News From the Pook

hola todos! hello everyone!

como estan? ojala que todos esten sanos y felices. how are you? i hope thatyou are all healthy and happy!

bueno, aqui estoy en la ciudad de santa cruz. well, here i am in santa cruz.estoy aqui para el fin de semana, no mas. i´m just here for the weekend.

first, let me just tell you all that i miss you and that i really doappreciate all of the emails and love that you have been sending me. itreally makes all the difference and keeps me sane.

i just survived my first couple weeks out in my site, its called El Puquio(aka the pook) if you have forgotten. i don´t remember exactly where i leftoff in my last group email. i will just say that the last few weeks of julywere a whirl wind of stress and insanity. i had to get all of my thingsbought and packed to get out to my site, i had to bid a sad farewell to myhost family, i had to prepare for my swearing in ceremony with theambassador (yes i met the ambassador!), and bid farewell to all of myfriends who will be stationed all over the country. i don´t really recallany interesting details from those few weeks. here are a few of thehighlights...

we had a party for our host families, which was really fun. all of the peacecorps volunteers had to learn a couple traditional bolivian dances and wehad a dance off. i of course did not do very well, we all know that bethcan´t dance haha

the peace corps paid for all of us to stay in a nice hotel of a couplenights in the city of cochabamba before our swearing in ceremony. the hotelwas amazing and the showers were really hot! it is amazing the little thingsthat make you happy after you´ve been living in a 3rd world country forawhile.

we also found our way to the burger king restaurant while we were in thecity, where i had the most delicious chocolate shake i have ever had in mylife. or maybe it was just good because i had not had a chocolate shake in months. again, it is amazing how happy the little things can make you.

the swearing in ceremony was really nice. it took place in a pretty gardenand the ambassador was there with all of his security guards. it was nice toget dressed up and see everyone looking good. it was funny to see everyonewearing suits, ties, and dresses...because i have been seeing these peoplelook like dirty scrubby hippies for the past 3 months haha. the ceremony wasshort and sweet, and we were all officially sworn in as peace corpsvolunteers. we had to sign a contract and everything.

anyways, so i stayed in the city for 2 days after i sworn in. i spent thosedays hanging out and saying goodbye to my friends who would not betravelling to other areas of bolivia and not into santa cruz with me.

i took the overnight bus into santa cruz with mathias, tristan, laura and afew other people. we spent the next 2 days shopping in santa cruz for food,beds, sheets, pots, pans, and lots of other things. i bought myself a ministove with a little oven and 2 burners. and i had to buy a propane tank forit as well.

then i had some really good luck. the peace corps decided that because theradio was not working in my site that they were going to drive me out to mysite and try to set up cell phone service there with some kind of specialdevice. that meant that i would not have to try to lug all of my things withme and worry about getting them on and off the bus. it made me so very happybecause i was really nervous about being able to get all of my stuff out tomy site. i had a lot of big things to take, my stove, my water filter, abunch of cookware, and my propane tank...plus a box of food and a suitcase.

so lets begin with my adventures...i arrived in el puquio at my site on thefirst day of august. it was an exciting day, especially since the peacecorps took me in the land rover and the tech guy carlos was going to try to set up cell phone service for me. we spent the morning unpacking and settingup my room. my closest neighbor from the community of san lorenzo was therewith us, her name is vanessa. she is awesome, but she will be ending herservice in october so i won't have her around very much. carlos tried reallyhard to set up the cell phone antenna for me on the town's water tower...butit did not work. my site is too far in the middle of the jungle to pick upany cell phone signal, even using the peace corps high tech devices. aftermany failed attempts carlos and the other peace corps staff member, miriam,left me to fend for myself as the newest resident of el puquio.

so there i was in the middle of the jungle, all alone. no cell phoneservice, no internet, no reliable public phone, no form of transportation,no electricity, no running water, no one who speaks english. it was a verystrange feeling. for the first time in my life i was completely on my ownwithout the ability to contact friends, family or anyone who might be ableto help me if i were to have an emergency.

the nearest town with a medical clinic is 5 hours away on a bus, a bus thatonly goes out on wednesdays and sundays. i did not know really anyone...idid not know where to get water or where to buy food or where to go to findanyone to help me. i was kind of freaked out. i knew that i was goingsomewhere very remote and off the beaten path, but i could not haveanticipated that feeling of extreme isolation and helplessness. i had amillion and one things rushing through my head. like...what if i get reallysick? what if there is a family emergency and no one can contact me? what ifi blow up my room with my propane tank and new stove?

i spent my first evening sitting in my room freaking out, until my bolivianwork partner, professor pedro, showed up to say hello and invite me topresent myself at the town meeting. the town meeting was a 3 hour long event which was attended by mainly the men of the community. the meeting topicswere electricity, bringing in the internet, the upcoming independence dayevents and ME! when it was time to talk about the new peace corps volunteeri was invited to speak in front of the group. it was sort of nerve rackinghaving about 100 men sit and stare at you. so i presented myself, i said myname and why i was there and all of that kind of stuff. then i opened thefloor for questions. they asked all sorts of personal questions, like if iwas single, if i was going to marry a bolivian, if i was a catholic orevangelical, what kind of food i like to eat, where am i from, why did ichose bolivia, if my parents were mad at me for leaving them...and manymore. it was kind of tiring to stand up there and be interrogated like that,but i got through it.

the next few days in my site were a whirlwind of confusion. no one seemed toknow that i was coming, so no one was prepared to introduce me to people orshow me around. everyone seemed suprised to see me, like they did not knowthey were getting another volunteer. i spent a lot of time by myself, justorganizing my things and setting up my room. i also tested out my new stoveand tried to cook some good meals out of the limited food supply that wasavailable to me. the new stove works really well, it is just sort of scaryevery time i have to light a match to ignite the stove burner. i feel like iam going to blow myself up. but i'm sure i will get used to it. i made a lotof veggie dishes, because i had to use up my supply of veggies before theyrotted. veggies don't last long because it is hot and humid. i also ate alot of oatmeal, because it is easy to make.

i was going crazy though a few times because all i wanted was somethingchocolate to eat...but there is no chocolate in my site because it wouldjust melt on the store shelves. so i had to get creative. in my desperation i mixed chocolate powder ( like nesquick), powdered milk, and peanut butterinto my bowl of oatmeal. it was really really good. i am not sure if you areall familiar with those no bake oatmeal chocolate cookies, but that is whatit tastes like. so you should all try it if you get a chance. haha.

i am not going to lie, i went through a period of a week or so when i barelyleft my room. i was afraid to talk to people and i was just overwhelmed. iwas going out of my mind. and when i had gone a week without speakingenglish i started to really freak out. thankfully my nearest neighborvanessa came in for a visit the next day and brought me a big bag ofgrapefruit. she really saved me from having a total melt down. during myperiod of freaking out and self inflicted isolation i thought about alot ofthings, i slept a lot, i invented new recipes, and i read a lot of books.here is the list of books that i have read so far.

the life of pi (wonderful book, a true must read)the children of men (not too bad)the bridget jones' diary (hilarious, but a chick book)she's come undone ( i highly reccomend this one, though it is strange)the bean trees (a heart warming classic)the count of monte cristo (sort of confusing, but it sucks you in)the 158 pound marriage (this was one really sick, don't read it)

as you can see i had a lot of free time on my hands to read. i was really inbad shape, but no worries. i am doing great now and this trip into the cityto see my friends really renewed my enthusiasm. apparently the whole lockingyourself in your room and not talking to people reaction is completelynormal and happens to a lot of volunteers throughout their service. some ofmy friends had similar stories. so don't worry, i repeat.. i am ok.

during the days when i was not freaking out, i did manage to get a fewthings done and make a few friends. i attended an english class and helped out one day, i attended the neighboring town's festival, i went to a soccermatch, and i attended a few of the evangelical church's youth choirpractices. i would say my best friends so far are a group of 14-16 year oldgirls who attend the evangelical church. they have been really warm andwelcoming and they stop to chat even when they are busy carrying water orsomething. i think i'll get to know them pretty well.

speaking of carrying water...i have to carry water about maybe 300 metersfrom the public tap to my house. the public water tap is a nice place totalk to people, because there is always someone there getting water. thebolivian women are really talented at carrying the buckets on top of theirheads, but i have not mastered that skill yet. the only bad thing aboutgetting water is the bugs. there is this one type of bug that looks sort oflike a wasp, and it loves to drink water. they swarm around you as you tryto get water and they fall into your buckets. they also land all over youand they bite you...it hurts pretty bad. i have gotten used to it though,the bites don't leave big marks thankfully.

the electricity situation in my site is interesting as well. starting the2nd of ausgust the bolivian president promised my community and thesurrounding communities that they would have electricity every night. iguess the government is going to supply a fund to buy the gas to run thegenerator. so we have had electricity from 7-10 or 6:30-9:30 every evening,which is great. the only problem is that my room does not have a switch toturn on and off the light. so i can't turn off the light in my room if iwant to go to bed. i am usually tired by 8pm, because the roosters wake meup at 5:30 or 6 am...so it is no fun having to lay there and wait for thelights to go off.

apart from just walking around and talking to people, i have not done much.i don't have to start working on a project until november. i have these first couple months to do a diagonostic evaluation of my community and findout what the people want to work on. i will however probably start teachingenglish before november. the english teacher, who is my work partner, doesnot actually speak english. he teaches out of a child's vocabulary book andhe does not know how to pronounce the words, so he is going to need somehelp. there are a few high school students who are interested in improvingtheir english. one boy said he would like to be a translator one day, and ifhe wants to do that he is going to need a lot of academic support.

the school schedule is interesting in my town. the highschool kids go toschool from 8-12 in the morning. many of the students come in from theneighboring communities. they walk an hour or more to get to school everyday. during the 4 hour school day there are 2 breaks that last 30 minutes,so they really are only in class 3 hours per day. the elementary school kidsgo to school from 1:30 until 5pm, with 2 breaks as well. i am not sure howmuch the children could be learning with so few hours of class, but i shallfind out and let you know.

i figured that i needed to start excercising so that i can stay in shape. ihave been taking evening walks down the road out of my town. the road is awinding hilly dirt road straight through the jungle. the hills are steep soit is a good workout, but you have to be careful to not slip on the losestones going down the hills. it is beautiful to walk along and see thesunset over the trees. you can hear hundreds of birds and see flocks ofparrots flying over head. i plan to continue taking daily walks, it gives metime to relax and think.

the people in my town are wonderful. they are very friendly and curious.although some of the younger kids seem really scared of me, like they arefreaked out by my white skin or something. some of them run away and others just freeze and stare at me. their parents usually get a good laugh fromtheir reactions. the elderly people are adorable. they have lived such toughlives, they all look about 100 years old. many of them still work reallyhard all day long, some of them even still go to the mines to work. many ofthem speak mainly the native language, which is called besiro. it is reallycomplicated with different vowel sounds. i really hope to learn it though.it would be rewarding to learn a dying idigenous language.

well that is about it. i don't know what else i can say about the time in mysite, because i really spent a lot of time doing nothing. hopefully nexttime i come into the city i will have some good stories to tell you all.

before i close i would like to end with the story of my adventure in the bustravelling here to santa cruz. this is probably just one of many wonderfulstories i will have by the end of my service. (this is the same bus thatleft me stranded in the middle of no where)

so i´m in the stinky, smelly, sweltering hot, dusty 20 de enero bus. we aredriving through the hilly lomerio area, up and down up and down...like aroller coaster, but a bad one that you would never pay to ride on even if itwere the last roller coaster on earth. all of the sudden the wind starts toblow and the trees start swaying and creaking. it is the dry season in thejungle so everything is all creaky and dead looking. then out of no where,this big gust of wind blows and we start to hear this wretched crashingsound...and a huge tree falls across the road right in front of the bus. idid not see it fall, i was in the back of the bus...but i saw how close itended up to the bus. it was kind of scary. it could have easily fallen onthe bus and crushed us to death. anyways, so we all have to get out of thebus...and we just stare at this tree. the bus driver goes to the back of the bus and looks for a saw or hatchet or something...but of course he forgot topack one. all he has is this old rusty shovel that looks about as old as theinca empire, with which he proceeds to hack at the tree with....making 0progess. so here we are, in the middle of the jungle...it is a windy coldsurazo day...and all this guy has is a shovel and he thinks he is going tochop apart a stinking tree about 2.5 feet in diameter. thankfully, one ofthe passengers walked up the road a couple kilometers to the nearest town tofind some help. he came back with a guy and a chain saw. so this chain sawguy became our hero and chopped up that tree and had us out of there in amatter of 10 minutes. this episode delayed us almost 2 hours, but it wasworth it to see everyone cheer when the chain saw dude showed up. the busdriver felt like an idiot for not having a saw or something. anyways, it was an adventure haha

ok, well that is unfortunately all for now. i will be coming into the cityin about a month, so you can expect to hear from me then. but, maybe we willget internet in my site and i will be able to communicate with you allbefore then. we shall see. so until then i hope that all of you are doingwell and having fun. don't worry about me or miss me too much, i am happyand doing well. i think i have gotten through the overwhelming adjustment period.

i apologize for any grammatical errors i have made...or any incoherentconfusing stuff i have written. my brain is fried and my english is getting bad ha ha.

ok so take care, write me back if you get a chance. thanks for all of yourlove and support. be good and don't forget about me! i send love and hugs to all.

*all you need is love, love never fails*paz y hugs, beth meray,

pcv ( OFFICIAL PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER! YAHOO!)