So I’m back from Semana Tecnica and all is well. Just as I thought, the Altiplano is beautiful, but freezing. If you stand in the sun you feel amazing, but get the worst burn of your life, and if you stand in the shade to avoid the burnage, you freeze to death. And don’t get me started on the wind!! The wind there is unheard of. People have to close their shops down when the wind storms come. Obviously I wouldn’t last a day. But if we don’t dwell on the weather, it’s a really nice place. We stayed in Oruro city for several days, and that’s a real city. We’re talking 200,000 people. I even had pizza one night (gringo food is heaven because it contains neither potatoes nor rice)! But then again I also had llama (which is absolutely delicious!!! You seriously gotta try it!), so it’s still got culture to it. We also traveled to neighboring and not so neighboring villages to give presentations (that had to be translated into Quechua because that’s what most people speak up there) on natural fertilizers, pesticides, and compost production. One of the most awesome car trips was the three hour road to Sacaca in which we passed the most gorgeous scenery, fields of grazing llama, and crazy gigantic rock structures that almost look like stone henge. It was soooo worth all the chiropractic work I’m going to have to get done on my neck after riding on the rocky roads from hell for that long. Seriously, the pictures don’t do it justice. The whole week we spent working and talking with the campesinos (farmers) in the campos (way out in the middle-of-nowhere-like-you’ve-never-seen-it towns). It was really amazing. The people are so friendly, smart, and generous. In fact, every time we went anywhere we had to eat all of whatever kind of food they gave us. It’s really rude to leave anything behind, and they think it’s rude not to offer food. My personal favorite snack was when we were shuffled into a greenhouse to crouch around a gigantic (we’re talking Nana sized bowl) of potatoes, each grab as many potatoes as we could, and plunge it into another pot of tuna (where on earth did they get tuna?) and eat it with our hands. That was definitely my first tuna dipped potato, but to be honest, it was pretty good. Once we were even forced to eat half a fried chicken each with fava beans and potatoes as a snack literally not even an hour after lunch. All I can say about Bolivians is that even if they are poor as far as material goods go, they are rich in every other way. They have enough food to feed an army (even if it is all potatoes) and enough friends and family to share it with. They’ve really got it made as far as I can tell.
Oh yeah, so one of the sucky things was that half of our group got super sick. One kid was complaining of a headache, so they took him to the doctor and discovered that he had heart attack level blood pressure. So one of our teachers had to drive him back to Cochabamba immediately (a 4 hour drive starting at 9pm!!) to get him out of the high altitude. I feel so bad for him, but at the same time I should have tried that trick so that I for sure wouldn’t be sent to the Altiplano!! But no, that really does suck, but from what I’ve heard he’s just fine right now. The other four kids just had good old-fashioned diarrhea for 3 days nonstop. But then they got on antibiotics and all is well. I lucked out pretty well, I’ve been fine up until today, but now I think I’m getting a cold. I think it was all the temperature changes or something. Who knows. But I’ll take a stuffy nose over a heart attack and nonstop diarrhea any day.
I should also mention that our group got back to Cochabamba three days earlier than scheduled. I couldn’t be happier because that means we get a 3.5 day weekend!! Apparently the guy in charge of where we were going Thur- Sat. bailed out on us, so we had no choice but to drive back home. And tomorrow is Semana Santa (Good Friday), so I’ll get to eat the 12 dishes with my family like I had wanted!! Yay!! Apparently we can’t eat breakfast, but I’m planning on sneaking some anyway. That’s a stupid rule. Today when I got home I did 4, that’s right, 4 straight hours of laundry. I sat on the little kiddy stool, hunched over barrels of water and dirty clothes, washing in one position for exactly four hours. Once I had finished and all my freshly washed clothes were hanging in the sun to dry, a huge storm erupted and all my clothes got rained on for an hour. It was unbelievable!! But that’s life here I guess.
I find out on Monday for sure where I’m going to be placed for the next two years!!! I’m so nervous!! And then the week after that we go on site visits for another week to visit the city, meet our counterpart (the person we work with most of the time), and hopefully find housing. Oh, soon I’ll miss the good times living out of a suitcase and crappy hostels!! Think good thoughts on Monday and I’ll let you know as soon as possible where I’ll be!!