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

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.

Later in the day we had a date with the instructors from Voces Bolivianas, who were a little late, maybe because of access to our zone was damaged and has a lot of speed bumps on the road and make it hard for visitors to arrive. Once we had all gathered at the cyber-café, we gave our blogs one or two final touches, and then the instructors gave us the idea to take picture around our neighborhood. Most of us made the decision that the best place for our photo session would be La Ciudad de la Alegría (City of Joy), which is near the Hombres Nuevos (New Men) community. This community has sporting facilities with a coliseum, 6 multi-functional fields, 3 swimming pools, a football field, recreational and camping areas, and educational facilities with the opening of the San Pablo University – Theater Academy and a kindergarten, and a home for children. Huge, isn’t it?

We decided to walk because no one of us had a car. We were almost there, after a long walk taking pictures and guess what? The sky began to fall. It began to rain, and we looked for shelter so that we wouldn’t catch a cold. But there was no shelter. The natural instinct to run away looking for a safer place would have been useless, we started on our way back with our pictures, and one of the female instructors decided to try the new fashion, Dirty Jeans style after she rolled around and fell in a muddy clearing. It left us smiling.

Translation by Gabriela Garcia Calderon Orbe

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.

4: Continuing straight on the avenue you will see shops for accessories, food, and even karaokes. Ending along this avenue, when you reach the curve you enter to the market of the Plan 3000.

5: Next to Mechero Avenue, you will enter Plan 3000’s beautiful plaza. It is large and one can relax. They are building a small complex, although I am not sure if that is the correct name of it, but there will be a place with small barbecues and other thing. When they finish it, I will tell you exactly what it is.

6: When you go along the Paurito Avenue, you will see the most interesting place during the entire tour – the school, which was built with the help of the Project Hombres Nuevos (New Men). There is also a small castle built by its owner, and later you will arrive at the Los Pocitos market.

7: From this same little market, the neighborhood begins. You will realize that it is a low-lying area because when it rains it gets full of water and we must go out from our homes in a canoe. Well, do not believe this, it is just a manner of speaking, as the streets seem like a river. But when it is sunny, it is a very peaceful place.

Translated by Jose Gregorio del Sol Cobos

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.

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.

The crazy weather in Santa Cruz played tricks on us, as it began to rain very early in the morning, and as we came closer to our destination, the streets and avenues beyond the 4th Ring of the city truly became rivers.

After 25 minutes of an eventful journey in a small taxi, we heard the continuous complaint from the taxi driver. He talked about his theory of the phenomenon “La Niña” that it was not the result of global warming, rather it was due to human consequences: according to him, human sin was the cause. In the middle of his whining, he spouted, “Repent, heathens because the water will wash away our sins..” in that moment we realized that we were finally arriving to our final destination, Paurito Avenue in the area of Plan 3000 near the neighborhood La Ciudad de la Alegría.

The rain was beginning to cease, and 11 individuals were waiting to begin the first class of digital literacy through the use of blogs… 11 individuals that were transformed from real-life to virtual and became part of the Bolivian blogosphere.

It was satisfying to see the commitment from the attendees, and it was also surprising to see the variety of backgrounds in this heterogeneous group. There were young people, professionals, students, commercial vendors, and novices. Most were brand-new to the world of blogs, but they had the complete interest to learn how to create their blogs, and express themselves through words to the world what they live on a daily basis.

Here are their new blogs:

Prof. Miriam Vidal- – Miriam Vidal
Capuletos- – José Armando
Eufenisimos – José Luis Alanoca
Travieso - – Kevin Ayllon
Reciclaje – Edmundo Vaquila
Turismo en Bolivia – Deisy Díaz
Crucenhito – Sergio Gutierrez
Litoraleño – Pedro Velásquez
Mi Cofre Musical OK – Silvana Salvatierra
La Docente de Siglo XXI - Elsa Muruchi

To visit their page: Voces Bolivianas – Santa Cruz

When the clock struck 2 pm, the rain had stopped and we had finished providing answers to the rainfall of questions from our new students. Once more, they demonstrated the commitment to learn and we showed our commitment to teach them. We would appreciate if you visit their new blogs!