Kermes!

This week was the College's first kermés, a local food festival done to raise funds and share the cooking talents of our students.

Students from each major put together their food money and prepared a dish, school faculty/staff and community members bought tickets, and everyone ate together out on the soccer field.


Photo: Students line up for their favorite dish.

I had pique a lo macho, a pile of french fries topped with spicy beef and gravy, and a hard boiled egg. I love this dish!


Photo: Pre-University students dish out charquecán.

There was also trout, pork fricasé, charquecán (llama jerky), sajta (chicken in a spicy sauce), and chicarrón (fried pork meat with corn).

The money raised from the kermés will go for fixing up some aspect of the College -- probably a roof on one of the original buildings. But the fundraising aside, it was a great day for just spending some time together in a relaxing environment. A new one is already in the works for 2011!


Photo: Students enjoy the work of their own hands.

Nurse capping ceremony

Yesterday was the imposición de cofias, the capping ceremony, at the College. After a mass celebrated by our Director General Father Freddy, the fourth semester nursing students were given their caps, a recognition that they are ready for more responsibility in rural clinics and hospitals.


Photo: Second year students watch in anticipation for their turn next year.

The ceremony is touching: the student comes forth to kneel, and the professors, who accompany her in class and on prácticas, pin the cap to her head. She then stands to the applause of the entire department, the students and professors of all semesters.


Photo: Student Juana Villca gets her nursing cap.

Mid-October the students will all go to try out their new skills at different rural clinics and hospital in the provinces and in La Paz -- and learn from doing what they have been practicing in the classroom.


Photo: The fourth semester class with Director General Father Freddy del Villar.

We are so proud of these young women (and a sprinkling of young men) who dedicate themselves to learning to care for their own people -- and their families are proud, too. Many mothers, fathers and other family members came to see the students celebrate this step in the long process of becoming a full-fledged nurse -- a big accomplishment considering most of our students parents didn't finish high school.


Photo: Student Biquet Velásquez and her sister pose proudly after the ceremony.