Sites!

Well I’m back again and this time with some exciting news. Yesterday in our afternoon session of Tech. training we were given the list of sites where all the Integrated Ed. Volunteers will be going! It is a list of 14 places that includes info about where the regional office is for each place, type of work we might do there, climate, indigenous languages spoken (if any) and types of communication available at each site. It would probably be better if I DID NOT list each site here just for security purposes of PC and the volunteers in my group but I can at least say where the regional offices are. There are three sites whose regional office is in Cochabamba, one in Sucre, three in Tarija and the rest are in Santa Cruz. So the most sites are outside of Santa Cruz- where it’s hot. One of the sites overlaps with Basic Sanitation work but the rest are focused on Integrated Ed. I.E. work includes things such as health, HIV/AIDS, computers, teacher training, working with youth, women’s groups, nutrition, libraries etc. We have interviews next week where we are going to be able to discuss which sites we are most interested in. PC does a good job of taking our opinions into account which I really do appreciate. I am interested in going to Tarija because it is one of the regions I do not know at all and it is also on the border with Argentina which could be nice for possible travel later on. That’s it for the sites.

I thought you might also be interested in knowing more about what we’ve been doing in training. Well we finished our gardening unit and that is my garden in the picture above. Willy and his brother Mauricio came to my house and helped construct this massive fence around it. I say massive because originally PC gave us the idea to use sticks and the tape from inside cassettes for a fence- it apparently keeps the chickens and other unwanted animals away. Anyways, since my house has all sorts of animals I thought a real fence might be better but I didn’t think they would actually pull it off! Now I can only hope that some of my food grows! I bought cow manure/compost from next door to enrich the soil before planting. I planted peas, radish, green beans, parsley, cilantro, beets, habas- really big beans similar to lima beans, and pumpkin. I don’t think everything will grow BUT some of it should so that will be really cool.

After the gardening unit we have been working on education, non-formal education, how to lead workshops and domestic violence. We split into groups and each group will be doing a computer workshop and self-esteem workshop. My computer group is doing an advanced session on how to type letters- formal and non-formal depending on the level of our students. In the self-esteem group we are going to be doing some exercises from some self-esteem books- PC resource. These workshops are being implemented as part of our Tech. Weekend this weekend. We are going to visit a volunteer at his site in Tiraque where we will be giving the workshops to children/youth. I will be back with more updates after the weekend to say how the workshops went! Still staying happy and healthy : )

Love,

Alana

P.S. My address during training and for the next couple of months is:

Alana Liskov
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla 1603
Cochabamba, Bolivia
South America

Small packages may be sent here. If they are bigger I just have to go pick them up at the post office for a small fee.

It's my BLOG!

Plaza Bolivar in Quillacollo

Hello Familia and Friends! Well I am back in Bova=Bolivia once again writing what I hope is the start of many blog posts to come! I am having a great time so far and everyone in my group (B-45) is really nice. Most people are in their mid-20s plus we have 3 married couples so it's a good mix of people. We arrived in Cochabamba but quickly moved to our training/host family sites which are about 30 mins. to an hour outside of Cochabamba depending on what you take to get there and how long you might have to wait. Everyone is living in a little town outside of Quillacollo. I am in a section called Florida and am very close to the girls in my class and my friends-yes I already have some friends : ) I have Spanish class in the morning for 4 hours from 8:30-12:30 and Technical Training in the afternoon from 2:00-6:00. I am in the advanced language class and we are being given the opportunity to do projects in the city as well as learn another indigenous language over the next 3 months. It's a wonderful opportunity and I'm really looking forward to getting started. In Tech. training I am with the group of Integrated Education volunteers and we are all learning to plant gardens. We are going to be planting our own gardens in our back yards. It's an activity that is supposed to get the whole family involved as well as training volunteers on how to grow food. I spent 2 hours today digging up dirt but that is just the beginning. I'm gonna be working on it more tomorrow and of course over the next 3 months. Each day is pretty tiring but it goes by fast so I must be enjoying it! My host family is very nice. I live with a couple in their 40s, their daughter who is 15 but will be 16 soon and a little brother who is 3. Every family has animals and mine has cats (one is blind), dogs (one has a HUGE tumor between it's legs-scary!), a parrot (he speaks Quechua!), chickens, ducks and guinea pigs. They eat the guinea pigs here but I think my family sells most of theirs. My room is very nice (tile floor) and I have a flush toilet and shower (also tile) so I have a pretty nice set up! I am very happy and not sick...yet. Well that about wraps up my first post. I hope my pictures come out!

Love,

Alana