volunteering en La Paz

Volunteering in La paz, as my last blog I spoke about my volunteering, I wanted to give it its own blog.

When I arrived in Mallasa from Copacabana I was overwhelmed with hospitality in casa Mendoza. Emma, Rolando and their 2 great energetic kids welcomed me with tea and wet doggy kisses from Fergie and Tilly. I remember sitting there and feeling wow this is the first time I have felt really comfortable and at home since I’ve left Aus.

The next day got settled into the nursery and introduced how to go shopping without looking too gringa and putting myself at risk of being robbed. Hahahah I was soo excited to be finally getting into my volunteering.

The nursery on my first real day was fun the kids greeted me with their beautiful lill faces and their cute little teeth shiny with their dark skin. “hola Tia” “como se llama?” then they came and gave me hugs and kisses, whilst dragging me down to my classroom there I met the actual tia’s which is the name given to the teachers who were quiet and lovely with the kids.

After getting to know the routine in the nursery it all ran like clockwork all because of the diligent work of the tia’s knowing all the kids and their personalities. It was amazing the tia’s knew so much about all the kids. The tia’s all mum’s of 2 kids each approximately hahaha were really inspirational in that they made looking after 15-20 kids look easy an d were always able to laugh when things were hard.

After 1 or 2 wks being with the kids and them getting used to how tall and strong I am, all the kids wanting to be lifted up to touch the ceiling. I was asked to see a little boy who couldn’t walk or crawl to see if I could help him from a Physio perspective.

In short I worked with a little boy who initially couldn’t craw or make any changes with getting around his classroom, the tias used to have to move him into every position, which made things really hard because he was 1 ½ yrs old. So initially I thought ok I don’t know how to tackle this because I had very limited experience working with paeds but after many facebook msgs between me and Esther Gan I felt like ok I can only try to help this lill fella move as best as he possibly could.

So we started out with assessment usual physio business except my lil boy couldn’t speak English/Spanish or any native dialect so I was a giant white woman sitting on the floor next to him he had every right to freak out. We started with his legs the tias had said he had weak legs, I went to check I lay him down on a mat and he started kicking so hard nearly put me through the wall so I discovered that wasn’t the problem.  I had to spend a few days bargaining with him with toys and walks outside to get him to let me assess him properly it was really fun for me. Reminded me of when I worked in gen med and youd have to find some incentive for them to want to do your assessment at times. So we got to work 2hrs each day walking, playing, visiting his sister, playing on the playground, throwing water on the bathroom floor ( that was definitely treatment I kept telling myself)

Then after 3 wks he was not walking but was crawling everywhere, pulling himself up on furniture, playing with other kids, eating by himself, I tried to teach him as much as I could so he could continue to improve and the best thing of all was that everytime he was nodding off to sleep he’d be talking to himself and trying to run away. He was so much more confident and happy in his class and the tias saw him as an independent strong lil fella after all this. I wanted to steal him at the end he was so inspirational. His little sister even changed from being a bit afraid of her brother because he didn’t move or talk to being proud and showing him off to all the other 4 yr olds it was beautiful.

When I left I was so sad not to have the opportunity to help more. I really found a passion volunteering so im off again in a few wks to Cusco.

Miss you all if you are ever thinking of doing volunteering definitely just do it.

y despues yo volvi!!

Bad blogger!!!!!

Updates! so last update i was eating myself silly in Salta Argentina well guess where i have come back to... Salta!! it is so warm at the moment, i wear no clothes everyday and trundle around town in my thongs, being a super gringa!


When i left Salta a couple months ago i chilled in the North of Argentina in some strange hostels that were fun. One night i slept in the bedroom of some woman with her kids for a couple nites in Tilcara, Argentina. there was one weary morning i was woken by a small hippie child chewing on all my colour pencils about 20cm away from my face. After Tilcara times i packed away my semi wet possessions and headed into Bolivia through the weird transition from La quiaca to Villazon, it was like going into a different world! well it was a different country but i wasnt expecting things to be that extreme.

Tilcara Saliva town

On the border met some lovely swiss couple who i dragged to catch an imaginary train to Tupiza. This train was on my tick list and had been recommended to me by everyone Will Watt, Sam Cooke but me being an idiot had missed the train by 5 hrs. At this stage my Spanish was not quite adequate to read train internet timetables... well that was my excuse.

In Tupiza we chilled for a bit but not by choice, dodgy Salar company had taken me for my first skam so we were stuck there for a day, so i decided to befriend the local milanesa lady and dine there 3 times a day. We finally headed off for the Salar tour- the tour was lovely, lazy.. the usual Bolivian Salar activities you know! took photos of cars going up my bum, travelled with 2 lovely couples who tolerated my madness for 4 days ... Learnt how to play blackjack... didnt have any matches or many objects for money so we used a rather large impressive condom collection as $.

Then hit up Potosi for some mine times! thought the bus was going to fall off the road between Uyuni and Potosi... Potosi times were fun bought dynamite, drank to pacha mama and once again ate too many milanesa- chip combos!

penis pacha mama statue

Sucre was next so colonial and lovely, totally got my Colonial on and then out of my system. Beautiful, white, had amazing chocolate stores and the grumpiest ladies but the best food in food market. Everytime i ordered something to eat i thought they were going to throw it at me sooo much anger! hahah I travelled with Reynaldo my Bolivian English speaking tour guide friend who in Sucre  tolerated my gringaness and laughed at my strange accent.

Who had also given me the tip that in Cochabamba i could eat myself silly in their giant mercado... when i arrived in Cochambamba guess what was closed for refurbishing my food mercado. So i chilled in the heat for a day doing nothing but eating icecream and sitting around in my undies all day in my private hotel room watching the why Britney spears failed documentary! - riveting. Bliss hahaha

Onto La Paz by this stage i was getting used to and tired of big hall bus rides in Bolivia by this stage, the idea of having awkward encounters where you spend at least 3 hrs trying to suss out if they would rob you or not if you nodded off was getting a bit of an obsession by this stage. but luckiliy i sat next to this large lady who as well embrassing me in her large armpits embrassed me with her hospitality and advice.

In La paz coming in through el alto the large satelite city above La paz i was like whooooaaa where am i but as we drove on i saw all the lights of la paz and was excited by what the city had in stall for me. but after chilling for a bit i got altitude sickness so was very boring my first time round in La paz and thought i could stay around and try avoiding getting blown up by dynamite or move on so... time was a ticking before my volunteering so i headed to lake titicaca.

In Titicaca i stayed on Copacabana and met Omrit,who bonded with me on the bus to over, partly because of our love of saltenas. She inspired me to make my way over to Israel, sounds like such an amazing place.
me and Omrit did a big walk across the island del sol which was great second time id actually exercised since id come to South America.

I decided to stay on Isla del sol, found the first hostel i could leave my backback and chilled in the sunset! Then later as the sun set trouble brewed as i encountered the funniest English chaps ive met... Tom and James, this was the first time id gotten to be properly gross and tell revolting stories with someone who understood my warped sense of humour. you know what that would mean to me. hahahah it was a fantastic time meeting them with Mich, Mena and Cat who all formed part of the Spider La paz gang. ohh the antics, day time street drinking, speaking of crate lock in's, possum and other british aussie banter! then after Copacabana i  headed on my merry way to Mallasa near La paz to start volunteering. But i will leave that for my next blog.

ok Love and miss you all!

xx besos