Visiting indigenous friends “off the beaten track” we learn much about simplicity, community and faith. We are filled with awe, new insights, deep personal connections and a treasure of memories to last a lifetime.

We will meet some of Bolivia’s nearly 35,000 Quakers—all Aymara Indians—most living in severe poverty. Everywhere, they open their hearts to us with unforgettable warmth and gracious hospitality. Exploring our relationship with these Friends whose daily lives differ dramatically from ours, we learn much about ourselves and find the true treasure: meaningful human connections. 

Scholarship students serve delicious traditional foods.

                                               We experience Andean culture in both rural and urban areas through our service work and visits with beneficiaries of projects of non-profits Quaker Bolivia Link (qbl.org) and Bolivian Quaker Education Fund (bqef.org), conversations and visits to sites of cultural significance.

 We travel over some unpaved roads and stay in hotels that are clean, safe, and have hot water, but may not have the comforts many Europeans and North Americans are accustomed to. We will be at altitudes from 8,000 to about 13,000 feet above sea level, where the climate is cool and the air dry, despite Bolivia’s tropical latitude.

 

The trip will not be easy, but it may change your life.

BQEF funds education projects, including a student residence that enables students from remote villages to attend secondary school, university scholarships for young Friends committed to helping their communities, and Alternatives to Violence Project workshops in 4 cities and San Pedro Prison.

 

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In the midst of some of the world’s worst rural poverty, QBL has funded over 100 projects—including greenhouses, village water and irrigation, chickens, guinea pigs, llamas and dairy cooperatives—to enrich lives and give hope for a better future.

Trip participants will have a window into Aymara culture: where community is strong and decisions are typically made by consensus; where a grassroots peasant uprising outfaced the Bechtel corporation in the famous Water Wars; and where massive non-violent protests in the 2003 Gas War ousted the president who had tragically damaged the economy. These remarkably successful movements of dispersed power presaged the Arab Spring and Occupy movements and led to the election of the first indigenous president in South America and an inspiring new constitution.

We’ll talk with leaders of the cultural revolution and young people who now have opportunities for education and professional work that their parents never dreamed of.

Trip members teach an active English lesson...

...and help make improvements at the Internado student residence.

AVP’ers practice cooperation. cooperation