8 years in La Paz, Bolivia

What were some reasons for your desicion to go abroad?

I´ve been working that time already about 17 years in my fomer job as a teacher for

mathematics and physics at my school. My kids were already out of our house and

were living for their own. And I was asking myself: Has that been already everything? And I made a desicion to make a change in

my life.

Why Bolivia?

With A friend of mine I had already been studying Spanish at a Community College for one year. That´s why I was applying by the Foreign Office for a job as a teacher in some Spanish speaking countries as Chile, Argentina, Bolivia. After a certain time I got a re-registration from a school in LaPaz and after a few months I was on my way…..

Which words would you describe with your first impressions when you arrived in Bolivia?

• Fascination, a lot of new scents, confusion on the roads, a lot of native people with costumes, a completly other world…..

The way how people, animals and other stuff are transported

Public traffic

Tell me some things you couldn´t get used to….

• For example we were supposed to create at least one working place for some native people as maid, gardener, chauffer etc. in our house

• That was really difficult for me at the beginning, because I always did everything by myself. And I think it took me about a year to get used with a maid in my house. But after one year she was considered as a friend of the family, too and today I must say I miss her so much!!!!

What are some things you´ll never forget….

• Beside working with kids, who really want to learn a lot, finding a lot of new friends, all the excursions we did have been marvellous. We did a lot of hiking tours in that amazing and about short differences very fast changing nature, where we started in the highlands about 5000 meters above sea level with winter jacket, scarf and hat and came after 3 hours walking to the tropical rainforest and finished wearing only a T-shirt.

Crazy landscapes

The god of La Paz , the holy mountain Ilimani

View from the Isla de sol over the Titicaca to the Cordillera Real

Kids are carried on the back always