Que el poder esté contigo

Midway during our first semester at Unidad Academica Campesina-Carmen Pampa, Lynn and I realized we weren't happy enough there to continue doing our best work.  We also had a little more than two years remaining on our contract with Franciscan Mission Service.  From our perspective, it made sense to look for a different work site. As we understood our organization's perspective, they preferred that we seek new mission sites within the city of Cochabamba if we did not think we could stay and work at UAC-CP for the remaining two years. We appreciated their emphasis on forming longer-term relationships in mission. We also appreciated the difficult challenges that UAC-CP and the other UAC locations in Bolivia face in providing education for very capable students from more remote areas.

We thought about this for a long time during December. Lynn returned for two weeks to the US to visit a sick friend of ours.  I remained in La Paz for the first week of that time to read, write, walk around, and think. At the end of the year, which coincided with the end of term, we still felt that moving was best for all.

During January Lynn and I completed two bus trips from Carmen Pampa to Cochabamba to transport our four immense suitcases, some books, and furnishings (two folding chairs and an exercise machine) to Cochabamba and to vacate the very nice small apartment where we had stayed on the upper campus of UAC-CP. We had many good and memorable experiences along the way. (I hope to reflect on these in the coming week as I also attempt to bring my blog up to date about our current activities in and around Cochabamba Yes, things are going well with us here, and we hope the same for UAC-CP.)