'Even if I could afford nutritious food...'

'Even if I could afford nutritious food, I only know how to cook corn, rice and potatoes’

From the High Andean Lake Titicaca region of western Bolivia and southern Peru: ¡Kamasaki! Aymara, the local indigenous language, for hello, how are you.

We survived the Andean winter (here, that’s June through August). We are fully settled into our home, and we’re ready for volunteers and mission teams. As site hosts and coordinators of the Lake Titicaca Border Mission, the people here need your help … This is the poorest region in Bolivia, which is the poorest nation in South America. Most indigenous people here survive on less than $2 a day, growing corn and potatoes. A few can afford to buy rice and pasta -- more carbs. But virtually no one can afford an adequate balance of fruit, vegetables and protein. In Manko Kapac, about a 30-minute walk from our home, a woman in her mid-20’s told us, “Even if I could afford (vegetables and protein), I only know how to cook corn, rice, and potatoes.”

In recent weeks, we met with local Bolivian leaders and residents to learn about their needs, and how the Border Mission can help, sustainably. Once we get our Bolivian work visas, we’ll be able to visit and assess Peru communities, too. Watch for an update coming soon!

Tomorrow, Sept. 5, we will joyfully welcome Marion Stafford, an UMVIM volunteer from Michigan, who will be working with us for three months! Welcome/Bienvenidos, Marion! Marion’s arrival comes at a perfect – and very busy -- time!

People here need hands-on help from individual volunteers, small groups, and teams. Please read the Project Profile below, and others, with photos, on our newly expanded web site, www.misionfronteras.com. Let us know which projects interest you. It’s part of our job to help other volunteers navigate travel arrangements, lodging, budgets, insurance, etc. Send us your questions! If a work trip isn’t possible, please cruise our web site anyway, and consider donating. Go to www.advancinghope.org. Contact us directly at jeffandeb@gmail.com with questions, or to “adopt” a specific project. $10 to $50 can do a lot of good here!

Copacabana, one of several Bolivian sites; each site has several projects

See the new Project Profile page on our website for information on other sites and the project opportunities they offer. In Copacabana, pop. about 10,000, the Iglesia Metodista Nueva Jerusalen (New Jerusalem Methodist Church) serves about 75 families in a cozy, well worn, second-floor sanctuary that seats about 120 people. A modest parsonage is below. The church faces a courtyard surrounded by an adobe wall and the two sides of an incomplete, L-shaped building. Construction started in 2004 but stopped in 2006 when funds ran out. The first floor office and meeting room are functional but not finished. The second floor has a flat, concrete “roof” and wall supports, but no walls. The third floor is still a dream, which design and construction can support.

In this entire region, only a small hospital in Copa provides “health services.” It’s staffed solely by unsupervised medical interns from Cuba who resent being here, and admit to knowing little or nothing about diagnosis and treatment. Locals refer to it as “the morgue.” It’s a last resort that few survive. Instead, families tend their own, using natural medicines. For the seriously sick, an herbalist or witch doctor might be called in. A gravely ill or injured person might attempt the 3-hour bus trip to La Paz, if the family can afford the $2.20 fare, and if they can quell their terror of formal medicine. As in many developing nations, rural Bolivian communities such as ours have a high and rising median age. Young adults tend to pursue an easier, more lucrative life in bigger cities, or other countries. The elders, called “anciens,” have little or no education, few if any marketable skills, they speak only Aymara, no Spanish; and many are too old and stooped for farm work. In many cases, adult children could help financially – but don’t. Some anciens depend on the community for shelter, and on the church for food. These are the “abandanados.”

Mission Projects in Copacabana, Bolivia

• Completion of the half-built multi-purpose building.
  Consensus among church members and leaders aspires to finish the 1st and 2nd floors, and add a 3rd. This would include meeting, cooking, and office space; a 24-bed senior center and dormitory for “abandonados”; and multi-functional space with classrooms. As envisioned by church elders and leaders (and Jeff and me), classrooms will provide space for:
  • Resident and visiting seniors and district residents to learn about nutrition (the seniors, virtually all malnourished, count this a priority). Seniors also want to create marketable hand-crafts to help maintain the center.
  • Basic and specialized training of Promotores de Buena Salud (Promoters of Good Health). These volunteers complete a Border Mission-sponsored, certified training in basic hygiene, preventive public health practices, and basic health and medical care, with the promise to train and serve others in their communities.
  • Occasional, but critically needed vision, hearing, dental, and basic medical clinics provided by visiting U.S. mission teams. (Ideally, teams will bring or send eyeglasses, hearing aids, toothbrushes, or medications.)
  • Possibly, an income-producing hostel during peak holidays and tourist season. Total, estimated cost to finish and equip the building: $25,000.
• Basic & Specialized Promotores’ Training
  $400 or more, depending on number and location of trainees, specialized topics and materials needed.
• Courses on nutrition & nutritious cooking
  $50 or more depending on number and location of trainees, number and depth of classes offered.
• Construction of an adobe green house
  To stretch the growing season and local diets to include warmth-loving vegetables that can’t withstand the cold nights May - August.
  $800 - $900 for heavy-gauge plastic roof and windows and minimal structural wood, water line, seeds.
• Establishment of a cuy (guinea pig) and/or rabbit farm
  $400 - $500 to help members’ families obtain dietary protein, and to sell to support the church’s human service projects.

To learn more, please email us at jeffandeb@gmail.com, visit our website at www.misionfronteras.com or www.advancinghope.org project number 3021288