Well, let me clear things up.

In 2008, I spent two months in Bolivia at the project O.S.C.A.R. trying to be a helping hand, but mostly observing. It was an incredible experience for me and I felt like getting involved beyond my stay.

The project itself is in fact huge and so is the impact it has on that region of Bolivia. It surprised me to see that this project doesn’t have a website, which I felt is important to make people in the clean, air-conditioned world of western society aware of it. Hoping that longterm-wise  this could be a help in finding financial supporters, I got my brother involved and with him started to make this website.

Today, I visited a small schoolhouse (literally one classroom). This school would not exist, if it weren’t for O.S.C.A.R.: before, some children, living on the other side of a river couldn’t get to the school regularly, therefore the number of 20 necessary pupils couldn’t be reached. With the help of O.S.C.A.R., the locals built a small bridge connecting several communities! Now a teacher is being paid by the government and the kids can actually go to school!

 before…

 after…

At the moment it is dry season, therefore the dust on the streets is dry. Every car causes a great stir, raising a huge cloud of dust. Next to the roads, the plants are whitish. Sounds like an uninteresting detail. But life in bolivia takes place on the streets. In the jungle, settlements are located directly on the street. People sell food to passengers, kids play on the streets. If everything is covered by dust as it is next to the main roads, then the lungs are as well. This is in fact a problem in the area.

I am amazed by the fact that farmers actually drive around in their “normal” automobiles. But apparently it works. However, people tell me that during rainy season, everything is a lot worse. Cars get stuck in the muddy potholed roads and lot of the roads become completely impassable, as they partially decide to develop into rivers. And when this happens, people get disconnected from local trade, education and health care. Some farmers can’t sell their crops, woman in labor can’t expect help and children stop going to school.

That’s the way the roads look like.

O.S.C.A.R. has got two jeeps. Even though compared to a normal automobile this is luxury driving, we get stuck in the road twice.

How can I describe the camp? Families, all in all about 50 people are permanently living in it. Among others, the physician and its wife, a nurse, an engineer and several workmen.

But most notably around 90 bolivian students are staying in the camp. These students have just finished their school education and pass a year of voluntary civilian service in the camp. During this year, they work at construction sites, in the community kitchen, in farming and reforestation. 

But let me tell you about the most important inhabitants, the heart of the camp: Roberto and Eusebio, the two padres. Roberto is director of O.S.C.A.R, the camp and its construction sites. Roberto, originally from Austria, lives and works for O.S.C.A.R. in Bolivia since about 30 years. He worked with his entire energy to improve the Bolivian people’s life and therefore has earned their full gratefulness and, more importantly their trust. Only because of this trust, people listen to him and accept his ideas and changes.

The snaps below show the padres’ kitchen and common room. The walls have a rather symbolic value, as small animals can enter the room without problems.

The high standard of western technology took care of my transport to the airport of La Paz, Bolivia’s largest city. Immediately, I am short of breath, reminding me that I am now 3600 m above sea level. I am arriving at night and luckly meet the driver of O.S.C.A.R. at the airport. He’s living in the camp, but occasionally drives to La Paz to transport mail, parcels, food and other goods between the camp and La Paz.

The next day, he takes me with him to the camp: a most scenic eight hour drive from the cold and dry highlands to the hot and fruitful jungle, „yungas“. Little by little the landscape changes through the plants that grow greener, lusher and taller. The air becomes moist, I have already removed several layers of clothing and start thinking about my mosquio repellent spray.

Since about an hour drive from La Paz, the road has changed from asphalt to a „sand and stones“-path. Every car produces a huge cloud of dust. I can feel sand between my teeth.

Again, I arrive at night. Thick forrest with thousands of unknown noises. Insects, moisture, spiders, dirt. Honestly, I couldn’t feel more uncomfortable.