Travelling…and coming back.

“What was it like in Bolivia?” It is a short question that steals me my voice. Everybody has been asking it since I came back. But after four months in a country so different from France, it is hard to answer in a few words. Traveling is a wonderful way of learning about oneself, but above all about the world. Another culture, others traditions, another way of life… Bolivia showed me and gave me so much that the only thing I can do is trying to transmit a little bit of what I have learned. That is what I try to do each time someone ask me that question.

“What was it like in Bolivia?” It was at the same time a wonderful experience, a lot of meeting and a marvelous lesson. It is the poorest country of Latin America and I have seen this poverty above all because I was a volunteer in an NGO. I have met communities without school nearly, without medicine and without doctors. Nevertheless, all of its inhabitants had a wonderful smile and a lot of hope in their eyes. They just asked to access to first necessities. For me, Bolivian children were the most upsetting. To communicate with them was not easy because most of the time they used to speak natives languages (such as Quechua or Aymara). But with patience, a basic Spanish, and showing them that I was interested in the way they live, we have succeeded in exchanging. They are really clever and smiling all the time. Poverty does not mean sadness for them. During these sharing moments I became aware of the luck I had to be with them. That is a thing only travels can give us. And that is my answer for this question which seems rather inappropriate for me but understandable too, for people who do not know how much rewarding travels are.

To my mind, travelling means leaving its country, its family, and its friends. It is far from being easy. But each travel has an end, and finally, it is rather difficult too. Coming back from Bolivia to France means leaving people we have met, and knowing that, even if we have photos and memories, even if we stay in contact, it will be hard to see them quickly. In fact, traveling is like doing roller coaster. There are summits and cracks, wonderful moments and hard one, but each of them is strong and full of teaching.