Hello! Some facts about me:

Name: Josh Yu

Hometown: Sugar Land, TX (30 min drive from Rice)

Major: Psych + Cert. in Spanish (Pre-Grad)

College: Lovett

Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, let me talk about the best summer ever. This Summer 2025 I got the chance to intern abroad in Bolivia through the Loewenstern Fellowship. My organization was El Banco de Alimentos de Bolivia, the first food bank in all of Bolivia. I heard it was the best placement from previous fellows so I applied there as my first choice, and now that I’m back, I also agree it is the best placement. If you’re applying, make sure to put El Banco de Alimentos as your first choice, you will not regret it. 

Much of the food bank’s work is rescuing surplus food from factories, farmers, vendors, etc. These could be food very close to their expiration date that they no longer wanted, or produce that had a weird color or shape but was perfectly edible. The food bank essentially receives this unwanted food and gives it to beneficiaries who need it. Without the food bank doing this work, the producers and companies often would just throw out their unwanted products in the trash.

Life in the food bank is full of adventure. Some days we would arrive at the bank at 5am, ready to ride 2 hours down south to the carrot farm to load up excess carrots (side note: these farmers are strong like for real. They don’t have very impressive physiques but I was so shocked at the weight of the bags they could hold. I managed to carry one bag but I was out the rest of the day (half joking)).

Some days we would arrive at 4am to get ready for the 3-hour venture up the mountain (higher than 12,000 ft above sea level!) to deliver food to remote, mountainous communities filled with children (another side note: these children often never come down the mountain and much less travel so many of them have never seen an Asian person before. At first they looked at me like I was some kind of alien but then they warmed up and we had so much fun playing soccer and other games).

Some days we would arrive at 6am to unload a truckload of soon-to-expire yogurt or other dairy products that needed to be distributed to beneficiaries ASAP.

 

 

Some days cars and cars of beneficiaries would pile up at the front of the food bank, ready to get their food, and we would all be scrambling and running around pushing items from the coolers to the cars or pushing sacks of rice and sugar on our carts to unload to the beneficiaries. Some days a truckload of frozen raw chickens would come, and you would spend time unloading chicken. Some days we went to the composting plant.

Some days it was slower, where I had ample time to chat with the workers there and cook piquemacho (kind of like poutine) or tucumanas (kind of like empanadas) at the food bank’s kitchen (when I say cook, I mean the most I did was chopped veggies while the people who actually knew how to cook cooked). Some days we would ride to the produce vendors, asking the sellers if there was any produce they did not want that they could donate, and we would spend the afternoon moving around sacks of fruits. One day Jheysson and I spent a few hours unloading the fuel tank from the cargo truck because it was leaking, and we had the small hole welded and put it back on ourselves. Many days we went to the potato factory to pick up unwanted potato scraps that could be eaten, and the drive back always included dodging stray dogs and one time included dodging cows (who apparently are unfazed when a 2 ton truck is moving towards them).

 

The first few weeks, my AirBnB’s shower would not churn out hot water, no matter how much I tried. I eventually called the AirBnB host to get it sorted out, only to have her come with the technician and find the heater was working perfectly, only for it to stop working later when I wanted to shower after work. I finally managed to tame my shower after finding out that the heater only didn’t work at night because the night wind would blow out the flame inside the water heater (it’s a gas heater and not an electric one). Afterwards, I no longer needed to shower in either ice cold water or lukewarm water. Furthermore, the reality of the economic crisis in the country was highlighted often as our food bank friends would tell us how much more certain items cost now that the country has been in crisis for a long time. The value of USD is very high in Bolivia, especially given the crisis. 

Having come from the hustle and bustle culture of the US, it was so nice and refreshing to experience a culture that was more peaceful than what I am accustomed to back in the States. Time is a very precious commodity for North Americans and it is not readily shared. In contrast, the food bank workers graciously took us out on adventures over the weekend, such as to the “La Cancha” market or to see some festivities. I was shocked that they didn’t expect me to send them a google calendar invite to hang out (half joking) with the start and end time of the hangout perfectly planned, but instead were spontaneous about it and we only left after we all had our fill of wholesome conversation and laughter. I wonder what it is about being so busy that makes us feel so important back in the US, when in reality it’s slowly killing us. I am not shocked that anxiety is not as rampant in Bolivia as it is in the States. 

My boss, Jheysson, joked how life in the food bank is very unpredictable. And it was often very unpredictable. One day you’re eating lunch at the restaurant we always go to, another day you’re eating street food in the large cargo van after picking up sacks of donated carrots. Another day you don’t eat lunch until 4pm because it took 3 hours to drive down the mountain. While at first I was a bit uncomfortable with the spontaneity, instead used to the American work culture of carefully planned out schedules (down to the T and minute by minute g-cals appointments), I have come to appreciate spontaneity and the willingness to be flexible, because that makes life exciting! 

The food bank workers are like a family, often opting to spend extended time with each other outside of work. I find this humanitarian work to be very life-giving and worthwhile: the sheer number of lbs of food rescued and given to beneficiaries demonstrates this fact. I loved the close-knit, family environment that was created to help those in need.

I got to make meaningful relationships outside of the food bank as well. I attended a church pastored by a Korean missionary who ended up marrying a Bolivian wife and now has 2 kids. The family has stayed here for decades, pastoring 2 churches. The pastor preaches in the morning, then drives an hour to his other church to preach in the afternoon. They also assist and help the many needy families in the countryside of Cochabamba. They treated me with the utmost respect and love, despite not having much resources themselves. I am forever grateful for them.

Of course, it was not all glam and glamour. On our first ride up the mountain to deliver food, we got stopped by a group who pulled a large tree trunk in the middle of the road to serve as a blockade. Blockades are not that uncommon in Bolivia, especially during this year since it was close to the election date and protests were happening. I was surprised to see them there at like 5am in the morning, but after some discussion they still wouldn’t let us through so we turned around. 

Some days the work left me so tired I couldn’t do my grad school apps or work on my senior thesis. Some days we left way later than the usual 6pm. Some days I got some chicken juice on me as we were unloading the frozen raw chicken and for some reason it really irritated me. Some days loneliness really hit me extremely hard as I isolated myself in my apartment, missing my family (the food bank workers made it a point to ensure we were never lonely which I appreciate so much, but one is bound to feel lonely at times being in a foreign country for an extended time). Originally I would get irritated when some locals would ask me where I was from and having to answer their incredulous facial expressions when I told them I was from America (I’m Chinese-American). However, I eventually let go of my easy-to-offend nature, learning that in their school books, Americans are always white and have blonde hair. Once when I was in the produce market I heard some kids yell “Japonés! Japonés” (which is Spanish for Japanese) when I’m actually Chinese, but I let it roll off after having my paradigm shift. Some days my Spanish seemed to downgrade overnight and I would stop mid-sentence, let out a frustrated vocalization of annoyance at my inability to conjugate properly or having forgotten a word. I am thankful the food bank workers never got irritated or impatient at my Spanish and always restated something when I said “no entiendo” (I don’t understand). I also got super sick in like the third week with diarrhea! It’s super easy to schedule doctor appointments in Bolivia and Jheysson (my boss who is also a certified medical doctor) helped me out so much in scheduling and anything medical-related.

Of course, I need to shout out the food as Cochabamba is the gastronomic capital of Bolivia. Shout out to piquemacho, tucumanas, silpancho (big ol patty like meat with potatoes and vegetables and rice), chicharron (fried pork), anticuchos (cow heart), buñelos (fried dough), salteñas (empanadas filled with a rich meaty broth), charque (shredded dried meat) and fruits that don’t exist here in Texas (at least to my knowledge): Copoazu, Chirimoya (Custard Apple), and I promise you for some reason the mandarins and oranges in Bolivia are 10x better than the US’s. Shoutout to “el restaurante” that we would always go to during our lunch break that had the best food in all of Cochabamba (seriously it was so good I always looked forward to lunch and at my last meal there I told the cooks their food is the best in the whole city). 

 

 

I never expected to use my Mandarin Chinese in Bolivia but then through one of the food bank workers I got to meet a Taiwanese-Bolivian. He immigrated here from Taiwan in his 20s and has lived here since, seeing the country change drastically from the late 20th century to now (I have never met a Taiwanese who only spoke Mandarin and Spanish! It was very exciting). 

Through all the many ups and few downs, I am so thankful for the best summer ever in Bolivia and wish to return soon. Thank you El Banco de Alimentos, thank you Jhey, Yu, Caro, Lau, Gio, Gabi, Pio, Dannery, Doña Rosita, Pame, Nayra, Buo Buo, Ale, Azul, Pastor Kim, Pastora Erica, Jhosua, Isaias, Daniel, Ivan, Umaña. Thank you Walter Loewenstern for making this all possible, for Kelsey’s unending care and guidance, for Lizzie, my Rice travel buddy, for putting up with me for 10 weeks, thank you Neha (she was the Loe Fellow last year who went to Bolivia) who helped us out soooooo much. Finally, thank you Bolivia, I hope to return soon!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 5th, 2025 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Bolivia (Loewenstern). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.