My time in Bolivia has quickly come to an end. For the past week after arriving back from Paraguay I’ve been slowly saying my goodbyes to the kids I’ve been working with at the orphanage and also the friends I’ve made during my time in Santa Cruz.

On Friday to wrap up the year a couple of friends and I put on a mini concert at the English institute to raise money for the kids at the orphanage. I also collected toy donations from stores to give to the kids down at the orphanage. The beginning of Christmas eve we spent with the kids at Padre Alfredo and then later went to a Bolivian style Christmas fiesta at the Teresa’s (the program manager) parents house.

In Bolivia traditionally they celebrate on Christmas eve with a lot of drinking and fireworks and then at midnight open their presents, then once the presents are all unwrapped they drink a little more until sunrise. Well, it sure was something different but I’d be lying if I were to say I didn’t have fun.

The following day I left for La Paz with three other volunteers as I had a flight to catch to Santiago the following day. I’ve now been in Santiago de Chile for three days. It’s a complete culture shock coming to Chile after living in Peru and Bolivia for such a period of time. The city itself seems closer to an Australian or European city than any other city I’ve been to in Latin America and their sewage systems are even able to cope with toilet paper being flushed down them which has been hard to get use to after being in Bolivia. Tomorrow I’ll be flying out to Rio de Janeiro the capital of surf, sex and samba for a New Years of a different sort. I’ll let you know how it all goes in a few weeks.

Hope you all have a great New Years

Jesse Doyle,

International volunteer