3.29.03
The aroma of burning eucalyptus
The stench of fermented corn which you think is cow food, but really is chicha
The beat of cumbia against the yapping dogs
The wafts of diesel air through my window every morning as the trucks are warming up
And the cheers from the site visit announcements
that’s right we have our sites! Woot! And the best part is that we had a semi relay race that involved blowing plastic cups along a piece of string tied between two chairs only to pick up a chocolate egg with someone’s name and site inside. Trembles of nervous energy were felt the whole day and once we all knew our sites we couldn’t stop talking about them even though all we really know are some descriptive words on a page.
So we leave for our sites this weekend. I am off on a flota to Sucre, the capitol city of the Chuquisaca region. My site, Pintantorilla is an estimated 30 minutes southwest of Sucre, though word on the street is the road is not so great, complete with a shaky bridge over a river. Maybe I will have good stories now about crossing a sketchy bridge just like you dad! We have a great group going to Chuquisaca, though dear Mishay is off to Tarija where the papaya surplus is thrown into the river. We dream of swimming in papaya someday.
Cuatro Esquinas is really getting torn apart, but all for the best since we will now have many opportunities for tech exchanges and visitas! So I guess I will have some pictures if I ever have the patience to let them load. Pepe, the Ag project director gave me a cd with a couple slideshows, one to Hotel California, totally rad. The school looks amazing and the kids though rarely smiling in pictures look to be having a good time. Seems like they enjoy singing and shows and they have made cabinets and wardrobes and welded and sewn and planted and grown and swum and played and laughed throughout. But that’s all to be seen with my own eyes.
You’d think the site announcements at the beginning of the week would make the remaining days last forever, but even in Bolivia, where time rarely factors in, the days continue to fly. Forced down what I’m pretty sure was some sort of feet, duck, cow…last night only to get spinach fritters for lunch today! We also toured the alpaca factory. Most relaxed factory I have seen and the speed and precision at which those ladies can knit is awesome. I found myself a nice little shawl blanket but some of the sweaters were out of this world pattern wise, not sure anyone could really rock them.
Securing the subjunctive in my language learning. Almost a mole moment, in which I totally could grasp the concept, but not quite. The rules and uses are of course easy, the application and repetition is what’s moving about as fast as a crowded micro on cobblestones. New teacher though and she is very patient and creative. We got to sing a song by Sui Genesis an Argentinean group from the 60’s we want to sing it for the host family party, which is a week after we get back from site visits and then we are in Coch for a few days and then that’s it. Training is over as reality sets in.
But before that we are to make our commitment statements and really make sure we are in the right place. So since that is overwhelming I think I will end here with hope.
Hope that traveling goes well for all of us and we can reaffirm our decision to be here.
Hope too that the wonderful things you all are doing in this moment are like tasty bits of fresh honey on soft chewy bread in the early morning of a fall day in Bolivia as the sun slowly melts the dew off the mountains.
Love in barrels in tons
Lebo
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
March 21, 2008
I missed St Patrick’s Day. Totally unintentional and loving the fact that I was so wrapped up in tech week that I forgot what day it was, but still a little embarrassed. So we semi celebrated our last night of tech week in Semaipata. Pepe, the project director for Ag bought us some sheep for dinner had them slow roasted over coals and we had a little wrap partay. I even danced, or tried to dance the Chacarera. The dance native of the
Semipata was our last stop during tech week. Beautiful town, semi touristic because of the oldest Incan ruins around and some lovely waterfalls, or so we hear. We were wrapped up with bee product transformation. We made lip balm, stamped wax used in bee hives and for those natural rolled candles, and a mixture of honey, pollen and royal jelly that like any bee product cures most illness and helps with anything and everything else you could thunk of. I am a bee junkie now, no turning back.
Most of tech week we worked with bees. In Villa Esperanza, with Armando, we made Nucleos which are smaller hives to produce queens and royal Jelly. So we learned how to make the beginings of queen cells, how to harvest royal jelly, and honey and how to collect propolis. the glue like substance that the bees use to repair the hive and control the temperature. Which we can use as a preservative. learned also that when eating larva, royal jelly and propolio a honey chaser is really the only way to make them semi tasty. The propolio miracle liquid is drops of 98% alcohol and propolio. It doesnt go down well nor does it taste good but it cures everything.
From Villa Esperanza we headed to Chilon, one of our sites, to meet the womens group that is very excited to have a volunteer to help them with their surplus peaches. We made jam and did a small talk on begining bees and cost of production for the jam.The group was so enthusiastic and like all mothers fed us extremely well many times over. And then we drove to a bigger town for sleeping and a few of us were lucky enough to hear from Just Ben (JB) of his animated film idea featuring a small bat, Andrew of course is along for the ride as long as he can use his moon system. Would you rather have a moon system or an imune system...think about it. I reccomend eating peanut butter s'mores while you think.
Villa Esperanza was set amidst the winding mountain roads and in less than a day we found ourselves driving through semi jungle and into chilons dry desert climate complete with towering cactus and dust. Chilon to Quirusillas, our next stop, was again quite the change in landscape. One night in Quirusillas after a playful figth with Tito over the last coco flavoured ice cream I found myself looking at the square surrounded by cyprus tress illluminated by the almost full moon drifting in and out of wispy clouds. Couldn't help but pretend I was in Van Gough's Starry Night!More bees here, still didn't really see any knees though. To wrapped up in capturing a ferral colony! We had to chop open the base of a tree, which I wasn't really on board with since it didn't seem right to destroy one living thin in order to reign in a bee colony, but we did it and then cut the combs out, attached them to frames and put them in the box only to wait two or so more hours to make sure the queen had been transfered. In the meantime we captured bees in bags and threw them into the box.
Quirusillas was lovely for many reasons the most important one for the warm cheesey salty sugary empanadas every morning. 1b each! (7 something b's to the doller) The valleys of
Really tech week was bomb. More confident with bees and products and my amigos here. We got lucky with the group, I am super grateful for that.
and for these
going halfses with Tito on steak and eggs
moon systems
having to climb down a ladder to get to the bathroom
mystery box, in spanish
brownies
bitter royal jelly
getting Don Roque dancing as he is driving the bus...so much happiness
gatos, dude, che
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Feb 12th 2008
My room is on a balcony very New Orleans style, long balcony with six rooms each with a window overlooking the courtyard. There is a long row of Eucalyptus trees behind the house bordering a stream/drainage for Tiquipaya, the town up the road. The balcony wraps around the corner and overlooks the street, one of the main drags in Cuatro Esquinas, Four Corners, my neighborhood. Through the balcony I can see if there are any of my fellow gringos wandering and say hello to the cows across the street.
All 31 of us have been placed in home stays about 20 minutes outside of Cochabamba in adjoining neighborhoods. Rachel lives next door, Michelle down the street and Garret, Meredith and Brandon round the corner a bit towards the mountains. We are in a valley so the mountains surround us and look divine round 6 or 7 when the sun is setting and casts and eerie yet warming glow on the topmost part while the rest is in cloud shadows. For all of us in B47 (47th group in Bolivia) we wake to four hours of Spanish class with no more than four people in a class. We meet at one of our houses and return home for lunch. The afternoon is then devoted to technical work. We usually meet in one of our houses and well, learn a lot!
As of now I have
nine spiral bound manuals on policy, health, women’s groups you name it,
four Spanish textbooks,
one cultural textbook,
one PACA book (participatory analysis for community action) to go along with our PDA (participatory diagnostic assessment)
Where there is no Doctor
Where there is no Dentist
And a huge binder full of articles on: vocab, conditions of agriculture in Bolivia, Gardening, pests and disease, conserving fruits and veggies, drying fruit, solar dryer construction, nutrition, beekeeping and Ag business.
Apparently this is only half of the materials we get…..
The Ag people have to make gardens, my group has it at my house, lucky but watering falls on me then. So we tilled 30 square meters mostly by hand on Sunday. Yesterday we planted a seed bed in our tech session in another groups garden. Added sand, manure, om (organic material) and planted. We even wove tape from a cassette through stakes above the bed to protect the seeds from birds. We have to plan our gardens in accordance with our PDA meaning we have to canvas the neighborhood and see what grows well, what sells, what’s needed, who grows what, who buys and when do they buy etc…We are also starting a community bank and have to market a product to sell, take out loans, pay interest all that. Overload of info but taking it as the Bolivians do there is always tomorrow to do things.
The group is of good spirits. Very varied and eclectic interests from all over the states. Big enough to have lots of friends and small enough to have closer friends and know everyone. Have met a good number of PVC’s already when they come into Coch from their sites which is nice because they are so helpful with questions. Seems like the Ag people will be in Santa Cruz, Tarija or the Chaco which means the down jacket is totally unnecessary except for when I visit the altiplano. Silk sleeping sack, though, best thing I could have brought, so cozy and functional, thanks ann!
Nos cheque
Lebo
March 8, 2008
Yes my blog, how fancy no?
Recap since so much has happened
Our garden is thriving! Especially the radishes and onions. Thanks to the rainy two weeks I haven’t had to water and the plantitas are loving it!
Our Queso de Paz (Peace Cheese) was quite the success. Andrew Marlise and I made queso fresco, basically a fresh cheese, simple flavor that we pressed in molds of pvc pipes and sold. We made 9 b’s profit. Took out a loan of 90, but only spent 60 so we still have to pay the ten percent interest on the 90. Sold the 12 cheeses for 7b’s a pop. Glad to have sold them all because though the consistency was primo, we lacked salt, a lot of salt, it really just tasted like molded milk, but it was soo good in the super protein salad another group made.
On Sunday Andrew Marlise and I have our PDA Charla. We discovered an interest in yoga among many of our sisters so we are combining Yoga classes with nutrition and exercise. So on Sunday we will have a basic Yoga class accompanied by Andrew on the guitar and after we are going to make smoothies to get people into fruits and milk.
Received our site descriptions on Wed. There are 15, 5 in each department, Santa Cruz, Chiquisaca and Tarija. I have my eyes on a sight in Chiquisaca in the municipality of Yotola. The site is Pitantorilla and it is a boarding school for high school dropouts who want to learn a trade. So they have carpentry and metal working and huge gardens with fruit trees and veggies and bees and ooo it would be sweet. I could probably have dance classes if I wanted! Surprisingly not that many people want it so I might have a good chance, though really any of the sites would be great. There is one in Tarija where they produce a surplus of papaya and end up throwing it in the river!!!!!! So the volunteer would be working on product transformation, imagine papaya all the time dried, juice, smoothies. Mom.
Mishay and Natalie and I signed up to do our tutoring in a university where the students want to hear native English speakers and then we can practice Spanish and meet some Bolivians who are our age. Going to make cookies with Alejandra my nine year old sister and then back into the city for a birthday celebration at the only sushi place in town. Brazilia Café, I guess it is Japanese Brazilian fusion???
Must catch the trufi now. Last wed I had to stand for 30 minutes with my back pressed against the ceiling in the crowded trufi. There were 25 people in one of those white vans….amazing.
My room is on a balcony very New Orleans style, long balcony with six rooms each with a window overlooking the courtyard. There is a long row of Eucalyptus trees behind the house bordering a stream/drainage for Tiquipaya, the town up the road. The balcony wraps around the corner and overlooks the street, one of the main drags in Cuatro Esquinas, Four Corners, my neighborhood. Through the balcony I can see if there are any of my fellow gringos wandering and say hello to the cows across the street.
All 31 of us have been placed in home stays about 20 minutes outside of Cochabamba in adjoining neighborhoods. Rachel lives next door, Michelle down the street and Garret, Meredith and Brandon round the corner a bit towards the mountains. We are in a valley so the mountains surround us and look divine round 6 or 7 when the sun is setting and casts and eerie yet warming glow on the topmost part while the rest is in cloud shadows. For all of us in B47 (47th group in Bolivia) we wake to four hours of Spanish class with no more than four people in a class. We meet at one of our houses and return home for lunch. The afternoon is then devoted to technical work. We usually meet in one of our houses and well, learn a lot!
As of now I have
nine spiral bound manuals on policy, health, women’s groups you name it,
four Spanish textbooks,
one cultural textbook,
one PACA book (participatory analysis for community action) to go along with our PDA (participatory diagnostic assessment)
Where there is no Doctor
Where there is no Dentist
And a huge binder full of articles on: vocab, conditions of agriculture in Bolivia, Gardening, pests and disease, conserving fruits and veggies, drying fruit, solar dryer construction, nutrition, beekeeping and Ag business.
Apparently this is only half of the materials we get…..
The Ag people have to make gardens, my group has it at my house, lucky but watering falls on me then. So we tilled 30 square meters mostly by hand on Sunday. Yesterday we planted a seed bed in our tech session in another groups garden. Added sand, manure, om (organic material) and planted. We even wove tape from a cassette through stakes above the bed to protect the seeds from birds. We have to plan our gardens in accordance with our PDA meaning we have to canvas the neighborhood and see what grows well, what sells, what’s needed, who grows what, who buys and when do they buy etc…We are also starting a community bank and have to market a product to sell, take out loans, pay interest all that. Overload of info but taking it as the Bolivians do there is always tomorrow to do things.
The group is of good spirits. Very varied and eclectic interests from all over the states. Big enough to have lots of friends and small enough to have closer friends and know everyone. Have met a good number of PVC’s already when they come into Coch from their sites which is nice because they are so helpful with questions. Seems like the Ag people will be in Santa Cruz, Tarija or the Chaco which means the down jacket is totally unnecessary except for when I visit the altiplano. Silk sleeping sack, though, best thing I could have brought, so cozy and functional, thanks ann!
Nos cheque
Lebo
March 8, 2008
Yes my blog, how fancy no?
Recap since so much has happened
Our garden is thriving! Especially the radishes and onions. Thanks to the rainy two weeks I haven’t had to water and the plantitas are loving it!
Our Queso de Paz (Peace Cheese) was quite the success. Andrew Marlise and I made queso fresco, basically a fresh cheese, simple flavor that we pressed in molds of pvc pipes and sold. We made 9 b’s profit. Took out a loan of 90, but only spent 60 so we still have to pay the ten percent interest on the 90. Sold the 12 cheeses for 7b’s a pop. Glad to have sold them all because though the consistency was primo, we lacked salt, a lot of salt, it really just tasted like molded milk, but it was soo good in the super protein salad another group made.
On Sunday Andrew Marlise and I have our PDA Charla. We discovered an interest in yoga among many of our sisters so we are combining Yoga classes with nutrition and exercise. So on Sunday we will have a basic Yoga class accompanied by Andrew on the guitar and after we are going to make smoothies to get people into fruits and milk.
Received our site descriptions on Wed. There are 15, 5 in each department, Santa Cruz, Chiquisaca and Tarija. I have my eyes on a sight in Chiquisaca in the municipality of Yotola. The site is Pitantorilla and it is a boarding school for high school dropouts who want to learn a trade. So they have carpentry and metal working and huge gardens with fruit trees and veggies and bees and ooo it would be sweet. I could probably have dance classes if I wanted! Surprisingly not that many people want it so I might have a good chance, though really any of the sites would be great. There is one in Tarija where they produce a surplus of papaya and end up throwing it in the river!!!!!! So the volunteer would be working on product transformation, imagine papaya all the time dried, juice, smoothies. Mom.
Mishay and Natalie and I signed up to do our tutoring in a university where the students want to hear native English speakers and then we can practice Spanish and meet some Bolivians who are our age. Going to make cookies with Alejandra my nine year old sister and then back into the city for a birthday celebration at the only sushi place in town. Brazilia Café, I guess it is Japanese Brazilian fusion???
Must catch the trufi now. Last wed I had to stand for 30 minutes with my back pressed against the ceiling in the crowded trufi. There were 25 people in one of those white vans….amazing.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
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