This article appeared in our quarterly magazine, Xpress, in September 2005

 By Lucinda Bentley  - Pioneers  team member working with the Quechua people of Bolivia

“Nothing exciting ever happens to me, “ I grumbled, as the ancient, rattling bus carried me toward the Quechua farming center of Quilla Collo.  Later, I figured I must have been dreaming to have made that remark, for I returned from that very bus ride with a premature, one-month old baby in my arms to care for indefinitely.

That tiny Aymara baby boy had been left to smother under heavy woollen blankets on a wet, cold dirt floor.  He was rescued by his great aunt Marta, who named him “Moses”.  Let me tell you his story.

by Ellen Peters - Regional Leader (Middle Asia)

Published in our quarterly magazine "Xpress" in September 2006

I tried to distract my friend’s child as the enraged driver snatched up a crowbar and jumped off our minibus. A mob was already pouring into the remaining spaces around the unfolding scene to see who would win this contest between a Chinese driver and a minority man whose bicycle had been bumped by our bus. Some of the bystanders seemed edgy; others, eager for a good fight—ready to jump in at the slightest provocation.

Angry flare-ups aren’t that surprising in minority areas of China. Many minority people hate the Chinese, resentful that they aren’t given more privileges and freedoms; and Chinese sometimes look down on them as backward and uncultured. The anger often simmers just below the surface, until some incident turns up the heat, causing it to boil over into a violent eruption.