Lapiani

For the skeptics out there who presume that I've been having too much fun the past four months (you're right by the way), and failing to fulfill the missionary obligations of eating weird things and lacking a proper bathroom for extended periods, I want to reassure you I finally started moving in this direction.

This week over thirty people from my Bolivian church ventured out of the city for a three day mission trip to a Quechua "village" called Lapiani. As you can see our backdrop was fabulous. So, I still haven't been deprived of gorgeous views, but we did give up electricity, running water, cell phone coverage, and let's just say the outdoor option was often preferable to the one outhouse-style baño.

Small teams broke off for medical and dental care, hair cuts, foot washings, cooking, games and a puppet show with clowns and balloon animals, clothing, food and toy distribution, and my personal favorite the veterinarians.

Myself and two other vets hiked around the countryside led by farmers to the pastures where animals were tethered to stakes in the ground. With the help of the locals, trees, some fancy rope work, and often some fancy footwork we "restrained" many large animals well enough to prevent any injuries. We injected over 300 local cows, sheep, pigs, goats, and horses with vitamins and dewormer. I rounded up as many dogs and cats as I could find for Rabies vaccines. And to top it all off we did a little wound management on a cow with a deep laceration from its halter, and a castration on a donkey.

All in all, I think the trip was a huge success. Last year a team from our church visited the same city, and this year their confidence in us had grown so there were many more people to share God's love with. On the last day, the people brought us a couple of their sheep for a going away lunch.

It was a great experience for me to get to know some of the people from my church better, work on large animals in such different conditions, and practice my Spanish. Is it a bad sign that I often didn't notice when they'd switched from speaking Spanish to Quechua?