2023 Intercultural Exchange: Weston Park Baptist Church
The intercultural exchange between WPBC and BI provided attendees with an opportunity to experience being fully immersed in Bolivian culture.
The hospitality shown by Pastor Ivan and the church members in Cochabamba was exceptional, from transporting us from the airport to our respective air BnB to picking us up from the town's post office after a midday shopping trip. The members of the church dedicated a lot of their time and efforts to support and accommodate Weston Park attendees.
It’s worth mentioning that a significant percentage of the IB congregation are medical exchange students from Brazil which is why the church delivers service in both Portuguese and Spanish which made for a very enriching worship experience.
As a small group, we left Cochabamba for a few days and visited Potosi and Uyuni. This was an amazing adventure because at various points throughout the trip not only were we able to ‘serve’ each other but a chance to see God’s creations in their unaltered form, for example the Salt Flats in Uyuni or literally hundreds on hundreds of alpacas grazing freely in a field such- experiences don’t happen often and the latter unlikely to happen in Toronto.
During the exchange one of the unique things to note was that at times there were 3 different languages being used to communicate in the church or at church events- Spanish, Portuguese and English.
As international volunteers our impact was measurable, especially when we volunteered at the high school. Volunteering at the school gave each of us the chance to work within our strengths; some of us used our teaching skills to review and teach grammar while others used their interpersonal skills and musical talents to engage students.
Further to affecting young people our impact was made at the local detention centre and the casa amistad where again thanks to the support of WPBC we were able to make significant donations of food to help support those institutions.
I can say with confidence our material contributions were needed and appreciated but I think our physical presence made a difference whether by giving young people an opportunity to speak with and learn from native English speakers or being the listening ear as an inmate shares their story and tells us the workings of a jail in a redeveloping country, we made a difference.