Among the Aymara: La casa del Montículo

Our house in La Paz. It lies next to a park with a pretty awesome view. The park is called Montículo and is a kissing park, where many couples go and kiss, or many school kids go and write romantic things on the walls. We often go and eat our lunch there under the huge eucalyptus and cypress trees, while we're trying not to feed the dogs that wander by, and while we kiss each other once in a while so we can blend in with the crowd. The view from the park looks over the eastern and southern part of La Paz, with Illimani a 6438m high mountain looming in the background. It's an incredible mountain, but doesn't show itself very often in the rainy season. The picture of it at the end of this blogpost is a rare sight...at least for the 2 weeks we've been in La Paz.

We came to La Paz by bus two Sundays ago, and found a cheap hostal in the middle of the tourist area. Right across from the hostal was the best vegetarian restaurant ever, with really good food and a cosy atmosphere. To find a more permanent place to live we bought a newspaper and looked through the apartment rentals. We found 6, of which 2 we went to look at the next day. The one we settled for was perfect for us: really cheap, not too fancy but still cozy, hot shower and kitchen!, next to a park, very close to the office Andrés is collaborating with on his thesis, and friendly neighbours, in a big house divided into several apartments where mainly foreigners live. However, we had to wait before we could move into the apartment because the guy that lived there before had not moved all his stuff, and apparantly in Bolivia you can't just throw people's things out on the street if they are too lazy to move it themselves. But luckily he took it two days later and we were able to move in.

We really felt God has been helping us so much. We felt that it wasn't just luck that we found this place, where we could focus on studying, but still hang out with neighbours that not only speak Spanish. It's also close to a Spanish language school, where I'll begin courses in April. There's a market close by, it's close to a Teleférico (cableway) station, it's only 20min walk from the centre with all the restaurants and tourist shops, but still in an area where you can hear the birds and walk one minute to a park with huge trees. We felt like God's trying to show us that we really can trust him to take care of us and that we don't have to worry about the future (which we were doing while we were waiting to get the apartment). Because we're his children and he's a father that has no limitations and an endless love toward us. So why wouldn't he take care of us? Any good father takes care the best they can of their children. The dads in my family: my oldest brother, my dad, my cousins (and my other brother soon to become a father too) are all really awesome (or will very soon, in June, be awesome) dads to their children, they do so many things for them! And I couldn't imagine a God who created the world, who's above everything else and who is love and goodness himself, shouldn't take care of us and give us joy in our lives, and give us good things if we ask for it, or even when we don't ask for it sometimes. That's what he's promised us. I especially like two places in the bible that talks about us and God: "For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty saviour. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs." and the other one: "to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory...by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever." I especially like the parts about how we make God happy, just because we're his children I guess; that he will calm all our fears even the small ones; and that what we ask of him he will help us with, even in much better ways than we had thought of.

Our kitchen. The stairs lead up to a half-floor with a large matress on the floor. To the right of the staircase is a small toilet and shower with hot water!