July 20
Today we are visiting Copacabana, Bolivia. I may have found the place where I want to spend my life.
Ever since my parents took me to the mountains of the northern tip of California when I was three or four years old, where I first saw snow, further embedded by the three years of living in the Santa Fe Hills of San Marcos, California (where I rode my bike down the hill to school without pedaling more than once or twice), I have always loved hilly terrain. That’s part of the reason why I’ve always loved Uva in hilly Charlottesville, Virginia, and Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA, and almost went to either one. I’ll never forget the feeling of surprise and letdown when I tried riding my bike in flat Hampton, VA for the first time in 2003. My thoughts: “Why is this whole place so flat? You mean I have to pedal all the time?”
I also love the water, never having lived more than an hour away from the ocean. So as we were on our way here, the pure, sparkling waters of this enormous lake and the untouched, sprawling hills drew me in. To give you an idea of how big Lake Titicaca is: the ride from El Alto to Copacabana takes about 3 hours. One can see the lake for at least 2 hours of the ride. Also, at one point they ship people, cars, and buses across the lake on boats because going around takes too long. I can definitely see myself living far enough outside of the town to have a dream house on the side of one of these greenish-yellow hills, with ten other hills and the highest navegable lake in the world as our backyard. Yet close enough to the town to where I can buy food and other nice things. Just give me a kayak, a small motorboat, a fishing pole, and a hot water heater, and I’m good to go.
I made sure to dip my hand in the water as we took the boat across the lake between segments of the boat ride, so that I could say that I’ve touched Lake Titicaca. I also saw llamas right before we boarded.
I’ve seen more American products (Pringles, Gatorade, Doritos, etc.) here in Copacabana than anywhere else I’ve been over the past two weeks, including the capital city of La Paz (granted, I didn’t explore the capital too extensively). There are also a lot of tourists here, both from other Latin American countries and from around the world. It’s a nice burst of diversity. I’m even starting to see the differences between the various ethnicities of the “plurinacional” Bolivia; from Aymara to sun-baked brown skin to the lighter tones and even those that I wouldn’t have looked twice at if I had seen them in East Asia.
This town reminds me of Santo Domingo, especially the area surrounding the really nice hotel that I and my youth group stayed at while we were there. The restaurant that we ate lunch at today (Oscar and Michael tried fresh trout straight out of the lake, I went American and got a hamburger) and most of the hotels closest to the beach are quite remiscent of the Dominican Republic’s capital, for me at least.
The cathedral in the main plaza is unreal. The three crosses outside, the elegant architecture, the carvings on the entrance doors, the figurines on the side of the interior, the myriad of golden designs at the altar, the white-bearded priest giving the address, the holy feeling of being there, all were worth the cost of the trip by themselves alone. Photographs weren’t allowed, but I think Michael got one or two :p. We met Michael last night when we crashed at Samuel’s house after getting to the bus station and finding the last bus to Copacabana for the day full to the brim. I love how God will sometimes say no to what we ask for (in this case, that we would catch the evening bus), knowing that taking the morning bus the next day would allow me to see the countryside in its full splendor. Anyway, Michael is an AISEC exchange student from Colombia. So now we’ve got the US, Mexico, and Colombia represented in our band of adventurers.
Right now I’m at the top of El Calvario. We took maybe 30 minutes’ worth of walking up large stone steps to get to the Mirador Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (a lookout over the lake) first, and now we’re at an even higher summit. There were 11 crosses along the path, each with a different refrain with respect to Jesus’ death.
On the way down, Oscar and I finally tried Inca Kola, both of us having wanted to try it for quite a while. It wasn’t that great, actually.
Oscar and I walked along the beach for a while. The water is pretty turbulent today, which is why almost no one was out on the water.
So today we took a taxi from Sam’s to the bus station, took the bus from El Alto to Copacabana, took a short boat ride across the lake, had lunch, had an Inca Kola, had dinner, and paid for a motel room, all for about 100 bolivianos (about $15). Now that’s a deal that I can live with.
July 21
Oh my goodness. That bed was so comfortable. We went to bed at around 8:30 last night, since there’s not much to do/see after the sun sets. I woke up at around 7:30 this morning and attended church at the Cathedral at 8. It was really special. I understood some to most of the songs, most of the homily, and a little bit of the rest (blessings, recitations, short addresses) The worship was both aesthetically really good and theologically powerful. It was one guy with a guitar and an awesome voice. The songs were simple enough for me to catch on without having the words on a screen, which is not something I can say about many worship services that I’ve been to in the US :p. Of course, there’s a place for both the simple and the complex worship song, but I was glad that it worked out the way it did today. I truly felt that I was able to fellowship, be convicted by the Spirit and the preaching of the Word, and praise God corporately, which is the point of a church service, whether Protestant or Catholic. Of course, there were a few aspects of the service that I disagreed with, but as a whole I felt much at home. They even had announcements and a “greet your neighbor” time, which reminded me of and made me miss my home church in New Haven. I liked how they used an Old Testament account, a gospel account, and a passage from the epistles to work towards the doctrine of the message. I watched as everyone took communion and then (as best as I could tell) got sprinkled by holy water at the end of the service. Truly an experience.
Now that I’ve attended one North American and one South American Catholic mass, I’m interested in learning more about the similarities and differences between the two, as well as more about Catholicism itself. The service got me thinking about how to minister, witness to, and shepherd a church and greater area made up of those who are well-acquainted with this tradition, whether or not that means that they are redeemed disciples of Jesus (just as many in the US claim Protestantism without actually knowing and following God). It’ll surely be a very different approach to sharing the truth than that which we employed earlier this summer in East Asia, where the vast majority have never heard the good news.
We went paddleboating after mass! So much fun to be out on the water.
Maybe 15 minutes into the ride back, an Aymaran couple got off in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere (At first I didn’t see any type of abode, despite being able to see for miles, but later I saw some crop plots, sheep, donkeys, and houses). I really want to get to know these people. So in addition to Greek and Hebrew, this summer I’ve added Mandarin and Aymara to the list of languages that I want to learn. I can’t wait to get started.
- TJ Stokes
No comments:
Post a Comment