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.