Hope you are all doing very well. I am now in Cochabamba, Bolivia and have been having a great time so far. Christmas and New Year in Costa Rica was a good one. Very fun-filled with most people in the country having two weeks holiday. Highlights included trips to the local fair, the bull-fighting, seeing mates and endless boxing day bingo with the neighbours. A non-highlight was having half my plate of Christmas dinner filled with rice - you just can’t get away from the stuff over here.

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I arrived here in Cochabamba on the 2nd January. Flying down from Costa Rica I had a stop in Lima, Peru and then had a night in La Paz as the next flight wasn’t until the next morning. La Paz has the highest airport in the world at 4,000 metres above sea level. From the airport I took a taxi down the hill to the city - the view was awesome, although it was better the next day seeing it in daylight!

Here in Cochabamba I am staying with Ines’ (the Viva Regional Consultant for Bolivia and Peru) family who are great. Cooked meals and bed made each day means I am being very much mothered. The majority of my weeks are spent volunteering with two projects that are members of the Early Encounters project run by the Viva/Toybox partnership with a bit of time in the Viva office doing various administrative tasks.

One project is called Esperanza Viva. This is a home out in the West of Cochabamba which involves taking two “taxi-trufi’s” – an awesome public transport service of minibuses. The drivers try to squeeze as many people in as possible so it’s very normal to be squashed between two old Bolivian ladies wearing all the gear (see http://sallyd.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/ssl22023.jpg), although each journey works out at about 12p so I guess you get what you pay for. The home currently houses nine families that have come off living on the streets. The children get enrolled in the local school and the parents go through rehabilitation for whatever they need, for example problems such as alcohol, child and drug abuse. I asked one of the volunteers that work with the parents what learning techniques they use to help them deal with and work through their issues. Expecting an elongated, complex answer in Spanish, most of which I probably wouldn’t understand and one that I would just have to nod my head to, he simply told me they consistently teach them the message of God’s rescue mission from the Bible and that seems to be working wonders. He told me that a change of the heart needs to happen. These people do not need rules, rituals or distractions. Something else to think about or do will never satisfy or bring about a real change. They need to know what life is all about. They need to know the answers to life’s seemingly unanswerable questions – How did I get here? Is there a God? What’s going to happen after I die? Realising that a creator God exists who sent Jesus to take on the just punishment we deserve for ignoring him and that this historical fact has implications for our lives in the present and for eternity changes a person’s life and priorities radically. Christianity is not a list of rules. It is a realisation of our shortcomings in the face of an awesome God who has given us life and as a result we should thank God and accept Jesus’ offer of forgiveness when he took all of God’s just wrath for our sin on the cross 2000 years ago when he was crucified. Religion is man's attempt to save himself, while Christianity is God's way of saving man. Seeing the change this message has had in the lives of families at Esperanza Viva has been amazing. Their lives are not changed by their own strength but by knowing, accepting and trusting the bigger picture to life. On the sight there is a bakery where various cakes are made and sold at the market, a garage and a carpentry workshop - all providing opportunities for the parents to learn and develop skills that will come in useful for when they are ready to leave the home and make a living.

The second project I am volunteering at is called Fundacion Emmanuel. This is an after-school club for children whose mothers are prostitutes. In the morning it has children ranging from 5-10 years-old before they head off to kindergarten and in the afternoon more children, aged from about 10-16, arrive after having been at school in the morning. About 18 children attend in total. While at the project the children receive Christian teaching and have time to do their homework and play. Coming from the family backgrounds they are in this is a very challenging project with the children receiving teaching and morals very different to what they receive at home.

Last Friday afternoon I visited a project called Casa de Amistad – House of Friendship. This is a school for children whose parents are in prison. The project schools children all the way through to when they are 18. In many South American prisons, if a mother or father is sent to prison the family, if they wish, move in too. Inside these prisons the living conditions are horrendous. Each family has a room, about 6x6 foot – just for a whole family. Bathrooms are shared and the only meal available in the day is lunch, which has to be paid for. I visited the prison for male criminals (there is another one for females). The place was an absolute mad house. It was smelly, absolutely packed and full of despair and desperation to escape. Hygiene was a no. It really was the most awful place a child could grow up in. A dirty place full of fighting and swearing should not be a place a child lives. It made me realise how lucky I am and how much needs to be done. It was disgusting. I was taking a walk last week alongside a lake just on the edge of city. The scenery was absolutely stunning however when you hear of newborn babies that have been placed in plastic bags and put in the lake to drown you realise the desperate situations that people face. Situations like this are unimaginable. Massive credit is due to fantastic projects such as Casa de Amistad that offer help to those in these horrendous circumstances. The mothers and children are allowed to leave the prison in the daytime and Casa de Amistad does a great job in offering the opportunity to school these children.

Well that’s it for this edition. Hope you have enjoyed reading.

If you would like to donate to any of the projects I have mentioned so far in my blogs then please email me to arrange this at jonniewelford@hotmail.com.

Or if you would like to support the ongoing Early Encounters Viva/Toybox partnership work in Latin America please go to the Toybox website where you can make regular donations, sponsor a child or get more information at www.toybox.org.

For further information about the work of Viva, the organisation I volunteer for, you can visit www.viva.org.

Thanks.