Thursday, May 20, 2010

How To Build A Boat In Bolivia?

I have no idea, but I'm about to find out!!!  Yes, that's right, I will soon be off on an adventure to Guayaramerin, Bolivia to help build a boat that will be used by doctors to visit villages in the Amazon Basin that can only be reached by boat.

There will be a team of nine of us leaving in June for two weeks - every year our church sends out several teams to various countries of the world, and when they announced the trip to Bolivia last Fall, I was instantly intrigued because I have always wanted to visit South America, and I knew that Bolivia is a Spanish speaking country, which would be great for me to resurrect my extremely rusted Spanish skills that I learned while in Mexico.

I was not sure when I signed up exactly what area of Bolivia we were going to, but I knew that June is considered winter down there because their seasons are opposite to ours, so I knew that the temperatures would be cooler.  I don't do the greatest in hot temperatures.   And when they announced the trip they said that we would be renovating a houseboat, so I thought "How hard could that be?  I can sand things.  I can paint things."  I signed up and went to our first meeting and found out that Guayaramerin is in the jungle in the Amazon Basin, and that we would be BUILDING a boat, not just renovating it.  Needless to say, I've been a little freaked out since then, but God has spoken some amazing things to me about what to believe for during this trip, so I am going for it!

I went for my final round of shots yesterday, and now have the live Yellow Fever virus floating through my system...that's a weird feeling for sure!  And I just upgraded from my Nikon D40 to a D80 on the weekend, so I have to figure out how to use my new camera before I go!
(If anybody has some tips, please send them along!)

I'll keep you posted as the adventure continues....

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