Now that Carnival is over, everything is much more relaxed and I’m slightly less paranoid about walking down the street. So life is good. Especially since I’m loving my training classes. Last week we planted a garden of tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, cucumbers, cabbage, lettuce, beets, carrots, and beans. The only unfortunate part was that I had to pick up piles of cow poop with my bare hands to mix into the soil. That’s right, bare hands. Poop. Yuck. But hey, it was kind of old and dry, I’m not sick as of yet, and we have a gorgeous garden, so it was worth it. By the end of the three months they say we’ll be able to eat some of the veggies! We also made a compost pile next to it, which was really fun. And I wasn’t even poop girl for that project. I just dissolved this sugar stuff and mixed it with yeast to feed all the little microorganisms. To give you a mental picture, I was wearing this huge, extremely ugly sun hat that all the women wear here because the sun will just burn your head right off, and sitting next to a pig sty filled with 12 3-day-old piglets and their mom. I also occasionally had to use one of the several machetes to cut more grass for the compost pile. Machete and sun hat makes me just about as Bolivian as I can get.
On Thursday my group traveled to Pacona, this tiny town about 3 hours away in the middle of nowhere. We had to take land rovers because we basically had to off-road it over half of the way there. It was insane. We crossed rivers, drove over huge piles of rocks from landslides, and blazed right through thick mud. Just the ride alone was well worth the trip. But once we were there we learned how to make biofertilizers and natural pesticides. It was really fun. We spent one night there, in a nunnery in fact. They blared these horribly loud organs every hour on the hour. And the worst part was that the organs were broken, so they started out nice and happy, and then after about 2 minutes they warped into this demonic sound that no one seemed to notice except for us. So for 5 minutes every hour on the hour we listened to satanic organ music. But hey, that’s just part of the fun I guess.
There are about 400 inhabitants, but I personally saw about 10. We worked in the garden and green house all day Friday (in between eating this HUGE meals like every 2 hours) and then headed back Friday afternoon. But get this, we found out there were Incan ruins close to Pacona, so we convinced our instructor to take us there!! It was amazing!! We had to walk a ways to get to the starting point because the car couldn’t ford this huge river, but that was even more of an adventure. I crossed the sketchiest bridge I’ve ever seen in my whole life and lived to tell about it. And the ruins themselves were pretty neat. I mean, it’s just a pile of rubble, but you could still feel something spooky/creepy/awesome about it. And there was also a huge beautiful waterfall we had to walk under to get there, which was amazing.
So after spending an hour or two there we finally headed back (at 5:30pm!!). I was starving even then, but little did I know how long I was going to have to wait. We told our host families that we would be back for dinner, so we couldn’t stop along the way to eat (not that there was anything even remotely close to us). Finally around 8pm we got into Cochabamaba and would have been home around 8:20 except that there was a blocade up for some reason, meaning that the roads into our community were closed!! We sat in a big line for a while, then the driver jumped the curb and starting driving on the sidewalk to try to get out of the line. We then jumped over the concrete divide and starting driving in the opposite direction of traffic trying to get to a road further ahead. It was crazy. Once we finally turned down a road (no one knew where we were, not even the drivers), we just drove around and around trying to find back roads into the community. We asked everyone we came across, but most of them were drunk. It was such an adventure. Finally around 9:30 we got into our town and I was dropped off at home safe and sound. I’ll certainly never forget that fieldtrip!! And I’ll also never underestimate the strength of a land rover!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Ok. So I guess I didn’t explain enough about Carnival. It’s a war zone. I’m partially traumatized after only two days of it. Apparently it lasts three weeks. Since we had Monday and Tuesday off, some volunteers and I took a micro (bus) into the city to go to an internet café. Well, once there we got horribly lost (looking for food when all the stores are closed for holiday is not a good thing) until we found our way back to the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived here. Once we knew where we were, we decided to take a relaxing stroll down to the park area. Bad idea. Literally hundreds of people, old and young alike, were at war with water balloons and squirt guns. At the time there were only two girls, so we got killed! We were soaked from head to toe with dirty giardia (sp?) water. Even when we left the park we would get drive-by soakings, or people would dump buckets of water from the buildings above us. It was so much fun, as long as you didn’t think about all the dirty water that just went into your mouth!! It even stopped traffic.
Then today, my family went to a party at the uncle’s house where we had a HUGE water fight! I was picked up and dumped into a pig trough of water. It was sooooo gross! There were buckets of water and shaving cream (yeah, there’s shaving cream everywhere, too) all over the place. A couple of the other volunteers came too. Then the uncle made us all drink “rum” that did not taste like rum and I hope to god I don’t get intestinal troubles from drinking the water here. But when mixed with lots and lots of coke it was pretty good. We then jumped into the back of his heavy lifting truck (I don’t know how else to explain it) with a couple gallons of rum, a 100 gallon bucket of water, a couple bags of water balloons, and some water guns. We then drove down the street of my community soaking anyone we went by. It was so much fun. Until some kids retaliated by throwing buckets of mud on us. At least I hope it was mud, I don’t really want to think about what else it could be.
Two more things I forgot to mention. 1) I don’t have a toilet seat. Yeah, no one has mentioned it, so I don’t know if that’s the norm or not. But I’ve seen it in the back yard just lying there. Whatever, hovering for two years can’t be too bad. 2) I am extremely sun burnt. At 8200ft I’m pretty much touching the sun and this gringa skin dosen’t stand a chance. Even with SPF 50 my nose looks like I’m a perpetually drunk Santa Claus. Oh well. Skin cancer, schmin cancer.
As far as the training goes, we’ve only had a couple classes. We are divided into three groups: agriculture, environmental education, and natural resource management (mine!!). Everyone in natural resource management (7 of us) is focusing on watershed management, which means we’ll most likely be placed in the most remote areas of Bolivia. Other people, say the ones in agrobusiness, will probably be in more urban areas helping people market their goods. I’m actually really excited about my possible projects. The only thing I hate right now is that we’re swamped with reading and group projects. We’re going to have to give a presentation in Spanish and turn in a written report of a community analysis (which is super in-depth) in a couple of weeks. We also have to start our own gardens and produce actual crops by the end of the 11 weeks. And seriously, we’re booked from 8 to past 6 (but that actually turns into past 9 because we have to get home, help cook, eat, and then clean up) everyday except Sunday. I don’t see how we’re going to do all this! But besides all of that, I’m having a really good time. The weather is practically perfect here and everyone is so laid back. But don’t worry yet, I still miss all of you and wish I could see you right now!!! Soon enough. Soon enough.
Then today, my family went to a party at the uncle’s house where we had a HUGE water fight! I was picked up and dumped into a pig trough of water. It was sooooo gross! There were buckets of water and shaving cream (yeah, there’s shaving cream everywhere, too) all over the place. A couple of the other volunteers came too. Then the uncle made us all drink “rum” that did not taste like rum and I hope to god I don’t get intestinal troubles from drinking the water here. But when mixed with lots and lots of coke it was pretty good. We then jumped into the back of his heavy lifting truck (I don’t know how else to explain it) with a couple gallons of rum, a 100 gallon bucket of water, a couple bags of water balloons, and some water guns. We then drove down the street of my community soaking anyone we went by. It was so much fun. Until some kids retaliated by throwing buckets of mud on us. At least I hope it was mud, I don’t really want to think about what else it could be.
Two more things I forgot to mention. 1) I don’t have a toilet seat. Yeah, no one has mentioned it, so I don’t know if that’s the norm or not. But I’ve seen it in the back yard just lying there. Whatever, hovering for two years can’t be too bad. 2) I am extremely sun burnt. At 8200ft I’m pretty much touching the sun and this gringa skin dosen’t stand a chance. Even with SPF 50 my nose looks like I’m a perpetually drunk Santa Claus. Oh well. Skin cancer, schmin cancer.
As far as the training goes, we’ve only had a couple classes. We are divided into three groups: agriculture, environmental education, and natural resource management (mine!!). Everyone in natural resource management (7 of us) is focusing on watershed management, which means we’ll most likely be placed in the most remote areas of Bolivia. Other people, say the ones in agrobusiness, will probably be in more urban areas helping people market their goods. I’m actually really excited about my possible projects. The only thing I hate right now is that we’re swamped with reading and group projects. We’re going to have to give a presentation in Spanish and turn in a written report of a community analysis (which is super in-depth) in a couple of weeks. We also have to start our own gardens and produce actual crops by the end of the 11 weeks. And seriously, we’re booked from 8 to past 6 (but that actually turns into past 9 because we have to get home, help cook, eat, and then clean up) everyday except Sunday. I don’t see how we’re going to do all this! But besides all of that, I’m having a really good time. The weather is practically perfect here and everyone is so laid back. But don’t worry yet, I still miss all of you and wish I could see you right now!!! Soon enough. Soon enough.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Boy do I have a lot to catch up on!! It’s now Monday morning and I’ve been at my host family’s house since Saturday afternoon. Well, first let’s start where I left off. Friday we had our first Spanish class and unfortunately they put me in a really advanced class with three other people that know much more than me. I’m scared that I’m in over my head. Plus, the Spanish classes are going to be 5 days a week for four hours a day!!! Talk about overkill! Saturday morning we packed up our stuff then got lectured about all the various reasons we might be kicked out of peace corps (or not even make it to the volunteer stage). Finally, though, they gave us our host family assignments and we headed out to check out the town.
I can’t remember the town’s name, but it’s pretty small and quaint. We all live in different houses within the community, but many houses are within walking distance to each other. They grouped us based on our Spanish classes because we will be having our Spanish classes at our family’s houses. It’s kind of a weird set up. On Wednesdays, however, we go to the training center back in Cochabamba. Everyone will have to find a way to get there on their own. That means taking micros (bus thingys), trufis (these minivan looking things), or taxis. I’m scared!! However, this Monday and Tuesday are holidays because it’s Carnival here in Bolivia. It’s a two week celebration where everyone throws waterballoons at each other and squirt squirtguns at anyone they see. I’ve been soaked almost every time I go outside!! And it’s not just kids, grown men are throwing waterballoons at people!! I’ve never seen anything like it!
Okay, so my family is hard to explain. I’m kind of an orphan. I live in this little shack place, but eat next door where another volunteer lives at every meal. My mom (dona Filomena) is never here (I’m still trying to figure out where she goes) and my little sister Marjori (age 10) always hangs out at the aunt’s house (next door) along with her 3 cousins (all girls ages 7, 15, and 17). The aunt’s name is Dona Ines and she feels more like my mom just because I see her more often and I pay here for all the things I need (showers, toilet paper, etc.). I have three dogs, a bunch of chickens, ducks, rabbits, and guinea pigs. We eat all of them except for the dogs. I really don’t think I’ll be able to eat guinea pigs or rabbits! They’re so cute!! We also went to the store yesterday and they got a giant bag of cow intestines for dinner tonight. I really think I might barf. And oh yeah, they’re really big on their meat and their potatoes and rice. So far we have a mountain of rice and potatoes and fried meat at every meal. If I don’t get vegetables soon, I’m afraid I’ll get scurvy! Although, for breakfast yesterday we had tamales with corn, sugar, and butter that tasted like heaven. It was like eating the most delicious corn bread in the world!! And about the coffee. Apparantly Bolivia grows really good coffee, but because they are so poor, they have to export all of it to other countries. Therefore, everyone here drinks Nescafe, which is the crappy instant coffee crap that people take when they’re camping. Seriously, it’s all there is!! But my host mom (from now on when I say host mom I mean host aunt) puts lots of sugar in it, so it’s not so bad. In fact, they put tons and tons of sugar in every drink. We have refrescos at every meal, which is basically just sugar water. But hey, I kind of like it. Last night I had hot water with sugar because I didn’t want to drink the coffee. Apparantly not drinking anything wasn’t an option.
The bathroon situation is a slight bummer. To use the bathroom I have to walk out of my room, cross a courtyard, open and close a gate while trying to keep three dogs back, then walk across the back yard to the bathroom which I have to unlock then lock while I’m in there. Not so bad unless it’s raining (which it is a lot right now), or if it’s 1 in the morning (the time I have to go pee without fail every night of my life). Last night I forgot about the dogs and nearly had a heart attack when three giant figures sprinted after me in the dark and rain!!
I really like my room. It’s small and cute. They make us sleep in mosquito nets just in case of malaria, but it really isn’t present in this area. But hey, I kind of like the net, it’s like sleeping in a fort every night. Except sometimes I forget it’s there and get up like normal to be blocked by an invisible net. We also have to boil and filter our water. Apparantly none of the water here is guaranteed safe because there are lots of different sources for the water, some of which could be contaminated, etc. So we have these big 8 liter filters in our rooms that we have to pour boiling water into then wait until it filters. It’s kind of cool. However, I’ve been brushing my teeth with tap water and probably drinking some here and there and so far I feel fine. I’m sure my body will adjust before long.
Okay, well I gotta go. I’ll write more later, once we actually start the training! Some trainees and I are going to walk around the community to get to know the place. Oh yeah, there are tons of stray mean dogs, so it’s safer to walk in packs. And the roads are either dirt or semi-cobble stoned. It’s weird. Anyway, hope you’re all doing well! I love you all and miss you!!
I can’t remember the town’s name, but it’s pretty small and quaint. We all live in different houses within the community, but many houses are within walking distance to each other. They grouped us based on our Spanish classes because we will be having our Spanish classes at our family’s houses. It’s kind of a weird set up. On Wednesdays, however, we go to the training center back in Cochabamba. Everyone will have to find a way to get there on their own. That means taking micros (bus thingys), trufis (these minivan looking things), or taxis. I’m scared!! However, this Monday and Tuesday are holidays because it’s Carnival here in Bolivia. It’s a two week celebration where everyone throws waterballoons at each other and squirt squirtguns at anyone they see. I’ve been soaked almost every time I go outside!! And it’s not just kids, grown men are throwing waterballoons at people!! I’ve never seen anything like it!
Okay, so my family is hard to explain. I’m kind of an orphan. I live in this little shack place, but eat next door where another volunteer lives at every meal. My mom (dona Filomena) is never here (I’m still trying to figure out where she goes) and my little sister Marjori (age 10) always hangs out at the aunt’s house (next door) along with her 3 cousins (all girls ages 7, 15, and 17). The aunt’s name is Dona Ines and she feels more like my mom just because I see her more often and I pay here for all the things I need (showers, toilet paper, etc.). I have three dogs, a bunch of chickens, ducks, rabbits, and guinea pigs. We eat all of them except for the dogs. I really don’t think I’ll be able to eat guinea pigs or rabbits! They’re so cute!! We also went to the store yesterday and they got a giant bag of cow intestines for dinner tonight. I really think I might barf. And oh yeah, they’re really big on their meat and their potatoes and rice. So far we have a mountain of rice and potatoes and fried meat at every meal. If I don’t get vegetables soon, I’m afraid I’ll get scurvy! Although, for breakfast yesterday we had tamales with corn, sugar, and butter that tasted like heaven. It was like eating the most delicious corn bread in the world!! And about the coffee. Apparantly Bolivia grows really good coffee, but because they are so poor, they have to export all of it to other countries. Therefore, everyone here drinks Nescafe, which is the crappy instant coffee crap that people take when they’re camping. Seriously, it’s all there is!! But my host mom (from now on when I say host mom I mean host aunt) puts lots of sugar in it, so it’s not so bad. In fact, they put tons and tons of sugar in every drink. We have refrescos at every meal, which is basically just sugar water. But hey, I kind of like it. Last night I had hot water with sugar because I didn’t want to drink the coffee. Apparantly not drinking anything wasn’t an option.
The bathroon situation is a slight bummer. To use the bathroom I have to walk out of my room, cross a courtyard, open and close a gate while trying to keep three dogs back, then walk across the back yard to the bathroom which I have to unlock then lock while I’m in there. Not so bad unless it’s raining (which it is a lot right now), or if it’s 1 in the morning (the time I have to go pee without fail every night of my life). Last night I forgot about the dogs and nearly had a heart attack when three giant figures sprinted after me in the dark and rain!!
I really like my room. It’s small and cute. They make us sleep in mosquito nets just in case of malaria, but it really isn’t present in this area. But hey, I kind of like the net, it’s like sleeping in a fort every night. Except sometimes I forget it’s there and get up like normal to be blocked by an invisible net. We also have to boil and filter our water. Apparantly none of the water here is guaranteed safe because there are lots of different sources for the water, some of which could be contaminated, etc. So we have these big 8 liter filters in our rooms that we have to pour boiling water into then wait until it filters. It’s kind of cool. However, I’ve been brushing my teeth with tap water and probably drinking some here and there and so far I feel fine. I’m sure my body will adjust before long.
Okay, well I gotta go. I’ll write more later, once we actually start the training! Some trainees and I are going to walk around the community to get to know the place. Oh yeah, there are tons of stray mean dogs, so it’s safer to walk in packs. And the roads are either dirt or semi-cobble stoned. It’s weird. Anyway, hope you’re all doing well! I love you all and miss you!!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Hola todos! I finally made it to Bolivia!! I touched down yesterday morning after 3 back to back and utterly exhausting plane rides from D.C. to Miami, from Miami to La Paz, and from La Paz to Cochabamba. At each landing we literally had to run to our gate in order to make it on the plane on time. In fact, we were a half hour late to our last plane, but luckily they held it for us! And unfortunately I have a cold, so I was all stuffed up for the wonderful multiple elevation changes, which believe me is not fun. But oh well. After we landed in Cochabamba we were greeted by current peace corps volunteers in different parts of the country (near this area) who came here to welcome us. That actually made me feel a lot better, seeing that they all looked happy and healthy and full of energy. So after taking a bus thingy to Hotel Regina we put our stuff down and then began a welcome introduction from our training director. We then got a couple hours rest where we all passed out and/or took showers. But back before we knew it we were getting safety lessons, banking lessons, etc. What’s nice is that the peace corps volunteers took us out to dinner that night so we could get to know them and ask them questions and get to know the area a little better. They all seem pretty cool. One even adopted a dog! I want to do that once I get to my site!!
So today we woke up early and headed off to the training center where we had our project, medical, language, and host family interviews. They just wanted to get a sense of our language skills, technical abilities, our medical situation, and what we wanted in a host family. We then got more health lectures by the head doctor dude. Tomorrow after a three hour Spanish test they will assign us to a host family which we will go to on Saturday and spend the next 11 weeks there. We’re also getting a massive dose of vaccines. Let me tell you there is not a second to rest around here. We’ve got a lot to do in the next 3 months!
I also forgot to mention that there are 31 (there were 32 but one girl dropped out at staging) people in my group, which is the largest they’ve ever had. We’re all either Natural Resource Management, Environmental Education, Agriculture, or Agro business. So far I really like all the kids in my group.
Oh yeah, it’s also a holiday here right now. It’s called Carnival. It’s a two week celebration (of what I haven’t been able to determine yet), but we’re just catching the tail end of it. But that doesn’t stop all the kids (and even grown adults!!!) from throwing water balloons at everyone, especially the gringos!! I’ve already had about 6 water balloons thrown at me! Some even from moving vehicles! Man, it’s a jungle out here! But hey, it’s quite festive and exciting. There’s a band playing outside of my hotel right now.
Well, gotta get to bed, but I’ll write again as soon as possible!!
So today we woke up early and headed off to the training center where we had our project, medical, language, and host family interviews. They just wanted to get a sense of our language skills, technical abilities, our medical situation, and what we wanted in a host family. We then got more health lectures by the head doctor dude. Tomorrow after a three hour Spanish test they will assign us to a host family which we will go to on Saturday and spend the next 11 weeks there. We’re also getting a massive dose of vaccines. Let me tell you there is not a second to rest around here. We’ve got a lot to do in the next 3 months!
I also forgot to mention that there are 31 (there were 32 but one girl dropped out at staging) people in my group, which is the largest they’ve ever had. We’re all either Natural Resource Management, Environmental Education, Agriculture, or Agro business. So far I really like all the kids in my group.
Oh yeah, it’s also a holiday here right now. It’s called Carnival. It’s a two week celebration (of what I haven’t been able to determine yet), but we’re just catching the tail end of it. But that doesn’t stop all the kids (and even grown adults!!!) from throwing water balloons at everyone, especially the gringos!! I’ve already had about 6 water balloons thrown at me! Some even from moving vehicles! Man, it’s a jungle out here! But hey, it’s quite festive and exciting. There’s a band playing outside of my hotel right now.
Well, gotta get to bed, but I’ll write again as soon as possible!!
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