Nuevo Mundo

NUEVO MUNDO.... New World ! This is the smallest of the four towns we preach in. About an hour away by bus. The little village is beautiful and green. It usually gets preached each month. Last Wednesday, we got the opportunity to spend the day there. Here are some photos:

Javier and Joel. And the green streets of Nuevo Mundo.

Muchos chanchos! Pigs everywhere.

The Bus Stop

One vehicle. Literally. Like in the whole town haha. You definitely feel like you're in the middle of nowhere in this place.

Roads of grass. Horses roaming free as you are preaching.

Door to Door

Javier and the Sisters

The territory is the entire town. But we manage to cover it all in a day! From 8am to 5pm. 

Casa de Los Chanchos! I want to take a baby chanchito home with me.  But when he grows he will be nasty and huge. Then I'll get rid of it. Or eat it. Or become attached to it, in which case we'll become best friends.

Sheeps

This is the entire town of Nuevo Mundo pretty much

As the sun sets we go to the main road and wait for a ride back to Serrano. Sometimes you have to wait a while since you never know when a truck or bus will come by. 

There we are at the end of the day.

The last bus of the day comes by at 8 or 9 at night. If no available trucks drive through the town, we must wait until that last bus. Which is what we did last Wednesday. 

At the end of the day, we are tired, but happy and encouraged for preaching in a town that rarely gets visited. I'm looking forward to going back.

Ciao ciao

Excursion

Every Monday is a relax day after the Marathon on Sunday. So we went on a congregation hike to explore the surrounding regions of Villa Serrano.

Here are some pics from the excursion...

Javier - The Modern Man. With his cell phone in one hand and machete in the other.

Villa Serrano

El camino

Our group! Visitors from Japan that live in Santa Cruz, along with the Serrano/Padilla Crew.

Javier. King of the Mountain.

Joel and Rocio Pecho. The special pioneers.

Tree Jumping in the murky Rio Pescado. 

I spy a wild Elmer.

River crossing

To hold their young ones, the Bolivian women use the Aguayo blankets, which are always easy to spot because of the vibrant colors. 

The Marathon

Every Sunday is a unique day of preaching. Adventurous, tiring, epic. All kinds of words...
There are four towns we preach in our territory. Villa Serrano, Padilla, Tomina, and Nuevo Mundo.
Sunday is dedicated to preaching in the towns of Padilla and Tomina. Here is the itinerary more or less... After catching a bus to Padilla at 6am, it arrives at around 7ish. After breakfast, we preach in the morning and afternoon... then mid-day we have lunch. 3:30pm we have a Public talk and Watchtower study for the brothers who live in Padilla, there are about 6. The meetings in Serrano are on Fridays and Saturdays. So this is an extra meeting on Sunday! After the meeting we leave around 5ish from Padilla. We take the "Flota" or bus, to the next town, Tomina. Preach and do return visits/studies till 8ish and at the end of the day, we make it back to Serrano at 10pm! So, that is why this day is known as "The Marathon."

Here are some photos of the special day of preaching in Padilla:

Padilla in the early morning.

House to house. Or Manzana to manzana. Just like Nicaragua, they call a block, manzana.

Joel's bible study in the marketplace. Notice he is using the "Listen to God" brochure. It is a powerful teaching tool and is very useful here.

The meeting in Padilla!

Taking the "Flota" (bus) from town to town. It's about an hour in between each trip. 

On the way from Padilla to Tomina in the early evening. Even though you are exhausted, you still keep going! The bus ride is good chance to rest up a bit before heading out to do more service.

In between each village, there is just open space and it really does feel like isolation. 

The Padilla day is awesome. And super-encouraging. Helping and encouraging the brothers in a far away town is incredible and it is the highlight of every week. 

Casa Verde

This post is dedicated to my home base here in Serrano. We have dubbed it, "Casa Verde" ... !

Everything here is a work in progress.. of course nothing is done. So when we first moved in, there was no guard rail. I was afraid my friend Javier would take a tumble off the ledge when he woke up in the morning. So after nagging the home-owner enough they finally got the job done.. a week later. haha

This is the kitchen. Epic isn't it... And this scene is featuring Javier showing Joel the wonders of technology. I really dislike technology... I have lost patience for it. But amazingly enough, Javier figured out how to get internet for us in the house, which he deserved much respect for. 

Our rooms. Guess who's is who's?

More views

Here's Casa Verde and all it's glory. We enter through that huge green door. It's a nice view as it sits higher up and being on the second floor. 

Yet it's still a work in progress... They just started putting up a roof in the big garage area. So there are crazy Bolivian dudes working here every day. But they're cool.

And this is the view outside on my BALCONY! Yea I'm pretty stoked to have a little balcony. Back in my Nicaragua days, there were so many memories on the balcony we had. The idea of having this little balcony makes me very excited.

This is Home Base. "Casa Verde" 

It is a comfortable spot, with 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, and bathroom.