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.