Dogs and Bolivia

Bolivia has a different relationship with dogs.  Fact.  There are lots of street dogs.  They are generally viewed as a nusience nuisence nuisance or potential danger.  But they generally don’t bother people.  Going for a run is a different story…once I enter their “territory” they will bark at and possible also chase me (usually for a few strides until I’ve left their territory.  Like in those adventure video games.)  But for the occasions where dogs actually continue the chase (often in groups) the only way to get rid of them (I’ve tried others) is to bend down and mimic picking up a rock and throwing said imaginary rock at the dogs.  This almost always works, except for once or twice where the dog noticed that I was not actually throwing a real rock.  At that point I picked up a real rock and threw it in the dog’s general direction, and it backed down.  I’m not sure how I feel about this.  Maybe it makes me feel a little superior, that dogs know not to mess with me.  After all, it’s not like I actually hit them with rocks, right?  But the thing is, the only way they’d react like that was if someone actually had hit them with rocks.  And that makes me sad.

So on to another dog-related theme.  I have 2 dogs in my house here.  Coco is the “well-behaved” dog who nonetheless barks at everything if he’s outside.  Lukas is the dog my family found on the street, who has bad manners and bites everything, but just wants to befriend the stray dogs that go by.  I have decided to teach Lukas “manners,” starting with “sit” and “down,” but now including “leave it” which I think will help him behave better.  I’ve enlisted my host sister to help me, and we’re really excited because Lukas is a fast learner.  He also loves food, so that helps him learn better.  But in the 2 ½ weeks (WHAT?!?!) that I have here, I think we can get Lukas to be much better behaved!  So there's my legacy to leave with my host family.  Ayni!

Santa Cruz Struggles

So I was in Santa Cruz from Sunday March 25th until the night of Thursday the 29th, and clearly I have been strugglin to get these blog posts out.  Cool stuff happened, lots of our plans got cancelled, then I came back to Cochabamba with a big ol' project looming (due today (Tuesday)! GAH!)  So here's a quick run-through of the main important stuff.

Sunday, March 25: Took a 45-minute flight at 6:20am.  We usually do early flights.  Struggles, yes?  They're usually only 30 minutes so this was a long one!  Then we hopped on a bus and rode for some hours, maybe four or five.  Santa Cruz is HOT and HUUUUUMID.  When we stopped for lunch we got to walk around town a bit (cute town, I'll post pics eventually, or come visit me when I get home if you want to see them).  Tons of people bought shorts or skirts or dresses.  We all packed hot weather clothes but forgot that hot-ness SUCKS in long pants!  I had on jeans and sadly couldn’t really roll them up very much…luckily I had a tank top under my rain jacket (the jacket I obviously took off),

So then we drove another hour on the bus (did I mention it was hot?) and arrived at Concepción.  Forgot to mention all our suitcases were on top of the bus.  Not really important, I promise they won’t fall off later in my story or anything, I just thought it was cool and adventure-y.  Right before we got to Concepción, we stopped at a buffalo cheese farm.  To the disappointment of our director, they didn’t have buffalo cheese (they said tomorrow they would have it) but there were lots of cool rocks and animals.  I befriended a kitty who sat in my lap, but then a pig came over and took over my lap.  She was pretty darn snuggly.  So then we left and drove a wee bit more to arrive at Concepción.  The hotel was AWESOME and had a courtyard and a pool and some hammocks and a cat!  Our room had a little stairway up to the LOFT, which was right next to the AC unit!  Score!  I slept there!  Then we went to a religious museum and a Catholic Mass.  The Mass was obviously in Spanish (I did catch some of the words of the songs we sang…they were about sinning.)  The church was GIANT, also.

Monday, March 26:  Had a pastry-filled breakfast at the hotel.  We were going to visit a community nearby, but the road was muddy (they were mostly dirt) and it looked like it might rain (which would mean we couldn’t get back).  So instead we went to these BIG huge flat rocks and walked around.  Some of us climbed a tree and other people chilled on the warm rocks.  I climbed the tree (lucky thing I wore shorts).  Then we went back to the hotel and had lunch nearby.  There was a parrot at the restaurant, which was fun.  It liked to give people friendly nibbles on their fingers (at least, he probably thought he was being friendly).  I also should mention that outside our hotel room there was a parrot pay phone.  Instead of that box pay phones have around the phone part, it was a giant parrot with its belly hollowed out.  I’ll post the pics, I promise.

At 2pm-ish, we left Concepción for Buena Vista, our next destination (a 4.5 hour trip).  Partway there, we realized that the shortcut was blocked by the river, so we had to turn around and go the long way.  TEN HOURS later, we arrived at the restaurant for dinner.  At midnight.  Around 10pm we had stopped at a supermarket for “10 minutes” (read: 1 hour, but literally).  So cookies + peanut butter + sleepytime for everyone = NOT very excited for dinner.  Also, the town of Buena Vista looks so similar to Concepción that I really thought we were back there and I was wicked confused.

Tuesday, March 27: We were going to go to a national park today, but the road was too muddy so we couldn’t.  Instead we went to a malnourished children’s center in San Carlos run by nuns.  The organization rehabilitates malnourished babies and toddlers.  We got to hold the babies for a little while, which was really sad.  I don’t know a whole lot about babies, but I held an 8-month-old boy who looked more like 1 or 2 months to me.  A lot of people in my group want to do their independent study project with that organization, and help them improve their funding/education of the mothers.

Afterwards, we went to the central Plaze in San Carlos.  We made cheese and veggie sandwiches and peanut butter sandwiches, with cookies and an apple each.  Some kids came by when they saw our directors handing out food to us, and we shared with them.  Word traveled fast and other people came by for a sandwich—a few men, a pair of women, and a little girl.  I talked with the little girl for a while.  She told me she’s 9 and her favorite subject is gym class.  There were a ton of chickens walking around the Plaza, and my little friend told me they were wild.  Fun!  Then we had to leave, and she asked when I’d be coming back.  I felt so bad saying “I don’t know, maybe never…”

After lunch we went for a walk on a trail and saw lots of cool plants.  Our guide, Andrea (he’s a man but he’s from Italy, hence the second “a”) knew a TON about everything!  We got to eat some cacao, what they make chocolate out of.  It was white and slimy and tasted nothing like chocolate (the seeds are where the chocolate comes from).

Wednesday, March 28: We left the hotel in Buena Vista to go to Santa Cruz.  We stopped at a cool artisan shop with woven hats and little boxes, and windchimes/wall hangings.  Then I walked around town with some friends.  (Yes, I do have friends!)  As we drove to Santa Cruz, we passed a ton of strip-malls and I felt like I could be back in the US of A.

We got to the hotel and had to drop our things off quickly (we were late for our next appointment, as usual).  Then we went to CIDOB, an organization that works with indigenous people and protecting their rights.  The organization is helping with the current TIPNIS conflict, in which the president (and the Brazilian highway company) want to build a highway through a national park to connect to main cities (which aren’t connected by any other roads right now).  The indigenous people who live in the TIPNIS park don’t want a highway because it’s a protected park and they were given that land to live on.

After CIDOB, we were going to go to Plan 3000, a marginalized barrio on the edge of Santa Cruz.  After a big flood, the victims were relocated to the jungle, where they built a community (which is now Plan 3000).  The government promised they would help these people recover from the flood, but they never did.  The roads there are still dirt, the city dumps its trash there, and the people don’t have clean water.  So we were going to go there, but the leaders never called to confirm so we went back to the hotel instead (and watched Aristocats aka Aristogatos).  It’s cool, in Bolivia you have to be flexible!

Thursday, March 29: Today we went to the Lomas de Arena (aka Sand Dunes).  It’s a bit of a mystery how all this sand (when analyzed they realized it’s from Argentina) got all the way to Western Bolivia (aka landlocked country).  But the dunes were really cool!  As we were driving in, there was a HUGE puddle in the road so our bus driver and our 2 guides got out and walked around in it, to see how deep it was and if we'd be able to cross.  I suggested we caulk the bus and float, but instead we forded.  Luckily, no casualties.  Our bus also did get stuck driving on the road because it’s sandy like the beach around the dunes.  We walked around on the dunes for a while and then returned to the bus.  The bus had gotten stuck again, so some people pulled a chain attached to the front and others pushed it from behind.  Success!!  But then the bus got stuck 3 more times, within the same 200 meters.  So needless to say we were all pretty hot and tired by the time we got to the restaurant!

After lunch we went back to Santa Cruz and had the afternoon free.  I was feeling a little woozy so I hung out in the shade by the hotel pool, and then walked to the Plaza (3 blocks away).  Off the Plaza was a blind museum, with tactile exhibits and the captions in Braille and written Spanish.  There also was a walk-through exhibit where we wore black glasses (that we couldn’t see through) and walked through the “jungle” (leaves on the ground, jungle sounds) and the “city” (trash on the ground and a step that we didn’t know was coming).  Definitely a cool experience!  Outside the museum were some jugglers!  They offered us papaya and then did some juggling for us.

We left that night for Cochabamba otra vez!

Walking around in the giant puddle

Cacao

Parrot phone!

Check out my facebook for the sand pictures--a lot of them other people uploaded and I don't feel like waiting to upload them onto my blog.

Día de Comadres

Thursday, February 16

Today, we had a field trip to Colectivo Katari.  They are a group who pay tribute to and educate others about the indigenous groups of Bolivia.  The presentation was in a straw longhouse-type building.  There was also a kitty!  

This kitten was so snuggly!!

The presentation included some history, some music, and a video.  The music was really cool and the lyrics were all about the plight of indigenous people.  One of the songs went something like “I’m the owner of everything, but I always have nothing” (but in Spanish).  The video was about street and park names in Cochabamba.  A lot of plazas and streets are named for conquistadors or people who were cruel to the indigenous people.  Kinda sad, yah?

After the field trip, it was 5-ish so we got ready to go out for Día de Comadres!  Comadres is a holiday to celebrate godmothers, from what I understand, but it actually just entails ladies going out with their lady friends and partying a lot.  So to prepare for this big night, we ate some bread we bought on the street!  My house was a taxi ride away, so I stashed my stuff at my friend Sophie’s house and went to the party in my clothes from class (rain boots!).  Two of the girls had (Bolivian host) sisters who came out with us too.  We went to a café-type place and danced!  Getting a taxi back home was a challenge since the streets were so packed—finding one was hard enough, and then there was the traffic.  We crammed 10 people into a mini-van taxi!  No picture could capture that.

Attempting to get everyone in the photo

My "buddy" Ali and me

Hanging with the Familia

Today, I woke up around 8 and ate a breakfast of tea and bread with jelly.  (Also some cake from last night.)  My host parents asked if I wanted to go to the market with them, so I of course agreed!  They said it’s better to go to the cancha (market) on Sundays since it’s less crowded.  We took the blue jeep there, and then walked around this huge market with lots of fruits and veggies and meat.  We bought fruits and veggies (whose names I’m trying to learn, but it’s hard because there are so many!)  They had starfruit and my parents bought some to make into juice.  Yummers!  Then we went to the Hiper (short for Hipermarket, aka supermarket) to buy tp and napkins and noodles.  I told my host mom about Costco and how Matt and I used to build houses on the flatbed carts out of the stuff we were buying.

Then we came home, and I played Tetris with my host sister Andrea and played music (and sang along, obvi.)  For lunch we had lasagna and omelette (yup, I know that’s not vegan.)  My host mom got it from a Martha Stewart cookbook and we talked about how she went to jail.  Then I had a water balloon fight with Andrea and Andres, and Papá drove us to the park to play basketball.  While Mamá cooked dinner, Andrea and I sang Selena Gomez songs and talked about how cool she is.  (Andrea can say, “I love Selena Gomez” in English.)

I talked with my older brother Bruno about American fútbol and fútbol (soccer), and Bruno told me Bolivia has the worst soccer team in Latin America, and it’s like watching elementary schoolers play.  At dinner, we turned on the Superbowl to watch.  We all moved our chairs to one side of the table so we could watch the Superbowl across the room.  My host mom recognized Madonna’s voice so we talked about her a bit. 

Bruno told me that every Bolivian man has to serve 1 year in the army, and it’s interesting because he went to private school (most Bolivians do if they can) and he got the chance in the army to meet different types of people.  We talked about learning languages in school (he learned a little English but he mostly uses it for playing video games) and he told me my Spanish is very good!  WINNING.  Then we talked about politics in the US and Bolivia, and when we all went to bed the Patriots were winning so I’ll just pretend that I never learned otherwise.  Oh and I almost forgot—my family has 2 cats and they are totally cool!  We are already BFFs.  (Duh.)

Sorry for the lack of photos.  Ima get on that.  I’m trying not to look like a tourist (which is mildly impossible given my hair/skin tone).