From July 15th through the 30th, I spent a week in Pa Laz and a week in Cochabamba presenting workshops and giving out resources on different kinds of writing. The workshops and seminars included essay and creative writing, resume writing, tips to improve English writing in general, and letters to the editor.
The first workshop drew over one hundred people at the Unidad Educative Vida Verdad in La Paz. W I was slightly nervous with the first presentation. However, when I began to talk passionately about why fantasy and fiction is worth recognition in academia, I saw youth eyes light up in the audience. Like, “Wow! Dragons and magic can be educational and important?” Their response and level of interest was very positive and I approached the remainder of presentations, in La Paz and Cochabamba with confidence and joy.
One particularly popular activity among the students and teachers was a creative exercise envisioning their home city (La Paz or Cochabamba) as a person, and describing the type of person they would be. This was to show how a place is important and can be creatively personified. We were thrilled to see a lot of the same trends. For example, La Paz was a bipolar woman who loves to party. People described their city as pets (e.g. llama) or talked about their relationship with other places who are now people (for example, El Alto being La Paz’s best friend). This activity got a lot of cheers and laughs.
In Cochabamba, I met with journalist students at Universidad Catolica. There were ten students which gave us the opportunity for an intimate discussion. I learned a lot from them about journalism in Bolivia while they also learned from me. Bolivia has no letter to the editor practice or a way for the community to contribute to news in a personal and productive way. It was a sobering situation to hear the students’ concerns about the lack of good journalism in their community.
Since writing involved critical thinking skills, I also visited El Alto to speak to indigenous youth about thinking critically. The youth were. I shared stories with them about it being okay to break the rules to follow your heart and we discussed disagreeing while maintaining friendly and loving relationships. My prime example was my grandfather being a conscientious objector in World War II. I told them people usually fear following their hearts over what society wants them to do because it’s lonely, but that they are never truly alone because the world is big and there are always people out there who think the same.
There was also sightseeing and exploring the country. I visited Death Road and Cocorico where there is farmland, wildlife, and jungle flowers. Fellow Partners took me to see ancient Catholic churches and fed me coca tea with delicious meats. I toured an old covenant where nuns lived in the 1700s. I climbed the giant Jesus statue that looks over Cochabamba and hiked around Valle de la Luna in La Paz.
Getting sick for a time in Cochabamba did not matter, because what I remember are the presentations and places I had the opportunity to visit. I hope to go back to contribute more within the North Carolina partnership as well as with our southern partners. As a result of the visit, I hope more volunteers will also hope there will be more people to pursue writing-centered volunteer exchanges s in the future. Many teachers told me that students in Bolivia write far less than North American students. Writing is a key power source to share knowledge and explore common values and I think this visit sparked interest , particularly with the youth participants to expand and explore writing practices.