Day 61 - Smoke and Two Churches

Smoke and Two Churches

I awoke thinking the house was on fire.  There was that acrid burning taste in the back of my throat and panic.  What is happening?

Well, it is the weather for August.  Spring is about to begin in Bolivia and farmers are burning their fields.  The slash and burn method is still used in this part of the world.  The last few days the air has smelled of smoke.  This morning it was extra heavy; heavy enough it looked like fog.  So a scratchy throat and runny nose all morning.

At least my house wasn’t on fire.

I was ready for church kinda early, so I walked over to Starbucks.  It costs only $4 to get a coffee and something sweet.  Today I had a hot cuñapé.  Except for a bit of smoke, sitting outside having a white chocolate mocha was heavenly.

My taxi ride was kinda crazy. I have relearned something I forgot from the 80s.  Ask how much the ride will be.  Even better, quote what you think is correct.  Ninety percent of the time they agree that the price is good.  There is a recent law passed in Santa Cruz to curb traffic jams; on the Second Ring (Segundo Anillo) you can’t make a left turn.  My friend, Carlos, said this has made going to work quicker for him, almost cutting the time in half.  For those needing to turn on the Second Ring, an interesting path is taken.  My driver was planning on turning left, but on Grigota there were police giving out tickets, so he went a bit farther, had to turn to the right, the opposite direction we were going, then got himself lost between the Second and Third Rings.  Well, you can’t really get lost, because the city is laid out so well, but half of this trip was going every direction imaginable.  So it was good I asked the price beforehand, or who knows what I would have paid.

I love Berea Church.  My pictures of it are a little dark, because they are redoing the interior.  I know more faces now, but still not a lot of names.  Always the worship is energetic.  It was getting warm when I arrived.  During the worship service I was sweating.  Two things we do here I like.  One, instead of passing the plate, people go to the front with their offering.  Two, we stand together to read God’s Word.  Pastor Percy preached on the Anti-Christ from Revelation 13.  Our response to the sermon is to live like we have 100 more years here on Earth and to live like we only have seconds until we are called home.

When I stepped out of church it was much cooler.  It felt like the temperature had dropped 15 degrees.  For a while I had been wanting to get a look at a Catholic church near my church and my school.  Once I walked all around it, discovering it was closed.  Today I decided to try again.  But it was beginning to sprinkle, so I was afraid I wouldn’t get to see it today, but the rain waited.

Paroquia Sagrada Familia is a wooden church.  When I first saw it, I was reminded of some of the churches I have seen pictures of in the smaller towns of Santa Cruz province.  You can see the church itself is rounded and has a thatched roof.  The bell tower is what first caught my eye coming to school so many different mornings.  I don’t really know what to compare it to, but you can see how interesting it is.

My taxi ride was wet, not because it was raining, but because it had rained in the back seat before he picked me up.  I moved to the front and had a nice conversation about how much Santa Cruz has changed.  It seems the regular conversation when I meet a taxi driver around my age.  We have both seen this beautiful city change a lot.

I stopped at Chicken Kingdom for lunch.  I usually buy a four piece, eat the two smallest pieces first and have the other two for other meals.  As I left, the rain started.  By the time I walked into my apartment, two blocks later, it was pouring. 

It is now cooler than when I awoke and the smoke has been cleared out.