The first tentative talks about the possibility of a teaching mission to Bolivia began in June of 1998 at the annual conference of the Association of Christian Librarians. We had a semi-formal meeting to discuss the possibility at the 1999 annual conference-nearly a year before it would actually happen-at a meeting of the Commission for International Library Assistance (CILA), a ministry of the Association. The mission of CILA is to provide support for libraries in developing countries where there is a lack of formal training or financial resources. It does so by serving as an umbrella organization to coordinate requests and match them up with volunteers willing to spend some time abroad
