Querida Cochabamba:

Hope everyone’s doing well! Things are still going great here in Cochabamba and I’ve really started to connect more with the children I’ve been working with which has been wonderful.

Last week I had the combination of my most stressful morning and most productive afternoon all in one day. Maybe I’ll go into the stressful part in another post, but in this one I would like to focus on the productive part. On Tuesday, I got to teach my first lesson! It was suggested to me by my supervisor that I teach the older kids the song “Somos el Mundo/We are the World” for an event on June 6th. I thought this was a great idea since it is such a beautiful song and the idea of getting my fellow volunteers to join in made the song seem especially fitting as we are a literal bringing together of people from all over the world. And so, on Tuesday, I set out to teach them the chorus in Spanish and in English (as well as just a few singing tips to warm up). Luckily for me, a couple of them actually knew it in Spanish already! As it turns out, one of them had found the CD and already had much of it memorized. This was both helpful and hurtful. On the one hand, to some of them it made the goal seem attainable. On the other hand, when the ones who already knew just decided to show off instead of helping others learn it too, some of them only saw their knowledge of it intimidating and used it as a crutch to not sing out as loudly or confidently.

In fact, that right there was the biggest challenge for them to overcome: confidence. And I completely understand where they’re coming from. I am often exactly that same way. After a little encouragement, they started to get it. With the beginning of the chorus, they were all completely confident and sang out loud and proud, but after that their confidence diminished significantly and they were basically mumbling.  In order to help them overcome this, I tried to ease the tension by making a light-hearted joke. Basically, I just showed them in an exaggerated way what they were doing. And they actually laughed! After they were done giggling at my caricatured mumble-singing, I reassured them that they all have wonderful voices but that we just need to be able to hear them. After I repeated with them a couple times the part they were struggling with, I let them sing it on their own and they sang with so much more confidence. Beyond that, they actually really enjoyed singing it! Seeing them light up like that just made me so happy.

Teaching them the English chorus presented its own challenges. All the confidence that they had built up with the Spanish version disappeared once they were faced with new words and sounds that they were unfamiliar with. Even trying to write the lyrics with Spanish phonetics proved to be quite difficult. It made me realize exactly how many sounds we have in English that simply don’t exist in Spanish (the “ih” sound in “children” for instance). Teaching them this obviously took up significantly more time, but in the end they all got it and they were switching from Spanish chorus to English chorus with ease.

Now, why was this my most productive day? Well, firstly it was the first day that I actually planned a lesson, that I really did a significant amount of teaching, so I felt super productive in that respect. Secondly, it was the first day that I really saw a change in the children. It was a day that I could really see the children improving, not just in improving their skill with whatever instrument they play, but also in increasing their confidence. By the end of the day, the girls were smiling and singing all the way back to their casitas. That, the fact that they carried away with them a song to sing and laugh and clap to, that is what made this day productive.

Now I’ve just got to work on the other volunteers…

Chau!

Laurel Bingman

Over the past few days, I’ve been thinking a lot about my host mom’s story, especially today which is Mother’s Day here in Cochabamba. The more time I spend here, the more I find that I still have so much left to learn. Every day is a learning experience for me, be it learning how to use the public transportation, to learning how to communicate better in Spanish, to learning how to play and sing traditional Bolivian songs. Honestly, this past week I did way more learning than teaching. At first, this bothered me a bit because I felt that I wasn’t really helping in any way; however, now I’m realizing how in needing and recognizing that I need the children to teach me, I’m helping in a different way .

That feeling of helplessness and ignorance that I felt initially is probably one that many of the children experience everytime a volunteer comes in to teach them something. After a while, this complete dependence on other people can take its toll on our self esteem. Only after realizing that someone needs us for something, that we actually have something to contribute does our self esteem start to rise again. It’s exactly this desire to be needed that drives us to do so much of what we do for other people. Therefore, rather than running away from the things I know that I don’t know much about or don’t understand very well, I’ll ask the children what they think, what they know about it. I’ll show my recognition of my need for them and their experience not only through this blog, but also in my lessons and in my day to day work at the orphanage. I’ll have to sacrifice my self esteem a bit as I admit to my failings, but hopefully, in doing so I’ll be able to show them how much they truly are needed and loved.

Until next time!

Chau,

Laurel Bingman

P.S. I want to say a quick thank you to my family. Thank you for always being there for me and showing your constant love and support. And shoutout to Bekah for graduating this past weekend. ¡Congrats, mi primahermana! Can’t wait to talk to you all again soon!

I talked with my host mom yesterday about her perspective on the lives of orphans in Cochabamba, and she said she didn´t really know that much, but she did know that at an orphanage near where she used to teach English most of the children were not “orphans” in how we think of orphans, children without parents; rather, the children had parents (and actually see them at least once a month), but their families lived in the countryside and so their parent´s sent them to the city to get an education. She said she wasn´t sure if this was the case at the orphanage that I´m working at, but she knows it is the case with some.

After telling me this, the mood shifted a bit. She then told me her own story. I won´t share all of it here, but I will say that it truly provided me with a completely new perspective on what´s going through the minds of these children. I had assumed, as I´m sure we all would assume, that they would oftentimes feel lonely or feel as though they aren´t loved. However, I had not before thought about the idea of guilt. More than simply feeling alone, oftentimes they may feel guilty about the fact that someone else is assuming the responsibility of their parents. They may feel like a burden, like they are imposing on their caretakers, like they don´t deserve the love that is being given to them. This is somethign that I definitely had not considered before. Now, with the littlest ones, I don´t think they feel this way yet (they hardly hesitate to use me as their own personal jungle gym haha), but it definitely may be true about the older ones. For some, it may be important for me to emphasize that I enjoy what I´m doing and that they are helping me just as much (if not more) as I am helping them.

I was so glad to have taken the time to talk with my host mom about this. She is such a kind and wonderful woman, and I felt so grateful that she shared her story with me. Hopefully, there are many more stories to come (and when they do, I´ll be sure to share their meaning with you 🙂 )

Un beso,

Laurel Bingman

Hope everyone is doing well!

So far I´m loving it in Cochabamba, and it all started with my plane flights. What I expected to be one of the scariest parts of the trip for me was actually pretty nice. On every flight there were kind people who were more than willing to help me. First, on the flight from Houston to Miami there was a nice Brazilian couple sitting next to me on the plane. I noticed that they were speaking in Spanish (which surprised me once they told me they were from Brazil) and it took me a while to muster up the courage to talk to them, but I eventually did and once we started talking, I felt a lot more relaxed. Then on the flight from Miami to La Paz I met a man named Aldolfo. He was very kind and helped me with all of the forms that I had to fill out for customs. What´s also crazy about this is that on my way to the airport, I randomly had the song ¨Aldolpho¨ from The Drowsy Chaperone stuck in my head, and I had absolutely no idea why. It was just going through my head all day, so then once this man told me that his name was Aldolfo I laughed (and then had to explain to him why I was laughing. He had never seen the musical before). Then, from La Paz to Cochabamba, I met a nice girl who was about my age and we just talked for the whole flight. She gave me some advice and her contact information in case I ever needed anything. So, for anyone who is worrying about me and whether I´m being taken care of, don´t worry. 🙂

Saludos,

Laurel Bingman

Another day another destiny! (For the enjoyment of all the Les Mis fans out there haha)

Hello everyone!

I leave tomorrow for Cochabamba, Bolivia and I’m super excited/anxious/nervous (but mostly excited). I can’t wait to meet my host family, my coworkers, and the children I’ll be working with. I know it will be a super challenging, but ultimately amazing experience. For my first post, I would like to explain the social issue I will be working with while I’m in Cochabamba.

It’s interesting to try to define the “social issue” that I’m working with because what I will actually be doing involves education; however, I would not assign that as my social issue. I will be working with children in an orphanage, so perhaps my social issue is the noun form of that, the prevalence of “orphanhood.” Once again, I’m not really sure if that would be the best way to describe it either, especially if looking at it from an American perspective. The majority of children in orphanages in Bolivia (I’ve read figures that state 60%) are not living in orphanages because their parents have passed away, but rather, because poverty has made their family unable to afford to take care of them. Part of me would like to say then that the social issue I’ll be addressing is poverty, and maybe it partially is. I would like to think that in teaching music to the children, in caring for them and showing them love, I will in some small way help to break their cycle of poverty by giving them something that they can grasp, something they can be passionate about, something that can give them hope. But…then the realist inside of me pops up and says, “C’mon. You’re not ending their poverty. Stop kidding yourself,” and so I’m reluctant to declare that as the social issue I’m addressing as well. Perhaps the reason I’m having so much difficulty in assigning one word or phrase to this is that it is kind of a combination of all of these things, not really any of them alone, but pieces of each put together. Maybe part of the problem too is simply the fact that I have never really experienced any of this firsthand yet. In my mind and from my research, I currently hold the idea that this is an issue of inspiring a passion for music in the hearts of children who have been greatly affected by poverty and that this issue is one that needs to be addressed; however, my perspective on this could easily change once I actually arrive and start doing work. We shall see.

Thank you for reading my first post! Hopefully, I will be able to write many many more to keep you all updated! Thank you so much for your support. Please keep me in your prayers. You’ll be in mine 🙂

P.S. Feel free to send me snail mail if you like! I’ll try to answer you back as quickly as I can 🙂 Here’s my postal address:

Laurel Bingman/CO Carmen Herbas
Apartado Postal # 368
Correo Central
Cochabamba
Bolivia

Love,

Laurel Bingman