OK, yes there is SO much catching up to do it’s not even funny. I have been so crazy busy since swearing-in that it’s all going by like a blur. Last time I wrote I think I said I would talk about my site visit so let’s start from there. I had a really good site visit! My site is among the mountains and lies about 1.5-2 hours outside of the city of Tarija. The name of my town is called La Merced and I am nearby 3 other volunteers so I am very happy about that. There are a whole bunch of fruit trees in my site: organges, madarins, peaches (apparently there is a whole peach season) oh and avocadoes. There is a small 2 room school house that I will most likely be doing a lot of work in with children who are elementary-middle school ages- more to come on that. My work partners are 2 women who are very nice. One is a teacher at the school and the other is the head of the Junta Escolar which I am told is sort of similar to the PTA in the states. Anyways I am super happy I got placed with women work partners beacuse I think it will make integration easier and just an overall more confortable work setup for me. During my site visit I was in the city of Tarija for a few days and then spent a few nights at my site. I mainly hung out with my work partner’s daughters (19 and 13) and they showed me around the town. It’s a SMALL place of about 230 people and something like 50 families. Now that her girls are grown up they go to school in the city. They told me they come home some weekends and that I would see them again. They showed me around their property and we took a small hike and I saw the mill that they use to help harvest the corn. We also walked across a hanging bridge or as I would like to call it: the bridge of death. It is basically a bunch of wood boards and some wire. I also got introduced to some people in the community so that was nice. I also visited my friend Hannah’s site (B-45) who is 10-15 mins. down the road from me as well as Susan (B-42) who is more like 20 mins. away from me. Chris (B-45) is 30-45 mins. away in the opposite direction. I like that I am away from the city but not too far and yet still have volunteers who are close to me. On the last day of my site visit baby pigs were born overnight and I got to hold them the next day! They were SO cute, and it’s probably the only time they will be cute so I was glad I was there for that. When we flew back to Cochabamba there was only like a week and half left of training but it felt like an eternity. The last few days at the training center were especially hard to sit through because we kept reviewing things we had gone over a million times. Then we got a bunch of forms we will probably need throughout our service and took our final exams. There was a handbook exam, safety exam, cultural exam and technical skills exam. Eveyrone passed and we all swore in last Friday. The swear-in was quick and with few speeches. A volunteer from B-45, Brandon, gave a speech about our group that was HILARIOUS. It was seriously one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. My friend recorded it on her camera. After the swear-in everyone went out in the city and got dressed up in costumes. The theme of the party was “people at a truck stop” but that turned into go as anything crazy you can think of. I went as my friend in the group and wore a lot of pink- something everyone should know I wouldn’t normally do. We also had people go as: a snake charmer, a sexy cholita, ravers, Hugh Hefner, Bolivian teenagers, a Wal-Mart cashier, cat robbers and the list goes on. So the last few days in Cochabamba were probably the most fun I’ve had all training! Then we all said our sad goodbyes as everyone left all over the country to go to their sites on Sunday. My flight left in the afternoon and I was in Tarija in an hour. So I am now in Tarija and moving into my site. It's been a few crazy days so far and we shall see how it continues to go with getting everything to my site.
martes, 31 de julio de 2007
Site Visit and Swear-In!
OK, yes there is SO much catching up to do it’s not even funny. I have been so crazy busy since swearing-in that it’s all going by like a blur. Last time I wrote I think I said I would talk about my site visit so let’s start from there. I had a really good site visit! My site is among the mountains and lies about 1.5-2 hours outside of the city of Tarija. The name of my town is called La Merced and I am nearby 3 other volunteers so I am very happy about that. There are a whole bunch of fruit trees in my site: organges, madarins, peaches (apparently there is a whole peach season) oh and avocadoes. There is a small 2 room school house that I will most likely be doing a lot of work in with children who are elementary-middle school ages- more to come on that. My work partners are 2 women who are very nice. One is a teacher at the school and the other is the head of the Junta Escolar which I am told is sort of similar to the PTA in the states. Anyways I am super happy I got placed with women work partners beacuse I think it will make integration easier and just an overall more confortable work setup for me. During my site visit I was in the city of Tarija for a few days and then spent a few nights at my site. I mainly hung out with my work partner’s daughters (19 and 13) and they showed me around the town. It’s a SMALL place of about 230 people and something like 50 families. Now that her girls are grown up they go to school in the city. They told me they come home some weekends and that I would see them again. They showed me around their property and we took a small hike and I saw the mill that they use to help harvest the corn. We also walked across a hanging bridge or as I would like to call it: the bridge of death. It is basically a bunch of wood boards and some wire. I also got introduced to some people in the community so that was nice. I also visited my friend Hannah’s site (B-45) who is 10-15 mins. down the road from me as well as Susan (B-42) who is more like 20 mins. away from me. Chris (B-45) is 30-45 mins. away in the opposite direction. I like that I am away from the city but not too far and yet still have volunteers who are close to me. On the last day of my site visit baby pigs were born overnight and I got to hold them the next day! They were SO cute, and it’s probably the only time they will be cute so I was glad I was there for that. When we flew back to Cochabamba there was only like a week and half left of training but it felt like an eternity. The last few days at the training center were especially hard to sit through because we kept reviewing things we had gone over a million times. Then we got a bunch of forms we will probably need throughout our service and took our final exams. There was a handbook exam, safety exam, cultural exam and technical skills exam. Eveyrone passed and we all swore in last Friday. The swear-in was quick and with few speeches. A volunteer from B-45, Brandon, gave a speech about our group that was HILARIOUS. It was seriously one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. My friend recorded it on her camera. After the swear-in everyone went out in the city and got dressed up in costumes. The theme of the party was “people at a truck stop” but that turned into go as anything crazy you can think of. I went as my friend in the group and wore a lot of pink- something everyone should know I wouldn’t normally do. We also had people go as: a snake charmer, a sexy cholita, ravers, Hugh Hefner, Bolivian teenagers, a Wal-Mart cashier, cat robbers and the list goes on. So the last few days in Cochabamba were probably the most fun I’ve had all training! Then we all said our sad goodbyes as everyone left all over the country to go to their sites on Sunday. My flight left in the afternoon and I was in Tarija in an hour. So I am now in Tarija and moving into my site. It's been a few crazy days so far and we shall see how it continues to go with getting everything to my site.
sábado, 14 de julio de 2007
Tech Week
Hey People! You need updates and I’m bad with blogging so let’s get to it. Tech Week was very similar to Tech Weekend but this time instead of being in Cochabamba we went to Santa Cruz to visit some sites. The bus ride took 11-12 hours to get to the city where we spent 1 night. The next day we went to a site called Concepcion which is about 5 hours outside the city. Conce (as everyone calls it) is a somewhat larger site and has all modern living necessities such as internet, calling centers, running water, electricity etc. We did a Teacher Taller or Workshop there with some teachers from Conce and surrounding communities. That lasted a few days where we talked about different learning styles of students and how to implement classroom activities to accommodate theses students. We made up lesson plans with the teachers and went and taught at the local elementary school. From Conce we went to visit 2 much smaller and more rural sites. Both do not have electricity and only one I think has running water. One of the sites is called El Carmen and the other San Miguelito Sur. In both sites we did health fairs where we talked about nutrition and hygiene. We spent a couple of nights in El Carmen in the library that was built by a couple of PCVs a few years back. We slept on mattresses on the floor and in our mosquito nets. Some people even slept outside. They only have latrines in these types of really rural sites and let me tell you if they are constructed weird (aka might be leaking) such as in one of the sites well then they become very not fun to use. I was very glad to get back to Conce where the bathroom was decent. As for the showers, they are cold, but they feel good. Everyone showered a lot on tech week, yay! When we got back to the city we went out one night with some of the SC volunteers to a salsa club. I had a great time getting to know people so that was chill. Then we headed back on the PC bus. I felt like the ride back took FOREVER but we made it! The Monday after tech week everyone found out their sites. I forgot to mention we had another interview about our site placement over tech week. Anyway, on Monday we had a big BBQ where we found out our sites. The sites were in these red clown noses (like balls) that were stuck cleverly inside a big PC Piñata. We broke open the piñata and everyone grabbed a random ball. We went one by one in the center of the circle to yell out the site of whoever we had in our hands. I actually had my own site! That’s when I found out I would be going to Tarija! I was so excited and it was so much fun. So now I know my site and it’s called La Merced. It’s about an hour an a half outside of the city and VERY close to other volunteers so I am very happy. This past week I have been here in Tarija on my site visit getting to know everything. I have so much to tell about the site visit but I will save it for my next blog and when I get back to Cochabamba. We are leaving tomorrow evening but I will be there in an hour since Tarija people get to FLY (sweet deal) because we are farther away aka Southern Bolivia. What I can say for now is that I had a great site visit and am very excited to start work there in a few weeks!!! Once we get back we swear-in in 2 weeks I just can’t believe it : )
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