Familia Feliz

“Click! Click! Click!” The last nine days began with a very happy sound—the sound of the loud stamper representing the acceptance of our visa applications! Last Wednesday we finally finished our legal paperwork in Santa Cruz and prepared for the 20-hour bus ride to Rurrenabaque. After packing our suitcases up again and saying goodbye to our gracious hosts, we drove away Thursday night, ready for a very bumpy ride. And that’s exactly what we got! The drive from Santa Cruz to Rurrenabaque is only about 580 miles, but the road condition accounts for the 20 hours.

We slept, ate, slept again, ate again, and soon we weren’t too far away from our destination.

The last of us to get our visas!

Arriving at the river, the double-decker bus stopped at the edge, and we all looked on in confusion as a little wooden raft tugged by a small boat with a little motor on the back backed into the shore. The bus drove onto the wobbly flotation device and off we went. There were many times when I realized we were rolling backward, only for the driver to catch it as well and drive forward onto the middle of the raft again. It was quite the experience, but they knew what they were doing, and we made it safely to the other shore.

A view from our raft. You can see one similar to ours in the distance.

On Friday afternoon, our long journey finally drew to a close. As we stepped off the bus in Rurre, the humidity hit us in the faces. We were greeted by our director, Melissa, and one of her kids. After stopping at the market to get a few supplies, we hurried to Familia Feliz to get settled before sundown. As Melissa showed the other ladies and me our house, she pointed to the upstairs and said, “And that, Sierra, is where you can start our clinic.” I looked in shock at the large upstairs. A clinic? I had known I would be doing some medical work, but I didn’t know I would be starting a whole clinic! My excitement grew along with my understanding that I had an immense amount of work ahead of me.

Our house/the soon-to-be clinic

That evening, we had vespers, met some kids, and got many more shy stares. Poor Emilianne, my fellow sm, was told she was preaching in the morning and had a busy few hours. We went to bed that night exhausted, but happy.

Sabbath passed in beautiful sunshine. The kids warmed up to us and we all began to make friends with different houses. There are four of them—a little boys house, an older boys one, a girls one, and a mixed. We finished the day with lots of Spanish hymns. By that time, I was feeling quite feverish. I figured I had gotten too hot during my nap and that I would be fine once I went to bed and slept for the night.

Vespers

The next morning, I woke up feeling a little strange, but better. I excitedly got up and met with Melissa and my fellow sm’s for work assignments. As Melissa began to talk, things began to spin. All of a sudden, I knew I was going to pass out and quickly stumbled back to my house. As soon as my head began to clear, I went to my work assignment—taking care of La Casa de Los Liones, the house of the youngest boys. Another student missionary, Carlo, and I took them for the day so that their house parents could have a day off. It was so much fun playing with them and cooking for them. For lunch we made them beans, rice, and tostones, which they loved. For supper we decided to try fresh lemonade (they have tons of ripe citrus trees everywhere), grilled cheese, and tomato soup. I think the tomato soup was a little too foreign for them! They gave me very confused looks and said “Sopa de Tomates? No!” Needless to say, we won’t be making that this Sunday. :)

La Casa de Los Lionés, my house each Sunday

Throughout the day I began feeling more and more sick, and by the end of the day everything was spinning constantly. The next 36 hours that followed were a blur of lying in bed, sleeping, and sitting with a very throbbing head, aching stomach, and high fever. After that I started getting better, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I finally got my appetite back!

Tuesday morning dawned with me in a much better state. I spent the day cleaning medicine bottles that were already here and organizing supplies. Wednesday started off with me climbing the stairs to an abandoned room where there were supposedly a huge amount of medications. I found them on the floor and as I prepared to collect them, about 15 bats started flying around my head! Quickly, I ran out of the room and tried to decide what to do next. I decided to grab an old mosquito net and wrap it around me and the boy, Charlie, who was helping me. We crawled across the floor and carefully and quickly grabbed all the medicines, stuffing them in a bag. I felt a stinging on my wrist that I hadn’t noticed before coming upstairs the first time. I made a mental note to look at it when I was finished with the job. Charlie and I finally emerged, mosquito net, medicine, and all. We gratefully went downstairs and parted ways.

As I walked through the door of my house, I looked down at that stinging spot on my wrist. There, side by side, were two tiny dots. I quickly googled a bat bite and much to my dismay, the pictures and my wrist were identical. My heart sank. The next 24 hours consisted of a very high stress search, trying to find a hospital that had rabies shots. Thankfully we found one, and I’ll have my fourth shot of 10 today.

The view on the way to the hospital

The highlight of my week was the happy faces of the little kids. We got two babies on Friday, and the student missionaries have been rotating taking care of one of them to help Melissa with her busy workload. The baby we have been caring for was brought here after his mother tried to murder him. His blue and purple face is sobering. He’s the happiest smiliest baby here though. His whole mouth frequently opens up in one toothless grin!

José (one of my boys)and Me

The new baby with another sm, Zoro

My mornings have been filled with making breakfast with the other sm’s and cleaning medical supplies that were already here, followed by afternoons of taking inventory. The evenings are when all the kids are out of school and I take care of their injuries from the day. It’s a lot different than I expected. When I originally decided to be a student missionary, I had planned to go somewhere as a nurse. But then I decided to go to Bolivia, where the only title available was house parent/teacher. I hoped I could do a little nursing on the side, but I had no idea the extent to which I would be doing so! But God knew. He knew why I should come here and why I should bring certain supplies. I’m so grateful that He is in charge instead of me!

Yesterday I preached at our little church and in my sermon I told the kids about how Jesus wants to be their friend. I’m so grateful to have a friend like that walking beside me during weeks like the last one. I’m looking forward to a new week, full of new surprises!

A morning making pancakes and fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.

Diego and Me