Just like home (only totally different), by Dana

A few things are different here in Cochabamba.  Well, perhaps most things are quite different, but this beautiful city with lindo (lovely) people is beginning to be more like home, especially now that we have rented our own apartment.

After four months or so living with four different families in Montana and Bolivia--each one a real blessing--we are happy to be in our sparsely furnished flat.  A bit of God’s smile shined through as our building is named after Abraham Lincoln, and the adjacent park is parque Lincoln.  Perfecto for us!

Renting an apartment here isn’t as simple as whipping open the Sunday paper and scanning the ads.  Our Bolivian friend Paola (an answer to many prayers) helped us find our place, and because of her family’s friendship with our landlady, Paola assured her that we would be good tenants.  Simply having sufficient funds would be insufficient to secure a place to live.  So I am thankful for our new friend’s kindness in giving her recommendation on our behalf.

Learning the ropes of shopping is new here…in the olden days of Helena I drove my SUV to Costco and loaded up a cart so large it was the same size of some streetside restaurants here in Cochabamba.  Now when I shop, I walk to an outdoor tienda and eke out my Spanish questions and place my order for fruits and veggies right off of a busy city rotunda.  Then I carry all the produce up the hill a mile or so back to our place. I really enjoy combining shopping with exercise and getting to know the vendadora who’s at the stand every day.

Some other things are different about our new digs:

Hats and sunscreen are a must.  The elevation of 9,000+ feet plus sunny weather every day makes this a constant thing to remember, especially for our kids.

What's for dinner?  Hamster?

Lots of kissing.  When you meet someone new, or say goodbye, while touching the persons cheek with your cheek, you give a little kiss in the air close to their cheek.  Even my children’s lovely and (equally) rowdy playmates from upstairs politely kiss us all goodbye after a rough and tumble play date.

Dirt.  They say that in Cochabamba a plane touches the earth before it actually lands (due to all the dusty air).  Even if I sweep our floors cada dia, I can see what looks like a landing strip cleared of dust where we most frequently walk.  I am thankful I am not uptight about a squeaky clean home.

Food.  Who knew Astoria would love chicken hearts?  Walking to school today we saw a convention advertisement promoting healthy hamster meat.  And now in an effort to avoid water at a restaurant that may make us sick, Kellton has fallen in love with the orange sugary soda Fanta.  Thankfully, making fresh tumbo juice is now also a family favorite.

Transportation.  I’ve decided that either I either need to go on heart medication or ramp up my prayer life on the way to school.  The drivers seem most comfortable with close calls.

New friends.  Most of our friendships in the States are relationships we've had for many years.  Shared history, inside jokes, past foibles all weave us together.  Now we are investing in new relationships, and have met many interesting and thoughtful business people.  So between language school and setting up our new apartment, Quinn is enjoying a small taste what will be his central work to come.

Construction.  Buildings here, even 10-story ones are built largely by hand out of concrete.  There’s a building we watch out our window and the laborers are leaning out the widows, smoothing out the concrete with their little spatulas.

So yes, many things are different, and constantly learning Spanish is the most prominent new change for us.  Our many life changes have me constantly thinking throughout the day on the topic of change.  As followers of Christ, change should be central to our lives in many ways.  Our God does not change, and yet if we do not, we block Him out of our lives.  If we resist the changes He is calling us to, we cannot be His disciples and His word is no longer alive in our lives.  He wants to change our ways of injustice toward others, alter our attitudes, transform our pockmarked habits and secret sins, and alter our false notions that perhaps God is off duty.  Sometimes His changes are painful.  Sometimes they’re healing and peaceful.  But more often than not, He has changes in store for us.

Naturally, I resist change, even if the change might be for the better.  I’d rather stay comfortable than take a risk and try something new.  I find words like traditional, classic, and always a comfort.  And yet, God loves us too much to let us stay the same.  He wants us to look like His Son.  Therefore the need for major overhauls again and again.

I was moved when a new friend told me that his brother had fundamentally changed when he’d married a Christian woman.  While our friend has not yet come to faith, he was struck with how loving and patient his brother had become due to his growing faith and changes he’d made in marriage.  How might we all reveal this kind of change to our friends and families?

So while I work through all the new changes in our surroundings here in Bolivia, I am also trying to yield my life to the changes God wants, so He can mold me to be more like Christ. 

Isaiah 64:8 (NIV)

⁸ Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”  --C. S. Lewis