Saying Goodbye in Bolivia

Ana Maria (Director of Walt Disney Bilingue School - Cochabamba, Bolivia) & Alia

Saying goodbye to Ana Maria was really rugged. Lot's of tears on all our parts. This woman gave so much to us from her heart and hearth during our stay in Cochabamba. She offered a place to 'flee' and be safely harbored so Alia could leave her boyfriend. Without Ana Maria things would have been far more stressful and complicated. I am eternally grateful. My daughter is the most important special person to me in the whole world and for someone else to MamaBear my daughter and myself like she did; well.....that is a friend for life!

Ana Maria you rock!!!


Our Bolivian Family - Ana Maria, (Alia), Alexander, Gustavo, Nicolas


Ana Maria is special in all sorts of ways. Ana Maria was Alia's employer. She runs the Walt Disney BiLingue School in Cochabamba. She started this school 11 years ago. There are about 70 students in 4 different classes, ranging from 1 1/2 years to 5 years from the babies to Kindergarten. Every class including the babies receives an English lesson in addition to their usual pre-school and Kindergarten activities and lessons. Alia would spend about 45 minutes in each class singing and using various word play, stories and games to teach them English. They picked it up fast! It was awesome to watch Alia teach. She is soooo good at it! Ana Maria said that Alia was the best teacher she ever had!

Why aren't our schools in the U.S. bilingual? There are many other schools in Bolivia that teach English from Kindergarten onward. Both Nicholas and Alexander study in a BiLingue school. Yes Nickola's and Alexanders schools are private but Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and yet they have a dedication to learning English. There are many political economic and historical reasons for Bolivians to learn English for sure, but learning a second language at a young age in the supposedly richest country in the world should be an educational priority in both our private and public schools IMHO. But I digress.....

Before I arrived in Bolivia Ana Maria had just received word that she had 'won the lottery,' and received a Diversity Visa to the U.S.A. She is so excited! Bolivians have very little opportunity to leave there own country no matter what there economic status is. Until recently, Bolivians were able to go to Spain and work if they had enough cash for the plane ticket. That has recently been closed and apparently there were thousands and thousands of Bolivians trying to get out of the country, over-booked flights, a complete mess.

With the Diversity Visa offered by the U.S. there are long lines and thousands and thousands of Bolivian applicant's for very few slots and visas to the U.S. that are completely drawn by lottery and luck of the draw. For a good source on information about this see: The Democracy Center's Blog from Bolivia's post: Getting a Visa from the U.S. Embassy: The View from Inside.

Ana Maria's dream is to teach in the U.S. and hopefully and eventually open up a bilingual school here in the U.S. (perhaps with Alia!?!) She has a few more hoops to jump through but in November she will know more about the status of her Visa and when she can expect to travel to the U.S. She will be able to legally work and live here and this Visa is available for her entire family. I really hope to help her and her family as much as possible to make this transition. Securing a job for Ana Maria is essential soooo friends if you know resource and contacts in the Educational field in the US for Ana Maria that might help, please let me know. Ana Maria as well as her family are very fluent in English. Her son Alexander will be graduating from High School this year and wishes to study Physics in the U.S.

The Girl Club - Cochabamba, Bolivia

Once again, Thank you Ana Maria!!!!! Thank you Alexander, Nicolas and Gustavo and all 70 + of those wonderful smily goofy Bolivian kids I had the pleasure to play with!!!!