Boliviaog

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

My house is a very, very, very fine house

All this and more! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to rent a house anywhere for $40 ever again in my life. The previous volunteer picked the color scheme: olive green outside and peach inside.

Pineapple plants and my neighbors

My new backyard

The Barbie blanket is just a loaner, the 101 Dalmatians mattress is all mine

Dig the retro 70s curtains, hand sewn by yours truly

Oh…hello, there

Dining area…still needs some work

The kitchen gets a lot of use

And there’s a whole other room that I don’t know what to do with, although the possibilities are endless. I’m thinking it could be an exercise room, hammock room, storage room, guest room, or perhaps all of the above. I’m still taking suggestions…

Going Coastal

My Peace Corps part 2 do-over adventure started in Quito with a blessedly brief week of orientation. Me and my 10 fellow Bolivia evacs got a run down of all the basics: safety and security, Ecuadorian culture, some language differences were cleared up, new slang and pick-up lines learned, we met all the staff, got a tour of the office, and in between all the meetings there were abundant coffee breaks with lots of yummy snacks. I have to give it to Ecuador, they definitely trump Bolivia when it comes to food considering that they actually use seasonings and the food has flavor. It’s also so much more developed in the cities, there are so many American chains and the supermarket, which is called “Supermaxi” has almost everything you could want. There’s even a “Megamaxi” but I wasn’t quite ready for that, the same way I wasn’t ready to go to BJs when I was in the States. While I was in Quito it felt kind of strange, since everything was so accessible and they use the dollar here so it was almost like I was still in the States. Ecuador is definitely more “Posh Corps” than Bolivia was and it made me realize that Bolivia really is a unique place nearly untouched by American commercialization. It made me sad to realize I wouldn’t have that again, but also appreciative and happy that I got to experience it while I could.

So after our orientation was over we got to take a field trip to the “Mitad del Mundo” or Middle of the World. Ecuador is of course so named because it is situated on the equator and they’ve made a whole tourist trap town out of it. We took lots of pics by the equator line, although supposedly it’s about 5-10 meters off of where the equator actually “is,” I mean, that is if an imaginary line can actually be anywhere. Then we headed back to the PC office for our own little swear-in ceremony. The ambassador was there and she made a brief speech, we got new certificates (I’ll add it to my collection) and then had snacks and chatted, basking in the glory of once again being official volunteers. We had the weekend free before heading off to our sites on Monday (exactly a week after arriving in country). Some other volunteers were in town to take the GRE so that Saturday we all went out Quito style to celebrate. I have to say, Quito night life is actually decent, when compared, as everything is for me, to Bolivia. They played really good dance music all night and not once repeated a song, amazing!

So on Monday I was off with my ridiculous amount of luggage and a general idea of how to get to my site. I knew a couple of volunteers in my “cluster city” as they call it, were going to meet me at the bus station. The only bus to my site leaves at 12:30pm and I wasn’t going to make it so we went and got lunch and then Clay and I were left to figure out how to get to my site. In typical PC do-it-yourself fashion we went to find this restaurant that was owned by a woman in my town. Turns out that she no longer has that restaurant so I called my counterpart’s wife and she sent her brother in a car to pick me up (I had made it as far as the entrance to my site, but the only transportation at that time was on moto and that is a big no-no for PCVs, plus I had all my luggage with me. My counterpart Eddi is related to most of the town and everyone is incredibly nice. Viviana, his wife helped me clean my house, buy all my furniture, and she bargained to get me the cheapest prices possible because things are definitely more expensive here than in Bolivia but we still get paid the same. I couldn’t move into my house for a few days so they had me stay in their bed while they slept in their son’s room on an extra bed. Viviana fed me everyday, preparing delicious vegetarian meals when she found out I didn’t eat meat. It’s very typical here to be served chicken when you go to visit someone or for a special occasion and I’ve had to explain that I don’t eat chicken, which is pretty shocking to them and pretty hard to do when they’ve got the bird plucked and prepared and ready to cook especially for you. But they’ve been very understanding in preparing other food and now that I have my own kitchen I plan on sharing some good vegetarian dishes with them as well.

So my site, first of all it’s in the tropical campo (countryside) about an hour from Santo Domingo, and is about the same size as my site(s) in Bolivia. Ecuador is divided into 3 parts, the Orient which is basically jungle, the Sierra which is mountainous, and the Coast. So I am considered to be part of the coast even though the beach is about 2 or 3 hours away. My site is filled with pineapples, bananas and yucca. I basically eat some type of banana in some form at every meal or in between meals. I think at the end of my time here I will write an ode to the banana and enumerate all the ways it can be eaten. As far as work goes I’m meeting with the town’s “socios” (leaders in the community) to discuss the work possibilities. There was a volunteer working here for about 2 or 3 months but she hurt her knee and had to be medically separated. People here like to talk about her a lot and even though she is Pakistani and based on what I’ve heard completely different from me in almost every way, people sometimes call me by her name. It’s okay, I’m still in the settling in phase where you don’t quite feel like yourself, partly because there is no one who knows who you are. But little by little I get more comfortable here and people are getting to know me. After the experience in Bolivia I’m finding it hard to make long term plans. It’s like I’m scared that if I start planning things again it’s going to be taken away again. I’m really just trying to build the kind of relationships that I couldn’t have in Bolivia because of circumstances beyond my control. I like having my own house where I can have visitors and cook and goof around with the constantly curious children who come by. Starting over was even harder than I anticipated but I feel really lucky to be here because the people I’ve met, both Ecuadorian and the near-by volunteers, are incredibly helpful and supportive and I would be completely lost without them.

So that’s where I’m at for the moment: in my little house in the campo, fighting off the constant invasion of insects, visiting with my neighbors, watching telenovelas, going for long walks in the campo and text messaging other volunteers. It’s a strange life…but it’s all mine.

Monday, October 20, 2008

the most touristy thing you can do in Peru

So before coming home Natalie, Yoli and I decided we deserved a little vacation so we went to Machu Pichu for a few days. We got to climb Waynu Pichu, which only 400 people a day get to climb (two groups of 200). The top of the mountain has a great view of the ruins but even more impressive are the natural mountains scapes, especially that early in the morning with the clouds rising over them. I couldn't walk down stairs for two days afterwards but it was so worth it! Here are just a few of the hundreds of pics we took:

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

this is Evita, this is the end

The first consolidation, aka Consuelo Uno, was basically a really good time. We had all the volunteers together at a swanky resort in the middle of nowhere Santa Cruz. We had meetings

and "open spaces" to talk about how to be more effective volunteers and a lot of good advice was shared on projects and coping with volunteer life. In between these meetings we would jump in the pool and swim for 15 or 20 minutes and then run back to have another meeting. There was even a swim up bar at this place, and as some of you may know it has always been a dream of mine to swim to my alcohol. Other highlights included the All Vol Ball, which was a drag themed dance party. I have to say, PC volunteers know how to commit when it comes to theme parties. Overall, the mood of this consolidation was optimistic, as in we're not going anywhere and everything is calm. The vote happened and there was no reaction so we were sent home a few days later. Ironically, while at consolidation we heard about the Georgia volunteers being evacuated to Armenia because of the war with Russia. This was very difficult for our new Country Director who had just been the CD for Georgia. She was dealing with a lot, worrying about the safety of both her old and new volunteers. Bolivia even offered 5 spots to transferring Georgia volunteers and we were all so excited to get new volunteers, but since just a month later we were being consolidated and evacuated as well, those volunteers never came.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. In the month between the vote and all the crazy political stuff

that led to our second consolidation and evacuation I actually did manage to get a little work done and even get settled in to my new site...just in time to leave. I started teaching environmental education to the 1st/2nd/3rd grade class, but really that class was whatever I wanted it to be and the kids were very receptive. In the 4th/5th/6th grade class we worked in the garden and I also started teaching English (naturally). My counter-part in the women's group was really enthusiastic about everything and we started having meetings with the women about what they wanted to learn. We started with a knitting class, which was kind of boring so we talked about doing something more physical like exercise/dance class. Oh I had such great plans to teach cholitas the latest moves from the US of A.

The Tarija volunteers had our Project Development Workshop with our counter-parts where we gave our presentations on our sites and learned how to write a project. Right after this is when things started getting bad in Bolivia. Most of the volunteers couldn't get back to their sites because of road blocks so PC told them to stay in the city. There was a major gas shortage happening and I paid double what it would normally cost in a taxi to my site but I had to get home for classes and this water meeting in my site. So while I was in site, the volunteers in the city were keeping me updated on what was happening in the city. Strikes and protests were increasing an

d so was violence. The hotel we stay at in the city is right across from a government building where students had protested before. We've seen them break windows, set fires in the doorway, burn tires in the street and throw firecrackers in through the broken windows. Apparently the students took over the building and were staying in there and some cell phone companies had their towers destroyed so we were on EAP alert phase. During this phase my friends were telling me that I should pack my stuff and get ready to leave but I didn't listen. Things were so calm out in the campo, work was continuing as normal and no one seemed worried about an impending civil war or anything like that. Next thing I know, Glenda is calling me telling me that we are in consolidation phase. I call PC to confirm this and my boss Pepe tells me that yes, I do need to get to Tarija by tomorrow morning even though there is NO transportation at all from my site into Tarija. So I talk to Estefania (host mom) and see if I can get a ride to Glenda's site in Don Pedro's truck. He agrees to take me and I hurriedly pack up all my belongings. Something told me that this time it could be for real so for the 3rd time in as many months I packed up everything and tried to prepare myself for the reality of leaving again. I got to Glenda's site and her host dad drove us to Tarija because we weren't sure if we would be able to get transportation with all the strikes and lack of gas. We got into the city that night and PC was still unsure about what they were doing with us. All the other volunteers had already been consolidated to Cochabamba but the Tarija airport was closed so we couldn't get there. Instead they had us leave at 5 the next morning to travel to Bermejo. We were going down in taxis of 4-5 volunteers and the people who hadn't been able to pack had a chance to pack some of their stuff. We finally got to Bermejo and were waiting around the hotel for further instructions. We talked with the Country Director over the phone several times and finally she told us that we would be flying from the Bermejo airport to Cochabamba to be consolidated with the other volunteers. I didn't even know Bermejo had an airport but sure enough...

So we get to the airport around 6 am for our flight and we are waiting around for about an hour. The next t

hing we know we hear the almost deafening

propellers of a C-130 military plane landing and we gather up our luggage and board with the propellers going and all...very dramatic. Half-way

through our flight we find out from the crew guy that the plane was stopping in Cochabamba to pick up more passengers and then it was flying to Lima, Peru. So that was how we found out we were being evacuated. Since there

were no commercial flights and PC had chartered this former anti-narcotics military plane to fly us out of Bolivia we couldn't actually fit all 113 volunteers on the

plane. So some remained in Bolivia and were flying out the next day. It's okay, they got taken to a very swank dinner paid for by K

athleen, our CD. Meanwhile, we were taken to this weird vacation resort center that looked like a 70s rehab center and over the next few weeks came to feel more and more like a prison. Until all the volunteers arrived we couldn't let anyone know where we were. When they finally got there we greeted them with a Bolivian style bloqueo, we

blocked the entrance to the "vacation resort center," blasted Bolivian music, passed some drinks around, sang, danced and Lebo, John and I sported the Bolivian flag to show love for the country we had left behind. Earlier in the day we had found out that the PC Bolivia program was being suspended and that we would not be allowed to return. This was a completely bizarre/surreal experience as the info was related via Kathleen over the phone to Bill who repeated what she was saying to all of us. Life just drained from people's faces and the shock and disbelief was tangible, even for those who had seen this as the inevitable outcome.

The entire evacuation was like a horrible dream that you couldn't wake up from. It's something that I've dealt with since making the decision to transfer to Ecuador, and not something that can be fully explained here. The staff of PC Peru, PC Bolivia and the team that came from Washington tried their best to make a bad situation as bearable as possible. There were lots of paperwork and medical tests and all the big life decisions to make so not a lot of time to dwell or to get closure. There were so many plans made and left unfinished. There were so many good-byes to say in such a short time, everyone going off on some new adventure. Some volunteers returned to Bolivia, for work, to say good-bye or to get their dogs. As a transferee I couldn't enter a country with a travel advisory but I truly hope that Bolivia can heal itself and that I can go back and travel through the country that I once considered my home.

Right now I'm looking ahead to Ecuador and the year of work I have committed to. Once again I'm starting over and once again the challenge will be great. This whole experience has taught me how adaptable I am as a person and really there's no reason to stop now, because hell, I'm just getting started.

Yes we can.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Welcome to the super SUPER campo

My time in Cochabamba was spent eating at all my favorite restaurants, seeing the new Batman movie, twice, meeting new volunteers/catching up with those I hadn’t seen in a while, hanging around the office trying to be useful and impatiently waiting for news of my new site. After what seemed like forever but was actually only a little over 2 weeks of waiting in Coch I got a site change to a very small Northern Tarija town. The transition from my sub-tropical paradise to a valley desert was as difficult as I expected. I knew that no matter what my new site was like I would be disappointed because it wasn’t my old site. Plus I barely had a week to settle in before leaving for our project meeting and “All Volunteer Conference:” location undisclosed. Despite the strange timing I moved in and even unpacked a bit although it seemed a bit pointless with all the political stuff hanging over us right now and having to pack again for this week long conference. But I’m really trying to see all the positive aspects of being moved up to NoTa and I will list them now so you can share this view with me: okay first, NO MOSCOS, so I won’t constantly look like I have a terrible case of the chicken pox, also, this is the desert so it’s dry which means my clothes and everything I own won’t get moldy in the summer the way it does in SoTa because of the insanse heat and humidity, plus, there’s no malaria threat so I don’t have to take malaria meds anymore and my liver is surely going to thank me for that in the years to come, there are 2 volunteers who live super close to me and since they are also AG volunteers we can collaborate and share ideas and projects and I’m closer to the city so I can actually see more of my Tarija crew more regularly, and finally, this is my backyard, so yeah, I really can’t complain too much can I?

So I went from Papayaland to Grapelandia. I’m pretty much in the middle of Bolivian wine country, which is going to be amazing come March when it’s time to harvest. So my last site was pretty campo and pretty small but the NoTa site is even more so. I’m talking about 80 families dispersed over several miles of nothingness, the school has a total of 30 students with 2 teachers who each have 3 different grades in their classrooms. It’s so spread out that I’m lacking that real sense of community. The women’s group even wants to have separate groups, one up by where I live next to the school and the other further down by where my counter-part lives. I don’t mind having 2 groups but I’m definitely going to need to get a bike to cover the distance between them. They also want to learn marmalade, there are peaches here and tomatoes and I’d really like to start expanding on that, I’m thinking sun-dried tomatoes could go over really well in the Eco Sol supermarket in Tarija and in some of the snazzier restaurants. After the All Vol Call is over and I return to site (ojala!) I will start teaching in the school and working with them on their school garden, which is pitiful right now. I would love to start some worm bins at the school to improve the sandy soil and since the kids have pretty much nothing to do in the afternoons I was thinking of starting an Eco club or school newspaper, I mean, something, anything because having my host siblings just sitting around staring at me all afternoon until I teach them a new

card game or something is just driving me crazy. There are 5 kids in the house, 4 boys and one girl (ages 14, 12, 10, 8 and 2) and yeah, they’re pretty much awesome except that they look at me like I’m a total freak or zoo exhibit or something. I taught them a whole slew of card games and how to do cat’s cradle and thus we were entertained for the week but they need a whole lot more stimulation out here, it’s so empty and besides their farm chores (they have cows, pigs, goats and a horse) they don’t have a whole lot to do. When the sun goes down, forget it, there is no light outside, I’ve never seen a town so dark at 8pm. The blanket of stars covering the sky kind of makes up for it though, and just darkness with the mountains in the distance, it’s actually quite surreal. The sunrises and sunsets over the mountains are probably some of the best I’ve seen in my life and they’re not going to get old anytime soon, I can guarantee that. The thing that amuses me the most is that even though I am in the middle of absolutely nowhere and I barely have any transportation that passes through my town or any stores or people I have really good cell phone service. So I am totally within communication range at all time if you feel like, you know, reaching out and touching me…via the phone of course, get your head out of the gutter, don’t you remember those ads…whatever, just call me, but keep in mind I’m usually asleep by 9:00. So even though it’s a change and a bit of a shock I’m going to make it work. Here’s to new beginnings, I hope that this do-over pays off for my new community and me.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Bad News Blog

My Peace Corps service was going rather smoothly, too smoothly I guess and this feeling of it's too good to be true overtook me when almost overnight my service became a shit storm that I have absolutely no control over. Due to an unbloggable "security issue" I have been forced to change sites. I don't want people to get worried because my safety was never at risk. As you can probably guess from my previous blogs I really loved my site, I don’t know of another volunteer who loved their site more than I loved mine. There was real work and I felt connected to the people and the place. To be forced to leave when I believe the problem could have been rectified with a simple housing change is really upsetting to me. The incident involves the family I lived with and I don't think it's appropriate for the public domain, but I am more than willing to talk about it privately with anyone who wants to know the details. There is a certain air of paranoia and panic associated with PC Bolivia at the moment and I think they overreacted in this case by forcing me to leave my site. Ivan informed me of the decision on a Monday and Tuesday morning we went to my site and packed up all my stuff, settled things with my landlady, I tried to tie up all my loose ends and say a few good-byes but it was all so surreal and I just didn't want to break down into hysterics in public. I didn't even get a chance to say good-bye to the teachers or most of the kids because they are on winter vacation right now. Oscar, the 3- year-old grandson of my landlady was drawing pictures in my room as I packed and he doesn't understand that I won't be coming back. I had to tell the women from the centro de mujeres that I was leaving for a medical reason and explain that I wasn't allowed to come back. They tried talking to Ivan, telling him that they were already used to me and that I was doing good work with them but he just repeated the story about my “medical issue.” It was a difficult day, I felt hollow, sick and helpless. I don’t really know how you define happiness, it’s that vague, elusive and fleeting thing that no one really understands, but I think I can say that I was happy in my site or very close to it. I feel like I had made a commitment to those people, I had started and promised projects, I had so many plans for the next two years and all of it just had to be abandoned so suddenly.

The next day I had to fly to Cochabamba to meet with PC administration and I'll be here until they find me a new site. Pepe, my boss has a few in mind, two of which are in Tarija. I strongly requested to stay in the Tarija department because it is a great place, so tranquilo and the volunteers from my group who are down there have become my family. They are my support system and the people I depend on to stay sane and happy when times are tough and if I have to leave them on top of leaving my site I just don't know what I would do. You have no idea how much you come to depend on the volunteers in your region for support and understanding and I just don’t think my PC experience would be the same in another department. Plus I already bought a Tarija tracksuit and I'd just feel silly trying to rock it in another department. So while I’m stuck in Cochabamba I’ll be working in the office to gather information that my fellow Ag volunteers requested for our in service training (IST) which has been pushed back to August. It’s nice to be able to support my fellow volunteers but I’d much rather be working out in the

campo than in the PC library. There are no Coch volunteers from my group but I was allowed to go visit a few of my fellow B-47ers in the Altiplano over the weekend. My friend Garrett (with the killer stash) invited me to Oruro to celebrate his birthday with an ugly sweater party and it was so much fun, definitely the pick me up that I needed. The used clothing selection of ugly sweaters in Oruro was amazing and prizes were awarded for the ugliest. I got to wear not only one but two ugly sweaters over the course of the night because another volunteer legitmatly liked my first sweater, yikes! VAC and PSN (two volunteer run groups) are also having meetings in Coch this week so I’ll be able to hang with them and even sit in on a PSN listening skills workshop (something I’m interested in because I hope to serve on PSN in the future.) Besides my site change

there are much bigger problems for PC Bolivia in general. There is a vote on Evo’s Constitution coming up in August and the general stability of the country is in jeopardy. They have canceled B-48 twice and now we aren’t getting another training group until 2009. It’s certainly an exciting time to be in Bolivia but believe me when I say that we are not in danger. If you walk down the streets anywhere in the country or talk to any Bolivian you would know that there is no real possibility of a civil war or violent civil unrest. Will there be strikes, marches, protests, and blockades? Yes, of course, this is Bolivia they have strikes, marches, protests and blockades on a weekly basis, but life goes on and we continue working. The thing that scares me the most is having PC Bolivia closed and having to leave because I already know what it feels like to be forced to leave a place that feels like home. Bolivia has been my home for nearly six months now, which may not seem like that long but I like my lifestyle here, I’m settled and comfortable and I can’t imagine having to go somewhere else. Then again, if we are forced to leave the country I’m ahead of the game because all my stuff is already packed.