We just got back from the travel portion of the program, and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to condense the whole experience. Our week consisted of two main components, project-focused activities and cultural/historical activities, but truly everything I experienced in Bolivia was amazing, from the food to the welcoming nature of the people to getting to know the history and culture. There was so much we accomplished in such a short timeframe, and I absolutely want to go back one day!
In-Country Experience & Learnings
For our project activities, we spent a couple of mornings dedicated to just interacting with the kids at CEOLI and getting to know the staff as well as the overall facility. We also set aside time to give the staff the materials we collected for the nonprofit, interview select teachers for our deliverables, and present our current progress at the end of our visit. All of this was important for us to confirm our team was going down the right path with our resource coordination and outreach, and spending so much time in the classrooms specifically gave us more perspective about the reality of daily life at the center as well as how each component of the programming fits into each other. Ultimately, this entire piece really reinforced everything we learned in class about being adaptable and proactive during our limited time at the school. Since the schedule was shuffled around for nearly every day and no one was blocking off specific times to do our work, it was entirely up to our group to carve out time to get what we needed from the staff and then put everything together in a slideshow. I personally also gained a much clearer insight into what the staff considers most challenging, how each activity the kids do specifically benefits them, and just how much CEOLI has already established in terms of resources and operations. Visiting was definitely essential to get all the context and truly understand the project enough to move forward with the best deliverables possible.
As for cultural and historical activities, we visited a variety of sites in the Cochabamba area and also had multiple presentations from local entrepreneurs or academic experts on running a small business, history, economics, politics, and more in Bolivia. Certain experiences, like visiting the small town of Tarata to try pottery making, seeing the Cristo de Concordia and the Qollcas Inca site, and taking a folk dancing class, all gave us an important chance to truly feel part of the country’s unique culture and traditions. I learned so much about so many facets of the country as a result of our mixed itinerary, such as how the uncertainty around the recent political shift may affect future policy, the way indigenous traditions still influence the current customs and religious practices today, and more background into the landscape of informal business with the current economy. We also interacted with a lot of different groups of people throughout the week, including children at the school, staff at CEOLI or from AllPeopleBeHappy, local university students, and the guest speakers we met. This meant we heard about all these different topics from multiple different perspectives, giving me a more well-rounded picture of Bolivia as a country from country natives.
Confronting Expectations & Challenges
In terms of how my pre-travel expectations played out on the actual trip, there was so much that happened that was unexpected but in a mostly positive way.
First off, going into the experience, we talked a lot in class about how a language barrier can affect our group’s approach to understanding our client and country overall, but I hadn’t realized just how difficult this could be until I was struggling in situations with my very rudimentary Spanish. While I expected some challenges, this was especially prominent when we met the university students and were expected to have full conversations, or when discussing very technical terminology with CEOLI staff for our project deliverables. The whole thing definitely humbled me by revealing just how little of my years of Spanish class I actually retained, but it also taught me that you don’t need to perfectly comprehend the language to actually understand each other. A little effort to speak Spanish ended up going a long way though, and by powering through with help from translators, our group all found that we had a lot more similarities to the Bolivians than we originally thought!
What I was pleasantly surprised about, however, was just how positively Bolivians actually lived after learning about so many challenges in terms of their socioeconomic conditions. All the locals we talked to were always smiling and upbeat, and didn’t seem to fit the picture of what you might expect in a still-developing country with a lot of economic instability and many people in low-income households. Though you could tell people lived more simply than the ultra-consumerist entitlement of most Americans, it was also clear that the vast majority of people were much happier overall than those living everyday life in the US. This really shifted my perspective on the differences in values between us and what is actually important priority-wise, since it solidified how self-centered Americans can be in our mindset and made me realize how much privilege we really have. Overall, that was definitely a nice wake-up call to gain from the whole trip.
Applying Class Content in Bolivia
I think the most important lessons from the class content were definitely the discussions on what makes an effective project team, as well as the points of discomfort reading. Throughout the week, we had to be very proactive, assign tasks by playing to our team members’ strengths, adapt creatively to unexpected situations, and depend on each other to get everything done right and on time. By making sure we all contributed equally and really embodied as many of the principles we were taught about as possible, our entire group had a much easier time working together to achieve all that we wanted to for our project when in-country. We also needed to be self-aware in how we approached interacting with the people at CEOLI, making sure to be respectful and understanding of the local community and ensuring the partnership still felt balanced in all communication, all while also still accomplishing everything we needed. Through reciprocating the good-faith effort locals showed us in our conversations with people at CEOLI, practicing active listening when discussing topics relevant to our deliverables, checking in to make sure we were meeting expectations, and going with the flow when one plan didn’t work the way we expected, we were able to maintain a strong and healthy partnership with our nonprofit.