Tuesday, September 18, 2007
¡Muchas Gracias a Mare Mare!
Quick entry before I run out of the internet cafe...will post more tomorrow in an entry when I can upload with my flash drive (supposedly the computers here are blocked...what kind of crap is that?) Anyways, I wanted to say thank you to Mary for her kind package letter that I got today! She knew all the most important things to get me updated on...dailybunny, Miss America pageant, and of course religious quote of the day to make the package religious articles! Haha...thanks for making me smile today my yayforbunnies and yayforfood bunny loving friend! I have heard rumors of other packages arriving soon so I´m keeping a lookout for them! Hope all is well in the US!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Brownies y Técitos
Ah food…que lujo! I ate a brownie today…one of the guys in the agri-business group baked brownies from scratch today and was selling them for 2 bs so I decided to splurge and treat myself to one (although I probably could have eaten like…10 of them). It was quite delicious! The agri-business trainees also made banana bread another time to sell to us and that was also quite tasty. I think I am missing my daily sweets and accessibility to the pantry at work…Barry! Where is that slice of cake we are supposed to be sharing? Speaking of people in Stamford…I’d like to use this opportunity to wish Danimal a happy belated birthday (sorry, missed it last week when I wasn’t around the computer when Facebook was supposed to give me a notification!)…hopefully you had a good one (haha, are you even reading this? Barry – tell him to read this) and that there were baked goods involved (although no personalized cookies this year). I’m in the process of coming up with other foods to make con mi familia…my host mom said she wants to learn to make lasagna so I think I’ll do that…and then I was thinking of doing more breakfast foods since they’re easy (and I like them)…like french toast…and then more pancakes with other fillings, like apple cinnamon pancakes or banana pancakes…when my host mom asked me what you can put in them, I just told her to use her imagination! After all, with pancakes the sky is the limit…although…if there were strawberries around here I could always do the classic strawberries and whipped cream. Pamela’s anyone?? Ahhh…I need to stop talking about food, I’m driving myself up a wall with these food cravings. Even though the food in my house is pretty good (my host mom is probably the best cook out of any of them) I’m glad it’s Wednesday tomorrow when we go to the training center and then go out in the city afterwards for dinner. The past two weeks I’ve had pizza for dinner on Wednesdays in a restaurant and they weren’t half bad but I’m thinking it might be time for something different. Maybe like…a massive pile of pastries or something like that. A whole freaking pan of brownies sounds like a good idea right about now. I do enjoy the little “tecitos” that my host mom gives me though…it’s the random cup of tea in the late afternoon/early evening to tide me over before dinner always served along with a little chat about anything from education to sewing to pets…apparently when I get out to my site I will be having tons of te-citos and café-citos which are when people invite you in to have a cup of tea or coffee and you just sit and chat and get to know them while hanging out. Think of it as the Bolivian equivalent to a trip to Starbucks (which they don’t have here BTW)…but they do have Subway (in Santa Cruz I think!)
Eeek. Today we realized in Spanish class that we basically have one week to make our one last push to improve our Spanish prior to our second language interview where they basically gauge what level you’re at. Apparently I need to show “domination” of the past, present and future tenses during my interview along with being pretty fluent to achieve an advanced level so I’m going to try really hard this next week to practice as much as I can. Why am I writing a blog entry en ingles en la computadora then? No tengo una idea! I attempted to learn a phrase today in Spanish that was the equivalent of “jia1 you2” in Chinese…like go team! Or something of the sort…kind of like what I’m using to psych myself up for this last week’s push in learning Spanish. I didn’t even know how to describe it in English though, is there an equivalent for that? Like…let’s go! Keep it up! Or the literal translation…add gas? Haha…this colloquial phrase translation is not going very well. I do enjoy my Spanish dictionary a lot that I bought before I left though…we’ve had many a good laugh in class about the kinds of words that it has in there, many of which I don’t even know the meaning in English…such as the translation of “ghetto blaster” (apparently has something to do with a big boom box?)
I did have a lovely conversation with my Spanish teacher today about natural gas before lunch though…the teachers come to our host community for classes and they eat lunch at our houses (alternating houses each week) and I was trying to pick up some business vocab so I was talking to her about my limited knowledge of the natural gas industry and we read an article in the newspaper about some investment in natural gas production. Now I know how to say trader (comerciante) and risk management (gestion de riesgas) in Spanish…if that’s not an accomplishment I don’t know what is.
If I’m rambling…it’s clearly because I have nothing important to report. No llama dancing in these past few days, I’ve hung up my llama shoes…with tech weekend coming up where we actually get to put our skills to use...we’re going to be working with an artisan group (a group of women weavers) to do an activity where we demonstrate the importance of order fulfillment (aka getting your product to your customer in the US on time) and I volunteered to help lead the “conclusion” portion which basically involves public speaking…in Spanish. What. Am. I. Doing. Oh man…who’s the person that got a C in Oral Communications in college??? But…I have to say that I am glad I’m forcing myself to do this because it makes me research pertinent vocabulary prior to our trip this weekend so I only semi-look like a fool (you would think it would be the people that are more advanced in Spanish that volunteer for things like this) and there’s no time like the present to actually do that whole “do one thing everyday that scares you” thing. After all, the next two years are going to be public speaking in Spanish and giving charlas (mini-speeches) so I’d better start now if I want to be halfway decent by the time the next two years are over.
In other news, I’ve started running here. It’s HARD. It’s bad enough in the US when I shuffle around the streets of Stamford…but here you can definitely tell that there’s less air to be had and my normal 10 min per mile pace has slowed down to…give or take 15 min per mile. Lindsay and I are adopting a Tuesday/Thursday schedule to head out to the cancha (soccer field) and running laps around it for half an hour since the roads are a bit too rocky to be prancing/shuffling along. I don’t understand how people can adjust to playing sports that require endurance and sprinting…like basketball and soccer…I get winded even walking the 15 min to and from tech class! I guess the only solution is to keep on going and your body gets adjusted to it though…and I heard that if you head to somewhere at a lower altitude then you feel like you can run forever so I’m just looking forward to that when that time comes.
And shamelessly – if anyone wants to send me anything…I’d really like some magazines (old news or business weeklies…Business Week, US News, Time…you get the idea)…I am feeling a bit out of touch with the current news in the US and a nice weekly magazine would summarize the stuff that I don’t catch when I make it to the internet café…address was posted in earlier entry before I left…it would be much appreciated and I would send you…special llama products? Oh alright, maybe just a nice snail mail letter, in return. Heh heh…and Mom – if you’re still reading, can you send me that Better Homes & Gardens cookbook when you get the chance? It’s the one with the red and white checked cover…much easier to adjust recipes that you find in there rather than taking the hour trip to look stuff up on the internet when I need it.
Ok, off to study the imperfect tense in Spanish. Adios!
P.S. Send me your snail mail addresses people if you want a special treat! It costs me like 1 USD to send a letter but I’m working on making my rounds! To Joyous821@gmail.com...gracias!
Eeek. Today we realized in Spanish class that we basically have one week to make our one last push to improve our Spanish prior to our second language interview where they basically gauge what level you’re at. Apparently I need to show “domination” of the past, present and future tenses during my interview along with being pretty fluent to achieve an advanced level so I’m going to try really hard this next week to practice as much as I can. Why am I writing a blog entry en ingles en la computadora then? No tengo una idea! I attempted to learn a phrase today in Spanish that was the equivalent of “jia1 you2” in Chinese…like go team! Or something of the sort…kind of like what I’m using to psych myself up for this last week’s push in learning Spanish. I didn’t even know how to describe it in English though, is there an equivalent for that? Like…let’s go! Keep it up! Or the literal translation…add gas? Haha…this colloquial phrase translation is not going very well. I do enjoy my Spanish dictionary a lot that I bought before I left though…we’ve had many a good laugh in class about the kinds of words that it has in there, many of which I don’t even know the meaning in English…such as the translation of “ghetto blaster” (apparently has something to do with a big boom box?)
I did have a lovely conversation with my Spanish teacher today about natural gas before lunch though…the teachers come to our host community for classes and they eat lunch at our houses (alternating houses each week) and I was trying to pick up some business vocab so I was talking to her about my limited knowledge of the natural gas industry and we read an article in the newspaper about some investment in natural gas production. Now I know how to say trader (comerciante) and risk management (gestion de riesgas) in Spanish…if that’s not an accomplishment I don’t know what is.
If I’m rambling…it’s clearly because I have nothing important to report. No llama dancing in these past few days, I’ve hung up my llama shoes…with tech weekend coming up where we actually get to put our skills to use...we’re going to be working with an artisan group (a group of women weavers) to do an activity where we demonstrate the importance of order fulfillment (aka getting your product to your customer in the US on time) and I volunteered to help lead the “conclusion” portion which basically involves public speaking…in Spanish. What. Am. I. Doing. Oh man…who’s the person that got a C in Oral Communications in college??? But…I have to say that I am glad I’m forcing myself to do this because it makes me research pertinent vocabulary prior to our trip this weekend so I only semi-look like a fool (you would think it would be the people that are more advanced in Spanish that volunteer for things like this) and there’s no time like the present to actually do that whole “do one thing everyday that scares you” thing. After all, the next two years are going to be public speaking in Spanish and giving charlas (mini-speeches) so I’d better start now if I want to be halfway decent by the time the next two years are over.
In other news, I’ve started running here. It’s HARD. It’s bad enough in the US when I shuffle around the streets of Stamford…but here you can definitely tell that there’s less air to be had and my normal 10 min per mile pace has slowed down to…give or take 15 min per mile. Lindsay and I are adopting a Tuesday/Thursday schedule to head out to the cancha (soccer field) and running laps around it for half an hour since the roads are a bit too rocky to be prancing/shuffling along. I don’t understand how people can adjust to playing sports that require endurance and sprinting…like basketball and soccer…I get winded even walking the 15 min to and from tech class! I guess the only solution is to keep on going and your body gets adjusted to it though…and I heard that if you head to somewhere at a lower altitude then you feel like you can run forever so I’m just looking forward to that when that time comes.
And shamelessly – if anyone wants to send me anything…I’d really like some magazines (old news or business weeklies…Business Week, US News, Time…you get the idea)…I am feeling a bit out of touch with the current news in the US and a nice weekly magazine would summarize the stuff that I don’t catch when I make it to the internet café…address was posted in earlier entry before I left…it would be much appreciated and I would send you…special llama products? Oh alright, maybe just a nice snail mail letter, in return. Heh heh…and Mom – if you’re still reading, can you send me that Better Homes & Gardens cookbook when you get the chance? It’s the one with the red and white checked cover…much easier to adjust recipes that you find in there rather than taking the hour trip to look stuff up on the internet when I need it.
Ok, off to study the imperfect tense in Spanish. Adios!
P.S. Send me your snail mail addresses people if you want a special treat! It costs me like 1 USD to send a letter but I’m working on making my rounds! To Joyous821@gmail.com...gracias!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Piñas y Panqueques
One of the latest discoveries for me has been the dirt-cheap price of fruit around here. To my amazement my friend Sarah bought a pineapple (a HUGE one! not those measly ones you find in the supermercado in the US) for only 3 bs! That’s the equivalent of around...38 cents in the US? Ridiculo! Haha…even though pineapples aren’t my fave, I think I’m going to start purchasing some to share with my family since we don’t really eat that much fruit. The only pain is lugging it around with you on the bus. Other prices of fruit are 1 bs (around 15 cents) for 6 small bananas and 4 large tangerines (or mandarinas as they call them aqui) for 1 bs. At first I was a little scared of the fruit because of what they told us about what gets us sick…and the fact that I think my prior digestive issues were due to watermelon that I ate…but now I’ve eaten apples, bananas, pineapple and tangerines with no issues so far (crossing my fingers on the tangerines I ate this morning) so I’m feeling like I’m going to be getting my fair share of fruit in Bolivia as long as I’m not lazy about purchasing/washing it. In other news, palta (avocado) season is coming up around here so I’m looking forward to making some fresh guacamole in Spanish class. It’s great how we get to decide what we want to do in our language classes…not just grammar exercises from books…but one day we went to the supermarket in Coch and then Sarah and I cooked fajitas and chocolate chip cookies on Thursday with our teacher for class.
Last night we had our first dance por la llamerada! Yes, I say our first dance because not only did we perform it twice…but we are performing again today (Saturday) since festivals around here last more than one day. I was definitely amused by the whole spectacle…we were all dressed up in our costumes and dancing with these legitimate group of Bolivian dancers that were leading us…and the way we were doing some of these steps…let’s just say I equate them with looking at the person that is across from you, then scampering awkwardly and doing a spin move in the air of 1.5 vueltas (or turns) and then kind of kicking your feet up doing heck knows what. Total embarrassment. It’s alright though, I think the people there appreciated that we were trying no matter how uncoordinated we were. I definitely had a few collisions with the people around me during the dance along with dropping the little stuffed llama that we were holding in our one hand and getting my little knit string/handkerchief that we twirl around all tangled up with the person dancing next to me. I (think) I’m posting a pic here of me with my host family (minus Wilbur, the son that went off to school in Oruro) and me and my friend Kasia doing our “alternative” dance pose…we had created a separate dance that involved the wave and random squatting (aka the latrine dance) in case we forgot the actual dance moves and needed to keep on moving. Luckily we didn’t have to bust those moves out because I’m not sure if everyone would have been able to handle our eccentric dance moves…I’m going to go out on a limb and say that those moves are not part of any traditional Bolivian dance.
This morning I made panqueques (pancakes!) with chocolate and bananas for the family. I think they were a little much for my family because no one managed to finish their two pancakes except me (being the porker that I am)…lately I’ve had this ravenous appetite that leads me to believe that I may be harboring a tapeworm that is larger than the one that I had in the US in my stomach. I’ve always been a fatty when it comes to craving foods and eating when I’m not hungry but here I’ll sneak into my room after meals and have candy and crackers or trail mix or whatever processed foods I stash in my suitcase because they taste delicious. My meals here in general are pretty healthy though…my host mom is a really good cook (she cooks for her work for some of the teachers at the local school and she used to cook for a pension for like 90 people a day, which is not really a restaurant but maybe something more like somewhere boarders might go and get food) and I get a lot of variety in my meals. Most people around here get lots of potatoes but I don’t get very many at all…I’ve had a few french fries and a boiled potato now and again but mostly I get rice and noodles with a variety of toppings. Some of my faves have been the fried egg, fried banana or plantain slices, beets, and I even had a curry-type dish the other day that was made with pumpkin! Food, glorious food! I think that’s one of the things I didn’t think I was going to miss at all and that I did a lot at first…but now I’m adjusting and learning to like the food because it’s all fresh although there’s no fish and very little meat (that’s health though right?). My host mom was telling me about how the volunteer that stayed with them last year was a vegetarian and ate all organic stuff and used all organic soap, shampoo, etc. and how she didn’t comb her hair and was a hippie. Definitely a contrast to me but change is good right? Too bad I don’t do yoga because the last two girls that stayed here did yoga with my host mom...
We’ve had a bunch of work assigned to us lately and more coming up since our training schedule is a bit compressed. We only have 8 weeks of training in comparison to the 10 weeks that past volunteers got so I have to be working really hard at my language skills and what not because in an ideal world I would test out at an advanced level of Spanish at the end of my training but I heard that even moving up one level (e.g. for me from intermediate low to intermediate mid) is already a tough enough challenge. I think my plan is going to be not only to take advantage of tutoring opportunities (basically discussion for a half hour on Wednesdays with a teacher and 2 hours on Saturdays) and speaking with my family, but seeing where I can get a newspaper once in awhile since for me reading and knowing how words are spelled and being able to visualize them is pretty important for me to be able to remember them. Next weekend is already Tech Weekend where we get to put some of the skills we learned into practice with a group of artisan women at one of the sites that a current volunteer is at…and then after that we have other “big” events coming up like a whole Tech Week where we travel to another volunteer’s site and we’re going to have a booth at a tourism fair in Coch for World Tourism Day and we have to create all the informational material and interactive games and stuff for it. And in about a month (October 9th!), we find out our sites! It’s pretty exciting because that’s when you know where in Bolivia you’ll actually be for the next two years. At this point I’m pretty torn between what I want in terms of more Business Education vs. Consulting vs. Tourism…and then whether or not I want a more rural or more “urban” site and whether or not I want a site mate and be further from a big city or closer to a big city without a site mate. We’ll just have to wait and see though; I think it depends on if I can get to an advanced level of Spanish and what everyone else wants. In general I think I’m pretty agreeable…my concern is being able to get through the first 3 months at my site when you’re finally off on your own and dealing with the “real” PC experience rather than worrying about if the site I got is what I really wanted because at this point I have no idea what I want!
That’s all I got for now…going to chill out for a bit before I have to get ready for dancing again! Tomorrow I’m going to be heading into Quillacollo to use the internet to work on a project we’re doing along with having washing my clothes (first time!) by hand on my to-do list in the afternoon…should be an interesting experience since I heard it takes forever and I have no idea what I’m doing…
Ok, the uploading on blog didn´t work...check out flickr for the photos...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83263910@N00/sets/72157601924749546/
Last night we had our first dance por la llamerada! Yes, I say our first dance because not only did we perform it twice…but we are performing again today (Saturday) since festivals around here last more than one day. I was definitely amused by the whole spectacle…we were all dressed up in our costumes and dancing with these legitimate group of Bolivian dancers that were leading us…and the way we were doing some of these steps…let’s just say I equate them with looking at the person that is across from you, then scampering awkwardly and doing a spin move in the air of 1.5 vueltas (or turns) and then kind of kicking your feet up doing heck knows what. Total embarrassment. It’s alright though, I think the people there appreciated that we were trying no matter how uncoordinated we were. I definitely had a few collisions with the people around me during the dance along with dropping the little stuffed llama that we were holding in our one hand and getting my little knit string/handkerchief that we twirl around all tangled up with the person dancing next to me. I (think) I’m posting a pic here of me with my host family (minus Wilbur, the son that went off to school in Oruro) and me and my friend Kasia doing our “alternative” dance pose…we had created a separate dance that involved the wave and random squatting (aka the latrine dance) in case we forgot the actual dance moves and needed to keep on moving. Luckily we didn’t have to bust those moves out because I’m not sure if everyone would have been able to handle our eccentric dance moves…I’m going to go out on a limb and say that those moves are not part of any traditional Bolivian dance.
This morning I made panqueques (pancakes!) with chocolate and bananas for the family. I think they were a little much for my family because no one managed to finish their two pancakes except me (being the porker that I am)…lately I’ve had this ravenous appetite that leads me to believe that I may be harboring a tapeworm that is larger than the one that I had in the US in my stomach. I’ve always been a fatty when it comes to craving foods and eating when I’m not hungry but here I’ll sneak into my room after meals and have candy and crackers or trail mix or whatever processed foods I stash in my suitcase because they taste delicious. My meals here in general are pretty healthy though…my host mom is a really good cook (she cooks for her work for some of the teachers at the local school and she used to cook for a pension for like 90 people a day, which is not really a restaurant but maybe something more like somewhere boarders might go and get food) and I get a lot of variety in my meals. Most people around here get lots of potatoes but I don’t get very many at all…I’ve had a few french fries and a boiled potato now and again but mostly I get rice and noodles with a variety of toppings. Some of my faves have been the fried egg, fried banana or plantain slices, beets, and I even had a curry-type dish the other day that was made with pumpkin! Food, glorious food! I think that’s one of the things I didn’t think I was going to miss at all and that I did a lot at first…but now I’m adjusting and learning to like the food because it’s all fresh although there’s no fish and very little meat (that’s health though right?). My host mom was telling me about how the volunteer that stayed with them last year was a vegetarian and ate all organic stuff and used all organic soap, shampoo, etc. and how she didn’t comb her hair and was a hippie. Definitely a contrast to me but change is good right? Too bad I don’t do yoga because the last two girls that stayed here did yoga with my host mom...
We’ve had a bunch of work assigned to us lately and more coming up since our training schedule is a bit compressed. We only have 8 weeks of training in comparison to the 10 weeks that past volunteers got so I have to be working really hard at my language skills and what not because in an ideal world I would test out at an advanced level of Spanish at the end of my training but I heard that even moving up one level (e.g. for me from intermediate low to intermediate mid) is already a tough enough challenge. I think my plan is going to be not only to take advantage of tutoring opportunities (basically discussion for a half hour on Wednesdays with a teacher and 2 hours on Saturdays) and speaking with my family, but seeing where I can get a newspaper once in awhile since for me reading and knowing how words are spelled and being able to visualize them is pretty important for me to be able to remember them. Next weekend is already Tech Weekend where we get to put some of the skills we learned into practice with a group of artisan women at one of the sites that a current volunteer is at…and then after that we have other “big” events coming up like a whole Tech Week where we travel to another volunteer’s site and we’re going to have a booth at a tourism fair in Coch for World Tourism Day and we have to create all the informational material and interactive games and stuff for it. And in about a month (October 9th!), we find out our sites! It’s pretty exciting because that’s when you know where in Bolivia you’ll actually be for the next two years. At this point I’m pretty torn between what I want in terms of more Business Education vs. Consulting vs. Tourism…and then whether or not I want a more rural or more “urban” site and whether or not I want a site mate and be further from a big city or closer to a big city without a site mate. We’ll just have to wait and see though; I think it depends on if I can get to an advanced level of Spanish and what everyone else wants. In general I think I’m pretty agreeable…my concern is being able to get through the first 3 months at my site when you’re finally off on your own and dealing with the “real” PC experience rather than worrying about if the site I got is what I really wanted because at this point I have no idea what I want!
That’s all I got for now…going to chill out for a bit before I have to get ready for dancing again! Tomorrow I’m going to be heading into Quillacollo to use the internet to work on a project we’re doing along with having washing my clothes (first time!) by hand on my to-do list in the afternoon…should be an interesting experience since I heard it takes forever and I have no idea what I’m doing…
Ok, the uploading on blog didn´t work...check out flickr for the photos...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83263910@N00/sets/72157601924749546/
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Public Transportation and the Llama Dance!
hola amigos y familia - so it´s saturday and i´m hanging out in cochabamba (with the cochabombinos as those who live in cochabamba are called) at the internet cafe. i had language tutoring this morning for two hours with one of the language teachers. we have optional tutoring on saturday mornings (private language tutoring for free!) and most of us signed up so we can get our spanish skills up to par. the whole public transportation thing is kinda crazy around here though...takes forever to get anywhere but i think we´ll get used to it...i left my house at 6:10 am this morning to walk over to meet 3 other volunteers to catch a trufi to quillacollo where we then had to connect to another trufi to cochabamba...it was nice that we got into the city kind of early though because then we stopped at a place for coffee (i got real oj!) and then headed over to meet the teachers at the hotel that we had our retreat at when we first arrived in coch. the two hours of tutoring was really cool...i enjoyed it a lot actually and made getting up at 5:30 this morning worth it...just chatted en español por dos horas with one of the teachers about anything from immigration to my semester at sea to whether or not bolivians can distinguish chinese from japanese from korean, etc. i think these saturday morning sessions will be very good for improving my spanish (plus giving me a reason to get up and go into the city to access internet and hang out with other volunteers).
earlier this wk we had some tech training...random sessions and presentations about what some of the other volunteers did in their sites for projects and we also found out all the potential sites for MED (microenterprise and development) volunteers...looks like a bunch of them are in the santa cruz departamento which is the one close to brazil that gets all hot and has mosquitos with malaria...good for those that like hot weather, but i´m hoping to be placed somewhere where i don´t have to spend all day sweating and wanting to take showers when i can´t. speaking of...i should probably take a shower this wkend since it has been since weds morning and now its saturday afternoon. maybe i´ll wait until tomorrow though...tonight all the volunteers were invited by one of the host moms who happens to actually be a teacher at the local high school as well to have pizza dinner at their place and then we´re heading up the mountain (to somewhere that supposedly has a beautiful view) to some hot springs...think stinky sulfur water. don´t think that í´m going to partake in the hot springs because public places with water kind of skeeve me out...think hot springs in budapest steph? but it´ll be good just to hang out with other volunteers and see what it´s all about because it´s supposed to be quite pretty up there en las montañas.
another exciting thing that we´ve done the past two nights is practice our dancing! apparently we (as in all 20 volunteers) are going to be in a parade next saturday for the 8th of september. we are doing a dance called the llamerada (as in llamas) and we´re supposed to have this crazy dance that involves spinning around while staying in formation along with wearing these costumes that they are renting from somewhere far away...that have...you guessed it...llamas all over them! i´m pretty psyched to be participating in my first bolivian parade and having it being associated with llamas! i am sure there will be some good pics and i´ll try to post them when i get them.
okay, that´s all i have for now...next wk should be bundles of fun when we get to go shopping for ingredients during spanish class on tuesday and then we get to cook lunch with our teacher on thursday together! time to go get myself all up to date on US news...what is this crazy business maria sharapova getting upset at the US Open and idaho senators resigning over scandalous business...*sigh* what is this world coming to...alrighty, send me email everyone and update me on your lives! yo estoy perdido en bolivia...i think that means i´m lost in bolivia...without updates!
earlier this wk we had some tech training...random sessions and presentations about what some of the other volunteers did in their sites for projects and we also found out all the potential sites for MED (microenterprise and development) volunteers...looks like a bunch of them are in the santa cruz departamento which is the one close to brazil that gets all hot and has mosquitos with malaria...good for those that like hot weather, but i´m hoping to be placed somewhere where i don´t have to spend all day sweating and wanting to take showers when i can´t. speaking of...i should probably take a shower this wkend since it has been since weds morning and now its saturday afternoon. maybe i´ll wait until tomorrow though...tonight all the volunteers were invited by one of the host moms who happens to actually be a teacher at the local high school as well to have pizza dinner at their place and then we´re heading up the mountain (to somewhere that supposedly has a beautiful view) to some hot springs...think stinky sulfur water. don´t think that í´m going to partake in the hot springs because public places with water kind of skeeve me out...think hot springs in budapest steph? but it´ll be good just to hang out with other volunteers and see what it´s all about because it´s supposed to be quite pretty up there en las montañas.
another exciting thing that we´ve done the past two nights is practice our dancing! apparently we (as in all 20 volunteers) are going to be in a parade next saturday for the 8th of september. we are doing a dance called the llamerada (as in llamas) and we´re supposed to have this crazy dance that involves spinning around while staying in formation along with wearing these costumes that they are renting from somewhere far away...that have...you guessed it...llamas all over them! i´m pretty psyched to be participating in my first bolivian parade and having it being associated with llamas! i am sure there will be some good pics and i´ll try to post them when i get them.
okay, that´s all i have for now...next wk should be bundles of fun when we get to go shopping for ingredients during spanish class on tuesday and then we get to cook lunch with our teacher on thursday together! time to go get myself all up to date on US news...what is this crazy business maria sharapova getting upset at the US Open and idaho senators resigning over scandalous business...*sigh* what is this world coming to...alrighty, send me email everyone and update me on your lives! yo estoy perdido en bolivia...i think that means i´m lost in bolivia...without updates!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
I´m here...and I´m alive!
Here goes for my first post from Bolivia…I’ve only been here a week but it feels like a lot longer. We left DC last week on the 21st and I took my birthday flight to Bolivia with the 19 other people that are in B46 (B stands for Bolivia, 46 stands for the 46th group that has been here). In the group there are two couples, one older (like my parents’ age) and then another couple that is my age and has been married for two years. The rest of the group consists of lots of recent college grads and a few people like me that have been working for a few years. Everyone is really nice (hah…such a lame word to use but they are) and laid back so we’ve gotten to know each other pretty quickly. Mostly people are from the Midwest (think Ohio, Indiana) but there’s a few from the West Coast (Cali…my roomie during our first few days in Bolivia went to Berkeley) and both the couples are from Colorado. The next closest person to New England/Mid Atlantic is a guy from Allentown, PA.
After two days of college orientation-like activities in DC, we flew into La Paz where we were hurried off by the PC staff to hop on our connecting flight to Coch (what the other PC volunteers/people around here shorten Cochabamba to). When we arrived at the Coch airport we were greeted by really loud screaming people on the roof of the airport as we got off the plane…apparently there’s such thing to be involved with as a welcoming committee of current volunteers that come to welcome the new group to the country that scream at the top of their lungs when each new group arrives (3x per year) and then when we get into the airport they form a bridge/line thing (think CMU playfair) complete with welcome sign at the front that you have to run through while they’re screaming like the crazy Americans that we are. The first few days we spent at a “retreat” which was basically where we lived in a hotel, hung out with current volunteers (most of which have been here near the two years) and went to dinners with them, and then had a bunch of seminars/training from the country director and rest of the PC staff. We had interviews to figure out what we wanted in our sites and where our Spanish was at (I am in low intermediate I believe, thank you very much…even after 7 years) Those first few days we lived in luxury…just think, hot water from a shower and electricity that doesn’t go out when the wind blows too hard!
Then Saturday came and we found out who our host families were and we moved in and said bye to the other volunteers…we’re all living in the same community outside of Coch and see each other at training, language classes, etc but it’s definitely the beginning of the real PC experience. I’m living with probably the nicest family possible. Mom (Elvira…that’s El-vee-ra), Dad (Willy), and their three kids (Wilbur, 18, Katherine, 16, and Cristian, 10)…plus the friendly doggie (es muy amable when you think about all the other dogs running around with rabies…the current volunteers actually taught us the bend-quickly-and-pretend-you’re-picking-up-a-rock move to scare away the rabid stray dogs in the streets)…anyways, the dog’s name is Randall (after the character in Monsters Inc.!) and he’s a boxer. He kind of just sits there…very chill in comparison to other dogs around here. I live across the street from another trainee, Sarah, and we’re in language classes together.
We’ve had some fun moments so far in classes and whatnot, haha…horrible, but funny at the same time…we had a technical class at Dona Nancy’s casa yesterday and we were all there (15 MED or microenterprise trainees…the other 5 are agri-business and have technical classes separate from us…apparently learning about beekeeping or fish farms is not pertinent to what I’m going to be doing) and we were getting on the bus to go to visit a small business in the area. Well we got there and the guy wasn’t at home b/c there was an emergencia…but then as we got back on the bus one of the current volunteers Claire (that is helping with our training) was like, donde esta Sarah? Uh oh! It was kind of horrible…but we were laughing b/c it was only like 10 min from where Dona Nancy’s house was and we were going to swing back to pick her up…lo and behold, we get back (she had been in the bathroom when we left)…to our surprise and horror, she wasn’t the first person that walked out the door…it was another guy Chris! Horrendous…I guess at least we remembered that we forgot Sarah…I think now we’re instituting a count-off before we go anywhere. Bolivia, Bolivia…today we were supposed to go into Coch (which takes like an hour and a half by micro (bus) or trufi (van like bus)) but there was a para civico (basically a political demonstration) so all the transport into Coch (along with 5 of the other departamentos or states) was not running…it was nice though to get an afternoon to chill out (although we did have an assignment to do going around talking to people in the community…which ended up being just Sarah and I hanging out in my host family’s kitchen chatting with my host mom and dad) since we’ve been running around a bit. Tomorrow we’re heading into the city though with our language teachers (we learned all about the public transportation here…it’s slooow in general…I can’t wait to have to take those 18 hr bus rides across Bolivia when we get into our sites and are in the middle of nowhere) and then we’re going to the PC training center (complete with fish farms, both pit and dry latrines so you can take your pick, fishery, mini-greenhouse, and a menagerie of animals) for classes which we do every Wednesday.
In general things have been going alright, I’m working on getting adjusted to everything. I’ve had some really good/fun conversations with my host family and they’re so up to date on American TV/film…they saw the Simpsons movie already! And I watched Ghost in Spanish with them the other night and it was quite enjoyable. In the not so fun news, last night/today I’m dealing with the inevitable…my first bout of diarrhea and it’s lovely. Don’t worry, you’ll get to hear a lot about my bodily functions b/c half the time we talk about getting sick…we have a doctor here that we call Dr. Death b/c he tells us all about the ominous diseases we can catch from malaria to Chagas disease. I’m just hoping that my diarrhea is gone by tomorrow when I’m sitting on the 2 hr bus ride to get to the training center. And you know how I love to not shower…yeah, in my first (ok, 2nd week) I’m going on 4 days sin ducha! (that means w/o shower) My minimum level of hygiene has dropped since I’ve been here…and you know what my standards were like before so we’re def in trouble. I think that I’m going to adopt the once a week shower plan just to keep things interesting…I’ve already told my friends to tell me if I start to smell so I can shower, but I might actually start wearing deodorant (when I’m not working out)! Lovely lovely lovely. I know you wish you were sitting right next to me now!
Ok, enough about gross things and time to get to bed…going to upload this little bloggy blog at the training center manana (they actually have a computadora with internet!)….
After two days of college orientation-like activities in DC, we flew into La Paz where we were hurried off by the PC staff to hop on our connecting flight to Coch (what the other PC volunteers/people around here shorten Cochabamba to). When we arrived at the Coch airport we were greeted by really loud screaming people on the roof of the airport as we got off the plane…apparently there’s such thing to be involved with as a welcoming committee of current volunteers that come to welcome the new group to the country that scream at the top of their lungs when each new group arrives (3x per year) and then when we get into the airport they form a bridge/line thing (think CMU playfair) complete with welcome sign at the front that you have to run through while they’re screaming like the crazy Americans that we are. The first few days we spent at a “retreat” which was basically where we lived in a hotel, hung out with current volunteers (most of which have been here near the two years) and went to dinners with them, and then had a bunch of seminars/training from the country director and rest of the PC staff. We had interviews to figure out what we wanted in our sites and where our Spanish was at (I am in low intermediate I believe, thank you very much…even after 7 years) Those first few days we lived in luxury…just think, hot water from a shower and electricity that doesn’t go out when the wind blows too hard!
Then Saturday came and we found out who our host families were and we moved in and said bye to the other volunteers…we’re all living in the same community outside of Coch and see each other at training, language classes, etc but it’s definitely the beginning of the real PC experience. I’m living with probably the nicest family possible. Mom (Elvira…that’s El-vee-ra), Dad (Willy), and their three kids (Wilbur, 18, Katherine, 16, and Cristian, 10)…plus the friendly doggie (es muy amable when you think about all the other dogs running around with rabies…the current volunteers actually taught us the bend-quickly-and-pretend-you’re-picking-up-a-rock move to scare away the rabid stray dogs in the streets)…anyways, the dog’s name is Randall (after the character in Monsters Inc.!) and he’s a boxer. He kind of just sits there…very chill in comparison to other dogs around here. I live across the street from another trainee, Sarah, and we’re in language classes together.
We’ve had some fun moments so far in classes and whatnot, haha…horrible, but funny at the same time…we had a technical class at Dona Nancy’s casa yesterday and we were all there (15 MED or microenterprise trainees…the other 5 are agri-business and have technical classes separate from us…apparently learning about beekeeping or fish farms is not pertinent to what I’m going to be doing) and we were getting on the bus to go to visit a small business in the area. Well we got there and the guy wasn’t at home b/c there was an emergencia…but then as we got back on the bus one of the current volunteers Claire (that is helping with our training) was like, donde esta Sarah? Uh oh! It was kind of horrible…but we were laughing b/c it was only like 10 min from where Dona Nancy’s house was and we were going to swing back to pick her up…lo and behold, we get back (she had been in the bathroom when we left)…to our surprise and horror, she wasn’t the first person that walked out the door…it was another guy Chris! Horrendous…I guess at least we remembered that we forgot Sarah…I think now we’re instituting a count-off before we go anywhere. Bolivia, Bolivia…today we were supposed to go into Coch (which takes like an hour and a half by micro (bus) or trufi (van like bus)) but there was a para civico (basically a political demonstration) so all the transport into Coch (along with 5 of the other departamentos or states) was not running…it was nice though to get an afternoon to chill out (although we did have an assignment to do going around talking to people in the community…which ended up being just Sarah and I hanging out in my host family’s kitchen chatting with my host mom and dad) since we’ve been running around a bit. Tomorrow we’re heading into the city though with our language teachers (we learned all about the public transportation here…it’s slooow in general…I can’t wait to have to take those 18 hr bus rides across Bolivia when we get into our sites and are in the middle of nowhere) and then we’re going to the PC training center (complete with fish farms, both pit and dry latrines so you can take your pick, fishery, mini-greenhouse, and a menagerie of animals) for classes which we do every Wednesday.
In general things have been going alright, I’m working on getting adjusted to everything. I’ve had some really good/fun conversations with my host family and they’re so up to date on American TV/film…they saw the Simpsons movie already! And I watched Ghost in Spanish with them the other night and it was quite enjoyable. In the not so fun news, last night/today I’m dealing with the inevitable…my first bout of diarrhea and it’s lovely. Don’t worry, you’ll get to hear a lot about my bodily functions b/c half the time we talk about getting sick…we have a doctor here that we call Dr. Death b/c he tells us all about the ominous diseases we can catch from malaria to Chagas disease. I’m just hoping that my diarrhea is gone by tomorrow when I’m sitting on the 2 hr bus ride to get to the training center. And you know how I love to not shower…yeah, in my first (ok, 2nd week) I’m going on 4 days sin ducha! (that means w/o shower) My minimum level of hygiene has dropped since I’ve been here…and you know what my standards were like before so we’re def in trouble. I think that I’m going to adopt the once a week shower plan just to keep things interesting…I’ve already told my friends to tell me if I start to smell so I can shower, but I might actually start wearing deodorant (when I’m not working out)! Lovely lovely lovely. I know you wish you were sitting right next to me now!
Ok, enough about gross things and time to get to bed…going to upload this little bloggy blog at the training center manana (they actually have a computadora with internet!)….
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Staging Day 1
So far so good...made it to DC with all my luggage and started orientation today. Everyone seems nice and we've done fun things like draw pictures of llamas so far so it seems like if this is an indication of things to come everything will be alright :) At Mary's place right now...and after pigging out for dinner I'm definitely ready for a nap after getting 3 hrs of sleep last night and just a few quick snoozies on the plane and in the hotel lobby...zzzz...time to head back to the hotel and hop in bed (although not with a bag of potato chips as I usually do...eating potato chips while lying in bed is a hobby that I will have to give up when get down to Bolivia so I'd better stop it now while I can...) Adios!
On my way!
Flight leaves for DC in 2 hrs for staging! In customary fashion prior to a trip I only got 3 hours of sleep because I was doing last minute packing (I know I'm going to forget something important...) I went nuts right before I went to sleep though because somehow all the words on this page got translated to Chinese and I couldn't figure out how to create a new post, etc because I couldn't read the links to click on them! Oh well. As promised here's my address in Bolivia for the next 3 months.
Rules of sending things: under 4 lbs, articles listed on the mailing slip should be magazines, candy or even better as other people have noted "religious articles" and the total value of these things should be $0...this is so they don't get opened up by the post office and I don't have to pay to pick up the pkg...
Address:
Joy Lee, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla #1603
Cochabamba, Bolivia
South America
Umm...that's about all I have for now. I have one hour to scramble around doing things that I forgot to do but can't remember I should be doing. Adios!
Rules of sending things: under 4 lbs, articles listed on the mailing slip should be magazines, candy or even better as other people have noted "religious articles" and the total value of these things should be $0...this is so they don't get opened up by the post office and I don't have to pay to pick up the pkg...
Address:
Joy Lee, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla #1603
Cochabamba, Bolivia
South America
Umm...that's about all I have for now. I have one hour to scramble around doing things that I forgot to do but can't remember I should be doing. Adios!
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