Stages of a Computer Center

Here are some pictures of my computer project. I will have more once the computers are installed.

Bolivia Map

Here are some photos from the map of Bolivia that I painted with the help of a fellow volunteer (Erica) in my site.

Carnaval Chapaco

Hotel where costume party was held

In the campo

Kids dancing the Chacarera

There is only one way to describe Carnaval in Bolivia and it involves getting very wet. I spent this Carnaval in Tarija and I have to say it was the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here. The first night (Thursday) was spent watching the Comadres (madres means mothers) parade which was a parade that only includes women and I believe is only held in the department of Tarija. Women are made comadres if they are very good friends with another woman or if they are involved in the family, such as a godmother. The tradition for comadres is that one woman will give another woman (her comadre) a comadres basket which includes balloons, confetti, bell peppers, cucumbers, “sweet bread” or pan dulce as they call it here which is really just baked bread that is licorice flavored and candy. Once one woman is made a comadre it is her turn the following year to give the same woman who made her a comadre another basket. I’m sure that rule isn’t always followed by everyone because everyone likes to give and receive baskets on comadres. When the women dance in the Comadres parade many of them carry the comadres baskets. There is also a day for the men, Compadres, but it’s def. not as popular as the one for the women- sorry guys. I am also told that the women receive bell peppers and cucumbers in their baskets while the men receive squash because these vegetables are supposed to represent the female and male anatomy which I think is pretty funny. Ok so after Comadres there was the regular parade where everyone throws balloons and buckets of water on people. My friends and I got in a great espuma or foam fight where we all nailed each other in the faces. I had a lot of fun walking around and spraying little kids in the face who got me all wet. One of the pictures I put up was later in the afternoon when Willy and I went by the plaza and if you can’t tell the plaza is def. not normally that wet. Someone had managed to open up an underground water pipe and there was a stream of water rushing into the air and getting everyone wet. Of course there were also people running around with water guns, more balloons and buckets of water too SO unless you wanted to stay dry you’d have to stay far away from that plaza. So after getting wet for 2 days I made it to a dry costume party being hosted by one of the nicer hotels here in Tarija. The party cost a little over 20 dollars to attend but there was an open bar and food around 3 in the morning. They gave us Saice which is a traditional Tarijeño dish consisting of ground beef, chopped potatoes and peas in a spicy sauce served over rice and accompanied by salad. I had very little time to put together a costume but as you can see I found a purple wig and Willy bought a mask. I had a great time at the party hanging out with some PC friends and some of Willy’s friends who had come down to Tarija from La Paz as well. After the weekend I went out to the campo (the country) to a small town called Canis Moro where there were more people getting each other wet and there was an outdoor party. I went with some PC people and some Argentinean people who are friends with one of my friends. I had a great time out there in the campo and came home a little wet (again). On one of the final days of Carnaval I had a more relaxing time and went to the pool with Willy and his friends. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to the pool and def. not in the month of February so that was a lot of fun. All and all I had a great Carnaval mainly due to the fact that is was hot and that made it more fun to get wet and engage in water and foam fights with people. It was also great walking around with a group of people and hanging out with good friends. I can’t wait until Carnaval comes around again next year of course by then I hope to be in Brazil!

Wow, I know it has been a long time since I wrote on my blog, which makes it even harder to decide where to begin. Things had been going slowly for the first few months and then all of a sudden I had to go to IST (4 moth re-connect with my group) in Cochabamba for 2 weeks. It was really great seeing all my friends again and hearing about how they are doing in their sites. Everyone had to make a 10 min. presentation with their work partners about their sites. Then we had our PDW (Project Design Workshop) where we learned the early steps for how to start up a project in our community. We will also have another PDW somewhere down the line again in Cochabamba. After IST I went for 1 day to La Paz to go to a friend’s wedding. The wedding was the nicest out of the 4 that I have been to so far. I went to 3 last time I was here but this one obviously had more money invested in it. Moving along, I then came back to Tarija for 2 weeks and then I took my first vacation. I went to La Paz for Christmas and New Years. I spent Christmas with Willy’s family and New Years with a stomach ache (all better now though). So I didn’t have the greatest New Years but at least I got to see some fireworks. It was just nice to have the chance to get out of my site for a bit especially since nothing is really going on there right now due to school vacation. The most exciting thing I have to look forward to is what they call a campeonato (aka sports tournament) that is coming up this weekend and I think lasts a week until next weekend but the big game days are this and next Sunday. I went to my town meeting which by the way is usually 3 hours long and that night happened to be 5 hours because they were planning for the tournament. Anyway at the meeting I somehow got asked to help sell food tickets so that is what I will be doing on Sunday. I think this is what the last volunteer did when she was there so I though that was funny they wanted me to do the same thing but at the same time at least I felt included in the community planning of a big event. After 5 hours in the meeting room they still hadn’t finished planning but called it quits for the night. In other news I will be trying to paint a mural of Bolivia for my school. With or without the kids is still to be determined since they might be really crazy and make a mess. I am thinking of having them paint the background and then I will do the actual map part and they can fill in areas if they want. The school already has a map painted of the world from the last volunteer so my work partner wants me to do the other wall with a map of Bolivia. Ok, so I guess the next blog update will be after the tournament and I hope to have some more pictures from my site. Sorry it took so long to update but I was out of town and outta the loop for about a month there. Later!

Bolivian Cultural Dances

I was in the city this weekend and there was a parade full of dances including the Chacarera (from Tarija) which is one of my favorite dances. I was able to take videos of some of the dances which I am going to try and upload. If they work I will be so happy you can enjoy in these wonderful dances! Now you will actually be able to SEE what I am talking about. In other news, things are wrapping up in my site since the school year is coming to an end. I am planning a halloween party for the kids so that should be fun. Thanksgiving PC style is also coming up and there will be a party in the city for all the volunteers. My re-connect is also coming up in November where I will be going back to Cochabamba to meet up with my whole group. I am very much looking forward to November! Oops, camera died trying to upload video. Next time!

Up the mountain we go!

This is San Fransisco

At the start of the climb

So in my last entry I think I said I would talk about how the Artesania fair went. The fair is held each year in a different town and all of the towns in the area come out to showcase their artesania work. Some towns are off the paved highway between Tarija and Bermejo, aka my site BUT some of the more rural towns are in the mountains. This year the fair was being held in San Fransisco- a very rural town 3 hours into the mountians. So last weekend I had to hike up a mountain for 3 hours before getting to San Fransisco where the fair was being held.This basically meant that the women in La Merced’s women’s group were also hiking and carrying everything (their artesania work and food to sell at the fair) on their backs over the mountains for 3 hours. Every time I would hike up a steep hill I thought it would end, but it did not. The mountains went on forever until I was very sweaty and out of breath. Coming back down was not that much easier because after awhile it does hurt on the knees. In the end I am glad I climbed that mountain because it gave me a greater appreciation of where I live and made me respect the people who live out there even more. Not to mention that there are people who live even further out there after San Fransisco. Anyway, getting back to the fair...my friend Hannah hiked up the mountain with me and we participated in a dance with my women’s group. Our costume consisted of a sheet that was pinned up by the shoulders. In the pictures I am putting up of us my counterpart is the woman on the left of me. So the day consisted of setting up the display of the women’s artesania work in the morning and later on the judges came around to ask questions to all the groups who were displaying work. From what I heard the judging consited of the number of works women were showing, how long they took to make and if they were hand made or machine made. In the afternoon some people presented some short skits or role plays, followed by the dances. So that's about it for the fair. I am also including a picture of me and my student from one of the lower grades. She is a very sweet girl and is always trying to play with me. The picture with her is one of my favorites. In the end the whole experience was wonderful and made me feel even more connected to my women’s group and community.

Hello People! Things are still going well in my site. I am still helping out at the school and my friend from a nearby site came to visit me the other day so I now have some pictures of me in action. In the pictures I am working with the younger kids at the school and we are doing a race where they have to match up the correct pictures of different types of foods to their nutritional groups. We played the game a few times because it always takes repetition before they really understand. We have been working on the same general theme of the basic food groups for the past few weeks now. I just have to figure out a new way of presenting the material every class. The older kids are showing some progress but it does take a lot of repetition. Even though there are only 3 food groups in Bolivia, (they have a different system than the states) the kids still have a hard time remembering what types of food are actually in each group. Aside from school stuff I also had my first “practice” with my women’s group for a dance we are going to be doing at an Artesania festival coming up in 2 weeks. The dance is very simple and the women have only been talking about practicing it for the past 3 weeks. Generally meetings start 30 mins. late which is pretty good for Bolivia. There are volunteers who have said they waited 1-5 hours for some meetings to start but the women in my community are pretty good. What I found funny was that on the day we FINALLY started dancing there were probably only 3 women from my community in attendance. So my friend and I are going to be dancing (she was visiting that day) as well as one of the nurses in training from the health post who is from La Paz. See all doctors and nurses have to do some practice in the campo (for very little money) before they go back for some more school and finish. It’s sort of like a service they do for their country before becoming real doctors and nurses and it’s almost like volunteering since they don’t get paid much. Anyways, the point of me saying this is that the nurse who is doing the dance just arrived in my community so already half of the members doing it will be sorta like outsiders. It’s ok though, I am glad I have something new to do now for the next couple of weeks. Oh and also the place where this Artesania fair is going to be held is in another town I believe is called San Fransisco and to get there the women from the group walk something like 3 hours up a mountain and possibly at night. SO this means I will be walking up a mountain in a couple of weeks. It’s an interesting way to integrate myself but I think it will be really good. I am also glad I have been getting to know more about the other communities near me. I think it’s great that when an event is going on somewhere everyone from nearby towns always seems to know and some people decide to go and celebrate. This weekend I am supposed to go to Entre Rios which is another town a bit further away for what I believe will be another tournament. I have been wanting to go there because I hear it is very nice. On a final and total random note, one of the girls from my classes came to visit me last weekend. She just showed up at my door after lunch. I was in the middle of reading so she came in and I gave her some hot chocolate. We ended up playing chess (yes, she actually knew more or less how to play) and even though I could have won like a million times I kept helping her out with her moves and telling her where to go. I know I am no master chess champion but somehow I still managed to help out a little Bolivian with her game. We also played pick up sticks which she kept winning so that was fun. I also had to make my lunch so I did and offered her some. She asked me where are the potatoes? I thought that was very funny and I just started laughing. Well that is my random story for now. Of course a few days later I get a knock on my door at 8AM (this NEVER happens) and I look outside and the same girl and her friend are standing there. They wanted to make sure I was coming to school. That had to be like the cutest thing ever. PC always warned us that at the beginning a lot of kids might always be around our house but in my site I have total privacy and no kids did that at all so this is a first for me but I think it's nice they feel more comfortable coming to talk to me now instead of just staring at me which is what PC was talking about when you first arrive at your site. Ok so that's it for now. I am having a good time getting to know more of the kids at my site and will be back with more stories as they come.