What did you get up to when you were a child at Christmas?

I look back on all the ace Christmases I’ve had – every one spent with family, always eating way way more than should be eaten, carol services, presents, seeing old friends, teasing the cat, 1kg chocolate bars, etc...

It was a shock to come back here, to see children spending their days and evenings working on the streets – in the markets, polishing shoes – but not just that, that many of these children are from countryside settlements and have been sent to the city to work since school finished in November for summer holidays until returning in February/March, without going back once in between. And this is normal practice for them each year – not having Christmas with their families.

In reference to the problem of children attracted to a street-living lifestyle – to work and/or live there, Oruro acts as what is called a ‘feeder city’. As mentioned in my previous blog, Oruro has a higher altitude and is colder than other Bolivian cities. The nights here get very cold making the streets an unattractive place to spend the night. Also Oruro is one of the poorest cities in Bolivia, meaning less is earned for polishing shoes and cleaning car windscreens than is in other cities. These two factors – Oruro being too cold to sleep on its’ streets at night and the desire to earn more money – push children to other cities such as Cochabamba, La Paz and Santa Cruz with the prospect to earn more and to be in a warmer, more survivable climate. By my experience so far there are not many children here working on the streets over the age of 14/15. Most of them are in the 8-13 bracket.

It has been identified when children feel they are mature enough they leave Oruro. This may involve going to live on the streets or to live with a relative or with/without a friend to a relative of theirs – an uncle, grandparent. In some cases going to a relative somewhere else could be a good move. The child could be running away from abusive parents and the relative may be willing to take care of the child with positive intentions. However this is often sadly not the case. A relative often takes a child into his or her home as a source of income, not out of love and compassion. The child’s welfare is not given a lot of attention and the child works for their new guardian. Again, this creates a situation where a child may be tempted to earn what they earn and stay on the streets keeping it to himself rather than giving it to someone else, someone else who may be an abuser and/or addict – and what is brought home is never enough for an addict.

Well this is the situation faced by the team here in Oruro. A lot of amazing work is carried out here by them to counter these problems and bring real hope and it’s been great to be a part of what they’re doing. I’m going to keep my blogs more snappy this time round so I’ll finish here and tell you what they do in facing up to these challenges in the next one.

First few weeks back in Bolivia

Well it’s now been 3 weeks back in Bolivia. Since coming back I have moved to a different city called Oruro, just four hours from where I was last year in Cochabamba. I will be staying here until late July and then returning to England. Being just four hours away however, Oruro is a completely different kettle of fish. Cochabamba, a city with a population of more than 1,000,000, at 8,600 feet above sea-level and present temperatures of about 33°c varies from Oruro with a population of 250,000, at 12,200 feet above sea level and present temperatures of about 21°c. To paint the picture, Oruro is a lot smaller. It is a lot more underdeveloped on the eye – basic construction taking place on wide scales, corrugated iron roofs, rubbish tips on every other corner often being taken apart by wild dogs (which I estimate would beat the human population), VERY bumpy roads. There are many areas just like this in Cochabamba but not to such the extreme as it is here. Oruro is often looked down on by outsiders. In many taxis I have been in or random conversations I have had with passers-by last year from Cochabamba who are interested in where I am from and what I am doing in Bolivia, “feo y frio” (ugly and cold) is how Oruro has often been described to me. However many will vent that the city has “la major gente” (the best people).

As a country but especially stemming from Oruro, the city has many different spiritual beliefs passed down by generation after generation of ancestors. These come from tales told by Andean ancestors that are still implemented today and of which certain practices are still undertaken. With disease, illness and poverty in abundance, there is a great fear and desire among society to hold on to and do/follow anything that may provide ‘buena suerte’ (good luck). Andean ancestors prayed and called to ‘Pachamama’ (mother land) and ‘Tio Supay’ (Satan Uncle). These practices have followed through generations and are still happening today. Many believe burying a llama’s foetus under your house in sacrifice to Pachamama will protect you, or if your house is bigger than normal, there are stories of humans being buried alive. In a Catholic Church in the centre of town is an entrance to a mine. In the mine two models of Tio Supay have been constructed – they are absolutely horrific. Miners leave offerings of cigarettes, money, alcohol and drugs so that Tio Supay (known as the God of the underworld) will protect them in the mines. It is natural for humans to chase protection and safety. As a Christian I believe this can be found in the person of Jesus Christ. I am glad my faith is built on more than ancestral tales but on real, solid historical evidence in the Bible. I urge anyone who hasn’t investigated the reliability of the Christian faith to do so. More than that, Christianity solves our real problem as human beings. Yes, we can pray to God for protection, but life is not all about hoping for an easy ride and having everything falling in place how we want it to. There is more to life than the 70/80/90 years we are here. I believe there is an eternity afterwards and where that is is determined by decisions made here. God has given us the freedom to choose. As a Christian I have realised my problem of falling way short of following and loving God as much as I should and I think it’s great and I am thankful that God himself provided the remedy by sending His Son into the world to take the punishment of what we deserve.

I did a few short visits to Oruro last year while I was staying in Cochabamba so I got to know the Early Encounter team and affiliated projects quite well. So I roughly knew what I would be in for. I am living with a great family – Noemi, the director of Early Encounter Oruro, Adolfo, head of Quality Improvement Training (QIS) but soon to be moving on to directing a newly-built children’s refuge and their 3 year-old daughter Carys.

In these first few weeks my time has been spent helping with Early Encounter Oruro’s work with children who work and live on the streets. I will write more about this in my next blog. As it is the beginning of the year, the Early Encounter projects in Latin America are planning all their work for the year ahead. This involves work with street-living and working children, quality improvement of projects, networking with projects and local Churches, how to go about working with local authorities, ‘protagonismo infantil’ (empowering children) and a lot more. Sitting in meetings discussing these areas has been of great experience for me. We are in the final week of the school summer holidays so next week when the projects are up and running again, mostly daycare centres, I will start doing two days a week with a couple of them.

It was a bit of a funny one adjusting back to life over here after having such a great Christmas in England with the family and friends. However as things have picked up and I’ve been getting stuck in to more it has got better. The team here in Oruro are really great and it is such fun working with them. No odd cuisine has been eaten yet but I’m sure some of that will come, especially after last years’ experience of sharing a pigs’ testicle with Toybox’ regional coordinator, Andrew Gray. Good times. As I said, I will blog next about Oruro’s work with children living and/or working on the street. Thanks for reading.