Volunteer Blog

They never let me get a head shot

We hadn't planned to come to the Angels of Hope Foundation but chanced upon it, woke Amanda at 7:30 in the morning and decided we had to stay!  The building work is hard, the children are little monkeys and all in all its a brilliant experience and you really feel like you´re doing something worthwhile.  There´s also enough "downtime" for the odd excusrion.  One of the funniest experiences was treking through waist high rivers with Dom holding a machetti!  He'll probably still be at the Castillo when you arrive!! 

All in all its been an unexpected, brilliant two weeks enhanced by the friendly teachers and Brent and Amanda.  Best of luck for the future and hurry up and volunteer so they can get building those latrines!

Celestria and Chas
South England

Bolivian Artesania: Jipi Japa

How do I begin describing my experiences in the Chapare.  Well, I came back after being here for just two weeks in November ´05 when there was no volunteer project and no other volunteers.  I arrived to a very different scene at the Castillo (where the volunteers stay). It has been incredibly enriching speaking to the staff at the foundation and the other volunteers about the project and its achievements, possibilities and hopes.  Over the 8 weeks that I have stayed this time, so much has changed and developed.  You can see this through children new to the foundation nursery who just blossom into better health over a few weeks. Also through developments like a much cleaner water supply for the nursery and the volunteer house (thanks to volunteer males and their muscles! Although they are weak compared to the Bolivan guys!!)  Everyone says how its seems like they’ve been here a lot longer than they actually have, and its because you immediately settle in and get involved and it feels somewhat like a home (a very different one at that.) 

We have been part of a 15^th birthday party (very important celebration in Bolivia), a Baptism and seeing four orphaned sisters re-housed in a great place where they can get the help they need. I helped make screens to keep out pesky mossies, took photographs of children with backpacks full of school supplies given out by the foundation, helped build a composting system, helped edit questions for a community census and renovated an old building to be used by women who make artisan products….and more bits and bobs along the way!

One trip on the “bus loco”, as our Spanish teacher Jose Antonio called it, to drop home the kids from the nursery and give the teachers a break, gets you into the heart of the Chapare. The signs are visible of the health problems and the poverty of the people who live there. Life in the Chapare however seems tranquil. The plants, the animals, the exotic flowers, the lack of traffic and fumes, the amazing thunderstorms, the constant hot sun, the space. Quite different to the shanty towns of the big cities, but these families are poor and work so hard to get so little! Most houses are small, made of wood without walls and a recent cold snap meant virtually all the children in the nursery were sick. The doctor at the foundation is great and including us gringos with our sensitive tums, he will be concerned about and sort out anyone who comes into his surgery. But what needs to be tackled are the problems that are making the people sick, and unable to work and live well. The foundation seems to have achieved so much already, improving the lives of the people in the Chapare. Now the new volunteer program is up and running, we can help the foundation with new possibilities. 

It really feels like it’s just the beginning of the volunteer project. One thing’s for sure, I’m coming back for the third time later this year after a needed visit home after a years traveling, and I’m coming back for longer! It really is the feeling of getting stuff done and seeing the results that makes it all worthwhile. 

So come join us and get stuck in!

Advanced equipment...a shovel!

If first heard the option of volunteering in South America when I was in the Iguazoo Falls. Since then I started to check where and how I could do it.

It was only a coincidence that I found the Angels of Hope Foundation. A friend and me came for a day to visit in the animal park in Villa Tunari and since we couldn’t find the park we asked some people that looked like tourists. Apparently they were volunteers in the a place called the Castillo, and they work in a Foundation call Angels of Hope, Helping the local kids and the local community. We went there to take a look… and we decided on the spot, THIS is the place that we will volunteer. We still had to go back to La Paz , but we returned after 2 weeks. 

We returned just on the beginning of a new project that the foundation was starting to run. The Water Project. Apparently, the water that the school was getting was very polluted and caused the children all kind of sickness. The new project was to bring water from a near by fountain into the school and also into the house that the volunteers sleep. 

On papers it all seem very easy… we buy the pump, line the pipe from the fountain to the school, build a wall around the fountain so it won’t get filled with dirt and then just dig a trench to put in the pipe. 

IT WASN`T EASY. In other countries, when you build something, you have advanced equipment, electric tools, big trucks and etc… Here in , in the jungle we have wheel barrels, shovels, manpower and a lot, a lot of bugs. 

It wasn’t an easy week. But in the end we all felt good. The kids in the school are now having clean water. That also mean that they won’t be sick anymore, and a lot of the money that went to buy drugs, can now be used somewhere else. 

The second week was a little easier. We worked in the school, helping the teachers feeding the kids and taking care of them. We also found time to go a little into their houses and start to see what can we make to help them more. 

During the two weeks we were here, we lived in a beautiful, deserted hotel. On the back yard, we had the jungle with all its beauty and mystery. Monkeys jumping on the trees, amazing natural pool just above the hotel, a river near by and much more. 

For me, I am in the last part of my 8 months trip in South America; I have left only 2 more months. But, without no doubt, this is the most incredible experience I had till now in the trip and I will dare say, that I won’t have another experience like this in the following 2 months. In 2 weeks, I manage to know and understand only a little of the real Bolivia, but without no doubt, more then the other travelers in South America. I manage to see the real Bolivia, without all the tourist attraction, the crowded hostels, the fake guides and all the travel agencies. 

I saw the real Bolivia. 

Tal Weksler 
Israel.

(To see more about Tal's experience, please visit http://www.gringo.co.il/info.asp?linkID=106.  The site is in hebrew, and has some great pictures.)