On the way to Rincon

I'm sitting at the computador at my dear Ms. Velta's home. The system will be this: I can use her computer to type my messages and then I will paste them on Samuel's computer, it's the only computer in Rincon that has internet access. Since the village is surrounded by mountains, the only way the get internet access is through a satellite. So now I am praising God for both internet and satellites. Since pastor Samuel is a VERY busy person, I will not get to use his computer a lot. But when I get to use it I will most likely post several stories at once. 
Before I tell you about life in Rincon I would like to tell you about my way here. My dears, I wish I had a super cool video camera attached to my forehead that would stream this video online so that you can follow my trip!
When we arrived in Puerto Suarez, Bolivia it took some effort to find a "taxi" that would take us to Rincon. A taxi here can be any person who has a car and two hands! I could also be a taxi driver. Thank God we found someone who could do it - Don Mario! At 8:00 AM after spending the night at a hotel in Puerto Suarez we were ready to go to Rincon and it's the time that Mario had agreed to pick us up. Since they don't care about time so much we left the hotel at 9:00 AM. At first it was a nice asphalt road. I was seated in the front of the car next to Mario so that I could have a better view. My friend Undine was in the back seat packed between our many bags. Time after time Don Mario asked me something in Spanish and sometimes I understood and was able answer him in Spanish! I love how they list the languages they know here. I ask him, how many languages can he speak. And the list goes on - Spanish, Portuguese, English, German... I got really excited that he knows English and asked him: Do you speak English? He laughed and said: No, no, no English! So I learned that if you can say: I speak english, it already means that you speak the language. You don't need to know more than that!
Then I was also fascinated by their understanding of beauty. It's a little different. We were approaching a tiny town and he points at it and says: Muy Bonito! Beautiful means that the town has some houses, streets and trees. Our first taxi driver said that Puerto Suarez will also be muy bonito. I was more than surprised that they called it beautiful. OK! You can get used to the local sense of beauty.
On our way I had a feeling that Don Mario knows everyone in Bolivia or he's just really friendly because he waved and greeted every driver we saw on our way. Wild dogs and cows were walking along the road. Seriously - they have wild cows and other cattle! They are the ones who have escaped from their owner's farms and chosen to live on their own. Then they wander through forests and fields and try to find some nourishment for their skinny bodies.
When the asphalt road ended, my friend Undine said: Now hold on, otherwise you will bump your head! And this time she was absolutely right. And the adventure began! Sometimes the road was simply bad - like on the countryside in Latvia - rough and rocky. Then sometimes there were these HUGE puddles with dark brown water that covered us every time we went through one. Mud parts were the best, and we had quite a few of them. Mud means that it's up to your knees and higher. Sometimes we went through shifting from one side of the road to another. There were moments when I just closed my eyes and prayed for Don Mario. And it certainly helped because when I opened my eyes we were already through the critical part. Luckily his car was pretty high and we got stuck only once. Despite the unique roads there were many beautiful sights to the right and left. We were accompanied by many flocks of butterflies. I had never seen so many butterflies in such a short period of time. And thanks to the quality of the roads I had some butterflies in my stomach as well :D The further we went the narrower the road and I really began to feel  like in jungle. There were many unknown trees and bushes, thousands of lianas hanging in the trees. I heard weird bird voices. Time after time big weird insects flew by our windows. Then I saw unique flowers. Sometimes I felt like I was in Avatar movie - the sights were a little similar. Sometimes we saw some local Indians with a pile of branches on their backs. Some were riding on a donkey, one hero was on a horse. I especially loved the two ostriches that walked in front of our car for a while swinging their fluffy backs. Seriously, wild ostriches walk around here!
After four hours of this adventurous ride we went through a gate that said "Welcome to Rincon Evangelical mission. Jesus Christ is our only hope!" in Spanish. Two more kilometers and we arrived in the village of Rincon del Tigre - place I had dreamed about and prayed for exactly for a year.We were welcomed by a smiling Latvian lady Velta and several Bolivian cowboys. Real cowboys - on horses and with those leather things they put on their pants, and hats or course. First thing Velta said was: We waited for you for so long... And that's how I feel here - long awaited and loved...