In Bolivia, people grow cocoa plants and they chew the leaves and make tea of it. It also has some religious significance for the religion of the Aymara people.

Chewing the cocoa leaves and drinking the tea helps with altitude sickness (It’s 10,000+ feet high there) and various other things, like it causes one to lose weight.

The controversial part of all of this is that cocoa leaves are the main ingredient of cocaine. Some of the cocoa leaves are being transported to Columbia, where it is turned into cocaine and then smuggled into the US and western Europe.

Now, the cocoa tea and chewing cocoa leaves is not the same as using cocaine, much like eating grapes is not the same as drinking wine or that grain is not the same as beer. As a matter of fact, when the Queen of England and when the Pope visited Bolivia, both of them drank some cocoa tea. When you come into an hotel, the cocoa tea is right there in the main lobby, much like coffee is available for drinking in many grocery stores.

It’s also a point of contention between the US and Bolivia. But anyways, this would be getting into politics.

Anyways, that’s the story behind the cocoa tea.

Talking about Bolivia. I just got 6 childpackets of Bolivian children looking for sponsors. They are all in projects, where I sponsor children. If anyone wants to sponsor one of these children, let me know and I’ll send you some additional pictures of the some of the staff and with some of them even pictures of the project.

Kees

Thanks for sharing it with us. Your story has inspired me to go see my child in Haiti. But it isn’t until next March. Which is good in a way, because I can start saving now.

I was on the fence about visiting because I felt I would want to spend more than one day with her, but I see that I will be able to help other children while there, too.

By the way, what is cocoa tea???

Tina

Originally Posted By Dana WilliamsDear Kees,

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience in Colombia in a way that made it come alive for your readers. I often read the Compassion blog aloud to my five children so that they can experience the greatness and the love of God as He works in such amazing ways to care for His people and to bring them to Him. Our family is so blessed to be Compassion sponsors and I want to thank you again for your loving heart toward the children of Colombia and for bringing your experience to life for our family.

@Dana Williams -

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience in Columbia in a way that made it come alive for your readers. I often read the Compassion blog aloud to my five children so that they can experience the greatness and the love of God as He works in such amazing ways to care for His people and to bring them to Him. Our family is so blessed to be Compassion sponsors and I want to thank you again for your loving heart toward the children of Colombia and for bringing your experience to life for our family.

Yes, I do owe you a cup of Cocoa tea. I’ll be in Bolivia in a few weeks. The only thing is that I don’t think that I can take cocoa leaves into the USA without possibly getting into some serious problems. I can doublecheck. I know one AC, who took some back without problems. Supposedly, drinking cocoa tea will cause significant weightloss too.

Kees

Sometimes, a company will sponsor several hundred children with Compassion or a sponsor is not able or interested in writing. If the sponsor or the company agrees, another person could write for the sponsor. The correspondent will get the letters and will answer them. Generally, the correspondent child will think of the correspondent as their sponsor, though on this trip to Columbia, a child asked me if I was the sponsor or a correspondent. But from what I understand, the children tend to think that the correspondent is the sponsor. I do know that the project staff knows that the person writing is a correspondent.

Kees

This is the real ministry part of sponsorship, as the correspondent sponsor develops the relationship. Normally, the child knows of only the person who is corresponding.

The risk to the correspondent sponsor is that the funding sponsor will end the sponsorship. When that happens, Compassion gives the correspondent sponsor the option of taking over the full sponsorship. If that is not possible, they will let you write a final letter to the child.