Well, as you've probably guessed by now, I am no longer in Bolivia. About a month ago we were evacuated to Peru, and from there told that the program was being postponed for a while. I'm in a rush right now, so you'll have to either wait for the details later or just give me a call. I just wanted to let you know that I'm safe and sound and back in the states.

Oh my gosh, where do I begin? I was planning on writing about how my neighbor died and my shower blew up last week, but now I think I should save that for later. Things are getting pretty dicey down here. I'm actually in Cochabamba right now being consolidated with all of the other volunteers. So how did I get here? Good question. Well, after Ben and I got back to Charagua (after being trapped in Santa Cruz for a week), things took a turn for the worse. The blockades started getting bigger and bigger and there was rioting in Santa Cruz. Apparently the anti-Morales sentiment is high in some areas, mostly because he is trying to redistribute land from those who have a ton to the people who have very little (which happens to mostly mean the indigenous people), he's distributing Santa Cruz's profits from their oil line to the entire country (as a kind of social security plan), and more. I'll give you all the tiny details later, I'm pretty tired right now and nothing seems to be making sense at the moment. But what basically is happening is that all the rich people are pissed because Morales is trying to share the wealth among everyone. So the rebels (anti-Morales people) have been protesting his actions by taking over federal buildings, blowing up oil production areas, and in general causing a ruckus. That left Ben and I trapped in Charagua without any gas (i.e. no gas equals no cooking) with a dwindling money and food supply. Then to top it all off, Morales asked the U.S. Ambassador to leave the country Wednesday night. Thursday morning we were gathering the materials to try to build a solar oven (out of cardboard boxes, aluminum foil, and glass), but luckily we didn't have to try it out because later that afternoon I get a call from my boss asking if I can leave Charagua asap. Seeing as how the train was blocked and the roads as well, that was looking pretty undoable. Not only that, no one was sure even where to go. After a few phone calls telling us to go here, then there, then somewhere else, we were finally told to go to Camiri, where other volunteers were already consolidated. The reason Ben and I weren't there already was because a)we didn't know about it and b) we were trapped in Charagua. However, we were eventually able to talk a private taxi driver to take us through backroads (ie cattle trails) to Camiri, about three hours south. The only down side was that he charged us 500 Bolivianos!! That's two month's rent for Ben!! It was unbelievable, but since he was our only hope and we were ordered to go, we had to suck it up and pay it. He literally took the last of our money. So Friday morning we wake up at 4:30 in the morning, pack a bag each and are on the road at 5:30am. We get into Camiri between 8:30 and 9am, and then are told that a private plane is coming to pick us up. In total there were 8 volunteers waiting there. Since the plane could only take four of us at a time (yeah, it was tiiiiiiiny!!), one group left at 10am straight for ················, while the last three and I waited for our 12:30 plane. The "airport," since there really isn't one, was just a flat grassy area where a tiny plane could technically land if necessary. We show up at noon, thinking we'd be off in a half hour on our way to ·········· and all would be well. However, around 1pm we get a call saying that the plane won't get there until 3pm, and that not only that, the plane wouldn't be able to take us all the way there. Instead, we'd have to fly north up to Santa Cruz (where all the rioting is going on!) and then transfer planes and from there head to ···········. And that's exactly what we did. After waiting in the grassy lot for waaaay too long, we finally boarded the world's cutest plane and took a nice trip up north. It was beautiful and totally worth all this maddness! Well, maybe not exactly, but close. After landing we squeezed out of that plane and ran to the next one, which had been waiting for us for hours. The second plane was just as small, but even more beautiful since we were heading west, straight into the sunset. From the airport we were met by a peace corps guy and driven to the hotel where everyone is staying (well, technically not everyone since some are at a different hotel that filled up before we could all get there). That's when we learned that we were on lock down! We're literally not allowed to leave the hotel the entire time we're here. They are serving all our meals here and so we're just cooped up here until this whole thing blows over. So anyway, by the time we got into the hotel, settled down, and had dinner, I was more than ready to pass out. Today the only plans I have are to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The rest of my day is up for grabs. No one knows how long we will be here or what is to happen next. We don't know if we'll ever be going back to our sites, or if we'll be asked to leave. I've gotten to the point where I just don't care anymore. I can't make plans, since things here can change at the drop of a dime, so I'm just going to take it one day at a time. I'm really bummed that we left Charagua on such short notice, though. Since we left at 5 in the morning, I was unable to tell anyone that I was leaving!! My soccer team is going to have to play without me today (even after I guaranteed them that I'd be there!!), the school that I was planning on giving nutrition presentations to for the next two weeks are going to be wondering where I am, and I had a date this week to go out to a nearby community where we were going to discuss putting in a tree nursery!! I feel so bad that I'm letting so many people down!! Hopefully I'll be able to contact at least someone soon to tell them what is happening.
Sorry that was so much info and it was all jumbled, I'm still pretty tired from yesterday's travels. I'll try to clear things up more later. But for right now I'm safe and sound. A little bored, but safe. Keep your fingers crossed that things get sorted out soon!!

OK folks, this is gonna be a long one, so bare with me. The good news is that I am writing this from good old Charagua, so that means that I at least escaped Santa Cruz, but believe me, it wasn’t easy. Since we had never intentionally meant to go to Santa Cruz (we were on our way down south to give a presentation), we were basically trying to get back to Charagua since last Wednesday. Each day we’d call the security guy asking if we could go, but each day the bloqueo continued and thus we were stuck with nothing to do but spend money and wish we were back. We even bought a return ticket for Monday after talking to the flota lady who said that the flotas were running and could avoid the blockades, but were denied permission to leave because it was thought that it was too dangerous. But I guess our tactic of calling the security guy day in and day out for a week finally paid off because Wednesday morning, although the bloqueos were still in place, we were granted permission to take the flota. As soon as we got the go ahead we ran (or took a taxi, same thing) to the flota place to be given the very last (and also the crappiest) seats on the bus. So at 2pm Wednesday we took off headed for home sweet home. I should also mention that it was a bazillion degrees and 130% humidity, so this trip was no picnic. I wore a skirt hoping for a breeze, but alas no breeze blows on an overcrowded bus with bags on your lap. Anyway, as we were nearing the outskirts of the city, the driver suddenly took a turn down a tiny dirt road. I figured this was some sort of short cut to get around the bloqueos and thought nothing of it. Soon after, however, we find ourselves at the end of a long long long line of other buses, cars, and trucks. We were blocked!! I was so mad!! Here we were, only 30 minutes into our trip when we become blocked! And there was no way to turn around either because we were surrounded on both sides by fences and behind us more cars and buses were already coming up and trapping us. I kept telling myself that we should have just followed the security guy’s advice and waited until the blockade was over! This was awful! All these ideas kept running through my head of ways to go back. I figured we could jump onto the roof of the bus and undo the tarp which covered our bags, then walk the couple miles back to the city and catch a taxi from there. Or if that didn’t work I could call the Santa Cruz office and have them send emergency help to come get us (although I think at that point we were out of phone service range). I was sure we were going to be stuck for at least the night, so I already started planning out where I would put my sleeping bag and pad (luckily we had our camping stuff because we were planning on camping where we were going to give our presentation) and how for dinner we were going to share the three cookies I had left over from lunch. Ben, however, was reading a book and paid absolutely no attention to any of this. I guess it’s good that at least one of us was calm. An hour passes as we wait in that hot sweaty bus, in the very back seat whose seats do not recline, baking in the sun. At this point I’m about to implent my emergency plan, when the bus slowly starts crawling ahead, following the buses in front of it. Hope! Then it stops for a minute or so. Despair! Then it goes again! Hope! Then it stops again. Despair! It goes on like that for another 20 minutes or so, until we finally, somehow make it onto a paved road!! Yes!! Finally, we were in business! Even though we were an hour and a half behind schedule, I was still feeling pretty good. We continued on this way for an hour or so, when all of a sudden a back tire, the one directly below my seat, blew out. I was crushed. I couldn’t believe this was happening!! We were in the middle of nowhere and we all had to evacuate the bus while the guys replaced the flat tire, then patched the bad tire and filled it with air. This took another 40 minutes or so. Although I must say that I was thankful for the pee break. Now only 2 and a quarter hours behind schedule. Oh well, oh well, no problem. After a few more miles, we come upon a huge mountain of sand and rocks placed directly in the middle of the road in an effort to block traffic. We couldn’t pass it. So, unperturbed, the driver basically makes his own path onto a back road, which we take for a half hour or so until we are beyond the dirt mountain. And let me tell you, the back of the bus feels every pebble, every dip, every bump in the road 1,000 times more than the people in the front. Seriously, my tailbone is sore from all the ups and down of last night’s trip. I spent half the time in the air and half the time in my seat. At one point I actually had to hold onto my own neck to keep it from getting knocked around. Anyway, after the adventurous back roads adventure, we finally make it into our normal pee stop. I bought a soda to quench my thirst and shove my way up to a stand to get my hands on some food since I know we won’t make it home at a decent hour to eat dinner. Whatever it was they were selling and that I ate, I got the very last one. I really don’t know how to describe it except that it was a little ball of fried something. Ben wouldn’t even eat it! It had a potatoey taste and I think there was even some beef in it. Who knows? All I knew was that I was hungry and I wanted to eat whatever it was that was sitting there. And even though it was cold and probably had been sitting in that guy’s basket for a while, it was actually pretty tasty! So after that little stop we were back on the road. Another half hour and we were at the end of the paved road, about to get onto the dirt road that leads straight to Charagua. From there it’s usually about four hours to Charagua, so I was guessing we would get in around 11pm (normal arrival time 8pm). Boy was I wrong, but in a good way. That driver sped the entire way!! I had never seen anything like it. It’s pitch black outside and he’s taking those turns like he was in a racecar, not a top heavy loaded bus full of innocent people!! The wheels were creaking, luggage was flopping all over the bus, and I was holding onto my neck so that it didn’t snap off! Sleeping or even resting was impossible. You were literally bouncing up and down in your seat. My head hit the seat in front of me, my own seat, and the window several times. Despite all the pain and discomfort, it was the funnest experience ever. It was literally like the world’s longest rollercoaster. It had the same speed, the same turns, the same queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach; it was amazing! Ben was a little less happy about it then me, but I certainly enjoyed myself. Plus, we ended up getting into Charagua at 9pm. The driver saved us two entire hours with his wonderful reckless driving! In short, he was my hero. We even passed a small forest fire like it nothing. I don’t know what was going on there, but we sped through charred trees, still glowing red from the recent fire.

And that’s not the end. So the next morning (today) we wake up and take our time to unpack, water the plants, eat breakfast, etc. At 9am I finally go talk to my land lady to pay the rent. She tells me that if I need to buy food I had better hurry over to the mercado right this second because Santa Cruz has enacted a paro civico (it’s like a department-wide strike) and that the market is closing in one hour for the next several days!!! I couldn’t believe it! Not only that, there is a blockade in Charagua, too, so that if we had tried to leave from Santa Cruz today we would be out of luck. Basically we had got in at the last possible moment. I think the blockade and paro civico are going to last until at least Saturday, and maybe even until Monday. I sprinted to the market and bought as much as I could (it was slim pickings since everyone else heard about the paro before me and cleaned out the place) so that I’ll have food for as long as this strike lasts. Even the teachers are on strike! The kids went to school today like always, and then were sent home at 10am as the strike started. We couldn’t even talk to the school director because she left as soon as the strike started! I then went to talk to my work partner about building the vivero, and he said he was on his way to go help with the blockade efforts!! He’s going out with a bunch of guys to put more dirt and sticks on the road. When I asked him when he’s going to return he said “well it all depends on if I get shot at by the police or not”!!!! Basically everything has shut down in Santa Cruz for a while. The reason for all the madness is way over my head, but this is what I’ve gathered so far. Santa Cruz has a lot of natural gas that they use within the country and export to neighboring countries as well. In the past 85% of the money Santa Cruz makes off it went to the federal government and 15% went back to Santa Cruz to do with it what they wanted (school breakfasts, etc). Now, however, the president is dividing that 15% among all 9 departments, so Santa Cruz is pissed. I guess a lot of programs depended on that 15% and now it is not going to be there. I don’t know if this problem can be resolved by blockading roads and not working, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I’m just worried because a lot of the projects I’m planning need funding that now might not be there. But I haven’t given up hope yet.

In other news (amazing news, I might add), we found Oso and he’s alive!!! He is now walking on all fours and looking much better. His jaw bone is still sticking out (the skin and flesh around it is gone), but I think it’s fine. He’ll look a little funny from now on, but at least he’s healed!! I bought a chicken in celebration, so now he’ll dine on chicken feet, guts, neck, and head!! Yay!! Our plants are also getting bigger, and we’re going to be transplanting them soon. In short, I’m glad to be back in Charagua and anxious for all this fighting and protesting mumbo jumbo to be over. I guess we’ll just take it one day at a time and see what happens!!

Still stuck. Ugh! It's been just about a week. The blockades are still going strong, although the protestors are having a meeting tonight, meaning that if they work things out we'll be able to go home tomorrow!! Keep your fingers crossed!!

So here's the deal, we're trapped in Santa Cruz. Again. It all started Wednesday when we left Charagua to give a taller (workshop, informational talk, whatever you want to call it) in a little town south of us called Boyuibe. The taller was scheduled for Thursday morning, everything was planned and ready to go, all we had to do was get there. So Wednesday morning we get on the flota and make it to Abapo, where our plan was to get off the flota and take a taxi down south to another town called Camiri, where we would then get out and get on yet another taxi to Boyuibe. Lots of work, yes, but pretty standard. So everything is going well until we learn of a huge blocade along the main highway running from Santa Cruz all the way south. So basically we're sitting on the side of the road in a truck stop town waiting for a taxi that is never going to come because of the blockade. It was unbelievable!! After a 4.5 hour bus ride in the hot hot heat and humidity, we got to sit on the side of a highway for another 2.5 hours sweating to death in the sun! It was awful!! Luckily there were two other couples (one bolivian and one menonite) waiting with us to get to camiri, but after almost three hours (by that time it was getting late) we gave up. The next task was to find a place to stay. The only other place, although 2 hours away still, was Santa Cruz. So the next taxi we see we flag down and load our stuff in the car. So Wednesday night we stay in Santa Cruz, hoping that we can at least make it to the rodeo (there was a big rodeo planned for this weekend, and most of the volunteers were going to go check it out) on Friday. As luck would have it, the blockade is not letting up and the rodeo itself has been canceled. So at that point we said, well, at least we tried, and got ready to go buy our bus tickets back to Charagua. Right at that moment I got a call from the security guy saying, there is a blockade back to your site, so you must stay in Santa Cruz until further notice. So that's where I am right now. Waiting in Santa Cruz without a purpose until the roads clear up. The up side is that I got to watch two days of the democratic convention, so that was cool. Just wanted to give you a quick update. I've got lots of activities planned in Charagua, if I ever get back, and I'm excited to get going!! I'll keep you updated on how all that goes once I get back.

Ok. One more thing I forgot to add. The whole time in Santa Cruz there was a hunger strike going on in the main plaza. There was a money issue I guess, and a lot of projects different organizations had planned (including CIAT) were not getting funded. So for almost two weeks the organizations set up tents and mattresses in the central plaza and just layed there, not eating and making a big fuss. But Friday it was over, so they either got the money or needed a sandwhich, one or the other. But the scary thing was that Friday during the day and night there was a huge fight going on about rights for handicapped people. Apparently they were supposed to get support from the government (money, etc.) but they weren{t getting it, so they started a protest outside of some important building. Well, I guess push came to shove and a huge fight broke out, full of tear gas and police beating up handicapped people. Seriously, you could hear the tear gas bombs going off all day during our meeting and all night. Some of my friends went shopping after the meeting and didn{t know about it and found themselves right in the middle of a mad rush. Saturday morning while walking to get breakfast my eyes suddenly started burning. I didn{t know what was going on until I realized it was left over tear gas roaming the streets!! Seriously, that stuff burns!! At first I thought it was pesticides since I had just picked up a leaf to look at the cool bugs on it, but then a second later Ben{s eyes started burning too. It was crazy!! Later that day there was another protest, but luckily I didn{t get involved. Tomorrow there{s going to be a country wide strike, too. I don{t know what this one{s about, but luckily I{m safe and sound in Charagua.

So it’s been a while since I’ve written and there’s been a zillion things going on. I’ll try my best to catch you all up on what I’ve been doing. Ok, last Sunday, August 10th, there was a voting held throughout all of Bolivia to determine if the people wanted the president to remain in power or not. He was certain that the people liked him, despite what some were saying, so he kind of challenged the country to a voting. Not that he would get kicked out or anything would change if he didn’t get the 51%, he just wanted to know if he was liked by the majority. At the same time they also polled the people on if they liked the prefectos of each department (I guess they would be like the governors), although I think that those guys would be kicked out if they didn’t get the majority vote. So that was all fine and dandy, but the weeks leading up to the election were a little dicey for peace corps volunteers. We were accused many times of being spies for the U.S., the president’s helicopter crashed and he doesn{t think it was an accident (although he hasn{t come out and blamed anyone yet), the American embassy was attacked and the next day the Bolivian police that helped protect the building were fired, and two volunteers received threats in their sites that if they weren’t removed something bad would happen. So needless to say we were on alert. The new director decided that it would be best if all of the volunteers were consolidated in a safe location before and during the voting, just so that we’d be safe in case things got crazy. Therefore, the Sunday before the election, or two Sundays ago, all 120 or so of the volunteers, from all departments gathered in a secure location (I’m not allowed to say where) to wait it out. And although it sounds scary and ominous, it was a blast! I got to see everyone from training and got to meet tons of new people. We stayed in a REALLY nice place, with a pool, a volleyball court, basketball court, soccer field, and more. Every 4 or 5 of us shared these cute little cabins that came equipped with two bathrooms, a frig, and a tv! It was awesome! And our meals were all paid for, all we had to do was show up and eat! It was a little strange, though; we had to sign in with the security guard at every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner. One of my friends decided to sleep in on Saturday, and soon the security guard came looking for him, thinking he was a missing person and that it had to be reported to Washington. These guys meant business. In general we spent our days either in boring (but helpful) meetings, or with “free time” meetings where we could discuss whatever we wanted. And of course in the evenings there were always games going on. You could choose from basketball, volleyball, soccer, or swimming. I played my heart out at soccer two days in a row, and on the third I discovered that I could no longer walk. I guess I’m not as young as I used to be. After that I just kind of hobbled around and read by the pool. Ok, so up until Monday night, no one had any idea of how long we would be staying. It was like we were in a time warp, just waiting to get some news of the outside world, but not really caring either way since we were all having so much fun. Finally on Monday night we heard that Sunday went Ok, Evo got 60% of the vote, my perfecto got voted back in (every perfecto except for Oruro and Cochabamba, I think), and there were no major incidences. So Tuesday morning we were packed up and ready to get out of there by 8am.

Most everyone went straight to their sites, except for the Santa Cruz volunteers in my group, who had a 4 day workshop in Santa Cruz along with our counterparts (the dudes we work with, or are supposed to work with in our sites). So Tuesday morning, after throwing our stuff in our bags and being bused all the way back to the city in the pouring rain, found ourselves giving 15 min. power point presentations in Spanish and trying not to fall asleep (we had a good bye party the night before, and not all of us were our 100%). But it actually went better than I thought, seeing as to how my counterpart actually came, which was a big surprise for me. So for the next three days we were booked from 8:30am to 6pm having a project design workshop, which although extremely boring, is quite useful. So by Friday night we were free. Ben and I spent Saturday in the city grocery shopping and picking up a few extra things, and finally made the trip back to Charagua last night. It feels really good to be back. I missed Oso, and was sad to discover that while I was gone got himself into a big dog fight. His jaw is all screwed up and he can’t walk on his front right leg. You can actually see the bite marks in it! But I think that with a little rest and food he’ll be back to normal in no time. I’ve got a ton of project ideas to do with CIAT and now with my counterpart, too. I’m excited to get started! I’ll tell you how everything goes once I get settled in more.