Afterthought

I wasn’t at the Hogar for Christmas. I have heard that it’s a pretty depressing time. On a day where family is everything, it is very hard to understand how an orphan must feel. Some will have spent their first Christmas since arriving at the Hogar, others have spent too many there to remember and know nothing else. The common denominator for all of the girls is that they dream of that mystical thing that many of us take for granted: ‘family’.

I always say that the girls have been unfortunate to arrive at the Hogar yet that they are now fortunate to be at the Hogar. I mean to say that despite the fact that life hasn’t been easy for them in the past, they do now have a family (although a pretty strange one at that – a hundred sisters, a dozen ‘Mothers’ and a few visiting gringos…).

At the orphanage they have food, shelter, clean water, and loving care. Not to mention, of course, the opportunities, the education, the religious and moral upbringing, the friendship. And yet, and yet, whilst at the Hogar they will always just be one in a hundred. I can say objectively that they don’t lack anything, but they will still dream (justifiably) of having a ‘proper’ or ‘normal’ family, and of the individual attention/affection that would bring.

The goal for the Sisters who run the Hogar is always to do the best for their girls. Obviously every girl is different and has their own path to take, but certainly the success stories of the Hogar are those girls who graduate from school at 18 or 19 and then go on to further education at University in Santa Cruz. These are the success stories of the orphanage and examples that the younger girls can aspire towards.

The Hogar needs help to continue its good work. Or, to put it another way, the Hogar needs money to continue its good work.

· There are hopes to buy a house for girls who have left the orphanage, want to study at University but have nowhere else to go. This house would cost US$40,000.
· There are also plans to build a new small house next to the convent which would house two further volunteers who could work at the kinder school, day care centre or adult education centre, all of which are also run by the nuns. This will cost some US$8,000.
· Alongside these long-term projects, there is the day-to-day running of the Hogar. To feed all the girls for just 10 days costs US$2,000.

Myself, Fr Bob and BOVA want to help. We are starting a Foundation to raise money for the second project on the above list. The aim is to raise US$8,000 in order to build a two-roomed house, with kitchen and bathroom which will be home for two volunteers.

We are currently selling ‘shares’ or ‘acciones’ in the Hogar. When you buy one you receive a share certificate which has been decorated by one of the girls themselves. Do contact me if you want to help our fundraising effort.

Many thanks. :-)

La despedida

A final photo opportunity at the airport. That black jumper is mine. I wondered where it had gotten to...

My Bolivian adventure

And so, that was that. My Bolivian adventure.

As many of you will know, I am now back in the UK. I got to see my all the friends that I had left behind and I spent Christmas with my family at home, which was great.

Yet I can’t help but to miss Bolivia. And it’s not just the weather. As I hope I have put across with my modest blog, over the last few months I have done a variety of things, seen a lot of sights and, most importantly, made a number of friends along the way. It was these friends, the girls, the nuns, the other volunteers, who really made this trip what it was for me. I miss them very much.

Apart from these guys who I was living and working with, I’ve come back with many other stories of people who I may only met briefly but have stayed with me. I’m thinking of the teacher who showed me round a young offenders’ institute for boys in Santa Cruz (whose male colleague delighted in showing off his best Hollywood English). I’m thinking of the grandmother who, when we went to collect the half a dozen bags that she wanted to donate to the Hogar, invited us into her home, talked to us about her family, gave us a snapshot of her life. I’m thinking of that taxi driver who opened his doors to us and gave us fruit to eat and soda to drink. Not one of them was obliged to show any kindness to me, nor would I ever see them again, and yet I was made to feel welcome by them.

(I cannot, of course, underestimate the power of the nuns in these cases, or, as I like to put it, the ‘habit card’. On every occasion I was with either Madre Rosario or Madre Micaela. Surely without their presence I would not have been welcomed in the same way. Their presence provided implicit reassurance that the gringo would do no harm.)

Looking back on this blog, I realise that it barely scratches the surface of my experience. Individual girls are hardly mentioned. Thalía, Sandra, Cielo… They’re just names, and yet to me they represent a story, a history and a friend. Fortunately I have plenty of fond memories of them to hold onto, along with some 2,500 photos to jog my memory (how I took so many I will never know…).

Thanks for reading and for all your support.
Simón

The Director and her newest amigos

And of course...

And now, the end is near...

I opened this blog, not with a bottle of champagne, but with a photo of a couple of bears and a monkey.

And so, it is only fitting that as my time in Bolivia is drawing to a close, that I should also draw my blog to a near close with the following photos of my travel companions relaxing and making friends in the mountains of Samaipata. Enjoy!

Photos from Cbba

Madre Andrea standing on a chair...

Cbba by night.

Spot the real Christ.

The photographer: "Another step back, Simon. Just one more step back..."

Tales from Cbba

Cochabamba baby!

I went with a group from Montero up into the mountains of Cochabamba. It took a whopping 9 hours to get there by coach. Finally we arrived at the Hogar San Francisco at 5.15am...

After a short nap, I went with a few of the teachers who had come along on a quick tour of the city. Overnight I found myself elevated to some 2,558m above sea level and, my word, that first morning I could really feel the altitude. It wasn't that I couldn't breathe, but I was certainly conscious of myself breathing. Put it this way, I wasn't volunteering to do any marathons up there. Anyway, after an altitude sickness pill I felt a good deal better. I can't imagine what La Paz is like, at least another 1,000m up in the Andes..!

In the afternoon we had a Mass at the chapel round the corner from the Hogar. It was the ceremony of perpetual vows for Madre Andrea, a particularly sweet nun who had been in Cbba for a month of preparation. The ceremony itself was very special - essentially a marriage between herself and God. With almost every nun from that order come to attend from across the country, plus her family and friends, there wasn't a dry eye left in the house...

Afterwards, we had a reception (as ever a mixture of good food and good banter with the nuns).

The next day we went up to Christo de la Concordia and posed for some photos. "Christo" is a statue of Jesus at the top of a mountain in the middle of the city. You can even climb up inside the statue itself and look out of/wave from various holes strategically positioned up his body. I stuck my arm out of Jesus's armpit! Fantastic.

After that we went to a kids' park. There was a rollercoaster for kids there, although it doesn't really deserve the name "rollercoaster". It was a bit pathetic. Still, the nuns had never been on one before, so they absolutely loved it and screamed all the way. (Don't worry, I do have a video... ;-D)

In the afternoon the nuns had a big and jolly important meeting to finish off their retreat, so I just chilled out at the Hogar. I managed to teach the girls "Go Fish" (or "¡Pesca!" as I decided to call it in Spanish...).

The following day (Monday) we all headed back to Montero. The coach journey took a mighty 10 hours. But at least it was during the day so I had a chance to look at the pretty vistas of mountains and valleys as we made our way back down to the hot tropical lowlands of Santa Cruz...

That reminds me of what I missed most from Cbba when I got back to the Hogar in Montero: the temperature! It was fantastically "fresquito" up in the mountains, lovely and cool. More like British Spring weather than the tropical humidity that I have suffered with for three months. It's just a shame that I couldn't breathe up there!