Ever since I have been coming down here I have heard stories of sexual violence in communities. I had a shocking experience very early on with Alma. We were supporting an outreach program with a facility for children with special needs. I went out for a day on family visits with the social worker and […]
We slept in Trini last night which gave us the chance to buy Saltenas for the drive. Saltenas are an empanada type pastry filled with meat, potatoes, egg and lots of juice/gravy. Bolivians eat them for breakfast, you can only buy them before 11AM. The first time I had one I was warned; they are […]
The road to Las Palmeras is almost always wet and often impassable. This year we got lucky, it was dry and we arrived late in the evening, had a sandwich and fell asleep in our tents. I was awakened by men yelling “aqua aqua”! Their well had gone dry and they had been drilling around […]
We set out from Trini at 3 AM in a pickup truck owned by the Municipality. Our group for this road trip is our project manager Kathe, our program director Ian, and two staff people from the Municipality – Raquel and the driver “El Chino”. One of the reasons we have had success here is […]
The hot, dusty community of San Martin feels empty and forgotten and a million miles away from anything (in fact it is only a four-hour drive from Trini but somehow feels even more remote than our other communities). When we arrived we saw no one. I managed to get sick last night so I am […]
I had thought that sleeping in the jungle would be restful. I was wrong. It’s noisy. We slept on the floor of the school room in Manguita and between the insect noises, the roosters crowing (funny, I didn’t notice them during the day but heard them all night), the pigs and horses rooting around outside […]