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After La Paz I decided to head to a volunteer project in a school in a town called Villa Tunari, in the Chapari Jungle region of Bolivia. I caught the night bus out of La Paz at nine pm, arriving in Cochabamba at eight the next morning, and eventually found out where the busses to Villa departed. When I got there I wandered around lost for a little while, then happened on a shared taxi (although the driver conveniently waited until after I´d paid to tell me that it needed 7 people to run, so we were waiting for six more) . Half an hour later we had a taxi full and we set off on the four (ish) hour journey, arriving in Villa at about two pm. After finding the hostel (and a very unhelpful landlady who claimed to know nothing about the volunteer project I was there for) I waited around for the other volunteers to return from the school. At three thirty they arrived back, and we all headed to San Martin´s, just about the only bar in Villa, to watch Man U v Chelsea. The next day, Thursday, was my first day in the school, and I was a nervous but excited.The school bus (Bus Loco) came by the hostel to pick us up at about nine am; all the kids were hanging out of the windows shouting hello at us as they came down the road, and demanding high fives and so I set off for my first day. Basically, the project was set up several years ago to provide health care and education for the impoverished communities around Villa Tunari. A few years later a volunteer project was set up to assist the running of the foundation. The foundation experienced a few ´problems´ last year, and ended up closing and reopening with a new director, who took so long sorting out the new legal name that they lost all sources of funding and so the volunteer project became the only thing keeping the foundation running, meaning that it´s on pretty shaky ground. This week, after a lot of hassle, the volunteer director has quit so at the moment there isn´t even a volunteer project (but this is a really long story so I won´t bother with it here!) Although volunteers were originally supposed to just be a helping hand, the three year old´s teacher quit after she got fed up of not being paid (no staff have been paid for 4 months), and so now our job is to try and teach the three year olds. So, a typical day in the school. After getting off the bus we shepherd all the three year olds into the class, and serve them their breakfast (a sort of porridge drink called cereales, nicer than it looks, and either bread or a deep fried ball of dough which probably isn´t the healthiest start to the day for them) We then get them to brush their teeth (dental care is another of the key aims of the foundation) By the time all this is over it´s normally about ten thirty, and we have an hour and a half left before lunch. Jigsaws are a big favourite with the kids- they can happily do the same puzzles over and over again for hours.We can´t really teach them much as they´re only three, and none of us has perfect Spanish but we do try. Often we´ll do colouring in of things that are a particular colour, for example, although by the next day they normally seem to have completely forgotten the colour they learned yesterday. We also made play dough for them, which they loved, and hopscotch, and then we do various other cutting-and-sticking-and-getting-messy activities. At twelve we take the kids to lunch, which is a big bowl of soup followed by a ´segunda´ (normally very heavy on rice, bread, pasta or potatoesand rather lacking in vegetables or proteins) Getting them to finish the lot is generally an ordeal; there´s always a few who don´t want any, throw it on the floor or just fall asleep in it etc etc but usually by one o´clock they´re all done apart from a few stragglers who eat up pretty quickly when they realize that we´re about to stop trying to feed them and go and eat our own. Which is the same as theirs, but five times the size and absolutely impossible to finish (except out of politeness on the first day). While we eat they play outside, and then at two the classes start again for an hour. Then at three, we give them an afternoon snack (normally just what they had for breakfast- more deep fried dough) and get on the bus. If I thought the morning bus was crazy, it was nothing compared to the bus in the afternoon! In the morning two buses bring them to school, but in the afternoon there´s only one, so we generally have 3-4 children on each seat. Plus they´re generally more hyperactive by three o´clock, we have all the smells of the kids who´ve had ´accidents´ throughout the day (usually quite a few- not to mention the girl who threw up live worms on the bus), plus it´s a lot hotter. Every day one lucky volunteer gets to ride the bus all the way until the last child is dropped off, about a three hour journey (meaning some of the kids, as young as 2 years old, are out of the house from 7 am to 6pm, every day) then return to the school and pick up dinner, and bring it back to the hostel for the others.After that, we have the evening to ourselves, which often means heading to an empty basketball court where locals spend every evening practicing for an upcoming festival in the town. There we´re being taught some of their local dances, and we listen to their music and play games with some of the other children. Then, the next morning we get up and do it all again! Generally, each volunteer only spends half a day with the kids, and the other half lesson planning or doing tasks for the other teachers, such as copying out worksheets 25 times because there´s no photocopier). Although Villa´s only a small town, there´s quite a lot to do here. At the weekend we headed out to a wildlife sanctuary, and did a three hour guided trek around- seeing some blind birds that only live in this part of the world, giant stinging ants, and heading into a bat cave. Then, after a typical Bolivan lunch (a big plate of beef, egg, chips, and vegetables) we headed to Lagoona Paraiso, a beautiful, tranquil swimming spot where we whiled away the rest of the afternoon.On Monday, we were back in the school again and preparing for Mother´s Day, which was on the Tuesday. The three year olds were dressing up as teddy bears, so we had to make ears for them, and learn a dance (although we quickly found out that just holding hands and walking in a circle was about the extent of what they could ´learn´) On Tuesday all the mothers came in, and we dressed the children in their ears and painted noses and whiskers on them ready for the dance. They looked absolutely adorable, and the mums seemed to enjoy it. After lunch everyone left, so we spent the afternoon cleaning out the classrooms.The rest of the week passed by in a blur, and Friday came around far too soon! Right now I´m not sure whether I´m going to stay on a little longer in the school or not; I can´t really bear the thought of leaving but at the same time I only have three weeks to get to Lima for my flight and there´s a lot to see and do between here and there.So I´m not really sure what´s going to happen next!
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