Bolivian Voices

Original: Los Centros de Internet y Los Jovenes

Everyday, Internet cafes are filled with children and teenagers, but sadly, in most cases they spend their time playing games for many hours. In many cases, our students are left without money for recess and without bus fares because they spend their money on these games. The owners of these internet cafés should be more aware and they should not allow these minors and students to play at all. Also, the authorities should make them comply with established rules. But those who should be most interested in solving this are the parents, so they must organize themselves and complain to the proper authorities.

Translation by Jose Gregorio del Sol Cobos

Original: Otro Sábado Con Voces Bolivianas

The day started with something rather heavy, after a worrying experience last night. One of the many skills that I am very fond of is the sport of basketball. I can rely on my feline-like agility, so every night we decide to play with the guys from the neighborhood. We met some new people, who shared our ball with, and the game started. In one of my many moves, my elbow opened up and struck the faces of one of my new friends. It sounded similar to what one might hear when you crush a potato chip, but only duller. I turned around to see which part of his anatomy had bumped into my elbow, and I found that his right nostril had been hit. I became terribly worried, but I was later calmed. The first thing I did was to find a thin pen in order to correct the damage that I caused. After that, things calmed down, thank God.

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Original: Mi Barrio

I am going to tell you about about my neighborhood as a little tour just in case you decide to come visit here. If you visit Santa Cruz, don’t forget to pass by here. The neighborhood is located the zone called Plan 3000. The tour will start from the new bus station, where one can take a bus (lines 85, 59) or a taxi for those who want some comfort. But let us suppose we take the line 59.

1: Going out from the station you go towards the Tres Pasos Avenue until you reach the third Ring, then you enter the neighborhood called Estación Argentina (Argentina Station).

2: In this neighborhood, one finds the School – Fe y Alegria Aniceto Arce (Faith and Joy) and the church in front of that school; next you will pass by the square, in which there is a police station. Before it became a square, it was a market where people stocked up their needs.

3: Continuing with this tour, you will reach the Fourth Ring where you also enter into the neighborhood Cañada Pailita, and where you might bump into the threshing machine.

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The Spanish version of the BBC “The World” radio report was recent published in BBC Mundo and also in La Nación of Buenos, Aires Argentina. Many thanks to the reporter Ruxandra Guidi for her coverage of our project.

Original: La Ciudad de la Alegria
En Aymara: pronto.

La Ciudad de la Alegría (City of Joy) is a very beautiful place, with a sports complex, futsal courts, football fields, pools, and many more things. Going to Ciudad de la Alegría is a beautiful experience because we took many photos and we went to the neighborhood university to take more photos. It was very fun because we talked, and later unfortunately it began to rain. That didn’t stop us because we continued to take photos and got wet. The rain continued and there was nowhere to hide except for some small trees. We continued to walk and some wanted to wait because they didn’t want to get wet. I arrived to this neighborhood in 2006 and it is a neighborhood with many good things, as well as some bad things. Hopefully some day there will only be good things.

Ciudad de la Alegría has a church Master Divine Jesus, where there is a wooden altarpiece made with polychrome wood from the Chiquitania. At the university, there are the programs of tourism, information technology, and theater, and is sponsored by the Catholic University of Bolivia. The home “Messengers of Peace” houses 16 children, where they are taught and supported in their homework. The university residence houses 45 young people, 15 women and 30 men where also study at the Ciudad de la Alegría school and at the Autonomous University of Gabriel Rene Moreno. The microenterprise nursery houses five businesses that were started by the students. The Valencia coliseum has a capacity for 1000 spectators, where sporting events take place. The swimming pool is that thing enjoyed by the most amount of people in the area. Admission is Bs. 5 (60 cents USD) on weekdays. Farewell to our friends of Voces Bolivianas.

Original: Amar La Patria
In Aymara: Soon

I think that everyone far and wide that was born under this blue, pure, and clean sky loves his or her country, like I do. Many of us feel happy to be here in the Orient or Occident, in the north or the south of this country given to us by God. Bolivia is beautiful, isn’t it? Its altiplano, mountains, valleys, yungas, tropics, drylands, and plains, which gave us and the world many natural resources. For that reason, dear countrymen and women, let’s join forces to advance this country. Let’s study and work for its progress, united for a one love for Bolivia. From wherever we are, let’s fight for her, and let’s start her to get to know the country and one another better.

Original: ¿Helicopteros para Bolivia?
In Aymara: Coming Soon

Bolivia invests in highways through the prefectures. This is good. But due to the natural disasters in the recent years, the government should think about creating an organism able to act during these disasters. Bolivia not only needs roads, but it needs to provide security to the entire population.

In my opinion, helicopters are a good investment and we need a special group, something like the SAR (Volunteer Rescue Group). Natural disasters are irreversible and if we do not take future action, then the natural disasters will absorb us like a funnel.

Columba Stettner is a blogger from Guayaramerín in the Department of Beni. She currently resides in Germany. Her degree is in World Religions and she is pursuing a Master’s degree in History and Political Science. She also has plans to return to Bolivia one day. The topics of her blog named “Guayaramerín Analitica” concentrate on providing information on the history, legends, and culture of Guayaramerín. According to the 2001 Census, it has a population of 40,000. She writes:

Guayaramerín was founded by the pioneers of the rubber industry in 1892 with the name Port Palmira. Between 1905 and 1915, it was named Port Sucre, but later it became known as Guayaramerín. It currently sits at 45,000 residents. It is located in the Amazon region next to the Brasilian city of Guajará-Mirim and is separated only by the majestic Mamoré River. It sits at 212 meters above sea level. Currently, Guayaramerín is a commercial center and has a spirit of a bordertown, with the cordial atmosphere of a tropical city. The people of Guayaramerín is warm like the land, its people are joyful, hard-working, who enjoy the land, its natural resources like the streams and animals.

She thinks that there are not many blogs in her city because of the high costs of internet (average of Bs. 10 per hour = $1.35 USD). In her opinion, another factor is that many Benians study in other cities and now identify more with their new cities like Santa Cruz of Cochabamba.