lost and found in [my new country and blog]

thinking...

la calle Schell, Lima, Peru, South America

Thinking…

So it’s been a rough few days, even since we’ve settled here outside of Lima.  We’re doing Close-of-Service medical tests, learning about our options (still don’t have a list of where we could go) and finding out that we have to make very fast decisions about certain things.  But here is a list of what I’m thinking.

 

If I transfer directly to another country in Latin America (my favorite option)…

• I likely won’t be coming to the United States before I transfer (so any shopping has to be done in Lima or the next country)
• I get to keep learning Spanish.  And impressing you all with that.
• There’s a good chance there will be tropical fruit involved.
• I get to know and love a whole new Latin American culture!  I’m a lucky girl, getting to integrate into not one, but 2 cultures.
• This option isn’t guaranteed because the host country has to accept me once I decide I want to go, but I’m pursuing it as my number one.
• Regardless of what happens in the new country (if I had to early terminate or medically separate…hopefully neither), I’ll always have Returned Peace Corps Bolivia status…so I don’t lose that on resumes, etc.

 

If I choose the “re-enroll” option:

• I close out my service now, get the Returned status, and actually return to the US.
• Have some sort of top-of-the-application-pile status for doing a full 27 months in another country.
• Won’t leave the US for a while…new programs aren’t really leaving again till January/February
• I’ll be pretty bored at home after the novelty wears off and I can’t get a job (like last year all over again)
• I could maybe look into doing a Master’s International (which combines grad school and then 2 years of Peace Corps to earn a master’s degree)

 

If I just decide to COS and move on:

• I may do Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF) in central America
• I may choose grade school
• I may move to California and join a hippie commune…or just be friends with hippies
• I may move to California and get a paying job working in anything related to nutrition, food, agriculture, or farmers’ rights.  As long as I can speak Spanish.
• I’ll be proud of myself, but I don’t think I’m ready to be done with Peace Corps yet, despite the rough times.

 

Thanks for your support so far, I think the hardest blow is that I won’t be able to see my lovely supporters soon if I transfer, and that it’s going to be very hectic to tie up the loose ends in my site over the phone.

safe, not necessarily happy

Hi All,

You may have been seeing the news about Bolivia (like, the 5 seconds CNN plays between Hurricane Ike and Wall Street)...but the situations between East and West and City and Campo and Evo and the US were all deteriorating really fast. So first we were consolidated into one city, then the decision was made to evacuate us to Lima, Peru, and recently they decided to temporarily suspend the program in Bolivia. So I´m safely in Peru, but emotionally a mess trying to figure out what I´m doing next. I´ll have several options: leaving Peace Corps and being considered a returned volunteer (which has several benefits in terms of jobs and health insurance), or transferring to another country to do more service. I´m hoping I can transfer to another spanish-speaking Latin American country (wonder how they´ll feel about my cruceño accent) and do another year and a half or so, but the accepting countries tend to dictate what they want in terms of skills and time commitment. I hope it can work out that way though, I don´t feel like I´ve accomplished my Peace Corps goals yet.
I´m so sad that this is happening to Bolivia. I feel guilty that I can leave but the Bolivians are still in the midst of serious turmoil. All my friends in site will probably be safe, but this could be the beginning of harder times. And like many of us have expressed, we felt that we were doing important and useful things in our communities, which were very hard to leave. Personally, I barely knew what was going on, other than gas wasn´t arriving to my site, and that things suddenly were doubling in price. So I really left loose ends because I thought I´d be going back in a week or so. We had many tearful goodbyes with our staff, who were so incredibly supportive to us even while their own home country was going through this and as they knew they were mostly about to be without work. I could never thank them enough. Our country director and the second-in-command (I hope you´re reading this!) were so honest and patient with us and our millions of freak-out questions, how could we ever thank them enough?
I´ll keep this updated as much as possible, please don´t worry about me...but keep Bolivia in your thoughts and prayers if that´s your thing. They need the good vibes more than I do.

we evacuated in this military plane from the 1940's!

and now a word from...

ok so I got this e-mail from my former boss at Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.  The Garden Apprentice Program is all about teenagers doing apprenticeships around the BBG, including in the Children's Garden.  These teens are really great (taught me some sweet dance moves), so if you feel like giving your support, read below!

Tiers two and three of the Garden Apprentice Program have been working on various environmental action projects around BBG this summer with the intent to educate the public on the urgent issue of global climate change and our power to enact change.  
                The culminating group project is a sculpture they created from discarded goods we gathered from around BBG like plastic bags, newspapers and cardboard boxes. They have worked long and hard for several weeks organizing and crafting their vision. The final product will be on display in the rotunda following the end of this week—please stop by to admire their work. 
                We were also able to enter the project into a craft contest put on by 350.org, which is a website that advocates to reduce national carbon emissions to below 350 ppm. We would like to invite you to check out the 350.org website to view our project and to please vote for GAPsummer’s “Average U.S. Citizen.” The contest is judged based on viewer responses so the more votes the better.  You can follow the link below to the page:

http://www.craftster.org/350/voting/index.php?start=20&column_name=&contest=craft;

                We hope you enjoy our piece and will join us in taking action to curb your own carbon emissions and  raise awareness about our power to make a difference. Thank you so much and have a great evening. 

All-vol conference!

Bolunteers (that's a clever way to write bolivia volunteers, especially in a country where b and v are interchangable in most people's opinion) rock.  We recently had a consolidation of volunteers (where we're all in one secure place, just in case...) due to possible outbursts stemming from the August 10th recall election.  It was a precaution, no mas, and everything ended up tranquilo (enough) that we could all go back to our normal activities a few days later.  To make this consolidation productive, the powers that be re-arranged and logistified our schedules so that many meetings happened during this time.  In other words, it was a massive conference in which people could share ideas within and without their project groups, training groups and regions.  I got to meet SO many interesting people who were so passionate about their projects, both major and minor.  I am so inspired to go do EVERYTHING in my site.  I want to do more with literacy (we have a library, after all), I'm going to try really hard to realize my goals in the family gardens/seed production area, and I want to be one of those volunteers that is a go-to person for information about doing a specific thing.  There are people that just have so much to talk about when you ask them what they're doing in their sites, and that's what I want to be.  

OF COURSE I was thrilled to see my training class buddies (it's been since April for the 20 of them in regions other than Santa Cruz).  Here we're doing a typical non-smiling Bolivian photo.  Although Bolivians love to laugh and smile a lot, they don't like to smile in pictures.  So we tried that.

We had very official technical meetings, some interesting group discussions about why we're here and what it all means to us, and some very fun learning sessions to "aprovechar de" (take advantage of) our diverse talents.  In other words, I learned to belly dance, do a traditional dance called the chaquerera, and helped teach a hip-hop session with my friend Tammy (who I only really got to know during this conference...she lives only 3 hours away!).  Our excellent third-year volunteers (who do double or triple duty helping out in regional offices, while keeping working in cities) and leadership committees organized some activities that I really got into: scavenger hunt, egg toss, relay race (complete with potato-digging and throwing a rock at a picture of a dog to replicate our experience in site), and a dance where the theme was cross-dressing. 

Painting my friend Pat's nails for our scavenger hunt.  He kept the look for the cross-dressing ball the following night.  ((Yes, I cut bangs for myself.  Good music can inspire poor decisions in haircuts--makes you want to be a cool rock star/hipster.))

I'm so fortunate to have had this happen only 3 months into my service, I'll be able to use this experience and inspiration to the full advantage of my community.

oye!

So if you see, as you often do, a señora walking down the street with a delicious basket of baked goods, or soda, or any snack, how do you get her to stop and sell you something?  Don't bother shouting "señora" as it's not very effective.  Instead, shout "cuñape" or "cafe" to signify you want some of that, and she will stop and sell to you!

We are part of a community of volunteers

Well, this post isn't at all about Peace Corps Bolivia.  Though we are dealing with some things politically now, they haven't gotten prohibitive towards our work or proven too risky for our continued presence in the country...and I'm happy about that!  However, it's important that we as the volunteer community (and those generally concerned about awesome people like PCV's) stay informed about other members of this larger group.  We are having a conference right now, thus have more access to CNN, the internet, etc., so we have been informed of the breaking news about Georgia.  Check out the link below, if you haven't yet informed yourself.  It's a serious situation and I can't imagine what the Peace Corps Georgia volunteers are feeling right now.  I would be scared, confused, angry and full of questions about what this would mean for my service.  Probably what the Kenya volunteers felt last winter when the violence broke out there.  At that time, I recall, I had felt concern but didn't understand that feeling of attachment for a country and people, let alone projects and work!  Part of me is selfishly saying, "thank goodness that's not here, let that not happen here" and another part of me just feels the pain of seeing your host country turn to violence.  On top of that, it's the opening day of the Olympics, so this sort of violence seems even more inappropriate than normal.  Please keep the Georgian people and PCV's in Georgia in your thoughts.  Why not use this as an opportunity to learn about a very interesting and rich country history?

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/08/georgia.ossetia/index.html

For Peace

I NEED SOCKS!

I've updated my "wishlist" over on that sidebar, but I'm putting out a special request for socks.  The dirt here is all reddish-brown, and anywhere I walk it gets in my shoes because it's the windy dusty season.  I can kind of scrub out the dirt, but it stains and the scrub brush I use to wash my stuff absolutely tears up the fibers in the cloth...thus I have some quickly deteriorating stained socks.  I'd love some new pairs!  Don't bother with those cute socks from Target or whatever that are fashionable and cute but not very functional.  They won't last a single washing...something sturdy and cushiony would be verrry appreciated :).

Japan in Bolivia

Burning Sugar Cane

Well, after a week being stuck in Santa Cruz for medical reasons (don't worry, the doctors couldn't actually find anything wrong with me, and I ended up feeling better by the end of it all anyways), I was all ready to go back to my site.  Then there was a landslide on the highway back to my (and other volunteers') site.  Huge boulders fell down a slope, cracking the road and actually killing two people.  Needless to say, taxis and buses weren't running for a few days.  I was really bummed to be out of my site for even MORE time (knowing that I'd be back here for meetings), but with Peace Corps' blessing, I went to visit two volunteers working about 2 hours north of the city, in a Japanese colony.  For more info on their site and work (they're totally awesome people), I've linked to their blog...Tom and Anna.  It was a very refreshing visit, and it was so fun to see that type of landscape--the hot, flat plains of Santa Cruz.  It's definitely the tropical climate I had hoped my site would have, complete with sugar cane and a laguna with alligators (or is it crocodiles in South America?).  I mostly enjoyed seeing how volunteers who had been here a year already spent their time--visiting, hanging out (it was the weekend, I know they do work during the week too).It was comforting to know that it's ok to spend time reading and cooking and going on runs, you have to make a "home life" to go along with difficult development work, and the pace of life here in Bolivia definitely allows for free time.  So I've stopped being stressed about not having lots to do every day.  We also ate sushi, tempura and delicious fried catfish-like fish (from the river nearby I think!).  

Finally I did make it back to site, spent all of 6 days there in which I actually helped plan school lunch menus (I basically just said si, si, ok, si to most things the people wanted to do...they know better than me how to cook for 120 students).  Next step:  bumping up the vegetable production by the schools, so they don't have to buy vegetable to add to their dishes.

for more information

There is a well-written article about the political situation in Bolivia here:

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1388/1/

Actually, this whole website has great articles all about Latin America.  Enjoy!

woohoo finally got the slideshow embedded in the page.  I still will try to add relevant pictures to actual blog posts, but the application that blogger uses for some reason does not agree para nada with the internet connection I use...it takes foreverrrrrr.

Dia de la Tradicion del Postrervalle

(Disclaimer: yes, I have revealed the name of my site after seeing other PC friends who have done the same on their blogs/facebook. The reason I had not revealed my site name before is that by doing so, I risk creating in the minds of my readers unfair judgements against a specific place and community. Please continue to bear in mind that my observations are biased to my point of view and while I try to keep things in perspective, any negative thoughts, stereotypes or judgements should not automatically be applied to this community as a whole. Thanks).

It’s 8:55 p.m. on July 15^th. Central plaza of Postrervalle. The Catholic church has been full of people paying their respect to the Virgin of Carmen, who is the patron of the town, thus, people say thanks to her. Now people are streaming out of the glowing church to join friends, family, and strangers from near and far who have already started the party. A band of drummers and trumpets play a song that sounds a lot like an upbeat version of the classic rock tune “The Sound of Silence,” though is apparently a traditional song from this area. It’s very catchy. Fireworks (yes, real fireworks) are lit from the bonfires in the middle of the street. The kids ooh and aah at the brilliant gold and green, pink blue and purple sparks. “Una VIVORA (snake)” cries Timi, the 6 year old I live with, at a succession of serpentine sparks. The adults can’t hide their amazement either, not that we’re really trying to. A few hard-partying men stumble over each other, everyone laughing and celebrating. There are tables set up all over the sidewalk, where people are selling a special drink of eggs, milk and a LOT of alcohol (hmm…sounds like eggnog to me). More fireworks, firecrackers, laughing, oohs and aahs, music, encounters with distant relations, happiness. This was the eve of the official Postrervalle founding holiday. We left that nights at about 10pm, but when I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and early morning, music was still playing and people were still up partying. At about 6:30 on the actual day, I heard firecrackers. This party is so legendary in the valles that a volunteer in a community several hours away got a phone call from someone originally from his community, working in London, to tell him to get to this party if there was any way he could. The bus to my town has been totally full every day for a few weeks. When I say full, I mean people rode standing in the aisles from Santa Cruz all the way here (that’s 7+ hours). Foosball tables and game booths arrived a few weeks ago, a special treat for fiesta time. Closer to the actual day, tables were set up in our usually empty market building, where women fried thin-crusted empanadas and special food for out-of-towners and locals alike. A car race came through town, though it wasn’t special for the party, just coincided very well as entertainment. Trucks came filled with tangerines, bananas and oranges. Booths were erected of blue tarp in an empty lot behind the market. Vendors unloaded their trucks. People could buy new pots and pans, ever-essential plastic buckets and bins of all sizes and colors, clothes, sneakers, electrical equipment, and more! Out-of-towners cat-called at the gringa (one of the big negatives of such a party…people don’t know me and thus I’m a lot less safe and get laughed at/called a lot more). And that was all BEFORE the actual day, July 16^th.

On the actual day, things were actually a little more serious. In the morning, there was another church service, followed by a procession with the Virgin of Carmen statue around the plaza. Then there was the acto civico. Contrary to the actos civicos for Dia de la Madre Boliviana, this was more speeches by important people, with only two dance performances. The mayor of my town (and actually the whole municipality) talked about the works going on around the municipality: road improvements, building of the basketball stadium, etc. The prefectura spoke as well: he’s a Santa Cruz-level government official. He congratulated us on 94% vote for autonomy back in May, and made us THE capital of autonomy, which was commemorated by a big wooden post. The department also gave us a new truck. Seriously. They were stoked that we had such a high autonomy percentage and were making good on a promise of granting wishes to departments that had high voting rates. After a very hot (ok, a little boring too) morning watching that, there was a fair/exposition showing the different traditional foods of Postrervalle. Many of the cheese-carb concoctions could be had, as well as the cookies that are kind of like madelines in texture, sweet potatoes, a pancake like thing (which I almost ate until I was turned off by someone greasing the pan with a piece of pig), and a drink made of one of the wild fruits that grows around here: guayavilla. I had done a mini-lesson on calculating costs of production with my friend Nelcy. We made a few loaves of pumpkin, carrot and banana bread, and she sold them whole and in pieces at a fair price. That’s probably the only way this is related to work, but that part was pretty successful. She made enough money to buy one of the kids a new jacket (which she needed badly…dern kids just keep growing out of stuff!). She wanted to keep doing this, I hope we can bring some other women in on the baking and selling thing—though the town is so small that if a few more people pick it up, unfortunately they’re going to be direct competition for each other. Later in the afternoon I did what volunteers really shouldn’t do: I gave money to people. Well, I gave each of the kids I live with 2 Bolivianos (note $1 = 7.1 Bolivianos at this point in time) to play at the foosball tables, and bought them each a candy apple. I tried to make it clear that this was a special occasion, and I think they understood not to expect money from me. Anyways, they had a LOT of fun at the tables/being a part of the fun, so I think I got way more than the value of the money I spent. The rest of the action of the market was the stuff to buy and tarp booths to eat and get drunk in. I didn’t partake in that, though I did buy a fried cheese empanada, hot off the oil. The following day, although there were fewer people around town, music was still playing and people were still eating and drinking in the various booths. Needless to say, this is a big deal party, it lasts a long time, and brings a lot of outsiders and disruption to Postrervalle. To be truthful, it was fun to celebrate tradition, but after a point, I wanted to get back to the tranquilo life I was more used to here.

to my Postrervalle

from far i have come

to eat baked goods

of crushed corn

Learning Valluno…or, learning the aspirated ch, k, t and glottal k/c

I’m happy to report that I now know Quechua words that have mostly lost their original meaning, and picked up a new meaning in the valles cruceños. It probably even varies from pueblo to pueblo…but here’s a sampling of some words I’ve been attempting to pronounce. I mostly love these words because many don’t have a direct equivalent in Castellano (Spanish, as the Bolivians call it, though it’s nothing like Castillian Spanish) or English.

Kjala (kj is a breathy k sound…aspirated k, kind of like kHH) – naked!

Patakjala – barefoot (pata=animal feet, but sort of also means human feet, and in this context definitely does)

Ch’uto (that’s a ch with a glottal stop…I can’t do it but I try and it makes the kids laugh, maybe so much that it hurts my feelings) – animal without a tail, or someone with their pants down!

Tjanta (aspirated t) – holey or ripped/torn/tattered; in Quechua this actually means bread

Kjaspau – burnt on the outside and still raw on the inside…you don’t want kjaspau bread

Kjarka – stuck to the pot

C’uchi (glottal stop c…watch out, sounds like a dirty word in modern American vernacular) – pig; also called cerdo, chancho and other names in Spanish and Valluno

Kjasa – missing teeth, missing a piece

Puchiu – food that has saliva on it, someone else has eaten it or something

Ch’anko – broken

Chiche – dirty (like your feet when you’re running around the garden all patakhala)

Pucha (pronounced POOOOcha) -- for a long time I thought this was a bad word, but it’s just kind of an interjection, like che and pues (that’s prounounced pueh here, thankyouverymuch). For example, your food is kjaspau, you might say PUUUUCHA CHE! Yo voy quemando mi comida pueh. Which translates to…ooooh man I’m burning my food, then. Yeah…this use of the verb “to go” plus the gerund will not get you an “A” in 7^th grade Spanish, but it helps your cultural integration.

….and MANY more words, especially for animals and bugs that I’ve never heard of or seen before (i.e. tatu = an animal with a cape that digs really fast)

As someone with great interest in linguistics, I’m having lots of fun with this. However, I mostly just like understanding when people say these words…the glottal stops and super-aspirated consonants are tough. I also have the advantage of living with kids who were born and raised for some of their lives outside of this town, so they bring new accents and have a different range of words they use. The oldest one is from way up in the Yungas mountains, and he says EVERYTHING with glottal stops and aspirations and uses a lot more valluno words than the others. I’ve started a dictionary, which is really fun for me and the kids, even though they laugh AT me a little too much sometimes. Sometimes I think they’re making stuff up or telling me bad words, just to see if I’ll say them, so I’m careful to double check with the grown-ups.

Hello again

Well after just 13 days in site, I'm back in the city buying seeds and supplies to help get some family gardens started.  The lack of seeds seems to be the major limiting factor for vegetable production (and hence, consumption) in my ...so it seems I've found my primary project:  seed saving!  I still have a lot of learning about the subject to do, but it's nice to feel like I have some sort of guiding force to my work.  For now, I'm stuck buying seeds that will give plants (important, yes) but won't help the community be self-sufficient in terms of seed supply, but I've come across some organizations that will maybe donate organic seeds that can be open-pollinated.  This sort of food/farm justice is my passion...so you can imagine how exciting it is for me to maybe be working directly on a project to fight the big seed/ag conglomerates in favor of grassroots-level organization.

The past almost two weeks held two main activities.  The first was the planting of vegetables in the community (but run by the school) farm.  It was not my project, but that of some ingenieros...who I have to admit have their hearts in

 the right place, and were not as bad as some that I've described in the past.  

They did a great job teaching about double-digging, and set the stage for me to do compost piles in the schools, for sure, since they stressed the importance of adding organic matter to the soil.  It was great fun making these raised beds and planting with the kids...unfortunately since that time, the gallinas (hens) basically ate all the plants.  They did leave us with seeds and the plants in the greenhouse are safe, so we will have transplants soon.  Now if we could just kick the parents into gear (caring for the farm is their responsibility) to get them to really make a good fence.

The second thing was the campeonato.  Since schools have been on vacation nation-wide ("winter" vacation), I guess this is when they have the traveling sports competitions.  Three neighboring municipalities (kind of like big counties or districts I guess) travelled to my lovely town to compete in soccer, running, volleyball and basketball.  There was also a beauty pageant at the closing ceremonies (duh, this is Bolivia after all...we love beauty pageants!)  The town was full of strangers, which made being a gringa difficult once again...everyone in my town, save a few, know that I belong there and don't need to be cat-called, but unfortunately the visitors did not know.  In any case, I had fun loitering in the crowds, cheering on my teams, etc.  The municipalities rotate years hosting, so I was lucky to be here in a year when we were hosting.  People really went all-out making food to sell, they know an economic opportunity when they see one (triple the people?  all hungry? yes!).

In a few weeks I'll be seeing my training buddies for almost 3 weeks, in Cochabamba (how I missed that city!), when we have our reunion, project meetings, diagnostic presentations, and language training (I need someone to correct all the lazy habits I've acquired deep in the valles cruceños).  Until then, enjoy summer in the U.S., or wherever you are...this girl misses raspberries and corn on the cob like none other!

Post below this is my attempt at making a slideshow of images of my town (as requested)...I wanted to have it as its own object, but I will have to save that for another trip I suppose.

time to redefine what it is to get lost...

When I come to the city, it’s wonderful and horrible.  Wonderful is talking to my parents and my brother and Zoe, seeing other volunteers, using wireless internet, eating stuff I can’t get in site (U.S.-style ice cream!), watching cable TV, taking showers that aren’t inclined to get freezing all of a sudden, the lack of kids kicking the ball (inside) into my door.  Horrible can be doing errands.  Santa Cruz has several large-ish markets, you can find any necessity if you look hard enough.  The problem is really how crowded they are.  The people with pirated DVD/music video stands set up in the most inconvenient places, so all the magnetically drawn-in shoppers create bottlenecks.  It’s not just the DVD stands though, there are no stores that you really go in, so if something interests you, you just stop.  For some reason I feel that I’m particularly bad at anticipating when someone will stop walking, I feel so clumsy having to dodge or ram (haha…like the truck) someone every 2 seconds!  Lots of times people either don’t look or don’t care where they’re going (usually have giant blanket-wrapped parcel on back or over shoulder).  I make sure to look, but there’s only so much I can do.  Someone crushed my toenail today with her sandaled foot, because she wasn’t looking and I couldn’t move.  And what an evil look I got from her then…but I’m the one with half a toenail that I have to be sure to disinfect!  Shopping is made more complicated when you have no idea about the layout of the market.  You either can wind yourself through and throughout the markets’ crowded and crooked alleys until you find desired section with what you need, ask directions which usually are wrong or just tell you to keep walking “al fondo” –deeper—till you get there, or you can give up.  Giving up is kind of silly, because you’re already likely to be deep and lost anyways. Well, you could say you're never really lost because you're sort of always on your way to finding something (philosophical, yeah, blah blah).  Also imagine carrying awkward bundles like a 30-m roll of hexagonal wire fencing through the unseeing, uncaring masses.  So until I figure out these markets’ layout, or until I stop needing to buy things for my site, these visits will continue long and tiring despite my efforts to be efficient.  But shopping like this is as thrilling as it is frustrating and exhausting, with all the colorful clothes, spices, vegetables and plastic bins of every size, with the brilliantly shiny pots, pans and kettles, with the loud music and dvds attracting customers at every turn, and vendors asking you what you want to buy.  It’s one-stop-shopping, but not for the weak of heart, short of time or poor of directional sense!