Querida Cochabamba:

Well, I’ve reached the midpoint of my experience. It’s weird saying that because it kind of feels that way while at the same time it seems to have flown by so fast. Has it been what I’ve expected? Well, yes and no. Mostly no. Now that doesn’t mean that all aspects have been worse than what I expected, in fact many have been better. Truthfully, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when I first came here. I had done some research, sure, but there’s only so much you can know without actually experiencing it yourself. Reflecting on this would probably be easiest to tackle in smaller chunks.

 

The Location

Just generally, it has been about what I expected since I had seen pictures beforehand. There are more modern things available to me than I had thought there would be. Many restaurants have wifi and advanced technologies can be found all over the place. The public transportation system is completely different than what I expected. As far as the quality of the micros (buses) and trufis (usually more like vans), it’s about what I expected. What is weird is the way it works. There are no bus stops, there’s only pre-designated routes that they take. You can get on and off literally wherever you want on that route. In many ways, this is more convenient because it cuts out a lot of walking. However, it is more inconvenient in that there’s no regular schedule. In fact, this is pretty much in keeping with the Bolivian mentality of approximate time (very approximate in some cases) rather than punctuality. The food is generally good. In fact, I’ve learned how to make a couple dishes myself that are really quite delicious. Perhaps I’ll blog about that some more later.

 

The People

The locals here are really friendly and helpful. There have been multiple times when I’ve been unsure of the best place to get off of the trufi and people have been more than willing to help me. Some have even just offered without me asking when I’ve looked confused. The volunteers are generally nice. I’ve become friends with a lot of them. However, I will admit that with some of them, the service is definitely more of a secondary priority. As more of a means to an end of their traveling the world. I was warned about this before, so I expected it, but once again, it’s still a bit of a shock once you actually experience it. In the next month, I’m planning on trying to focus more on hanging with the volunteers who make the work a priority for themselves since now I have a pretty good idea of who that is.

 

My Placement

The orphanage that I work at is pretty run down, but I was expecting that. The things that have shocked me the most is actually the prioritization of the orphanage. They threw this large party and hired so many acts (many of which really were not appropriate for children and actually angered me a bit) and yet refuse to pay for proper medical treatment for some of the children. One volunteer who has been here for almost a year has told me countless stories about sick children simply being ignored. This prioritization of the spending really surprised me. Overall, though, the adults that I work with have been really helpful and seem to really care about their jobs. I will actually be starting at another orphanage soon, so we’ll see if that one is any different or if this is a problem across the board. In the next month, I want to learn more about the inner workings of the orphanages and see if there’s anything I can do to help. I realize that changing the management of the orphanage may be impossible, but maybe there are little things I could do to make some change.

 

My Job

As I’ve said in previous posts, my job has had its ups and downs, but overall I love it. I will admit that I expected there to be more organization. That is probably the one thing that has bothered me the most about being here. Organization just seems to be nonexistent much of the time (which is ironic given their incredible ability to organize so many strikes and protests). I expected to have a specific time that all (well maybe not all, but many) of the children would come in and then I would have a structured class time;however, as I have said before, that is simply not how it works. Perhaps the other volunteer and I can try to enact more structure in the coming weeks. The children have been really great. I love working with them. Honestly, just singing with them all day is basically a dream job come true. Working in the kindergarten (which I do once or twice each week) is a bit different. There is more structure, but much less teaching than I would have expected. Also, the children are so rambunctious. I’m not sure if I expected this, but I had hoped that they would respect me more than they have. I’m not sure how much I will be working in the kindergarten in the next month, but if I do, I will try my best to be more stern with them (while still being fun) and hopefully they will start to listen to me.

 

Overall, the past month has been an amazing learning experience and I can’t wait to see what the next month has in store!

Chau!

Laurel Bingman

P.S. Happy Father’s Day to my wonderful Dad. He is truly the best person I could ever dream of having as a father. Thank you, Dad, so much for always supporting me and for always being there to make me laugh. Love you!