Let's head to the Colony

This past week, a number of us MCCer's had a trip to a nearby colony as part of our country orientation. Hans and Elma, who work with Centro Menno, took Ramont and Liz, Lynn and Laurie, and Carl and I. It was a pretty good day.

After coordinating who was going to pick up the four kids at school, where they were going to be, and what they were having for lunch, we were ready to go. I got everything together....except the camera. So thanks Liz for letting me have some of your pictures. Much appreciated!

We drove out at 8 in the morning to colonies Rivas Palasios and Swift Current. They are about an hour drive south of Santa Cruz on dirt roads. It had rained the night before and so the roads were pretty rough. I was glad I took my gravol!

Once we got to the colony, we went to visit a family in one of the villages. The family was quite wealthy and had an amazing machine shop. He makes his own augers and hammer mills. His production was quite impressive. We ladies didn't stay long in the shop, and moved to the house instead. We were given a tour of the house, met her 7 girls at home, her daughter in law across the property and new grandson.

What I noticed right away was how clean the house was. How does one do that in dusty Bolivia? Hmmmm....you have seven daughters clean non-stop I guess. That day, the girls were busy in the kitchen making cringle for an engagement party the next day. I found myself trying to capture the conversation, picking out a few familiar words in German. I wish I knew more, so that I could have spoken too (Liz and Elma speak German)....after Spanish classes maybe I'll have to work on my low German!

We stayed for most of the morning, seeing how they lived and visiting with them. It was interesting because the man of the family was born in Winkler and was thrilled that some of us were Canadians. Hans and Elma told them that I had lived among Mennonites up in Northern Alberta, and he could hardly believe it. Right then I wish I would have been able to say something in German; he probably would have just fallen right over!

By lunch time we decided to pack up and head to the store, that had everything from cookies, canned tomatoes, a pasta maker, and socks. I was excited because I had asked if they sold cloth diapers, and sure enough, there were tons at the store. So for 96 B's I bought 2 doz diapers.

While we were at the store, we also picked up some food for lunch and had a picnic lunch outside the store. There isn't a restaurant or anything in town (I'm thinking that next time we have to make arrangements to stay at someone's house for lunch....mmmmm...weranicki). A few people road up on the buggies and stared at us having our lunch at the side of the store. Elma and I were asked what we were doing, and why we weren't going into the store. We told them we were having lunch. I was wondering what they were thinking of us with our vehicle, rubber tires, and the dark lady eating weiners out of a can at the local store.

By 1 p.m. we packed up and started on the way home. It was interesting conversation, all about Mennonite migration all over the world, our connection to Mennonites, my experience living in La Crete, faith, poverty, MCC....there was lots to talk about. I was really glad that we had the chance to go, it was a fun gang to go on a trip with. Next time, I hope that we can visit a family that is a bit more middle class, or maybe visit a church.

It was definitely a view into a very different Bolivia than the one that's on our back step.