Service

A few weeks ago, I went with a couple of the older girls and one of the older workers in the hogar to go pick up milk from another dairy farm/orphanage about 45 minutes away. On the way there, we stopped to drop off some extra clothes donations to one of the poorer neighborhoods close by. And when I say drop off, I literally mean drop off the truck. The worker told us that in order to avoid fights, we should drop the clothes in small piles on the street and in the grass because as soon as we pulled up, people started swarming towards the truck. Although I had heard some terrible stories about the backgrounds of the girls in the hogar, this situation allowed me to clearly see the poverty faced by much of Bolivia, being the poorest South American country. And while the girls face a lot of psychological problems in the hogar because of their backgrounds, at least they always have food, clothes, and are educated. I had heard about very impoverished parents dropping off their children at the hogar to give them a better chance at life, and watching this situation at least began to show me why.

                During holidays like Christmas (and more recently, Día del Niño, or Children’s Day) we received so many visitors and donations to the hogar that we literally didn’t know what to do with them because there were multiple groups here at once or they came to bring us food right before we were about to eat dinner. On Día del Niño, the girls got so much candy, cookies, doughnuts, etc. that I wasn’t sure how they didn’t get sick. Also, there is a sweet bread here called paneton that is popular during Christmas, and we received so many paneton donations during Christmas that they told one of the groups to bring their paneton back in May. So they recently came with a giant truckload, and in addition to during Christmas, we also ate paneton for breakfast, dinner, and snack for multiple weeks in May. Although many people think of volunteering or donating to the hogar, few think about serving within their own communities. I’m as guilty of this as anyone. Every year during college I participated in an Alternative Break, which were great experiences because they allowed me to travel to a new city to go do service for a week during my spring break or part of my winter break. However, during the school year I didn’t make time for much service aside from my service learning classes or required service hours for my Christian or band sorority.   

                I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to come here to Bolivia to volunteer, to learn a new culture, improve my Spanish language skills, and interact with people so different from me. However, I hope that when I go back to the US and start grad school, I am able to make time for regular service in my community, because this is just as important if not more important. Not everyone is called to take a whole year of their life just to volunteer, but everyone can spend at least a little time every month giving back to their community, whether that’s through something formal like tutoring or volunteering at a nursing home or things as simple as raking a neighbor’s lawn.

The University girls after their dance on Children's Day

Playing a game

The staff performed an hogar version of Cinderella for Children's Day

Their piñatas here have flour in them and so are really messy!

We have three new puppies in the hogar and decided to give them beanies on a cold day

                On a separate note, I was so blessed to be able to see my sister a third time before she left South America to head back home. The first time I visited her in Ecuador with my parents, the second time she came to visit me in the hogar, and the third time we met in the middle: MACHU PICCHU! We decided to do the 4-day Salkantay trek to get there, which involved walking 64 km (about 40 miles), climbing 800 meters (over 2,600 feet) to get to the Salkantay Pass at 4650 meters (15,255 feet) and then descending 2650 meters (about 8,700 feet) to get to the closest town to Machu Picchu. It was definitely a challenging hike, especially since I am not as physically fit here in Bolivia as I was in the US, but I was so glad that we trekked to get there because I felt so much more accomplished when we arrived, and met a lot of cool people along the way too! Then on the way back from Machu Picchu, we stopped in Puno, Copacabana, and La Paz before flying back to Santa Cruz. In Puno we saw the floating reed islands, which are constructed by the Uros people, whose communities of 20-40 people live on each of the more than 80 islands on Lake Titicaca! Then in La Paz we biked down the Death Road, which is a road in the mountains that used to be the only route to northern Bolivia and so named because of the amount of car accidents that happened when cars went off the side of the road down the cliffs. There is a new road, but it was under construction, so we had to drive back up the road after we were finished biking, which I thought was much scarier than biking down! But we are now safely back at the hogar, and I only have about two months left here, which is crazy! Stay tuned in my next post (which will hopefully be more timely) for info on the Pope’s visit to Bolivia at the beginning of July! :D 

My sister and I at the Salkantay Pass

MACHU PICCHU!

That terrified look on her face is real