September 2023 Boliva, South America

*This page has since been updated

 Greetings, from Bolivia, South America! 

Buen Día! As we say here! Good morning!

There's lots of handshaking with a greeting according to the time of day that goes on here. People are generally very friendly.

In the photo above we are standing by a sign that a family we made a well for made. It says, "fountain of life, public water "

They made their well water accessible at the street so people traveling by can have clean drinking water!

They also put a public out house there at the road; 

Out houses are commonly used here. 

In the area where we help people get clean water and life saving surgeries we often travel bumpy dirt roads and many people travel by motor bike. You will see whole families on one motor bike! I will try to get you a picture of that later 😊

We have been asked to help with many health needs. It's very sad to see people in such helpless conditions.

There are numerous stories and numerous needs. This is why The Blessing of Water sees the Blessing in "living simply so that others may simply live." 

We hope together with your help we can meet the needs of the people we have met.

For example, there is a man here named Elloy who was bitten by a wild pig that someone was keeping possibly as a pet. He had to be rushed to a hospital I believe by plane as the medical services here are very slim and people must travel far to get help for certain conditions. He ended up needing to have his leg removed just below his knee. In the meantime, the antibiotics they gave him caused him to lose his sight. He is  diabetic, and has an inflamed heart. He also, has these tumorous looking lumps forming on his back. Thankfully he is able to get a free medical exam in a city about 2 hours away. TBOW was able to provide money to pay for a taxi to take him and the person he needed to accompany him to stay in the area for 3 days to get tested to see what the lumps are and what the Doctors can do. 

Elloy also needed a bed, refrigerator and a blender to help him eat properly. Thankfully a woman and her husband have had compassion on him and she cooks for him the food he brings her, as he has to have a special diet. This woman has also accompanied him to the city to go to the Doctors.

TBOW was able to provide the other needs listed as well.

This is the Elloy trying to
 get around the place he rents.
                 

As you can see homes here are much different than what you typically see in the USA. The mosquito and bugs can freely come through the walls. Thanks to compassionate donors we were happy to help make this Elloy's life more bearable and we hope to continue to do more for him.

Since Elloy has these many disabilities there is not much he knows to do with his time. He wanted to be able to listen to the Bible on audio and Christian music to help him pass the time. We know what The Blessing of the Water of the Word does, so we were happy to meet his request along with the Praise music. This is Elloy with his new Bluetooth speaker and USB stick that has the Spanish audio Bible and encouraging songs for him to hear:

We visited a Tsimané village where a mother invited us to her home to pray for her daughter. We were surprised at the condition of her daughter.She is 12 years old girl and stopped talking and walking about the age of 6. Her legs are extremely small and can't straighten. Recently, her face started swelling. She has had seizures that have landed her in the fire. We will be seeing how we can help save and hopefully improve her life. We need the Team work of donors to make this dream work. Her mother appeared very heart broken feeling helpless on knowing what to do for her daughter.

(See October post for her update.)

The need for medical help in this area is great. Unfortunately there is a lot of corruption and not all doctors can be trusted. Doctors in the area are few and do not have the resources to perform some of the needed surgeries in the area. We would love to see more Doctors & nurses move to this area with updated skills and abilities to help meet the needs of Ixiamas and surrounding are. If you are a nurse or Doctor,  please consider moving to Ixiamas, Bolivia, South America. ❤ 

The TBOW Team is working hard to be the hands and feet meeting the needs of people here. Yesterday we drove the tractor that pulled the wagon with drilling supplies and the drilling rig. It took us about 2 hours riding on this tractor and wagon over lots of hard bumps, dust in our faces, scorching heat beating on us, but we give thanks to God for the endurance and strength to make it out here! It's worth a few days of physical challenges to help relieve others of their daily life long challenges.

As l am typing this as we are outside of Ixiamas on a farm drilling a well for a family that has been without clean drinking water for a long time. The reception out here is very poor, each picture takes a considerable amount of time to load and it's challenging to place them where they belong on the page. So, unfortunately I am unable to do better at placing the pictures. 

(update:)

We were able to get the 2 wells drilled for the family we have been speaking of; a brother and his sister that lives across the field from them. She is nearly 70 years old and her brother is in his 70's. She was born on the ranch and their parents and Grandparents lived there before them. They have their children and their children's children on the ranch now. They have lived all these many years without clean water. They get water from a creek, but in dry season it's dried up. They would use a cart and oxen to collect the water.

This family fed us well, 3 meals a day as we worked and they zealously worked together to help with the digging and drilling. It was encouraging to see their family team work.

The first well was about 55 feet and went smoothly.
The second well we had some issues with clay deep in the earth and had to drill further after it caved in. It ended up being about 29 meters which equals about 98 feet by they time we were done. But it has a lot of water and should bless them for many years. They were very thankful.

Btw, the area they lived in has wild tigers that eat their animals, they also have alligators in the area and poisonous snakes which we happened to meet one on the trail walking back to our tents in the dark after drilling; thankfully David was able to wack and break it's back.

So, besides from dangerous animals the heat has also been intense with temperatures in the 80's and 90's with over 90% humidity.

But we can't help but give thanks as we see God protect and strengthen us, send clouds to cover the heat of the sun and a light evening sprinkle to cool the evening down a bit.The TBOW team is enduring the elements: heat, intense sun, humidity, rain, no AC, eating the foods the families we drill for provide for us, which is often rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, rice for dinner and  a meat with it, like various parts of the chicken, or a tough (people here tend to eat their cow meat tough) piece of cow meat, (sometimes slightly tender), and sometimes fried plantain. They don't eat much veggies. The family was very sacrificial cooking for us and giving us what appeared to be better cuts of meat than what they may normally eat. 

We have learned, in everything to give thanks, as someone always has it worse; and daily food and water is a blessing! The sights here on their farm have been absolutely beautiful! Lots of flowers, and this amazingly buff looking and beautiful rooster that liked to kock-a-doodle-doo with his friends early in the morning right outside our tents.

By the way they don't seem to make tents here for people over 5' tall 😃

Giant mango tree on their property is likely over 70 years old!

Thankfully the family we are drilling for has been very helpful, even helping with the manual labor of creating the well. They are also happy at the expectation of having clean water after so many years of collecting rain water, which is scarce during this time of year called the "dry season".

As I was making this post they reached water!

Working into the night we reached water on the second well for the family.

       

The Brother and his Sister we drilled for with some of their family, thankful for the water! 💦

  

       

And in case you were wondering, since I worked mainly as the, Media Communications Agent; (sounds, nice and official, doesn't it!) while the drilling went on & on I endured the biting bugs and heat in this great hammock we got in the States, it came with mosquito netting. 😄

Some other interesting facts: our meals were cooked for us over fires like this:

Wood table with, clay or concrete on top to make the fire on.

And as far as going potty, this was the place, which was a good walk through the woods and around the large 🐄 cows and horses 🐎

It was a lot easier than squatting, and it provided some privacy which is a plus!

I plan to continue to add to this page and keep you all updated. (Done. 😊 )

We are so grateful to those who have helped share in this burden and hope more people will help us meet the many needs. Please share with family and friends. 

Consider ways you can help: there's often things we just don't need that can be given up so others can have life's basic needs met. It's definitely made me want to be more reserved after seeing the many serious needs and suffering up close.

Stay tuned for more updates coming here. (Done.)👍