Traveling light to Bolivia

Some years ago, when I attended a United Methodist singles retreat at Beersheba Springs, the Rev. Jim Hughes delivered a moving sermon with the theme "traveling light." Jesus urged his disciples to travel light when he sent them out to minister as recorded in Luke 10.

It's good advice for a short-term mission trip, but that doesn't mean I don't stress over my baggage -- in fact, the idea of traveling light sometimes makes it challenging to take everything you need to take for two weeks in a Third World country.

I'll be leaving on Thursday afternoon on American Airlines and flying overnight from Miami to La Paz, Bolivia. But La Paz is not my final destination. Unfortunately, we can't check our bags all the way through to Cochabamba.

We will have to get our bags, go through customs, and then check in all over again with the Bolivian airline AeroSur, which will take us the final leg of our journey from La Paz to Cochabamba. For a while, we were getting conflicting reports about how much baggage AeroSur would allow us to take -- and so I worried that I would get to La Paz with the amount of baggage permitted by American Airlines but not be able to take all of it on our last leg of the journey.

A few days ago, I made contact with a Baptist missionary, now living in Bolivia, whose blog I had stumbled across. I asked her about AeroSur. She said we should probably be fine, although the rules can change depending on individual situations and/or the whim of the person working the ticket counter.

Meanwhile, American Airlines has instituted summer baggage rules which disallow boxes and some of the other alternative luggage which is normally permitted. Debra is worried that the McGuire Water Purifier we plan to install in Bolivia, which normally travels in a plastic tub, won't be allowed.

Jan Schilling of Smyrna, a veteran of past LEAMIS trips, has a hard-shell plastic suitcase, nicknamed "Big Red," with which all of her past teammates are familiar. At Debra's request, I met Jan in Murfreesboro after church last Sunday to borrow it. Debra is going to try to check the plastic tub, but if American won't allow it we will have Big Red standing by as an alternative.

I've been rushing around the past few days trying to buy all the little incidentals that you need for a trip like this. That takes some planning; once you're at your work site, especially if it's in a rural area, you can't assume the ability to run to a convenience store and pick up some little item you've forgotten. You also can't assume that there will be toilet paper wherever you need it, and so I'm going to buy some of the little travel-size Charmin rolls they sell in the sample aisle.

Also on the sample aisle, they have little packets of Tide laundry detergent, specifically designed for hand-washing in a sink or bucket. Because we do travel light, and take only a few changes of clothing, that's a godsend. Sometimes, your hosts will offer to take care of your laundry, but every situation is different and so you must always plan on doing it yourself.

I keep a journal during my trips, both for personal reasons and to help me write stories about the trip once I get back. For that reason, I always want to be sure that I have plenty of pens. Last year, I bought a package of 10 stick pens to take with me to Kenya -- and then, not long after we arrived, one of our team leaders put me in charge of a worksheet exercise as part of our in-country training, and I ended up handing out most of my pens to my teammates. This year, there are only two of us, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Please keep Debra and me in prayer, if you're so inclined. I'll see you again in a couple of weeks.

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com