Traveling

Above is a celebration we drove by in Bolivia (has nothing to do with this post)

First of all, let me say that I am very happy. I was just reminded that I am not going to Haiti on Tuesday. That's right.

Tomorrow morning (Friday) I go to Baradero for a meeting with the Baradero team. On Saturday I have a meeting with people from other provinces, also in Baradero. Then I return home at midnight Saturday night, go to church Sunday morning, then I'm off to the airport Sunday afternoon. Fly all night to Miami. Spend 12 hours at the Miami airport, then a quick flight to the Dominican Republic, arriving Monday night. Then: rest on Tuesday before driving Wednesday to northern Haiti.

I'd forgotten that the tickets to get to the Dominican Republic on Tuesday were prohibitively expensive. And that although it was going to be rough leaving right after another trip (the Saturday meeting was planned months ago), I would still get in some rest. Ahhh....

I'm headed to Haiti to assist my coordinator, Bibiana, during her site visits, training, and assessments. The training sessions are focused now on building capacity in local training teams. There are 29 CHE villages in northern Haiti that are working out how to continue to effect community transformation with the added challenges of refugees from the capital city, Port-au-Prince. I've been there twice before, in 2002 and 2004, during my discernment process to go to the mission field. At the time I was really impressed by the way the CHE tools can work even in such a difficult place.

This trip will also be about discernment for me, but more on that later!

Here I am with an alpaca next to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia.

Bolivian Training of Trainers

Above you see Nora filling out the three different forms required for entry into Bolivia. I also had a visa application which I needed to turn in at the airport, which thankfully went without a hitch -- well, once the visa processing people arrived. It didn't matter that I had to wait for my visa, though, since our next flight's itinerary had been changed to four hours later. As one of that airline's employees said with a shrug: Yeah, some days it leaves at 7 pm, other days at 11 pm.

Isn't the countryside beautiful? This is the Altiplano area, 4200 m (13,800 feet) above sea level. The day after arriving we were driven to the training site along with others who had flown in from the Amazon region of Bolivia. All in all there were 12 health workers from Samaritan's Purse who had come to learn how they could integrate spiritual teachings with their physical teachings.
We shared a time of worship every morning. You can't see him in this picture, but Ireneo is playing the plastic bottle! Yup, just put a few small rocks and dirt in a plastic bottle and you get another percussion instrument.

Here is Felix showing us what his group discovered about the worldview of the community they work in, from the roots (beliefs) to the trunk (values) to the branches (behavior) to the fruit (consequences).

Here you see Ireneo, Magaly, and Beatriz acting in a dramatization called "River Crossing Story," which illustrates the difference between relief and development.

End of the training, each participant with a certificate!

Time for a few last pictures just outside of our training site -- here I am with a herd of llamas.

And here is some llama on my plate! After a week of goat and sheep they offered us llama on the last day, which is surprisingly yummy!

Thankfully, the Samaritan's Purse secretary called to confirm our non-stop return to Buenos Aires that was scheduled to leave at 8:45 am. It turns out it left at 7 am and had a layover! :-)