Message on July 19, 2005


July 19, 2005

Hello family and friends!

Greetings from Cochabamba where we (Ralph, Theresa, Katie and Hannah) currently study Spanish.  We live with a Bolivian family four blocks from where we study at the Maryknoll Language Institute.  We arrived mid-June. Katie completed her time in Guyana, South America a month later and joined us here in Bolivia to spend some time with us and to learn a little Spanish until school begins in Dayton in August.  

Learning Spanish consumes almost all our time!  But then again, lessons range from everyday activities, like reading the newspaper and riding the bus to La Cancha (the huge open air market where you can buy almost anything you can imagine) to formal classroom studies.  Even Hannah goes to "kinder" at the "Happy Kids" school nearby.  

If you click on this link, you can view some photos of where we live and some of our activities.  We've traveled a bit since we arrived.  You will see some photos of us in Santa Cruz, Ralph and Katie climbing Mt. Tunari (the summit was at 17,000 feet), Ralph and Theresa swinging off an incredibly high platform in the middle of the jungle (stupid, I know), and Hannah learning to drive (that one you have to see)!

We enjoy the relaxing hospitality of Bolivia and are grateful for the opportunity to study Spanish in such a beautiful place.  Bolivia, however, is a land of paradox.  In the midst of the nice climate among such wonderful people, exists incredible poverty.  We see street children living in the parks because all the orphanages are full.  Old decrepit women beg outside churches.  People frustrated at the lack of police protection, lynch and kill theives since the ineffective corrupt police force fails to capture robbers.  And yet, whole neighborhoods cooperate to hire men to keep watch over all their houses.   The people know and publically acknowledge the corruption of their government and police force. And yet, they feel helpless to change this reality. 

Let us continue to pray for one another and for the poor of the world.

In peace,

Ralph and Theresa May