Luis Miranda

Today veterinary student Luis Miranda defended his graduation project, the use of whey as a supplement to piglet feed. He found that using whey increased the profitability of production, and decreased diarrhea.

Luis has been working for the far-off municipality of Alto Beni, helping the local government write grants to make their rural communities more successful. This is a very important job: most rural development done by local government relies on grants from the government and non-governmental organizations, but most rural municipalities do not have people capable of writing and managing grants.


Photo: New graduate Luis Miranda poses with his father after his successful defense.

When he spoke after receiving his grade, he said, "Sister Damon got all of us together at the end of our year of pre-university studies, and we all thanked her. But she told us, 'I appreciate your thanks, but what I really want is for you to become professionals -- that will be your real thanks to me.'" Well, today she got her wish with Luis Miranda.

Alumni Association

Sarah and I have held alumni reunions in the past, but the one we organized yesterday in Caranavi is likely to be our last -- because the graduated decided yesterday to form an Alumni Association and organize their own meetings from now on!


Photo: Sister Christine Cullen, MFIC, joined the group. Sister Chris helped build the original structures at the College in 1993.

After a dip in the pool and lunch from the grill, veterinary grad Dani Chambilla proposed the association to the group, which quickly approved the idea, and elected officers to get a plan together.


Photo: New President of the Alumni Association Javier Álvarez with his officers Zenón Maquera, Dani Chambilla, Pastor Acho, Efraín Ajnota and Félix Bohorquez.

The new association will help us immensely with contacting grads about job and educational opportunities, channel support to the College, and keep the family together. The next meeting is planned for March, so soon there will be even more to report!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we had friends over to the house for our annual Thanksgiving feast, in thanks for the wonderful friendships we have here in Bolivia.





A happy Thanksgiving to all -- though we celebrate it a bit late, the sentiment is there: all of us here in Carmen Pampa give thanks for the incredible support of all of our bienhechores, contributing with funds, prayer, encouraging words and love that stretches from across the globe!

Science Fair 2011

This semester, the College held its science fair in the nearby town of Coroico -- and it was a great success. The day started with a short ceremony in the main square, with opening words from our Bishop Juan Vargas. The judges were professionals from the Ministry of Agriculture and a social project called Why Bolivia.







There were research projects about biotechnology, the vocation of rural high schoolers, fish parasites, coffee nematodes, organic pest control, agrotourism and tourists that visit Coroico, and more.

Visita de USAID

Today USAID's Deputy Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mark Lopes, came to visit the College. He was greeted with students from Afrobolivian communities playing their traditional dance, the saya.




He toured the women's dormitories on Campus Leahy, dormitories that were funded by USAID (through ACDI/VOCA-Bolivia), and listened to the heart-felt stories by students who have received scholarships from USAID.




The day ended with an exposition of projects and products that USAID has supported over the years. Though most of these projects are closing, we are hopeful that support from the U.S. government will continue now that the U.S. and Bolivia have decided to reestablish diplomatic relations.

Ser Boliviano Es

We had a special visitor yesterday, Hugo Miranda, a facilitator from the U.N.-sponsored project Ser Boliviano Es ("Being Bolivian Is"). The project was started to help Bolivians see what they have in common, to insipre a feeling of unity, togetherness in the country.

The facilitator did a workshop about Wikipedia and a contest to encourage Bolivians to start Wikipedia entries about Bolivian people, places and things. Since senior students already write about their communities for their research proposals, many were interested in starting a Wikipedia page about their places of origin.


Photo: Students pose with Hugo Miranda after the workshop on Campus Leahy.

He also held a discussion about what it means to be Bolivian, and what it is like to live together on a campus with students from so many different backgrounds. "It took a while to make friends," said Hilda Pillco, a agronomy senior. "But once we started taking classes together and working toward the same goals, it was easy."

The College is a place where young people learn to bridge cultures, like the campesino culture of their rural communities and the university culture in which they are submersed. But the way the College is organized presents other situations -- like dorm life, like the student-run food cooperatives -- that our students adapt to, giving them skills that go far beyond the technical abilities they get in a classroom.

Vicente Manrique, our newest graduate

Give To The Max Day, an annual fundraiser of the Carmen Pampa Fund, is in two weeks.




You can create positive change here in Bolivia. Your donation will be part of an upward spiral of change, giving a chance to a young Bolivian woman or man who will then multiply that change until many lives are touched.

One such young man is Vicente Manrique who defended his research project today, the 100th student to finish his research project and graduate in the agronomy department. His research was about making infertile land useful again, by planting resistant trees and soil-enriching ground covers. He continued a project started by Veronica Calles, who is now in a Master's program at South Dakota State University with Dr. Paul Johnson.


Photo: One of the plots of land in recovery, planted to pigeon pea and achiote, a tree whose seed is a natural red colorant.

Vicente took a long path to the College, first working for a few years in the city of La Paz at machinery repair and welding before returning home to the tropics of La Paz to be closer to his parents. In his home town he met a friend who was studying at the College. He had a high school teacher who inspired him to be an agronomist, so he went back to school.

And today, many years later, is the day: a student with his wings, ready to leave the nest, spread his wings, and FLY.


Photo: Vicente Manrique and Veronica Calles, the two students who lead the soil recovery project.

The fiesta of Todos Santos

This year we sent the students home to celebrate Todos Santos with their families -- and to recruit students for next school year! Though campus was empty of students, there was plenty going on: the fiesta of Todos Santos is one of the most important of the year for our rural communities.

I put together this short slide show about the goings on of yesterday at the cemetary.



See previous posts about Todos Santos.

Experts left and right!

October was a month of many visitors -- and many of them experts, helping the College where help is needed!

Two Dutch experts from PUM came to help us analyze our hog, meat processing, coffee and vegetable production businesses. These businesses came to be to help the College earn money and serve as a rural business model. These businesses, however, were not working up to speed, so with the help of Mark Versteeg and Henk Faber, we got some good advice about making our businesses more profitable.




Photo: Mark and Henk with the College's driver Salvador.

We were also blessed with the presence of Juan Velasco, the husband of Suzanne Dulle and co-founder of conBolivia. Juan worked with seniors from our Ecotourism program, helping them develop business plans for their graduation requirement, and had lots of good ideas for fundraising.




Photo: Juan Velasco in the classroom.

Thank you to these amazing people and their skills.

Math and Science Fair

There was a math and science fair at the elementary school in Carmen Pampa this Wednesday. Juan Velasco and I wandered over to see what was going on, and we were happy to see all of the young ones doing presentations about what they have been learning. Most impressive to me was a education student from the College, Irma Callisaya, who worked with the kindergarten students to teach math operations.

"The students learn best while playing, so I invented a game where they advance on a board by rolling a die if they answer a math question corectly," she explained. The questions were either simple operations attached to balls that they took out of a box, or story problems chosen from a basket. And these very young kids could do many of the problems!

Our education students are taught to use new knowledge about how young people learn to facilitate that process. And it was obvious on Wednesday that the education department is doing its job: Irma's game was creative and effective.


Photo: Irma and her game, with a girl from the community, Katherine Aliaga.

Confirmation 2011

Confirmation is an important event at the College: students profundizar their faith, and becore more fully integrated into our faith community.
The students presented the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit as part of the ceremony: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.

Our Bishop in the Diocese of Coroico, Juan Vargas, lead the mass.

Congratulations to them!

More of the fiesta!

Lots of excitement the past few days -- sports, cultural events and fun! The first morning was a new event, cycling.

Long jump was a new event, too.

Soccer is the perennial fave.

There was a distance run, too, about 10 km.

Futbal de salón (small-court soccer) is a very common sport at the College.

Three sisters played futbal de salón, from different majors (agronomy and vet/animal science)... and they are still smiling!

The students demonstrate incredible abilities in poetry recitation, theater, singing, lip-syncing, and more. The judges come from nearby Coroico.

Everyone eats lunch together.

And there is lots of support for the players from each department.

It has been an incredible week so far!

First day of the fiesta

Today, the first day of the fiesta universitaria, we had a mass then the College admimistration competed in fútsal (small-court soccer), basketball and soccer. It was a beautiful day, and a great start to a full week of activities. Lots more posts to come!

Photo: Father Freddy preaches to the student body.

Photo: The Campus Manning women's fútsal team.

Urpuma

Near the College is a very old "Inca" trail called the Camino de Choro. It starts far above the tree line at 14,500 feet above sea level, and descends over 3 days into lush cloud forest at about 4,000 feet. Toward the end of the trail is a tiny community called Sandillani where there is a community-run ecolodge called Urpuma. That lodge is managed by our student Vidal Pérez, a young man from the local community.

Photo: Urpuma lodge in Sandillani on the Inca Trail (photo by René Callisaya)

The ecolodge was built with local materials by the 25 families that live in nearby El Chairo, with support from the United Nations, Conservation International, the local NGOs Biota and Prodener, the state university in La Paz and the National Park Service (Urpuma is in the Cotapata National Park). It has 30 beds and a camping area, and electricity provided by a water-powered generator.

Photo: Student Vidal Pérez with the College's visiting professionals Yves Comont, Hye-Jung Park, Kate Fuller, Danielle Lang and Francesca Beninati.

Though built with best intentions, many community-run tourism enterprises like Urpuma flounder due to a lack of capacity in the local community, generally farmers with no experience attending to tourists. Community members often receive some training, but it is not enough to respond to the needs of tourists from all over the world.

This is one way that the College is responding to the need for capacity-building in rural communities: providing young people with skills that can make a community-run business like Urpuma successful. Because when our students can create success in their rural communities, the College is successful, too. Felicidades, Vidal -- y ¡adelante!

Elevator talk

Photo: Research proposal writing class, agronomy and veterinary majors

I teach the research proposal writing class to agronomy and veterinary students at the College, and one of the activities that we do during the semester is an "elevator talk", a 60 second talk to convince someone in an imaginary elevator to finance their research. It is a lot of fun! and helps the students to frame their research in a way this is concise and understandable to every-day people. Here is my student Guillermo talking to his "Godfather" about his proposed research.

FONADAL in Bolivia

Monday the College received the National Director of the European Union's development agency, Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Alternativo (FONADAL), Victor Hugh Almanza. And he came with good news: since the College promotes on-the-ground, grassroots development, FONADAL wants to support the College with business development support and opportunities for students to help develop projects in their communities. Thank you, FONADAL!

Photo: Director General Father Freddy, FONADAL Director Victor Hugo Almanza with three co-workers and Jhonny Torrez from Radio Coroico.