¨walmart shopping¨ in Cochabamba

I´ve been putting off a trip into La Cancha for some time. So I made a great big list of stuff I have been needing to get and some things I needed for a ministry project I am doing. Knowing a had a lot of ground to cover I left pretty early, risking the fact that some shops aren´t open till after 10AM. All was going pretty well until I had to buy some office type supplies. There are easier (but more expensive) ways of buying office supplies. La Cancha is a mad house, esp on Saturdays, but it the cheapest place in town to buy anything. And since I´ve learned a few of the main areas of the mad house I can normally do my shopping by myself. Anyway, I got stuck on two rather simple items... I forget sometimes that I´m in Bolivia, not Chicago. I needed rubberbands (how would you describe a ruberband, even in english?) and a folder for papers. I was so frustrated I was nearly in tears, I just don´t have the spanish vocabulary to describe what I was looking for. And my spanish dictionary gave me words they didn´t understand so that was of no help to me whatsoever. The folder I was able to describe well enough and someone finally had what I was looking for, the rubberbands I just happened to see sitting in a window case of a store on my way out of the area. Just a reminder that I still have a LONG way to go on Spanish, but it also reminded me just how far I´ve come in 6 months as well.

The other problem I encounter in La Concha on a fairly regular basis and that I can´t find the same ¨aisle¨ twice. I swear they move them around! Try as I might to remember street corners or other good landmarks I still find myself walking in circles, getting lost, getting found, and accidentally finding what it was I was looking for. All this, mind you, when I´m weaving inbetween thousands of people, stores, carts, and merchandise. Its something you´d really have to see to understand. But I don´t dare take a camera into La Concha (though I did on my vision trip), thats like asking for it to be stolen. I don´t even bring a purse there for fear of theft. So after I whoppping 3 hours, I finally got on a Mirco and headed home. What an exhuasting day!

And now I will head over to the main plaza for Babywashing and then go to my young adults group for worship, teaching, and fellowship with my friends. ´Til next time...