Hello again! Sorry for the long delay on posting a new blog……time sure does fly when you are in Bolivia!
This past week we went to Mallco Rancho, un pueblo thirty minutes outside the city, and we stayed for three nights and three days with different host families. While we were there we worked on the local school, along with Youth International, to help finish the construction of three classrooms. We were able to complete a lot of the project but unfortunately the rooms also needs roofs, something that we are not able to do because of the dangers involved. It is a bit of a discouragement knowing that the children will not be able to use the rooms for a while but here in Cochabamba, as I’m sure it is in other developing countries, that is how development goes. You build with the money you have and sometimes it can take years before the project is completed. They are at least one step closer to competing it and that is some comfort in itself. Progress was made and we now know just how much closer the children are to having new classrooms J.
The trip was a wonderful experience and I’m glad we went and stayed in the county for a while because it really put Bolivia into its full context. The majority of the population lives in the outskirts of the city and if you never experience life outside of the city you really cannot grasp how the campesinos live. Of course you cannot draw any generalizations as all of our houses varied considerably. For example, my family’s house consisted of three rooms, one being the kitchen, and we had electricity but no running water. The toilet was outside in a sort of outhouse, although the door was removable and it couldn’t stand up straight by itself so if you slanted it your bathroom experience was shared with the neighbors as well. There was no running water so you had to throw a bucket of water in to make it “flush”….quite an experience alone. I was never able to meet my host dad because he travels for work and he was gone during the three days I was there. My host mom stayed rather busy and was never home because of her long work day, so her children were left to tend for themselves. Her sixteen year old daughter assumed the role of mother once she returned home from school and continued to do her chores into the night…..a heavy role for a sixteen year hold….something I cannot imagine doing. For comparison, our friend Hannah lived in a rather large house that looked out of place in the country, and her host mom had quit her job in order to stay home with her children. The variations in poverty create different boundaries in the home life for family members, and it surely influences the quality of education they are able to receive and their future prospects.
The family structure and lifestyle is obviously very different out in the country, and the political life is interesting and intriguing as well. I had the opportunity to interview one of the community members and I gained an interesting perspective on how politics are viewed in Bolivia. Here the majority of the campesinos are Evo supporters (Evo Morales is the current president), but the man that I interviewed was not for several interesting reasons. Evo is a campesino himself and he has spent the last four years of his presidency promoting the indigenous culture. It’s great that he wants to promote the core culture of Bolivia but it has created a lot of racism between los campesinos and the people who live in the city. Evo has also promoted moving back to traditional beliefs and practices, which is great in its own sense, but it has also prevented communities from moving forward in development. Community justice is also encouraged which denies a more organized practice of justice such as a fair trial, things that we deem important in our own culture. It’s a brutal form of punishment and can often be taken out of hand, thus causing even more injustice.
It’s interesting to experience a political and family life so different from ours in the United States. I hope to learn more each day and I’ll be sure to update you all on all the exciting information that I gather!
Ciao for now!!
This past week we went to Mallco Rancho, un pueblo thirty minutes outside the city, and we stayed for three nights and three days with different host families. While we were there we worked on the local school, along with Youth International, to help finish the construction of three classrooms. We were able to complete a lot of the project but unfortunately the rooms also needs roofs, something that we are not able to do because of the dangers involved. It is a bit of a discouragement knowing that the children will not be able to use the rooms for a while but here in Cochabamba, as I’m sure it is in other developing countries, that is how development goes. You build with the money you have and sometimes it can take years before the project is completed. They are at least one step closer to competing it and that is some comfort in itself. Progress was made and we now know just how much closer the children are to having new classrooms J.
The trip was a wonderful experience and I’m glad we went and stayed in the county for a while because it really put Bolivia into its full context. The majority of the population lives in the outskirts of the city and if you never experience life outside of the city you really cannot grasp how the campesinos live. Of course you cannot draw any generalizations as all of our houses varied considerably. For example, my family’s house consisted of three rooms, one being the kitchen, and we had electricity but no running water. The toilet was outside in a sort of outhouse, although the door was removable and it couldn’t stand up straight by itself so if you slanted it your bathroom experience was shared with the neighbors as well. There was no running water so you had to throw a bucket of water in to make it “flush”….quite an experience alone. I was never able to meet my host dad because he travels for work and he was gone during the three days I was there. My host mom stayed rather busy and was never home because of her long work day, so her children were left to tend for themselves. Her sixteen year old daughter assumed the role of mother once she returned home from school and continued to do her chores into the night…..a heavy role for a sixteen year hold….something I cannot imagine doing. For comparison, our friend Hannah lived in a rather large house that looked out of place in the country, and her host mom had quit her job in order to stay home with her children. The variations in poverty create different boundaries in the home life for family members, and it surely influences the quality of education they are able to receive and their future prospects.
The family structure and lifestyle is obviously very different out in the country, and the political life is interesting and intriguing as well. I had the opportunity to interview one of the community members and I gained an interesting perspective on how politics are viewed in Bolivia. Here the majority of the campesinos are Evo supporters (Evo Morales is the current president), but the man that I interviewed was not for several interesting reasons. Evo is a campesino himself and he has spent the last four years of his presidency promoting the indigenous culture. It’s great that he wants to promote the core culture of Bolivia but it has created a lot of racism between los campesinos and the people who live in the city. Evo has also promoted moving back to traditional beliefs and practices, which is great in its own sense, but it has also prevented communities from moving forward in development. Community justice is also encouraged which denies a more organized practice of justice such as a fair trial, things that we deem important in our own culture. It’s a brutal form of punishment and can often be taken out of hand, thus causing even more injustice.
It’s interesting to experience a political and family life so different from ours in the United States. I hope to learn more each day and I’ll be sure to update you all on all the exciting information that I gather!
Ciao for now!!
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