

Introducing my Team

So, I realized that most people reading this blog probably don´t know who I´m working and living with down here in La Paz. I´d like to take this opportunity to introduce everyone! The Youth for Christ ministry here in Bolivia is run by the director Pedro Villarreal. He is an awesome guy... and a second Father to me. He has a beautiful wife named Andrea that works full time as a Portugese professor to support the family so Pedro can work full time as a volunteer with YFC. They have four awesome kids... Pricilia, Debi, Lucas, and Matteus. The ministry functions with the help of about 20 volunteers with varying levels of involement. Everyone is so great. They love to help and be involved with the events, but they also have very busy work and school schedules. Finally, I am joined here by 5 other american missionaries.... all of which happen to be from Colorado.... 4 of which happen to be from my home town of Parker and my home church of PEPC. Randy is the veteran here. He lead the YFC trip that I was on about a year and a half ago. He has lived here in La Paz for just over one year now and has built on awesome foundation of relationships and ministries. His main ministry is coaching basketball. He coaches a team of shoe shiner boys, a varsity team at an international high school and a team at a christian school, and just accepted a job as the head coach/program director at a huge basketball club. Next, there is Jon. He has been here for about 6 months now. His main ministry is in the southern zone of La Paz with the international school and church. He leads a bible study and youth group and helps Randy coach the basketball team. This week he is working at the school as a substitute PE teacher, so that´s pretty sweet. Finally, 3 other kids came down with me in January - Hannah, Ross, and David. All of us are still discovering where our ministries are here in La Paz. I love my team and I am so excited and blessed to have them here to share in the adventure. The top picture here shows the guys - David, Randy, Jon, and Ross. They're goofballs, but I love them. The bottom picture is at one of our meetings. There's a bunch of the volunteers as well as all of us gringos. So, if you didn´t know them already, hopefully you will now be able to picture everyone as they are discussed in other blogs. It´s been a pleasure, Chao.

Denise Rucks...

This message is intended for the eyes of a Mrs. Denise Rucks. If you are reading this, please email me, because I seem to have lost your email address. Thank you so much for your blog comments. I would really love to answer your questions, so please email me soon. I love you and miss you. Send my greetings to your students. I hope all is well. Chao.

To all others reading this message... Thank you so much for the comments that you´ve left. It´s so fun to hear from everyone and hear what you have to say. I hope you are enjoying my blog entries. I love you all, ALi

An Incredible Fiesta

About a month ago, Pedro gave all of the Youth for Christ volunteers a task to complete. All were entrusted with 20 US dollars, which they were to treat as talents. (If you don´t know what I´m talking about, refer to The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30). They were asked to work creatively to increase their talents. Just as Randy and Jon were beginning to run out of time in their assignment, the idea arose. To increase their talents, Jon and Randy decided to throw a crazy party! It would be a night full of Mexican food and Country dancing. After much preparation.... we managed to pull it off. We all worked together to make this party a success. We printed out invitations and invited everyone we knew. Yesterday around 3pm we began cooking and assembling 120 miniture burritos with a team of about 8 people. We just finished as our first guests arrived. Man, the party was awesome. We danced, we laughed, we ate, we demolished a homemade piñata... good times were had. All in all we ended up having about 45 guests. Just enough to make a slight profit on our 10Bs cover charge. The funds will go toward the construction of the best stinking camp in Bolivia and the memories will last forever.

Our New Place

On Thursday, Hannah and I moved out of Randy´s apartment to live on our own. We now live about a block down the road. Our place is small, but it´s nice to have some privacy and get away from everything if I ever need to. We rent from a cute older woman that owns a bakery underneath our apartment. We pay a total of 600Bolivianos each month for rent... which works out to about 38 US Dollars each. So that´s pretty sweet. Pictures to come.

The Sun is Relentless at 12,000 feet

So.... through experience, I have learned that at 12,000 and above, the sun is crazy strong! Not only do you have to put sunscreen on anytime you step foot outside, but you also have to reapply like every hour! I am sunburnt on several random places on my body... my ankles, calves, forearms, triceps, and nose. I now take extreme precautions whenever under the crazy Bolivian sun.... even if it is completely cloudy and rainy. Just thought you'd like to know.

La Casa

Right now, I live in Randy´s apartment in Sopocachi, La Paz. This is a very quiet and tranquil neighborhood. The apartment is great and we often open it up to our friends and ministry. We also have a gaurd that patrols our street at night. I feel very safe and comfortable in our new home. Next week, Hannah and I will probably be moving to an apartment around the block. It is very close to the guys place and we will probaly be over there a lot to hang out and use their kitchen. The picture here shows Randy´s place.