Outdoor Classroom in Bolivia

In March 2025, I spent eleven days in Cochabamba, Bolivia, helping build an outdoor classroom near a neighborhood school.

The trip was a spring break program run by Connecticut College's Walter Commons for Global Study and Engagement with the organization AllPeopleBeHappy. Our group of twelve students, faculty and staff spent the work week with Alerta Verde, a local nonprofit, in the San Salvador neighborhood.

We dug holes and set cement posts. We fastened chicken wire, wooden bars and a tarp roof, then painted the structure. We made benches from wooden pallets and tables from cable reels. When we finished, the schoolchildren sang for us in English, Spanish and Quechua.

Outside the build, we stayed with host families and traveled the valley. We toured the Ucureña wastewater treatment plant, Laguna La Angostura and the old town of Tarata, where air plants grow on the power lines. We also visited Palacio Portales, Cristo de la Concordia and La Cancha, one of the largest open-air markets in South America.