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Published: September 27th 2006
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Walking to School
The kids have a 30 minute walk to school and back everyday. If your lucky you get one of 22 odd squashed places in the van that does the trip. Its not uncommon to see kids on the roof or bumpers for the journey. Well I was meant to stay out at Alalay all this week and was not going to have a chance to get to a net cafe as there is nothing out there, but I´m sick again, or still, and the hunt for drugs and some food other then bread has forced me into town. It also gave me a chance to try and track down how to renew my visa as it runs out on saturday.
Alalay is ok, but I still find it real difficult. At every turn I see things that need improvement and things that are laking or atitudes that are crazy. Obviuosly they are an orphange with very little funding and becasue of this they struggle in some areas. But they are looking after children and that means making every effort to help them grow up with a good chance of success.
I get on well with the older boys that I am assigned to but my lack of Spanish works against me ane I really cant help them that much in their school and homework. I try to just be a good role model and stop their arguments and fighting and try to show
Choir Day
Picture of the Alalay Choir performing in town. them good manners etc. Its a challenge to be there everyday and a lot of the time I would rather just leave. When I feel like this its pretty easy to fix. I just go hang out with the 5 to 8 year olds. they dont expect anything except fun games and hugs and I can do that everyday no problem. Its a little energy regharger.
I went to their school for the first time yesterday, a 30 min walk through fields and villages, and sat in on one of their classes. This is one area which could be much improved. Education is really the only chance for these kids to get a good chance in their lives and move on, but some of the teachers dont really do a great job or are enthusiastic about their teaching.
The classes are bare apart from black boards and desks. There is no colour or motivation on the walls. It is the most uninspiring place to learn. For the one class I was in for an hour, 2 dogs were consently roaming around under the desks and barking at each other, one kid was playing soccer in the corner and
The two best looking choir membrs
Ok, I wasn´t a member. We all know about my singing one kid was spitting on the floor. The treacher yelled the whole time with no effect or control and in a hour they learnt the equivalent of about 5 minutes worth. Julie has had simliar experiances and I think we are going to bring it up at the monday morning voluteers meeting.
So being around little things like this day in and day out is hard. I really admire Julie who has been amongst it for 4 or 5 weeks and I´m struggling after just a couple.
Anyway, this little break in town will be good for me. Tracking down how to renew my visa was a good fun distraction. It involved going to the British Embassy first who sent me to the La Paz Immigration Department in another part of town who sent me to another Immigration department in another part of town who sent me back to the first Immigration department.
After all that I found out that I can renew my visa for 165 Bolivianos, which is only 25 NZD, which usn´t much or, I can go for a short weekend trip to Peru, just 4 hours by bus, and get a new visa on
Dogs in class
I have two dogs who especially like to follow me around, proabbly becasue I dont throw rocks at them. This guy, nameless so far, and a black lab called Pepe. re-entry for free. The whole trip will probabaly only cost 200 bolvianos, so I will proabbly do that this weekend. Plus it means I will get an extra stamp in my passport. Yippie.
Tonight I am going out with two Flemish volunteers from Alalay. they do some sort of volunteer work on wednesday nights with the street kids. Eva and Thomas are here at Alalay for 6 weeks as part of their degrees back home and have been a great source of fun at Alalay, organising games and activities for the kids. They both speak German, French, English, Dutch, and Spanish so they have kind of become my unofficial translators during times of importance. We will all probably make the trip to Peru this weekend which should be a blast. They need a bit of time away from Alalay even more then me.
Ok, really got to run. I am in dire need of a bathroom.... Again... Peace
Donde es el baño - Where is the toilet.
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