Villa...

Alas, the 3 weeks of volunteering with the Angels of Hope have come to an end. The time we spent here really has flown by. It was definitely sad leaving everyone and everything behind; it began to feel like home! The most heartwarming moment was when we were given a little poster and bracelet by the children from one of the 5-year old classes in the school. Very cool. Cat deserves all the credit though. The whole of last week Cat was teaching that class, as their teacher had to go to Cochabamba to sort out something. She successfully tought the kids Old MacDonalds farm in Spanish (translated herself), which has now unofficially become the anthem of the school. The kids love hearing and singing it. Especially when Cat's riding the bus they always want to hear "El Chaco". Brilliant. Definitely a way to leave a mark on the foundation. I spent the majority of last week helping out with serving meals, feeding babies and construction, painting things in the playground (which still isn't open!). Because there were only 5 volunteers, we helped out at the school both mornings and afternoons, having Spanish lessons during lunchtimes and in the evenings. This week has been much more slow-paced. I came down with a mild flu on Monday, spent most of the day in bed of Tuesday, but once I started taking antibiotics they killed the fever, so I recovered pretty quickly. There was a serious shortage of volunteers for a little while: from Friday until Monday Cat and me where the only ones there, apart from Amanda and Brent (the directors of the foundation) who helped take care of little jobs. Cat and me spent a lot of time playing cards and drinking beer with them. Then on Tuesday, 9 new volunteers turn up out the blue, including a Belgian girl. Excellent, I finally had someone to speak Flemish with! It's amazing how few Belgians I've met since I started travelling. She's the second. At least it means they can manage without us. Next week the school is closed (shame for the volunteers), but they're hoping to finish a lot of the construction work on the kitchen. There will always be plenty of jobs to do. Seriously, anyone who is considering visiting Bolivia and looking to do some form of volunteering should certainly check out the Angels of Hope. I'd love to come back in 5 years time and see how the volunteer programme has evolved (also to see how much bigger the school's gotten and how the children that we were helping have grown up!).

Am currently back in Cochabamba, immobilised. There's constitutional elections on so no driving allowed, which means we have to stay here for an extra day. We're experiencing a completely different Cochabamba this time around! The hostel we chose is relatively nice hostel and is located at the nice end of town (not like the grotty piece of crap we stayed in last time). Hopefully Cat and I will be able to catch a bus to La Paz tomorrow and then continue on to Rurrenabaque (a 18-20 hr bus ride of which the first bit is basically the death road I did by mountainbike!). Once we do a Pampas Wildlife tour in the area around Rurre we'll be on our way south to Sucre, the salt flats in Uyuni and then northern Chile.