Chalice: Notes from the field...

  March 19th, St. Joseph's Feast Day, is also Father's Day in Bolivia.  It means a day off for students and workers alike and lot of celebration.  This little man is watching the festivities from his rooftop, overlooking the valley below from the mountainside.  He had my heart in an instant with his fearless lounging and beautiful smile. Here's the view from in front of his home... A wider view from his home to the valley below... We were visiting sponsored children and their families this day.  When we showed up to Lucinda's home, this pup was hanging out, ready to greet us:  Lucinda's family gave us such a warm welcome - this photo says it all!  We then continued on for another visit, which brought us up the mountainside even higher... It was quite a walk! Interesting to see all the homes. It was well worth the walk when we met Edwin and his mom!  Our next visit was with Melinda. W

The trip started as any good Canadian winter journey should, with a blizzard and an array of flight cancellations in Halifax. Upon arrival at the airport we (the Enactus Team from St. Mary's University) saw a sea of ominous red cancellations, and yellow delayed notifications for almost every flight leaving Halifax, except ours. By the time we were ready to depart, we were only 20 minutes behind schedule. After this potentially rocky start to our trip, the rest of it went very smoothly, with little delay, and no more fear of flight cancellations.             As we flew into La Paz, the beauty of the city’s surroundings was breathtaking. Surrounded by the snowcapped Andes, and the rolling green fields of the plateau, it is truly a sight to behold. The second most breathtaking aspect of landing in La Paz is the actual shortness of breath from the altitude sickness. I had never been to an altitude of over 2500m, and with La Paz sitting at over 4000m, it was a very new experie

The final 5 from Halifax have all been loaded on to flights from Halifax to La Paz, Bolivia.  Praise God!  And many thanks to the United Airlines Rep in Halifax who graciously offered to help us - he wasn't even responsible for us (as US Airways passengers), but went the extra mile to find a routing that would work, and got the US Airways Reps to help us ahead of schedule (they were on their break).  And thanks is even due to Air Canada - the flight we booked doesn't seem to have existed yesterday - so I'm thankful to AC for putting on an extra flight to clean up the mess of passengers from yesterday's storm.  *Feeling mighty grateful* ....and excited to arrive in Bolivia!

Just minutes ago, our Solidarity Team arrived at El Alto Airport in La Paz - the highest international airport in the world! Blessings for their next flight to Cochabamba, and the final 5 of us (storm stayed in Halifax) will be joining them very soon!