Expanding moments

Edy Leonet, between bites of an ice cream bar as we take
 the tram up to see the Christ statue and the view of
Chchabamba below

Lynn and I had a guest last week, Edy Leonet, a young man we first met when we were teaching at UAC-Carmen Pampa. Edy is from Caranavi and at UAC-CP was studying in the Ecotourism program.  Along with about 5 other young Bolivians he was selected to study English in the US.  When I last saw Edy we were were sitting together at a picnic table, shaded from the intense (for me) sunlight by a small roof of palm fronds.  My pupils dilated to pin pricks, we talked about the essay portion of the application he was about to submit.  As I recall, he seemed both enthusiastic and a little doubtful. It felt good to see him and the others applying. I knew that they couldn't all be selected, but I did hope that at least some of them would be, and not because the lives of young Bolivians would be incomplete without encountering US culture directly.  This scholarship was a necessary part of sustaining idealism, a tangible benefit to work toward, a peg up for his future. So I asked him some questions, and we talked. He was still working when I left him to hike back up to our apartment on the upper campus.

When we were midway in the process of relocating to Cochabamba, in a minibus with Rhegan Hyypio, Hugh Smeltekop, and the remainder of our belongings from UAC-CP, we received a cellphone call that Edy had reached the interview stage.  When we were beginning our search for a place to live in Cochabamba, we received a call from Edy himself he had been selected along with 35 other students from various countries to study English language  in Philadelphia at Drexel University. Lynn and I thought he was a good choice because of his ability and enthusiasm.  And last week, picking him up at the Cochabamba bus terminal after his experience in the US, we felt that our opinion was affirmed. He graduated beyond his first encounter experiences through media such as photos, film, and music.  He seemed impressed by the cleanliness and the processes by which work can be accomplished efficiently. He did not return with a sense of rapture that everything is better in the US or that he should live there rather than in his own country. He seemed instead glad to be back, glad to be visiting friends--us and others he knows in Cochabamba--speaking both Spanish and English and moving comfortably through the culture.

It felt very good to see him again.  It felt very good to see a young person work for something, achieve it, and not be disappointed by the result. We hope that Edy can use this for making his next steps toward completing his degree and that all of the other scholarship applicants will also find their opportunities.