March 23 continued

This is part of the parade that went down the street in front of the Mission Office.  These are the banners for all the provinces in Bolivia.

The high school kids all marched in the parade.  These young men were nearly all carrying flags.

This is another group from a high school in their uniforms for school.  One school had a band that played the traditional Bolivian flutes, but I didn't have my camera with me.  I just stepped out of the mission office to see some of the parade.

This is a city with a navy and no sea.

There were a few high ranking officers on horses.  We liked this guys medals and the horse's head-dress.

These are all women and they were very precise in their hand movements as well as the marching.

In the Plaza, they had all kinds of "flags" made from flowers for the celebration.  It was quite a sight.  Now you have a taste of the celebrations in Bolivia.

March 23 celebration

March 23 was a big celebration in Bolivia.  It was the anniversary of the war where they lost the sea to Chile.  We wondered why they were celebrating because they have been land-locked now for 133 years.  We suppose the celebration is to show that they plan to get it back some day. 

There were thousands of military in the park and parading on the streets.  We liked this alert "watch dog" helping to keep people under control.

The park just a half block from our apartment was the center for the celebration.  It was decorated and everything had been painted and groomed for the special day.

The military bands started playing before 8:00 a.m. and there was still parading at 2:00 p.m.  They had speakers at the park and "everybody who was anybody" was parading around throughout the day.

This is looking down at a band parading past our apartment building.  We are on the 7th floor.  It was quite a sight to see.  The blog wasn't working very well and there are 7 more pictures we tried to download showing the celebration.  We'll try to get them on the blog tomorrow.

This is a new investigator, Arturo, with a member, Mariel.  He is 24 years old and we are teaching him twice a week.  He has lots of questions and the Spirit is strong. The first discussion he didn't want to pray.  But the second time we met with him, he hesitantly said a very nice prayer.  As you can see, they love suckers down here. 

Elder Dibb on the "prado" in the center of the city.  It is really well taken care of and is really a pleasant walk.  This was the day we spent trying to get our package out of the Aduana and paying our gas bill.  (Dale told about these experiences in the newsletter)  We walked down the prado to our home instead of taking a taxi because there were lots of "marches" and the roads were blocked.  The traffic was "horrific".

FHE and the market

We invited a less active family over to our apartment for FHE on Monday night.  They live in a small 2 room shelter on the side of the hill going down to the river.  So we had them come to our house so we had room to sit and have a lesson, then play the "cup game".  We had some of Elder Dibb's chocolate chip cookies with ice cream.  It was a fun night.

Here we are after we got the pyramid built.  It took us quite a while, but we all learned to work together to reach the goal.

We usually shop at the supermarket, but found this market with fruits and vegetables that look better than the ones in the store.  It is just a few blocks away compared to the big market where we have to take a taxi and it is spread over a large area.

The ladies sit up in the fruit and then crawl out from underneath when they need to be "free".

This is how they show the fish.  It is lake trout from Lake Titicaca.

We bought a cantaloupe.

They were just closing up when we got there on Saturday, but here is how we see the meat.  We don't buy it here.

You can see the butcher behind the counter cutting a big piece of meat.  We've seen some guys unloading a meat truck.  They just throw a side of beef over their shoulder and carry it into the store.

There are some really nice houses in La Paz.  Most are in disrepair, but this one looks really nice.

Continuation of Valle da la Luna

At Valle de la Luna we met an hombre who was playing and selling flutes.  We found out that he is a member of the Church.  Of course, we bought a flute from him.

This is the golf course that Elder Dibb played when he was here on his mission.  It is across from the Valle de la Luna.  It is the highest golf course in the world.  Elder Dibb says we need to play it.  The guide told us that they give you a certificate when you finish that says you played the golf course in the tops of the mountains. 

There were lots of cactus .  This one is starting to bloom.

Pictures of the formations.

This is the kind of trail we walked on across the tops of the formations.

Valle de la Luna with the red hills behind.  It is really pretty.

Another bridge among the formations.  We didn't go across it.  It is probably just for "looks".

Elder Dibb in front of some formations.  We had a good time seeing some of the sights around La Paz.

Office work and Valle de la Luna

We are spending a lot of time in the office trying to get the fiches (baptismal forms) filed and straightened around.  There were lots of stacks that had not been filed and Elder Dibb is trying to get everything organized.

Hermana Dibb spends most of her time at the computer trying to get things put in the mission system and then sending completed form information (when we have it) to Salt Lake so we can get member numbers and make sure those who are baptized have their work recorded.  The system is very cumbersome and a member in our ward is going to try to get rid of some of the steps and make our mission system faster.

This is the Paz Saldon family.  He is a counselor in the bishopric and his wife is the Relief Society President.  We at lunch at their home.  The older gentleman is Hermano Pas Saldon's father.  The daughter in the middle, Pricilla is 17 and another daughter, Camila, 10 is taking the picture.  They are a nice family and have relatives in American Fork.  We think they live over by Brittani's parents.

We went to Valle de la Luna on Monday.  We road a tour bus.  We were on top for a while, but then it started to rain and we went inside.  This is a picture of Sopocachi (where w live) from the other side of the canyon.

The schools all have a "playground" in the middle where the kids have activities.  We could see this one from the top of the bus, but usually you can only hear them playing.

There were some really nice houses on our way to Valle de la Luna.

If you look closely, you can see women doing the laundry in the river and laying it out on the ground to dry.

This is at the Valle de la Luna.  The rocks are a lot like Bryce Canyon, except they are light and are very fragile.  They are just hardened mud.

There are lots of holes right off the trail.

End of February 2012

This picture was taken from our apartment window.  Most of the people who live in La Paz use LP gas for cooking.  These trucks go around the city with gas containers.  The drivers honk the horn to alert everyone the gas man is coming.  At times, they begin honking at about six in the morning.  Nice wake up call.  Fortunately our building has natural gas, a real luxury.

This is a very large, very nice new park about a mile and a half from our apartment.  There are a number of soccer fields and areas for outdoor markets.  When Elder Dibb served his first mission here, none of those homes were on the hillside.

Another view of the park showing more homes in the distance in a canyon and on the hillsides that are newly developed areas.  When Elder Dibb was here before, there was a smaller park on the top of the hill where that large building with the red, blue, and yellow panels now sits.  The park frequently had huge, wild condors picking through the garbage.  The children in the area would play with the condors by chasing and harassing them with sticks.

This is a doll with native dress in the home of one of our investigators.  This investigator has s lot of interest in the native cultures and has performed many of the native dances in competitions throughout many cities in Bolivia.

We  caught a picture of a group of protesters forming to do a march close to where we live.  They are one of the may groups from the Altiplano who frequently tie up traffic in various parts of the city protesting one of dozens of issues ignored by the government.  Some can get to be violent.  This one was pretty peaceful.  We try to avoid all of them.