October 2023

 

Well, that was a long journey! We are glad to be back in the States! 

Here we our with our faithful Bolivian taxi driver Roly, 

as he was dropping us off at the airport. Roly was such an incredible help to us between helping us navigate our way around the big city to finding the tools and things we needed to bring our well driller, to helping us learn more Spanish! 

We became not just customers with Roly; he invited us to his home for a special lamb dish his wife makes and he told us he wants to be "amigos siempre!" friends forever! 

Our plane was late the night we departed Bolivia so we were not able to board until about 1 a.m. We arrived in Florida about 7:30 a.m. on October 8th. But we did not arrive back to Oklahoma until the 16th of October!! So, it's taking me this long to recoup and get back in the office! Happy November 1st!

So, a lot happened during that month we were helping in Bolivia!

If you look back at our September post you will recall the 12 year old girl who stopped talking and walking at the age of 6 years old!  Her name is Bilcha. Bilcha's face was so swollen her eye could not open. We reached out to a medical team to see if they could help, but unfortunately they only worked on hearts...we were very desirous to get Bilcha to a Doctor who was capable of helping her solve her health issues ASAP! There were so many needs around us and so much to do we were not able to get back out to see her until about a week later. The Good News is, it appears our prayers for her were working! She looked much better, (picures below) She was sitting up  on her own, more aware and making more communication sounds in response to us, her eye was no longer swollen shut! We were able to bring her family some food to help them out, we wanted to be sure Bilcha was getting the nutrition she needs. Her father told us he was getting help from a Pastor that was going to help them bring her to a hospital within the week. It was good to hear someone else was helping the family and hopefully Bilcha will get the care she needs to be in better health.

An older couple our well driller Mervin had made a well for prior to our coming needed a pump on the well. So we helped Mervin with that. And unfortunately, I forgot to get you a photo of the finished outcome! 😟

In the background the buildings you see are the kind of homes some people live in. It is very hot and humid here so many people spend a lot of time outdoors where there is more airflow. Clay homes can look nicer but tend to be too warm. I have yet to meet anyone in the small town of Ixaiamas that has a home with AC.

Even nicer brick stores and homes you will often see with the thatched roof.

A Beautiful Butterfly visited me on my long tractor ride through the Amazon forest as we headed back after days of well drilling.

We were drilling for a man whose wife left him with their 6 children to raise alone. He owns some property that had no water he is hoping to use it to raise chickens for income and grow his own food to provide for his children.

A giant tree we saw along the way!

And a beautiful flower!

We had this roof to pitch our tents under thankfully,
because we did get some rain.

After being camped out here for for a VERY Hot and Buggie 3 days, we finally reached THE BLESSING OF WATER!!!!!

Everyone from the Biggest to smallest was part of the Team work to make the dream of Safe and Clean 💦 Drinking Water come true!       

Thank God for the strength!

It takes over an hour to hand dig all these trenches; it is part of the set up every time a well is drilled.

Yep, even Little 'ole me chipped in!

We were so happy to be able to visit the Tsimané tribe we first drilled wells for in Bolivia! They were happy to see us too! A lot has happened in their community with the government coming in and giving them homes and cows and cell phones! 😢 It's honestly not a good thing, they don't even like being in the clay homes because they are too hot inside, they don't know how to function in homes like "civilized" people, and they don't know how to raise cows either, the cell phones have brought all kinds of devastating corruption to their minds that is causing tragedies in their community. Thankfully they have also experienced the hand of God working among them. We were able to share with them an audio video reading of the Bible in their language, thanks to Lumo Projects hard work to create such videos, and Faith Comes by Hearing for allowing us the rights to share it with them. You see a group of them sitting in a shelter the Government also built to serve as a tourist shelter so tourists can come and get their pictures taken with an Amazon Tribe; I guess it helps bring money to Bolivia to make the Tsimané Tribe a part of sight seeing.

Nevertheless they enjoyed hearing the Book of Mark being read in their language with a video acting out the reading and have asked us to show them more on a bigger screen with a louder speaker.😊 If The Blessing of Living Water is something you are inclined to help the Tsimané Tribe and others like them obtain you can leave a note with your donation that you want it to specifically go towards this kind of need. Some of them have never heard the Bible in their language. Their language was only audible until about the 1980's when people began writing the Bible in their language.

So under this Canopy you see Bonafacio who is a Tsimané man that lost his sight over 12 years ago due to glaucoma. This canopy is his home. He sits here daily getting bit up by the bugs. We got to visit with him for some hours in which I couldn't help but continually fan him (with the beautiful hand fans he makes) to help keep the flying, biting bugs off of him. Pour guy just sits, slaps and scratches his itches from these biting pests for hours! BTW, he is amazingly 70 years old! He never married and the tribe has been sadly failing to properly care for him. The green cup pictured below is his mud

These are bottles he collects his muddy "drinking" water in.

stained water cup from the mud he drinks for water! 

This is where he has been getting his "drinking" water. 😢

That's when THE BLESSING OF WATER STEPS IN; with the help of donors like you we are getting Bonafacio safe and clean drinking water!💦 

And guess what!? It took Mervin, our driller about 2 grueling weeks to drill the well for him; it was our hardest and deepest wells (meaning more expense too), due to the large amount of clay...thank God for perseverance through all the challenges drilling that well had! God bless Mervin and the Tsimané men that stood by and didn't give up, Mervin's little 16 year old brother too that was a big help! Now Bonafacio has a safe and clean water well of his own! Of course many others will drink from it as he lives upon a well traveled path. We have yet to get you a picture of him drinking from his new well. Hopefully we will see a photo soon. The well drilling for him began after we flew back.

We also plan to build him a safer shelter to give him better protection from the elements, animals & pestilence.

Again, without Team work from volunteers, a dedicated well driller and donors like you these people would likely still be suffering in bad shape.

Finally! And thank God! Beautiful, clean & safe drinking water 💦 for Bonafacio!

 Bonafacio's niece has a well by her home which is where we drilled one of the first wells in the community years ago . We brought the materials to make her a new hand pump for the well.

Be sure to look back at the September 2023 post as I did update it with more info and pictures. I think from this little bit that I shared you get the point that a lot happened in a months time. You can also check out our Medical Support page where I will be adding info. about the people we were able to visit and help with medical needs.