Coming to Tambo

January 1964 - Mom and Dad (Fred and Grace Borden) had come to Cochabamba Bolivia with Wycliffe Bible Translators to take over the running of the Printshop being set up by Dick James (Inventor of the Slinky toy). We'd been in the country for a little over a month and it was determined by my folks that I would attend Tambo, a New Tribes Mission School, but open to children of other missions. It was in the wilds of Bolivia. A seven hour bus trip (bus company then called Galgo) on the road between Cochabamba and Santa Cruz.

Cochabamba was at 8,000' above sea level and I was just beginning to be able to move about with out being totally exausted by it. We got on a bus, quite a few of us going to Tambo to begin the second half of the school year, on the evening bus. I was told we would get to the school around 2 AM. As we drove the road on this, my first trip to Tambo, in the dark I had no idea of what the road and land was like except for occasional glimpses of the road ahead and time when the lights as we rounded corners either lighted up cliffs or empty space beyond the road. But, I was to scared about going to a boarding school and not knowing anyone.

When the bus pulled off the road and drove into a place where under the dim light of the moon I could see only the edge of a soccer field and a huddle of adobe buildings. We stumbled off the bus, gathering our stuff and having to wait for the bus driver to take the suitcases and packages stored under the bus. Some staff members came out to gather the arriving students and take them to their various dorms. I became aware there was consternation about where to put me. I found out that at the school they thought Galilee was a guy and had reserved a bed for me in the boys annex. So there was a mad scramble to find a bed for me. All I wanted to do was stretch out and SLEEP.

Finally tucked away, and in my pj's, and on the edge of sleep I heard the most fightful sound I'd ever heard. I sat bold upright in my bed and whispered in a terrified voice "What's wrong with the sick cow?" Every girl in the room burst into laughter. "That is a donkey."

And so began my boarding school career.