Bolivia or Bust

I truly believe that one of the best educational experiences we can give our students is an opportunity to travel to a developing country. I have been influenced from an early age by my father’s childhood experiences in Africa. I did not realize how much affect it had on me until I started to travel to developing countries after the Tsunami of 2004.

Damaged buildings in Sri Lanka 2004

In May of 2009, Olds College and A Better World (ABW) will take students and community members to Bolivia for two weeks. I will be leading this trip and in so doing will realize a dream five years in the making. After Katrina, Olds College and ABW partnered to send a group of students, staff and teachers to the USA to help rebuild homes. Each student returned with new insights into the world in which they live. I know by experience that a trip to Bolivia will have the same result but multiplied by 10! I know by experience that this will be a life-altering experience for some of the people in our group and still very impactful for the rest. I have always said that my job as an instructor is to create a learning environment but that students must do the learning on their own; this trip to Bolivia be a learning environment like none that we could hope to offer here on our campus.

Bolivian mountains and forest

I do have concerns and a little trepidation: all developing countries are unstable, all have unique health and cultural challenges, and all have safety issues (usually the traffic is the worst). I am encouraged by the fact that we have some very fine people in Bolivia to help. Marg and Jake Hoogland moved to Bolivia from Canada about three years ago; Zenon Flores is a local agriculture instructor with a passion for his field; and Maria Jose is the director of CERINID, a local home for street boys. And I hope that my experience in the country will prove beneficial as I lead the trip. I have been to Bolivia twice myself, and ABW has completed two very successful trips there in the last two years.

Marg and Jake Hoogland

Zenon Flores and a Golden Agouti Boar

So, here goes a new journey for me and a great opportunity for students and others in the community. Let’s hope this time I don’t need to use my GPS coordinates for the coffin store! Stay tuned for more details, and follow along on this blog in May to read about the adventure.