A Chill in the Hills; Mission Projects Warming Up

Greetings! Sorry for the longish interval between the last newsletter and this one. We’ve been busy, sick, and battling the elements. And in recent weeks, we’ve also welcomed two long-term volunteers and one short-termer (more details below).

In the past three weeks a local cold-like flu sent about half the population of Copacabana, including both of us, to bed for three to five days. A local water shortage forces us to devote about 45 minutes of each morning to catching water while it’s available; grass and dirt in the daily allowance indicate it’s no longer potable, so we give extra time to purifying our drinking water. The constant stream of debris in our shower head rendered it useless about five weeks ago. Normally a 220-volt heating element in the shower head warms the water, but when the holes plug up, the effect is a scalding, high-pressure steam bath. The last time I tried to shower at home - in the first week of May - the shower head glowed red. Since then we get by with splash baths, bucket baths, and an occasional "real" shower at our landlord’s hostel across the street, or the John Wesley Guest House when we’re in La Paz.

Somewhat ironically, in the past week we’ve had a lot of freezing rain and more flooding in town and our house. With the onset of winter here, the mountains around Copa are glazed with ice. Inside our unheated house, it’s about 35 degrees at night. As I write, the lambs next door have clots of ice stuck in their wool.

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