Volunteering at Colonia Ecologica
This is taken from a blog entry from two volunteers, Stephanie and Roberto, who went out to work at Colonia at the start of this year.
"Volunteering in Colonia Ecologica has been incredible. We are both happy and motivated. Roberto has immersed himself in his duties with gusto. He is building a thermo-solar panel (to heat water) with a group of 9 kids aged 13 to 20. It´s not easy but he is really dedicated to the task. He teaches from 6 to 7pm every day, on Saturday mornings and on Sunday mornings. He is also busy helping out with the pool which has gone green and other bits and bobs related to construction, water supply and mathematics. There is so much to do... it´s never-ending!
I teach English every day for an hour. With the more advanced kids, I decided to create a magazine in English. I divided them into groups of 4 and each group is in charge of a section. We have Food, Fashion, Sport, World Music and Movie People. It´ll have to be entirely written in English. I am really impressed with this group. They are really great! The other group (the beginners) are a handful... some are really eager to learn more vocab but there are 2 very disruptive boys in the class who distract the others and make unhelpful comments during the entire lesson. C´est la vie. If they learn only 2 new words a day, I´m still happy!
When I don't teach English, I play with the younger kids and a really tiny puppy (with more fleas than hairs). We are at the Colonia for about 4 hours each day, after the kids come back from school. 35 kids sleep and live in the Colonia (ie have no parents) while about 60 come only in the afternoons and go home at 7pm. The Colonia is very well maintained, I wish you could see it. They have a main building with the bedrooms, kitchen, dining room; and then about 8 or so "study rooms" which are little individual houses or huts with a different theme in each: Africa, Chalet (made entirely of wood), Numeros (with lots of numbers painted on the walls), a teepee etc and they spend about 3 hours each afternoon in their study rooms doing homework. The garden is big with a pool, a football pitch and a big area for cultivation where they have sugar cane and maze for now. The group in charge of gardening prepared two more patches of earth last week which will be planted with something this week. No idea what yet.
The Colonia is a very positive, moving place, where the kids learn about responsibilities, work, study and team work. Of course they fight and there are tears but overall you can tell they love to be here. Kiko and Carmen are the two adults in charge. They have three biological children, but the others also call them Mamá and Papá. Kiko and Carmen have sacrificed everything for the Colonia: no weekends, no holidays, no time off, no savings, no earnings and no privacy. They used to be teachers, but 14 years ago gave it all up. Now they have over 30 sons and daughters and have managed to grow the Colonia from a tiny collection of tents to a well-established, safe, constructive, growing environment.
Of course the Colonia requires a lot of help from outside: donations of clothes, books, pens, food, you name it, come in at irregular intervals from people in Cochabamba. They also receive money from the US, the UK and Switzerland which allows them to buy the stuff they need. Noone goes hungry, everyone has a clean bed with sheets, a toothbrush and they all get two hot meals a day. Still, they will soon need to replace the batteries from the solar panels that provide them with electricity or they will be left in the dark - this is of major concern to Roberto. The kids need more school books to write in, their shoes aren´t really adequate (especially for some of the heavy building work they get involved in) and it would be great if they could build at least 2 more study rooms.
We´ve been incredibly moved by the Colonia. The kids are all fighters who cope with challenging situations, nose bleeds, mud on their faces or dry bread and just get on with it. In 2 weeks we continue travelling, which means there is little time left to build the solar panel and finish the magazine. Manos a la obra... "
Thank you to Stephanie and Roberto for all their hard work and enthusiasm during their time at the project, they have made a big difference in a relatively short time, for which we are all grateful.
"Volunteering in Colonia Ecologica has been incredible. We are both happy and motivated. Roberto has immersed himself in his duties with gusto. He is building a thermo-solar panel (to heat water) with a group of 9 kids aged 13 to 20. It´s not easy but he is really dedicated to the task. He teaches from 6 to 7pm every day, on Saturday mornings and on Sunday mornings. He is also busy helping out with the pool which has gone green and other bits and bobs related to construction, water supply and mathematics. There is so much to do... it´s never-ending!
I teach English every day for an hour. With the more advanced kids, I decided to create a magazine in English. I divided them into groups of 4 and each group is in charge of a section. We have Food, Fashion, Sport, World Music and Movie People. It´ll have to be entirely written in English. I am really impressed with this group. They are really great! The other group (the beginners) are a handful... some are really eager to learn more vocab but there are 2 very disruptive boys in the class who distract the others and make unhelpful comments during the entire lesson. C´est la vie. If they learn only 2 new words a day, I´m still happy!
When I don't teach English, I play with the younger kids and a really tiny puppy (with more fleas than hairs). We are at the Colonia for about 4 hours each day, after the kids come back from school. 35 kids sleep and live in the Colonia (ie have no parents) while about 60 come only in the afternoons and go home at 7pm. The Colonia is very well maintained, I wish you could see it. They have a main building with the bedrooms, kitchen, dining room; and then about 8 or so "study rooms" which are little individual houses or huts with a different theme in each: Africa, Chalet (made entirely of wood), Numeros (with lots of numbers painted on the walls), a teepee etc and they spend about 3 hours each afternoon in their study rooms doing homework. The garden is big with a pool, a football pitch and a big area for cultivation where they have sugar cane and maze for now. The group in charge of gardening prepared two more patches of earth last week which will be planted with something this week. No idea what yet.
The Colonia is a very positive, moving place, where the kids learn about responsibilities, work, study and team work. Of course they fight and there are tears but overall you can tell they love to be here. Kiko and Carmen are the two adults in charge. They have three biological children, but the others also call them Mamá and Papá. Kiko and Carmen have sacrificed everything for the Colonia: no weekends, no holidays, no time off, no savings, no earnings and no privacy. They used to be teachers, but 14 years ago gave it all up. Now they have over 30 sons and daughters and have managed to grow the Colonia from a tiny collection of tents to a well-established, safe, constructive, growing environment.
Of course the Colonia requires a lot of help from outside: donations of clothes, books, pens, food, you name it, come in at irregular intervals from people in Cochabamba. They also receive money from the US, the UK and Switzerland which allows them to buy the stuff they need. Noone goes hungry, everyone has a clean bed with sheets, a toothbrush and they all get two hot meals a day. Still, they will soon need to replace the batteries from the solar panels that provide them with electricity or they will be left in the dark - this is of major concern to Roberto. The kids need more school books to write in, their shoes aren´t really adequate (especially for some of the heavy building work they get involved in) and it would be great if they could build at least 2 more study rooms.
We´ve been incredibly moved by the Colonia. The kids are all fighters who cope with challenging situations, nose bleeds, mud on their faces or dry bread and just get on with it. In 2 weeks we continue travelling, which means there is little time left to build the solar panel and finish the magazine. Manos a la obra... "
Thank you to Stephanie and Roberto for all their hard work and enthusiasm during their time at the project, they have made a big difference in a relatively short time, for which we are all grateful.
posted by Charity Bolivia at 9:25 AM
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