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