Sixth report from Sucre, Bolivia


Greetings from Sucre, Bolivia,
This weekend Nancy, Karina, and myself were part of an absolutely fantastic workshop! This workshop is part of a series of workshops that are helping the the indigenous people of Bolivia become self governing within their local communities. Let me give you a quick over view. Bolivia is a plurinational country. Meaning the national government recognizes the many indigenous groups of people in the country. The national government allows the indigenous communities to govern themselves on local issues. The series of workshop prepares leaders to establish Justice Houses to settle disputes with out the need to go to a high court. 

There is not enough time and space in this newsletter to present all of our findings. However, there were several things that impressed me about the people we observed this weekend: 

First, their rich sense of culture. The leaders came dress in their traditional clothing. They were proud to share who they were. They presented themselves as leaders, but their was a sense of humility in their manner. 

Second, the mix of young and old working together to create each communities sense of government. In our opening ritual the young man leading the ritual acknowledged that he was not experienced enough to complete a portion of the ritual. It would be done by an elder. At another point when the communities were showing us some of their traditional dance a young woman was shadowing the elder women singing. The younger women was learning her part. 

Third the sharing of ideas in the workshop between the communities. After key presentations the combined group would count off and break into small groups to discuss the point and begin to develop the idea presented in to something each community could make their own.

The overall process is still in the early stages. This weekends workshop was focused around the United Nations (UN) Documents for Indigenous People. There was a subject matter expert describing the UN document articles into language that the leaders could better understand. When they broke into their small groups their would then develop their key points and present back to the whole goup. There was a sense of excitement and passion to develop and begin to implement what they were learning. It is my hope that this program will develop future leaders of Bolivia who will be able to address the present day challenges in Bolivia and lead their country into a new future of prosperity.

Bruce
Our Global Mission Sites

Sucre, Bolivia - Navajo Nation, Arizona - Bacolod and Borongan, Philippines - Kenya and Uganda, East Africa - Natural Disaster Recovery, USA,
"MissionX" High School Missions throughout the Joliet Diocese
Partnership in Mission is an outreach of the Office for Human Dignity
Catholic Diocese of Joliet in Illinois, USA

Bruce Carlson, Administrator
 Nancy Schramm, osf, Formation Director
Thomas L. Garlitz, Executive Director
 | 815-221-6258 | Fax - 815-221-6088 | missions@dioceseofjoliet.org| www.dioceseofjoliet.org/missions