I wish I could take a picture of what a city with no sewer system looks like when it rains a lot. This morning it started to pour at about 4am. I thought it was wind at first. Is hasn't rained a drop in a couple of months now and the last few days the wind has been terrible. So bad that it has knocked most of the mangoes out of the trees. It's like walking on a floor covered in marbles in front of our house.
Anyways, it is 1:30 in the afternoon now and the rain just stopped. It poured all morning. The neighborhood flooded quickly and the streets turned to rivers. Our yard filled with water and stopped just shy of the step into the house. So I rolled up my pants, put on a poncho, and waded up to my calves in muck to get down the block to the avenue on the corner and wait for the bus. However, the avenue was a rushing river. The sidewalk was full of people like me waiting to go to work, but no bus came. There are 8 different bus lines that pass that corner and during rush hour at least one of them goes by every 30 seconds, but the streets were empty. Not even a taxi was out. After standing in the rain and wind for an hour, Eva called and said they were stuck in the mud near their house so I should just go home because no one would be there to open the office. So I officially have my first ever "rain day." Never thought I would get off work because it was raining. So all I can do today is write a blog post because I didn't bring any work home. Didn't see a huge rain storm coming in the middle of dry season.
After the indigenous leadership workshop and the conference, we took two days off to recuperate, then Ann took of to the USA, and I'm back to slow office life. Tomorrow, however, Jared and I are going to Puerto Suarez, a town on the Brazilian border, to visit an Ayoreo village. We will be travelling with a number of Ayoreos from the community in the city here near our house.
The two back-to-back events we had with indigenous Christian leaders was a huge success. I will spare you most of the details since we will say more in our newsletter which should go out soon. But people were challenged by the teaching the first 4 days at the workshop and empowered, having pulled off a three-day conference on their own and seeing the example of guests from Argentina and Ecuador that have worked many years forming their own indigenous christian organizations. In fact, the last day as they sat around talking about what they thought of the event and what they would like to do differently, they were all firmly in agreement that the next such event must include more people, and they they themselves must pay for it. They asked me for a full report of expenses for the conference so they could know what to expect next time. Although none of us got to see or hear much of the conference since we were busy with other aspects, it was evident that they were all very thankful for this opportunity and they all left very excited to try new things, encouraged by the time of sharing with others from other groups who are experiencing similar things in their churches and communities.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen. To those who prayed and gave, this could not have happened without you.