Bolivia 1..... a parcel too far?

It arrived! In spite of the reputation of the Bolivian postal system, despite volcanic ash, regardless of Joe not wanting all his passport details photocopied onto it (but seems he relented at his identity card) "Bolivia 1" arrived!! Joe and Denise Holman sent me a parcel of stuff from Cochabamba in Bolivia where they are missionaries.

As you can see it was eagerly opened by Her Majesties Customs in search of drugs, contraband and illegal objects. What they should have realised is that NO-ONE from Bolivia would send anything high value like that in the post. That would just be silly! So having found only cool Bolivian stuff.... they resealed it with packing tape.

Inside was LOTS OF COOL STUFF. :-) A Bolivian notebook (I'll use that on my roleplaying holiday in the summer) and a CD (in dodgy Bolivian CD style) that I put on to play whilst opening the rest of the parcel.

Nice bag... likely have my packed lunch in it when I'm halfway up the Welsh Hills. (I would say "Mountains"... but when you see where the Holmans live I'm afraid that the Welsh ones are only hills.)

Nice shirt and a warm fleecy jumper.

The traditional South American pipes... which I managed to get a wheezy couple of notes out of. They are the proper job... I'm just not very (OK.. "at all") musical.

I LOVE these carved pens and the tube they came in. Llamas seem to get everywhere on Bolivian stuff.

Nice set of coasters and a cool cup!

Right.... NOW WE'RE TALKING! Bolivian Chocolates. Para Ti make the best chocolates in the country... I'd researched this before. The box is still unopened... but the basket is nearly all gone already. The peach creams and mint creams are really nice. Nom, nom nom!

Nice traditional pattern blanket + incredibly soft Aplaca scarf. (Could have use that on Monday in the wind and hail on the top of the Downs in Kent!) I really like that scarf.

A pair of en-Llamad gloves! There was a pencil holder/tub, a bendy rat/lizard thing (which is cool) and a wallet as well. (I was going to buy a wallet to put some of my roleplaying character cards in... so that has sorted that!)

Hope subtly hints at the superiority of the Hershey Bar. (Personally too sweet for my taste. But then I'm a dark chocolate & sour sweet fan myself.)

Faith promises to eat any candy (sweets to the civilized world) that I can send. Denise and the kids are experts at candy consumption!

Hope has caught the "Spirit of Bolivia" in this one I think. It's either a Bolivian guy (though usually the ladies wear the hats) OR me stealing kids. Hmm....

Joy has the heights about right... and the tache.

Patience has given me some quite spectacular hair!

Cool picture by Patience. I think that this is someone on top of a mountain... or it's Joe riding an Elephant. There's a secret agent code on it as well!

There we are then. Great parcel from Bolivia!! Loads of cool stuff. Not sure I'll ever pluck up the courage to wear that jumper... but the shirt is right up there with my roleplaying stuff. It's uncannily similar to a couple of shirts that I made for a friend..... looped tie neck string and all.

Thanks humongously to Joe and Denise and to all the Holman kids that drew or wrote stuff. I'll try to write back to David and Josh.... might mean one more R&W to squeeze through. Ben wrote a cool note and Joe's letter was really brilliant. (Joe... you have a real talent for that kind of stuff.) I also have to get to read the story that was included as well.

Soooo....... just under a month until the Holmans return to the USA for furlough. Nine months to a year back home to visit their sponsors & churches before heading back to Cochabamba in Bolivia. Plenty of time for my "Posting tin" to fill up!