Saturday morning we headed over the San Francisco, an old church in Potosi. The guide was young and energetic and showed us lots of interesting things. We started by looking at paintings on the four walls surrounding a large courtyard, mostly on the subject of San Francisco de Assisi. Then we went into the main church sanctuary and he showed us the miraculous image of the Señor de la Veracruz. It’s a giant sculpture of Jesus on the cross made from one piece of cactus. It’s really quite beautiful. The “miraculous” part comes from the story of its origin. The statue showed up unexpectedly on the church’s doorstep one day, but headless. Then three guys came to town and offered to fashion a head. Not knowing these guys, they were asked to stay isolated in a room for three days, which they did. They never ate a thing. When the people went to the room to see why they weren’t eating, the dudes were gone. The statue of Jesus suddenly had a head, and it looked as if it had been part of the statue from the very beginning.
PICTURES!
Yes, folks, here you go… 29 fabulous photos from the latter half of my trip. They turned out GREAT! I hope you enjoy them.
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The Voyage Home (yet another Trek-inspired title)
I got into St. Louis at about noon on Thursday. I was tired and sore and scraggly-looking. But my mom was pleased to see me, and it was good to be back.
My departure began on Wednesday. Yoli and I spent the day finishing the last details of the website, then burning CDs for everyone I had done projects for–the seminary, El Jordán, and Casa Hogar Nacer. I made sure I burned a special CD for Glennie that included the lone Jerry Douglas song I found for him.
Continue reading “The Voyage Home (yet another Trek-inspired title)”
Twice the rice
Monday was a tough day at the Seminary. They’ve been facing an incredibly tight budget and now they have a personnel problem as well.
It was frustrating for me, because I wanted to purchase web hosting and get the site online before the day was over. But Rusty, the rector of the seminary, was busy most of the day and couldn’t come until late in the afternoon.
On the lighter side, Louise took a photo of Yoli and I with her digital camera, so enjoy!
Guest entry: See what Yoli has to say!
The six months before seeing Josh were very hard, especially the first 3 months after I returned to Bolivia.
Continue reading “Guest entry: See what Yoli has to say!”
ENGAGED! (No, Star Trek fans, I’m not pretending I’m Captain Jean-Luc Picard)
Saturday night Yoli and I cooked pizza and then we got engaged.
We’ve been planning this for a while, and I must admit to you now that I left all the details related to our engagement out of my entries for the past two weeks so it would be a surprise.
It didn’t happen exactly as we originally envisioned, but it still went well. She said yes and she’s wearing the ring, and that’s the main thing. 🙂
Continue reading “ENGAGED! (No, Star Trek fans, I’m not pretending I’m Captain Jean-Luc Picard)”
Attack of the Mosquitos
I forgot to write about my adventures Saturday and I didn’t write about Tuesday, either, so I’ll share some anecdotes from those days, as well as Wednesday.
On Saturday, Yoli took me to see Santa Cruz’s relatively new Botanical Garden. The original one was located near the river and was destroyed be a flood in the early 1980s. She hadn’t been to the new one, and was looking forward to seeing it.
Well, neither of us thought to bring bug spray.
A full, satisfying day
Today was a day of blessings. It started early. We had a full morning planned: going to the bank to change dollars to bolivianos… then going to the photo store to check on the cost of scanning film to a PhotoCD… then going to the plaza and visiting a museum.
I never turn down a free meal
Tuesday was “Eat For Free Day” for me. For breakfast, I ate again with Arnold and Greta Wry, who have basically told me that any time I want to eat breakfast with them is fine. Then for lunch, Yoli and I were supposed to eat with Glennie and Marilyn Wry, but Marilyn was sick, so someone else cooked. And for dinner, Yoli took me to see her friend Gina and her husband for dinner.
But much more happened throughout the day.
HEAT WAVE!
There wasn’t much new Monday, except for the heat. It got very hot today!
Monday morning, Yoli and I went back to El Jordán to do some work. She spent much of her time translating a prayer newsletter for Corina, while I brought my laptop and did some work for the El Jordán brochures I was asked to do.