Look! My blog is fancy!

Guess what?  I figured out how to add tags on my blog!  So if you want a conglomeration of all the things I've written about a certain topic, check out my side bar on the left!  I also added a search bar, so you all can look for things I've written, and more importantly so I can figure out what I've written....

Today was my first day at the prekinder class.  It also is Kid Day today (like Mother's Day/Father's Day, but with KIDS)!!  So the kids played games and all got goodie bags (I also got a goodie bag, for my "inner child."  WIN.)  One of the games involved 6 sausages tied on a long piece of string, and the kids had to eat the sausage without using their hands.  Kind of like reverse apple-bobbing?  There also were musical chairs and a spoon race.

So there were 8 kids in the prekinder class, 7 boys and a girl....they were all 3 and 4 years old, and were totally cute!  They had German class first, and then we played some games with the whole daycare, then snack, more games, and then quiet games until the parents came.  I helped out with supervising and playing with them, and corralling them to do things.  I have a eight cute new friends , as they all though I was interesting (a new person=extremely interesting).  One little boy immediately decided to sit on my lap....he's also not a native Spanish speaker, so we have a connection!  One of the boys told me my hair was pretty (it was in a braid), and then told me it looked like a cholita's (a possibly/probably derogatory term for indigenous women, who commonly wear their hair in long braids).  Racist?  Offensive? I don't really know.  I also got some kisses from the kids (on the check, because that's very normal) and one of the boys told me he loved me.  I stayed there from 7:45 till 12:30, and on the way home I bought a yummy empanada (I had to break a bill to get change for my bus home, but I'm SO going back!  I walked in that place and never wanted to leave--smelled so yummers!)

Goodbye, Oruro

Sunday, February 19, 2012

I woke up at 4:45 to go to Alba.  Alba is kind of like a battle of the bands at the church where the parade ends.  The group walked to the Plaza del Socavón, and I honestly remember very little of the walk since I was practically sleepwalking. 

We walked around in the church, which was beautiful.  It had the entrance to a mine (gated off though, and we didn’t go down).  I also saw a cat in the church!

Our group went out into the plaza, and weaved our way really close to the band.  We had lost one of the boys, Diego, but our program leader wasn’t too concerned.  There normally are a lot of bands all playing at once, but this year only one came.  But the energy was great!  People were singing along and lots of (drunk) men started talking to us.  One gave some mystery milk-colored alcohol to James.  He was by far the most popular with the locals.  Then the band marched from the plaza to this arena-type place and stood on some bleachers playing.  All the people followed them, and there was a lot of jostling.  Luckily no one else got separated though.

The band is in white on the right

We walked back to the hotel and I bought some snacks for the ride home.  On the way home, Sophie, James and I met a drunk man who told us how happy he was we came to see his city, and asked how we liked the carnival, and then kissed our hands.

Sophie and I went out for more snacks, and met a unicycler from Paraguay who travels around performing with his “little brother” from Uruguay (I don’t think they were really related.)  And then Diego turned up!  He had climbed the back of the stands and stood right behind the band.  (Diego is the type of person who always has fun adventures.)  We also befriended some German backpackers.

On our way out of Oruro, we stopped at Cardozo Velasquez Museum.  (It’s the artist’s house and a museum.)  There were lots of cool sculptures and paintings.  Then I played with a baby!! 

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

Alberto's Country House

Sunday, February 12

Today, my family told me we were going swimming at their friend Alberto's.  Alberto has a really cool country house with a pool.  We spent some time swimming, and then went inside for some bread and soda.  Alberto's house has a hammock that hung from the rafters!  My host sibs wrapped themselves up like caterpillars, which I sadly couldn't express in Spanish.

Alberto also has a workshop at his house.  He collects old antique-y things and fixes them up and makes them cool again.  He also carves masks....the wooden kind you would buy as a souvenir on some island.  They were so gorgeous and looked professionally done.  Alberto tried to tell me they weren't very complicated to make, but I didn't believe him.  His family doesn't like the country, so he comes here alone.  He told us to come by whenever we want.  Alberto is one cool dude.

Tarata

Written Thursday, February 9, 2012

Today we went to Tarata.  It was about a 40 minute drive from Cochabamba and the ride was gorgeous!  First we went to Frutté, a tea-making place where they harvest fruit, dry it, package it, and ship it.  They dry the tea using either the sun or their big oven named Santiago.  They have all kinds of fruit tea and “mate” (herbal tea).  Tea is really big here, not just when it’s cold outside.  All of the teas have special powers, like curing colds.

I think these are dried beets

Next we had the rural drop-off.  My friend Kate (aka Hojita) and I were partnered together and had to find a peach processing plant (Planta de Transformación de Duraznos) in Villa Mercedes.  We were abandoned in the city/town of Tarata (Okay, technically it’s a town (pueblo) but I think it looks like a city since no one has a yard.  Well, some of them do but they all have fences.  I promise it really does look like a city.  See, look at the picture!)

So anyway, Hojita and I asked a guy in his car where we could find the peach plant, and he replied with something neither of us could understand.  “QUE?” …nope, still incomprehensible to the gringas.  We finally understood “far” and asked if we needed a taxi.  He said yes so we went on our merry way, stopping to buy some bread with cheese inside for about 30 cents.  (By the way, bread + cheese might sound like a pretty average combo, but the Bolivians make it DIVINE.)

So we got in a taxi and drove into the campo (I’m talking SERIOUSLY rural, none of this pueblo-that-looks-like-a-city-business).  We chatted with our driver Daniel about Tarata, and he said a lot of people from the campo come to work in Tarata.  He said most of them come in taxis.  We tried to ask about the population of Tarata, but either he didn’t understand or he didn’t know.  I guess I wouldn’t know the population of my town either, except I was curious and looked it up on the internet.

Here's where the taxi dropped us off

About 20 minutes later, we got off in the middle of nowhere (aka Villa Mercedes—the driver didn’t know where the PPP [peach processing plant] was so he just took us to VM).  It was around noon at this point, so everyone was eating lunch and the streets were deserted (though it was really rural so maybe it always is deserted.)  Hojita and I walked down a dirt road for a while…quite a while…until we came across an older lady milking a cow.  She clearly was busy but we awkwardly approached her anyway since we didn’t know if we’d find any other people.

Turns out we came across the nicest lady in Villa Mercedes.  We told her the cows were cute, and tried to ask about the PPP.  She responded but neither of us had any idea what she was saying.  She didn’t seem to mind, and kept telling us stuff, and asked if we wanted some milk from her cow.  We politely declined, but she took some water from an old soda bottle, rinsed a tin cup, and poured us some fresh milk from her cow.  I actually thought it was pretty good, though drinking warm milk is pretty weird.  There were a bunch of peach trees where we were, so we asked about the peaches and if our friend cared for them alone.  Couldn’t understand her answer, but she walked up to the trees and picked us each four peaches!  I told her we had some bread and asked if she wanted to share, but she brushed aside the offer.  We said goodbye (a handshake instead of a kiss on the cheek) and walked back down the road.

It was almost 1pm, and we had to be back in Tarata by 1:30, so we went to the main road again.  There was a church pretty close so we decided to go check it out, but sadly it was closed.  So we called Daniel, our taxi-driving friend.  We were sitting on a bench eating bread, when a man came walking by.  He said a friendly hello and asked if we were from Canada (we saw a couple in a car who asked if we were German—I wondered if asking if someone is from the US could be offensive?).  His name was Carlos and he told us a lot of people from Villa Mercedes go to Arlington, Virginia (vair-HEEN-ee-aa) to work construction.  He said there were 80 families in Villa Mercedes.  He was on his way to a meeting in the central plaza (which we were on the edge of).  I didn’t quite catch what the meeting was about but it had something to do with water.  He invited us to come with him, so we went to the center of the plaza and met the townspeople who were gathering—four women and two men (including Carlos).  The women wore sweaters, traditional knee-length skirts, and straw hats.  We talked a little about Arlington, and one of the women told me her children worked there.  I wanted to ask them about how gender worked in the village, since the women seemed to be invited to the meeting as well as the men, but sadly Daniel had arrived. 

We returned to Tarata and went to the Plaza Principal.  Turns out it was Día de los Copadres, so lots of people came streaming out of the church holding bloody Jesus statues.  A brass band started playing as the procession circled the plaza, stopping at each corner for some sort of ceremony conducted by some sort of religious man.

Lunch was at a restaurant next to a big dam.  There specialty was fish, but I got soy meat instead (They have that in Bolivia!  The one time I tried to buy it with my host mom, it was mad expensive, but I heard it’s usually cheaper than animal meat!)  The restaurant also had a big slide!  A bunch of us went down and it was TOTALLY fun.  (It was mad fast so I screamed a little.)  There were peddleboats and ziplines, but we didn’t have time for them.  But the bathrooms were like a whole bunch of caves.  You had to explore to find an open stall. 

So then I came home on the turismo bus, took el micro (pronounced MEE-CRO) and arrived at my casa (house).  I watched Disney channel with my host sister (High School Musical 3 was on!!)

The Drop Off

[Okay, this was actually written on Friday, about my day on Thursday.  I didn't proofread because I have lots of better things to do!]

Yesterday we had a "drop-off," where our group was divided into groups of two and sent into the city of Cochabamba with a name of a place to go find.  My partner Ali and I had to find la Cancha San Antonio (San Antonio Market), more specifically el Mercado Artesanal.  So we set off with our map, which didn't have either place marked (or the hotel where we live).  We asked about 5 or 6 people for directions on the way, and ended up walking about 8 or 10 blocks.  (Maybe more…it took about 50 minutes to walk.)  We considered taking a micro (bus) but weren’t sure if that was dangerous, since we were told not to flag down taxis EVER.  So we walked.

In Bolivia, stores are organized by what they sell.  We walked down a paint area, a pharmacy area, etc.  Finally we got there!  When we left it was lunchtime (1:30) so the streets were really empty.  By this time it was pretty crowded.  Once we found la Cancha San Antonio, we looked for el Mercado Artesanal, which turned out to be a little part of the market that sold traditional things like guitars, dolls, rugs, colorful indigenous ponchos, etc.  We were supposed to talk to some people there and learn about the market, so we talked with a man selling rugs for a little while, but he clearly wanted us to buy something so it was a little weird and we weren’t sure if what he said was really true (he said it took his wife a whole year to make a rug—they were maybe a foot by 2 feet).  I have a picture but the internet is seriously struggling, so I can’t post it. 

Then we hung out at a shop on the edge of the market and people-watched.  Then we talked to the two women who ran the stand.  They were probably around our age and said that they took the micro to the market and most of their customers are tourists.  They asked where we were from and when we said the US they got really excited!  They asked if we had markets in the US, and if people take micros, and if there are pickpockets.  Then they got really serious and told us that there are a lot of pickpockets in Cocha and we should always watch our purses.

At this point it was 3:40 so we decided to walk home.  I was pretty sure I knew the way, but we wanted to check just to be sure…too bad neither of us had the hotel’s address.  Oops.  Luckily, we made it back, only ten minutes late (which is no big deal because Bolivian time is way different.  “Ahorita” (literally “right now”) can actually mean just about any amount of time.)

The food here has been really good!  I think the hotel knows that some of us are vegetarians.  (I think there are 5 or 6 of us and one of our program directors is a vegetarian.)  So we’ve had lots of potatoes and yummy soups, and different juices (pineapple, I think papaya, etc).  One soup we ate had papas fritas (fried potatoes) so it was like eating french fries in soup!  Also lots of flan and tea.  Lunch is a big meal—soup, a main course, sometimes a second course, and dessert.  Dinner is just one course, although so far they’ve been buffet style so I can eat plenty.  (Large dinners are not typical in Bolivia.)

The Never-ending Day

Tuesday, Jan 31, 2012

4am-wake up

6:50-arrive ate JFK airport (no traffic—YAY)

8:10-Past security

8:25-Board Plane to Panama City

9:30-Take off

2:30-Land in Panama City

What thing I learned: Copa airlines is SO great for vegans.  I booked my flight marking “vegan” and also called to confirm a few weeks before.  I was fully prepared to be offered chicken or beef, request a vegan meal, and get a blank stare before being told they didn’t have any.  But they asked me straight out, “you wanted the vegetarian meal, right?”  I crossed my fingers that it was also vegan, and Copa didn’t let me down!  I got a lovely (okay, well this is airplane food, but I was happy to get anything) rice and veggie dish, with a roll, a granola bar, and a salad with some yellow slices I thought were oranges but turned out to be yellow tomatoes.  Copa airlines has my loyalty for life.

Also met a cool guy named Matthew.  The two of us had a whole row to ourselves (aka one open space between us).  He was going to visit his girlfriend in Colombia.  We talked about politics and college and the book he’s writing.  He let me have the window seat so I could see the Panama Canal, which was super nice.  And it had some cool boats….I wish I got pictures, but çe la vie.  (That’s not Spanish, so I have license to spell it wrong.)

I hung around in the airport for a while, probs around 4 hours.  Then boarded the plane to Santa Cruz.  I switched seats since someone wanted to sit with her family, but Copa STILL found me and asked if anyone in our row was “vegetariana.”  LOVE them!

11:30pm-Arrived in Santa Cruz, but TIME CHANGE so say adios to one hour of waiting!  Here it’s 12:30!  Which brings us to…

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

So in Santa Cruz…went through migration, which was a drag.  HUGE lines.  SLOW lines.  I got my bags and the only way out of the airport was through these doors guarded by two camo-dressed soldiers.  I was seriously concerned that they would open into the city of Santa Cruz, and I would be stuck outside in a strange city at night.  Then I decided that since most international airports have more than one terminal, the doors probably just go to the rest of the airport.  Which they did.  I went to the departure area.  It was too early to check in for my flight, which I should have guess by the number of people sleeping on chairs already. 

1:30-Sit down with all my baggage in all its glory and begin the wait.  Lots of reading Runners World (I know there’s an apostrophe on runners but insert it yourselves since I still haven’t slept in a bed for 43 hours.)

4am- Managed to sleep for one whole hour on the oh-so-comfy-airport chairs.  Luckily no dividers between them though, so I’m really taking 1.5.  Maybe more like 1.3.  Whatever.  Don’t want to fall asleep again since I want to check in asap.

4:08am-Weird sensual music videos on the airline-sponsored TV. 

5:00am-On line at the check in, but no one is there!  I made a really cool friend from Netherlands though!  She’s volunteering at a daycare in Cocha.  We chat a lot in English.  She knows some Spanish, too, but she’s hoping to get better.

5:45-Finally people show up to give us our boarding passes.  Security is a breeze.  No removing my shoes, or my laptop, or anything.  Literally under 2 minutes.  No line, for that reason.  Overweight baggage, paid 8 dollars.  Chatted with a Boliviano in the extra fee line.  I made him repeat almost everything he said twice, but then I understood and could talk with him!  Win!

7:20-Guessing here, but we totes did not board on time.  No apparent reason, maybe just Bolivian time.

Chatted with a Bolivian guy on the plane.  His parents live in Cocha but he studies in Spain.  He asked if I was meeting friends in Cochabamba and I made him laugh when I said (in Spanish) that I didn’t know them yet but we WILL be friends!  He’s living in a “habitación” (either flat or dorm) with 2 roomies in Madrid.

CONKED OUT.

8:10-Landed, reunited with my friend from the Netherlands, stalked some gringos who looked my age, and asked if they were SIT students.  Said goodbye to my Dutch friend (I hugged her, she was so nice).

Got picked up by Ismael and Heidi and a bus.  SUPER TIRED.  Ate lunch and was a total zombie.  Vowed to take a nap but got randomly restless so hung out with the group instead.  People trickled in all day, and we had a meeting about school.  We went out exploring in the city, then Ismael and Heidi took us to Universidad Mayor de San Simón (where our classrooms are).  It totally doesn’t seem like a university by US standards.  But this is a city.

Went to Ismael’s house, chewed coca leaves (a big part of indigenous culture), and had a ceremony to Pachamama (Mother Earth).  We stood in a circle and everyone took some coca leaves and we cleansed the bad things away by rubbing a sacred piece of wood on our bodies.  Then everyone put the best coca leaves in a pile of flowers (one leave for each member of your family you are asking to protect).  Everyone put a little of each different color (white rice, red beans, yellow corn, tan sand) on the leaves.  Then we put that and the sacred wood in a fire.  Everyone had a turn to sprinkle dark liquid on the ground and light liquid in the fire as an offering.  Then we ate dinner at his house and came home.  It’s been a fun 44-hour day, but I’m ready for some sleep now.

Sorry for the lack of pics….the internet is muy lento! (very slow!)