Death road

Hello friends! 

Rachel and I have had quite the adventure. We took a weekend trip with Ally, Tati, Ethan and Maleah to La Paz to bike Death Road. That's right the most dangerous road in the world. It was unbelievable! We had to meet our guide at 7 am and he drove us up to the top of a huge mountain. We started above the clouds and worked our way down. The trip was broken up into two parts. The first part was down hill and paved. The views were absolutely breath taking! That was the easy part. The second part was the actual "death road" it was a mostly down hill and

all gravel hill. We had about 10 ft of road to bike on and a huge drop on the left side. There were gorgeous waterfalls along the way. We had to follow the typical Bolivian rule of "always look up, but also look down". It's a tricky skill to master, especially when your trying to control your bike down death road. At the end of the road there was a hotel with a pool, but most importantly lunch. I'm so glad we decided to do death road. The views itself were worth every penny. Below are some fun facts about death road: 

Death road is 43 miles 

Up to 4650 meters elevation (15,260 ft) 

Width- 10 ft (about the length of a vehicle) 

Cliff to the left drops about 2,000 ft 

Almost no guard rails 

Ps- sorry I don't have many scenic pictures at the moment. We weren't allowed to take phones or cameras. We had a photographer follow us around. He got amazing pictures but unfortunately they're all on a disc right now. I would highly recommend googling pictures of death road. 

Tati's here!!!!

Hello!

It's so crazy to think that me, Becca, Ally, and Tati are all here in Bolivia together! We've all been friends since we were 8 years old! We're already making some great memories together.

We started Tati's visit off by taking her to the market. All the fruits and vegetables here are grown locally and have no preservatives which means we have to go to the market about 2-3 times a week to make sure we have enough food in the house. I love going to the markets because I know we're all getting good quality food!

After we went to the market we went out in service. We walked about 1.5 hours to the territory and then did about 3-4 hours of canvassing looking for deaf ones. We started to walk home but we were all pretty tired so we decided to catch a taxi. 6 of us tried to cram into a small taxi, that lasted about 5-10 minutes and then the taxi broke down 🙈🙉🙊! It made a pretty hilarious story!

We're having an amazing time and can't wait to see everyone when we get home! 

Much love, 

Rachel and Rebecca 

The market

Ice cream and water before service 

Service time 

Crammed into a taxi 

The assembly!

Hola! 

This Saturday we had the assembly in Bolivian sign language. It was so amazing! It was in this city called Cochabamba, it's about an 18 hour bus ride or 1 hour plane ride away from where we are staying in Tarija. 

This was only the second ever assembly in Bolivian sign language! There was 175 deaf ones in attendance and 3 people got baptized. It was so crazy, I met the sweetest sister who was from Burke, va! She was so nice and we knew a lot of the same people! Then we went out to dinner with a family who ironically our friend from va stayed with when she was visiting bolivia in August. It's such a small world! Everyone at the assembly was so sweet and welcoming! 

Much love,

Rachel and Rebecca 

The assembly hall

The sister we met from va 

Some of our friends in our congregation 

Tupiza tour!!

Hola everyone!! 

Sorry we haven't updated the blog. We've been super busy and haven't had wifi for the past 4 days because we were doing a tour of the salt flats (and more) of Bolivia.   A company provided us with a tour guide, chef, and rooming.  Each day we would start around 8am and pretty much four wheel through some mountains in Bolivia and stop along the way to see the gorgeous scenery then sleep in hostels at night. The views we saw were beyond belief. I know it sounds cliche, but the pictures honestly don't do it any justice. 

We started off in this town called tupiza and drove about 8-9 hours but stopped along the way to see Spanish ruins, canyons, and lakes. The views were truly breath taking! 

The next day on the tour we stopped and saw the hot springs. It was so neat because since this part of the country is high up in altitude it was cold outside but the hot springs were so warm. It felt like being at a spa! After the hot springs we made our way over to verde lake. It was so gorgeous! The minerals in the lake make the water look green! Then we went to see the geysers, they were so neat to see, but smelled like rotten eggs. For our last stop of the day we went to Laguna Colorada. The alge in the lake makes the water pink and there are a ton of flamingos there! 

On the third day of the tour we visited a lot of the rock formations. We also saw this black lagoon that had a beautiful forest that we had to walk through to get thee. 

On the last day we saw the salt flats. They were so cool! We got up at 5 am in order to see the sunrise. It was tough getting up at 5 but it was definitely worth it! 

We are currently in Cochabamba right now because we have the Bolivian sign language assembly tomorrow! 

Much love, 

Rachel and Rebecca 

The salt flats 

Trying to get creative taking pictures at the salt flats 

Watching the sunrise 

The hot springs 

The pink lake! 

Our walk to the black lake 

The black lake 

The geysers

Laguna verde 

Breakfast at the salt flats 

One of our rooms at the hostel 

The memorial!

Hi everyone!!

Sorry we haven't updated the blog in a while. We've been super busy and the wifi here has been super spotty.

 

We're continuing to have a great time in bolivia! The brothers and sisters here are so nice, hospitable, and really looks out for us to make sure that we are safe. We've been spending a lot of our time here in the ministry. As I mentioned in an earlier post we do a lot of informal witnessing here. Whether it's us going up to people in a park and offering them literature or if people come up to us and ask us why we are visiting bolivia. We've been having some amazing experiences! Some of the time when people see us in the park they call out to us "la Atalaya" (which means the watchtower) so we go up to them and start a conversation with them. I ironically met a couple who are from arlington, va and was able to share a memorial invitation and tract with them, then the wife started asking me questions about the trinity and blood transfusions. We had a really great conversation! I met another guy who used to live in the states and when I explained that I was a Jehovah's witnesses he said "man you guys are really everywhere!" I was able to leave the magazines and a tract with him and we had a really nice conversation. It's so amazing to see how people here really listen to you and grasp onto the truth. Ally has even started a few bible studies! 

The weather here has been sooo hot! But I'm definitely not complaining, epically after the winter we had in Virginia. But it does make service challenging, especially when you have to walk everywhere and can't go into an air conditioned car for a break. So we are careful to make sure that we dress light and always have lots of water on hand! 

We had an amazing turn out at the memorial! The Bolivian sign language group that we attend has about 30 publishers, but there was 70 people at the memorial and 32 were deaf! Almost double from last year! It is so encouraging to see how Jehovah's organization really makes sure everyone gets the truth in their language. It can be tough to find deaf here because a lot of them were never taught sign language so they don't really know any way to communicate. That's why it's so loving that the organization has provided so many different tools for those who have limited communication skills. 

We're trying to get better at updating the blog more often. We leave to go visit the salt flats and won't have any wifi so we won't be able to update it for s few days but we will definitely update it when we get back!! 

Much love,  

Rachel and Rebecca 

Informal witnessing at a coffee shop. Ally started a study with the owner! 

Pizza after the memorial!

Somebody reading a magazine we left with them

Take a hike

Hey everyone! 

Yesterday we took a break from service and went on an amazing hike with some people from the sign group. We hiked up a mountain that had 3 waterfalls we could jump into. It was a strenuous hike with lots of rock climbing so my legs are pretty banged up but it was totally worth it. There were cows and goats along the way. At the end of the hike we stopped by a store that had brand new baby puppies! I'll attach some pictures but they don't do any justice! 

Got my hair did Bolivian style 

Informal witnessing

Hi everyone! 

We've been having a blast here in bolivia. We're slowly but surely adjusting to the culture here. We have been having such a great time at the meetings and informal witnessing. The congregation we attend is the Bolivian sign language group and everyone there is so nice and welcoming. They are very patient with my sign language and Spanish, but it is also very helpful because there are quite a few English speaking need greeters here as well. 

We've been doing a lot of informal witnessing here as well. A lot of people will come up to us and ask us why we are visiting in Bolivia so it gives us a great opportunity to witness to them. Today we went out to a few parks and did informal witnessing almost all day. We would just go up to people on a bench and in my broken Spanish I would say something on the lines of "would you like something to read while you're waiting" and everybody would not only take something but they would actually read it! Someone even came up and asked us for a tract! It's so encouraging, they really take the time to listen to you and offer a warm smile. We are having a great time here and can't wait to see what the rest of our adventure brings us! 

Rachel and Rebecca 

The Bolivian sign language group 

A dog we met while informal witnessing 

Empanadas

Hi everyone! 

Sorry it's a little tough to update this blog since our wifi is spotty 😖. We've been pretty busy here with meetings and service. Everybody is so kind and welcoming! We have to walk about an hour to our territory, but our biggest challenge is probably the dogs. The householders let them roam free (which is fine) but they're not very friendly. They will jump up on the roof of the house and bark at you and the ones on the ground try to bite. We are able to find quite a few deaf people today! We're still figuring our way around, but always seem to find plenty empanadas. Hope all is well with with everyone at home! 

Much love, 

Rachel and Becca 

Territory 

Hi everyone! 

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, we've been pretty busy navigating our way through bolivia.

I really like where we're staying because we're right in the center of town, which is super helpful because we literally walk everywhere. There are a lot of plazas which are pretty much these nice parks that have a lot of restaurants and where people can go to sell things (handmade jewelry, empanadas, fruits and vegetables...). There is also a lot of markets in Bolivia where we go to get our fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat (we've never actually gotten meat from the market because we're not 100% sure that we won't get sick from it).

We went out in service yesterday. We all met in the territory, which was about an hour walk from where we are staying. Since we are in the sign language group we did canvassing, which is pretty much when you go up to people's houses and ask if they know anyone deaf. But I have to give my whole presentation in Spanish (which I hardly know any of. But I am being forced to learn fast because nobody here knows English). My first presentation the householder just looked at me with a blank so ally had to step in and save me, but the next few semmed to understand me. The good thing is everyone here is so kind and patient and a lot of the people in the sign language group are from America so they speak English. 

We are having such a great time here!! 

Rachel and Rebecca 

The view from the Jesus statue 

Drinking water from a bag 

One of the markets 

Out in service 

We're hereeeeeeeeee

Hi everyone!!

So we have officially made it to bolivia safe and soundly! And most importantly we found ally and she is doing awesome! She won't admit it but she's pretty fluent in Spanish. I feel like I have my own personal tour guide. We are getting settled into our Appartment and it is perfect! Becca and I are sharing a room and a bathroom then everyone who lives here (who is all Jehovah's witnesses) shares a kitchen. We are in the center of town so it's nice because we can just walk everywhere which is perfect! It's summer time down here so the weather is perfect! I feel so weird because just last week I was freezing out in service and now I'm here in shorts and a t shirt! 

We had a great flight, but it was long so I'm getting ready to go to bed! Thanks for checking the blog! Goodnight! 

Much love,

Rachel and Rebecca 

The Tarija airport! 

All stuffed into a cab 

Our kitchen