7 weeks now...

So I finally went to the Megacenter (which is a mall) here in La Paz. This is basically where western high class meets Bolivia - and it’s an interesting contrast. In fact, it’s a huge contrast. It’s like there is a line between civilizations. One minute I was in an area where there are people begging in the streets, people trying to sell fruits and vegetables on the sidewalk and people even trying to “sell themselves” on the corner; the next minute I’m in a clean and polished mall where there isn’t even a hint of the kind of people I just mentioned. It was all very weird to be honest. I even commented in the moment that I don’t know what I will do with myself when I get back home to the States. I’m already used to how the rest of La Paz works and, at the moment, I think I prefer it. You see how real life is on the streets and in the mall you just see people spending money (that they probably made at the expense of the people on the streets). It seems so obvious to me that ‘knowledge is power’ as I compare the two ways of life in my mind. Education makes all the difference in the world between the two worlds. It makes me want to help the youth I’m working with all the more – so they can enjoy the fruits of hard work and discipline later in life. Who knows if I really can make that much of a difference – but I will sure try.

Switching gears, I do have great news! I bought a football – yes, an American football! It’s a beautiful thing to behold. The best part about it is that I brought it to Casa de Paso and the kid’s faces lit up. They got together and picked teams just like back home and then they just went at it. It was definitely not football as we know it but it did have some resemblance - mostly the hitting and running into each other part. Being able to hit each other and test each other’s strength was what they were most interested in as they don’t usually get to do that when they play soccer. But anyways, to see all of their faces as they were playing was priceless. I can’t explain how happy I was to see them all so happy. I even took a few videos on the camera to try and capture this awesome experience.

Anywho, just a few thoughts to keep you updated with my life…

And a random picture of what it looks like in the morning as I go to my project:

Road of Death

I feel like my blog is about to slip into the same ol’ same ol’ kind of routine, so I hope to mix it up a little. 

So I almost died this weekend. For those of you who don’t know, the other volunteers and I decided it would be fun to bike the road of death in Bolivia. A great idea for us adventurous types who really want to experience all that Bolivia has to offer. I don’t think that I will ever be able to forget such a trip. The views were amazing to behold as we descended somewhere around 3000m in about 5 hours.

Obviously this means that there is a lot of downhill riding (well really all of it) at a pretty fast pace. Definitely enough to keep your heart pumping if you’re in to that sort of thing. As we descend with the mountains the climate changed and it changed fast! We started in the cold and arid mountains just east of La Paz and made our way down to a very green, humid and warm tropical area of Bolivia with our final destination being Coroico.

Getting ready to begin the adventure!

The curvy road that leads to the valley below

Now, they don’t call this the road of death for no reason. I can attest to this – because I almost died. Yea, that’s right, I was clumsy enough to fall over the edge of the cliff and almost plummet to my death. I, being the risk taker that I am, decided to stop too close to the edge and when I put my foot down (on what I thought was solid ground covered by grass)slipped right on over edge. No joke. Both me and the bike. So I fell about 5 feet and then slid another 5 before coming to a stop (about 5 more feet and I probably wouldn’t be writing this right now) and I did all of this while holding on to the bike – because hey… if I lived, I didn’t want to have to walk the rest of the way! But by the grace of God I stopped just in time. What’s more is that I didn’t even have a scratch on me. They rescued me and the bike (the bike first of course) by rope with pretty much no problems. Needless to say, everyone was a little shocked that it had happened – but for some reason I was hardly phased. My heart didn’t start beating out of my chest or anything. I just remained calm through the entire thing – which probably helped a lot. For some reason I just had a peace about me and I knew nothing terrible was going to happen to me. I knew it even as I was falling – it’s hard to even explain! I feel as though God’s got my back (although I won’t continue to crazy things like that anymore)!

Me being rescued

But the ride afterwards was great! Some of the best scenery you could hope for. When we were done with the bike ride the tour included a trip to a hotel in Coroico where we got to eat a great buffet had have a shower – even a pool to swim in if we wanted. The view from the hotel was perfection. I hope you enjoy the pics half as much as I enjoyed this trip. It was really a once in a lifetime experience! 

And yeah… I will be staying away from cliffs for a while… at least until Machu Pichu.