About five years ago I had the opportunity to do some volunteer work with an organization in Bolivia. It is a very poor area. A community of about 400 people with one water well, many chickens, no electricity and children walking around dirty and naked.
Most families possess their clothes, a few hand-tools and some livestock.
It is the type of place where your personal hygiene, what you eat and what you drink is of critical importance, all the time. We were there to work with some locals to help construct a permanent community center that could also serve as a flood relief center. It was a long, hot, ten days but across the language barrier and obvious cultural barrier we seemed to connect with the local people. The bond between all of us grew remarkably. Finally, the last day one of the men, through a translator, invited us to his daughter's fifteenth birthday party.