Lost and Found in Bolivia

Chronicles of Rachel's Peace Corps service in Bolivia as an Agriculture Extension volunteer.  I hope not to get too lost during my 27 months, but I have a feeling I'm going to find some things.  Enjoy the stories!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

The New Deal, or how Everything changed so quickly






I got back from Santa Cruz on a Tuesday. I set up my new plastic shelves, arranged my stuff, and felt like my situation and outlook were a lot better. The next day, Wednesday, I got my kitten (more about that later). Wednesday night I was informed, not by my host family, but by a niece, that I had to move out the next day. I had no choice. She said she had just spoken to her aunt (my host mother) who is in the city, and apparently the son is coming from Spain to stay (not today, but sometime in the future, we’ll see just how urgent this was), so they needed my room. A week later, I haven’t seen any evidence that the son has arrived, I really can’t be sure what the real motivation for me getting kicked out was, it’s not always the case that people are straightforward and honest here, it’s just a cultural thing. Perhaps that excuse was a neutral way of having me leave, when the reason was something that would have upset me. It frustrated me a lot to have no choice and to feel like I wasn’t getting the straight story. However, I saw the niece the other day, and she seemed like she had perhaps orchestrated a lot of it for my benefit (she said my rent had been too high, and asked if I was happier). And I am happier, now living in the big house with my friend and the 6 kids. I feel more comfortable because the house itself is more comfortable, with a big kitchen in which I have been experimenting and baking bread, etc. The whole place is indoors, so it just feels more like a home. Plus mealtimes, although I do get frustrated/annoyed with the constant fascination and questions from the kids (kids will be kids though, it’s my problem, not theirs), are more fun, since there is a lot more talking, and the chance to “culturally exchange” and because I feel like I’m doing more than trying to finish my food as quickly as possible so I can go back to my room.


An on-a-whim recipe with vegetables seemed so good to all the kids (who constantly ask me if my food tastes good, which seems obvious to me since I made it and I wouldn’t make something that I didn’t like), that the next day they ate that for lunch. It had enough Bolivian-ness (the vegetables were cooked inside something, there was a bread component and a fried component) and a healthy aspect (it’s full of vegetables) that it was a huge success for all involved. The “recipe” if you could call it that, follows at the end of this blog entry.

I also feel like I have been “working” more, though I still have a lot to learn before I could possibly write my diagnostic assessment or plan a project. I learned of a meeting of agriculturalists, so I went. Man, that was a long confusing meeting, but I had sort of expected it to be that way (though had hoped for the opposite). Although they were the potato growers, I was glad to be introduced to a group, and I got to explain that I wanted to learn about all the agricultural activities in the community. The response was positive, they agreed to invite me to all their meetings, though I do want to have my own meeting (because adding an hour of activities to an already 3-hour long meeting does not appeal to me). I tried to use some of our “participatory community assessment tools” (like drawing community maps and using the omissions and inclusions to draw conclusions about the particular group) with the third, fourth, and fifth graders, with limited success—but I had figured they were a little young to really do that activity. In short, behavior was a big issue, though I was reassured that the kids aren’t always much better for their normal teachers. Like, some just refused to do the activity (I tried to explain that it wasn’t optional, that didn’t mean much to them though), others were wrestling, some were sneaking out of class, etc. I’ve strangely lost my ability to really raise my voice (at least in Spanish)…which didn’t make things easier. I counted a small success with the 3rd graders however. I asked them to draw all the things they thought they should eat in a day, and how many times. Turned out that was a good way to see that they don’t really have an understanding of what they do eat every day (since some put down you should eat this thing 10 times a day, this thing 5 times, etc.). We definitely will be doing some food groups/basic nutrition work in that and other grades. Then I decided the time had come to talk to the directors of the intermediate and high schools. That went very well, since they actually teach agriculture starting from 7th grade. The director of the middle school is totally on board (the high school director was out of town), she wants to expand the amount of vegetables they grow, as does the agriculture teacher. They want to do a small terraced area, so hopefully I can invite one of my natural resources buddies to do a tech exchange, since they learned all about terracing. I’ll be observing a class/activity about germination tomorrow. I made it clear that I want to help, but not distract the class (good luck!) or substitute teach. We are also hoping to start a compost pile. I’m thinking of making it into a competition. As much as I hate having a prize be the motivation for the sort of thing which I think should be done for its intrinsic goodness, I’m making concessions since this is Bolivia, and you have to work differently to get stuff done.

So I guess one of my bigger work frustrations recently is that I’m learning that university students and government organizations come out here for like, a half a day, order people around to get them to do something without telling them WHY, and at the same time do things FOR people (i.e. plant some trees or build a compost pile) without giving them knowledge or understanding of how or why the community should continue it. For example, they planted banana palms, but we’re coming up on a season where we get frosts, which is why we don’t have tropical fruit trees here. Another example: someone came to look at the worm compost well, gave the market a compost trashcan for food peels, and then I was ordered to empty the bin into the well every three days. I’m pretty sure that worm well has no worms in it any more. I want to ask them, “oh, so you’ve learned sufficiently about this community and their needs and wants, and that’s why you’re doing this? Oh, no? You’re just doing it to say you did it? Ah I see.” So this sort of work is really getting in the way of me doing anything, since it’s like, oh the ingeniero (engineer) from the university is coming next week to do that thing that you would like to do for your 2-year project. But they’re coming for a day to do it poorly and without context, to tell YOU what to do, and then you’ll have to deal with the fact that they don’t have any idea about the community and all the community leaders will listen to them and not you, and think you agree with this plan and that you’ll carry it out fully. In short, I’m having trouble fitting a much slower, thorough approach to development in with a system that appreciates rapid, visible and not necessarily correct or sustainable changes to a community.

Ok, what you all really want to know about is my kitten. Her name is Dracula. I originally thought it was a boy, but in a week she’s grown sufficiently that I actually think I can tell she’s a girl, and the name fits perfectly regardless. She has huge ears, and likes to creep around at night with her eyes all dialated, giving her a very vampiric/batlike appearance. Plus, how awesome is that name?!? She’s often very cute, very affectionate, but I realized I have no idea how to deal with a kitten of 2 months (all my cats were received upwards of 6 months of age). She meows a lot, it’s as if she wants to tell me about things. She eats a lot, and I feed her as much as she wants, since she came to me dirty and underfed (not the owners’ fault, they just really couldn’t take care of kittens…one day spaying/neutering will be seen as a good thing here). She sleeps curled up next to me, which is great but since I move a lot in my sleep, I am worried I’ll crush her. And then we have what I call “crazy hour”…which can be entertaining or REALLY annoying, depending on what I’m trying to do. I guess at this age, kittens think everything is something to be pounced on. She runs around the room, pouncing on air, my shoes, my sheets, pillows, whatever is in my hands, and me (especially my hair…ouch). She also chews and scratches any cardboard, wood, or cloth surface. She cannot be stopped. So at 2am, when she wakes up and wants to protect me from the evils of my own feet, I just have to wait until she gets so tired that she wants to sleep again. This can be like, an hour long thing…if anyone has tips about crazy kitten syndrome, I’d be glad to hear them because I’m losing a lot of sleep. DO NOT SEND CATNIP, she does not need it. Good news is that she took to her sand-bin litter box very quickly, only had 2 or 3 incidents of her forgetting where it was. The other issue is the fleas. I’m sure she’s too young to use flea products on, so I have just been trying to comb out the fleas as I see them. I have bites EVERYWHERE, it’s gross and very itchy. However, with the frustrations of the past week (university “engineers,” moving, 6 very curious kids), I’ve been glad to have her unconditional love, and of course the protection from all the evils that my room possesses.
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Here’s the recipe for Panqueques de Verduras:

Grate or chop finely a selection of the following vegetables:
Eggplant, spinach, swiss chard, carrots, green peppers, garlic, onion (I also see this working well with zucchini and anything else that cooks fairly rapidly, experiment away!)

Eyeball the amount of flour you will need for a pancake-like batter to cover these vegetables thinly. Mix this flour, in a separate bowl, with a proportionate amount of baking powder, salt, egg(s), and milk. Add in spices and/or ground pepper. It should be like pancake batter—but the science isn’t exact. Look in any cookbook for a real pancake batter, and just omit the sweet ingredients, if you don’t do well with approximations.

Mix the pancake batter into the veggies.

Heat a small amount (or a lot, if you want to do more Bolivian style) of cooking oil in a skillet. Have a plate with paper towels ready, for putting the finished pancakes on.

Drop large tablespoons of the veggie batter in the oil, spreading out the veggies to an even (but still fairly thick) layer. Cook as you would cook pancakes, flipping when the batter appears dry around the edge of the pancake. You choose how browned to make them—crispy and soft are both delicious, though this is also a function of how much oil you are using. Note that these will take longer to cook than regular pancakes, and you should test your timing to make sure the veggies are softened/cooked through).

I served with soy sauce, but I imagine sour cream or yogurt would be excellent choices as well.
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Sunday, May 11, 2008

announcement about mail.

Hey all, strangers friends and family!  Thanks for reading thus far.  To those who are of the package-sending persuasion and remember that it's my birthday on June 14th, I'd let you know that you could probably send something larger than a padded envelope, but still not very heavy (4 lbs or less) and with a low or zero value.  That's just to ya know, give you more flexibility if you are so inclined to send something.  As always, I appreciate emails, blog comments, and letters very much, but I know some people LIKE to send packages (hi mom!).  Check the the left side column for all sending info (and be warned, it is expensive to send stuff to here, another reason why I don't expect anything!).

My Site, or, things I know now that I couldn’t have possibly known before

Last Tuesday I found myself in a nearby community, knowing nobody except 3 people I had met about 2 hours prior while doing a little “work”, and having wait 4 hours (more likely more) til the bus back to my town rolled back through.  Well, this community was only 12km from my town, with a clear dirt “highway” back.  So, I thought, why not walk back?  It’s not raining, and it is virtually impossible to get lost.  The people I was with were not to happy about the idea of my walking that far alone, but eventually told me that there was an alternate route that was not as long.  I just had to…find it.  There was a good chance I could end up in a completely different town, if I took the wrong road off the highway.  I had a very sketchy map drawn (by somebody who didn’t know that the US was North of Bolivia…not that I blame him or judge him for that, but maybe wasn’t the best person to get to draw a map).  I went on my way after basically being forced to lunch (I’ve gotten good at explaining that I don’t eat meat).  I hadn’t understood 2 of the 3 words for the important landmarks to look for, but weirdly, I wasn’t worried.  Me, not worried.  HOW MUCH HAVE I CHANGED???  A lot!  I had figured the shortcut was like, half a km up the road, but I didn’t see what I thought I was looking for (literally, a fork in the road where I would have to take the path less taken).  After about 4km (they have km markers!) I was hoping it had been more like, 8.  Then I saw I had only gone 5.  My legs were killing me, the sun was beating down, I had some water and fruit, but I did not want to keep going.  Then I rounded a switchback, and I found exactly the divergent paths I was looking for.  I had been looking for something that barely looked like a path, according to my map-drawer.  With much hesitation to leave the obvious highway, I descended into this amazing trail through lush mountain vegetation.  For a long time, I couldn’t be sure whether this path was really going to my town, but then I came upon a beautiful clearing, and I saw my town waaaay in the distance.  I made it home, on nothing more than my faith in a sunny afternoon and my once-strong lungs and legs!  So, what did I not know before?  That I can do something like find my way around on vague Spanish instructions and a little ambition.  I told this personal victory story first to set the stage that, although the next part of this entry is going to sound like I’m not having optimal experience, I am so happy to be here and learning about my own abilities, even if it’s not always obvious what I’m doing here on the side of a mountain in Bolivia.

 

So as you can read about my first day here, I got here.  My bed did get set up ok, but oh no, that mattress.  I wish I had made that a splurge purchase…because mine is hard as a rock, after 2.5 weeks of sleeping now has a huge depression in the middle where I sleep.  Oh and although it was wrapped in plastic when I bought it, I’m pretty sure it had fleas.  Entire sections of my body are covered in little red dots.  Who could have guessed that fleas itch so much, now I feel really bad for all the animals of the world without flea medication.  I put the mattress in the sun for a day, seemed to have taken care of that problem, but it’s still realllly uncomfortable.

 

I haven’t really gotten down a set routine with work or anything.  This is what is making my life frustrating.  You all know how I can’t stand feeling lazy…But I’m having trouble making much headway with my counterparts at the mayor’s office.  I was hoping I’d be able to sit down with them and ask questions and get answers, but it’s not the case.  My main work partner is rarely at the office, often away in Santa Cruz.  And the others are really busy, and they do try to be helpful but without knowing what I need help with.  I don’t hang around the office too much, it feels pretty awkward, and it seems that I just need to stop in every now and then.  For a while they were focused on when I was going to meet the leaders of the fruit growers, so we didn’t get into much else.  Then they sent me, essentially by myself, to that other community last Tuesday to meet the president and vice president of the fruit growers.  However, neither was in town, but I did meet with a member of the association anyways.  I have had success sharing ideas with the director of the elementary school, however.  I’m going to be doing some “diagnostic assessment work” next week with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders.  Honestly, I don’t know how much information about the agriculture or way of life of the town I’m going to get from the children, but some busy work is definitely better than nothing for me.  Plus, the director really supports me, it’s good to have that ally and prove that I want to and can work.  They have a small greenhouse and some land, and it’s kind of nice that I am not supposed to intervene too much in the first 3 months, because I can just observe what current practices are.  I also plan to work with the older grades of school, as many of them work after school (school is only in the mornings) and probably have some relevant information.  My goal for the next couple of weeks is to track down some information about community groups or community meetings, so I can schedule meetings to get some basic information.  It’s definitely not a BAD situation, but I just like to have more direction or focus.  I’ve only been around my site for 2.5 weeks though, I am trying to keep that in mind.

 

The vegetable situation improved after about a week, now there is a greater variety in the market than carrots, onions and tomatoes.  I’ve figured out how to cook this wonderful pumpkin-like squash called zapallo.  Yum!  I am also now an expert in cooking dry beans…the secret is to soak them overnight.  However, now that I’m in the city buying more supplies, I plan on getting a pressure cooker to save time (not that I don’t have an abundance of it for cooking).

 

I have a good friend in a 30-year old woman who takes care of 5 orphans and her son (kind of a long story, but there was a missionary family who started an orphanage project, now they’re back in the U.S. for a while).  I love going over to their house, built by the missionary family, with a big U.S. type kitchen (we made brownies one day, and NOT in an adobe oven!), an English-speaking dog, plus all the kids and my friend.  The children are so sweet and fun, even when they get annoyed that I can’t always understand their Spanish.  We play volleyball and just hang out.  The best part about the volleyball is that I don’t have to be any good to play, we’re all just learning!

My town has: a few stores to buy cookies and dry goods, lots of meat, occasionally vegetables available (I’ve made a point of knowing the name of the woman who sells them), pretty creeks, lots of dogs, chickens, cows, mud, 2 phones in the plaza that don’t work too well for most phone numbers that I need to call (i.e. the Peace Corps toll-free numbers that we are required to call at times), diverse weather (sometimes cold and rainy, sometimes sunny and warm), and many opportunities.

 

I want to spend less time reading books and watching The Office/DVDs on my computer (however, feel free to send along DVDs and books in English or Spanish…I’m just saying I want to not spend all day reading a book).  My difficulty is in understanding the different social activities.  Like basically just sitting, or watching TV or a baby or some kids do something.  But, I never imagined I could be satisfied with the pace of life I have right now, so I’m sure in time I will also learn to enjoy these simpler activities.

 

I want to reassure you all that I’m doing well, learning a lot, and starting do development work-related activities.  So, all in all, despite the hardships (or maybe because of them and what they’re teaching me?) my life rocks for me right now!

 

Congratulations Nik, Nick (and other former residents of the Tube), Chenilicious, and the rest of my buddies in Cornell Class of ’08!  Enjoy senior week, graduation, and the shock about the reality of your life that follows!

 

Congratulations to the rest of you for reading the whole discombobulated (yes that’s the proper spelling) blog entry again.  I’m not even going to promise anything better next time, since my visits to the internet will be basically once or twice a month, I’m guessing.

Day of Arrival in Site (23 April 2008)

Weird.  Absolutely weird.  I arrived in site a bit nervous, but not really thinking about what was about to be.  And that is, that I was about to LIVE here, ALONE, without another volunteer or anything that reminds me of myself (in a certain way anyways).  I’m writing this more for posterity of my feelings, because by the time it gets published, things will have undoubtedly changed from now.  I got to my site with a combined 11 boxes and bags, a bed frame, and a mattress that had been strapped to the top of my bus.  I had hoped, but certainly not expected, that there would be someone waiting for me at the bus station.  However, they didn’t know what day I was arriving (my host family was quick to tell me that they had expected me yesterday…which doesn’t make sense since that is not any more logical than today to arrive).  I did know kind of where I was living, so I asked around to be sure where I was going, and luckily the family was there.  The dad helped me wheelbarrow my stuff down the street.  THAT wasn’t like the town’s evening entertainment…I guess everyone knows I’m here now.  The first thing we tried to do was set up my bed.  How frustrating!  It comes in pieces: headboard, footboard, sides and a wooden slatted support for the mattress.  Well, silly north American that I am, I didn’t have the people at the store put it together for me to show me that it all fit together right.  We could fit the pieces in just ok, pretty crudely, but there was no way we were able to screw them together (or…hammer in screws that don’t even have a place for a screwdriver to fit) in the pre-drilled holes that didn’t line up.  Off to find the carpenter my host man (I hesitate to say father, I don’t feel that close to him and not sure if I will eventually) went.  Not in the pueblo tonight, so I’m going to sleep on a different bed not in my room, with the damn travel mosquito tent (“oh we don’t have mosquitos here”…false) and the sleeping bag.  The house here is more humble, though there is running water, light, electricity, hot shower…and a bidet?  I think that’s what it is, I’m not that eager to try it though.  Odd thing to find in rural Bolivia though.  The house is laid out more traditionally, with indoor rooms opening onto an outdoor central space.  It feels a little less private.  My host family is quite different from my Cochabamba family, more reserved and quiet, and smaller.  Still nice though, though there’s clearly more of a male-dominated feel to it.  There is one daughter who is here sometimes, other times in Santa Cruz.  The other daughter is in Santa Cruz more often, and the oldest, a son, works in a hotel in Spain.  I think the dad is a teacher in the school.  The mom and daughter run the small sundries store out of the front of the house.  They want to start a garden, after they clear all the junk out of what would otherwise be a backyard.  I reacted enthusiastically to that, after hearing that it’s pretty hard to obtain vegetables anywhere but the CITY of Santa Cruz…7 hours away.  So I’m feeling right now: unsure about my next step, but definitely relieved to be here and starting the next part.