A Bolivian Farewell....

So my time here has come to an end. With mixed emotions I have spent the last few days preparing to leave and saying good-byes. My time here as been amazing and I could not have asked for a better experience. I am very grateful for the friends I have made here and to the kids at Amistad who welcomed me and shared their lives with me. The kids had a very nice going away celebration for me on Friday morning. It was hard to say goodbye, but I hope I will be returning soon and will get to see them again. Here are a few updates on the bakery and other projects I have been working on.



The Bakery continues to grow and should be in good hands. Corey, the Peace Corps volunteer at the Villa is taking over the project and should do a great job. We have two new clients, the Peace Corps office in CBBA, and an carneceria in the city. Our first sale at the Peace Corps office was huge, we sold over 375 Bs. in cakes and other baked goods. They should be a great client for us in the future. We have also been refining our ordering process and have developed what should prove to be a highly efficient ordering process for our larger clients. The other exciting progress that we are making involves training the kids to run the enterprise. The past month, I had been taking two different kids from the boys youth house to the Institute with me, in hopes of teaching them how to sell the bread there. Last Friday, Raul and Alfredo did their first solo sale at the Institute. They did a great job and it was a big step towards getting the kids more involved. The ultimate goal of the project is to get the kids to take total responsibility and initiative for the project. We have hopefully developed a very usable and organized model for the kids to take over. While working on the project I have begun to appreciate the times it takes to train people effectively. This has by far been the biggest challenge that we have faced. It is not too difficult for us to find clients and sell tons of bread and baked goods, but as I have realized, the point is not for us to be able to start and run a successful business in Bolivia, but to train young people to do this. This is a completely different task, but ultimately much more important, because neither myself nor the other volunteers will be working at the Villa forever.

The compost pile and recycling program was an unintended casualty of the rapid growth and success of the bakery. I had not anticipated having to spend so much of my time working with the bakery and as a result I the recycling program did not get much past the drawing board. However, a solid and very executable plan is in place and work will begin on the compost pile this week. I am hoping that this will provide some education to the kids about conservation and how they can make an impact in the global environment. In my time here I have noticed that ecological education and environmental awareness are seriously lacking in Bolivia. This might be expected of a developing country on the global level, but I am of the opinion that this attitude towards the environment is unacceptable. Recycling plastic and organic matter are two of the easiest things anyone can do to make a difference in the world. Chris will be implementing our plan and I hope it will help to at least cut in half the about of trash and waste produced by the Villa.

The masses at the Villa have also continued in the last few weeks. My classmates have been very responsive to my requests of them to say mass for the kids on a weekly basis. We even had a special mass last Sunday for the kids of the youth houses separate from the mass for the younger kids at the Villa. This program is going strong and will be continuing hopefully in the weeks and months to come. I am hoping that this will become a fixture in both the institute and the Villa long after I am gone.

Now for a little on our weekend in La Paz.



World’s most dangerous road

On Friday I left Cochabamba on a bus headed for La Paz. After having two major problems with the national airline LAB, I decided to not risk a flight not taking off or some other mishap that is par for the course here. The trip is eight hours by bus and it was a nice chance to see more of the altiplano. La Paz is a fascinating city of about 1 million situated at over 13000 feet. Just up the mountain is the fastest growing city in Bolivia, El Alto. Another 1 million people inhabit El Alto and the contrast between the two cities is striking. La Paz is a more or less vibrant cultural and economic centre of Bolivia. In contrast, El Alto is one of the poorest and most densely populated places in all of the country.



On Saturday morning, Matt, Ted and Derek set out early to descend the world’s most dangerous road on bikes. This road is reported to have had the most number of deaths of any road in the world (outside of Bagdad). The road is completely dirt and rock with 1000 foot drop offs all the way down. Ten people have died cycling this road just in the last several years. Despite its reputation, with caution and proper respect for the mountain, descending the road can be a beautiful and exhilarating recreational experience. The views from various points on the mountain were simply breathtaking. We booked a tour with the Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking Company of La Paz. This was an excellent group and we had two excellent guides. The world’s most dangerous road goes from La Paz to Coroico. At 7 am they took us high in the mountains to around 16000 feet to begin our descent. The ride is over 50km and descends all the way down to 3000 feet. The change in climate zones was incredible. From the frigid heights of the cloud forest, to the lush tropical area of Coroico, our trip covered an incredible range of climate and vegetation zones. We rode very nice downhill bikes and every detail of the trip was provided for. The whole operation was very professional and exceeded my expectations at every point. We even had a buffet dinner and showers waiting for us at an animal sanctuary after the five hour ride. The experience was truly excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone who plans to be traveling in the area.



Thank you all again for reading. I am planning on spending the next few months digesting my experience and finalizing my law school plans. After such a unique experience I will surely need some time to process the thousand of influential experiences I have had over the last three months. I will continue to post throughout the summer probably every few weeks I am think of subjects worth writing about. There is also a possibility of a trip to South Africa for some more micro development work with the SLHC Children’s house in Durban. These plans are not finalized yet, but if I end up going, I will certainly be posting about my experiences there as well.

Thanks I hope you all have gotten something out of this blog. Stay tuned for more updates. Feel free to contact me with any comments or suggestions.

God Bless.

Gray
grayskinner@hotmail.com

Mountain climbing...

Hello again from Cochabamba. The last few weeks have been quite hectic as I have been trying to squeeze as many projects and activities into my last few weeks as possible. Classes have continued to go well, however they have been a little repetitive and frustrating since I am at a point now that the main thing I need is practice, and at times going to a class for four hours a day is a rather rigid form of practicing. However, the classes are getting more interesting as I am able to better express myself and talk about more complicated issues. I will finish with classes this Friday. They have been an amazing help in my learning Spanish. While rather intense at times, the classes were exactly what I needed to begin learning the language in a short period of time.

Last Sunday, I made an attempt on Tunari, the largest mountain in the area. At over 16000 feet, it is a monster that is clearly visible from anywhere in the city. I began the adventure with two friends from the Institute around 6am on Sunday morning. We took a trufi west to Quillicollo, and from there another to the Parque Tunari. We began climbing around 8am and had decided to attempt the journey without a guide. Not using a guide was probably a mistake especially since we spent the first two hours bushwhacking and trailblazing through river beds and thick ground cover. After a while as we got into the higher altitudes, the plant growth thinned out a bit and we were able to proceed much easier. Despite keeping a relentless pace, we definitely underestimated the distance however, and my two in the afternoon, had just reached the base of the cliffs that go up to the summit. This was a bit disappointing, but if we wanted to attempt a summit in one day, we should have hired transportation to get up a little higher up the mountain. The views were spectacular and it was a great experience. Next time I am here I am going to have to try again.

Thanks again for reading. I will write more soon.
Gray
grayskinner@hotmail.com

Holy Week…(with lots of pictures)

Faithful readers, I apologize for the delay. With so much going on down here, it is often hard to find time to put together a blog entry. During The last two weeks, I have continued my work with the bakery and other projects here at the Villa. I will detail a few highlights of the last few weeks.

Bakery:
We continue to sell our bread at the language institute and the sales are going very well. We are improving our production process and continue to look for new markets. This past week we reached another milestone when we acquired our second and third ovens. One we received as a gift from a Peace Corps volunteer here in Cochabamba. The other is a brand new and very nice oven (see picture, large grey oven on the left) that we were able to acquire with the past month’s successes. This new oven will allow us to speed production and venture into new varieties of baked goods such as French bread and bagels. We are also beginning to get the kids more directly involved in the production and selling process. This past week one of the boys from the youth house accompanied me to the Institute to learn the selling and ordering process. In the end this is really the most important part of the whole project. A couple of gringos can work really hard and set up a business in Bolivia etc. But none of it matters if we are not able to capacitate the kids here and have them take over the operation completely. We are making progress in this direction and it is encouraging.

Jesuit Missions:
The past week we have had a break from classes for Holy week. On Saturday I went with about thirty of my fellow students on a trip organized by the language school to Santa Cruz and the surrounding mission towns. Before coming here, I knew very little about the Jesuit presence in Latin America, save what I had seen in the film “The Mission”. So we flew to Santa Cruz and loaded on a bus for the four hour drive east to the mission towns of Conception, San Ignacio, San Javier, San Rafael, Santa Ana, and San Miguel. These towns were all constructed in the early part of the 18th century by the Jesuits. The communities and towns were modeled after the utopian vision of Thomas More. The communities are all meticulously planned and each one is made around a central plaza, the main feature of which is a beautiful church (see below). The Jesuits were able to gain the favor of the locals through music. This is a fascinating part of these towns as the tradition of Baroque music remains in these towns even after the abrupt Jesuit expulsion from Latin America around 1760. We were treated to three concerts in these churches by the youth of the towns who had mastered classical singing as well as violin and cello. Their ability was phenomenal and it was even more remarkable that these traditions had been preserved and valued for almost 250 years! Leaving the Altiplano for the lowlands of eastern Bolivia, the enormous biodiversity of the country was another thing that struck me about the mission towns. It felt like we had entered another country when we were driving through the semi-tropical terrain. Gone was the dry and mild climate of CBBA, replaced by intense humidity and stifling heat. Visiting these mission towns was a fascinating and impressionable experience.

Good Friday Pilgrimage:
This morning, I went with about 25 of the older kids on a pilgrimage to the Cristo statue in remembrance of Good Friday. We set out from the Villa at 2:30 am in the rain, which worsened throughout the trip. The walk is more than 12km from the Villa, and then you have to climb the seemingly interminable steps up to the statue that looks over the city to the west. We arrived soaking wet after three hours of walking in the rain. We watched the dawn break over the city and despite the clouds, were treated to a nice sunrise. We were joined by hundred of other Cochabambinos who had also made the trek up to the statue. The kids had a really good time in spite of the conditions. The return trip was tougher because of the lack of incentive. It was a wonderful way to observe Good Friday and a very memorable experience. Below are some pictures of the journey.


That’s about all for now, it just hit me recently that my time here is coming to a close. I will begin my last two week term of classes this week. I can’t believe the time has gone so quickly. I am all out of reflection and profound statements about my experience after that 15+ mile hike this morning. Thank you all for reading. God Bless and Happy Easter.

Gray
grayskinner@hotmail.com

Exciting Developments...

I apologize for the delay with this post. I have been occupied with many other things and have not had a chance to write an update. All is well in Cochabamba at the moment. The last two weeks, I have been working on several projects that i mentioned in the last entry. The micro enterprise continues to develop and go very well. We surpassed the 2000 Boliviano mark in sales this week. I was very excited about that. That is a lot of bread that we have sold. Thus far, our principle prodects have been empanadas, cakes, cookies, and bread. We added a new type of bread this week called “pan integral” or “ch’millo” in Quechuan. It’s a darker type of wheat bread that is healthier, and I prefer it more as well. This week we are planning to experiment with some new products such as brownies and bagels. Our production and delivery processes have been streamlined in the last two weeks and my direct involvement with the selling of the bread at the language institute has decreased. This is a very positive step, because ultimately, the goal is to have the bakery function completely independently without me or Chris. I am very encouragement by the progress of the micro enterprise and the leadership at the Villa has been very open and enthusiastic about the idea.

Yesterday, I went with the the Peace Corps volunteer (Corey) who is working with us on the project around the city and did some market research. We went to seven bakeries and some open air markets to try and gauge some potential markets. We learned a lot and will be trying to branch out our clientele in the next few weeks. The next important step is to acquire another oven and to further involve the kids in the production and administrative processes.

Also, today we had the second consecutive mass at the Villa, said by one of the fathers studying here at the Language Institute with me. The kids have really enjoyed having the opportunity to participate in a worship service in the Villa. We have priests signed up for the next few weeks as well and I hope that this can become a permanent fixture at the Villa. It is a great service to the kids as well as to the priests who get an opportunity to practice their Spanish.

My language learning continues to go well. I have become very comfortable in conversations that last few weeks. This development has been very encouraging. I have also began some new classes. After finishing my textbook, I had the opportunity to select my own classes. I enjoyed my classes more this last week than any previous week. I am taking a grammar class, a class on the Bible, a class on legal terms and the Bolivian court system, and a class on current events and history in Bolivia. It is very nice to just have conversation classes. I will likely continue with the schedule for the remaining three weeks.

The pictures at the top are of two celebrations we have had recently. One is of the Father's day celebration we had this past Monday. The children of the Montessori program (3-6 year olds) at the Villa treated us to a very nice breakfast, complete with cards and song. The other is of a Saint Patrick's Day celebration that the Irish priests hosted for all of the students and teachers. I am pictured with two of my classmates (Martin from Korea and Michael from Ireland in a truly international Karaoke experience).

As I enter into the last month of my time here, I can’t believe everything has gone so quickly. This experience in South America has certainly been everything I could have hoped for and much more. I eagerly await what the next month has in store. I am confident that this will be my most productive time of all here as my improvements in language are allowing me to do more everyday. I appreciate all of your prayers and thoughts. I look forward to sharing and catching up with everyone in the next month.

Thanks for reading,

Gray

More Happenings...

Wow what a busy week. This week was the first full week of our bakery’s operation. It has been a lot of work smoothing out the production and working on ways to improve efficiency. We have the most crucial element of a micro enterprise though, which is a market. The demand has continued to be sky high and our humble bakery is struggling to keep up. Here is a rundown of what we sold this week:

Monday: 120 bread
Tuesday: 150 bread
Wednesday: 100 Bread, 6 cakes, 40 empanadas (a cheese filled pastry)
Thursday: 100 Bread, 6 cakes, 100 cookies
Friday: 200 Bread, 6 cakes, 40 empanadas

So you can see that the demand has steadily increased, we are clearly limited by the amount we are able to produce. Also, I sold all of this in less than 15 minutes everyday, with several unhappy people who did not get to me quickly enough.

Making the bread is a lot of work and the mamas are waking up at 3:30 in the morning to have the bread ready by 7:30. Their work is truly amazing. To make good bread, it requires a lot of work by hand so that the bread will rise properly. They are very skilled at this work and the bread comes out perfectly every time. We are looking to purchase another oven in order to increase out ability to produce more baked goods. The demand is highest for the bread, but this is the most time consuming and least profit generating item we make. We are trying to balance our bread production with our other more profitable products. It will probably be another week until I have devised an efficient plan of ordering, production, and transport of the bread. I am currently taking the bread and baked good to the Institute on my bike (6km each way) early in the morning (sometimes making two trips). This is obviously not a sustainable practice and I am working to devise an alternative means of transportation. The other thing I am working on is an ordering procedure for the students and professors of the Institute. This would streamline our production and prevent me from having to personally sell the bread at the Institute everyday. Ideally, the production and selling process would involve as few people as possible would become a fixture at the Institute. I hope to have the micro enterprise sustainable without any of my help in two to three weeks. The sky seems to be the limit with this bread business and I am very optimistic that it will prove to be a profitable experience for the children of the Villa.

Another project I have been working on is getting the kids an opportunity to go to mass every Sunday. The first few weeks I was here, I accompanied a group of about twenty kids to mass at the local parish. This involves a 30+ minutes walk to the church which is huge and always full. It is very hard for 20 7-13 year olds to sit through a mass when they are standing up in the back of a very large sanctuary. This experience became quite frustrating after a few times, and I have been trying to come up with a better way for the kids to have a chance to celebrate mass each week. The solution came when I was reflecting on the large number of priests we have studying at the Institute. There are about 20-30 from all over the world year round at the Institute. These priests have no one in the city to celebrate mass for every Sunday, and at the Villa we do not have a priest to celebrate mass for the kids. This is the perfect match for the priests to practice saying the mass in Spanish (which they all will have to do in their respective missions after their language study anyway) and for all of the kids to have a much more convenient opportunity to participate. A 30+ minute walk to a crowded church at 8:00 Sunday morning does not seem like the best way to encourage the kids to attend the service. I am excited about the new plan and have posted a sign up sheet in the Institute. I have commitments for the next two Sundays and expect there to be a high demand for the opportunity as well.

The third project I have been working on is the compost pile. I have planned the construction of the pile with the Gardener, German. We will be digging and constructing this week. Also I have been writing instructions for the collection of compost in each of the eight houses. This project will help to reduce garbage in the Villa and provide a source of fertilizer for our garden here. I am also hoping that it will help educate the kids about the environment. Cochabamba has an incredible problem with waste disposal and the entire neighborhood is littered with garbage. By directly involving the kids in this project, I hope to help instill in them a sense of environmental responsibility. We will see how it goes.

That’s about is for now. Classes continue to be challenging, but I am really enjoying them. There is hardly ever a free moment, except sometimes on the weekends.
If you are interested in reading more about some of my time here, check out my posting on NashvilleCyclist.com.

Thanks for reading,
Gray
grayskinner@hotmail.com

Bread for Sale...

I am glad to report today was the official start of our first micro-enterprise at the Villa. Today I sold over 200 pieces of bread at the Language Institute to students and professors. While the idea of making bread to sell as part of a micro-enterprise has been floating around the Villa since I arrived here several weeks ago, this week some important developments led to the first substantial sale. Previously Chris and I had been the only customers of the best-kept secret in Cochabamba. However on Monday, when I brought bread for my friend Kim at the Institute, my teacher Tatiana became very intrigued and spread the word to the other professors. News spread pretty quick and yesterday I began negotiating a contract with the Institute to provide the bread for our three daily coffee breaks. Our first official order of eighty pieces will be for Monday. Yesterday I sold fifty pieces just to my teachers and today the demand more than quadrupled to over 200. Chris had to provide me with reinforcements this morning, as I had not anticipated such demand. So the bakery is well on its way to becoming a profitable venture for the kids of the Villa. We are looking to add a few new varieties to our repertoire as well as cookies and cakes. As of right now the mamas are making the bread and we are in the process of training the kids to make the bread themselves. I am very encouraged that we have found a market for the bread which is always the hardest part. Hopefully this can develop into a viable source of income for the Villa and give the kids some training in micro-enterprises. Having read Yunus’s book “Banker to the Poor” before I came here, I am became very interested in applying this model in the Villa. This can be an empowering experience for the kids and give them a chance to provide for themselves to an extent. I am excited about the possibilities and will write more about the project in the coming weeks.

I finished the first half of my language classes today. I have six more weeks of classes and am enjoying them more everyday. I am really starting to feel comfortable with the language and recently during conversations, have forgotten that I was speaking a foreign language. This experience was encouraging for me, and with the help of the excellent teachers here, I feel that I am making good progress with the language. I will also be changing my schedule next week to allow for time in the mornings to work with the gardener at the Villa to start a compost program for our garden. I will write more about this soon. My classes will be in the afternoons for the next two weeks and I will work with the kids in the mornings.

I continue to stay very busy with work at Amistad and with classes.

Thanks for reading.
Gray
grayskinner@hotmail.com

Change of Plans and a Water War

I am writing from the safe confines of the language institute. Virtually all other places in the city are danger zones. Today is the major holiday of Carnival and all of the schools are out and most businesses closed, which means that what seems like most of the city are out in the streets fighting with water. The Bolivian tradition of throwing water balloons, using squirt guns and throwing buckets of water has reached a crescendo today after building up since the beginning of February.

On top of the Mountain

Riding to the Institute today, I was assailed by barrage after barrage of water balloons and squirt-gun fire. I was prepared today however and was packing some heat in my jacket pocket. Making eye contact with an innocent looking child up the road who was in the act of pumping his super soaker in anticipation of my arrival, I put some force on the pedals and slyly slid my hand around to my back pocket grasping my balloon. As I approached and the boy opened fire, I deftly removed the balloon from my pocket and launched at the unsuspecting assailant. A direct hit to the torso at 20 mph clearly startled the youngster and quickly stopped the incoming fire. Riding away I felt a great sense of satisfaction as today was the first day since February 1st that I have been able to defend myself from the daily barrage. I have taken several right in the face from passing cars. So I really don’t feel bad about nailing the kid who was shooting at me today. In addition to the water, incense fills the air as the Cochabambinos make offerings to Pachu Mama. Fireworks have also been exploding regularly throughout the day. Carnival is quite a sight here and the real celebration isn’t until next week when the parades of dancers will march through the streets.

So instead of returning from Peru today as I reported last week, I returned from the small village of Aramasi where I spent the weekend with two friends from the Institute. So last Friday after my post, I was informed by a priest that LAB (the national airline and the only carrier that goes from Cuzco to CBBA) had cancelled all international flights for two weeks because of a fuel shortage. Incredulous, I began the process of contacting the Airline and finding out what was the problem. After two comical trips to the central office of LAB in the city, I was confident that eventually we would receive a refund for our tickets. I am amazed that a major airline would cancel all international flights for two weeks, but I am starting to realize that Bolivia doesn’t run on the same precise bureaucratic system as the US does. So with our trip cancelled, and with the rest of our classmates already with reservations to visit Oruro, the site of a world renowned Carnival celebration, myself and two friends, Neil and Kim, planned a trip to the tiny village of Aramasi high in the Andes. The Amistad Mission runs a clinic in Aramasi that serves not only the two hundred or so inhabitants of that village, but also nine neighboring communities. There is also a retreat center in Aramasi for friends of the Mission (I had visited in 2005 with Christ Church). The retreat center consists of several small hermitages or hermitas, and is intended as a place for prayer and reflection. We were able to get a ride into the town with Dr. Rudolpho, who is the doctor serving at the clinic. The ride to Aramasi is 73 km south on the road to Oruro, a drive straight up into the mountains that rises from the 8500 feet of CBBA to 13800 feet. From there we tucked down very small dirt road that descends for 15 miles into the valley to Aramasi. The journey there was breathtaking the town itself is gorgeous. All around are the peaks of the Andes with no sign of development other than subsistence agriculture and some adobe huts for hundreds of miles.

Neil and I in Aramasi

We had an awesome time of relaxation, reflection, prayer, fellowship, and of course some vigorous exercise. From where we were staying, I could see one peak in the distance that towered above the landscape. It was my natural inclination to want to summit that peak, which was about 14500 feet tall (Aramasi is about 10500 feet). It was quite a challenge with a lot of climbing on all fours as it was very steep and rocky at points. We made it to the top in after three hours of strenuous hiking and climbing. The vista was incredible and well worth the journey.

The mountain we climbed

So after four days and three relaxing nights in Aramasi we returned to CBBA this morning. The break from classes was much needed and I am looking forward to getting my third set of four new teachers this week. After having been here for over a month, I feel that I have completely adjusted to living here and I am continually encouraged by my improvements in Spanish.

Thanks for reading and for your prayers and support. Happy Ash Wednesday.

Gray
grayskinner@hotmail.com

The kids of Casa Kantuta