Visit from Cross International

Yesterday and today the College was honored to receive Claudio and Stephanie from Cross International, a Christian relief and development ministry that supports good works all over the world. We are pleased to be a recipient of their efforts!

They visited the student-run food program that Cross Int'l supports, and visited some local students in their homes. Here Stephanie interviews an agronomy graduate from the College, Gerónimo Álvarez.




Thank you, Cross International!

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I visited the Cross International office last month -- and they featured us on their blog this month!

Engineers Without Borders

This week, the South Dakota State University chapter of Engineers Without Borders arrived on campus. They are here to help the College and the community analyze and find solutions for problems with water. Welcome!


Photo: SDSU's Engineers Without Borders chapter, lead by Professor Bruce Berdanier.

Day of the Bolivian Farmer

Today is the day that indigenous farming communities honor the role they played -- and play -- in the development of the country. From the War of Independence, to the Agrarian Reform, to the establishment of the first indigenous school of Warisata, to the foundation of the College in Carmen Pampa, farmers come from all around the area came to Carmen Pampa to remember the sacrifices they make for a better life for their children and their communities.




And it centers on education. Students recite poems to the campesino and to the indigenous leaders who helped them win freedoms. Whole communities parade with the Bolivian and the Indigenous Nation flag, the wiphala. Whole classes at the school organize dances that remember Bolivia's history and native customs.




Our students, products of this evolution toward ever more justice and equality, particiate with pride.





It is an amazing day.

Classroom accommodations for special needs children

Student Carla Taboada defended her graduation project yesterday, an analysis of how elementary school teachers in our municipality accommodate children with special needs. She found that most teachers have special needs children in their classrooms, and modify their lesson plans so that these students can participate in classes with their peers instead of being isolated at home or in a special classroom. She found that the biggest barrier to more acceptance of special needs children in the classroom is social prejudice, including shame on the part of the parents. Another factor that makes this integration difficult is the frequency that teachers are moved from school to school.


Photo: Carla presents her research.

Carla is part of the family is many senses of the word: she grew up in Carmen Pampa, the daughter of the head of maintenance on our upper campus, Campus Leahy. She also studied at the College, and now has a son of her own, a future student of ours!

Photo: Carla poses with her family and defense committee.

Carla, we wish you much success!

Inaugural mass

Photo: Students line up for the flag-raising before the mass.

The inaugural mass for this semester was today. The bishop reminded the students of staying faithful to their dreams, even when things seem difficult: it is making it through the difficult times that proves our grit. Keep us in mind and prayer as we start the new semester.


Photo: Student Sergio from the agronomy department presents the bishop with a candle for the altar, as we are all called to be a light for the world.

More sign-ups

Second day of sign-up for classes! And the rain continues as students trickle in for the new semester...

New semester

Today is the first day of sign-up for classes -- and how incredible to see the students, new and old, with their incredible energy and excitement about a new semester. Even the rain doesn't dampen their spirits (though it does muddy our shoes!).

Gracias!!!

Thank you to everyone who attended the Fiesta de Ayni -- supporters came out in record numbers, and the College raised enough for almost 10 more scholarships for students who want to make a difference for their people. GRACIAS!!!!

Pow Wow at Oglala Lakota College

The students from the College who participated in the Ethics conference in South Dakota shared a traditional Bolivian dance at the pow wow in honor of the 2011 graduates of the Oglala Lakota College. They got a warm welcome, from one group of indigenous people to another.

Visit to SD

This semester, our Director of the College Research Institute co-taught an ethics class with South Dakota State University, Presentation College, Oglala Lakota College and Sisseton Wahpeton Community College. The conference to review the class is in South Dakota, so we came with some students who contributed to the class. This video shows some of our experiences on the first two days.

don't wear fleece to a fiesta

The story of a baptism by volunteer and guest-blogger Mary Murphy. Thanks, Mary!

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Why no fleece? Not because fleece would be inappropriate attire, but because of the mixtura.

Last weekend I was in La Paz for the baptism of Jhunior Adiel, the newborn son of Marcela, one of my former Education students who finished her coursework in 2010. Marcela asked me to be the madrina of her baby, and I soon learned that the Godmother receives (undeservedly, for sure) even more honor than the mother herself. After the church ceremony, we all climbed what felt like hundreds of stairs to the house at the top of the city where Marcela and the baby share a single room and a single bed with her sister and her sister’s daughter. The celebration began with a toast of sweet champagne, followed by an enormous dinner of roasted chicken and all the trimmings. No knives or forks, just finger-lickin’ good food, and we wiped our hands on pieces of toilet paper torn from a roll in the middle of the table.




After dinner, several people slipped out of the room, and I thought they were leaving the party. Meanwhile, because it gets chilly at night, I slipped into my black fleece jacket. All at once, everyone came back, each one bearing a gift for the baby and a bag of white Bolivian confetti, known as mixtura, to shower over the heads and shoulders of the mother and the madrina. You get the picture: just as I’m about to leave for my hotel, I’m covered with thousands of little scraps of white paper, sticking like mad, of course, to the fleece.

I could not have imagined a warmer reception from people with next to nothing, graciously sharing everything they have. One couple even accompanied me on the bus all the way through the city to the door of my hotel. I spent a good half an hour in my room picking the bits off my jacket, all the while sending drifts of confetti onto the floor. Despite my best attempts, I couldn’t clear the rug completely. Feeling a bit sheepish, I left an extra tip for the chambermaid, and hoped that she had a vacuum cleaner and wouldn’t have to do the job, scrap by scrap, on her hands and knees.

I hope not to fall too far short of their expectations of a madrina, especially since I get to do this all over again in two weeks for little Wara, the daughter of another former student. But, this time, no fleece!

one night only

The Carmen Pampa Fund is holding its Fiesta de Ayni -- an annual get-together for supports of the College -- in St. Paul this year. Current students and graduates will be there, real-life examples of who we are -- some of the faces of Carmen Pampa. And my face, too!




Please come and join us if you can! The event will be held June 23rd, at 6 p.m. at St. Catherine University, St. Paul, Minnesota (Rauenhorst Ballroom on the 3rd floor of the Coeur de Catherine building).

For more information or to RSVP, please call Carmen Pampa Fund's office at 651.641.1588 or write to info@carmenpampafund.org.

A special lunch

Have you cooked for 35 people recently? Students from the College’s church group did today, under the tutelage of our own Sister Jean Morrissey. The students invited all of the elderly from the community of Carmen Pampa to a big lunch and BBQ chicken, potatoes and cheesy rice, plus cake made by the Poor Claires in Coroico.



This is the second year that students have done this kind of outreach. “Our mission emphasizes serving the poor, and the elderly in our community deserve our attention,” said Sister Jean, who is in her seventh year of service as head of pastoral ministry and religious education at the College.



To show their appreciation, many of the guests brought bags of oranges and tangerines from their farms.



After lunch, Father Freddy invited all of the elderly to the front of the church for a special blessing. It was a fine day for all.

Stephan Campos

Today the College lost a son: Student Stephan Campos was found with the wreckage of a small plane that crashed while on a mission for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. He and three other U.N. officials were working on Proyecto F-57, a project to assesses the environmental impact of coca production in Bolivia. The plane was found in the jungle about 60 miles from Carmen Pampa, after two days of searching.

Stephan was completing his research project for graduation while working for the United Nations. We talked last August when he visited the College to turn in a copy of his graduation project, a soil use classification map for our local municipality. He said that he was proud to be able to contribute to the 2009 Bolivia Coca Monitoring Report (pdf) as a mapping expert (see his photo on p. 63), increasing the knowledge of how coca -- both a sacred, ceremonial crop for the Aymara and Quechua people, and the plant used to make cocaine -- is impacting the environment.





I had Stephan in my Tropical Ecology and my Research Proposal Writing classes. He was a very intelligent and friendly young man, with a lot of good ideas about how to improve the College. He is survived by his wife Pamela (an education student) and two daughters. Stephan, his wife, his youngest daughter and some friends are pictured here, in a photo I took last August in Coroico of students selling sausages produced at the College.




We mourn his loss, and asks for all of you who support of the College to keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

More Easter

A late posting of some more awesome Holy Week photos.

The Via Cruces, carrying the cross around the community to remember the story of the cruxifiction, is always powerful.







After the Via Cruces is the adoration of the cross, where all reflect on sacrifice and selflessness.




The Saturday night mass is a LONG one, time to remember our origins as Christians, and share as a community.




The mass ends with hot chocolate and bread for all.







We had a lot of students from the elementary and high school who could not make it home for the Easter weekend (the teacher strike prolonged the school week last week). It was good to have them participate -- it made for an extra-full church!

I hope that everyone had a great Easter! Love to all from Carmen Pampa.

Maundy Thursday

Tonight was the Last Supper mass. Father Carmelo was the celebrant. One of the most touching moments is when the priest washes the feet of the "disciples," in this case, community members.




Sister Jean played the music for the mass, accompanied by our Academic Secretary Manuela and some young women from the high school.

Two more graduates

Yesterday was a good day for the College: two graduates in one morning!

The first was Deysi Piloy. She read about the use of table sugar as a treatment for cuts, and thought it might be a good alternative for people in the countryside where medicine is not always available. She compared granulated sugar with iodine to treat cuts at a health post in a community outside of Caranavi, a day's travel from the capital La Paz. She found that it was as good as iodine, and in some cases better, for healing time and side effects (pain at initial application). Her successful defense made her our latest graduate in the nursing department!


Photo: Deysi shows off her certificate of completion of studies with Father Freddy and her mother.


The next to defend his graduation project was Juan Mamani, from a community across the mountain, Capellanía. He designed a coffee tourism project for his community, which will show tourists how coffee is produced and processed. His successful defense made him the latest graduate of our ecotourism program -- and the fourth in the history of the department!


Photo: Juan Mamani prepares to present his project.

Felicidades to them both!

Our friends at Con Bolivia

Our friend Suzanne Dulle was inspired by Bread for the Journey, a group she volunteered with in Santa Fe. It was started by Wayne Muller, a therapist, minister, community advocate, and bestselling author of several books. The idea behind their work in the community, she recalls, was based on relationships of trust and respect, reflected in careful listening so that people in need can identify their own needs, and get help.

In 2003, she visited Bolivia with her Bolivian-born husband, Juan. Seeing great need, and keeping her experience with Bread for the Journey close to her heart, she and Juan decided to start con Bolivia, a “network of goodness,” linking generous people in the United States to educational programs and grass-roots projects in Bolivia.

Since then, con Bolivia has helped many different organizations, like computer training for children after school through the group ProMujer, a program run by a Catholic priest working with the street children in La Paz, and a nursery school for impoverished children in Mallasilla, a poor barrio of La Paz.

Then they visited a poor community on the Isla del Sol (the Island of the Sun, the mythological Aymara birthplace of all of life). “We visited a high school – a mud-brick building, really – and we offered scholarships to the two best students. After class, a young man approached us and asked if we could support him even if he didn’t have the best grades. We were thrilled that there was this kind of interest.”

They ended up giving full scholarships to many young people who wanted to improve their community through improved agriculture, health care and tourism – which brought them to the College! Currently five young women are in different phases of the nursing program, all with the intention of serving the rural poor with their skills (like Gabriela). Con Bolivia also supports students with their graduation projects, like Victor Hugo and María Esther, and Rolando. And con Bolivia supports other initiatives at the College, like lab equipment and uniforms for nursing students.

Suzanne stayed with us for a week in April, and we enjoyed her immensely. Her insights into how we can improve things, and her willingness to help wherever needed, were greatly appreciated. She even brought a rainbow with her! Thank you, Suzanne, for your generosity and your spirit. We miss you already.



Photo: Suzanne Dulle with Hugh and students Silvia, Madgelena and Griselda.

P.S. See this posting that Suzanne wrote about one of the students con Bolivia supports.

Domingo de Ramos

Yesterday was Domingo de Ramos -- Palm Sunday -- and as usual, our students did an excellent job with the Passion Play.

The mass starts with the priest blessing the palms before giving them out.




Instead of a homily, a group of students from the College acted out the story of Christ, from the Last Supper to the entombment. Seeing the story acted out is always so powerful.




We are all looking forward to Holy Week, with all of its ritual and celebration as a community.

Another donation!

I have blogged in the past about our shared insect ecology research project with the Benson Agriculture and Food Institute. Well, the institute is merging with another project, and they had some office equipment that they didn't need any more -- and they thought of us!


Photo: Gustavo Troche, Fr. Freddy del Villar, Enrique Cabezas, Elizabeth García and Victor Hugo Agramont.

The Bolivian Director of Public Relations for the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, Enrique Cabezas, said that helping the poor is the mission of both churches, and that working together makes us all more effective. In that spirit, the College received 5 computers, plus some printers, photocopiers, cameras and an overhead projector.

We are grateful for their generosity, and glad to share in the mission to make a difference in Bolivia for those most in need.