Field trip

This good-looking group - the current MCC Bolivia staff (minus Willmar and Hannah's family) - recently took a field trip to the Pailón area. The goal was to visit some of the connections the Low German Mennonite program of MCC Bolivia has with other organizations in the same field. As it turns out, many of our Bolivian co-workers have never been near a Mennonite colony, to Pailón, or even further east out of Santa Cruz than Cotoca. So in some ways this was an eye-opening experience for all of us.

The first stop was at Guía de Paz, the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for Low German-speaking Mennonites currently being built by local Mennonites. MCC is only one of the nine or so groups helping to create this new institution (read more about it on MCC Bolivia's website).

Jacob Teichroeb of Chihuahua (formerly of Pinondi Colony) gave our group a tour of the building. He is a member of the steering committee for the center. He came onboard while the Center was working to legally register as an institution, and needed Bolivian-born representatives and signatures. Jacob also talked to us about why the center is necessary, and shared some personal anecdotes of how he and his friends misused alcohol in their youth. Several of our co-workers were quite interested in his story and his interpretation of what colony life can be like.

The huge building is coming along nicely. When we were there two weeks ago the tile floors were all laid. When we came back last Saturday for another fund-raiser, the outside of the building had been painted, and several rooms had been almost finished with windows, ceiling panels, and doors. The optimistic plan is to open in September.

Our group then headed to the Villa Nueva community to tour the Mennonite school there. Director Arlie Peters told us about the needs that led to the community and school being built and shared the good news that the school was recently officially licensed by the Bolivian government. The photos here are taken in the languages room, where girls and boys were working on English lessons. We were impressed that most of the teaching is in Spanish, meaning that these kids will be fluent in at least two languages (and possibly English as well).

In the photo below, Elizabeth Masavi teaches a music class. She is a sister to MCC worker Juana Masavi, and an active member in the Bolivian Mennonite Church in Santa Cruz. She has also been an IVEPer in Canada.

On our way home we stopped in Cotoco to eat polla a la brasa with rice, greasy noodles, and french fries (you can never overdo the starch in this place).

We also took a stroll through the market, watched a sloth hanging in a tree, and ate some ice cream in the plaza.

Our kids did really well the whole trip, including the bus ride. For Anna it helped to suck on an apple. For Jonathan, anything with a motor and wheels is a dream come true.



Thanks to Paola Suarez and Kirsten Navis for the photos. You can see more photos and descriptions about MCC Bolivia's work here.