4th of July Hotel

Our friend and neighbor, Randy, lovingly named the building that we share as home, "4th of July". Knowing Randy, this is a bit of a surprise because his life as a missionary is almost completely submerged in Bolivian culture. Randy works with men and boys who make their living shining shoes on the streets of La Paz, most to feed families or pay for school. Where Randy is, there is always a crowd. We knew this already, but were reminded of it when we first arrived back to the city and found that there were about 12 people sleeping downstairs, most of whom were travelers on their way through that somehow had a connection with Randy. He recently spent a month in the states, and this was quite a quiet time for us. When Randy left, so did everyone else. Our only reminder of him and the craziness that follows are the Friday night game times when the shoeshiners come over and hang out. Today, we got up extra early on this cold, rainy morning to create a surprise pancake breakfast to welcome Randy and Hannah (another Youth for Christ worker) back after their short trip to the states. There was a group already waiting downstairs around 5:30am, decorating the house with balloons, streamers, napkins, and anything else that had the light blue and white colors of Randy's nemisis soccer team, Bolivar. He has a comrade in Scotty, who is a die-hard the Strongest (yes, "the Strongest" is their real name) fan, dressed to support Randy in his black and yellow ski hat and scarf. Even the cat had to sport the rival teams colors with balloons strapped to her neck (she wasn't happy). Amanda (a new friend of mine travelling through South America with her husband) and I had pancake duty. I haven't quite mastered pancakes in the high altitude, and even though I followed the recipe in an Andean cookbook, they came out tasting and looking more like tortillas. But, we smothered them in icing, and overall enjoyed the celebration that took place early this morning.