There are moments in life that you know, even while you are still experiencing them, that they will stay with you forever. Stepping off the plane in Cochabamba was one of those moments. After a few long flights, we walked out into the open air and were greeted by a sky on fire with a gorgeous sunset melting behind the mountains, painting everything in gold and amber. I stood there for a second, luggage in hand and heart already full. From the moment we touched down and met Ariel at the airport, it was clear this week was going to be unlike anything I had experienced before. Our itinerary was packed from morning to night, and every single moment held purpose.
On our first day, we had our formal introduction to CEOLI, and I remember walking through those doors and feeling the energy of the place immediately. The staff moved with intention, the classrooms were alive with color and activity, and the students were so sweet greeting us with handshakes and hugs. The first student I got to meet was Manuel and he was so excited to say hi to us and it couldn’t have been a warmer welcome to CEOLI. The student intake assessments, the individual learning plans, the one on one attention, the staff shadowing experienced colleagues it was people doing real, beautiful work every single day.
The next two days, we had the opportunity to do service at CEOLI directly, and those were honestly the days I will carry with me the longest. Me and Marissa got to dance with the kids and it was so fun genuinely getting to dance and laugh together with the kids. Also, watching how the teachers seamlessly weave music and movement into learning was an amazing thing to see unfold. One moment that I will never forget was meeting Fabian. He was one of the sweetest kids I have ever encountered, and I got to spend an entire morning with him playing games, laughing, and just being present with him. There are no words that fully capture how heartwarming it was watching him light up, seeing his personality come through in the way he played and interacted. When it was time to leave, there was a real sadness in saying goodbye, not just to Fabian but to all of the kids we had gotten to know throughout our time there. But that sadness was wrapped in so much gratitude that I had got the chance to meet them at all. It made me understand that education, especially for students with disabilities, is not a rigid structure. It is flexible, joyful, and deeply human. At one point the CEOLI staff told us how much they loved seeing us so engaged with the students, and that affirmation meant the world to our team. It reminded us that showing up fully, not just technically but emotionally, is part of what makes service meaningful.
On our last day, with CEOLI we presented our preliminary deliverables to CEOLI such as our equipment needs assessment progress, professional development resource compilation, and networking connections and the reception was incredibly encouraging. Seeing Ronald, the Director of CEOLI, engage with our work in person, ask questions and stay excited about our fundraising progress, helped us understand how much our in person presence mattered. It wasn’t just about handing over a document, it was a collaborative conversation that could only have happened face to face.
Beyond CEOLI, the broader cultural experiences deepened everything. We visited the Cristo de la Concordia, one of the largest Christ statues in the world, overlooking the entire city of Cochabamba. The ride up there was scenic and the view from the top was breathtaking. We explored Plaza de Armas, wandered through La Cancha Market, and visited the ancient Qollcas Inca site, each of which grounded us in Bolivia’s layered, complex, and extraordinary history. Getting to hear about the economic state of Bolivia from people like Augusto Canedo, an economics professor in Bolivia, also gave essential context to our visit.
And then there was the food. I have to talk about the food. Bolivia’s cuisine is something else entirely. Every meal was fresh and loaded with onions, vegetables, and flavors that felt alive. The natural juices alone were worth the trip with the apple, strawberry, guava, and other native fruits blended into drinks that tasted so fresh. And the saltena which is a baked savory turnover stuffed with beef or chicken, potatoes, peas, raisins, and a sweet, slightly spicy gelatin based stew, became an instant obsession. It is everything at once sweet, spicy, warm, and deeply comforting. Food became one of our most immediate windows into Bolivian culture, and sharing meals together, at the hotel, at local restaurants, and especially at the final dinner, became some of our most bonding moments of the trip.
That final dinner was something I will never forget. We sat with the families of the people who had supported us throughout the week, and I found myself at a table with our bus driver, Rolando, and his family. There was a language barrier, yes, but it barely mattered. We laughed, we joked, we communicated in the universal language of warmth and humor. At one point I translated to him and told him that we had the same sense of humor, just different languages and he cracked up laughing. That moment encapsulated something I felt all week and that is Bolivians are some of the most genuinely sweet, generous, and joyful people I have ever encountered. They greet you with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, they look at the glass half full, and they remind you without even trying to slow down, be present, and appreciate the small things.
Before the trip, I anticipated that Bolivian culture would be highly relationship oriented and that trust would need to be built slowly and intentionally before any real professional collaboration could take root. That expectation was absolutely met. Ronald and Ariel were professional and gracious, but what I noticed most was that our most productive conversations happened after we had simply spent time together like after meals, after service days, after moments where we were just people sharing a space rather than students presenting deliverables. The relationship came first, and the work flowed naturally from it.
That same dynamic played out with the CEOLI staff in a really beautiful way. On our first day, there was an intern who didn’t speak much English, but she did her absolute best to communicate with us by gesturing, and finding words to explain what the kids were working on or to let us know when a student was feeling overstimulated and needed a quiet moment to themselves. That alone taught me so much about patience and the many forms communication can take. As the days went on, we got to ask staff deeper questions about how they build individualized learning plans for each student, how they assess functioning levels, and how they adapt their approaches depending on the child’s needs. You could feel the staff becoming more comfortable with us over time and more willing to let us step in, play alongside the kids, and genuinely participate rather than just observe. That gradual trust building felt like one of the most authentic parts of the entire experience.
What I did not fully anticipate was how emotionally full the experience would be. I expected it to be impactful. I did not expect to feel so deeply welcomed, so quickly, by everyone we encountered at CEOLI, in the community, and at the dinner tables. The warmth was not performative but it was simply how people lived. That shifted something in me about how I move through the world and how I show up in professional and personal spaces alike. The language barrier was a real challenge at times, requiring patience, creativity, and a willingness to sit in uncertainty. But more often than not, laughter and presence bridged what words could not.
Delli Carpini and Keeter’s “What Should Be Learned Through Service Learning?” resonated with me even more powerfully after this trip than it did before. The argument that service learning produces both civic knowledge and personal skill development was something I lived, not just read. Every moment at CEOLI by dancing with the kids, presenting deliverables, navigating cultural nuances it all demanded project management, communication, adaptability, and empathy all at once. The tension the authors identify between experiential and academic learning dissolved entirely in Bolivia. They were the same thing. The class discussion on “Discomfort as Learning” also proved deeply relevant. There were moments of genuine discomfort from language gaps, unfamiliar processes, and the emotional weight of seeing how much CEOLI does with some challenges like not enough staff but each of those moments became an invitation to grow rather than a reason to retreat.
Along with CEOLI, some of the most unexpected and joyful moments of the trip happened in the in between spaces such as the windows of the bus, the hallways of a university, and the volleyball courts seen from the road. We got to visit a local Bolivian university, and the students there were such amazing people to talk to and get to know. We ended up in this wonderful conversation about Carnival, specifically the Carnival of Oruro, Bolivia’s most iconic celebration and one of the students I was talking to actually danced in it for the past few years. Hearing them talk about it with such pride and joy was electric. But then the conversation shifted and we were just talking about our families, our siblings, our favorite things and the stuff that makes you realize how much more we have in common than we think. One of the students told me that volleyball is huge in Bolivia, and I believed it immediately. I remember looking out the bus window at different points throughout the week and seeing big sand volleyball courts packed with kids playing, laughing, competing. Those bus rides, honestly, were also some of my favorite moments of the entire trip. Looking out the window at the mountains, at the streets of Cochabamba coming to life, at a city that felt both entirely foreign and sweetly familiar.
In those quiet in between moments, I found myself reflecting on everything we had witnessed and experienced, and always, my thoughts came back to CEOLI. What I learned most at CEOLI was not found in any presentation or deliverable. It was found in the specialized, tender, individualized care that every single staff member extended to every single student. Watching a teacher patiently guide a child through a task, watching a student’s face light up mid dance, watching the CEOLI community show up for each other day after day, that was the real education.
The experience was truly unforgettable, and I’ll carry all the lessons, the dances with the kids, the beautiful culture, the laughter with our bus driver’s family, and the shared moments of connection with me into every future endeavor as a student, as a professional, and as a human being who is learning, slowly and joyfully, to always look at the glass half full. I came to Bolivia thinking I was there to give something, and I left understanding that I had received far more than I could have ever offered. The kids at CEOLI, Rolando and his family at the dinner table, the university students who hugged me goodbye, the staff who trusted us enough to let us in. They all gave me something I will spend a long time trying to live up to. And for that, I am endlessly, wholeheartedly grateful.
