As some of you may or may not know Bolivia is a very politically active country. I just found out that voting is obligatory here, if you don´t vote, you lose your civil rights for up to 3 months. You 
can not be apathetic about politics here, although as a PCV I personally have no opinion about politics whatsoever. With that said, I knew that it would only be a matter of time before there would be a protest or the famous Bolivian street blockades that I had read so much about. So on Thursday, when I was walking to Andrew´s house for Spanish class I noticed a ton of cars all blocking the main intersection of our town. My first blockade! The taxi drivers were protesting a gas shortage which had been going on in Coch for about a week. It just so happens that this very same day we were going to be taking a road trip to Totora for our technical class. But no worries, our awesome bus driver Don Rocky was able to pick up the Cuatro Esquinas crew at my house and then double back around to where there weren´t any road blocks. By the time we got back from our trip (Friday night) the drivers were in talks with the government to resolve things.
More about the Totora road trip. Each group had their own field trip (environmental ed, natural resources and agriculture.) AG being the biggest group with 15 volunteers we got to travel in the bus with Don Rocky, which of course meant getting the dance party started. We were able to hook up I-pods and as we were getting a little antsy we busted out my I-pod and pumped one of my sweet dance mixes. I hope dancing on the bus is not against PC policy, because it´s really fun and a good workout. The views from the bus were also amazing, we just kept snapping pics of the view but it doesn´t quite capture how beautiful this country is. Driving through the narrow, twisting roads between the mountains I finally realized, wow, I´m here and I´m doing this and it feels great. The trip to Totora was to visit the site of 2 other volunteers, a retired married couple. The wife works in a business that was set up by a previous volunteer making tomato sauce, and let me tell you it is some tasty sauce. It´s spicy and delicious and I bought a big jar of the mushroom flavored sauce to share with my host family, yum. Her husband is still working on starting up his project and is working on gardens and with bees. We stayed at a cheap hostel and explored the town that night (after we had a tech meeting.) There was a traveling theater group of Germans and Bolivians who are also volunteers. We got invited to dance by the stage for the finale and it was so much fun, dancing with all these Bolivian kids and Germans in crazy costumes. AND we started a conga line! So all in all, the dance party was successfully brought to Bolivia.
The next day it was time to work on the respective projects of Millie and Ben. We split up into 2 groups so in the morning I was cooking the pasta sauce and in the afternoon I was working with bees. We chopped lots of fresh veggies for the picante variety which we ate for lunch, (the place where the kitchen is also serves as a cafe during festivals and special occassions) and we learned more about her project, which has a lot of potential since they already have a pretty strong client base. Now it´s all about making it sustainable and capable of being run without a volunteer in the community. After cooking we went over to where Ben works with some bee colonies. I have to admit that I´ve always had an irrational fear of bees so I was a bit worried about this aspect of my service. We suited up inwith masks, jackets and gloves and the smokers that were already lit from the previous group. I got into my calm zone and took a lot of deep breaths as I approached the bees. Oh, by the way, all the bees for honey here are the Africanized kind, aka ¨killer bees.¨ Nabor, master of all thing bee keeping and our teacher showed us how to smoke the bees to calm them down and then how to open the boxes and how to lift out the individual cells. I have to admit, bees are really interesting. I was so fascinated by the process that I didn´t freak out at all! I was lifting out the cells, identifying the cells, and there were bees everywhere! I was so proud of myself! I seriously feel like after doing that I can doing anything!
Well that´s all I have time for right now. It was really nice to go to another part of Bolivia and see what an actual site can be. I definitely would like to go back to Totora and explore a bit more of that area. In just a few weeks I´ll find out where I´m going! Until then, tengo mucho trabaja y mucho para aprender.
paz
can not be apathetic about politics here, although as a PCV I personally have no opinion about politics whatsoever. With that said, I knew that it would only be a matter of time before there would be a protest or the famous Bolivian street blockades that I had read so much about. So on Thursday, when I was walking to Andrew´s house for Spanish class I noticed a ton of cars all blocking the main intersection of our town. My first blockade! The taxi drivers were protesting a gas shortage which had been going on in Coch for about a week. It just so happens that this very same day we were going to be taking a road trip to Totora for our technical class. But no worries, our awesome bus driver Don Rocky was able to pick up the Cuatro Esquinas crew at my house and then double back around to where there weren´t any road blocks. By the time we got back from our trip (Friday night) the drivers were in talks with the government to resolve things.More about the Totora road trip. Each group had their own field trip (environmental ed, natural resources and agriculture.) AG being the biggest group with 15 volunteers we got to travel in the bus with Don Rocky, which of course meant getting the dance party started. We were able to hook up I-pods and as we were getting a little antsy we busted out my I-pod and pumped one of my sweet dance mixes. I hope dancing on the bus is not against PC policy, because it´s really fun and a good workout. The views from the bus were also amazing, we just kept snapping pics of the view but it doesn´t quite capture how beautiful this country is. Driving through the narrow, twisting roads between the mountains I finally realized, wow, I´m here and I´m doing this and it feels great. The trip to Totora was to visit the site of 2 other volunteers, a retired married couple. The wife works in a business that was set up by a previous volunteer making tomato sauce, and let me tell you it is some tasty sauce. It´s spicy and delicious and I bought a big jar of the mushroom flavored sauce to share with my host family, yum. Her husband is still working on starting up his project and is working on gardens and with bees. We stayed at a cheap hostel and explored the town that night (after we had a tech meeting.) There was a traveling theater group of Germans and Bolivians who are also volunteers. We got invited to dance by the stage for the finale and it was so much fun, dancing with all these Bolivian kids and Germans in crazy costumes. AND we started a conga line! So all in all, the dance party was successfully brought to Bolivia.
The next day it was time to work on the respective projects of Millie and Ben. We split up into 2 groups so in the morning I was cooking the pasta sauce and in the afternoon I was working with bees. We chopped lots of fresh veggies for the picante variety which we ate for lunch, (the place where the kitchen is also serves as a cafe during festivals and special occassions) and we learned more about her project, which has a lot of potential since they already have a pretty strong client base. Now it´s all about making it sustainable and capable of being run without a volunteer in the community. After cooking we went over to where Ben works with some bee colonies. I have to admit that I´ve always had an irrational fear of bees so I was a bit worried about this aspect of my service. We suited up inwith masks, jackets and gloves and the smokers that were already lit from the previous group. I got into my calm zone and took a lot of deep breaths as I approached the bees. Oh, by the way, all the bees for honey here are the Africanized kind, aka ¨killer bees.¨ Nabor, master of all thing bee keeping and our teacher showed us how to smoke the bees to calm them down and then how to open the boxes and how to lift out the individual cells. I have to admit, bees are really interesting. I was so fascinated by the process that I didn´t freak out at all! I was lifting out the cells, identifying the cells, and there were bees everywhere! I was so proud of myself! I seriously feel like after doing that I can doing anything!
Well that´s all I have time for right now. It was really nice to go to another part of Bolivia and see what an actual site can be. I definitely would like to go back to Totora and explore a bit more of that area. In just a few weeks I´ll find out where I´m going! Until then, tengo mucho trabaja y mucho para aprender.
paz
1 comment:
sounds like your having an amazing time. I need to email you a real email. I miss talking to you and I wish you would have been in ny when I got back from Israel. it was weird staying with someone else.
Jess
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