The end of Bolivia & Peru

Thats the end of Bolivia and Peru. I wonder where I will be next time, 2012 awaits me...

Sun Island

Oruro

So 2 weeks till I go home. I have been traveling around Bolivia and Peru for the past 3 weeks, seen some happy, some sad faces, some beautiful landscapes and some destroyed landscapes. But the one thing that I can say about the tragic things I've seen is there is hope in them, it may seem hopeless at times but there is a brighter future for these people and places though the work that the Toybox charity is doing and many other charities.

I am in Oruro, in Bolivia for the last 2 weeks before I come home, I am staying with my brother who has been living and working in South America for the past year and a half. I am going to been volunteering in 3 projects over the next 2 weeks, helping children with homework and thinking up some creative ideas to have fun with them. One of the projects is going out on the streets in the day to visit working street children where we will play on the spot games with them talk to them and generally give them some love. None of the street children sleep on the streets in Oruro cause it is to cold at night so they pay 3bolivianos per night (25p) to sleep in a room somewhere, they can earn this by shinning 3-4 people shoes for example. Last night it was -9 brrrrrr, I just about had enough layers to keep me warm, I'm going to buy some gloves from a market today as right now my fingers are freeeeeezing..... Oh and Bolivians don't heat there houses as its to expensive, so sometimes its actually warmer outside than in. BUT the sun does still shine here, and it can still burn your skin. 

Machu Picchu Video

Lima Slums

Today was a busy busy day, we left the hotel at 9am and didn't have time to stop for lunch all day. I think I could write alot about today but it would be so much. But what I will write is a story of a child we got told from a pastors wife, right at the end of the day. Her and her husband run little church for children from around their community. This lady begins with the story (real life story) of a young boy who comes and knocks on her door during the week after his mother has beaten him up, this boy is four years old, my heart literally broke, she explained his condition when he arrives at her door, his face bruised and bleeding, absolute torture for this child...four years old? Whatever the age this is just disgusting, to be honest I cannot truly express how I felt today when I heard this story. This child is mentally and physically abused, he is psychologically damaged, often in the day this lady sees him lying on the ground at the end of her road crying, his mother goes to work most days, his father is an alcoholic, locking him in the house all day or leaving him to roam around, but what is keeping him where he is? The pastors wife explained that this is one of many stories of the children that live in her community, they provide a hope and a safe enviroment for the children to learn and live in. This couple are fully aware of this situation and it is delicately being dealt with by professionals, its just a long hard process.

Contrast

Machu Picchu