Sit back, relax and enjoy a little trip down memory lane.  This is my “Ate a pig/Got caught in a riot” story from August of 2005…

It’s a little difficult to know where to start. Yesterday was my birthday, so we killed a pig. We chopped it up and cooked it in a big pot. The meal had a decided “Fear Factor” element to it. Fortunately I wasn’t really expected to eat the more…interesting parts, and the parts I did eat were really good. Then we had a Jet Li movie marathon (although I gave up after the first movie). For those of you who are unfamiliar with Jet…he makes fairly mediocre martial arts movies but is BELOVED in Bolivia and considered one of the great actors of our time. All in all, it was a fun day. Thanks to all who wrote and wished me a happy birthday!! I appreciated it.

Now onto the bigger story. Let me start by saying that I’m okay…and I was on the Bolivian national news. You know any story that starts out like that is going to be good!

I decided to take a quick trip up to Cochabamba for a couple of days to see Julie and the people I worked with last year, before the team from Saskatchewan arrived and I got busy. About an hour into the trip, my bus suddenly pulled to a stop and the driver shut the engine off (which I’ve learned is never a good thing). The young fellow beside me said, “Bloqueos!” (blockades). Bolivia has experienced some unrest lately, and blocking roads is a common way to make people pay attention to whatever woes you might have. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but surprisingly it was a somewhat sedate experience…at least at first. We just all stood around and waited and whatnot.

After about an hour, MY bus decided that they’d had enough, and they convinced the driver to drive closer to the front of the line (there are probably over 100 buses, cars and semi-trucks lined up now). Once we stopped everyone starts saying, “Come on men! Let’s go!” and all the guys get off the bus to go deal with this blockade. I’m thinking, “I’m a man! I’m not gonna just sit here with the women and children!” And so I got up and joined them. Although in hindsight….

So we walked about a mile or so across this big bridge, to where a very large tree has been cut down and was lying across the bridge. A couple of the trouble makers saw us coming and took off on their motorbikes, but our group (and now there are many more of us, as we managed to convince other buses to join in our crusade!) managed to grab four of the guys motorbikes, and drag them onto our side of the blockade and flattened their tires. Then we all gathered around the tree and started to lift it off the road…..and then we all jumped back because the tree was covered in thousands of little biting ants that enjoyed climbing all over us. We knocked off as many of the ants as we could and then made another attempt…and believe it or not, we eventually managed to toss this big tree off the road. The crowd was pretty empowered by this, which is, I think, what led to the next chain of events.

We all started walking down the road. I was thinking that we were just going to walk to a spot where we could get back onto the buses more easily, but we kept walking…and walking…and walking… By now there must be nearly 1000 people walking (there were crowds as far as I could see), with all the vehicles idling along behind us. I really didn’t know what was going on (which is not actually that unusual), and inside I’m thinking, “Okay seriously guys…are we walking to Cochabamba?!” After about an hour, I could see smoke on the road and I suddenly realized that, of course, there was another side of the blockade. The reason we were all walking was for effect…to try to intimidate the “bloqueo” people.

As we got closer, I could see burning tires and waving flags…and even more people. By now there were news cameras and everyone was kind of standing around to see what was going on. In my own defence, things seemed quite calm and peaceful. Our side sent an envoy of about a half dozen people to try and convince the bloqueo people to let us pass (made up of a couple well dress ladies and business type people). They came back angry because the demonstrators refused.  So they started expressing their frustration to the news cameras. At that point, I was standing about 30 ft. from the blockade (which isn’t that big of a deal, since people are allowed to cross it, just not vehicles).

The next part got a bit confusing. All of a sudden there was a roar from the crowd on the other side of the blockade (my guess is that some hothead on our side did something stupid). Our side started to run back the way we came and although I still wasn’t really sure what was going on… it seemed prudent to join them. Then the guy beside me turned to look back, and got cranked with a big rock right in his chest (I saw him later without his shirt on, and he had a huge bruise/welt). I was still fairly calm at this point (as a side note, I think I was born without that self preservation gene that everyone is supposed to have…the “Uh oh!” gene as it were), but I did figure it might be a good idea to get off the road. So I ran over beside a house and hid next to it along with some other people. The “front” went past us, and seriously it was like anything you’ve ever seen on the news…people yelling and running…the ground covered with bricks and rocks from people throwing them…

I had my first moment of fear at this point as I watched all the buses start trying to turn around. All the drivers were scrambled to try and get out of the area. I really didn’t want to get left behind without any of my stuff (in the midst of a war zone), so I started running after them. I saw a lady from my bus, so I stuck close to her. The problem was that we were now running in the midst of all the grumpy people who were throwing rocks and I wasn’t sure if they would recognize me as one of the “nice gringos”. I started trying to figure out in my head how to say, “I’m not from the United States! I’m Canadian!” in Spanish (my apologies to my American friends, but at this point many Bolivians aren’t that happy with Americans and it’s best to emphasize one’s Canadian-ness). Fortunately no one paid that much attention to me, and I suddenly saw my bus. It had pulled off the road into the ditch, so I quickly jumped on. It was crazy…people were crying…everyone was crouching on the floor and the curtains had all been pulled shut in case any rocks or bricks came our way. And it was about 100 degrees on the bus since all the windows were closed, so that didn’t help matters any.

But as is normal here, as fast as emotions went up…things started calming down. And as a great testament to the joys of capitalism…within 20 minutes or so, there was a little old lady selling fruit salad outside our bus. And trust me when I say it was the best fruit salad I’ve ever had!

I did eventually make it to Cochabamba. After a half an hour or so, everyone started abandoning our bus (it became obvious that it wasn’t going anywhere). The guy that had been sitting beside me said that he was going to head to the other side of the blockade and see if he could find a bus that was planning on turning around and going back up to Coch. So myself and a girl grabbed our stuff and joined him. Like I said earlier, it’s one of the strange things about blockades here. You can’t drive past them…but there’s no problem walking. No one even paid us the slightest attention. We ended up getting a taxi to the next town and another taxi from there. Eventually we got to a town where there was a scheduled bus to Cochabamba. It wasn’t a very nice bus…and I had to sit beside the biggest guy on the bus who kept taking over my side of the seat whenever he fell asleep…but I made it (at 3 AM…six hours late). Oh ya, and we had a flat tire at one point too.

So…that’s the story. For those of you who are praying for me….thanks! =) For those of you who are unduly worried for me, God’s brought me this far so….it’s all good. But by all means, continue praying!

This story happened about two weeks after arriving in Bolivia that very first time.  Crazy.  Still one of my favourite stories.  It wasn’t the last time I ate crazy pig parts or the last time I had adventures with public transportation… 

Come back soon and I’ll post another classic “Missionary Ken” story.  =)  Ah my life…
 

I got my hair cut yesterday.  It took 10 minutes (I don’t have that much hair left) and cost me $17.  That’s $102/hour.  And the truth is…I pretty much like my $1.50 hair cut from the lady in the market back in Bolivia better. 

Oh well…there’s not much I can do about it I guess.  It’s just a fact of life here.  Maybe it’s time to go back to getting mom to cut my hair.  I think she stopped when my brothers and I started getting too particular and…um…tense…when she didn’t cut it quite the way we wanted.  Now…I’m all about the price…not so much the quality.  And again…there’s not that much that can go wrong when you really don’t have much to work with. 

Speaking went fairly well in Asquith on Sunday, I think.  It was mostly just fun to see people and catch up a bit.  Asquith was the first church I ever youth pastored at.  Last week I had a BBQ with some of the kids who were in my youth group back then (and who now have a dozen or more kids between them all…).  We had a fun time reminiscing.  It’s probably best that most of those stories stay between them and me.  People from Asquith read this blog and they probably don’t want to know all the crazy things we did in and/or to the church.  After all…they still like me out there and it’d be nice to keep it that way.  Let’s just say I was young and leave it at that. 

We did have fun however…

Tonight I’m off to the Christian school for their Dinner Theatre.  I’m looking forward to it.  Again, it’s fun to see the kids and hang out.  As a side note, some of the kids who were down with us in Bolivia over Easter on this last trip, are talking about coming back with me in August for a month, to work with us some more.  I’m hoping it all works out…it’d be good to have them there.

I spoke with one of the guys from the house on Facebook, on Sunday afternoon.  He shared a bit about what’s happening in his life, and that he’d had to deal with some tempations at school the week before.  This young guy had a fairly serious drinking/drug problem in his past, and some of his friends at school were trying to get him to a party or something I think.  But he said he prayed about it, and God gave him the strength to say no.  =)  So that was good to hear.  We had a good conversation (well…as good as one can have on Facebook chat).  

Thanks for continuing to pray for myself and the guys.  We certainly need your prayers.  I’m officially approaching the halfway mark in my trip, and there are a few things that still need to happen in my life before I head back south.  So if you could please pray that I manage to accomplish what I need to do, that’d be great.  As another side note, some of you have been asking about my physio for my back.  I’ve started meeting with my physiotherapist and he’s excellent.  The owner of the physio place has taken a personal interest in my case and met with me on Saturday as well.  He said I did a pretty good number on my back in the accident, but thinks we should be able to have it fixed up before I head back to Bolivia in August.  So that was good to hear.  Everyone at this place has been amazing, so a big shout out to Bourassa and Associates.  They’re doing a good job.

I’ve still got lots of time for a coffee or a supper if anyone is interested!  =)  Just let me know…

Thanks everyone….
  

Yep…I’m sure you’ve noticed.  I haven’t been here much lately.  Sorry about that.  I’d like to say it because I’m so busy being home and all…but that’s not really it.  I think I’m just decompressing a bit, and maybe need a bit of space from thinking too much about what’s happening in the real world.  That’ll be my excuse for the crazy amount of movies I’ve seen since getting back too.  Escapism…  =)

But life continues wether we try to be a part of it or not.  So I thought I’d drop back in and let you know a bit of what’s happening.  I spoke with Isabel tonight, and got an update on how things are going back in Bolivia.  For the most part…pretty good.  That was nice to hear.  I think one of the guys is still struggling with his attitude (which is probably indicative of deeper issues), but most of the others seem to be stepping up and trying to make better choices. 

I’m especially pleased with one of the guys.  The night before I left for Canada, I sat down with him and we had a long talk (not the same fellow I mentioned in the last post.  Jorge did speak with that fellow, and it seemed to go well).  This is a guy I’ve worked a long time with…we’ve been friends for a lot of years.  In that conversation, I just tried to encourage him that it was time for him to start living his life a little more deliberately.  Not allowing himself to be tossed and turned by every wave or tempation that came his way.  He’s a kid with natural leadership ability, but he tends to use that ability to tear down rather than build up.  

So you can imagine how pleased I was to hear Isabel tell me that he’s been one of the biggest encouragements to her since I’ve left.  He’s been working hard to bring the guys together and do whatever he can to help.  I’ve said for a long time (even in the midst of some pretty dumb choices on his part) that I see the potential in him.  I think Isabel (and a few others!) have had their doubts about that at times.  =)  But it seems like this young guy has started to realize who he is and how he can use the gifts that God’s given him to serve and lead.  So…that’s pretty exciting!   

As well, Jorge (my pastor) shared with Isabel that he’s been feeling God speaking to him, and he’d like to come onboard at the home on a regular basis when I get back.  That’s exciting for me too.  To be comletely honest though, sometimes it’s a bit intimidating…seeing someone like Jorge or Tonchy (our other pastor) get more and more involved.  It’s what I want (absolutely!), but at the same time, it’s so much easier for them than for me.  Language…culture…it’s a part of who they are (being Bolivian), but for me…not so much.  

At the same time though…I’ve seen ministries and leaders who try to hold the people they minister to so tightly in their fists that no one else is let in.  They become isolationist and don’t want anyone else to work with “their people”.  

I refuse to be that person…  I’m not going to let my insecurities or struggles affect what God desires to do in the lives of the people He’s entrusted to my care.  The more voices that speak into our lives…the more we feel a part of a community or family…the stronger we are.  Each of the people that God leads to work with the guys plays a part in their growth and development.  There’s a place for each of us.  

But feel free to pray about that with me.  And please continue to pray for the guys as they study and are challenged in their relationships with God.  It seems like we’ve turned yet another corner, and that’s encouraging.    

On a side note, I’ll be speaking at the Asquith Baptist church on Sunday if anyone in the Saskatoon area is interested.  I’ve still got most of the Sunday’s in July open, if you think your church might be interested in hearing a bit more about what God is doing in my corner of South America.  Just let me know…

This coming week I’m going to post some of my favourite posts from years gone by.  For those of you who are new here, there are probably a few stories you haven’t heard yet (ie. the one about the kid who was hiding live fish under his pillow…).  So stay tuned.  =)

Thanks for reading and praying everyone!  I appreciate it…
 
PS  Andres wrote me on Facebook today and told me they missed me and warned me not to get fat on my mom’s cooking like last year…

It’s nice to be loved.