For a number of years now, Barbara Flynn has been organising "Quaker Study Tours" to Bolivia and Peru; I have recently experienced the 2008 Tour, which took place from 22 June to 11 July 2008, together with Richard Bloomfield, Alison Freeman and Marian Liebmann from Britain and Laurie Carlock and Jim Watts from the United States.

Barbara's background as a Quaker from California and a former Spanish teacher who has led service and study tours to Latin America for nearly 20 years gives her excellent qualifications for this role -- although it is her personal interest, enthusiasm, warmth and patience that truly make her an outstanding guide.

The primary motivation behind this series of tours is the existence in Bolivia of a population of more than 30,000 Quakers, virtually all of them Aymara Indians living in the Altiplano - a high plateau in the Andes with an average height of about 3300 m (for comparison, the highest point in Ireland is Carrauntoohil, at 1040 m).

The presence of such a large Quaker population in the poorest country in South America has led to the establishment of two non-profit organisations that have funded a wide range of projects: the Quaker Bolivia Link (QBL), which has supported primarily agricultural projects among both Quaker and non-Quaker rural communities, and the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund (BQEF), which is targeted at helping to provide good quality education to Bolivian Quakers. The study-tour activities include visits to various projects funded by these two complementary organisations.

During our tour, we visited some half dozen QBL-funded projects, frequently hiking through picturesque mountainous countryside to reach them, sometimes along the remains of Inca or pre-Inca trails. These projects, for example, are:

* providing water-supply systems for agricultural and domestic use (in Condorpata, Irapata, Pallcapampa);

* enabling the growth of various crops (several varieties of fava beans and strawberries, apple, peach, plum and cherry trees) and cultivation of beehives with the aim of determining which produce best in specific local environments (in Choquecoa);

* providing greenhouses for communities on the altiplano that would otherwise have no access to such vitamin-rich vegetables as tomatoes, cucumbers and carrots (in Masaya).

In all cases, the direct and substantial benefit to the communities involved was absolutely clear - what a difference a modest amount of funding can make to enhance the quality of life of these people! Each community greeted us warmly and provided us with a wonderful, home-cooked feast of local dishes made with a variety of potatoes, including the Bolivian speciality "chunyo" (freeze-dried potato), sweet potatoes, a tasty tuber called raqacha, corn and other vegetables, rice, quinoa, eggs, and some meat and fish.

One of the projects funded by the BQEF is the "Internado" in the town of Sorata, in a valley at an altitude of about 3000 m, below snow-covered Mount Illampu, where we stayed for the first several nights of the tour. The Internado is essentially a dormitory for students from surrounding villages who are attending secondary school in Sorata because their own villages do not offer education beyond primary school. In some cases, the walk from the students' home villages to Sorata is as much as 10 hours, making it impossible for them to attend the secondary school without the safe residence offerred by the Internado.

One evening, we were treated to a dinner prepared by relatives of Internado students, some of whom had walked several hours from their villages with cooked dishes and babies on their backs in order to meet with us. Certainly, there is no doubt of the dedication of these people to ensuring that their children receive a good education! It is noteworthy that Irish contributions to the BQEF played a major role in establishing the Internado (thanks largely to the efforts of Alan and Sue Pim of Waterford Meeting).

The BQEF also supports roughly 50 university students from Bolivian Quaker families, in part with the hope of increasing the number of well educated people with high ethical standards who are working in positions of responsibility, helping to counter the corruption that is rife in many aspects of Bolivian life. We met with some 30 of the current 50 BQEF scholarship students, many of whom are studying in fields of direct practical relevance, such as agriculture, engineering, dentistry, social work and education. Their gratitude for the opportunity of obtaining a good education and dedication to improving the lives of people in their communities and their country were emminently clear, and often very touching.

We visited a small, new Quaker church in El Alto - a poor region on the outskirts of the Bolivian capital La Paz that is a centre of indigenous urban migration almost equal in size to La Paz itself. The pastor of this church was our minibus driver Juan Balboa. The Bolivian Quakers were evangelized by American Friends in the 1920s and have programmed services, rather than silent meetings. We sang hymns with gusto (albeit in rather questionable Spanish) accompanied by organ and guitar; their hymn books were in both Spanish and Aymara. We had a wonderfully warm welcome and they send greetings to Friends back in all of our home countries.

Other notable encounters during the Bolivian leg of the tour included a meeting with the "Las Gregorias" weavers - a group of charming women who initially met on a course in weaving and business skills, then went on to form their own cooperative. QBL helped them buy their first loom and rent a small room; now they have several looms, a workroom, a showroom and an office - and have recently repaid in full the funding provided by QBL several years ago for this expansion. The joy they take in their work is almost physically tangible in each of the beautifully woven pieces that they produce.

We also had an unexpectedly stimulating discussion with Fernando Huanacuni, the Chief of Protocol in the current Bolivian government. He talked to us about the philosophy of President Evo Morales' administration, outlining an aim of "living well", in harmony with the Earth, rather than "living better", trying to gain ever more material goods. He explained that they wished to find a new way to live, ensuring an acceptable standard of living, while also getting back in touch with the traditional indigenous values of respecting the Earth and living sustainably.

Another indigenous leader, Julian Ticona, uses song and film to promote messages of peace and harmony among the various peoples living in Bolivia and the surrounding regions, and is working to incorporate traditional Aymara Indian cultural values and symbols into Christian churches in the region.

On our final days in Bolivia, we visited the ancient sacred city of Tiwanaku, followed by Lake Titikaka, where we met with Demetrio Limachi and visited the workshop Paulino - 2 of 4 Lake Titikaka reed-boat builders who were flown to Africa by Thor Heyerdahl to supervise the construction of the reed boat Ra II, which successfully sailed from Morocco to Barbados in 1970. The next day, we visited the Island of the Sun in Lake Titikaka, where we were expertly guided by a local lad, 12-year-old Robert.

Further, 5 of us went on to Peru, where we visited floating reed islands in Lake Titikaka hosting small groups of 8-10 families; saw many Inca and pre-Inca ruins, including Machu Picchu; and crossed a pass in the Andes at 4335 m in the midst of breathtaking scenery. Our guide in Peru was Mallku, a shaman and expert on traditional Andean astronomy. He and his fellow shaman guide Wilber gave us insight into Inca culture and spiritual beliefs - and the desecration wrought by the Spanish conquerors in their search for gold and a desire to dismantle Incan civilisation. They performed several ceremonies with us, which were at times unnervingly moving. Although we initially thought of this final leg as the "touristic" part of our tour, it was also very spiritual in its own way, and we came away with a sense of the living spirituality of the indigenous peoples of the Andes.

Setting out on this adventure for diverse reasons, none of us knew each other beforehand. A key part of our Andean experience was the relationships we formed. As a small group, we got to know each other's foibles and strengths quite well! Sharing the vicissitudes of hunger, thirst, strained knees and insect bites encourages a cooperative spirit - one of us always seemed to have what was needed in the moment. Mutual experiences illuminated by our shared Quakerism led us to deeper reflections on our journey. We all took with us incredible and perhaps life-changing impressions - rewards, in part, from many hours spent together in a minibus!

Further information: Quaker Study Tour: http://www.treasuresoftheandes.com
Quaker Bolivia Link: http://www.qbl.org
Quaker Bolivia Education Fund:http://www.bqef.org
Denise Gabuzda: gabuzda@phys.ucc.ie