¡Oh, cuán lejos llegarás!

Danielle was nice enough to send me a package with the book “Oh, the places you’ll go!” in español which I picked up on Saturday – along with cards from my mom and Emily – at my first visit to the Correo (there is only ONE post office in ALL of Cochabamba). But now that I know where it is and how it works I’m going to attempt to start sending some mail of my own!

And indeed, oh the places I’ve been this past week. The quest to fix my Bolivian cell phone took four days and multiple hours. It all began when I went to the Viva store (Viva is the name of the cell phone company) downtown to activate my phone on Tuesday (strategically timed so because Dumbo’s – an ice cream place- has a 2x1 deal on Tuesdays and is located two stores down from the Viva store). When I told them that I needed to activate and register my phone the man at the desk told me I needed a code from the store where I’d bought my SIM card – none of the other volunteers have ever needed a code. But, nonetheless I believed them. False. I do not need a code. So because I already had plans to meet Angela (a fellow ND grad who is down here doing service until next fall) for dinner on Wednesday night, my journey picked up again on Thursday. I returned to the store and told them such code did not exist, to which they replied of course it didn’t (I think the other guy was having some fun pulling a joke on the gringa) and they attempted to get on the phone with the operator to register my phone, but it wouldn’t work. So they send me to the oficina central in another part of the city because they don’t know how to handle it. They tell me to bring my phone, my SIM card, and a copy of my passport. So I go to the oficina central, all my things in tow, and no sooner have I explained to the guy at the door that I need to activate my phone than he says that all extranjeros (foreigners) have to go to the store in the CINE CENTER (movie theater) to activate their phones. So on Friday I venture to the Cine Center after work and no sooner have I walked up to the desk to say I need to register my phone than they ask for my passport – to which I give them the photocopy, but alas, they say they need my actual passport. I attempt to argue that I’d been to the oficina central and they just told me I needed a photocopy, but the lady at the desk, not so kindly, informs me that that’s only for registering my phone – for activation I need my actual passport and if I would like to get on the line with the operator they will tell me so themselves. So I return home, defeated. On Saturday I return to the Cine Center with my passport and everything else I thought I might possibly need (200 Bolivianos – a ridiculous amount, all numbers given to me by previous stores, passport AND photocopy of passport, and a mental attitude that they were going to reject me once again, so just be prepared…) and although it took 17 calls to get through to the operator, I FINALLY left at 2:30pm on Saturday with a working Bolivian cell phone! And that my friends, is how things are done in Bolivia.

In terms of work the week was pretty good, nothing to complain about, especially since my favorite mama’s were the ones working MWF – it’s amazing how even when they are missing a mama the kids behave SO much better for this set of mama’s than for Albertina. The highlights of my week were that
1. They got a new music CD that has 25 songs instead of 3 – although I’ve almost memorized the words to “Quiero un Herrmanito” and “Pinata” and all the other songs on the CD, 25 is a much better selection than 3.
2. On Wednesday I got about 7 of the kids to all hold hands and dance in a circle. Probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. And slightly concerning that the highlight to my week was dancing in circles (we also attempted to do hands on shoulders and be a tren (train) – but that wasn’t quite so successful, a few of the kids took it to be more than a slight invasion of their personal space and ended up crying…one thing at a time I suppose).

It was really nice to have dinner with Angela and have someone from ND down here to relate to. I even met up with her and another girl who graduated from ND two years ago at Burger King on Saturday for the “gamewatch” – it’s nice to have a little community down here – although they’ll be working starting in October so I have to take advantage of these gatherings while I can.

I think that I’ve found the way in which I’m going to become rich – there are multiple establishments in Bolivia that have ripped off chains from the States (or maybe the States ripped off the Bolivian store…) and I’m thinking that if I take pictures of said copyright violations and identity thefts that perchance I could make a bit of money from the companies in the States…that or end up with a lifetime supply of Chiptole. Yes, there is a restaurant down here called Chipotle – and they even stole the red circle with a pepper in the middle logo from the chain in the States. Jordan and I did our American duty of checking out this fraudulent store on Friday night after my frustrating day #3 with Viva and although it is not set up the same as the Chipotle in the States, they do have a very delicious burrito AND most importantly they are the first establishment at which I’ve found Coca Cola Light in this city. I’m thinking about going back and asking them who their supplier is and if they can order me an extra crate every month.

It’s back to just Jordan and I again. Ancilla moved out on Saturday to live at Solomon Klein (where both she and I work) because she wanted to work and live in the same place and said she felt “safer” there. I still don’t understand why she wants to work and live at the same place (especially bc the rooms at Solomon are in the cafeteria and SUPER loud when the kids are out and about and it can also get really hot because they’re close to the tin roof). We’ll be getting another roommate in the beginning of October – but for the next three weeks at least, its just us two again. Poor Jordan will have to get a reward for having to put up with me for so long.

I’ve also taken to dealing with stress/homesickness by baking. I think Jordan and the boys downstairs are really going to start wishing for me to be homesick if this keeps being the maner in which I choose to deal with it. On Saturday I made Maria’s famous Oreo balls (mashed up Oreos and cream cheese balls covered in white chocolate). I had made them as a little “surprise” for when we had a few of the other volunteers over on Saturday night, but seeing as there are only about 6 of us and there were about 30+ oreo balls I brought about 15 of them downstairs to the boys when we went down for dinner – I think I’ve safely made lots of new friends.

On Sunday Jordan and I laid low for the most part – I’ve been reading Sense and Sensibility and am hooked and furiously reading until I finish. We also went and at in the park for two hours and got LOTS of good people watching in (mostly these three kids attempting to run up a slide and failing every single time and making a “WHOMP!” sound as they hit the slide). I’m telling you, I was meant to be a kid in Cochabamba. At the park they had trampolines out, a MOON BOUNCE (for all of you who don’t know this about me – I have a sliiiiight obsession with inflatables…), horse/pony rides, the motorized kid jeeps, cotton candy, a train ride that played music and rode around the park, a makeshift mary-go-round, and playgrounds. And this is just a regular old Sunday! I felt like I was at a carnival!

This week will be long because it’s the mama’s I don’t like as much that work MWF, but Tuesday is a feriada (holiday) - the bicentennial celebration of Cochabamba (their phrase is – America is free because Cochabamba wanted it to be so! – maybe giving themselves a little too much credit…) which means I’ll have the day off and get to go downtown and see all the different celebrations. Who knows, maybe there will even be a moon bounce for grownups! A girl can only dream.

I ALMOST FORGOT. I thought I would share a picture of the infamous chicken-foot-soup that we had for dinner last week. It´s not unusual for the soup to have a chicken foot in it, but on Tuesday I won the prize and got the chicken foot in MY bowl. Oh lucky me.