Posted by volunteer Organisation in FB

Today we said goodbye to one of the best teams of volunteers we have ever welcomed at Up Close.- Mother and son team. Esther and 11 year old Patrick from Shropshire. They have amazed us by their love, joy and energy over the past weeks and won the hearts of the children and staff at the Valley of the Moon Nursery as well as the Up Close Team and the Mendoza family. They also brought a wonderful donation raised by Patrick´s classmates with which they have set up more reading corners in 2 of the classrooms and also astro turf to put in the baby section of the playground, so that the tiniest ones can play outside and crawl around in safety. We will miss you both!

Very happy feelings and sad at the same time, lovely goodbuy party with shared tear or too.I think we did make a difference to them and your donations are a huge step forward for them!Many thanks again for your kindness. Patrick and me have had such a rewarding experience, there are so many stories to tell, interesting facts to share, learned wisdom, and a sense of understanding that our ways are not always the right way for everybody. I came here with a sense of wanted to show that we and our way are the better but fell humble now and with a lot more understanding their ways and why they are like that. Bolivia has a long way to go there is no doubt about that, but their people specially the women are fighters and there is hope !!

 

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Yes!!! We got a floor, pity the did the counting wrong and 10 m short!! No worries it will be fixed

A super volunteer

Patrick has done a great job, he has been descibed as best volunteer by the tias,what is the trick??? He is a kid too, and interracts in a different way.he is sitting here with Amelia a girl who only wants to be with him!! Lovely to see

New flooring is tested by the children.... Wow they love it!!!

 

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Sleep time!

Isn't this incredibly cute, they are ready for their nap and they sleep too without a protest! These are between 18 month and 2 years, they eat soup with spoon and without too much mess.Most amazing thing is the babies fro 8 till 10 month old too!!! What is wrong with our kids, maybe we ought to send them here for acrash course on eating habits !!

 

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Behind behind....but here is the latest news!!

Tuesday 12/8

I am rather behind with updating the Blog but one soon gets used to " Bolivian " planning... We have had no electricity and or no internet the last few days.This is just normal here and no point getting stressed, since nothing will change anyway.

After several meetings the last few days with 'tias' of children centre we finally agreed a plan with how to make the best use of the kind donations given by you all.I am afraid without intending to,due to this huge donation Pat and me have become some kind of "blessed people" for the centre with some kind of VIP status, but still washing up dishes, changing nappies or cleaning noses!!!

The biggest portion is going to purchase a fake grass flooring on the patio area, the idea behind this is that it is currently made of concrete and the babies and toddlers either can't use it at all or badly hurt themselves by falling, consequently children are not allowed to run or play!!! and babies are kept all day in a rather grim and dark room inside without the chance to crawl or play.It seems essential to me that they need this as part of their development.

Me and team leader set of to manic La Paz to purchase this and after we went to the market in el Alto to purchase cushions for the reading area( floor is very cold here due to almost freezing temperatures at night). Now believe me these markets are nothing like I have ever experienced before, from lambs heads to locks or anything you might think is here somewhere amongst these aisles and corridors. It feels like a buzzing labyrinth with no end and no toilet when you just need one!!! but that is another story...

Successfully we bought over 30 pillows from different stalls and long haggling and to my surprise we picked up some book shelves too. Taxis here are extremely resourceful and in no time we were off with furniture on roof back to children's centre again.I have to admit that a mixture between feeling rather unsafe and achieving our purpose felt rather exciting.

In the meantime Pat stayed alone with the "tia" looking after 11 toddlers not speaking much Spanish. I am so impressed what he is capable off that I fell more than proud, in fact he is giving me a live lesson. In the afternoon he ran the football club with some other volunteers with a local attendance of more than fifty kids.

He seems to have developed a vocabulary with word like sientese( sit down), apurese( hurry up) callense( be quiet) etc... and he is making himself understood.

This will have to do for now since really late here and early start, no energy for checking spelling mistakes so SORRY...........zzzzzzzzzz

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Night out with the group of volunteers

 

Great group of volunteers, Pat is the youngest and as you already know me too...

 

 

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What is happening with your donations?

The babies are indoors the whole day so we are looking at the possibility of buying some flooring outside so they can be out of the dark room and their cots to crawl !!! Maybe this is a option?

30 cushions for reading corners

Desks for classes

 

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