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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Looking rather scared

 

Must have been the alpaca feotuses they sell in this shop for oferings !!

 

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Looking rather scared

 

Must have been the alpaca feotuses they sell in this shop for oferings !!

 

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Repost market

 

 

 

 

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Untitled

 

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Day in La Paz

Sunday 10/8

 

Off to la Paz at 8 am, we met our guide in Plaza del Pedro,with a group of just four, that way we would be able to ask as many questions as we wanted.La Paz is not a nice city but this is a personal opinion without wanting to offend anyone. But it is striking without a doubt,somehow the graffiti everywhere, the unfinished buildings, the colourful clothing and markets and smells makes it if tickle your senses.From shock and sadness to see its poverty to admiration to see how they get on with live with what little they have is at least admirable.Strangely enough Pat really likes it!!! I am always amazed on how children perceive realities in different way to adults.

After setting of to El Alto( the highest part at 4 200 m) were poverty is the worst we walked down to the boundary with La Paz to jump into a bus to the Market...that feels a bit like a death wish the way they drive here..

The Market is divided in tiny corridors with different things to buy.The life stock area was not great to see for either of us: they have tiny cages full of baby ducks, guinea pigs mixed with the odd kitten and all other animals. Patrick really begged me to buy the kitten but the impossibility of the situation made us both sad.

We did try some strange fruits what was nice although my appetite was long gone.

The unfinished buildings are for a reason though since you don't need to pay tax on it, the whole Alto is unfinished so it almost makes it look good and in style.Garbage and the amount of dogs in the city are unbelievable and does make me feel very lucky to live in Shropshire.

We finished in the museum and the witches Market, the more touristic area with the typical hand crafted things.

One thing was very interesting, The Bolivian Aymara people( an ethnic group) are very superstitious, and they will go to specific places to get their needs blessed, so they will buy miniature cars, baby dolls, money, credit cards, food anything you could possibly need and go to priest to get it blessed so it comes true, there are more advanced practices with packs of different items plus a foetus of a Alpaca what thru rituals get offered and burned and then only god knows...it might just happen. I am staying well away from this practices but by all means interesting to know.

We took a taxi back and to our surprise there was a 10 month old girls with her brother sitting in the fron without seatbelt or any baby chair... Dad the taxi driver said his wife was working so he had to work all day with tiny ones in the front, the most unbelievable was that they were quiet and did not cause any trouble....sad though.

Sorry if this is long and maybe not of interest to anyone but it serves the purpose of a diary to us to look back at it in the future.

 

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Repost thief deterrent

 

Pat thought it was a real person!!! No thieving in this neighbourhood

 

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Repost images

 

 

 

 

 

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Reposting poverty post from earlier

 

House like any other one

 

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Reposting, I think pics came out too small from mobile

 

 

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Poverty is very real

The difference between the high areas and the lower rich areas are striking, waste lays around and drainage is very poor, despite all of that people seem happy, there are more than 380 festivities a year so at least one a day...

Market el Alto

Day out in La Paz

Day off at the horse centre for for equine therapy

 

Patrick made a new friend

I did it!! Thanks to Felix the horse whisperer, can't walk anymore now but with it..

 

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