Halfway through Proyecto Horizonte

One month here has gone so fast!

What I really liked when I first came here was that you can choose what you do; whether you help in the kindergarten, the school, the health clinic, the football school and sports clubs, admin work or translation, or work on current campaigns…

I chose to help in the kindergarten in the mornings, with Inicial 2, a class of 31 3 year olds with 2 teachers. It can sometimes be very exhausting, but most of the time it is fun and rewarding. We do all kinds of things, like go for walks in the community,  and up to the big school, we have physical education on Wednesdays, we play in the park, we do arts and crafts; collages, lolly stick dolls, coloring… all the normal stuff you do with kids!

We also teach them the alphabet, days of the week, numbers, etc etc etc and how to wash their hands and how to brush their teeth. Some of them have such bad teeth; they´re all black and some don´t have top front teeth, it's really sad.

It´s amazing how much you can do with so little with some things. For instance, one morning the kids used screwcap bottle lids to make towers. Another time they were occupied for half an hour cutting shapes out of old magazine pages, and another by making little balls out of tiny crepe paper squares. 

Some of them are right little rascals, but most of them are really sweet. It's the playing stupid games with them and running around and picking them up upside down that counts. I have fun!

 

I also wanted to get more involved with marketing and communications. This involves writing articles about events that happen in all areas of the project, and about random everyday things I see whilst working with the kids. As well as this I write letters and take photos to send to donors, which I do in the afternoons in our town office/cafe which does bloody good coffee and lemon tart. I´m really enjoying it and I feel like I am making a difference, as it allows people to see where the money they are donating goes and to see everyday things that go on here!

I chose to stay in a host family in Cochabamba, which has been really helpful for my spanish as it forced me to speak! Also, being in a new city in a new continent it was great to have people to show me around when I first arrived, advise me on which bus to take and just little things like that. As well as this I have been on a trip to the jungle with them, been to family barbecues and I have been able to try all kinds of proper Bolivian food, and learn about the culture.

I guess the number of volunteers changes depending on when you come here, but when I came there were something like 20 volunteers from all over. I have made some great friends who I will definitely be keeping in touch with. We have been on trips to Oruro for the Carnival, to Villa Tunari to the Jungle, and also the Corso de Corso in Cochabamba was great fun (February was the perfect time to come as it´s carnival season). I will be here for another month and I have a hike up a 5000m mountain nearby planned, to el Salar de Uyuni and also just being a tourist around Cochabamba which I haven´t managed to do yet!