I originally stopped posting because things got really busy. Then when things simmered down, with the end of the climate change conference and an adaption to a new volunteer placement, I went through a phase where I didn't want to post; I wanted to save my experiences, and the things I was seeing, for short stories that I could enter into contests, so I could win money that to get be back to Bolivia, or to a different country. It began turning into winter (haha), and it was cold, and I fell into a homesick-y spell, and was frustrated with my spanish, and didn't want to be writing in english to a bunch of people back home. I believe it was partly subconsciously that I didn't write any entries at the end. I didn't feel finished with Bolivia and I kept finding myself not taking the pictures of the things I experienced everyday, subconsciously knowing that I would need to come back to get the photo, or see the site, or etc. If I didn't write the blog, well, I would need to come back and try again...

 

I was able to see and experience many things, but I am still not able to express what I would like to. I have yet to understand and feel so much more.

 

There are still several posts I would like to make, things that I would really like to share, but for now I will do a quick sentence or two for each month.

 

February-March: refer to previous entries... I guess. I was in Cochabamba these months too, if you are new to my blog.

April: Did an amazing, amazing, hike with other CEDESOL volunteers. The El Choro trail. It starts at nearly 5000m and works its way down to 1300m of altitude. Altiplano to Jungle in three days. Represented CEDESOL at the World People's Conference on Climate Change. Joined a capoeira group.

May: As planned, moved out of my host family's apartment into one of Sustainable Bolivia's volunteer houses. Also, as planned, left CEDESOL for CAICC, a support centre for children that live in the prisons with their incarcerated parents.

June: Really started to "feel" volunteer turnover. I make friends, they leave. I get use to the routines in the house, they change. I understood this before coming, but I felt it especially as I got close to the six-month homesick mark. I took many many kids to the dentist this month, which deserves several blog entries on it's own.

July: Winter! Snow in the mountains around Cochabamba. 2 weeks of school vacation led to some fun activities at CAICC. I was also getting tired of being in Bolivia, and was finding it hard to do much of anything...

August: Trip to Brazil for the Rio de Janeiro half marathon!!!!! Awesome!!! I love Rio!!! I was there 10 days, and it was just the vacation I needed. It was also kind of sad though, as I reflected on the value of money, development, and children. Another entry on it's own...

September- October: These months are kind of blended together in my memory. Rather than changing placements after my trip to Brazil, I had decided to stick with CAICC the full 7 months. It was a good decision, though I did start to get a little frustrated with them at this point. Not only had I been seeing a constant turnover in volunteers, I had also seen a turnover in staff, and now we were moving to a different house. Kids I had felt important to stopped coming, and I wasn't finding the time, energy, nor support to do the math and science with the kids that I could see they needed. I have much to write about the education these kids get in their crowded schools. There is no critical thinking, analyzing, or problem solving taught. Everything is done by memorization; many kids can't even connect multiplication to division because they have memorized the table on different days. I strongly feel that an improvement in the primary and secondary education in Bolivia... well, I will get into this in another blog post...  In October my capoeira group traveled to La Paz, where I was "baptized" into the group and  I received the first cord, from Mestre Xandao!!!

November: We stared to get used to the new house at CAICC, I encouraged the staff to get back to having their weekly staff meetings, and I really felt sad that I would have to leave the children. I also felt sad that I would have to leave Bolivia and my friends there without ever knowing if I would ever be back. Some friends didn't even have email, let alone facebook, and all they could give me were street directions to find them if I ever came back.

December: I took the bus from Cochabamba, to Potosi (beautiful town, but I was only there the morning and didn't go into the mine), to Sucre (where all I saw was the bus station before being hurried onto a milk crate in the back of a leaving bus), to Sumypata (a hippie town having a honey fair. I spent a couple days and went to el fruete), to Santa Cruz (again where I didn't stop, I just saw the bus terminal), to Quijarro (a dusty place where I ate my last bolivian meal and juice) to Corumba (unfortunately I left for the pantenal before getting to eat at the icecream buffet) to a camp in the Pantenal (I went on a hike!) to Campo Grande (where I was the sickest I have ever been, and spent an extra day lying in my hotel bed fevery and dying making zillions of trips to the bathroom) to Sao Paulo (where I ran into a friend from uni!!! ahhh!!! everything is very concrete and expensive in SP) and then took a plane back to Canada to get home just in time for Christmas

January-

Last week and this week have been super busy!!! On Friday I attended the second day of a two day seminar on alternative energies in Bolivia. I was really luck to get to go, it was such a great opportunity! My boss at CEDESOL arranged it for us. There were speakers from various institutions, including speakers from Ingeniería Sin Fronteras Espana, who talked about their projects in Latin America. Other topics included energy from sugar cane waste in the department of Santa Cruz, and management models for implementing technology in the countryside.

At the level my Spanish has gotten to, it was super important the speakers had slides I could read. I was having a very difficult time following the speaking. If I understood one part, I would get lost on the next. I couldn´t process the information fast enough. It was frustrating to not be able to take full advantage of the seminar, but at the same time it was satisfying to be able to follow it as much as I did.

The visa stuff has been taking up a lot of time. There is a big list of things I need, and it involves going to various windows at various offices and filling out various forms and having various forms filled out. They are helping me here at SB, which is excellent, because I would be lost on my own; still looking for the list!

Today is St. Patrick´s Day. There is an Irish pub, here in Cochabamba. I´m going to head to it tonight!

It´s going yo be neat, the People´s World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth´s Rights, is going to be held in Cochabamba, at the end of April. Has there been much news about it in other parts of the world? I think it´s going to be huge. It´s Evo´s response to Copenhagen. Take a look at the website and the links on it!! http://pwccc.wordpress.com

The bus strike here lasted two days. It was really interesting to experience, and was quite different from the bus strike in Ottawa which happened just over a year ago.

In Ottawa many people lost their job or a semester of school if they couldn´t make it in. The streets became extremely crowded and blocked with all the regular commuters having to take their car to work. It was -20'C and there was snow everywhere. I believe the octranspo drivers were picketing outside the mayor´s office, but I never saw them. The strike lasted over 2 months.

The strike here, in Cochabamba (and nation wide), was only two days. People were advised not to go out in cars in case things were violent. It might have been my safest walk to work ever. There were no cars on the street. As I approached the traffic circle near my house, I saw many micros parked all around it. It was obvious cars wouldn´t be able to get anywhere. Usually this traffic circle is very busy and bustling, with several sets of Foosball table that kids from the nearby school are always playing. This time kids were playing soccer in the big street leading into the traffic circle. Actually, when I got to the teenagers playing soccer, I realized they were the micro drivers!! The micros are shaped like short school buses, kind of. The ones in this circle were all the blue red orange and white swirled ones. Some had flames too.

By the end of the first day, a few more people were out in their cars, but the streets were still quite empty. I walked by a university with a sign on the door saying classes were canceled because of the transportation. I was told, by my boss, not to go into work the second day. Things were completely normal by the third day.

I still don´t know the outcome of either of the strikes.

As a quick update, everything is great with me!! I have been eating quite a lot of street meat (and vegetables, like lettuce on my hamburgers, which are, apparently, worse), and street candy, and have not had any traveler's sickness yet (I attribute this to years of floorcandy and shared drinks, not to the predeparture vaccines). The dukarol is supposed to run out after three months, so I think it´s a good idea to eat the street stuff now, and drink the water, to keep the bateria in my stomach like the dukarol put there, just incase the dukarol is valid.

I´ve started my placement at CEDESOL. They make and provide solar stoves and reduced smoke, high efficiency, wood stoves. It is a very interesting place to work, and there is a lot going on right now. Unfortunately most of my work is in english, but I am keeping up with Spanish lessons in the afternoon, and once things with my visa are sorted out, will also be volunteering with children. My host family is also really great!!

I´ve made friends here too. With some other foreign volunteers and also with some bolivians. Things here are good! How is everybody back home doing? I like getting email updates!!! I wish that I had more time to reply, but there is too much sunshine here, and I have yet to find an outdoor internet cafe.

Take Care,
Sarah

yummmm!! There is lots of cinamon here!! Cinamon juice with lunch, cinamon in the slushy ice (I thought it was going to be ice cream) I bought from the vender on the street (my first street food!), and cinamon in my host mothers peach papaya jam.

Aparently there might possibly be a trufi/microbus strike tomorrow because a law might be proposed (or something) that says they can´t drive while drinking [alchol].

I didn´t Miss the parade!! (the entry that I meant to post a week ago), and I didn´t miss Carnival!!!

To take you back over a week, getting from Puno to La paz was no problem! I took a different bus company, Ormano, instead of the more Luxurious Cruz del Sol (which didn´t run the third part of my journey). I had heard Ormano was also a good company, and wanted a good company because I was skeptical of the roads because I had read they might be dangerous. The roads were fine! I don´t think I needed to splurge the 75 soles ($30) for Ormano. (I checked around with the Swiss/German girl who was looking for a bus company that goes to Cocapana, and found out that one of the bus lines, PanAmerican, was only 25 soles, one third the price.)

Anyway, the broader was no problem either. I met a Norwegian girl who has been volunteering (through her university) in La Paz. She knew the process (different lines ups, where to get back on the bus, etc, what stamps to get where), and I followed her. I knew enough Spanish to understand kind of what was going on. It seemed to be pretty efficient, but apparently, according to the Norwegian girl, the line ups have been waaaaay longer! so, I guess I was lucky.

I also met two Santa Cruz, Bolivia, girls and a man, on the bus. They were coming back from Lima from a giant Herbalife conference. I hadn´t heard of the product, but it was my first foreshadow of the healthy (conscience) lives of Bolivians.

When the bus arrived in Lap Paz I was completely intimidated!!!! Believe me, I have waaaay too many pictures of the trip through El Alto into the city. It was like nothing I had ever seen before!!!! So full of people!! and everything is just different. Definitely not as rich or as built up as what I am used to. To add to the novelty, there were many people (which I found out later) were preparing for La Paz´s Monday Parade (there three different parades, sun, mon, tues)

Anyway, the La Paz bus terminal was very crowed, I was very glad to have the Norwegian girl with me!! She was going to help me find a taxi, but it turned out right outside the station was a parade, we also found out my hostel was on the same street. I was soooo anxious to get my stuff into my room so that I could go out and see the parade. It was so frustrating because everything seemed to be going so slowly, getting to the hostel, waiting at the reception, etc, took like an hour instead of 10min. Th Norwegian girl was going to leave her bags in my room and we wre going to watch the parade together. BUT!! it turned out we had PERFECT view from the hostel window in the room!!!! (I don´t think I appreciated this view enough, I realize, now that I have experienced Cochabamba parade) anyway, the parade went for ages!! different dance groups going by, each in completely different costumes. People (mostly teens and kids) spraying foam at everyone, people walking around, selling different foods, a native woman with a sprawl of different nuts for people to buy, lain infront of her, people in street clothes, in plastic bag ponchos, with water guns, women in native skirts, etc.... so much to see!!! police officers, etc... definitely way too many photos!!!

Anyway, the parade went on for hours!!! (It was so silly of me to think I would need to rush!) I was slightly headache from the Altitude, so I ended up staying in the hostel, and not going out. I enjoyed a coca tea! I also ate the hostel supper, very good food!!! and stayed in the hostel playing hostel poker and having a couple drinks with the hostelmates, all doing various things, with differnt lengths of trips, and differnt plans.

I met up with A girl from Bask region that night too. We had been emailing because we were on the same flight into Cochabamba, the next morning. Exactly a week ago, I guess! The hard part of my journey was over, we took the plane, Sustainable Bolivia staff picked us up, and i met my host family, more on that later, this is a carnival entry.

Okay, so, Cochabamba carnival!!!! I fee like this entry is a complete disaster, and I am out of time... eeeeep I am sorry!! I´m going to write about Cochabamba carnival later!!! Maybe I´m going to start writing on paper and then entering in the internet cafes...

Stay tuned for part 2!!!

How to make Delicious juice:
1) put a couple halved star fruit in a blender
2) add water to the blender
3) blend
4) pour blender contents through a sift into a container
5) mash around in the sift, adding more water
6) add more water and lots of sugar to the container
7) put in the fridge for a while
8) serve
9*) delicious juice can be severed with a traditional Cochabamban meal--a plate of white rice, topped with a huge flat piece of fried red meat, topped with a sunny side up egg, topped with a diced tomato onion mixture, topped with a dollop of hot sauce made in the same blender, and some fried potatoes and french fries on the side.

How to get to Spanish lessons:
1) look both ways several times
2) cross the first half of the street
3) standing on the grassy divider, look both ways several times
4) cross the second half of the street
5) sigh relief
6) watch for the van with a 260 in the front window
7) when you see the 260 coming, stick your arm out and indicate that you would like on
8) run about 10m to where the van has stopped
9) open the door get in, and close the door as the van takes off.
10*) all of these vans (trufis) have a completely different interior. There is at least some room for anyone who would like to get on. Each dashboard seems to be different, with different decorations, though none of their decorations are in excess.
11) look out the window and be sure the driver is taking one of the routes you are familiar with.
12) when you see the yellow house (not the first nor second yellow houses), yell "esquina por favor" (corner please)
13) when the van stops, open the door, get out, and close the door.
14) through the front passenger window (always open) hand the driver 1.50 Bs ($0.22)
15) If the driver has gone the way you know, and you get off at the right stop, walk down a street, through a small park, and then down, a short way, through two more streets. If you get off the truffi and don´t know where you are, cross your finders that nothing bad happens, walk around for a while, look for the smaller yellow church (there is a big one too) and hopefully you find the house you are looking for. See "how to follow directions". Also, make a note to bring you map with you for all subsequent travels.

How to follow directions:
(if you find yourself lost in Chochabamba this might help you.)
1) ask a passer-by how to get to the place you want to go
2) go the opposite direction they tell you
3*) Do not blame your poor Spanish level, or your foreign look. Do not assume the people don´t know the proper way and do not assume they are playing a joke. Many variables have been tested and there seems to be no correlation between the asker and the validity of the directions given. The only given is that the directions will be to go the wrong way.

*optional

Cochabamba is great!!!

I will need to update you later. I just wrote you a post, but unfortunately deleted it by accident because this internet cafe keayboard seems to be different.