"My Eyes are starting to open"

How interesting is it to read about the experience of a Bolivian-born volunteer who lived most of his life in the United States?  

Christian writes about going away a on a little adventure to the rural Bolivia: 

"Man has this city opened my eyes and thoughts. As I try to observe myself in those little hours I have to myself at the end of the day I start looking back at my life back in the United States… This week I decided to go on a little adventure hours away from my homestay with a new friend I had made in Proyecto Horizonte, in a bus, no in a train, actually both. 

Excited to leave, we rushed to the Cancha (The central area for transportation, sales, and food) to catch our bus-train, unfortunately we underestimated how crowded it would be on a Saturday. Getting close to departure time we tried running but that was not an option for us as the fastest we could go was walking not mentioning getting lost in the way. Thankfully after getting out of the crowd we started running to buy our tickets and made it just on time. Astonished myself I have never seen a bus on train tracks and was excited for the trip I was about to adventure to. Unlike going on the roads we were able to see the rural parts of Bolivia which were beautiful in every way possible. Seeing the “Cholas” (Natives to Bolivia) in their natural habitats was interesting as a lot of families had farming fields, herds of animals, and mud houses. Of course there were some scary parts where the bus-train would start shaking back and forth violently as we cross bridges that are thousands of feet up high. 

Being able to see the different levels of Urbanizations as we visited many pueblos on the way to Mizque. The 6 hour train ride really made me reflect on my life seeing more than just a regular “American” lifestyle I’ve always seen. Seeing most of the people astonished and smiling because of a bus-train, kids playing around, and the many family driven jobs. I’ve been battling this thought my time I have been staying here, the thought of opportunity, emotion, and perspective. 

How many of the intelligent kids I come across with in Proyecto Horizonte never going to college because of opportunity, but at the same time live a happier life than the regularly stressed working American? Of course I do not speak for everyone but it’s something I hope to define more in the time here".

- Christian, United States

A British volunteer , Michaela, looks back at her 3 months of living in Bolivia and working at Proyecto Horizonte

After being recommended Proyecto Horizonte by a family friend who volunteered for the organisation a couple of years ago and loved it, I decided that I was going to complete the next four months of my year abroad volunteering for the project. I started off staying in a homestay with a wonderful host mum, however I had planned to stay in a flat with other volunteers but unfortunately the flats owned by the project were not ready to move into straight away. Luckily there was a girl from Alaska staying in the same house who was also in the same situation so we decided to go searching in the city for a flat to rent out together. After just two days of looking we moved in, it was really easy to find somewhere.

Having traveled for almost 30 hours from London to Cochabamba at the beginning of March 2015, I headed straight into the project the next day.  On my first day I was shown around the whole place and was amazed to see for myself all the different ways in which they help the community, having read about it online.  I started working in the medical center for my first month and now work with the children aged 3-4 at the nursery in Inicial 2.  All of the children are so sweet and I love being greeted in the morning by the kids coming up and hugging me saying, ‘Hola profe Mica’ it really is the sweetest and the best way to start the day.

It is not all work and no play, I have been fortunate enough to visit the beach city of Iquique in Chile for five days, the beautiful city Sucre (another city in Bolivia) and Villa Tunari, which I can best describe as a tropical jungle.  I am also planning to take a trip to the Salt Flats (Salar de Uyuni) and hopefully La Paz and many other places.  I have now finished my third month here and cannot believe just how quickly the time has gone, with just one month left I know how quickly it will fly by and I am not ready to leave.  I have really enjoyed my time here, everyone who works at Proyecto Horizonte are so lovely and welcoming, I definitely want to come back. Cochabamba is one of my favourite places I have visited, there is so much culture and diversity here that I will never get bored of this amazing city. 

- Michaela, UK

Don´t come back without having seen the salt flats of Uyuni!

Katia, a volunteer from Canada, writes about her travels in Bolivia, a weekend getaway with the Bolivian girls of Proyecto Horizonte:

Before coming to Bolivia I was told by one of my friends not to come back to Canada without having seen the famous salt flats of Uyuni (Salar de Uyuni). When I got here I quickly realized that this beautiful, geographically diverse country has lots more to offer. I then made it my goal to see Bolivia's key cities and travel destinations before I leave. I came to Cochabamba alone but quickly made friends with my coworkers because everyone at Proyecto Horizonte is very friendly and easy to talk to. I was very happy to find out that some of the girls were also interested in exploring their country. And this was how Claudia from Human Orientation and Training, Lidy that works in communications, Mabel, the kindergarten principal, and I planned our weekend getaway to Bolivia's Altiplano around mid-May. 

 

Early on Friday morning we took a bus from Cochabamba to go to the city of Oruro. The city is famous for its carnival that takes places every February. The bus ride offered one of the most magical landscapes I have ever seen. We were so high up in the mountains that I had the impression that we could litteraly touch the sky. It was a mesmerizing view. We got to Oruro about midday and went up to the very beautiful statue of the Virgin of Socavon, the patron saint of Oruro. We enjoyed a very nice view of the growing city from the top of the mountain. At about 3 in the afternoon we took a train to Uyuni. The train ride was also very picturesque. We passed by a beautiful lake just as flamingos were flying over it!!! We got to Uyuni late at night but had no problem finding a hostel and booking a tour of the salt flats for the next day. It gets pretty cold in Uyuni at night so to anyone traveling there I would recommend bringing warm clothes.

As soon as we got to the salt flats the next day I quickly understood why this travel destination is so famous worldwide. The view is truly hypnotic; all you see is the vast white never ending salt desert and the bright blue sky. It is almost impossible to tell where sky ends and ground begins. Then as you continue driving an island of huge cactuses where lamas wonder around, Isla Incahuasi, appears out of nowhere in the middle of this desert. It was truly incredible. We saw a lot of tourists taking creative pictures with optical illusions. Our group of girls wasn't as creative so we had to let these unique landscapes speak for themselves in our pictures.

Salar left a very strong impression on all of the four of us but it was time for us to head to the city of Potosi. I was very excited to get to Potosi because I had read a lot about its history. It was one of the largest cities in the world in the colonial times due to the fabulous wealth its silver mines were producing for the Spanish. We really enjoyed walking in the streets of this beautiful colonial city and visiting the museum of the Casa de las Monedas. However, for all of us, the highlight of our day in Potosi was entering one of the mines of the famous Rich Hill (Cerro Rico). Dressed as miners, we were bravely following our guide through the dark, narrow and just plain scary mine as he was telling us about the challenges and the dangers the miners face in these mines every single day. It was very sad to hear; it was an eye-opening experience.

What an incredible weekend getaway! We were able to see so many special places in just three days. I loved traveling with the local Bolivian girls who are now not just coworkers but really good friends that I am going to keep in touch with when I get back to Canada! 

One month Proyecto Horizonte

Elisabeth, a volunteer from Denmark, gives an overwiew of her volunteer experience:

I worked as a volunteer at Proyecto Horizonte for a month, and it was probably one of the best months of my life so far. My main task was helping looking after the youngest children in La sala maternal. I really enjoyed being with the children and I had the nicest colleagues who were amazing around the children. They always had so many fun different activities planned.
In the afternoons I took Spanish lessons, explored Cochabamba with the other volunteers or helped the organization with different tasks. When I was there, Proyecto Horizonte had their 10 year anniversary, so all of us volunteers helped painting banners and preparing other stuff for the event. The anniversary in itself was an amazing experience! Cochabamba is also a really great city to live in. There's a lot to do and the weather is always nice! There are a lot of national parks and cities to visit like Salar Uyuni, La Paz and Potosi.