Apolo - Take 3

Visiting the Lugtigheids in Apolo is kind of like having a baby. Hear me out, I know I don't have as much experience in this area as some of you, but from what I've heard, during the birthing process and for some time afterwards you tell yourself you're never doing this again, but then the pain subsides and months later you forget how awful it was, and you're only left with memories of the fonder moments and somehow you end up right back in that delivery room. In our version of parturition, labor is the trip; five+ nights on buses (some wet, some hot, many on the edge of cliffs, none with sufficient legroom), a few blockades, this time one of which forced us to get out of our bus with all of our luggage and walk until we could find other transport, in this case the back of a pickup truck. When, and if, they finish the airport they're working on for us, our visits to Apolo will be like getting a surrogate and just picking up the baby at the hospital. ;)

Just as your lovely newborns are worth every minute of pushing, our time with Linda and the kids is equally worthwhile. As Linda knows my life goal is to spay and neuter all dogs and cats, and as she forgets that I lean much more heavily toward the castrating, she always lines up some female dogs for us to surgerize. Unfortunately, when you're only visiting for 3-4 days you can't tell the large dogs in-heat to come back after their cycle ends, so we ended up agreeing to two fairly large bloody spays we normally would have postponed. I think Linda and I learned a good lesson about when to say "no," an area in which we both have a lot of room for improvement.

Last time we visited, almost one year ago, Angie learned to ride a bike, this time she'll proudly tell you she learned to ride with one hand. But what I'm more proud of is how she dove into their library of kids' books and ravenously read Spanish, English and bilingual books.

For us visiting the Lugtigheids is kind of a working vacation. We get to help control the pet population of Apolo, share Christ's love through spays and neuters, give Linda a hand with the kids so she can round up the chickens, run the Christian daycare they've started, sell some medicine, give some vet advice, and try to catch the runaway baby bunnies. But we also get to see the world (Angie's still a bit confused about where Bolivia ends and the rest of the world begins), relax along the way, enjoy the slow pace of a small town, the cooler climate of the Yungas, and the mountainous views on morning jogs. Linda, you're such a perfect hostess we'd travel twice as far to see you and learn from you, but we won't complain if there's a runway for us next time.

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend." -Proverbs 27:17