Bolivia 2009

In 2009 I volunteered in an orphange/daycare in Sucre before travelling around the rest of Bolivia. Here are a couple of pictures- they're not great quality as they were taken on a dying camera.

The local market in El Alto- one of the highest cities in the world just outside of La Paz where you can find everything from Levis to chickens. You could buy a chick for 10p, puppy for £1.50 or sheep for £10. 

'Sayari daycare' - A nursery in a very poor area about 20 mins drive away from the centre of Sucre. It cost parents 50p a week to send their kids to the daycare but over half of the children are there for free as their parents cannot afford the fees. The daycare was secured by a blue gate and everyday there would be a line of kids watching from beneath the gate outside. They would be there for hours and wanted to come play/learn like the kids inside but the daycare was already too full. It was heart wrenching.

Maria Luz -one of the youngest kids at the daycare. She wasn't potty trained and her parents couldn't afford nappies so she constantly wet herself and had to be changed, or if we ran out of dry clothes so she would have to run around in wet bottoms all day in the cold. 

Afternoon card games with the local street boys. 

This is one of the miner's wives living in Potosi where 5000 miners work from as young as 12 and the average life expectancy for men is 45yrs.