I always wondered why somebody didn’t do anything – until I realized that I was somebody. These were the words that made me take the decision to go to Bolivia and do volunteering at Proyecto Horizonte. Four mouths seemed like a long time, but I’ve now been here almost 3 month and only got 2 weeks left. It’s crazy how the time is running by.

I don’t really know what to write because I think it’s kind of hard to write down a three months experience on just some lines, but I’ll try. When I first came here I didn’t know anything about the country, the culture, the people. I was without expectations. When I’m looking back on my first weeks I get a smile on my lips. I’m thinking about the constant sensation of feeling like a “headless chicken” - new people, new smiles, new city, new smells, new language - well it was like entering a new world. But I love that feeling. And thanks to the “lack” of tourists in Bolivia you easily feel like you are “one of them” and that’s also something that helps you adapt the life stile pretty fast. There’s something special with this country, something that can’t be explained with words, it’s something you need to experience on your own and I really hope you will.

My time at Proyecto Horizonte has been a good experience and I have enjoyed my time at the organization. Even due my first weeks was kind of hard (working with violence prevention in the community) I now see it as a good experience. I realized pretty fast that my Spanish wasn’t good enough for the work and I also felt that I wanted to work with the people in Ushpa Ushpa and not only for them at the office. So I decided to start working as an assistant in the “Apoyo” instead. I’ve never worked as a teacher before, not even close to teaching, but I really like working with the kids.

The biggest experience during my time at PH was from the beginning also my biggest challenge; the volunteers here are encouraged to take initiative and most of the time there’s no-one that tells you what to do. And that’s what my friend Peter and I did; we’re now arranging a day on the 13^th of May for the people in the community, with competitions, food, music etc. So now we just need to hope that we all will have a great day…and I’m pretty sure we’ll.

All in all, I’m glad that I came to PH. I’ve enjoyed my time here and also the nice people I’ve met. I promise myself that I’ll return one day, with a higher Spanish level so I don’t need to get frustrated because I can’t express myself like I’m used to. I have so many memories from my time here, the blockades that just makes me crazy, the parrilladas when you eat so much that you feel like you won’t be able to walk for days, the “mañana mañana” mentality of the people, the carnival in Oruro, Torotoro National park are just some.

My advise to future volunteers is to know some Spanish before you come here, it will help you a lot. Be enterprising and have faith in changes. I’ll end where I started; remember that you are somebody. We can make changes and we can make our world to a better place, but we need to do it together and we need to act before it’s too late.