Sam arrives!

Hello I am Sam and I am the new intern from England. After four flights I arrived in this beautiful country on Friday 2nd April in Cochabamba to start my 3 month mission trip. The journey was OK until I touched down in La Paz where the altitude posed a big problem for me. Thankfully I only had to be there a couple of hours... Mike, Sydney, Gracie and Annie where waiting for me at Cochabamba airport and I was already getting really excited at this opportunity I was given.

I was glad to escape wet, miserable and cold England and arrive in this nice, sunny weather! I had the pleasure to meet Marcelino, Sofia and the orphans from the orphanage at Frutillar and do Bible Study and play with the kids. Having lived for fourteen years in Spain has been a great blessing to me for I am able to speak to language and interact with the Bolivian people. After the orphanage a group of us went for some drinks and I was able to meet some of Annie's friends. On Saturday Annie and I visited the Albino Patiño Centro in which we looked after the toddlers and tried as hard as we could to feed them. This was a totally knew and very heartbreaking experience for me. I was to hold an eight month old baby who was the size of a one month old baby! After we fed the babies and toddlers we got the Trufi (Bolivian transport) to the centre of town, the traffic was hectic!

Easter Day, Sunday, was the local election day and all means of transport was forbidden so Annie and I had to cycle down to Church which wasn't too bad. We were invited to Easter lunch at the Timmers house which was delicious and very much appreciated.

On Monday, the thing I was dreading most happened, my card (I think) got swallowed by an ATM... The Bolivian ATMs are different from the ones back home so I didn't realise I walked away without my card. I called my bank and it has been cancelled but I think it will take about five weeks for my new card to arrive in Bolivia, not good!

There are a lot more stories to tell but not much time! So I better go and... Until next time!

God bless you all and prayers are very much appreciated