Enjoy...and more pictures to follow!
We had a great trip to Bolivia--it was both productive and enjoyable for our whole team. For those who are wondering what I'm talking about--Nancy and I joined two good friends from Orphan World Relief (Doug Riggle and Jason Hanger) for a visit to the Casa de Amor (CDA) Orphanages that OWR supports in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
The folks at CDA surpassed our expectations. The 33 kids in their care are well-fed, cared for, loved and hugged. The buildings are in great shape. Both the staff and volunteers are happy and heavily engaged with the kids and each other. Our two weeks went by quickly.
Some highlights of the trip (there's no way I could list all of the cool things here):
~getting to know the kids' personalities as we spent time with them: teasing with Erick about who gets to eat first, letting Ana pull us upstairs and push us into the bedrooms, getting Gabriel to smile, soothing Pedro's inevitable bumps from falling on his head, talking with Leydi as she analyzed the world around her, and watching tiny Esmeralda *shovel* food into her mouth with a big spoon and beam from ear to ear as Nancy pushed her around on a bicycle.
~taking some of the kids on a gondola ride up to the huge Cristo de la Concordia statue overlooking the city. They were so excited they could barely contain themselves.
~watching the CDA Director, Jennifer, in action as she interacted with the street kids. They all know her and she's a friend to all of them. Piling a bunch of them in the hatchback of her car along with their window washing equipment was a treat (wish I had gotten a picture). She rushed to the aid of one of them who got stabbed one night, regularly took him his medicine as he was recuperating, and fended off a police blitz (the police there think nothing of beating up the street kids, as they see them more as a problem to be disposed of than as children to be helped).
~visiting La Cancha market with Elena (Jennifer's assistant and the head of the CDA 2 orphanage)--finding really cool stuff for a steal, and tasting all sorts of local foods. We had charque (llama), saltenos (Bolivian pot pies), api (a corn/milk drink), pasteles (think New Orleans beignets with cheese inside), bunuelos (like elephant ears), cool tropical ice cream--I *almost* felt guilty eating so much (I got over it quickly and took one for the team...).
~hitting the steak house with Hannah, one of the volunteers. Trying to communicate with a waiter whose Spanish none of us could understand (marbles under his tongue? the waitress was easy to talk with!).Trying to figure out the difference between the different kinds of steaks, then realizing that the 5 of us had 3 times too much food, even though we had only gotten 3 orders of steak. And then finding out that 3 times too much steak still only cost us $5 apiece. The street kids got a treat that night.
~building a house for a family of 5 (well, we got almost chest-high on the walls in 2 days' time). Watching the family water the pig periodically with a big coke bottle, like a baby. Watching the pig almost come out of his pen when he smelled our sandwiches (ham, of all things ;-). Working with David (the CDA "accountant" who is also a repairman, builder, and delivery man) and the husband of one of the CDA cooks, who is a mason, to get the walls straight. Nancy picked up some decent wall-building skills. I picked up...a respiratory infection....
~checking another item off of my life-list: summiting a peak in the Andes. Our guide for the day, Rick, used to run the CDA 3 orphanage but he and his wife are adopting three children so had to transfer their special needs kids back to the other 2 orphanages to focus on their new family additions. He took us up to the top of Cerro Tunari, a 17,000' peak in the Andean Cordillera Oriental that overlooks Cochabamba. Even though we thought our lungs would give out, it was beautiful. You could see Ilimani 240 miles away--the 21,000' peak that overlooks the capital of La Paz. And the excitement spiked when Rick's teenage son passed out and had convulsions on a scree field over a lake just above 15,000 feet. He got better quickly--he had only eaten a candy bar and was dehydrated, so it was easily remedied.
~getting medication (did I mention I picked up a respiratory infection?). You don't need a doctor in Bolivia--you go into any pharmacy (or send a friend), explain your symptoms, and they hand you the medication. And then you pay next to nothing for it. And the herbal expectorant they gave me worked better than the pills I use here in the states.
Overall, an excellent trip!
For more info, check out these links or contact Doug, Jason, Nancy or me.
Orphan World Relief
http://www.orphanworldrelief.org/
Casa de Amor Orphanage
http://www.casadeamor.org/
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Rick Neighbarger
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