| Windy July 15 |
[Jul. 15th, 2005|04:42 pm] |
Things are going pretty good. We had a 4th of July party in Camiri. I made some good 'ol American BBQ food. Baked beans, potato salad, pasta salad. We also grilled some meat, sang the nation anthem and lit off fireworks. There was something about celebrating America´s independence day in Bolivia with a group of Americans. It was definately more fun.
I have been working in my yard a little bit and getting ready to plant a garden. I am going to try to plant pumkkin seeds. I want ot be able to carve pumkins for Halloween in a couple of months. I also have to think way ahead on those types of things.
Tomorow I am headed off to vacation to Salar de Uyuni (a gigantic salt flat) and then to Lake Tititcaca. This was the vaction I was going to take last month but, due to the massive civil unrest and the resignation of the president I was not able to go and had to postpone it. I think things will be pretty calm for at least the next couple of weeks because it is feria season. No one will protests when they can party. |
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| the update |
[May. 28th, 2005|09:46 am] |
I'm not sure of everything that has happened since the last time I updated this journal. This weekend I put together a painting contest for the high school in Cuevo. It has been frustrating getting it together. But it has come together. Needless to say The only people who ended up coming through in the end were the 9th graders. Its a challenge.
I am also working on writing a few projects, one to put a radio station in the community and the other is a comprehensive program on how to deal with th trash. Things of coming together and I am making more progess than I did last. I think I found my motivation again. Its probably my girlfriend (Yes, she's Bolivian!). She works in Camiri in local economic development, so she understands the frustrations with this kind of work, she works really hard and is comitted to to her job. Its great to see Bolivians commited to improving the lives of Bolivians. |
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| Good Friday Hike |
[Mar. 27th, 2005|04:05 pm] |
Every Good Friday in the town of Muypampa people climb up to the top of a mountain close to town at 3AM, watch the sunrise and have a morning mass. So I went to Muypampa to do the hike with a couple of volunteer friends. There were 8 of us and we started up the to the mountain at 2:30am.
It was dark and partly cloudly every once and a while the full moon would break through the clouds and light up the path. A couple had head lamps in our group so we started close together. We saw some other people, but we didnt know exactly where to go and being dark and all it was hard to see anything. We kept walking and made guesses as to where to go and found the way. After about 30 minutes of hiking we ran into more people and there was a line of hikers in the dark many people were yelling and calling out each others names. As a group we were staying close together. The trailwas muddy and practically straight up hill. It wasn't fun when I would go and grab a branch for balance and the branch ended up being full of thorns. Thats a problem when its dark outside. It got annoying when a group of kids would run ahead of us for 3 minutes then stop. We would pass them while they were resting, then they would run ahead of us again and stop. I got pretty annoying after a while. We told them to stop doing that, but of course they kept at it.
After about 1 hour of hiking we made it above the trees. It looked like we were close to the top and didnt have very far to go. We got split up and the trail stoped you just had to climb up a steep mountain many places almost climbing on all fours up rocks. The clouds came in the it got really cold. We cold here voices all over but couldn't see anyone. We wondered up and found a thicket of bushes and had to bush wack through the bushes We eventually made it up to the top hot and sweating, which quickly turned into a cold sweat. Then we and regrouped in the dark. It was amazing how many people were up there. I wondered were they all came from. We found a spot on the ridge and waited for the sun to rise. The sun rise was awesome. A nun was supposed to come up and do mass, but that didnt look like it was going to happen, so we took off. It was an amazing hike, I might even do it again next year. |
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| Carnaval |
[Feb. 14th, 2005|11:44 am] |
Carnaval just finished up here. I went to Oruro to watch Carnaval there. Carnaval in Oruro is probably the most organized event in all of Bolivia. The parade last 2 days long with a 3 hour break early Sunday morning. The costumes are very elabarete. Some costing more than $300. The people participating the parade dance for about 7 miles and it takes them about 4 hours to finish the route. Some of those costumes are heavy, but they manageto danceto whole way with little breaks inbetween.
Another fun part about carnaval is the water fights. People throwing water balloons at each other and shooting each other with spray foam is fun but after 2 days can get pretty tiring. It was always fun to attack people (kids especailly) when they least expected it. Its all part of the fun since people liked to attack gringos. We came prepared with water balloons and spray foam and we wore panchos so we wounldnt get so wet. Its carnaval! |
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| Wow! 1 yr in Bolivia |
[Jan. 17th, 2005|02:06 pm] |
Alirght, so I have been lagging with the whole updating of the live journal to say whats te dealy-o. This Thursday the 21st will be my 1 year aniversary of arriving in Bolivia. The time as flown by fast. With 1 year and 3 months left.
I moved into a bigger place this last month. I have 2 rooms with my own backyard and my own toliet and shower. No more using a bucket to bath, but I still have a drop flush toliet. (That means, I have to use a bucket of water to empty the contents). I been spending a lot of time working in my yard recently, digging a trash whole, and cleaning up the yard. Supposedly there are a lot of snakes back there, but I have not seen any yet.
Since I moved my Rec center has slowed down a little bit, I am working on getting it back in order, now that I have lots of room for the kids and we wont be so cramped.
The new mayor is coming in this week so I hope that they will want to work with me. That is provide money for a couple of projects. They are my offical counterpart agency so with a change maybe getting projects coordinated with them will be a little bit easier. Even though I dont feel like am doing much work related to my project I am still integrating and getting closer to people in the town. After all that is one of the goals of Peace Corps to have host country nationals learn about American culture and vise-versa. I am enjoying my time, drinking matte, a herbal tea drink, and talking with the people on how hot it is, it is pretty hot. Luckily I have electrcity 24/7 and a fan.
For the holidays I went to a Bolivian Christmas celebration, which is really eating a really good meat dish with corn on the cob, and thn at midnight wish everyone felicidades, and light off fireworks. It is very family oriented, butat leat I had a family here to spend it with. For New Years I headed to Buenos Aires, a city that I really like and to the beach, a place that I really miss. I really just made me want to go surfing. At least I got to go swimming in the ocean, whcih wasnt a bad temp maybe 65 degrees or almost 70 is was really refreshing in the hot weather.
So, I am off.... |
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| Justin´s Recreation Center |
[Nov. 5th, 2004|04:49 pm] |
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My place has turned into a recreation center at night. A group of 10-15 kids come over and we play cards or soccer or frisbee. I just got some dominoes, but have yet to introduce them to see how they go. One night we made quesadillas, including the tortialls it was a hit. I am using this has an in to start some environmental projects. So after I have more of their trust maybe they will have more interest in trying to protect their environment as well. Its taken a while but I am feeling more intergrated everytime I come back to my site. Maybe I should leave more often. |
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| Rodeo Chaqueño |
[Sep. 9th, 2004|04:42 pm] |
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So have you noticed that my updates have had very little to do with work? Well work is a slow process with small results occasionally. I have been working, but the fun stuff takes place on the weekend, such as my very first rodeo held in Palmar, the capital of the tradition Chaqeña. At least thats what the shirt says, but in Spanish. Saw I saw bear back horse riding, one clown, and cattle roping, with dancing and live entertainment inbetween. I missed the elusice horse racing yet again, but I am sure to see some good horse racing in my town festival in 2 weeks. And thrown in the rodeo was the occasional chicken fight as well. I think if I went to a rodeo in the states it would be pretty different. I also had the best beef I´ve ever had in my life that just happens to come from Argentina. To say the least we were stuffed with meat and sausage. ¡que rico! And just in case anyone wanted to make the trip to Bolivia, visitors are invited. |
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| I met Mr. Bolivia! |
[Aug. 15th, 2004|02:20 pm] |
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Most exciting event in Bolivia so far...meeting Mr. Bolivia, Dustin Larsen! It was actually kind of random. I was with some other volunteers sitting in some hotsprings enjoying the Bolivian independence day weekend, when we finished our sulfur indudced soak, when we out side and there was another gringo who started talking to us, and as it turns out he is Mr. Bolivia 2004 the gringo from the US! (there was a contraversy about a gringo winning, he is a Bolivian citizen too, but how cool is that?) He pointed out all the beautiful people gets to hang out with, making fun of himself and hes even concerned about the environment, picking up a bottle out of the river. Kevin was the most disappointed when he found out he did have his camera with him. We missed out on a fabulous picture oppurtunity. And Melissa downplayed the whole event, but it was Mr. Bolivia! |
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| Cochabamba |
[Jul. 8th, 2004|04:26 pm] |
I am in Coch for inservice training, soaking up the nice warm weather and the company of my friends some of whom I haven´t seen for 3 months. I am also having language classes and other informational sessions.
I climbed up to the Christ statue here. Its the biggest in the world at 33 meters high. ITs even bigger than the one in Rio de Janero. I climbed up all 1474 steps, it was good exercise and well as a wonderful view of the city.
I was even able to celebrate 4th of July with fireworks. It was a good time. Especailly since you can buy fireworks here that I would never be able to get in California.
Everything is going well. It seems that I haven´t experiences too many ups and downs. I think my calm personality has definately helped out. |
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| Call me Profe |
[Jun. 11th, 2004|10:32 am] |
I have been teaching all the school kids about trash. Trash is more exciting than you might realize. I have not become the trash man in my site but I have become a Professor. The students call the teachers here Professor, so its not like being a university professor. Anyway all the children of Cuevo now who I am and call my Profé just like all of the other teachers. For those whose classes I have not been to yet ask when I am going to their class. I hope this is getting them interested in the environment and protecting it.
My other exciting accomplishment is my compost pile. With in 3 months I should have nice fertiziler for my future garden. Its my expirmental pile to make sure I am doing it right so I can then start teaching community how to make compost.
I am going to Sucre (the offical capital of Bolivia) this next week for a project meeting. The ride from my site is a short 16 hours with beatiful stretches of dangerous roads. At least I wont have to suffer it alone, I am going with 4 other volunteers in my area.
The weather has turned cold. Its a little different when you cannot go retreating into nice warm heated houses. So I just have to suck it up and put on more clothes. Its almost like being outside 24 hours a day exept I have a roof over my head. Its just life and Im getting used to it. Just like I can also go the the soccer field or basketball court and watch games. The teens in High School play a lot of sports and Im not sure that it is 100% choice. At least they seem to be enjoying themselves. |
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