Cocha....what?

It is a strange name, Cochabamba.  Strange as it is, that is the city we will be living in.  Here is a good description from Wikipedia:

Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the third largest city in Bolivia with a metropolitan population of more than 900,000 people. The name derives from a compound of the Quechua words qhocha, or lake, and pampa, or open plain. Residents of the city and surrounding areas are commonly referred to as Cochabambinos. Cochabamba is known as the "City of Eternal Spring" and "The Garden City" due to its spring-like temperatures year round.

We will be getting an apartment in Cochabamba, which is at about 8000 feet in elevations.  Our ministry will take place mostly in the rural areas outside of Cochabamba up in the Andes which we will be traveling to each week.  Some of these villages are over 14,000 feet in elevation!  Most people in the city speak Spanish.  In the rural villiages, Spanish is also used but Quechua is the more common language spoken.  We will be in language school our first three months.  We are praying that we pick up Spanish quickly.  Once we get Spanish down we may try to tackle some Quechua as well.    

Here are some pictures John took of Cochabamba, and some of the rural villiages when he visited last May. View of the Andes from the airport

A few apartment buildings in Cochabamba

Traveling to the rural villages

 

Pictures of a village

Bolivians are much shorter than Americans.  While this is great news for me, you can see that John is going to stick out like a sore thumb!! (John is actually bending his knees in this pic!)

Sweet village girl.