Home at last

Hi everyone!

We have had requests from many people to continue our blog, at least for now, so here we are! Today's Waverly Democrat newspaper published a front-page article about our return, Here is a picture:

Since they don't publish all of the articles online, here is the text of the article and the two photos they used...

One year ago, the Cornforths of Waverly set out on the journey of a lifetime. After more than two years of planning and fundraising, they departed at last for a year of mission work in Bolivia, South America, the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. They traveled to the Unidad Academica Campesina (the UAC-CP), a small college in the tiny rural mountainside village of Carmen Pampa. Founded in 1993, the mission of the UAC-CP is to: provide higher education to the poor and marginalized; prepare young men and women who are called by Christian principle to serve the poor; guide young adults in their search for truth through education, research, and community service; and integrate the College’s work throughout Bolivia’s rural area.

The college started as a joint effort between the Catholic University of Bolivia in La Paz, the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Conception (MFIC), the Diocese of Coroico, Bolivia, and the sub-central Villa Nilo–a local governing body of the indigenous people, Nor Yungas, Bolivia. The people of Nor Yungas are mainly of Aymaran or Afro-Bolivian descent who, until 1952, were indentured slaves.

Sr. Damon Nolan, MFIC, who was living in the mountainous Yungas region, guided the four groups who were united in their concern regarding the absence of higher education for young people in one of South America’s poorest areas. Building a college, they agreed, would be a way to empower people from the rural area to respond to common problems and needs of the population. In 1992 an agreement was signed with the local farmers’ organization to build the College. Some farmers signed the pact with a thumbprint.

Jeff and Susan Cornforth visited the UAC-CP in 2001 when they were graduate students at South Dakota State University, one of several US institutions with which the UAC-CP has exchanged students and research projects. They were so inspired by the work and mission of the college, and its effect on the rural communities and people of Bolivia, that they returned after two weeks determined to return and help someday. Their youngest child, Delaney, grew up with talk of the day they would return to Bolivia, and the family felt called to go there together and serve God’s people. As Delaney prepared to begin high school, she began discussing the possibility of missing a year to go to Bolivia, and a family friend mentioned Iowa Learning Online, a program that would allow her to keep up her studies over the Internet while gone. Susan reached out to an old friend at the UAC-CP, Dr. Hugh Smeltekop, who by this time had become the Vice Director of the college, and began discussing the idea that the family would come for an entire year, with Delaney keeping up her studies online. He assured them an Internet connection was regularly available, and they realized that the time had come to make their dream a reality.

The family talked with their church, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Waverly, and they were very willing to help with fundraising and support the family in any way they could. Jeff and Susan, usually accompanied by Delaney, began fundraising in earnest, visiting over 20 churches and organizations and using social media to reach friends and family members out of state. Several committees of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa gave grants to help, plus St. Andrew’s raised funds before and during the year, supporting needs that came up as the mission developed. Without the generous gifts of people all over Iowa, and throughout the US, the mission would never have happened.

Landing on July 10, 2013, in La Paz, Bolivia, at the world’s highest international airport (13, 070 feet above sea level), the Cornforths then departed for the Yungas. As they settled in at the College, their work began. Susan taught English to two classes, one a group of students in the Agronomy department and the other in Education. At first, the students were hesitant and shy, but since Susan is a singer, she fills her life and surroundings with music wherever she goes. She began a tradition of creating a playlist of songs in English for her classes, and playing the music before class. She also used song lyrics in many lessons, teaching her students English while they sang along. Many times, she discovered some of her students had heard a song before and were eager to learn the words and what they meant. The music broke the ice, as students would crowd around her after class asking for copies of music she used in class and dancing and teasing each other. Susan says one of her favorite things about Bolivian culture is their artistic tendencies – they love to dance, sing, dress up, decorate, have parties. Over the two semesters she taught there, she made many friends among the students, and had great fun. Among other things, they baked banana bread together (using recipes in English to practice), played baseball, and sang karaoke. She learned to love them and their creativity, and learned much from them about the importance of joy in everyday life.

Jeff started out exercising his handyman skills, fixing things small and large all over the campus. He also designed and worked on several large projects during his year, including a hanging garden system to create a visual barrier along a set of stairs with an open side and no handrail, a fountain for a redesigned courtyard that reuses old satellite dishes, and a complete remodel of the library. His vision for library included an indoor garden and soft corner to encourage reading for pleasure, an almost unheard-of pastime in Bolivian culture.

Delaney spent much of her time working on her schoolwork, and with the Internet connection very unreliable at times, she sometimes needed extra hours to complete her schoolwork. Her volunteer work was centered on the children’s library in the village. A family from Minneapolis came in August with a large donation of books and helped her set it up, then she ran it by herself for the rest of the year. She took great delight in interacting with the village children, and established a weekly storytime where she could read to them. She also built a great relationship with the faculty and staff children on the campus where the family lived, often having them over to bake cookies or play games.

The family returned to Waverly on June 21, and was welcomed back by St. Andrew’s the following day. They say they will spend the next several weeks adjusting back to life in the US, and that the experience has changed forever their relationship with God and the way they think about the world and other people. “While we know this sort of mission is not for everyone, it was an incredible time for us, and we would encourage anyone who feels moved by the needs of others to act, whether that’s by spending a year in a developing country or by volunteering at your church or in the community. Get outside your ‘comfort zone’ and interact with people from other places or parts of society, and be open to other points of view,” says Susan.