Monthly Archives: August 2011

[Bolivia bloggers] Day 5: Social justice exhaustion

The following is one piece of a blog written last night, on day 5 of the Bolivia bloggers trip in Cochabamba. Can I be honest? I think many of us who are engaged in the blogging world (Christian or otherwise) are suffering from a disease. Not a disease like HIV or diabetes. Maybe it’s not even a disease. Maybe it’s a disorder or a mental or emotional illness. Perhaps it’s some sort of spiritual discrepancy. Or maybe it’s something like boredom. We’re overstimulated perhaps. Whatever category it should be listed under, a whole bunch of us are suffering from something called social justice exhaustion. Other people refer to it as poverty overload....
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[Bolivia bloggers] Day 4: Six months ago she couldn’t have done this

I want to introduce you to Lizeth. She latched onto my Flip camera at the Special Needs Center where she is a student. Lizeth is just like my kids — figured out the camera’s buttons in about half a second. For the next half hour, she ran around recording everyone she could find, her bubbly laugh echoing around the center....
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[Bolivia bloggers] Day 4: A world apart but the same at heart

The following was written last night, on day 4 of the Bolivia bloggers trip in Cochabamba. Tonight I got an email from a colleague with a note from Charles Owubah, World Vision’s regional leader in East Africa. All I could thinks was this: my mind has been consumed with the people we’ve met here in Bolivia. Now I’m reminded of the 11.5 million people there affected by the drought. Charles tells the story of one of them: Atabo. “Yesterday I was in Lokori, Turkana East, in North Eastern Kenya where I met Atabo Ekaale.  Atabo is one-year-old but looks like six months old because he has almost nothing to eat. His mother, Lorenyi, is desperate because she wants her son to...
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[Bolivia bloggers] Day 3: Trickle-Up Economics…

The terrain of Cochabamba, Bolivia is both breathtakingly beautiful and violently rugged. In the shadow of its snow-covered mountains are hundreds of arid rocky hills, where horses and cows perch as skillfully as mountain goats upon the steep slopes where people too make their homes. The high altitude (over 12,000 feet in some places!) leaves even the most skilled climbers breathless. It takes most children over an hour to walk the winding gravel roads to school. Women who want or need to deliver their babies in a hospital typically face a three mile walk…while in labor…to the nearest health facility. The average income is just $450 a year....
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[Bolivia bloggers] Day 3: Meeting sponsored children + vlog

Ever wondered whether or not the child in the photo you received in your sponsorship welcome packet is really a real child? No need to be curious anymore, we’ve got proof! Yesterday was one of the sweetest days I’ve ever experienced. Our first day in a World Vision area development program (ADP), we knew we would be exposed to so much of the work World Vision is doing there. And at the top of that list? Meeting sponsored children. More posts from Elizabeth, Matthew, Deb, Nish, and I on “meeting our sponsored children” soon… And don’t miss our vlog from Erika and Andrea at the bottom of this post!...
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