Elisa and Maurizio volunteering in Sucre

In November last year, my husband and I spent some time volunteering with the community of nuns in Sucre, Bolivia, and we were their guests for about a month. Sucre is a small town, with white houses that give it a strongly Latin American atmosphere. In the streets of the town centre, lined with white churches, it feels like being in Spain during the 17th century, and it is extremely pleasant to explore. In the community, however, there was always a lot to do and the nuns were always busy with their activities, so we tried to assist as much as we could. Every week, many people came to the parish to learn read and write, and we assisted in distributing notebooks for them to practise their writing. It was necessary to stay with them and monitor them closely; they seemed like children engaged in something quite challenging, and they responded to our support with warm smiles in their eyes. After the class, there was always a generous snack prepared by the nuns and Latin music for everyone. I am quite untalented at dancing, but their rhythms were so engaging and everyone let themselves be carried away by the dance with such cheerfulness and simplicity that I couldn’t help myself and found myself dancing with them as if I had always done so. Another activity of the nuns was prison ministry. The prison in Sucre has two blocks one for male and another for female prisoners. Every Wednesday, Sister Caty would go into the male block, the one for minor offences, to visit the prisoners and give them some lessons, and we always accompanied her.

When I was a young girl, I studied foreign languages at school and I can speak English quite well, so we had the idea of teaching the prisoners a basic English course. It was a great success, so many people came to learn and I was very proud to teach them. One Friday evening we were given special permission to watch a film. The nun bought bags of popcorn and the inmates spent a pleasant evening, just as if they were at home with friends. On Saturdays, we went to Mass in the women’s quarters, and on Sundays, we attended Mass in the men’s quarters, which had a strict discipline. The nuns engaged in many other activities that we could not assist with, so my husband decided to repaint the walls of the inner courtyard, which were in a state of collapse. He bought paint and cement, repaired and painted the patio walls, which then looked whiter and more stylish. I tried to cook typical Italian dishes, basically there was no time for boredom and the time passed quickly.

We also took a couple of days off to be tourists and went to see the famous salt lake, the Salar de Uyuni. Two nuns came with us and we had a great time in their company. The Salar is truly beautiful, a surreal place. The experience in Bolivia is amazing, we especially enjoyed the time spent with kids in prison and actually we are looking for ways to organise this type of volunteering in Italy too, but here everything is more complicated. The trip to Bolivia was not our first experience with the sisters of the Thouret Foundation and, just like all the other trips, we returned home with a load of new knowledge, emotions and experiences that filled our hearts.