News

5/24 - Before I came to La Paz, I had heard about the women’s cooperative called Gregorias and was told I must visit, since my work is in women’s microenterprise. Once I started to look into it, I learned quite a bit. There are actually two (at least) organizations: Gregoria Apaza, an NGO started 27 years ago whose name honors a Bolivian heroine, and Gregorias, an offshoot organization developed with the help of Quaker Bolivia Link, an international organization. Gregorias is a wonderful cooperative of a few women who work together in a sunny room filled with looms. They are responsible for their own work and designs, setting their own prices, paying their rent (anticredito) and making decisions together. The community is stable, consisting of several Quaker women and their friends. We bought a large number of chalinas, or scarves, made from alpaca wool and the creamiest texture imaginable. We plan to sell them at our Yearly Meeting to benefit BQEF.

5/20/11

We visited the Quaker School Escuela Emmanuel in El Alto with Juan, Ruben and Edwin. It was environmental awareness day, and the students delivered new trash cans to each classroom. We talked with the children about separating trash and reusing organic waste. They have just purchased additional property next door so they might be able to use a compost bin. We discussed the importance of properly disposing of trash and also lots of other environmental issues. We talked about reusing plastic bags, or better yet, using cloth bags, using the example of a town in New Hampshire where the students succeeded in replacing plastic bags with cloth bags. We told the students they had a big responsibility to help clean up the earth, and to teach their families the importance of doing so.

5/19/11

We visited the Quaker school in Achacachi, one of only three remaining Quaker schools in Bolivia. (The other two are Max Paredes in La Paz and Emmanuel in El Alto.) Achacachi is a town two hours away from La Paz, on the way to Sorata. To get there you ride along the altiplano with a rim of snow-covered peaks in the distance, and then along the shore of Lake Titicaca. All along the way, people are farming their fields by hand.

 5/10/11 - On our travel through Bolivia, we went to the inauguration of the new church in Cochabamba. It is a small congregation called Congregación Cristiana Amigos. On Saturday, we got up at 5:30 to go over to the church and undertake a massive clean-up before the heat built up. The building was recently built and there were huge piles of construction materials and debris still there. The community consists of only four households and a few friends here and there, so our help was really needed, especially that of my three tall and strong teens. Everybody was floored at their strength and energy. We piled up a truck-full of trash for pickup out front, we sorted and stored construction materials and made some steps for the front door. Then we laid carpet and flooring and cleaned the place from top to bottom. It is a lovely building of which the Friends have the first floor, consisting of a worship room, kitchen and bath, and two classrooms. They have an audio system and with the guidance of Hans, one of our hosts, their audio-visual system for putting songs and pictures up on the wall is a marvel.

 Kamisast’asa? Jisa, Waliki? How are you? Are you well?

Pablo Pillco Cultipa joined our BQE family 2 months ago. In fact, he was added as our 40th, and we’re fortunate to have him. BQEF in 2011 decided our budget could increase our number of scholarship students.

I was walking with Juan down into the valley of LaPaz. Not really walking, my feet picked nimbly between stones and sidewalk holes. It was a valley, with the descent so steep in this city 10,000 feet above the sea that I was breathless. Nevertheless I was happy to hike instead of drive cramped in a mini-van with 12 passengers. This Friday the city was awake. The city was clear of fumes and noisy engines. Bus unions all over Bolivia had called a transportation strike on Feb. 25th.  Una huelga firme. A total strike. Schools were closed. The streets were a river of people getting to work. Juan and I edged down the curving roads to the Quaker Education office. I wasn’t about to stay home, because I planned to meet Pablo at the office. The air was buzzing with novelty.

So I have 2 very different experiences of the lifestyle of Bolivian Quakers. One Sunday I came home from Santidad church in El Alto and my mother, Ildafonsa was sititng on the wooden floor in her long satin skirt, apron with long braids peeling a sack of carrots with a knife. The potatoes, onions were spread around her in waves of farm produce, and the bits of carrot skin were flying from her knife. I sat down with the family to warm my hands with tea. Ildafonsa proudly quoted the Bible in Castellano and we chatted about the day. 5 year old Sarita showed me where she cut her finger. The bandaid was transparent and seemed to do the hygienic trick. Ascension, the father picked up a primer with basic language lessons on Aymara, Quechua and Castellano.