Roosters: They’re not just for mornings anymore!

I live in a sub-tropical paradise where you could eat your weight in citrus fruits if you wanted to. Every time I turn around someone is giving me an orange to eat. The dueña of my house gives me 2 or 3 pieces of her fresh baked bread every day, probably the best bread I’ve had in Bolivia, along with avocados and papayas from her trees. This being said it is incredibly hot and humid and the bugs are eating me alive. They have these little tiny bugs that they call moscos and they are the sneakiest little bastards. You don’t even know that they are biting you and the next thing you know your arm is covered with these little red dots. It kind of looks like I have the chicken pox and I know you’re not supposed to scratch them but I have so many on my feet and sometimes you just have to scratch and when you do it feels so good, so wrong, but so good. I started using some repellent and that helps a bit. Plus I retreat to my mosquito net cage at night, aka my bed and I am safe from the moscos. It is amazing how everyone you talk to comments on the heat and the moscos. I’ve had this conversation a million times in less than a week, we could be talking about anything and then inevitably this happens, usually a couple of times in the same conversation:

“There are so many moscos here.”
“Yes, there are.”
“The moscos are biting you.”
“Yes, all over.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“Yes, I’ll get used to it.”
“It’s very hot here.”
“Yes, it’s hot.”
“It’s hot today.”
“Yes.”
“It gets much hotter in the summer.”
“So I’ve heard.”

Let’s not forget that it’s fall here. I heard that in the winter it’s very cold, but that it’s a humid cold, how is that even possible? In the summer it is just insanely hot and nobody does anything, you just drip sweat and talk about how hot it is. The good thing about the summer is that it’s even too hot for the bugs to bite you, so at least I won’t have to expend energy trying to swat them away. That’s another thing I do now all the time, swat at bugs whether they are there or not, it’s just something to do. I’ve also discovered that bucket showers are amazingly refreshing. During those extra hot and humid mid-day hours you just need to pour water on your head and it feels great. We have water on a fairly regular basis, it usually cuts out in the afternoon but it’s going strong in the morning and evening. There is a really nice bathroom up here where my room is but no indoor plumbing. The bucket of water flusher works great though.

The one thing that is almost as annoying as the moscos are the roosters. I thought the dogs back in Cuatro Esquinas were bad but that was nothing compared to the chorus of roosters we have here every day. Now I was under the impression that roosters were an announcing the sunrise morning type of fowl, but not these roosters. They crow at all hours of the day and night. The other night I woke up to the usual rooster chorus (much like the dog chorus this is when one rooster starts crowing on one end of town, setting off a domino of all the roosters across the town crowing for a good ten minutes) so I assumed, the roosters are crowing it must be about 5 or 6 in the morning. I look at the clock and it’s only 2am! What kind of ass backwards roosters start crowing at 2 in the morning?! It’s like they’re talking to each other across town and this is what I imagine them saying:
“Hey, is the sun up yet?”
“No, it’s not but I think it will be up soon.”
“Fred, what about over there, is the sun up over on your side of town?”
“No, not yet. Is it up over there?”
“No, not yet, but I think it will be up soon.”
“Yeah, it’s going to be up soon. Let’s keep talking about it because I think people are trying to sleep and we hate it when people sleep, especially that gringa Michelle.”
Plus, my family owns some of these roosters so it basically sounds like they are crowing right next to my window, hell they might as well be in bed with me. I just want to sleep in for once, is that so much to ask? They’re crowing right now and it’s nighttime! Do they think the sun is coming up it just went down! What is the deal?

Coming from the rigorous structure of training to no structure at all is quite a challenge. I have a good foothold in the school and I’m going to start teaching English there next week and I’ve talked with the new director about the school garden. They have 6 types of seeds but I think we should get some more, or maybe some seedlings. It’s pretty much just past the planting season so I’m not sure if I should put stuff in the ground or wait until next March. I’m going to consult Pepe when he visits next week. Other than the school I’ve just been asking around, talking to people trying to get a feel for what people want and what they have. I went to Aaron in the next town, which turns out to be over a 2 hour walk so I’m thinking about investing in a bike or sticking with the public transportation, trufis, trucks that sort of thing when I want to go for a visit. His town is really nice, a booming metropolis compared to mine, like they actually have a finished plaza and most people run some kind of tienda, selling something out of their house. He introduced me to the president of his woman’s group and she is definitely interested in collaborating with my women’s group and I think it will be really great. All the women I’ve talked to are really interested in making marmalade and that’s definitely something I can set up for the near future. This great family that Aaron is close with invited us for lunch and afterwards we went to their orchard to pick grapefruit, mandarins, oranges and tangerines. Then we went back and ate some of everything! So much citrus, so delicious. I had to wait until after 6 to get a truck back to my site because there was a motorcycle race (why?) But it was definitely worth the trip; I met a lot of people, talked about possible collaborations with Aaron and just got a feel for volunteer life from someone who’s already been here for almost a year.

So, what can I say really? Things are slow but you set your own pace. It’s difficult but very promising. I feel lazy and productive. I feel lonely and welcomed. I kind of awkwardly hang around with Doña Santusa´s family and invite myself to do things with them, like planting a whole bunch of onions in their field. This strategy seems to be working for me. I am going with the flow and enjoying the things I can’t do anywhere else, like riding with 30 Bolivians on the back of a truck or eating freshing cut sugar cane. Afterall, TIB (This is Bolivia.)

So Official

Training finally came to an end with much celebrating and a few tears, as our group of 31 disperses throughout Bolivia. We can now officially call ourselves Peace Corps Volunteers. After 3 months of a fixed routine where almost every moment of our day was dictated by our PC trainers we are now free to make our own schedules, work however we like, live in our communities and just be. We had a wonderful despedida for the host families where they all got certificates and the volunteers also got prizes for training related activities. From the AG group 3 of the 5 gardens won prizes, my group obviously was amongst the winners and here is a picture of our prize-winning garden and our garden winning cake. My group (Rachel, fellow veg and Brandon, the joker) grew some mighty fine vegetables in Doña Carmen’s casa and we shared our prize with the family for all their help. Other highlights include: Pat cross-dressing as a cholita, Pepe, Carla, Andres and Ben performing Viva Mi Patria Bolivia with a special verse relating to our barrios, dancing the Cueca, a traditional Bolivian paired line dance which we had learned in Spanish class that week and Andy and Natalie swing dancing.

The few days we had in the city before swear-in were fabulous, they put us up in a swanker version of the hotel we stayed in when we first got to Bolivia and we all got to hang out and enjoy our last few nights together as a group. When it came time for swear in we were ready, people were decked out and I have to say this group can look pretty good when it wants to. About a million pictures were taken and then it was time for the real celebrating to begin. We had a theme of glitter and glam/fabulousness/all the guys wore ridiculously tight jerseys, so really no theme at all. But the way people committed to their outfits was incredible and it made me love this group of people even more. There were some amazing finds in the cancha (it’s like a Wal-Mart threw up,) including my all sequined 80s style shirt that I found for just 5bs! There was spandex and a blue wig, retro dresses from every decade and the most amazing shoes that Sarah found in the free stuff pile in the volunteer lounge, kind of like Dorothy’s shoes if Dorothy was turning tricks on the corner. Her husband John wore the tightest belly shirt that said “Little Miss Naughty” and they both proceeded to talk in these terrible Staten Island/Long Island accents all night. We had dinner on the PC dime at this buffet place that had a great salad bar and TONS of meat. Literally all night long they walked around with swords of meat of every kind slicing off pieces for those who wanted it. It’s the kind of place a meat lover like my Dad would die for. Cow udder and llama meat, he is so there. We announced superlatives during dinner (this was inspired by the Dundies of “The Office”) and I got most likely to marry an Argentinean, seeing as how I can swim to Argentina if I wanted to, I think it was fitting. Afterwards we actually got to go out dancing and it was so much fun! There is this one really small bar that plays the most random 70s/80s/90s stuff and we just took over the place. After that we went to the “fireman bar,” given this nickname because there is a fire pole you can slide down and we danced to some really good Spanish music. It was a great way to become official as PCVs.

The rest of the weekend was spent saying good-byes. Bill, the training director, invited us to his house for a BBQ and I got to go swimming in his absolutely freezing pool as we listened to records on his sweet sound system (he has an amazing record collection.) The jet setters of Tarija flew down on Sunday and after buying some of the “finest” furniture Bolivia had to offer I loaded up a taxi and headed to my site on Wednesday. Shopping was such a hassle, you have to argue over every price and it just gets to be exhausting after a while. My main purchases were a mini stove so I can cook for myself sometimes, my bed, which was the cheapest one there was, crossing my fingers that it lasts 2 years, and a dinky metal/vinyl ropero for my clothes. More about site to come…immediately above this post.

The Ag kids being silly B-47 Looking Good

Welcome to the Super Campo

I came, I saw, I drank wine.

Apparently trainees are not allowed to get off a plane here without a group of people cheering them through the gate. As we landed in Tarija most of the current Tarija PCVs were there to greet us. It was a really nice welcome. Tarija is an awesome city, it´s small, it´s clean, it´s safe and it´s the heart of Bolivia´s wine industry (which isn´t all that extensive, but still, it´s Grapelandia!) After a long day of orientation where I got to meet my counterparts for the first time (I have 2, lucky me) we traveled by bus to Bermejo. As it got dark and started to rain the bus seemed to stop every 20 minutes, the 4 hour trip took about 6 hours, but it was pretty cool because it was pitch black but there was a ton of lightning and it gave the trip a really surreal feeling, as if it wasn´t surreal enough to begin with. Also, they started to show the ¨Terminator¨but it cut out half way through, just when I was getting really invested. Anyway, we got to Bermejo around 10pm crashed at a hostel because apparently the only transportation to my site is the one trufi that leaves at 5 in the morning, still haven´t confirmed if there is a later trufi, but everyone I asked said that was the only one, go figure. So almost all the teachers who work at the school, including one of my counterparts in my site have to wake up at 4am everyday to get the 5am trufi.

So we get to the school around 6, I am introduced around to the teachers and then introduced to some community leaders and then I crossed a small river (no bridge, perhaps that can be a secondary project) to the health post where I stayed in the 3 bed room where patients stay when they have patients (nice digs!) It´s a small town and it´s super campo (the country) with only 500 people but I don´t know where they all were. We also saw the room where I will live, it´s probably one of the nicest houses in town, the only one I saw with 2 stories. There is basically one main road where you have everything you could want, the school, the health post, the 2 stores, the one restaurant that sometimes serves food. I was really happy when I convinced Doña Santusa to let me eat lunch at her fine establishment each day of my site visit. She´s a damn good cook and even accomodated the vegetarian thing. Plus we got to watch ridiculous telenovelas during lunch and her family is super friendly.

So I really didn´t know what to do with myself during the day, I didn´t really know anyone so the following day I decided to go to the school and observe a class. The kids are great but they are crazy about learning English. I wasn´t trained for that! However, I did teach 2 English classes during my site visit and they went over pretty well. When I told Aaron (the volunteer in the next town over) he joked that I already had more work than most PC volunteers. I have to say the one thing I love about my site is how much potential it has. Because it´s so small and there is basically nothing there my mind was just racing with possibilities. The health post has a great room where I could have self-esteem, yoga and nutrition classes for the kids in the afternoon. Oh yeah, about the education system here, it is a lot to get used to. The kids are in school from 7:30am-12:00pm, in that time they have breakfast, lunch and 2 recesses. The style of teaching focuses on copying from the board, dictation and memorization. It is so hard to get kids to participate and answer questions, even ones like ¨What is your name?¨ But the kids really want to learn and I have a lot of material on non-formal education and plan on making my classes as interactive as possible. There is also a great spot for a school garden which is my major focus, I will have to start with composting because the rainy season just ended and it doesn´t make sense to plant now.

There is also a women´s group and they were supposed to have their meeting on Thursday but instead my counterpart said we were going to Bermejo to meet with the Mayor (alcalde.) So me and about half the town all piled into this truck and went to Bermejo. Besides the one micro that passes through my town 3 times a day, trucks are the major form of transport. Apparently during the sugar cane harvest there are tons of trucks going to Bermejo so transportation won´t be as big of an issue then. But just thinking about having to buy a bed and then somehow get it to my site along with all my other stuff is really overwhelming. Luckily the current Tarija volunteers are incredibly nice and have already offered their help. I really have some of the best people in my region, which is important because it´s going to get lonely out in the super campo. I mean, I´m not going to lie, that first day was hard, no one knew me and I didn´t know anyone. But by the end of my visit I was feeling really good about everything. Francisca, one of the teachers who works in my site but lives in Aaron´s has already invited me to her house. On the way back from the city (it turned out the town was getting money from the prefecto, that´s like regional governor I believe, to invest in their town´s agriculture, which is sugar cane, but I´m wondering if I can put any of that money towards some of the ag projects I´ll be working on, this is a run on thought, sorry) we were riding in the micro with all the women and kids and this little girl came over and sat on my lap. When I got to my stop at the health post she had fallen asleep and I was like, uh, who´s is this? The next day I saw her at school and she kept calling me tía, which means aunt, it was just so fricken cute. Kids are definitely the key to integrating here.

Oh, I´m already collaborating with Peter, the Natural Resources volunteer from my group to coordinate some kind of watershed management for my town because apparently when it rains a lot the water cuts out, go figure. Yeah, I didn´t shower the entire time I was there and it was awesome. No worries, the hostel in Tarija has an awesome hot shower and I will probably hit that up like once a month (with bucket showers to supplement of course.)

Other Tarija highlights include: a trip to Max Ronald´s, a late night hamburger stand featuring Ronald McDonald´s evil Bolivian cousin; an amazing lunch buffet at a hotel overlooking the city; playing poker in the hotel with matchsticks, clove cigarettes, pieces of dove chocolate and a glass of wine as the ¨chips¨ and just hanging out with my Tarija crew, exchanging stories about our sites.

In other news I passed all my exams and wrote a commitment statement so I think I be allowed to swear in as an official PCV in just a few short days. There´s a postal workers strike here so I haven´t been able to recieve or send any mail. Another day, another strike, this is Bolivia afterall. Speaking of mail, my new address is posted on the side of this blog. Please send me things so that I may eventually recieve them. And speaking of social unrest, keep an eye out for news about the upcoming autonomy vote, happening just a week and a half after we go to our sites...these are some exciting times to be in Bolivia!