Kallutaca

(Ki-you-taka)
Looking for an opportunity to develop my language skills in a meaningful, hands on manner, I found an opportunity to work as a volunteer with a local NGO (Para Los Niños). They worked with many homes for abandoned and orphaned children and adults. We talked and they mentioned Kallutaca. It was hard to get to, full of disabled abandoned adults, these adults were dying too often from wandering off, and there was a fencing project in need of someone to run it. The project was worthwhile, difficult, and underfunded. It sounded great, so I signed up. Some paperwork and photos to register who I was with the Bolivian government and I was off!

Weeks later, the fence was finished. It was an amazing experience that I would not trade for anything. It was tough, full of corruption, incompetence, theft, and hard work. I lost weight, got a tan, and a new scar.

In the end, 1.6 km of fencing was worked on. 1.2 km of fencing was repaired and 400 m were built from scratch. The fencing joined with existing fencing in good repair, forming a 2.8 km perimeter that encloses 120 acres (about 47 hectares). Money was raised and spent, and when it was all over about 25 different people had worked on the Kallutaca fence. More may be found at http://www.japikse.com/bolivia/.