Sooo I’m one day away from moving to my site. I’m officially a volunteer, as of last Friday! But to backtrack a bit…
After I got back from site visit, training was (not is…) tough. It was several afternoons of fairly vague and frustrating exams, but we all got through them ok. I think they were just more to review what we’ve done than to test anything (I mean, those who didn’t pass still got to swear in). I also was stressed out and sick with a mean cold the week I got back. My host mom really helped me out, giving me chamomile vapors for the congestion…definitely a remedy I recommend. It’s just boiled water with chamomile flowers (I think pure chamomile tea would work, as would most “soothing herbs” like peppermint or lavender), that you breathe in under a towel. So I got better from that sickness and just a few short days later I got something realllllly bad. I won’t describe it in detail, but we found out it was a one-two combo of amoebas and intestinal bacteria , which totally put a damper on my final week with my friends, and made it difficult to sit through all my final interviews and hours of information sessions. Well, I got on meds, which give you the same symptoms for a while and don’t allow you to toast your new volunteer status, but they do work. I think I’m all better in time to go to my site (but I’m going to try hard to not get those bugs again, especially when it would require a 7 hour bus ride to get diagnosed and medicated).
So, how does one move in Bolivia? It’s kind of interesting actually, when you’re moving places without the convenience of mail-ordering, UPS, and your own car to drive to the nearby IKEA. But there is this cool thing. You “encargar” (=encharge?) your giant boxes, cardboard-wrapped bedframes, mattresses, water filters, etc. (because claro, no se puede comprarlo en su sitio = obviously, you can’t buy that in your site—unless you’re a lucky city volunteer). What is to encargar? You bring the stuff to the other side of the bus terminal from where you’d buy your normal ticket. This is the “encomienda” (no translation) side. You find a company that goes where you want your stuff to go (our first leg was Cochabamba to Santa Cruz), give them your stuff, pay a fee, label your stuff, and cross your fingers. They load it onto their bus and when the bus gets to the destination, they’ll hold it in their oficina de encomiendas at that terminal, until you come to collect it. Basically like a shipping service, but through the bus system…I think it’s a pretty good idea if you take care to protect your stuff and not send expensive stuff. When I move my stuff to my site tomorrow, I’ll be piling it onto the top of a much smaller bus, but the great thing is it’s TOTALLY normal, and nobody minds the hassle.
The good news is that I have a house (someone from the Santa Cruz office actually made the trip to my site to set up my living arrangement, score!). The bad news is I have very limited information about it, so it’s hard to know what to buy exactly. I can get many things I would need about 3 hours away, so if I’m suddenly in need of some furniture, then I can go to that town, I guess. I’m just going to buy the very basics, and a lot of groceries because those will be a lot harder to obtain.
So how am I feeling about everything? Nervous, definitely, but at the same time pretty tranquilo. We have the first three months where we have to do a community diagnostic, but it’s also expected that you just spend a lot of time hanging out and getting to know the people. The point is that you shouldn’t start making any big plans based on what you think your community should have, but rather based on a thorough study and working knowledge of the place. I really believe that this is what sets the Peace Corps apart from other development agencies, even if the projects at times seem less fancy and grandiose. If you work this system well, you can create sustainable changes in peoples’ lives, I believe. I’m really excited to just be able to set my own schedule to a degree, cook for myself, read some books, make some Bolivian friends (though I’m so sad to leave all my training buddies…it’s cruel and unusual punishment to essentially haze us with such intense shared experiences, and then separate us. In fraternities and ritual cultures in the world, you haze a group so as to make sure they’ll stay together!) and get going on the volunteering thing.
I’ve changed my mailing address on the side there, though anything that had been sent to Cochabamba will reach me as well. If you’re so inclined, I actually would LOVE birthday cards/letters/presents this year (the big day is June 14th)…but my standard “donate it to a good cause” still holds, I realize how expensive it is to send anything to here, and I suppose I don’t need anything that I can’t get. But oh a new American Apparel tri-blend thick-strapped oversized tank top sounds like a dream right now. Just if you do choose to send something, please follow the guidelines, to be sure I can receive and appreciate what you’ve sent.
I’m safe, I’m happy (with the usual qualifiers), and hope you all are too.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
not much to say...but a picture anyways!!!
Jumping pic for your pleasure...that´s all for now :). Swearing in on FRIDAY!!!!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
site visit. or, i know they´re speaking spanish but that doesn´t mean i understand it.
apologies in advance, i´m writing this as a train of thought and very quickly, as opposed to my usual quasi-edited (at least written at my own leisure beforehand) entries.
I´m in the terminal in Santa Cruz (hot and humid) waiting to get a bus back to Cochabamba, which I think I´m considering ¨home¨in Bolivia...
My site is in the ¨valles cruceños¨--very fertile, lots of green plants and red dirt (or mud). I was expecting a little bit more tropical weather in my town, but turns out it was pretty chilly, especially for the first 24 or so hours when it rained. Once the sun came out though, I didn´t feel quite so betrayed by the description of sub-tropical. The sun is strong, but the breeze keeps it nice, and it´s not so hot that it burns up any plant along the way...so actually pretty dang good for growing vegetables. There´s some pleasant babbling creeks on the edges (obviously with the standard pigs and cows and clothes washing to make them contaminated...grrr), a pretty plaza in the middle, and several little tiendas where one can acquire: rice, pasta, potatoes, oil, cookies, plastic tubs, and other essentials. Apparently there is a market on Saturdays, but I didn´t get a chance to see it before I left this morning. We also have a new and professional looking ¨hospital¨-which i´d call more of a health post but it does make me feel at ease about minor injuries and illnesses (pretty sure they could stop bleeding and keep a fever down...but i wouldn´t want to get surgery there). I´ll be reporting to the local government office- keep in mind it´s a VERY small town-but I think I´ll be doing a lot of my work with the schools (i met the directors of each, they were eager). Past PCV´s have done some great work there, it will be interesting to see where I fit in. For example, I was shown the greenhouse at the school, which would be totally functional except they stopped planting in it, waiting for instructions or something, even though the people should technically know what they want to plant. They asked ME what seeds to order (though I´m not really allowed to tell them what to do until after my 3 months of community diagnostic, so i hope they can take some initiative). Also was a worm compost bin that was grown over with weeds and the worms were mostly gone. Sort of a bummer, i think a lot of my work will be in convincing the people that they don´t need a gringo to tell them what to do (though I´m sure the past volunteers were clear on that as well). At this point I only have a few concerns: getting enough fruits and veggies (my counterpart is convinced he´s going to get me to eat meat...NOT HAPPENING, totally don´t need meat to survive there which would be the only reason for me to eat it), i don´t yet know where I´m going to live and i´m supposed to by now (they´re still working on it), feeling isolated since i´m surrounded by mountains and the road out is often very muddy/dangerous during the rainy season, mosquitos and the wonderful things they bring along, and the possibility of interesting political happenings in May (though don´t believe what you read, the campo is way tranquilo, not violent).
Oh and the cruceño accent kinda makes me feel like i haven´t gotten anywhere with my spanish. they talk fast and different, without ¨s¨ and seem to me like they´re mixing up their tenses and conjugations funny...but hey what do i know right? they said i speak well, which is funny because i felt like the whole 4 days in site i just kind of did a nervous laugh, except when it was important, in which case i would ask for a repeat, and get the same speed and same words...so THEN i´d do the nervous laugh. everyone also thinks i´m going to bring someone from the village back to the U.S. (since another girl volunteer did). doubtful...and kind of annoying when that´s the second thing anyone says to me.
Sorry no pictures, i felt kinda awkward being unknown around town...i didn´t want to be all gringo with my digital camera. I´ll work up to it. Kinda looks like my pictures from tech week.
Finally STOP BEING LAZY AND WRITE ME EMAILS ALREADY...or i´m going to stop writing blog entries and then you´ll have one angry mother (mine) to deal with. To all the strangers reading, you don´t really have to email me...just my lazy friends who i love and miss very much :).
I´m in the terminal in Santa Cruz (hot and humid) waiting to get a bus back to Cochabamba, which I think I´m considering ¨home¨in Bolivia...
My site is in the ¨valles cruceños¨--very fertile, lots of green plants and red dirt (or mud). I was expecting a little bit more tropical weather in my town, but turns out it was pretty chilly, especially for the first 24 or so hours when it rained. Once the sun came out though, I didn´t feel quite so betrayed by the description of sub-tropical. The sun is strong, but the breeze keeps it nice, and it´s not so hot that it burns up any plant along the way...so actually pretty dang good for growing vegetables. There´s some pleasant babbling creeks on the edges (obviously with the standard pigs and cows and clothes washing to make them contaminated...grrr), a pretty plaza in the middle, and several little tiendas where one can acquire: rice, pasta, potatoes, oil, cookies, plastic tubs, and other essentials. Apparently there is a market on Saturdays, but I didn´t get a chance to see it before I left this morning. We also have a new and professional looking ¨hospital¨-which i´d call more of a health post but it does make me feel at ease about minor injuries and illnesses (pretty sure they could stop bleeding and keep a fever down...but i wouldn´t want to get surgery there). I´ll be reporting to the local government office- keep in mind it´s a VERY small town-but I think I´ll be doing a lot of my work with the schools (i met the directors of each, they were eager). Past PCV´s have done some great work there, it will be interesting to see where I fit in. For example, I was shown the greenhouse at the school, which would be totally functional except they stopped planting in it, waiting for instructions or something, even though the people should technically know what they want to plant. They asked ME what seeds to order (though I´m not really allowed to tell them what to do until after my 3 months of community diagnostic, so i hope they can take some initiative). Also was a worm compost bin that was grown over with weeds and the worms were mostly gone. Sort of a bummer, i think a lot of my work will be in convincing the people that they don´t need a gringo to tell them what to do (though I´m sure the past volunteers were clear on that as well). At this point I only have a few concerns: getting enough fruits and veggies (my counterpart is convinced he´s going to get me to eat meat...NOT HAPPENING, totally don´t need meat to survive there which would be the only reason for me to eat it), i don´t yet know where I´m going to live and i´m supposed to by now (they´re still working on it), feeling isolated since i´m surrounded by mountains and the road out is often very muddy/dangerous during the rainy season, mosquitos and the wonderful things they bring along, and the possibility of interesting political happenings in May (though don´t believe what you read, the campo is way tranquilo, not violent).
Oh and the cruceño accent kinda makes me feel like i haven´t gotten anywhere with my spanish. they talk fast and different, without ¨s¨ and seem to me like they´re mixing up their tenses and conjugations funny...but hey what do i know right? they said i speak well, which is funny because i felt like the whole 4 days in site i just kind of did a nervous laugh, except when it was important, in which case i would ask for a repeat, and get the same speed and same words...so THEN i´d do the nervous laugh. everyone also thinks i´m going to bring someone from the village back to the U.S. (since another girl volunteer did). doubtful...and kind of annoying when that´s the second thing anyone says to me.
Sorry no pictures, i felt kinda awkward being unknown around town...i didn´t want to be all gringo with my digital camera. I´ll work up to it. Kinda looks like my pictures from tech week.
Finally STOP BEING LAZY AND WRITE ME EMAILS ALREADY...or i´m going to stop writing blog entries and then you´ll have one angry mother (mine) to deal with. To all the strangers reading, you don´t really have to email me...just my lazy friends who i love and miss very much :).
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