I think the mosquitoes here officially hate me. I sleep under my mosquito net every night and I still manage to wake up at least every other morning with new bites in places I’ve never been bitten before…such as: the top of my right hand, the side (under my pinky) of my left hand, my right heel, the toe next to my big toe on my left foot...thanks guys I really appreciate it.
Aside from a few new bug bites it was a fairly uneventful weekend. I made Bliss’ deep dish pizza recipe on Friday, with a few Bolivian modifications: pepperoni/Italian sausage doesn’t exist here, so I had to pick the least hot-dog-esq sausage to use for the pizza; they don’t believe in any spices (oregano, red pepper flakes, etc) so I had to settle for the “pizza seasoning” I found; and finally, the yeast packets here are not the same as the US and I had some issues with the bread rising, or I guess I should say, not rising. All in all thought it was pretty delicious and a great start to the weekend. We also had a few of the volunteers over to our apartment for a “party” (there were only six of us, so it wasn’t too much of a wild party) Friday night and called it an early night when everyone left around 1am.
Saturday I spent a few hours at the internet café and then a few hours reading in the park, overall a very uneventful day. Sunday I woke up early, made some rolls with the leftover flour and yeast from the pizza dough (still didn’t really rise – but still taste delicious), cleaned a bit, went for a run, helped Melissa set up Ancilla’s room (my third roommate comes on Tuesday), and then went out to the benches outside our house to read. As I was reading Fernando and a few other boys walked by on their way to go play futbol (soccer) and invited me to join – I insisted that I didn’t have the right shoes on (I was wearing my flipflops) but went to watch and hangout with them anyway. I ended up watching as they played 4 on 4 with a group of other boys who had been kicking a ball around at the canchita (field) until I felt a few raindrops – and seeing as I didn’t want to be soaking wet I pardoned myself and went home. Who knows if they’ll ever invite me to play soccer with them again, but next time I sit on the benches I’ll be sure to wear my sneakers.
Monday was a very interesting day at work because they changed up the mama’s in the Sala because, according to Albertina (the mama who stayed), they thought the kids were crying/acting out too much so they switched Paula (the other mama who used to work in Sala 1) with a mama from Sala 2. Apparently this doesn’t happen very often, unless a mama is on vacation so they switch up who works in what Sala then to make sure all the rooms are covered. While we were folding laundry Albertina was asking me if the kids cry for the other mama’s (which they do, but looking back on it not nearly as much as with Albertina and Paula). I have to agree with Albertina that two mama’s are definitely not enough for 23 kids, but Maribel and the other mama who work the opposite days don’t seem to have nearly the problem Albertina and Paula had. While this change-up might help in the long run it made Monday a lot more hectic because the new mama from Sala 2 didn’t know the routine in Sala 1. Also, as I was leaving, Emma (the director of Solomon Klein) called me into her office and told me to make sure that if I see a mama not giving enough love to a kid that I should call them out on it – aka if Albertina is treating the kids bad I need to tell Emma and tell Albertina to treat them better. I’ve been here for two weeks and she’s telling me to tell the mama’s how to do their job?? Yikes. Although I agree with her that the kids are all fragile and need as much love and support as possible considering they’ve come from such devastating backgrounds and have such sad stories, her comparisons to them becoming alcoholics and criminals if we don’t show them enough love every day in Sala 1 might have been slightly over the top. So I guess that leaves me torn between feeling sympathetic for Albertina that there is never enough hands with 23 kids and understanding Emma’s desire for the kids to be treated well and for them to be happy. It will be an interesting mediating role to play, I guess it puts my conflict resolution skills to good use.
Today was less hectic and fairly uneventful. I brought my camera to work with me and snapped a few pics of the kids in the afternoon – although they aren’t used to cameras like kids in the US so trying to get them to smile for the camera was nearly impossible. Also impossible, apparently, is getting the internet to upload my pictures - I´m gonna try to throw them up on facebook and if that doesn´t work you´ll just have to hold your breath and wait for them in a bit! (But please, don´t actually hold your breath, Bolivian internet is SUPER slow)
Our third roommate arrived today – or at least she was supposed to, I have yet to see her in my brief stop at home after work before I came to the internet café. I’m excited to meet her!
Sorry it´s been so long since my last update! But at least they´re getting shorter...kind of...
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
If only they had z-packs in Bolivia...
News flash: when you work with 23 one-year olds, you’re likely to get a cold just from being around them for 4 days. Hence, I spent most of the weekend, especially Sunday, attempting to sleep off a head-cold I seem to have caught from the kiddos. I really wish I could just walk to Health Services like I did at ND and order myself a z-pack to zap this thing, but for now I’m surviving on lots of augua and Musinex and Daquil/Nyquil.
Saturday morning I woke up in a bit of a funk, I guess what I would call my first bout of homesickness. I think it was a combination of being sick/tired and exhausted from the week. I was also feeling a bit like my daily interactions with people weren’t very high and, as most of you know, I thrive on being around other people. However, the day got a lot better when Jordan and I went to Nazareth for lunch and I got to hang out with those kids for a few hours and eat lunch with them. As much as I love my own kids in Sala Uno, it was really nice to be around kids who can actually talk and interact with you. After lunch and a little playtime, Jordan and I ventured to the Cancha and finally purchased me a cell phone! The Cancha was definitely quite an experience. They literally have everything you could want there – clothes, fruit/veggies, fresh meat, toiletries, office supplies, pirated movies/music – it’s insane.
After that we came home to rest for a bit and to get ready for the volunteer dinner. However, another highlight of the weekend was that we didn’t have water in our apartment from Friday night until Sunday morning, awesome. But nonetheless we went to meet everyone at dinner at a local pizza place and I met two couples of volunteers who I hadn’t met before – one of the couples is much older, in their late 50s, and down here volunteering after they’ve retired. They were all really nice and it was a fun dinner. Afterwards Jordan, Leena, Julia, Sonia and I went out to a Reggae concert/party at a local bar and played some more mentirosa (which, I was much better at this time).
Sunday was a very quiet day. I attempted to go to Burger King to use their WiFi, but the WiFi was down and all the Internet cafes were closed so I ended up just venturing back to the apartment and sleeping off my cold some more. Jordan and I went down for dinner a bit early (we thought we heard them yell “sancho!” which they do right before dinner, but I think someone just yelled “Pancho!” – which is the name of the dog) but it was fun because I got to talk to Fernando, one of the boys who lives downstairs, for a good amount of time. I definitely think I want to try to make it down there more frequently, they even invited me to play futbol (soccer) with them next weekend – although for all the McG girls who witnessed me get the soccer ball to the face the one time I tried to play sophomore year, you know how well that will probably go. I figure they’re going to make fun of the gringa girl anyway, might as well give them a good reason to!
It’s only Wednesday and boy am I glad it’s this far in the week. Monday and Tuesday were definitely the longest days, my feet were exhausted on Tuesday when I got home – I literally laid on my bed reviewing my Spanish flashcards for items around the house (the ones my mom labeled the entire Bay House with) for about thirty minutes after I walked in the door. I’m definitely starting to get into a rhythm and I feel like I have more control in the Sala than I did last week, which is always a plus. Both sets of mama’s have officially kicked me off plate-washing duty and instead I’ve been cleaning the bibs and wiping down the tables/chairs and putting them away. I guess they don’t have much patience for new plate-washers when they don’t explain the process to you. Oh well.
Two of my most entertaining moments so far this week occurred this morning before lunch:
1. Fabian se hizo caca (Fabian went poo-poo) on the swing this morning when I was outside with almost all of the kids as the mama’s were finishing bathing/dressing them for the day. So, I took him to the mama’s to get changed and went out to wash down the area where the caca was. I thought I was being good, taking intiative and cleaning it up, however, when you pour water on the ground and attempt to squeegee it to the drain and have to fight through 15+ one year olds to do so – it doesn’t turn out so well. About 5 of the kids ended up soaked because they thought it was a fun game to splash in the water and I had zero control because if I took my hands off the squeegee to move a kid out of the water, four more jumped in the water. Hence, I felt bad because the mama’s then had to change the pants of about 5 other kids, who hadn’t gone poo-poo. But it was either that or they were all going to be touching/eating/rolling in the caca that was on the ground. I think when you compare both situations, wet, clean, kids are better.
2. Shortly after the caca incident one of the university students motioned to me through the window of the cafeteria and said, what I thought, was something about putting something in my locker. So I went into the cafeteria and then she motioned for me to follow her, which thoroughly confused me because we had passed the lockers by this point, and I find out she wants me to translate for her and the Dutch couple that is adopting one of the kids from Sala 3. Great start, thinking she was talking about using my locker…Aside from the little misunderstanding at the beginning I think I managed to successfully translate between the two parties – the kid, Israel, that they are adopting requires physical therapy for one of his legs and the couple wanted to see if when he lived with them in Bolivia (they are living in Bolivia for 3 months while they sort out paper work on both the Bolivian and Dutch sides) he could go to a different physical therapist than at Solomon Kelin because they thought coming back to Solomon every day would be too much stress for him – but wanted to stress it wasn’t because they didn’t like Solomon, they just thought it would be better for him. The university student then said that they have to go to a specialist first (who Solomon will recommend) and then the specialist will suggest another physical therapist.
All in all I think I’m finally settling in here. I think my biggest issue is how out of touch I feel with everyone at home – not having constant access to internet or being able to pick up the phone and text/call people whenever I want. While I’m sure this departure from instant communication is good for me, it’s definitely taking getting used to and there are days that I would kill to have WiFi in our apartment, but hopefully BK will fix their WiFi soon and I can plan on spending copious amounts of hours there on Sundays catching up with everyone as I sip on a chocolate milkshake.
Saturday morning I woke up in a bit of a funk, I guess what I would call my first bout of homesickness. I think it was a combination of being sick/tired and exhausted from the week. I was also feeling a bit like my daily interactions with people weren’t very high and, as most of you know, I thrive on being around other people. However, the day got a lot better when Jordan and I went to Nazareth for lunch and I got to hang out with those kids for a few hours and eat lunch with them. As much as I love my own kids in Sala Uno, it was really nice to be around kids who can actually talk and interact with you. After lunch and a little playtime, Jordan and I ventured to the Cancha and finally purchased me a cell phone! The Cancha was definitely quite an experience. They literally have everything you could want there – clothes, fruit/veggies, fresh meat, toiletries, office supplies, pirated movies/music – it’s insane.
After that we came home to rest for a bit and to get ready for the volunteer dinner. However, another highlight of the weekend was that we didn’t have water in our apartment from Friday night until Sunday morning, awesome. But nonetheless we went to meet everyone at dinner at a local pizza place and I met two couples of volunteers who I hadn’t met before – one of the couples is much older, in their late 50s, and down here volunteering after they’ve retired. They were all really nice and it was a fun dinner. Afterwards Jordan, Leena, Julia, Sonia and I went out to a Reggae concert/party at a local bar and played some more mentirosa (which, I was much better at this time).
Sunday was a very quiet day. I attempted to go to Burger King to use their WiFi, but the WiFi was down and all the Internet cafes were closed so I ended up just venturing back to the apartment and sleeping off my cold some more. Jordan and I went down for dinner a bit early (we thought we heard them yell “sancho!” which they do right before dinner, but I think someone just yelled “Pancho!” – which is the name of the dog) but it was fun because I got to talk to Fernando, one of the boys who lives downstairs, for a good amount of time. I definitely think I want to try to make it down there more frequently, they even invited me to play futbol (soccer) with them next weekend – although for all the McG girls who witnessed me get the soccer ball to the face the one time I tried to play sophomore year, you know how well that will probably go. I figure they’re going to make fun of the gringa girl anyway, might as well give them a good reason to!
It’s only Wednesday and boy am I glad it’s this far in the week. Monday and Tuesday were definitely the longest days, my feet were exhausted on Tuesday when I got home – I literally laid on my bed reviewing my Spanish flashcards for items around the house (the ones my mom labeled the entire Bay House with) for about thirty minutes after I walked in the door. I’m definitely starting to get into a rhythm and I feel like I have more control in the Sala than I did last week, which is always a plus. Both sets of mama’s have officially kicked me off plate-washing duty and instead I’ve been cleaning the bibs and wiping down the tables/chairs and putting them away. I guess they don’t have much patience for new plate-washers when they don’t explain the process to you. Oh well.
Two of my most entertaining moments so far this week occurred this morning before lunch:
1. Fabian se hizo caca (Fabian went poo-poo) on the swing this morning when I was outside with almost all of the kids as the mama’s were finishing bathing/dressing them for the day. So, I took him to the mama’s to get changed and went out to wash down the area where the caca was. I thought I was being good, taking intiative and cleaning it up, however, when you pour water on the ground and attempt to squeegee it to the drain and have to fight through 15+ one year olds to do so – it doesn’t turn out so well. About 5 of the kids ended up soaked because they thought it was a fun game to splash in the water and I had zero control because if I took my hands off the squeegee to move a kid out of the water, four more jumped in the water. Hence, I felt bad because the mama’s then had to change the pants of about 5 other kids, who hadn’t gone poo-poo. But it was either that or they were all going to be touching/eating/rolling in the caca that was on the ground. I think when you compare both situations, wet, clean, kids are better.
2. Shortly after the caca incident one of the university students motioned to me through the window of the cafeteria and said, what I thought, was something about putting something in my locker. So I went into the cafeteria and then she motioned for me to follow her, which thoroughly confused me because we had passed the lockers by this point, and I find out she wants me to translate for her and the Dutch couple that is adopting one of the kids from Sala 3. Great start, thinking she was talking about using my locker…Aside from the little misunderstanding at the beginning I think I managed to successfully translate between the two parties – the kid, Israel, that they are adopting requires physical therapy for one of his legs and the couple wanted to see if when he lived with them in Bolivia (they are living in Bolivia for 3 months while they sort out paper work on both the Bolivian and Dutch sides) he could go to a different physical therapist than at Solomon Kelin because they thought coming back to Solomon every day would be too much stress for him – but wanted to stress it wasn’t because they didn’t like Solomon, they just thought it would be better for him. The university student then said that they have to go to a specialist first (who Solomon will recommend) and then the specialist will suggest another physical therapist.
All in all I think I’m finally settling in here. I think my biggest issue is how out of touch I feel with everyone at home – not having constant access to internet or being able to pick up the phone and text/call people whenever I want. While I’m sure this departure from instant communication is good for me, it’s definitely taking getting used to and there are days that I would kill to have WiFi in our apartment, but hopefully BK will fix their WiFi soon and I can plan on spending copious amounts of hours there on Sundays catching up with everyone as I sip on a chocolate milkshake.
Friday, August 20, 2010
¡Hoy es viernes!
¡Hoy es viernes! ¡Es viernes! ¡Es viernes! ¡Es viernes! Senora Deirmingian’s song from Archmere’s Spanish classes is definitely appropriate this week. I even feel like doing the dance. And to think this was probably the shortest week I’ll ever have. Yikes.
I started work on Tuesday in Sala Uno at Solomon Klein. The first day was, in a word, awkward. While I immediately fell in love with the kids, I constantly felt like I was in the way of the mama’s and university volunteers who already knew the kids and their daily routine. My nerves and uneasiness about the situation made my Spanish skills that much worse too. It was somewhat repeated again on Wednesday because the pair of mama’s in the sala rotates every other day, so I had to re-introduce myself to the other set of mama’s and get a feel for what role they wanted to me play in the daily routine versus what the other mama’s had expected. But a rundown of the day generally goes something like this:
8:30am – I arrive. The kids have just finished desayuna (breakfast) and are all lined up on colorful plastic mini-toilets in the cleaning/changing room while the mama’s change/bathe about three kids at a time. For the first few kids I monitor the room, make sure the kids stay on their toilets, don’t touch what’s in the toilets, etc (this is generally when I’m really glad I’m wearing a smock). After a few kids are done I go out into the playroom to monitor the ones who are all clean and ready to go with one or two university students.
10 – 11:30am - around this time all the kids are finally changed and ready to go. Most days we just stay around the sala and play with the toys (juguetes), do their morning activity (usually just singing along to songs and getting them to dance/walk around). Although on Thursday we took them to the park across the street, which sounds simple enough, but getting 23 one year olds to cross a street when Bolivian cars don’t stop for any pedestrians (even children) and keeping them located where we wanted was quite a feat.
11:30 – noon – we set up and feed them lunch (almuerzo), which is the same rice/chicken/carrot soup every day. As they finish they are wiped off and put in their cribs for their afternoon nap.
Noon – 2pm : while the kids nap, the mama’s and I clean up from lunch (wash the dishes, mop the floor, clean the tables), eat lunch ourselves, and then spend about an hour sorting clean clothes and cloth diapers. On Wednesday I learned how to fold a cloth diaper – I would equate it to something along the lines of origami.
2pm – as the kids wake up they go through a similar bathing routine as when I arrive in the morning, but this time I’m generally finishing the end of the laundry and then just playing with the kids as they come out.
2pm – 4om: the kids do their afternoon activity. Monday it was playing with plastic fruits and vegetables, Tuesday it was riding bouncy-rubber horses (caballos), Wednesday it was playing with little balls (pelotas), and today it was making music with mariachis.
4pm – when I’m supposed to be able to leave, but I have generally been sticking around until about 4:15/4:30 to help set the kids up for dinner and get them all in their seats at the tables before I leave. I have a hard time leaving right at 4 when I can see that the mama’s need the help and I don’t really have anywhere to be besides taking a nap.
Needless to say, by the time I’m done my day at 4:30 and make it home by a little before 5, I’m pooped. Thursday was the worst because the kids skipped nap time, which had me exhausted because I was left outside with all 23 kids for about 30 minutes while the mama’s folded the clean diapers since they couldn’t do it while they were napping. (Sidenote: they will not be skipping naptime again, I clarified, it was because all the mama’s had a meeting at 6pm and they needed the kids to sleep through it).
Some afternoons I’ve done some venturing around the neighborhood, gone to the grocery story, taken a micro bus downtown and walked around, and Thursday I just vegged out because I could hardly move. I think I deserved it. I’m looking forward to Jordan being on a similar schedule that I am (one he starts doing translations next week and doesn’t work as much at Nazareth) and not having to fill 4 hours by myself in the evenings before he gets home.
But I love the kids already. I have about 2/3 of their names down (Omar, Jose Carlos, Juan Carlos, Jonathan, Maria, Adrian, Navian, Nadia, Edson, Gisel, Benjamin, Liseth, Andres, Jose Armando, Brittani…and a few others I can remember occasionally), I think by the end of next week I should definitely have them all. Omar is definitely the favorite of almost everyone who walks into Sala Uno. It’s hard not to love that kid. He has the cutest smile and loves to dance and is pretty much happy 90% of the time. I have a few other favorites too, but as the days go on I find that getting a laugh or a smile out of any of them is just about the best feeling in the world.
The hardest kid for me to adjust to was Benjamin (which they pronounce BEN-HA-MIN). I actually just heard his story on Wednesday and it definitely changed my attitude toward him a bit. He only has one eye and is partially blind in that eye. Apparently, his mother got pregnant while her husband was out of the country and decided she didn’t want the kid so she thought she would kill him by gouging his eyes out. This, obviously, did not kill him though and instead he was rescued and brought to Salomon. Benjamin is a huge troublemaker, always pushing other kids and wanting lots and lots of attention. If he doesn’t get his way he thrashes himself around on the floor and creates quite a scene. However, I’ve discovered that if I give him a little hug and attention I can get a laugh out of him just like any of the others. Although, there are definitely still times I have to punish him. He is my first heartbreaking story that I’ve heard – although I’m fairly certain about 99% of the kids in Sala Uno (and in Amanecer in general) have heartbreaking stories.
Although I was hesitant to work with such young kids, I couldn’t be happier with what I’m doing. And while I don’t get to use much of my Spanish during the day while they’re around (aside from commands, which I’m getting really good at, like “baile” (dance!), “sientate” (sit!), “camine!” (walk!), I get to talk to the mama’s while we’re eating lunch and folding laundry for about 2 hours in the afternoon. Right now it’s a lot of me listening to what they’re saying to each other, but I’m hoping to start participating more in the conversation as I get more comfortable.
The other thing that made my week particularly short was that both Wednesday and Friday I missed about 2-3 hours of work because we were running around the blood bank and other government places to get our permanent visas. They have a lady helping us do it, which according to Jordan is new since he got here, that I’m extremely thankful for because I know for sure I would have gotten both confused and lost by now. Next Thursday we should finish the process and be good to go!
I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Tomorrow Jordan and I are going to explore the Cancha (the crazy market that has everything from cell phones (which I need), to clothes, to food, to llama fetuses (so I’m told), to arts and crafts). I’m sure I’ll have quite a vivid description of my own to give after we visit. And tomorrow night we’re having a volunteer dinner with all of the Amanecer volunteers. Should be a great weekend, hopefully I’ll have some time to make some skype-dates in the near future so let me know when you’re free and we can work something out (for those of you who don’t have my skype name it’s “kaloser” – don’t ask, it’s a long story, but I needed something unique to set me apart from all the other “Katie Weber’s” on skype).
¡Tengan un buen fin de semana! (Have a great weekend!)
I started work on Tuesday in Sala Uno at Solomon Klein. The first day was, in a word, awkward. While I immediately fell in love with the kids, I constantly felt like I was in the way of the mama’s and university volunteers who already knew the kids and their daily routine. My nerves and uneasiness about the situation made my Spanish skills that much worse too. It was somewhat repeated again on Wednesday because the pair of mama’s in the sala rotates every other day, so I had to re-introduce myself to the other set of mama’s and get a feel for what role they wanted to me play in the daily routine versus what the other mama’s had expected. But a rundown of the day generally goes something like this:
8:30am – I arrive. The kids have just finished desayuna (breakfast) and are all lined up on colorful plastic mini-toilets in the cleaning/changing room while the mama’s change/bathe about three kids at a time. For the first few kids I monitor the room, make sure the kids stay on their toilets, don’t touch what’s in the toilets, etc (this is generally when I’m really glad I’m wearing a smock). After a few kids are done I go out into the playroom to monitor the ones who are all clean and ready to go with one or two university students.
10 – 11:30am - around this time all the kids are finally changed and ready to go. Most days we just stay around the sala and play with the toys (juguetes), do their morning activity (usually just singing along to songs and getting them to dance/walk around). Although on Thursday we took them to the park across the street, which sounds simple enough, but getting 23 one year olds to cross a street when Bolivian cars don’t stop for any pedestrians (even children) and keeping them located where we wanted was quite a feat.
11:30 – noon – we set up and feed them lunch (almuerzo), which is the same rice/chicken/carrot soup every day. As they finish they are wiped off and put in their cribs for their afternoon nap.
Noon – 2pm : while the kids nap, the mama’s and I clean up from lunch (wash the dishes, mop the floor, clean the tables), eat lunch ourselves, and then spend about an hour sorting clean clothes and cloth diapers. On Wednesday I learned how to fold a cloth diaper – I would equate it to something along the lines of origami.
2pm – as the kids wake up they go through a similar bathing routine as when I arrive in the morning, but this time I’m generally finishing the end of the laundry and then just playing with the kids as they come out.
2pm – 4om: the kids do their afternoon activity. Monday it was playing with plastic fruits and vegetables, Tuesday it was riding bouncy-rubber horses (caballos), Wednesday it was playing with little balls (pelotas), and today it was making music with mariachis.
4pm – when I’m supposed to be able to leave, but I have generally been sticking around until about 4:15/4:30 to help set the kids up for dinner and get them all in their seats at the tables before I leave. I have a hard time leaving right at 4 when I can see that the mama’s need the help and I don’t really have anywhere to be besides taking a nap.
Needless to say, by the time I’m done my day at 4:30 and make it home by a little before 5, I’m pooped. Thursday was the worst because the kids skipped nap time, which had me exhausted because I was left outside with all 23 kids for about 30 minutes while the mama’s folded the clean diapers since they couldn’t do it while they were napping. (Sidenote: they will not be skipping naptime again, I clarified, it was because all the mama’s had a meeting at 6pm and they needed the kids to sleep through it).
Some afternoons I’ve done some venturing around the neighborhood, gone to the grocery story, taken a micro bus downtown and walked around, and Thursday I just vegged out because I could hardly move. I think I deserved it. I’m looking forward to Jordan being on a similar schedule that I am (one he starts doing translations next week and doesn’t work as much at Nazareth) and not having to fill 4 hours by myself in the evenings before he gets home.
But I love the kids already. I have about 2/3 of their names down (Omar, Jose Carlos, Juan Carlos, Jonathan, Maria, Adrian, Navian, Nadia, Edson, Gisel, Benjamin, Liseth, Andres, Jose Armando, Brittani…and a few others I can remember occasionally), I think by the end of next week I should definitely have them all. Omar is definitely the favorite of almost everyone who walks into Sala Uno. It’s hard not to love that kid. He has the cutest smile and loves to dance and is pretty much happy 90% of the time. I have a few other favorites too, but as the days go on I find that getting a laugh or a smile out of any of them is just about the best feeling in the world.
The hardest kid for me to adjust to was Benjamin (which they pronounce BEN-HA-MIN). I actually just heard his story on Wednesday and it definitely changed my attitude toward him a bit. He only has one eye and is partially blind in that eye. Apparently, his mother got pregnant while her husband was out of the country and decided she didn’t want the kid so she thought she would kill him by gouging his eyes out. This, obviously, did not kill him though and instead he was rescued and brought to Salomon. Benjamin is a huge troublemaker, always pushing other kids and wanting lots and lots of attention. If he doesn’t get his way he thrashes himself around on the floor and creates quite a scene. However, I’ve discovered that if I give him a little hug and attention I can get a laugh out of him just like any of the others. Although, there are definitely still times I have to punish him. He is my first heartbreaking story that I’ve heard – although I’m fairly certain about 99% of the kids in Sala Uno (and in Amanecer in general) have heartbreaking stories.
Although I was hesitant to work with such young kids, I couldn’t be happier with what I’m doing. And while I don’t get to use much of my Spanish during the day while they’re around (aside from commands, which I’m getting really good at, like “baile” (dance!), “sientate” (sit!), “camine!” (walk!), I get to talk to the mama’s while we’re eating lunch and folding laundry for about 2 hours in the afternoon. Right now it’s a lot of me listening to what they’re saying to each other, but I’m hoping to start participating more in the conversation as I get more comfortable.
The other thing that made my week particularly short was that both Wednesday and Friday I missed about 2-3 hours of work because we were running around the blood bank and other government places to get our permanent visas. They have a lady helping us do it, which according to Jordan is new since he got here, that I’m extremely thankful for because I know for sure I would have gotten both confused and lost by now. Next Thursday we should finish the process and be good to go!
I’m looking forward to a relaxing weekend. Tomorrow Jordan and I are going to explore the Cancha (the crazy market that has everything from cell phones (which I need), to clothes, to food, to llama fetuses (so I’m told), to arts and crafts). I’m sure I’ll have quite a vivid description of my own to give after we visit. And tomorrow night we’re having a volunteer dinner with all of the Amanecer volunteers. Should be a great weekend, hopefully I’ll have some time to make some skype-dates in the near future so let me know when you’re free and we can work something out (for those of you who don’t have my skype name it’s “kaloser” – don’t ask, it’s a long story, but I needed something unique to set me apart from all the other “Katie Weber’s” on skype).
¡Tengan un buen fin de semana! (Have a great weekend!)
Monday, August 16, 2010
La Fiesta de la Virgen de Urkupiña
It’s almost like I planned to come this weekend for a reason. This weekend is the biggest festival in Cochabamba, called La Fiesta de la Virgen de Urkupiña. The big festivities actually take place in the neighboring town of Quillacollo, which is about 13km away from Coche. On Saturday there was a daylong parade of traditional Bolivian dances. It started at 8am or so (we didn’t arrive until about 1pm) and went until 10:30 at night. However, a Bolivian parade is nothing like what we’re used to in the States.
First of all, you had to buy seats on the bleachers that lined the street, instead of the American way of everyone just standing around or staking out a spot with a blanket. The tickets we bought cost 50b’s and allowed us access to a private baño (bathroom) – although the bathroom was quite the experience, basically just a hole in the ground and you squat, do your business, and walk out. I’ve been told that while most bathrooms have a toilet, I will definitely experience my fair share of “interesting” bathrooms.
The parade went for about 20-30 minutes at a time and then all of a sudden the dancers will all stop, mid-parade, and sit down, rest, eat some food, drink some water and take a break for about 15-20 minutes. I can’t say I blame them since many of their costumes are heavy and hot. I know I would definitely appreciate a break from dancing since the length of the parade was quite long – it’s just not something I’ve ever seen in a parade before. And while the parade is going on people are jumping in and out of the dancers taking pictures with them and it doesn’t make a difference if they are in the middle of dancing or not.
The street is lined with bleachers and the parade goes down the middle, but the entire time walking along the front of the bleachers are people selling food, drink, toys, etc. If someone in the bleachers wanted something they had to call down to the person walking buy and then it usually involved a relay system of passing money and said item up and down the bleachers from the person acquiring it to the person selling it. My favorite purchase of the day was a traditional Bolivian food called “sonso.” It is a fried potato-like outside with queso (cheese) in the middle. Delicious. The best part about it though is that in order to get the sonso seller’s attention we had to yell out “¡Sonso!” – which also means “idiot” in Spanish. So more or less we were yelling “Hey idiot!” in order to get our delicious food.
Another interesting fact about Bolivian food/drink is that because the tap water generally isn’t safe to drink, everyone buys water (agua) and juice. However, the fascinating thing is that the cheapest way to purchase water (or juice for that matter) is in a bag. For .50-1b’s you can buy a bag of water, bite off the corner, and suck down the refreshment. So everyone is walking down the street sucking on plastic bags, it’s highly entertaining and although it took me a day or so to get used to I can now say I’ve had about 3 bags of water since I’ve been here!
While there were about ten different dances in the parade, the only one I remember the name of is called Waka Waka (like the Shakira song for the World Cup!). It consists of girls twirling their skirts super fast and boys dancing in toro (bull) costumes. It’s supposed to make fun of the Spaniards and their bull-fights. There was another dance that involved St. Michael leading a group of diablos (devils) because he’d just defeated them and was herding them up. Some of those diablo costumes were crazy. I tried to capture some of the costumes in pictures, but I don’t think the pictures really do justice to the incredible costumes.
Diablo costume
An example of how people just jump into the parade to get pictures
(from left to right - Melissa (volunteer coordinator), Julia (volunteer from Germany), Leena (from Iceland), me, and Jordan (my apartment-mate)
After the parade ended we went to meet up with Lenna’s, one of the other volunteers, friends at a bar for some cerveza (beer). They’re really into playing games at bars here. The most popular one is called “mentiroso” (liar) and is a dice game, a lot like Yahtzee. You have a cup and you roll a pair of dice and, without letting anyone else see what you’ve rolled, say what you’ve rolled. Although, the point is to lie about what you’ve rolled. The highest number always has to be in front (for example, you can’t roll a 23 because it would have to be a 32 – that killed me for quite a time) and the higher the number the better, with pairs being highest (pair of 2’s then the pair of 3s etc) and 21 being the absolute highest number you can roll. If the person next to you doesn’t believe what you’ve said then they say “mentiroso/a” and lift up the cup. But, if they believe what you say they pick up the dice (without looking at them) and re-roll. However, if you re-roll whatever you roll has to be higher than what the person before you said, which is the tricky part. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to see people’s personalities and how good they are at lying (Mom, you’d be happy to know that even if I’m a good liar at Mafia, I’m terrible at lying in this game).
Sunday was a much quieter day. As Jordan says, there really isn’t much to do on Sundays because everything is closed, and particularly this weekend because anything that might normally be open is closed due to the holiday. Last night, as part of Urkupiña, they walk from Coche all the way to Quillacollo (all 13km) and up a hill to make an offering to la Virgen. As a result, Monday is a holiday too and will likely be another lazy day. But I’ve managed to make my room a little homier and hung some pictures above my desk.
My room!
I’m excited to start work on Tuesday and get into a routine. It’s been a great, fun weekend to start off my time here, but I’m excited to meet my kids and feel like I really belong here instead of just being a tourist.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Ciudado: Esto es una novela (Warning: This is a novel)
So I knew I was going to ramble in this blog, but after this first one, Lord help anyone who manages to make it through all my posts. I’ve been in Cochabamba for UNDER 12 hours (when I started writing this) and I already want to share every last detail with you.
But, let’s backtrack a little and give you a brief re-cap of my adventures to arrive in this amazing city:
1. My flight from DC to Miami was delayed THREE HOURS. Giving me 15 minutes to make my connection in Miami to La Paz, but managed to make it because it was only two gates down and it too was delayed about 15 minutes.
2. However, that further delay caused my already tight connection in La Paz to be only an hour instead of an hour an a half. I was convinced I would miss the flight and have to sit in La Paz dealing with altitude sickness for twelve hours before the next flight to Coche. The lady sitting next to me on the plane to La Paz was trying to make the same connection and was much more optimistic about our making the flight. She won. Let me just say though that customs and immigration in Bolivia is NOTHING like the U.S. – it took all of about 20 minutes to go through both and claim my luggage. And although the La Paz airport is even smaller than the South Bend airport (who knew it was possible??) they had luggage runners who loaded all of your stuff up on a cart and literally ran it to the check-in counter for you. With my luck though, by the time I got my second bag there were no more runners so I was attempting to manage my way through the airport myself until about half way to the counter when one of them, on his way back to the baggage claim, asked if I needed help. This lead to an extremely awkward interaction because he was basically already taking the bags out of my hands before I could respond and sprinting away with them (me comically running after him). When we got to the check-in counter he stood there waiting to be paid, I gave him the $3 I had left of my American currency and he stood there saying he needed more. I wanted to say that was ridiculous because he’d only taken my luggage half way, all of about 100 feet, but I honestly did not have another dollar on me so I started whipping out the quarters I had and he was rambling about how he couldn’t exchange those…anyway, moral of the story if you ever fly in Bolivia you do NOT need the runner men because the airport is ridiculously small (La Paz is the second biggest airport in the country). This embarrassing interaction made me extremely frazzled and then I completely skipped past the airport tax part between check-in and security, making a fool of myself yet again as I tried to get through security and didn’t understand what else they wanted from me.
BUT after all of that I managed to make it onto my flight to Coche and didn’t even suffer from much altitude sickness (thank god because it was 6am when I arrived). Melissa, the volunteer coordinator, was waiting for me in the lobby of the Coche airport and drove me to my home, Jerusalem. I started to unpack and get settled when my roommate, Jordan, woke up. Poor kid was still groggy and I’m on an adrenaline rush from my hectic travels in La Paz and the excitement of my arrival. We sat and talked while he had his cereal and coffee for a bit, he gave me a few insider tips and we shared sentiments about our mom’s not being particularly thrilled with our being so far away for such a long time and awkward interactions (in my case, emails) with the old volunteer coordinator Tomas (the one who told me all I need to eat is bread, rice, and potatoes), and about how we’re going to try to speak Spanish around the house so that we take full advantage of being here (he said there was an American boy here before me who came for 6 months and didn’t get any better at Spanish because he didn’t use it except when necessary) - but then I let him have a bit of his morning as I tried to get a nap in before we went to where he works, a house called Nazareth, for lunch. The problem with my nap however was that the boys at Jerusalem LOVE to blare music from about 9am to 6pm at night (today was all Spanish music, but according to Jordan they’re also huge Lady Gaga fans – I have a feeling we’re going to get along fabulously!). So it mostly was just me laying in bed “resting my eyes” until about 11:30.
At noon we walked to pick up one of the boys, Imberto, from kindergarten and brought him to Nazareth. The boys at Nazareth range in age from 5-14 and are the most stable of the populations of houses with Amanecer. Jordan is the only volunteer working there and the kids all adore him – they were literally using him as a climbing pole at one point before lunch. And they were also all convinced that I was his “novia” (girlfriend), as is apparently the case with all the girl volunteers that visit the house with him that are under the age of 40 – so in the boys eyes he has about 15 different novias haha
And for those of you who were wondering how “Katie” would translate in Spanish, apparently Carla was prepping me for Bolivia when she started calling me KAH-TEE over the weekend of the 4th. But once the kids get it down (at first they like to say kah-tee-ay when they see it spelled out) they love my name because it’s different from anything else they’ve heard so they would call out “Kah-tee! Kah-tee!” – we’ll see how the younger kids handle it when I finally get to meet them tomorrow.
For lunch we had a mix of lettuce (lechuga), tomatoes (tomatos), onion (cebollo), hard boiled eggs (huevos), and potatoes (potatos) with this brown sauce overtop and then you mashed it all together. It was surprisingly good – I was just excited to have lettuce in my meal after I had been warned that all I would be eating would be rice, beans, and potatoes. Although, this was also at 1:30pm and I hadn’t eaten since the meal on my flight from Miami to La Paz at midnight, so I might have eaten just about anything.
After lunch Melissa took me and Julia (another new volunteer from Germany who arrived on Tuesday) around the city and showed us all the sights and sounds. The city seems really awesome, but it will take a while to find my way around because it’s not laid out in your typical grid-style city fashion and there is a “truffi” system that seems way more complicated than any subway or taxi system I’ve ever seen before. They have microbuses, which look like smaller brightly colored school buses, that have certain routes around the city (sidenote: there was a lady publically breast feeding in the middle of the micro today…talk about culture shock); then they have truffis which are similar to the micros but they are mini-van taxis that anyone can come in and out of (like the bus) and only go certain routes; then there are mini truffis which are the same as the other truffis but these are just cars; THEN you have truffi taxis which anyone can get a taxi sticker and charge to take people places (no specific route – and not very safe because they aren’t connected to a larger company); and finally there are the group taxi truffis which will go anywhere and are safer than the non-group taxi truffi’s. If you’re confused, so am I. I’ll let you know once I figure it out, however they were really good with providing us with “the book” which has the routes of every micro, truffi, and mini-truffi in the city.
Walking around the city I realized I’ve packed entirely wrong for this trip – the Bolivian dress code is basically jeans and a tshirt. Although since it’s “winter”, which just means that it still gets to the mid 80s during the day but gets down to the 50s at night, people wear wool sweaters all day. I have no idea how they aren’t dying. And even the ones who wear tshirts don’t wear tank-tops, which are about half of my wardrobe. I’ve heard from the other volunteers though that at night people tend to dress less conservatively, so I might get to wear some of my tanks and such then, but we’ll see.
We ended our afternoon tour at the grocery store because Julia wanted to buy some things for her apartment (she’s been here longer and knows what she needs/wants…I just aimlessly wandered the aisles). Julia and I walked home and when we split off for my house I ended up walking in circles for about ten minutes because I was about 100 ft from my house and thought I was in the wrong place so I turned and went the other way. Whoops.
I got home around 6 and started writing everything down in my journal and then decided I wanted to do a further exploration of our apartment – I definitely have the biggest (almost twice the size) of the other two bedrooms (so anyone who wants to come visit I have PLENTY of floor space!! Although it is wooden…). I have a twin bed with a mosquito net for the summer when we open the windows, a desk, a big wardrobe (half for hanging half with shelves and a drawer), a night stand, and a little love seat chair. We also have CABLE TV in our common room, which is apparently something all the other volunteers are jealous of, although I haven’t watched it yet haha.
Thursday night Melissa, Jordan and I went to eat diner at Jordan’s favorite chicken (pollo) place – pollo is huge in Coche and everyone has their own favorite pollo restaurant. It was a lot of food, a chicken breast, and three sides (rice, pasta, and French fries) for only 11 Bolivianos (the exchange rate is about 7.02 bolivianos = 1 dollar). I felt like I was wasting so much food, but it was the smallest portion!
This morning I visited the house where I´ll be working, Salmonon Klein. After doing a general tour of the house I met with the director, Emma, who told me I´ll be working in Sala 1 (room 1 = the kids age 1-2). I was hoping for some of the older kids who can talk and such, but they´re all super cute and I know I´ll get attached really quick and want to take them all home with me when I leave. I start on Tuesday (because Monday is a national holiday) and will be working lunes-viernes (Monday-Friday) 8:30am-4pm. Yikes, early days. But it will be good to have a routine.
So now for the rest of the day I´m going to try and find some tape so I can hang the 100 pictures I brought with me, try and buy a cell phone so I can communicate with the other volunteers and don´t have to sit around at home waiting for Jordan to come back and be my social coordinator, and maybe find some food. I really haven´t had much of an appetite since I got here – it´s 1pm and I don’t feel particularly hungry…so unlike me!
I promise not to make (well, I’ll at least try not to make) my next posts so long – I just felt like I had a lot of details to share with everyone about my first impressions and such. I miss you all terribly already, but I also already wish you could all come down here and I could show you everything!!
Ps. Please feel free to comment on my posts – I’d LOVE to hear what you think of all of this! (Slawin and Care this is particularly aimed at you since you share my love of facebook comments)
But, let’s backtrack a little and give you a brief re-cap of my adventures to arrive in this amazing city:
1. My flight from DC to Miami was delayed THREE HOURS. Giving me 15 minutes to make my connection in Miami to La Paz, but managed to make it because it was only two gates down and it too was delayed about 15 minutes.
2. However, that further delay caused my already tight connection in La Paz to be only an hour instead of an hour an a half. I was convinced I would miss the flight and have to sit in La Paz dealing with altitude sickness for twelve hours before the next flight to Coche. The lady sitting next to me on the plane to La Paz was trying to make the same connection and was much more optimistic about our making the flight. She won. Let me just say though that customs and immigration in Bolivia is NOTHING like the U.S. – it took all of about 20 minutes to go through both and claim my luggage. And although the La Paz airport is even smaller than the South Bend airport (who knew it was possible??) they had luggage runners who loaded all of your stuff up on a cart and literally ran it to the check-in counter for you. With my luck though, by the time I got my second bag there were no more runners so I was attempting to manage my way through the airport myself until about half way to the counter when one of them, on his way back to the baggage claim, asked if I needed help. This lead to an extremely awkward interaction because he was basically already taking the bags out of my hands before I could respond and sprinting away with them (me comically running after him). When we got to the check-in counter he stood there waiting to be paid, I gave him the $3 I had left of my American currency and he stood there saying he needed more. I wanted to say that was ridiculous because he’d only taken my luggage half way, all of about 100 feet, but I honestly did not have another dollar on me so I started whipping out the quarters I had and he was rambling about how he couldn’t exchange those…anyway, moral of the story if you ever fly in Bolivia you do NOT need the runner men because the airport is ridiculously small (La Paz is the second biggest airport in the country). This embarrassing interaction made me extremely frazzled and then I completely skipped past the airport tax part between check-in and security, making a fool of myself yet again as I tried to get through security and didn’t understand what else they wanted from me.
BUT after all of that I managed to make it onto my flight to Coche and didn’t even suffer from much altitude sickness (thank god because it was 6am when I arrived). Melissa, the volunteer coordinator, was waiting for me in the lobby of the Coche airport and drove me to my home, Jerusalem. I started to unpack and get settled when my roommate, Jordan, woke up. Poor kid was still groggy and I’m on an adrenaline rush from my hectic travels in La Paz and the excitement of my arrival. We sat and talked while he had his cereal and coffee for a bit, he gave me a few insider tips and we shared sentiments about our mom’s not being particularly thrilled with our being so far away for such a long time and awkward interactions (in my case, emails) with the old volunteer coordinator Tomas (the one who told me all I need to eat is bread, rice, and potatoes), and about how we’re going to try to speak Spanish around the house so that we take full advantage of being here (he said there was an American boy here before me who came for 6 months and didn’t get any better at Spanish because he didn’t use it except when necessary) - but then I let him have a bit of his morning as I tried to get a nap in before we went to where he works, a house called Nazareth, for lunch. The problem with my nap however was that the boys at Jerusalem LOVE to blare music from about 9am to 6pm at night (today was all Spanish music, but according to Jordan they’re also huge Lady Gaga fans – I have a feeling we’re going to get along fabulously!). So it mostly was just me laying in bed “resting my eyes” until about 11:30.
At noon we walked to pick up one of the boys, Imberto, from kindergarten and brought him to Nazareth. The boys at Nazareth range in age from 5-14 and are the most stable of the populations of houses with Amanecer. Jordan is the only volunteer working there and the kids all adore him – they were literally using him as a climbing pole at one point before lunch. And they were also all convinced that I was his “novia” (girlfriend), as is apparently the case with all the girl volunteers that visit the house with him that are under the age of 40 – so in the boys eyes he has about 15 different novias haha
And for those of you who were wondering how “Katie” would translate in Spanish, apparently Carla was prepping me for Bolivia when she started calling me KAH-TEE over the weekend of the 4th. But once the kids get it down (at first they like to say kah-tee-ay when they see it spelled out) they love my name because it’s different from anything else they’ve heard so they would call out “Kah-tee! Kah-tee!” – we’ll see how the younger kids handle it when I finally get to meet them tomorrow.
For lunch we had a mix of lettuce (lechuga), tomatoes (tomatos), onion (cebollo), hard boiled eggs (huevos), and potatoes (potatos) with this brown sauce overtop and then you mashed it all together. It was surprisingly good – I was just excited to have lettuce in my meal after I had been warned that all I would be eating would be rice, beans, and potatoes. Although, this was also at 1:30pm and I hadn’t eaten since the meal on my flight from Miami to La Paz at midnight, so I might have eaten just about anything.
After lunch Melissa took me and Julia (another new volunteer from Germany who arrived on Tuesday) around the city and showed us all the sights and sounds. The city seems really awesome, but it will take a while to find my way around because it’s not laid out in your typical grid-style city fashion and there is a “truffi” system that seems way more complicated than any subway or taxi system I’ve ever seen before. They have microbuses, which look like smaller brightly colored school buses, that have certain routes around the city (sidenote: there was a lady publically breast feeding in the middle of the micro today…talk about culture shock); then they have truffis which are similar to the micros but they are mini-van taxis that anyone can come in and out of (like the bus) and only go certain routes; then there are mini truffis which are the same as the other truffis but these are just cars; THEN you have truffi taxis which anyone can get a taxi sticker and charge to take people places (no specific route – and not very safe because they aren’t connected to a larger company); and finally there are the group taxi truffis which will go anywhere and are safer than the non-group taxi truffi’s. If you’re confused, so am I. I’ll let you know once I figure it out, however they were really good with providing us with “the book” which has the routes of every micro, truffi, and mini-truffi in the city.
Walking around the city I realized I’ve packed entirely wrong for this trip – the Bolivian dress code is basically jeans and a tshirt. Although since it’s “winter”, which just means that it still gets to the mid 80s during the day but gets down to the 50s at night, people wear wool sweaters all day. I have no idea how they aren’t dying. And even the ones who wear tshirts don’t wear tank-tops, which are about half of my wardrobe. I’ve heard from the other volunteers though that at night people tend to dress less conservatively, so I might get to wear some of my tanks and such then, but we’ll see.
We ended our afternoon tour at the grocery store because Julia wanted to buy some things for her apartment (she’s been here longer and knows what she needs/wants…I just aimlessly wandered the aisles). Julia and I walked home and when we split off for my house I ended up walking in circles for about ten minutes because I was about 100 ft from my house and thought I was in the wrong place so I turned and went the other way. Whoops.
I got home around 6 and started writing everything down in my journal and then decided I wanted to do a further exploration of our apartment – I definitely have the biggest (almost twice the size) of the other two bedrooms (so anyone who wants to come visit I have PLENTY of floor space!! Although it is wooden…). I have a twin bed with a mosquito net for the summer when we open the windows, a desk, a big wardrobe (half for hanging half with shelves and a drawer), a night stand, and a little love seat chair. We also have CABLE TV in our common room, which is apparently something all the other volunteers are jealous of, although I haven’t watched it yet haha.
Thursday night Melissa, Jordan and I went to eat diner at Jordan’s favorite chicken (pollo) place – pollo is huge in Coche and everyone has their own favorite pollo restaurant. It was a lot of food, a chicken breast, and three sides (rice, pasta, and French fries) for only 11 Bolivianos (the exchange rate is about 7.02 bolivianos = 1 dollar). I felt like I was wasting so much food, but it was the smallest portion!
This morning I visited the house where I´ll be working, Salmonon Klein. After doing a general tour of the house I met with the director, Emma, who told me I´ll be working in Sala 1 (room 1 = the kids age 1-2). I was hoping for some of the older kids who can talk and such, but they´re all super cute and I know I´ll get attached really quick and want to take them all home with me when I leave. I start on Tuesday (because Monday is a national holiday) and will be working lunes-viernes (Monday-Friday) 8:30am-4pm. Yikes, early days. But it will be good to have a routine.
So now for the rest of the day I´m going to try and find some tape so I can hang the 100 pictures I brought with me, try and buy a cell phone so I can communicate with the other volunteers and don´t have to sit around at home waiting for Jordan to come back and be my social coordinator, and maybe find some food. I really haven´t had much of an appetite since I got here – it´s 1pm and I don’t feel particularly hungry…so unlike me!
I promise not to make (well, I’ll at least try not to make) my next posts so long – I just felt like I had a lot of details to share with everyone about my first impressions and such. I miss you all terribly already, but I also already wish you could all come down here and I could show you everything!!
Ps. Please feel free to comment on my posts – I’d LOVE to hear what you think of all of this! (Slawin and Care this is particularly aimed at you since you share my love of facebook comments)
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Hasta Luego Estados Unidos
Querido familia y amigos
So this is it. In six days I’ll be boarding a plane at Washington Dulles airport to begin my journey to Cochabamba, Bolivia until May. This adventure has been over 8 months in the making and even though it’s less than a week away, it still feels just as surreal as ever. This blog is going to be my attempt to keep everyone I love updated as much as possible on my life while I'm in Coche (the nickname for Cochabamba). The title of my blog is "Cartas de Coche" or "Letters from Coche." It took me a while to come up with something, but I thought this was clever because it incorporates my Spanish AND it's an alliteration!! I don't consider myself much of a writer and I've been told I can sometimes ramble, so I apologize in advance. But when I get excited about things I just want to share every last detail!!
This first post is a little boring but, while much of what my exact day-to-day routines will be over the next nine months is still a mystery to me, I thought I would give you a little background on what I do know that I’m getting myself into.
The organization I’ll be working with is called Amanecer, which means “dawn” in English. It was established in 1981 by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul to provide housing and care for the street children of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Literally helping them to create their own “dawn” and new beginning. Today the organization has nine homes in the city, which help over 450 children every day. While the organization originated with a focus on the young boys of the street, with seven of the nine houses holding only boys, they have expanded to include a shelter for women and children (Madre de Dios) and now include girls in their home for the youngest children (Salomon Klein). They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I imagine a video is worth even more! Instead of making you read a thousand of my own words describing the amazing work Amanecer does, I’ll let you watch this brief 12 minute video that gives you an all-access look into the work they do and where I will be spending the next nine months:
While there are nine homes in the city, I will be spending my days working at Salomon Klein with the youngest kids. Seeing as I had no say in which house I would work, this is definitely a great fit for me. I love working with kids and, as much as I question my Spanish fluency, I feel confident that I can keep up with six year olds! If they’re anything like the kids from when I did Take Ten at St. Adalberts who were constantly shocked when I knew what the word for “horse” was in Spanish (caballo), I think I should pass their tests with flying colors! However, my true test will be that I am living in an apartment in the house with the oldest boys (18-20 years old) who are transitioning out of the system. I will be living in a three-bedroom apartment with a kitchen and a family room with a Dutch girl named Ancillia and an American boy named Jordan. The volunteer coordinator has said that the boys will keep to themselves if I want the space or will love getting to know me if I’m open to it – and I definitely want to try to get to know them!
To say I’m nervous would be an understatement. To say I’m going to miss my family and friends more than I can even put into words would be the world’s biggest understatement. I go through extreme highs and lows of excitement about this adventure and sadness of everyone I am going to be so far away from. Yet, every time I start to feel nervous or upset, I think of all the small-world connections and signs that have lead me to this decision. From Katie Smith and Jennie Coe’s visit to Bolivia last summer to Darrell introducing me to Kelly and Rich (Notre Dame grads who volunteered with Amanecer a few years ago) – I know it sounds incredibly cheesy, but I have this feeling that everything will work out, that all these signs pointed me here for some reason or another. Hopefully I can keep reminding myself of that as take-off gets closer and closer…
I know the next few days will be a whirlwind of celebrations at the bay house with friends and family and then furiously packing in Richmond for the last few days and making last minute phone and skype-dates, but I thought I would try to give you all a little heads-up as to where I’m headed. I don’t know much about what I’m headed into, but I think that’s part of what makes me so excited.
Cochabamba, ready or not, here I come!
So this is it. In six days I’ll be boarding a plane at Washington Dulles airport to begin my journey to Cochabamba, Bolivia until May. This adventure has been over 8 months in the making and even though it’s less than a week away, it still feels just as surreal as ever. This blog is going to be my attempt to keep everyone I love updated as much as possible on my life while I'm in Coche (the nickname for Cochabamba). The title of my blog is "Cartas de Coche" or "Letters from Coche." It took me a while to come up with something, but I thought this was clever because it incorporates my Spanish AND it's an alliteration!! I don't consider myself much of a writer and I've been told I can sometimes ramble, so I apologize in advance. But when I get excited about things I just want to share every last detail!!
This first post is a little boring but, while much of what my exact day-to-day routines will be over the next nine months is still a mystery to me, I thought I would give you a little background on what I do know that I’m getting myself into.
The organization I’ll be working with is called Amanecer, which means “dawn” in English. It was established in 1981 by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul to provide housing and care for the street children of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Literally helping them to create their own “dawn” and new beginning. Today the organization has nine homes in the city, which help over 450 children every day. While the organization originated with a focus on the young boys of the street, with seven of the nine houses holding only boys, they have expanded to include a shelter for women and children (Madre de Dios) and now include girls in their home for the youngest children (Salomon Klein). They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I imagine a video is worth even more! Instead of making you read a thousand of my own words describing the amazing work Amanecer does, I’ll let you watch this brief 12 minute video that gives you an all-access look into the work they do and where I will be spending the next nine months:
Soy Amanrecer from amanecer on Vimeo.
While there are nine homes in the city, I will be spending my days working at Salomon Klein with the youngest kids. Seeing as I had no say in which house I would work, this is definitely a great fit for me. I love working with kids and, as much as I question my Spanish fluency, I feel confident that I can keep up with six year olds! If they’re anything like the kids from when I did Take Ten at St. Adalberts who were constantly shocked when I knew what the word for “horse” was in Spanish (caballo), I think I should pass their tests with flying colors! However, my true test will be that I am living in an apartment in the house with the oldest boys (18-20 years old) who are transitioning out of the system. I will be living in a three-bedroom apartment with a kitchen and a family room with a Dutch girl named Ancillia and an American boy named Jordan. The volunteer coordinator has said that the boys will keep to themselves if I want the space or will love getting to know me if I’m open to it – and I definitely want to try to get to know them!
To say I’m nervous would be an understatement. To say I’m going to miss my family and friends more than I can even put into words would be the world’s biggest understatement. I go through extreme highs and lows of excitement about this adventure and sadness of everyone I am going to be so far away from. Yet, every time I start to feel nervous or upset, I think of all the small-world connections and signs that have lead me to this decision. From Katie Smith and Jennie Coe’s visit to Bolivia last summer to Darrell introducing me to Kelly and Rich (Notre Dame grads who volunteered with Amanecer a few years ago) – I know it sounds incredibly cheesy, but I have this feeling that everything will work out, that all these signs pointed me here for some reason or another. Hopefully I can keep reminding myself of that as take-off gets closer and closer…
I know the next few days will be a whirlwind of celebrations at the bay house with friends and family and then furiously packing in Richmond for the last few days and making last minute phone and skype-dates, but I thought I would try to give you all a little heads-up as to where I’m headed. I don’t know much about what I’m headed into, but I think that’s part of what makes me so excited.
Cochabamba, ready or not, here I come!
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