Every day from Monday to Friday at 2:30 Pablo and Elizabeth, both educators in Bolivia DIgna, shout through the house "Taxis are here. Let's go !". Every volunteer finishes to prepare the stuffs for his afternoon's mission. Could be footballs and cones, pencils and papers, scissors or whatever they need to animate their activity. Bolivia Digna delivers free english lessons, homework support, sport activities, games to kids of Tackoloma and Mercado Campesino in the outskirts of Cochabamba. The kids there come from disavantaged background and families who immigrated from other cities during the mid 90's crisis. They go to school in the morning and have the afternoon free. Thanks to Bolivia Digna these kids probably receive the attention they don't have at home. Most of them have a lack of education in terms of health and hygiene. Leonie and Max, two of my colleagues, set last week a project to offer them teeth brushes and paste after realising that the kids never wash their teeth at home... Bolivia Digna plays definitely a huge role in their lifes.
My colleagues come from different backgrounds. Except the educators every one is volunteer. Local young people come through the week during their free time. Otherwise I worked with Danish, German,English and American people so far who are here for 3 or 4 months. I really love this cocktail of persons and strories. Every one has something different to bring to the kids or to the team. The exchanges with the local volunteers are always interesting sometimes surprising.
On my side I mostly delivered sports activities in the afternoons. The children really enjoy playing football. In my previous South American trip I realised how much dedicated they are and fight for the ball. Here I got the confirmation. I have to admit that the start was not a piece of cake. I understaood that the kids always have to adapt to a new person from abroad who tell them how to play that game or this exercice. Finally after few weeks and knowing the players better we got used to each other. The biggest challenges here are to make the kids believe in their abilities and trust their teammates.
Three times a week Louis and myself go to "La Canterra" with some children of both sites. It is 5-a-side football grass pitch where a football school is implemented. Here we support Jorge the coach to deliver proper football sessions to the ones who are more involved and motivated to play football. Each one is required to be present as the attendance and participation mark are requested by the educators. Fun games, relays and matchs are usually the content of the sessions.
5pm and "Next goal wins" rule increases the intensity of the last bit of the session. After the goal celebration it's time to say goodbye and join the taxis which are waiting for us. The day is finished. It's time to go home and realise the impact we had on these kids day. Tomorrow is a new day with more matches, goals and fun...