February 27, 2009
Hey everyone!
February 16, 2009
Hey everyone
Okay, so the last week has been a little bit crazy. With my first week of teaching and also my first full youth talk in Spanish! I can barely even think in English any longer which is a bit of a problem considering I have an English lesson to take in twenty minutes!!!
Well the first week had its ups and downs. Some days I literally wanted to throw a couple of the kids out the window but fortunately, both for me and for them, I didn’t. English is hard with them as the sounds are so different, and also I would like a lot more resources than we have at the moment, but God will provide what we need.
The youth talk was okay – numbers were quite low, and they were all Christians and didn’t seem to see the point of doing a session on the gospel which was slightly frustrating, but hey!
Still waiting for my visa too – getting a bit bored of waiting!
This week I have classes all week and then I am off the annual church camp for carnival. Most churches seem to run away from carnival here and have their annual church camp. I can understand parts of their reasoning, but it seems a waste of an amazing opportunity to witness and evangelise!!!!
Anyway off to prepare my first class!
Bendiciones
Andy
February 9, 2009
Hey everyone!
Just to let you know I still haven’t received my visa yet and it doesn’t look like I will for a while! Everytime I go they tell me another story and another excuse!!
Today was also my first day in my role as English and Maths teacher at the new school set up by Kaya for ex street children. I have to be honest it was really hard – trying to teach in another language to a group of mixed ability kids is really stressful! There is a real broad spectrum of kids in the classes from a 17 year old who can barely to count to a pretter bright 10 year old. Trying to pitch classes is nigh on impossible. Please be praying as I am taking maths every day and English every day bar Friday.
On a totally different note please pray that a problem I had with my bank card gets sorted soon. On Saturday I went to withdraw my rent and money for the next few weeks and the machine took the money out of my account but didn’t give it to me. I am in the process of trying to get the Bolivian cash machine network to deal with it – they are processing it at the moment, but it could well be a couple of weeks before it is sorted.
Bendiciones
Andy
February 2, 2009
Hey everyone
January 19, 2009
Hey everyone!
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for my visa. Today Migration accepted my application for my one year residencial missionary visa!!! Whoop whoop!
I have to return on the 2nd February to collect it so please pray there would be no further complications and delays!
Bendiciones
Andy
January 19, 2009
Okay, so I ended up in Sucre for the weekend (will write up that later when I have more time) which means by Friday afternoon I did not have all the paperwork needed….. Interesting…… especially as the requirements are changing…….
So I popped to Migration and they said okay – but you need to pay a 14bs fine every day you are late (about 1.40 in pounds). Went back this morning to the Department of Culture (the people I was waiting for) and they said return just before lunch – I did and my certificate was ready!!! Whoop!!!
This means I now have all the paperwork needed (or at least what is on the list) so at 2:30pm (6:30pm UK time) I return to Migration to hopefully get my application accepted. Please pray that they would accept it as I have everything they ask for plus a few extra goodies I thought I would through in to cover all my bases!
Pray also that they be quick to process it – at present it seems to be taken months to process applications which cannot happen as I really need my passport back soon so I can travel to Peru to meet a few fellow Latin Linkers!
Thanks everyone!
Bendiciones
Andy
January 16, 2009
WOW – what a week!!!! To cut a long story short it is nearly 10am on Friday (the last day of my visa) and I still am missing two certificates! However, there is actually a high possibility that I will get all the certificates today, its just whether then I will have time to go to Migration!
Basically, on Thursday I received my certificate of antecedentes (whether I have broken the law here or not – you will all be glad to know it came back clear!), however I then went to the Department of Culture and Foriegn Affairs people with my paperwork and they said the letter from the UCE (a bit like the Evangelical Alliance), who are the people based in Cochabamba, was addressed to the wrong person and they couldn’t accept it! Argh! The fact that they have read it at least four times in the past month doesn’t come into it – the joys of Bolivian paperwork!
So, a crisis call to my contact in the UCE got the letter sent to La Paz on the overnight bus so at 8:30am I was stood in the Department of Culture with all the paperwork and they told me to return after lunch to pick it up! We will wait and see!
If this is ready and also my certificate to register my address is ready I could be in Migration this afternoon…. potentially….. would be great to be! Interesting thing – heard that the last people to apply for a residency within the Latin Link team were three months late with their paperwork because they had so many problems! Maybe there are advantages to being an awkward person when it comes to asking for things!!
So, please pray for this afternoon – would rather not pay a fine! Also, if I am done in time I am off to Sucre for a birthday weekend with the two girls I arrived with, and a couple of other team members who live there!! Should be good fun – definately need the weekend off! Will try and update tonight before going to let you know if I have it or not!
Bendiciones
Andy
January 13, 2009
Okay, so two days have passed and so far the following has happened:
The problem that has occured though is that I will not be receiving one of my certificates which the department of culture need for their certificate (see post below) until Friday midday which is too late for the timescales I have been given. Soooooo, tomorrow I hope to go to the department of culture and give them the rest of the paperwork and ask if they will accept the other certificate when I go to pick up their certificate on Friday. Sounds easy, but here they like all their paperwork and more normally so please pray! I really do need an absolute miracle in the true sense of the word – good thing our God is in the business of miracles!
Also please pray, as tonight a new missionary arrives from Columbia, and I am helping with the orientation (he is staying with me for a few days) as at present our short-term coordinator is in Ireland, and Louis and Maribel are going to Cochabamba for a youth conference. Pray I would be able to support him well in the next few days, whilst still managing to get the time to sort my visa!
Bendiciones!!
Andy
January 12, 2009
Hey everyone
As anyone who looked at this last week will know, really needed prayer this week for my visa. Basically my present visa runs out on Friday and the timescale looks very tight! Here is a list of what should be happening this week:
Please pray that there would be no delays in any of this, and that when I go to Migration they would not want any other papers. In particular pray that either Migration or the Department of Culture would accept a legalised copy of my certificate from the mission here as I only have one copy, and don’t have time to get another original sent from Cochabamba.
With my last visa we ended up going back and forth from Migration a lot of times, which this time we don’t have the luxury of time.
If the worst happens and we run out of time, please pray that Migration would give me a waiver on the fees bearing in mind they misinformed me about several ceritficates, and also Christmas and New Year fell in the middle of the 30 days I had to collect all the paperwork.
Bendiciones
Andy
January 8, 2009
Hey everyone
Spending today collecting papers for my residencial visa and run up against two problems.
First one is I need the equivalent of the Foreign Office here to certify a letter from the mission justifying my presence in the country, and they wont accept the letter at the moment as the mission is based in Cochabamba and so they are saying needs a signature from the prefectura in Cochabamba. We are returning to chat with them again in a few minutes,as Migrationdont say we need this signature……
The second is with the certificate from the police for proof of my address. Unfortunately during the year the husband of my landlord died, and so allthe papers suchas the tax bill are in his name, but I cant produce his ID card obviously!! The police have asked for even more paper and I got sent to see their in house lawyer about it today. This afternoonI intend to return with all these additional papers and try again! Please also pray for my landladyduring this time as it is obviously reminding her of her husbands death.
Please be praying!!!!
Bendiciones
Andy
