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!

Diminutives

Now to talk about a subject near and dear to my heart.  Diminutives!  Bolivians love 'em!  English doesn't really have them, at least not to the same extent.  Diminutives basically function by making anything and everything little/cute/friendly/a term of endearment.  Basic structure:
Spanish word + ito/ita/cito/cita
Examples:
pan (bread) + cito= pancito
perro (dog) + ito=perrito
Mamá + ita= Mamita
Lauren + ita= Laurenita

See how fun?!
The weird thing is, you can basically use diminutives ALWAYS.  For example, you can call your parents Mamita and Papito to show you love them.  Or parents can call their kids Mamita and Papito to show they love them.  I call the kids in the preschool 'papito' when I forget their names.  My friend's host mom called a random little boy on the micro 'papito' when she asked him to close the window.  SO VERSATILE.  Food isn't particularly cute or little, but we always have jugito (instead of jugo), ensaladita (instead of ensalada), and fideito (instead of fideo).  TOTALLY going to miss this in the US (or maybe I'll bring it back..?)

GOTTA ADD THIS:
Just had a convo with my 15-year old host brother about brigadeiros (sp?).  They're chocolate yum surrounding an almond, with sugar on the outside.  Like so.

 
Our conversation went (it's better in Spanish):

Andrés: Parece como popo de león.

Me: Pero con azucar.

Andrés: Si. Y un nuez adentro.

In English:

Andrés: They look like lion poop.
Me: But with sugar.
Andrés: Yeah. And a nut inside.

Tis the Season....

....to protest!  But really, after Easter is when people really start protesting stuff (Or maybe it was after Carnival?)  Yup, people are getting out in the streets--marches, strikes, blockades, hunger strikes.  The doctors have been protesting a while now, because they're now required to work 8 hour days instead of 6, but with the same pay.  Friday there were blockades of some sort.  Today the taxi drivers were marching against the new law that only allows any given taxi in the city center every other day.  (From what I understand, odd numbered license plates can enter certain days, and even numbered the other days.  Or something like that.)  And the taxi drivers of Cochabamba are NOT happy campers with this.

http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia.php?identificador=2147483957939

Aw bummer, I was hoping a picture would show up with that link.  La vida es triste.  P.S. That's my newest Spanish comedic genius.  (In English: Life is sad.)  I told my family that instead of doing my ISP on preschool kids, I'm just going to make an essay about all the reasons life is sad in Bolivia.  Ex: When my host brother took Peru from me while playing Risk, when the micro came by just as I came inside to tell my mom that it wasn't coming, when we eat all the pancakes and then there aren't any more, etc.  Sometimes I amend it to "la vida es cruel" (life is cruel).  I've been on a role with the sarcasm lately.  It also helps that my family knows I can speak better Spanish now, so they don't just assume I'm confusing my words.  I'm still loving my Bolivian family, and we're getting on better than ever.  I made them pancakes tonight, and they were a hit!  Yummers!

Being vegetarian in Bolivia, or why I miss being vegan

So everyone probably knows that I'm a vegan in real life in the USA.  But when I came to Bolivia I decided I had to compromise on that, because heck if people in the US don't know what to feed me, how will people in Bolivia??  (where even vegetarians are fairly uncommon).  So I am now a vegetarian--I eat eggs, cheese, and milk but no red meat, white meat, any other color meat, or fish.  And I'm fine with that....the weird thing is that I still consider myself a vegan, it's like a part of my personality.....just like I'm a runner who's currently not running.  I'm a vegan who's currently....not.  I love empanadas (bread with cheese inside).  I love eating ice cream.  Being vegetarian is way more convenient.

So my main problem with being vegetarian?  Self.  Control.  People always act like as a vegan I have a lot of self control.  Which I suppose I do, in a sense.  But that's also determination to prove wrong all the nay-sayers, and help the planet and save animals from cruelty/death.  Know what REALLY takes self control?  When there's delicious bread in my house here in Bolivia--FRESH bread, baked today, that will go stale unless someone eats it.....so I eat 4-5 rolls every day, even when I'm not hungry.  Or when I walk by the empanada store, and just HAVE to buy one, or two, or three.  (To be fair,  I give them to beggars I pass also.)  Or when I go by the little general store and there is CHOCOLATE, OOOOH I LOVE CHOCOLATE!!! Yeah, none of that happens when I'm a vegan.  I can't just buy whatever food I see, cause it's probably not vegan.  Bread?  Maybe, but who knows?  Empanadas?  No way? Chocolate?  Probably not. When it's a moral issue (animals suffered for me to eat this!), no problemo.  When it's just ME telling myself I'm not really hungry, I don't NEED to eat right now.....No. Self. Control.

And here's the other thing.  When I'm at school, I shop.  Me.  Deciding what to buy.  And I like saving money, so no processed garbage, just fruit and veggies and oatmeal.  So when I get the munchies at 9pm, what's there to eat?  Fruit.  Veggies.  Oatmeal.  If I'm actually hungry, I'll eat something.  If I just have a craving, well TOUGH.  Here, my family shops.  They are awesome and I love them, but WHY DO THEY BUY THE BREAD THAT TASTES SO GOOD??  Potato chips, french fries, cookies.....(I had at least 7 or 8 cookies, in one sitting).  If it wasn't there, I couldn't eat it.   There's my nugget of wisdom through all my rambling:  If you don't want to snarf it all down in one sitting like a starving person eat it, don't buy it.

PS. My Bolivian mama made rice and veggies today and it was TO DIE for.  All Indian style, with some curry.  MMMMMMMM.  I love my mamita!

Trip to the Movies--Bolivian Style

On Wednesday, I went with my 12-year old awesome sister to see a movie at the theater.  Wednesday is 2-for-1 (as in 2 people, not 2 movies).  We were planning on seeing the Lorax, but once we got there we decided to see Viaje 2 (directly translated as "Trip 2," I don't know what the English version is called.)  The Rock is in it.  In Spanish he's refered to as "la Rocka."  How cool is that?

So once my sister payed for our tickets, I realized there was only one!  So I asked where the other one was.  She told me "It's two for one, remember?"  Apparently 2 for 1 here means two people for one ticket, not two tickets for one price.  Then we bought snacks--a GIANT thing of popcorn and drinks for each of us. In summary:
Ticket                25
Giant Popcorn   17
Water                 10
Giant Soda         15

Total: 67 bolivianos, aka about 10 US dollars.  WINNING.

Also, the movie was fun.  It was Spanish-dubbed, but it was action-y and the language wasn't that hard to understand.  The only part that wasn't dubbed was when the Rock sung "What a Wonderful World" and changed the words to make fun of another character.  They didn't even have subtitles, so I was the only one laughing in the theater.

Pascua

Hola everyone!  Today I had my first Bolivian Easter (aka Pascua).  I actually had to look up the word for Easter just now, because no one talked about it or did anything out of the usual.  Yesterday I had a few bonbons with my sister in honor of Easter, and I've seen a few more chocolate bunnies being sold in the street.  But Easter--not too big of a deal...the actual big deal was Semana Santa, or Saint Week.  My host sibs had Thursday and Friday off school and Friday was "dry."  Selling alcohol was totally illegal, and no where was open, and there was also no public transport (well, there was a trufi that got me into town at 7:30am, but I had to walk back to my house since no trufis came by--about 2 miles but who's counting?  Actually I didn't even googlemap that, so not me).

Know what else I did this weekend?  Played Risk!  My host brothers bought it in the Cancha, or market (but also soccer field, which gets confusing sometimes).  The directions were in English, so I got to read them and be the bearer of all knowledge.  We didn't actually finish a game, mostly because I kept having to go do other things...but we've started plenty of games!  I also went for a run, oh and worked on my ISP (independent study project).  I'm going to study preschool education/socialization and how it's different among different socioeconomic classes.  I have an appointment tomorrow with the owner of a daycare in Cocha, so I'll let y'all know how that goes.  All weekend I've been working on my 3 "journals/reflections" that I have to turn in this Wednesday...I've reflected over lots of readings and lectures and Bolivian culture things....if I have time I might translate a few of them to put on my blog.  (Writing in Spanish is definitely easier!  Woo!)

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.

1 Week Anniversary

Written Wednesday, February 5

Wednesday February 8, 2012--Una Semana!

Today was my third day of school and my one-week anniversary of coming to Bolivia.  I go to la “U” (university) at 9, come home at 12:30 for lunch, and go back to la “U” from 3:00 to 6:30.  It seems like that leaves me a lot of time for lunch, but it takes about 35-40 minutes by micro (bus) to get from home to school, so I end up having about an hour for lunching.  Today, we ate yellow rice, little purple potatoes, lentils, fried banana, and salad from my family’s garden with guacamole.  That lunch was a little bigger than the norm, but lunches here are always a lot.  The whole time I’ve been here, my mamá makes juice in the blender with fresh fruit, and then strains it into a pitcher.  It’s fun to try all these different fruits—Bolivia has such a variety (I think because of the variety of climates and altitudes).

So for my morning class, I had my globalization seminar with our guest speaker Rafael Puente.  Yesterday and today we learned about Bolivian history (in Spanish—it was hard!)  It has definitely helped to have some background about Bolivia, like knowing that they lost access to the ocean in the war with Chile.  A lot of my life in Spanish is about knowing the general topic of conversation and then guessing what the person is saying.  I know my Spanish will improve, but for now it’s just pretty tiring.  (Not in a bad way, just that it literally tires me out.)  Just listening is a lot of work, not to mention talking.  My family and professors are really great, and help me with my Spanish a lot.  (Spanish class is in the afternoon, and all the profesoras are super-cool and fun.)

Today we went to an organization of Household Workers as a Spanish class field trip.  It was really interesting to learn a bit about their lives.  One former household worker is now the Minister of Justice in Bolivia.  There are a lot of problems with domestic workers because they usually come to the cities from the country, so they are often maltreated and don’t know their rights.  One of the women we met said that she worked without pay or vacations, working from 5am until midnight (until she joined the organization). 

I have lots of cool conversations with my Bolivian family. They really are the best.  The family members usually get off school/work for lunch at different times, so someone is usually missing.  But at dinner everyone sits and has tea, French fries (homemade), or leftover lunch. My brother Bruno is 21, and we today talked about our mutual love of books (especially Harry Potter.)  I asked if he knew the Hunger Games, but he didn’t.  He’s studying to be a civil engineer and is really smart.  We talk about politics and sociology and lots of interesting stuff (some of which I didn’t understand, but he’s pretty good at explaining things and using small words).  We talked about the troubles with poverty in Bolivia and the USA.  Bruno told me that people here usually don’t die from hunger; they die from malnutrition.  In the country, the campesinos (farmers) produce only a few crops (to eat, not to sell), so they don’t get certain nutrients.  These people don’t use money, so it’s not worth it for anyone to come sell them other foods.  I told him that in the USA poor people also have worse nutrition, because the cheapest foods are processed.  We talked about Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia.  It’s pretty cool how many parallels there are between Evo and Obama—they both are from marginalized racial/ethnic groups and both represent hope for many people.

After dinner, I played pick-up sticks with my 3 siblings and my papá.  Then I taught them how to play Go Fish (A Pescar).

And here are the pictures I've been promising.

Here's my family's neighboorhood.

This restaurant lets me know it's almost time to get off the micro (bus).

Cochabamba

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).

Moving In

[Written Saturday, the 5th.]
Today, I moved in with my host family!  I did some other things too, like talk about expectations, draw pictures of my fears, and play some percussion instruments (in the morning) but going home with mi familia boliviana was the most exciting part.  All the families came to our hotel around 12:30 to pick us up.  My host parents, younger brother, and sister came to get me in their family’s baby-blue jeep.  My Bolivian parents use it for their job as gardeners.  (I keep writing this in Spanglish and then I have to change it into English.  I guess that’s a good problem to have.)  We live in a part of the city that’s more uphill and close to some mountains (I can see them out the window).  Out the window I can also see a temple (random fun fact). 

Before lunch, we (my sister Andrea, my older brother Bruno, his girlfriend Abby, and I) played Clue.  Lunch was yellow rice, cauliflower in white sauce, fried bananas, little purple potatoes, and everyone else had some chicken.  We were seven—my mom, my dad, my 12-year-old sister Andrea, my 14-year old brother Andres, my 21-year old brother Bruno, and his girlfriend Abby.  I talked with Bruno about politics, which was interesting to hear from a real Bolivian instead of just reading in books.  My host parents showed me that they had cow’s milk, soy milk, and water in the fridge, and they said I could always take anything if I get hungry, because this is my home.  (I had to hug them both after that.)  They told me that food in Bolivia is almost always organic, since it’s from the Bolivian countryside.  They told me about a lot of natural remedies that they have here.  And I talked about being a vegetarian with Bruno, and he said, “Oh yeah, animals are treated really badly in the US, right?”  So of course I said yes, but I never thought about factory farms only being a US thing.  I guess I just assumed all animals are treated badly, but here it would make sense that the campesinos (country people, as opposed to city people) wouldn’t be pumping the animals full of chemicals and squishing them together in tiny buildings (necessarily).

After we went down the block to a little store for ice cream and globos (balloons).  Then I learned to play Puerto Rico, a board game where you colonize Puerto Riceo and send barrels of goods back to Spain.  There were lots of little nuances so next time it will be a lot easier for me.  Next it was tea time!  We ate bread, jelly, and tea, and I gave my family the Amish jam I brought.  They told me it was SO good, and made sure that I knew they appreciated it.  Then Andrea, Andres, and I filled up globos and had a long water balloon fight outside in the street.  I brought my computer to Bruno’s room downstairs so he could help me set up the WiFi.  I facebook-friended Andrea.  She loves singing and can sing every word to tons of songs in Spanish and English (especially Selena Gomez.)  My family members actually know a fair amount of English words, like hot sauce, worms (parasites), and …more that I can’t think of.  Andrea and I played Tetris on facebook, and she destroyed me (I did win once, but the next time I lost 0-20 so that canceled it out.)  Then Andrea and I watched Selena Gomez music videos and sang along, and took silly pictures on Photobooth.   There are LOTS of treasures from that photoshoot.  We came back to the house (we were downstairs in Bruno’s room, which has a separate entry) and showed my host mom our pictures and ate the yummy banana cake she made (with banana-flavored soy milk).   I love them even more than I did yesterday!  

(The internet is turned off right now at my house.)

Mi Familia Boliviana

[Written Friday, about Friday.]

Today I took my Spanish placement test…I’ll find out about how I did tomorrow (or eventually—this is Bolivia and we’re mad chilled out here.)  There was a written part and an oral part.  We have three Spanish teachers and they all are super cool—Chichi, Marta, Beba, y Mechi.  My oral exam was with Mechi and she was super nice.  She just asked me about my life in Spanish.

My roomies, Emily and Amelia, and I are listening to some Juanes right now.  They are also fans, which is fun.  We have some awesome convos.  Everyone on my program is super cool.  This semester is going to be fun!

…And I MET MY FAMILY TODAY!!!  We went to a restaurant and ate with them, and tomorrow we move in.  We talked in Spanish and they told me my Spanish was good!  We talked about tons of stuff…they asked about what I could eat since they knew I was a vegetarian (but I said I only ate a little cheese—flex-eganism)…they love to cook and we’re going to cook food together (I’ll teach them to cook tofu and desserts and they’ll teach me to cook Bolivian cuisine)…they said they’ve had vegetarian students before but never a strict one, but they were super okay with …they asked about why I’m a veg and I talked about how I like animals and how it’s a way for me to give back to the Earth and they thought that was cool (reciprocity is a big thing in Bolivian culture)…they asked about sports I like and we talked about track and running (they said it’s better to run on a track since street dogs sometimes try to bite you)…I told them that I came to Bolivia to learn Spanish so I can teach my future kids to speak Spanish and they were excited about that.  They have two dogs, one of which my host siblings found on the street and took in, but he likes to chew things up (although I also think he doesn’t have teeth--?).  They told me he has all his shots now, so he is safe to have around.

Then after dinner (which included yucca—yum!) we danced for about 3 hours.  Bolivian dancing involves lots of quick steps so we got mad tired.  There was a live band that included a ten-year-old boy playing the drum.  I danced with my host mom and dad (my sister and older brother weren’t there and my middle brother was hanging out with one of his friends who was there).  We did a lot of joining hands and dancing around.  I would think the song had ended, but it always would start up again—I think it’s a style for Bolivian music to have little pauses like that but I would have appreciated a lil break.  I did rest a few times to drink jugo de duro (peach juice).  The juices here are really sweet!  My host dad was serving everyone ice, and my host mom said “NONONO she can’t have the ice!  We don’t know if the water here is okay [for me, they could have it]”  (The water in Bolivia isn’t safe for us to drink, since we aren’t used to it.)  And then she told me that the family makes their own ice, so in my host family’s house I can always have the ice.  It was nice they were so concerned about me!

Now I have to take a shower since I got soooo hot from dancing.  The shower here is the entire bathroom—there’s just a shower head between the toilet and the sink, so the whole room gets a lil damp when someone showers.  (By damp I mean soaked.  But it’s really not hard to get used to.)  Cochabamba also has some water problems, so we have to shower quickly to not waste water.  It’s 12:45 at night, so I have to shower (ducharme!)  I’ll probably be able to post more when I’m at my host family’s house.