David Quijarro

I have many pictures from my time in Bolivia, but unfortunately, they are on Callie's camera and I don't have that right now. My 8 days there went much faster than I thought they would. I should have expected this, of course, being I lived there for almost 2 years. Every day was jam packed with lunches, dinners, and visiting friends and people that I consider family. It was wonderfully refreshing to speak Spanish and visit the land I had come to love. I was expecting to visit Lake Titicaca, and show Callie Copacabana, but we unfortunately ran out of time.

A good portion of our time was spent with students that I taught at Highlands International School. There were 4 graduating students this year, the first graduating class in the school's history. Diego is most likely going to Arkansas. Dan is going to Taylor University. Alex is going to a college up in Vancouver, Canada. And Jose Antonio is going to a University in La Paz. That's a pretty successful first graduating class! Next year there will be closer to 20 graduating seniors!

Among all the joy there was at Highlands, I felt a heavy heart. Not only because I missed out on an entire year of these students lives that I've invested so much in, or because of the Mountaineering Club that I was able to start, but because of a dear friend, a very dear friend of mine.......David Quijarro.

David....is a man that I look up to. He is a man that impacted my life. I'm actually starting to cry as I write this. I don't know quite how to say this. He taught me much of the Spanish I know. He showed me the city. He took me to the hospital that FINALLY found out that I had Hepatitis. When the Hepatitis lingered for 4 months, he begged me to stay at the school. He said he would give me more time off, and that he would pay for it all HIMSELF. He cried when he found out that I had to leave to get better. I promised him that I would see him again. I guess I kept my promise this time....

David, pronounced Dah-veed (he's Bolivian), is a man of God. He cares more about Highlands International School than anyone else I've known. He has built classrooms, funded the construction, and overseen everything. Over this last summer, he had 4 new rooms built, one of them being a science lab with the big ole' lab tables! He came up with the vision of a 1.5 milion dollar facility. He found alternative options for the location of the school. He worked a lot of hours at the school. David loves God, and worked hard for this school which he believed would build up the future leaders of Bolivia. He worked hard, he worked hard, he worked SO hard at what he did.

I consider David another victim of a poor health care system. Without going into detail, he is now in a coma. He lies in a broken down hospital, the same hospital that I remember lying in myself. He breaths out of a hole in his neck, with tubes feeding him both food, water, and oxygen. A fever last week caused by bed sores almost killed him. Still he fights. He is under therapy as we speak. Familiar voices, familiar music, familiar anything is being placed by his ears in hope to wake him from his coma. As Callie and I talked to him over a couple of days, he would open his eyes and look at us, although I don't know if anything registered. I talked about the school, and it seemed as if he struggled, as his body would stiffen. Still....nothing. I almost couldn't bear the site of him laying there, if he could understand what we were saying. His pulse would go up when I talked of students, and eventually I found myself hoping that he couldn't understand what I was saying. If he could, how terrible would it be to just hear and not move or say or do anything?????? I hope his brain is saving him from that pain. What a trapped feeling that must be if he can understand....

Tonight, 4 days later, he still lays there on the same bed. A body, but not really. I've known a few people to die in Bolivia over the last couple years, but this is the hardest because it is not over, it is still in limbo, just kind of a life hanging around. I'm glad he worked as hard as he did, that he accomplished what he did. One day he was fine, and the next he was put in a bed. We should all work that hard, because we really don't know when our time is up. I hope his isn't, but if it is, HE DID WELL. He is one of my examples on this earth. And now I start to cry again...

Thank you, David. For showing me a little piece of how to live. For showing me a little piece of love. I can only do one thing, in a place so far way, and imagining where you are. I pray. Right now I pray for a miracle. I pray God will wake you up, that your incredible work is not quite done. I love you, as a family member.

David Quijarro.