The Time We Tried to Ford A River in a Tour Bus

It´s proven: playing "Oregon Trail" in real life is equally as fun, if not moreso, than the classic floppy disc game. Long story short, the bridge was out, we tried to cross, didn´t make it. An hour later, a tractor sort of thing from an Astro Turf factory pulled us out. In the meantime, we helped many elderly women cross the río inbetween helping the other passengers get their Truffis un-stuck. A good time was had by all.

Jallalla Jallalla

Last week was one of those weeks that seems like it never really happened. I lived on the shore of LagoTiticaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, for 5 days in a little Aymara village in the Altiplano named Toquoli, at about 13,000 feet. Toquoli has about 24 families that mostly farm papas (potatoes) and raise ovejas (sheep), vacas (cows), y gallinas (chickens). There was also a futbol field, an elementary school, and a greenhouse. This rural homestay experience was very different from past SIT homestays. This was the first time SIT or any large group of gringos visited this community and therefore I think there was a lot of nervousness on both sides. I saw everybody in SIT everyday and lived with 3 other students in my host family, whereas in the past, they have dropped students off at there homes and picked them up in 5 days. Toquoli was more than generous, and many things we did were with the entire community. There was a lot of music and dancing, traditional rituals, coca, and bonfires. The first day, they greeted us on the road with flowers and woven blankets and music, and we got our first taste of the spirit of Toquoli. Everything is about community and reciprocity. So much different than our culture that is about individual success and freedom to do what ever we want. Here, it is community and the land first. They live very close with the land and appreciate its gifts. Many traditional beliefs are centered on Pachamama (mother earth) and celebrating the generosity of the land. "Jallalla" was phrase people yelled during festivals or rituals to sort of celebrate their community. The "ja" part is short word loaded with meaning (sounds like "ha"). It signifies their entire culture, way of life, community, beliefs, etc. The "lla" (sounds like "ya") is an affirmation of their culture and the next "lla" is a double affirmation. We also played frisbee and fútbol with the community, and swam in Lake Titicaca a few times.

As I mentioned, I lived with 3 other students with one family. We lived at the TOP of the hill, and definitely got a hike in everyday. The first day, we had all of our stuff, plus huge bags of food to give to the families, and along with Mr. Altitude, the going was rough. Our host brother, Cecelio (24) and uncle had to wait for us A LOT. Once we arrived to our house, we were directed to a little house separated from the main house that we would live in together. Eventually we met, sort of, the rest of the family: Sivilo (16), Cora (14),Beatrice (10), Gemena (5), Wilmer (3), and our mom. The father lives in Oruro, and two other brothers live in Brasil, all to work and send money back. Throughout the week, Cecelio really looked after us. He spent 3 or 4 years working at a clothing factory in Brasil and returned this year to study music right now and hopefully enter University in the fall. He took us on hikes and answered all our questions about campo life. The little ones were a ball to play with. The first day, one of the other students broke the ice with some bubbles and after that they were all giggles. We didn´t get to talk much to Silvio or Cora, and a little bit to Beatrice, who was always cooking or taking animals out. Generally people in the campo are more reserved and harder to get to know in such a short time, especially for us since they do not all speak Spanish. Everyone speaks Ayamara at home and learns Spanish in school, so the little ones didn´t know any spanish, Beatrice and our Mom knew a little and our tio didn´t really know any. Even though it was difficult to have conversations sometimes, we still felt more than welcome and it was hard for them to let us help in the chores. We peeled papas sometimes, leaving them pretty destroyed, but it was funny for the rest of the family. Our mom was laughing all the time, she is so so so wonderful. We had about 40 sheep, 2 or 3 cows, a donkey, and 25 chickens as well. We had electricity, but no running water or bathroom.

It is hard to see a family and a community that works so hard so maintain the little they have and even that is not enough. There is no irrigation system, so everyone depends on the rain. It rains a lot, but when it doesn´t there is nothing they can do. Many young people have to leave for the city (in La Paz or Brasil for this community) to work underpaid, overworked factory jobs to make it by. I think education is becoming more of a priority, but it is still difficult for the young people to go to Univeristy. It is a simple life and they seem content in the midst of poverty, but it is easy for me to say, since I do not live there and come from a privilaged society where I have unlimited choices (arguably too many) from what I want to eat to what I want to do with my life.

As far as food goes, because everybody wonders about food, for breakfast we had either toasted choclo (corn) with hot tea (mate) from Eucalyptus leaves, lemon, or other natural things. To be honest, I´m not really sure, but they always made sure to put a heaping spoonful of sugar in with it. There was also a plate of barley and wheat to put in the tea if you so chose. Lunch was the biggest meal and many times we at as a community. This is not what they do normally, but only since we were there. They spread blankets down over la cancha (futbol field), and then it was sort of like a big papa potluck. A dozen different types of papas, a little bit of corn, a little bit of onion, tomato, and cheese as well. Then you just grab whatever you want in your hands and eat and go back and back and back. They also prepared soup, mostly papa or quinua, but the first day I did have a small fish in my soup. And yes, I ate it, head and all. Dinner was was usually soup and mate as well.

I learned a few Ayamara words, but whenever I asked, I could never write them down, so I don´t remember much. I know baby is wa wa, moon is poxi, and thats about it. Titicaca is Aymara as well. Titi means like the time before everything began and caca is some sort of animal that used to live in the area. The stars were unbelievable and we enjoyed full-moon lit walks home every night. The weather was insane. One minute it´s blazing sun, the next its a downpour. The nights were cold, but our family provided many many blankets so I was never cold.

Something else I´d like to mention before you fall asleep from this post is that Toquoli had us in the community because they are faced with a problem much of the campo faces today. They are not making money and cannot sustain their community as is. Many communities on Lake Titicaca get offeres from huge hotels and corporations to develope their land into tourist hotspots. No body really really wants to sell out but there doesn´t seem like much else they can do. They are stuck between a rock and a hard place.Toquoli is one of many communities trying to use a more healthy version of tourism to generate money. They want to rennovate old mining buildings on their shore into cultural exchange centers for groups like SIT and other groups to use and or camp. They want it to be more about sharing culture and knowlege than souveniour trinkets and cocktails on the beach. They do have hope though, that they will be able to maintain their culture and community inspite of their economic situation. One night when it was raining a lighting bolt hit near the community, this is a sign of new beginnings and that something good will happen soon. Hayaya Hayaya.

The Other Twin Cities

Two Sundays ago, we ventured to the La Paz area. Day one, we went to Tiawanku ruins. It was the site of a massive Incan empire thousands of years ago. Very impressive and mind blowing.
Since then, we have been mostly in La Paz, the highest capital in the world, at about 12,000 ft. It is much different than Cochabamba. There is a more of a big city feel to it, due to the sky scrapers and because there are people selling things on the street all the time, really early in the morning to late at night. I haven´t seen that as much in Cocha. The streets are also really really inclined. I went running one morning and had two choices straight up now, or straight up later. The city is built in kind of a bowl. The lower you go, the more wealthy the area is. As you move out from the center, you also move into lower class neighborhoods. There is a large disparity between the rich and the poor here, much due to the vast amount of international corporations there. La Paz is also much more touristy, there are tons of markets and shops that cater to the backpacking gringo. Our hotel was really nice and in this part of town.

In La Paz, we did a lot a lot a lot of things. We spoke to a famous movie director, went the World Bank in Bolivia, spoke to Mujeres Creando--a feminist organization, and Mamani Mamani, the most famous artist in Bolivia. All of it was incredible. The World Bank was very interesting. We asked the representative a lot of questions. He was very nice and very good with words, answering our questions without actually answering our questions about the implications of the organization. Mamani Mamani was fantastic as well. His work is known for its explosive colors and interpretations of Ayamara indigenous life. We went to his studio, bought a lot of souvenouirs and heard him talka about his work. A lot of us had him sign the things we bought and he did a portrait of every person. One afternoon I also explored a little bit with a few friends. We found the capital building, which was beautiful and mostly just walked around. We met a 3 or 4 about 80 or 90 year old men and some of them served in ww2 in Germany. We chatted with them for quite a while. The friendliness of Bolivians is everywhere.

One day we also went to El Alto, a growing city above La Paz. I was told both have about 1 million people. It is almost all indigenous Ayamara who have come to the city to work. Many who live in El Alto, work in La Paz for the rich mestizos (mixed) or blancos (white people) as maids, construction workers, etc., or on the streets selling merchandise. We visited the public university in El Alto to talk to some of its students. They were awesome. So full of passion for social change. There were murals all over their university and I could defnitely feel their energy. They were also extremely friendly and we talked mostly about politics and dancing. Being there, I felt like the future of Bolivia is in good hands, as long as these students continue their dedication to their cause. We also visited an organization called "Teatro del Trono" (Trono Theatre). Trono is a neighborhood in El Alto and the theater serves as place for neighborhood youth to create their own theater, dance, music, art, video, etc. productions. The organization is so full of life and even their building has spirit. There were about 5 or 6 floors, including the roof where you can see incredible views of the city and the mountains.

Both of these cities were incredibly fun and intersting. I would have liked to get to spend a little more time in each of them, to really get to know them better. I´ll try to post some picture slater. The next day we were off to Toquoli, the pueblo en el campo, but that is a whole other adventure...

Este y Ese

I realized in shame that I haven´t shared perhaps the funniest thing that has happened to me since I have been here. There is a small, really nice park near my house. I went there the other day to read and instead of reading, I pretended to read while really watching a 6-man pop-rock band record a music video. I wish I wish I had my camera. They had wardrobe changes and everything. There was a lot of just dancing in place in a few different locations. There were 2 singers, a guitar, a bass, and almost best of all the drummer played an electronic drum pad and best of all a keytar. Ridiculous.

I also wanted to note that I have gone to Tai Chi a few times since I´ve been here. One of my academic advisers runs the Tai Chi school of Cochabamba, its in the bottom of his house. This is not really a Bolivian thing at all. Its really like it but its muy tempraño, 6.15 am, so I have a hard time going frequently. you never know what you will find in Bolivia.

I feel like I have learned an immense amout about a lot of things in the past few weeks. It has been incredibly surreal. We have met so many influencial people through SIT and even the conversations with my family blow my mind sometimes. I´d also like to note, I am getting better at ´gim´our card game and I even won 2 Bolivianos this weekend.

On Sunday we leave for La Paz, which will be an incredible experience in itself, but then we go right into our rural village homestay. We are going to a small Aymara village of 24 families en Lago Titcaca for 5 days. They have never sent a group here before, so I´m sure it will be crazy. I have no idea what it will be like, which is one of the reasons I am so excited.

Salud.

Carnaval en Oruro

The weekend, yet again, unsurprisingly, proved to be, well, ridiculous (And I will try not to use so many commas...). Carnaval is the celebration before Lent, a big party with everything you want before a long time where you can´t have anything you want (well, not really, but that´s the idea). To get it out of your system, I suppose.

The drive was a little treacherous but more so gorgeous. These mountains are so different than ones I have seen before. We zig zagged for about 4 our 5 hours until we got to Oruro Friday night. Oruro thrives off of Carnval, they say the population triples on this weekend. All of Bolivia comes to share in the celebration, which is built around a 21-hour parade. Yes, 9 am to 6 am. Dance groups from EVERY city and pueblecito come in ornate and crazy costumes, in every color imaginable, with marching bands of middle aged men to match. A lot of the costumes represent a historical group of people in Bolivia, for instance the Morenos--the African slaves forced to work in the mines, or either a religious symbol, like los Diablos. Everything tells a story, whether it be about the past or present, Catholicism or traditional religion. It allows for stories from all different facets of Bolivia to come together to celebrate being an incredibly complicated and diverse country. Me encantan los osos. Qué lindo.

When there is a break in the parade, and their are many, the other STANDARD of Carnaval occurs: waterballon and foam fights. If you don´t want to get wet, you better cover yourself in plastic, but better yet, don´t show up. It´s not just teenagers trying to make trouble, its everyone from age 3 to 90. Not that everybody likes getting wet or foamy, but if you go to Carnaval, you either love it or put up with it. The street is lined with stands to watch the parade and waterballoons, ¨Globos¨come from every direction. Under the stands and side streets are full of Globo vendors, selling bags of balloons full of water, as well as aerosl cans of foam, like shaving cream, and of course water guns. After lunch, I decided there was enough parade left for me to watch and I spent the afternoon with a few of my fellow estudiantes having globo fights against whoever. We had two foamers and 3 or 4 globo-ers and were mostly a defensive crew but from time to time, we doused the gringo or european lingering idly. It felt good to be 7 again. The evening was spent sort of wandering around and eventually back at the parade. Oruro is crazy, too hard to describe by blog. It is safe to say, I don´t need to be wet again for awhile, but too bad because Cochabamba´s Carnaval is this weekend, and I have seen to many globo-ers already not to be hit on my way home.

PS. i wanted to post some pictures but i have been having trouble uploading pictures. will do as soon as i can.

Tunari y Fútbol

Greetings. I thought Í´d just do a little recap-action of the weekend, since it was a pretty good time. Friday my program went to a little town called Tarata, it is about 45 minutes from Cochabama. ¡Que lindo! It is a old town built during colonialism, which is obvious from the archicture. It is famous for many things: there is a tea factory, Frutti, which distributes throughout Bolivia and the world; a Chicha factory where they make, well, chicha, which is a alcholic drink native to Bolivia. Its kind of sweet, and kind of yeasty, its hard to describe and I have no idea how it´s made. Its kind of a love it or hate it thing. Many, many musicians also hail from Tarata. Walking around with a few other students, we met some of them. They were super nice and said there is music in the town square every day at noon, but the only thing we found in the square were teenagers with waterballoons...saying they were a pack of wolves is an understatment, but we escaped dry. We then went to lunch at an old hacienda. Haciendas are plots of land with huge houses that were built during the colonial periods by the Spanish. They came in, took the land from the people who lived there and then made those same people farm it for themselves...basically a sort of feudal system for a long time, and arguably still exists. It was a beautiful house and the land was gorgeous, however it was really strange to be in a space that kind of represents a lot of oppression and explotation, of land and people. The man who lives there now is about 80 and it was his grandfather´s hacienda. He was kind of crazy, but very kind and extended the invitation for us to stay there any time we want. I would really like to, there was a lot of land to explore and its good to get out of the city.

Friday night I went to a c´oa (I have no idea how to spell it) with my host mom. C´oas are held every first friday of the month. They are a traditional celebration with a lot of things i can´t reallye explain, but it´s supposed to bring good luck. The one I went to was through my mom´s political party, MAS (the party of the president, Evo Morales), in support of their candidate for Governor. It was me and a bunch of middle-aged people, pretty much, but it was interesting and fun to see people rallying together. Literally, together, because it was pouring and so we were all huddled under an awning.

Saturday, I went to Tunari National Park, which is in the mountains that surround Cochabamba. I did a small hike with a few friends, but it was way harder than I thought. Altitude is Real. We got some great views of the city. We had a guide book that said there was supposed to be lakes at the top, but we never found them.

Sunday I had a great almuerza (lunch) with the extended family. We went over to one of my aunt´s houses and had a great soup and tamales. We had planned on going to the big futbol game but tickets were hard to come by, so we watched it together after lunch. My mom said people started camping out on Wednesday night to by tickets on Saturday! It was the championship of the Aerosur Cup, Wilsterman (a Cochabamba team) vs. Bolivar (La Paz). My family is split and it a riot to watch the game with them. We brought out the TV from the back room and put it in the living room. It was a great game with lots of joy and suffering because it was so close. it ended in a shoot-out. I was nervous and I had nothing to be nervous about. There are more games this spring and hopefully I can make it to one. They are ridiculous. Then we went back to my family´s apartment, but to the one above us (another aunt) to play cards. Every sunday night they play ´gim´. i don´t really know how to spell it but i eventually learned how to play it. however, I got my butt kicked and I think I owe mi tía Marta 15 bolivianos, but I´m not sure.

Gringa in the Garden of Eternal Spring

Well, I´ve been in lovely Cochabamba for almost a week (to the hour). Its been a whirlwind of warm weather, spanish, and gringaness. Yes, gringa--white girl-- is what I am and will forever be. Although I have only had 2 waterballoons, ´globos,´thrown at me and they missed just short of my feet. Waterballoons are a pretty normal part of the culture, especially right before Carnival, a marti gras-ish festival thats a weekend of dancing and getting hit by water balloons.

I will try to give a general summary of the last week without writing a novel. We (SIT students) had orientation or 4 days where we had a crash course in living in Cochabamba. There are 17 students on the program. The second day we had a ´drop off´ where we drove to the top of a large hill where el Cristo is. el Cristo is the largest statue of Jesus in South America by 1 meter, I I think. You can see the whole cityi from there, it is awesome. The city is so beautiful, it is surrounded by gentle green mountains. I love it. Then we took a Gondola down and were given a destination to find with a partner. My partner and I found our way to La Univalle de Tiquipaya (University of Tiquipaya) and our way back to the hotel and only got sort of lost. Saturday our host families picked us up from our hotel and we moved in to our new casas.

A little bity about mi familia nueva: I live in an apartment on Ricardo Jaimes Friente Ave, with the Thames family: my mom Magda, my sister Natalia (22), my brother Sergio (27), and Lucas (4, our dog). Magda works at the Historical Archives of Cochabamba and is workign on planning cities celebration of 200 years in September. Natalia is on summer break right now but starts university in February, where she is studying to be a journalist. Sergio is a folk dance instructor for kids. Natalia is a folk dancer as well. Lucas is a good dog and I think we are going to be good friends. I am the 5th SIT student they have had, so they know the drill pretty well. They are a loving family who like to joke around alot. They are patient with me and my spanish, and always looking out for me. I have also met the other son, Jorge, and his wife Mata. They are expecting una bebe in April!

I started school on Monday. Sergio brought me by Taxi-Truffi. Almost everyone uses public transportation here. There are busses, truffis (prounounced true-fee), taxi-truffis, and taxis. truffis and taxi-truffis are ´fixed-route taxis´so basically like a bus but in a car or van. All of public transporation costs 1.5 bolivianos (7 bolivianos=1 dollar, you do the math.) I have class from 9-12.30, this is a lecture about Bolivia and right now we are talking about history. we have covered basically 1800-1936, from pre-colonialism to the spanish rule to wars of ´independence´and now we´re talking about different states of rule and transition periods. its all intersteing, and i understand about 70% of what our lecturer Rapheal Puente, says. Then I go home for lunch. Lunch, almuerza, is the biggest meal of the day. Everybody goes home for lunch. Breakfast and dinner are both small meals, like bread and coffee, or fruit. Then I have spanish class from 2.45-6.15. My spanish teacher, Chi Chi, is a little crazy but really helpful and energetic. I am on my own now getting to school. I am slowly figuring out the city and streets. But it is exhausting to think in spanish all day.

Thats pretty much it for the general go-around. I´ll try to be more specific about stuff in future blogs. I hope you are well. Oh yes, don´t hate me, but it has been about 80 degrees everyday.