Blogs from Cochabamba Department, Bolivia, South America - page 26

Hello I am writing progress in the loosest sense of the words - it´s more a case of the ups and downs really. For example yesterday (Thursday) I had a really good morning. I had quite a long chat with one of the psychologist interns, Jamil, and he told me he´d like to learn English too, along with another intern. Jamil is a Christian and believes that God has it in mind for him to go abroad some time. He has been asking God how that can be possible with all the difficulties of getting passports and visas here as well as the fact that he doesn´t speak English. He believes that my helping him with English would be a help on that path. I couldn´t help thinking that it would be a shame for him ... read more

Hello readers, Here is the task I put off a bit yesterday as I was still a bit emotional about my experiences in the hospital. Gonna make a start today (14th) about how yesterday went. When I arrived at the children´s hospital yesterday morning, I had tried to prepare myself mentally for what I would see, but I was way short of what was needed! The hospital was frighteningly basic. For some reason, when they built the new hospital 3 years ago they left the burns unit children, theatre etc in the old building, which is fairly awful. How they don´t get more problems with infections I don´t know, but they do the best they can with what they have, and maybe kids here are somehow more immune or something! When I first arrived, I encountered ... read more

Here are some pictures of my first impressions of Cochabamba. As you can see, it´s in a basin surrounded by hills and the centre is very busy, lots of traffic, people in our sort of clothing or really traditionally dressed....... read more

Hello! When I wrote yesterday, I should have said a bit more about my day. Kirsten, the Swiss nurse who is my contact here, picked me up from the hostal where I´d stayed my first night and took me to an organisation for volunteers in Bolivia, which also organises trips, cultural stuff, host families and through whom in fact Kirsten found me my family. One of the directors is an American lady called Lee. She was great at giving some practical advice about safety, places to go and not go, how to behave in the streets, and about which pages of my passport I should copy and carry with me. She pointed out I´d been given 30 days in my passport and she´ll help me renew before they´re up. It´s just another stamp. The other director, ... read more

Afgelopen weekenden stonden in het teken van carnaval. Vrijdagmiddag werd er al amper meer gewerkt. Er stond een soort braderiebarretje op het plein beneden, waar gratis het lokale bier kon worden afgehaald. Het echte spectaculaire was het enorme watergevecht dat losbarstte. Niet alleen op het plein, maar ook in het kantoor op onze verdieping! Uiteraard was ik als enige westerling een bijzonder naïef en gewild doelwit. De dag erna moesten we (Eveline, Kirsten, Maaike, Daniela en ik) al vroeg op weg naar Oruro voor de ¨beste optocht van Bolivia¨. Daar aangekomen was het ontzettend druk en niet al te best georganiseerd. Het duurde dan ook een tijdje voor we onze plaatsen gevonden hadden. De waterballonetjes en flessen spuitschuim vlogen om je oren, dus hebben we helaas ook geen foto´s kunnen nemen (met name dankzij enkele zeer ... read more