hola everyone! espero que todos esten bien. i hope that you all are well.
first, before i forget. ERIN EVANS, please do me a favor and forward this message to the bookstore and bookstore people. for some reason i keep getting error messages and i don´t think that they are getting through to everyone. thank you! oh and forward it to janine too...i have her on my list but i am not sure she is getting the emails or not. ok thanks again lol.
lo siento que yo no he escrito en tanto tiempo. sorry that i have not written in so long. yo estaba de viaje a visitar mi sitio en el departamentode santa cruz. i was on a trip to visit my site in the department of santacruz. fue un viaje largo, y ahora les voy a contar la historia de mi visita.it was a long trip, and now i am going to tell you all about my visit.
we left bright and early...well actually it was a little after 5am and it was dark...for the bus terminal on sunday the 8th of july. laura and i tooka taxi, which was not cheap, it cost 30 bolivianos. we arrived at the bus terminal and successfully checked in our bags and met up with tristan,mathias, and elizabeth. we had to wait around for a while, our bus did not leave until 7ish. so we had some snacks and looked for a bathroom. the bathroom at the bus terminal is disgusting. it is super dirty and you have to pay 1 boliviano to buy a bathroom ticket. then you have to stand in line to get your piece of toliet paper so that you can use the stinky bathroom.it is not fun. finally at about 8am our bus actually left, we sat there atthe terminal not moving for an hour. while the bus was sitting still a bunch of ladies came onto the bus selling everything from candy and coffee to sleeping pills.
the bus ride was super long...about 12 hours to be exact. we only stopped once for 30 minutes to have lunch and use the bathroom. it was horrible. i had to go to the bathroom so badly and the bus does not stop for anything. of course there is a "bathroom" on the bus...but it is smaller than a closet and basically a hole in the floor. someone was always in it and it smelled like poop and vomit.
anyways, when we were about 10km from the bus terminal in santa cruz the bus got a flat tire. so that meant that we all had to get off and unload our stuff from under the bus. then we had to pay to take a taxi to the hotel. it was scary. it was about 8pm and really dark out. luckily we flagged down a nice taxi driver who happened to be driving around with his really cute 4year old daughter. so we arrived at our hotel and dropped off our stuff really quickly because we were all very hungry. we went to eat at a place called alexander´s and it was wonderful. they serve a mixture of mexican and american food, and it all tastes really good. after dinner all we could think about was going to sleep, traveling by bus makes you really tired.
monday morning we got up early to go to our counterpart/ workpartner orientation day. the event was held at a fancy hotel. the point of the orientation was to introduce all of the volunteers to their work partners,the bolivians from their future sites who are going to be working closely with them. a lot of the work partners showed up late, there were blockades and other transportation problems. there are always blockades in bolivia, some group is always trying to make a statement by blocking off major roads.my work partner showed up an hour late, but i was just happy that he came at all. i was really nervous about meeting him. his name is pedro ipamo and he is the english and literature teacher in my site, el puquio. the funny thing though is that he does not actually speak english, so i have no idea how he teaches it haha. he is a sort skinny little man, about 30 years old. he has a wife and 2 children. the children are 7 and 4 i believe, a boy and a girl. at the orientation we just got to know eachother and went over peace corpspolicy in regards to work partner relationships. basically he is responsible for helping me get to know the community and finding work. my responsibilityto him is to help him on projects he has interest in and to keep him informed of what i am working on. he seems like a pretty nice guy. the orientation was not too long, we got done about 4pm. my work partner pedro pretty much ran out of the meeting and told me that he would see me in elpuquio. he apparently had some personal business to attend to and would not be traveling with me to my site.
monday evening we all just sort of hung out and got some dinner and ice cream. the ice cream in santa cruz is amazing, they have a place called bitsand cream with is a lot like coldstone in the states. i was sort of worried all evening though because i was told there was a problem getting me a bus ticket to go to my site the next day. i was supposed to be traveling with 2 other volunteers, the girl who is currently at my site and a guy who has a site not too far from mine. late in the evening the peace corps called me to say that someone would pick me up in the peace corps land cruiser to take me to the bus station at 6am. so i went to bed early to get some rest.
in the morning my adventure began. armando picked me up in the peace corps land cruiser at 6am and we went to another hostel to pick up lauren, the current volunteer in el puquio, and chris, a basic sanitation volunteer whose site is close to el puquio. chris will be ending his service when i swear in, so we won´t actually be site neighbors. lauren, the current el puquio volunteer, is a 26 year old girl from new york. she is really nice and really friendly. i was glad to have her traveling with me. so we got to the bus terminal at about 7am and armando dropped us off. the bus station is crazy. there were so many people there and so many old broken down looking buses. when i saw the bus i was supposed to get on i was kind of scared. it had cracks in all the windows, it was covered with dust, and none of the wheels looked the same size. there were already a lot of people standing around it and there were men loading things on top of the bus. it is amazing the types of things they put on top of buses here in bolivia. on top of my bus, which is called the 20 de enero, there was a bed frame, an oven, 3 huge sacks of grapefruits and oranges, a wheel barrow, and countless bags,back packs, and suitcases. it was crazy to see. the bus only has about 20 seats on it, but that doesnt mean that only 20 people travel on it. in fact,lauren, chris and i only had 2 seat tickets. that meant that chris had to stand for the trip. the seats are really small and he is a tall guy, so it is not easy for him to get a good seat on a bus. the bus was crammed full of people. i sat all squished between people with my back pack on my lap. so in this bus with only 20 seats i counted about 40 people. it was insane.everyone was on top of eachother and there were babies crying and little old ladies yelling in their native languages. finally the bus left the terminal and my adventure began.
the first big event in the trip is the bridge crossing. we had to cross a bridge with is under construction at the moment. that means that traffic flows in one direction for 30 minutes and then in the other direction for 30 minutes. this causes quite a back up of traffic. my bus ended up being stuck for about an hour waiting to cross the bridge, which i guess is a shorter time than it usually gets stuck. the nice thing about being stuck at the bridge is that people come by the bus windows and try to sell you things.they sell bread, coffee, oranges, hot chocolate, and various other things. i really wanted some hot chocolate, but there is no bathroom on my bus...so ithought it would be better not to put any liquids in my body.
i forgot to mention how crazy cold it was. in santa cruz it is normally hot and humid, but every once in while a cold wind comes from the south pole called a surazo. this freezing wind makes the weather all cold and cloudy in southern south america. in fact, there was snow in argentina for the first time in years. a lot of people died of the cold in argentina, paraguay and in bolivia. it was really sad. i was personally unprepared for the coldweather and spent the week freezing my toes off. it was not very much fun.
ok, so back to the bus trip. so after the bridge the bus trip was pretty uneventful for awhile. we made one stop to go to the bathroom and get some lunch before the bus headed down the bumpy dirt road which would be our path for the rest of the day. when we stopped for lunch it was only about 11 am. the road to my site is a crazy bumpy old dirt road that goes straight through the jungle. the dirt is red and the trees seemed to create a wall on each side of the bus. there is really only room for one vehicle to go through, so the bus lays on the horn when it goes around curves to alert any on coming traffic. it is really kind of scary. the bus goes really fast and everyone inside bounces all over the place. it was not very comfortable at all. several times along the way the bus had to slam on the breaks and stop in order to move trees, branches or rocks out of the way so we could go through. it was pretty annoying. but then things got interesting...
after hitting a bump in the road the bus made a funny noise and we stopped completely. the driver started yelling and everyone got off of the bus. a couple of guys went under the bus and the driver came out asking if anyone could give him glue, chapstick or toilet paper. some lady gave him toliet paper and he went back under the bus with an empty coca cola bottle and a roll of toilet paper. i was so confused as to what he was going to do.minutes later, he emerged from under the bus with the coca cola bottle full of oil and without the roll of toilet paper. it was crazy. we all go back on the bus and we kept going. i wish that i would have gone under the bus with all of the little kids to see what he did to fix that bus, it was some kind of miracle haha.
we finally arrived in el puquio a little before 6pm i think. it was almost getting dark. lauren i said good bye to chris and got off the bus. el puquiois a really cute little village. the buildings are cement that is painted white with orangish terra cotta color shingles. the houses are cement or mudwith straw and palm leaves on the roof. the town is no more than a 15 minute walk from one end to the other. the roads are dirt and form a square arounda little tiny plaza. there are 2 tiny churches, a catholic church and an evangelical church. the village is entirely surrounded by a jungle like forest. because it is winter here everything was sort of dry, and not very green. but it was all still really beautiful. the water comes from a small pump down by a river and is pumped up to a tiny water tower and several public pumps by a motor that runs on gas. there is one school and they just built a new multi purpose field for soccer, basketball and volleyball. there is also a grass field that is used for big soccer games, which happens to be located right in front of where i will be living.
so my housing...i will be renting a room from a family. i did not get to meet any of them though, it was winter vacation and they had all gone to the city. there are 4 children, 14 and under. the mother works most of the time in a town 4 hours away and the father works in la paz, which is really far away from el puquio. so the grandmother, who lives a few houses away, sort of watches the children while their parents are gone. it is kind of a strange situation. the house is really cute and nice, it has all tile floors and a new roof. there is a covered tile patio that wraps around the house. i will be renting the bedroom that can be entered from the patio, so i won´thave to go through the house to get to my room. i will have more privacy.the room is really nice, the tile is pretty and the windows have mosquito netting and glass on them. the lock on the door also seems pretty secure. the room is about the size of a college dorm room, enough space for a bedand a desk. lauren said she would leave her bed and desk and a few other pots and pans for me so i don´t have to buy a lot of stuff when i move in. i am really happy that she is doing that, so i won´t have to try to get it all on the bus. the kitchen is a seperate building that is run down and made of wooden planks. it is pretty dirty and full of bugs, like spiders and cockroaches. i am going to have to do something about that. the latrine is disgusting, but will have to suffice for now. the structure is a partically finished wooden shack with a wood and dirt floor. the toilet, if you will, is a hole in the ground covered by a wooden box with a hole in it. the wooden box part which you sit on is missing some slats at the bottom and thehole in the box is bigger than the hole ground, therefore you have to aim carefully or the pee splashes up on your feet. it will be an experience, that is all i can say.
my few days in el puquio were a whirl wind of confusion. i did not get to meet many people, as most of the town had left for vacation because therewas no school, and the people who were there were locked up in their houses because it was so cold and windy. lauren and i spent most of our time drinking tea and playing cards in her room. during the afternoons when i was warmer, she took me to see the school, library, and meet a few of the teachers. she also showed me the little stores where you can buy food. there really is not much food in my site. the stores sell just a few things,oil,salt, rice, noodles, sugar, and flour. sometimes there are eggs,potatoes, and coffee. i was also told though that when there is a holiday or party coming up the people import tomatoes and other veggies from other towns. i was kind of shocked to find out that there is no bread for sale in the town. lauren says that the people are lazy and it is too hot usually to cook bread all day. when one of the villagers makes bread it sells out in a matter of minutes. i guess i will be learning how to bake my own bread. i will also be bringing in veggies from the city. thankfully, during the summer there are a few local mango trees i will be able to pick from, i look forward to that. i am also thinking that a school or community garden would be a good project to work on in my site.
i wish i had more to say about my site, but i really did not spend more than a few days there. most of my time was spent sleeping and trying to staywarm.
i left on friday morning at 7am on the same bus that brought me into el puquio. this time i did not have much luggage because i left a whole suitcase with lauren so that i won´t have to bring so much when i move in.the ride back was hot and dusty. the bus was jam packed with people and there was a little boy who would not stop crying. it was a pretty uneventful ride until we made our stop to go to the bathroom....
ok, here is what happened. so i get off the bus and tell a person on the busand the driver to not leave without me. so i proceed to go find the disgusting public bathroom aka hole in the ground. at this point we are stopped in a small roadside town in the middle of no where. so i do my business and i come back out to the road...and the bus was gone. i looked upand down the road, no bus. to my suprise i did not freak out. i just stood there for a minute thinking of my options. i had money on me and a cellphone. so i took out the cell phone only to find out that there was no signal...well of course there was no signal...i was in the middle of the stinking jungle! a woman comes up to me and says "oh my goodness the busleft! it left you behind!"...i say "yeah it looks that way"...she says "well i have a brother, and he has a motorcycle, i can go get him and he can take you on the motorcycle to try to catch the bus"...i say "ummm...uhhhh...well i don´t know what to do". (the peace corps has a rule against riding on motorcycles, but this was an emergency). so just as i was about tell this lady to go get her brother, i see the bus coming down the road over the horizon. i was so happy. a guy gets out of the bus, and apologizes to me and i get on the bus. apparently the guy who apologized was from el puquio and had seen me on the bus. when he realized that i was not on the bus anymore he made the driver turn around. the whole ordeal was pretty quick, i was stranded for 25 minutes tops, but it seemed like forever at the moment. so i guess i had good luck that day, i have no idea what i would have done if the bus had not come back. i guess i would have taken my chances and got on the motorcycle. needless to say, the guy who made the bus come back is my 1st friend from el puquio.
so that was my adventure. the bus ride on the way back only took about 9 hours, it was pretty fast. i got back to santa cruz in time to meet up with mathias for dinner. we had a good evening exchanging stories about our site visits. mathias has to ride a train called "the death train" to get to his site, and he did not have any warm clothes to wear during the freakishly cold weather. everyone seemed to have a story to tell. it was great, ireally feel like we got our first real peace corps experiences.
we spent friday night and all day saturday in santa cruz. my friends and i exchanged stories, hung out, ate a lot of food, drank a lot of hot chocolate, and ate a lot of ice cream. it was nice to relax with them and just chill out before heading back to cochabamba for more training. we tried to come back to cochabamba on saturday night, but all of the buses were sold out. it was crazy. there were lines in the bus terminal and people yelling and pushing to try to buy tickets. they were not selling tickets for sunday,so we really did not have any other choice but to stay in santa cruz saturday night and try to catch a bus in the morning. tickets go on sale at 6am so mathias, laura, tristan and i got up super early and were at the terminal before 6am to buy tickets. there were long lines still and people pushing. so instead of waiting in line to buy a ticket on a good bus, we decided to take our chances and buy tickets on a shady dirty bus company´sbus. we but tickets and were on a bus to leave at 7am. the ride was pretty uneventful, except there was no bathroom...not even the mini closet with a hole in it type of bathroom...and poor tristan was having intestinal issues, i´ll let you use your imagination haha. about 9 hours into the ride the busbroke down in the middle of the foothills. we were on a ridge with a valley on one side and a hill on the other. the bus had been making funny noises and finally just stopped. we were still about 3 hours from cochabamba. so we had nothing better to do than take the opportunity to get out of the bus and climb down the ridge to go to the bathroom. i have gone to the bathroom outdoors more times in the past 2 months than i have ever in my entire lifeup until now. it is really not so bad after awhile. we were stuck for about an hour while the bus guys tried for fix some type of belt that was broken.so we ended up playing some rummy on the bus and eating lots of cookies. we finally made it back into the city about 730 pm. tristan had a rough time on the bus, so we let him choose a place to go for dinner. we ended up having some chinese food and did not get back to our host families until about 10pm.
overall it was an exciting trip. i am anxious to go back to my site and move in. i am really looking forward to working with the people in my community. i will most likely be working with the english teacher, the kindergarten teacher, and in the library. i am also hoping to make a town garden and possibly organize some after school sports and clubs. it should be an adventure and i am more sure than ever that i am here doing what i am supposed to be doing.
i swear in next friday and will start to travel to my site again next weekend. this will be my last long email for awhile, as there is no internet in my site. in my site there is a public telephone and a sometimes functioning radio. there is no cell phone service and there is only electricity 2 nights a week for 3 hours, but they are working to improve that.
i just want to thank you all for supporting me through my training and for reading my emails. i like to be able to share my stories and adventures with you. i miss you all and i hope that you all are having a good summer. keep sending emails, i will eventually read them. when i get my new mailing address i will let you know...i want to get some letters!
ok well that is all for now. i have to take 2 tests today, a culture testand a technical skills test. i have to be able to identify plant diseases and mix up natural pesticides, it should be interesting.
thanks again, i will probably check my email a few more times before i go to my site, so send any questions or comments you have.
take care and be safe, and don´t worry about me...i am doing great
*all you need is love, love never fails*
paz y amor y hugs, beth in bolivia
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Beth Update 6?
hola todos! como estan? hey everyone, how are you?
ojala que todos esten bien. i hope that you all are doing well.
lo siento que yo no he escrito en tanto tiempo. sorry that i have not primero quiero decirles que
yo estoy bien y que estoy feliz. first i want totell you that i am well and happy.
la semana pasada yo estaba muy ocupada. last week i was really busy.
ahora voy a contarles sobre mi viaje a santa cruz, concepcion, el carmen ysan miguelito del sur.
now i am going to tell you all about my trip to santa cruz, concepcion, elcarmen and san miguelito del sur.
fue un viaje muy largo, por eso, no puedo decirles cada cosa que me hapasado. pero voy a contarles las cosas interesantes.
it was a very long trip and because of that i can´t tell you everything thathappened. but i am going to tell you all of the interesting things.
lo siento, ahora solo voy a escribir en ingles. ojala que sus traductoresfuncionen. i´m sorry, now i am only going to write in english. i hope thatyour translators are working.
ok, so we spent last wednesday night at the training center. it was freezingcold and there is no heat there. i ended up staying up all night talking tomathias and a few other people because our feet were too frozen to sleep. itis amazing how it can be so hot during the day and so cold during the night.the weather here is crazy.
on thursday morning we got up at 5am to eat breakfast and get on the road.we left at 6am on the peace corps bus with don roque driving. don roque isthe best bus driver anyone could ask for. he used to drive for really important people, like ambassadors and stuff. but he says he prefers todrive for the peace corps because gringos are nicer than important bolivian officials.
thursday we spent on the road and drove out of the valley into the chapare.
from visiting. it is a tropical jungle type area where they grow a lot of coca to make cocaine. it is a dangerous area because the bolivian governmentand foreign patrols are always making huge drug busts there. we stopped forlunch in a place called villa tunari. it was beautiful. it was hot and humidand there were ladies selling delicious tropical fruits everywhere. it is amazing how different everything was when we had only driven about 4 hours away from cochabamba.
after lunch we continued on to the city of santa cruz. it took us until about 6 pm to get there. the city of santa cruz is much different than cochabamba. it is newer, cleaner, and the people look different. there were a lot more foreigners and bolivians with lighter skin. there were a ton of american restaurants and products to be bought. they even had a subway restaurant. santa cruz and its people currently oppose the bolivian government, because the president gives more funding to the people in the highlands, where he is from. the people of the tropical low lands have pretty much had to fend for themselves and have successfully built what theybelieve to be the greatest city in bolivia. because of all of this santa cruz, the city and province, would like to become independent from the rest of bolivia. they want autonomy and the country has been on the verge of civil war for a long time. it is an interesting time to be here in bolivia to see what happens.
anyways, we stayed the night in the beautiful city of santa cruz in a prettynice hostel. they hostel even had hot showers! it was so awesome to take ahot shower after not having had one in almost 50 days. i never felt so cleanin my life. in the late evening i went out with a few friends to a cubanrestaurant and ate the most delicious fried bananas that i have ever had andi drank the most wonderful lemonade i have ever tasted...or maybe it just
seemed that way because i was so hungry and thirsty lol.
the next morning we continued on our trip to the city of concepcion. we drove about 6 hours to get there and went through some of the most amazing countryside i have ever seen. we went through an area that looked like the savannas in africa and drove over countless bridges. at one point we crossed a bridge over what seemed to be a mini desert. it was actually a dried up river bed. don roque told us that during the rainy season the river gets so high that they sometimes have to shut down the bridge. it took us a long time to get over the bridge because they are currently working on repairing it. they had the bridge open to traffic in one direction for 30 minutes and then switched to let traffic in the other direction for 30 minutes.
we arrived in concepcion around 2pm to get some lunch. concepcion is a large town, but not too large. the dirt is red and clouds of red dust fly up behind all of the cars. it was very hot and dry. it was like being in a red desert. there is a law in the town against 2 story buildings, so all of the restaurants and offices are only 1 story high. we ate lunch in a restaurant that belongs to an italian immigrant who is a friend of the peace corps. he even made a delicious eggplant pasta dish for the vegetarians in the group. after lunch we got back on the bus to go on to el carmen. el carmen is an isolated peace corps site about 2 hours from the city of concepcion. the current volunteer there is named kevin and he will be there for another year. he met us in concepcion to direct us towards his site. to get to his site we had to drive through the tropical forest on a bumpy dirt road. the bus broke a lot of tree branches trying to squeeze down the narrow path, but we eventually made it. we arrived in el carmen as it was getting dark, which was kind of scary because the town does not have electricity. we safely arrived at the small library where we were going to stay, which thankfully has a solar panel which provides electricity. the local women cooked dinner for us and we ate by flashlight in the school meeting building. kevin made pasta with tomato sauce for the vegetarians and i would have to say it was the best meal i had ate in bolivia. since there was not a lot of room in the library a couple of my friends and i volunteered to pitch our mosquito tents outside and sleep under the stars. it was a beautiful night with a nice breeze, great weather for sleeping. we all laid there for a while looking at the stars. i had never seen so many stars in my life. i even saw the southern cross constellation, it was one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen. it was an awesome experience to share with my friends and i am sure that none of us will ever forget how beautiful the sky looked that night or how many shooting stars we saw.
in the morning we woke up to the sound of pigs...who were invading our campsite. it was actually pretty funny. we got up and ate breakfast, which was delicious tropical fruit salad, and then got our things together for the health fair we were putting on. we had a health fair in the field behind theschool. my group presented the topic of nutrition. the other groups presented on the importance of healthy family relationships, brushing yourteeth, and washing your hands. my group played a rely race game in which the teams had to race to classify foods in the correct food group. it was a lot of fun and even the adults of the community had a great time running around and shouting. it was a great experience. after lunch we all went to the local soccer field to have a gringos vs bolivians soccer game. the bolivians kicked butt and the gringo guys were really mad, but us gringa girls just thought it was hilarious. in the evening the towns people put on a great folk dancing show for us and did what looked like a may pole dance. they were celebrating el dia de san juan, st. johns day. all the gringos even were invited to join in the dancing, we had a blast.
on san juan´s day people have huge bonfires and burn replicas of the things they would like to be blessed with in the coming year. it is sort of like their new years celebration. people burn fake dollar bills, small wooden animals, and even tiny dolls if they want more children. we went to one of the fires and got to watch. then at midnight...the people go crazy. they spread out the bonfire and take turns walking over the hot coals. it was one of the most amazing things i have ever seen. they say you have to walk across within 10 minutes after midnight and that if your faith in God is not strong enough, then your feet will get burned. i have never seen anything like that. after walking across the coals the young men take off their beltsand chase around the smaller and younger people and hit them on the backside. it seems really violent and strange from my cultural perspective,but to them it was completely normal and acceptable. they say they hit thes maller people to make them grow up strong and healthy.
the next morning we left and went back to concepcion to prepare for the teacher workshop that we held monday through wednesday. we stayed at a boarding house that is normally used by teachers visiting from the countryside. it was a pretty nice place, although the showers were ice cold. thankfully josh had sent me a solar shower in the mail that i was able to fill up and use. it is amazing how happy little things like having hot watercan make you when you have been out of the states for awhile. sunday evening we all just hung out in the town and i had dinner with aaron, mathias and tristan. i tend to hang out with the guys more than the girls in my group,the girls are always wanting to dress up to go dancing and sing karaoke...which are not things i like to do lol. we had dinner at a restaurant owned by a man who studied in ohio during his college years. heis a really nice guy and makes wonderful vegetarian food because he was taught to cook by a former peace corps volunteer.
on monday we had our first session for the teacher workshop. about 30 teachers showed up, although 50 had signed up. we had activities and discussions all day long about different learning styles and how to adapt lesson plans for children with different needs and learning styles. i faciliated some of the discussions on using positive language in the classroom, which was easier than i thought it would be. the teachers were really receptive and open to sharing their ideas and admitting their past faults in the classroom. the 2nd day of the workshop the teachers were split into groups and rotated to different sessions. my group held a session on how to integrate the ideas of gender equity, democracy, and human rights into math activities. we worked with the teachers on creating story problems and manipulatives to use in their classrooms. it was a lot of fun. in the afternoon we broke the teachers up into groups to work on creating a lesson plan, keeping in mind all of the things they had learned. i worked with a group to prepare a math lesson for a first grade class. it was going reallywell, but then i got called for my site interview with the peace corps assitant director. while i had my interview with my APCD, wendy, about which site i would be placed in, one of the bolivian teachers decided to take charge of the group and change all of the ideas we had come up with...which i was unaware of until the next day when we had to present the lesson to real live children in a local classroom.
so on wednesday we were in a local 1st grade classroom...and i got the shock of my life when the bolivian control freak teacher handed me the lesson plan she made and told me that we were going to do it her way. she let me present to the children about 5 minutes and then told me something like "good job,now let me do the rest". i was angry and so were the other 2 bolivian teachers in the group. the lesson turned out horrible and was not interactive at all. she had the children sitting in their desks copying from the board, which is totally inappropriate for first grade students. anyways, it was not fun, that is all i have to say about that. it just goes to show that people are resistant to change
that evening things started going wrong. my friend mathias started to feel really sick and was throwing up. tristan and i had to go get the peace corps staff to take him to the clinic, he ended up spending the night in the clinic in concepcion. also during the night, my friend erin walked into one of the bedrooms and said "i feel dizzy" and suddenly passed out on the floor and smashed her nose. we had to take her to the hospital as well. in the morning my friend emily started to feel sick, she started to throw up and have stomach pains...so we took her to the hospital as well. it was really scary. mathias and erin were still not feeling better after being on IVs all night and emily was looking pretty bad. the peace corps staff was concerned that it was some kind of food poisoning and that more people were going to get sick, so we decided to take our trip to san miguelito del sur but not spend the night out there in case more people started to get sick.
the trip to san miguelito was only about 45 minutes, but of course it was ona very bumpy road. san miguelito is very small and the people were very friendly. we presented a quick nutrition workshop in the church to the school children and then spent the majority of the afternoon working on a school vegetable garden with the 8th grade students. we had a blast joking around with them and having a water fight with the hose. after we finished the garden we played a soccer game, and of course lost miserably to the bolivians. it was a good time. that evening we returned to concepcion to visit emily, erin and mathias at the clinic. mathias was the only one who was not getting better. he was looking pretty bad and the doctors could not figure out what was wrong with him. we were all getting pretty worried.
we spent the night in concepcion and got up early in the morning. i woke up with a sore throat. i looked at my throat with a flashlight and found out that my tonsils were covered in white stuff, not a good sign. we decided that because we had 3 sick people in the hospital, plus another girl and i with sore throats, that it would be best to get on the road to santa cruzto get all of the sick people to the hospital and my friend jamel and i to get our throats checked out.
in about 6 hours we made it to santa cruz and went straight to the hospital. they admitted mathias right away and gave antibiotics and took stools samples from erin and emily. they gave jamel antibiotics and a shot. when i went into see the doctor the nurse started to page for someone from pediatrics, they thought that i was about 13 years old. it was hilarious.when i had been in the waiting room there was an older woman sitting there with me and there was also another gringa looking middle aged woman. when i came back out after seeing the doctor the old woman was there still but the other gringa was gone. the old woman said in a sad voice to the peace corps staff member, "the little girls mom has already left her". she thought the woman was my mother and that i was much younger than i actually am. it was so funny. we didn´t tell the woman that she was not my mother, we justagreed with her and laughed once we got outside. the doctors ended up giving me 2 shots, one of antibiotics and one for inflamation, because my tonsils were pretty much touching eachother. so i spent the rest of the evening
relaxing and trying not to sit much because the shots had made my backside pretty sore.
emily, erin, and i were feeling better later in the evening, so we went out shopping and to eat. we found an awesome restaurant with mexican food, so we had some quesadillas and drank fresh juice. it was great until erin started to feel sick again and we had to leave. but before we left we bought some delicious chocolate chip muffins for breakfast the next day.
mathias was still sick and erin had to go back to the hospital. peace corps considered flying them both back to cochabamba, but in the end they had to come with us on the bus in the morning. the doctors loading them up with drugs so they would not have to go to the bathroom on the 12 hour trip. i thought that was kind of a bad way to handle the situation, but that is what we did. so we all got on the bus and made the 12 hour bumpy road trip back to cochabamba. and my bottom hurt the whole time pretty much, because thebus was bouncing around and the nurse had given me some pretty big bruises when she gave me the shots. and to make things worse my throat really was not feeling any better. but no worries, i feel much better now.
we arrived in cochabamba around 10 pm, and we took everyone home. they even took mathias to his house, though we all thought it was a bad idea. we had been stopping all day for him to use the bathroom and i did not think he wasin a good condition to go home. and i was right, because the next morning he ended up in the hospital again.
wow, i am going to be late for class. that will have to be all for now. i will try to write later or tomorrow and tell you all more about my trip and my site. i hope you enjoyed my ongoing babble.
have a wonderful day and take care. don´t worry, i am feeling better and soare my friends. mathias got out of the hospital yesterday.
ok, sorry to cut this short. more to come, i promise.
love and hugs to allpaz y amor,
beth in bolivia
ojala que todos esten bien. i hope that you all are doing well.
lo siento que yo no he escrito en tanto tiempo. sorry that i have not primero quiero decirles que
yo estoy bien y que estoy feliz. first i want totell you that i am well and happy.
la semana pasada yo estaba muy ocupada. last week i was really busy.
ahora voy a contarles sobre mi viaje a santa cruz, concepcion, el carmen ysan miguelito del sur.
now i am going to tell you all about my trip to santa cruz, concepcion, elcarmen and san miguelito del sur.
fue un viaje muy largo, por eso, no puedo decirles cada cosa que me hapasado. pero voy a contarles las cosas interesantes.
it was a very long trip and because of that i can´t tell you everything thathappened. but i am going to tell you all of the interesting things.
lo siento, ahora solo voy a escribir en ingles. ojala que sus traductoresfuncionen. i´m sorry, now i am only going to write in english. i hope thatyour translators are working.
ok, so we spent last wednesday night at the training center. it was freezingcold and there is no heat there. i ended up staying up all night talking tomathias and a few other people because our feet were too frozen to sleep. itis amazing how it can be so hot during the day and so cold during the night.the weather here is crazy.
on thursday morning we got up at 5am to eat breakfast and get on the road.we left at 6am on the peace corps bus with don roque driving. don roque isthe best bus driver anyone could ask for. he used to drive for really important people, like ambassadors and stuff. but he says he prefers todrive for the peace corps because gringos are nicer than important bolivian officials.
thursday we spent on the road and drove out of the valley into the chapare.
from visiting. it is a tropical jungle type area where they grow a lot of coca to make cocaine. it is a dangerous area because the bolivian governmentand foreign patrols are always making huge drug busts there. we stopped forlunch in a place called villa tunari. it was beautiful. it was hot and humidand there were ladies selling delicious tropical fruits everywhere. it is amazing how different everything was when we had only driven about 4 hours away from cochabamba.
after lunch we continued on to the city of santa cruz. it took us until about 6 pm to get there. the city of santa cruz is much different than cochabamba. it is newer, cleaner, and the people look different. there were a lot more foreigners and bolivians with lighter skin. there were a ton of american restaurants and products to be bought. they even had a subway restaurant. santa cruz and its people currently oppose the bolivian government, because the president gives more funding to the people in the highlands, where he is from. the people of the tropical low lands have pretty much had to fend for themselves and have successfully built what theybelieve to be the greatest city in bolivia. because of all of this santa cruz, the city and province, would like to become independent from the rest of bolivia. they want autonomy and the country has been on the verge of civil war for a long time. it is an interesting time to be here in bolivia to see what happens.
anyways, we stayed the night in the beautiful city of santa cruz in a prettynice hostel. they hostel even had hot showers! it was so awesome to take ahot shower after not having had one in almost 50 days. i never felt so cleanin my life. in the late evening i went out with a few friends to a cubanrestaurant and ate the most delicious fried bananas that i have ever had andi drank the most wonderful lemonade i have ever tasted...or maybe it just
seemed that way because i was so hungry and thirsty lol.
the next morning we continued on our trip to the city of concepcion. we drove about 6 hours to get there and went through some of the most amazing countryside i have ever seen. we went through an area that looked like the savannas in africa and drove over countless bridges. at one point we crossed a bridge over what seemed to be a mini desert. it was actually a dried up river bed. don roque told us that during the rainy season the river gets so high that they sometimes have to shut down the bridge. it took us a long time to get over the bridge because they are currently working on repairing it. they had the bridge open to traffic in one direction for 30 minutes and then switched to let traffic in the other direction for 30 minutes.
we arrived in concepcion around 2pm to get some lunch. concepcion is a large town, but not too large. the dirt is red and clouds of red dust fly up behind all of the cars. it was very hot and dry. it was like being in a red desert. there is a law in the town against 2 story buildings, so all of the restaurants and offices are only 1 story high. we ate lunch in a restaurant that belongs to an italian immigrant who is a friend of the peace corps. he even made a delicious eggplant pasta dish for the vegetarians in the group. after lunch we got back on the bus to go on to el carmen. el carmen is an isolated peace corps site about 2 hours from the city of concepcion. the current volunteer there is named kevin and he will be there for another year. he met us in concepcion to direct us towards his site. to get to his site we had to drive through the tropical forest on a bumpy dirt road. the bus broke a lot of tree branches trying to squeeze down the narrow path, but we eventually made it. we arrived in el carmen as it was getting dark, which was kind of scary because the town does not have electricity. we safely arrived at the small library where we were going to stay, which thankfully has a solar panel which provides electricity. the local women cooked dinner for us and we ate by flashlight in the school meeting building. kevin made pasta with tomato sauce for the vegetarians and i would have to say it was the best meal i had ate in bolivia. since there was not a lot of room in the library a couple of my friends and i volunteered to pitch our mosquito tents outside and sleep under the stars. it was a beautiful night with a nice breeze, great weather for sleeping. we all laid there for a while looking at the stars. i had never seen so many stars in my life. i even saw the southern cross constellation, it was one of the most beautiful things i have ever seen. it was an awesome experience to share with my friends and i am sure that none of us will ever forget how beautiful the sky looked that night or how many shooting stars we saw.
in the morning we woke up to the sound of pigs...who were invading our campsite. it was actually pretty funny. we got up and ate breakfast, which was delicious tropical fruit salad, and then got our things together for the health fair we were putting on. we had a health fair in the field behind theschool. my group presented the topic of nutrition. the other groups presented on the importance of healthy family relationships, brushing yourteeth, and washing your hands. my group played a rely race game in which the teams had to race to classify foods in the correct food group. it was a lot of fun and even the adults of the community had a great time running around and shouting. it was a great experience. after lunch we all went to the local soccer field to have a gringos vs bolivians soccer game. the bolivians kicked butt and the gringo guys were really mad, but us gringa girls just thought it was hilarious. in the evening the towns people put on a great folk dancing show for us and did what looked like a may pole dance. they were celebrating el dia de san juan, st. johns day. all the gringos even were invited to join in the dancing, we had a blast.
on san juan´s day people have huge bonfires and burn replicas of the things they would like to be blessed with in the coming year. it is sort of like their new years celebration. people burn fake dollar bills, small wooden animals, and even tiny dolls if they want more children. we went to one of the fires and got to watch. then at midnight...the people go crazy. they spread out the bonfire and take turns walking over the hot coals. it was one of the most amazing things i have ever seen. they say you have to walk across within 10 minutes after midnight and that if your faith in God is not strong enough, then your feet will get burned. i have never seen anything like that. after walking across the coals the young men take off their beltsand chase around the smaller and younger people and hit them on the backside. it seems really violent and strange from my cultural perspective,but to them it was completely normal and acceptable. they say they hit thes maller people to make them grow up strong and healthy.
the next morning we left and went back to concepcion to prepare for the teacher workshop that we held monday through wednesday. we stayed at a boarding house that is normally used by teachers visiting from the countryside. it was a pretty nice place, although the showers were ice cold. thankfully josh had sent me a solar shower in the mail that i was able to fill up and use. it is amazing how happy little things like having hot watercan make you when you have been out of the states for awhile. sunday evening we all just hung out in the town and i had dinner with aaron, mathias and tristan. i tend to hang out with the guys more than the girls in my group,the girls are always wanting to dress up to go dancing and sing karaoke...which are not things i like to do lol. we had dinner at a restaurant owned by a man who studied in ohio during his college years. heis a really nice guy and makes wonderful vegetarian food because he was taught to cook by a former peace corps volunteer.
on monday we had our first session for the teacher workshop. about 30 teachers showed up, although 50 had signed up. we had activities and discussions all day long about different learning styles and how to adapt lesson plans for children with different needs and learning styles. i faciliated some of the discussions on using positive language in the classroom, which was easier than i thought it would be. the teachers were really receptive and open to sharing their ideas and admitting their past faults in the classroom. the 2nd day of the workshop the teachers were split into groups and rotated to different sessions. my group held a session on how to integrate the ideas of gender equity, democracy, and human rights into math activities. we worked with the teachers on creating story problems and manipulatives to use in their classrooms. it was a lot of fun. in the afternoon we broke the teachers up into groups to work on creating a lesson plan, keeping in mind all of the things they had learned. i worked with a group to prepare a math lesson for a first grade class. it was going reallywell, but then i got called for my site interview with the peace corps assitant director. while i had my interview with my APCD, wendy, about which site i would be placed in, one of the bolivian teachers decided to take charge of the group and change all of the ideas we had come up with...which i was unaware of until the next day when we had to present the lesson to real live children in a local classroom.
so on wednesday we were in a local 1st grade classroom...and i got the shock of my life when the bolivian control freak teacher handed me the lesson plan she made and told me that we were going to do it her way. she let me present to the children about 5 minutes and then told me something like "good job,now let me do the rest". i was angry and so were the other 2 bolivian teachers in the group. the lesson turned out horrible and was not interactive at all. she had the children sitting in their desks copying from the board, which is totally inappropriate for first grade students. anyways, it was not fun, that is all i have to say about that. it just goes to show that people are resistant to change
that evening things started going wrong. my friend mathias started to feel really sick and was throwing up. tristan and i had to go get the peace corps staff to take him to the clinic, he ended up spending the night in the clinic in concepcion. also during the night, my friend erin walked into one of the bedrooms and said "i feel dizzy" and suddenly passed out on the floor and smashed her nose. we had to take her to the hospital as well. in the morning my friend emily started to feel sick, she started to throw up and have stomach pains...so we took her to the hospital as well. it was really scary. mathias and erin were still not feeling better after being on IVs all night and emily was looking pretty bad. the peace corps staff was concerned that it was some kind of food poisoning and that more people were going to get sick, so we decided to take our trip to san miguelito del sur but not spend the night out there in case more people started to get sick.
the trip to san miguelito was only about 45 minutes, but of course it was ona very bumpy road. san miguelito is very small and the people were very friendly. we presented a quick nutrition workshop in the church to the school children and then spent the majority of the afternoon working on a school vegetable garden with the 8th grade students. we had a blast joking around with them and having a water fight with the hose. after we finished the garden we played a soccer game, and of course lost miserably to the bolivians. it was a good time. that evening we returned to concepcion to visit emily, erin and mathias at the clinic. mathias was the only one who was not getting better. he was looking pretty bad and the doctors could not figure out what was wrong with him. we were all getting pretty worried.
we spent the night in concepcion and got up early in the morning. i woke up with a sore throat. i looked at my throat with a flashlight and found out that my tonsils were covered in white stuff, not a good sign. we decided that because we had 3 sick people in the hospital, plus another girl and i with sore throats, that it would be best to get on the road to santa cruzto get all of the sick people to the hospital and my friend jamel and i to get our throats checked out.
in about 6 hours we made it to santa cruz and went straight to the hospital. they admitted mathias right away and gave antibiotics and took stools samples from erin and emily. they gave jamel antibiotics and a shot. when i went into see the doctor the nurse started to page for someone from pediatrics, they thought that i was about 13 years old. it was hilarious.when i had been in the waiting room there was an older woman sitting there with me and there was also another gringa looking middle aged woman. when i came back out after seeing the doctor the old woman was there still but the other gringa was gone. the old woman said in a sad voice to the peace corps staff member, "the little girls mom has already left her". she thought the woman was my mother and that i was much younger than i actually am. it was so funny. we didn´t tell the woman that she was not my mother, we justagreed with her and laughed once we got outside. the doctors ended up giving me 2 shots, one of antibiotics and one for inflamation, because my tonsils were pretty much touching eachother. so i spent the rest of the evening
relaxing and trying not to sit much because the shots had made my backside pretty sore.
emily, erin, and i were feeling better later in the evening, so we went out shopping and to eat. we found an awesome restaurant with mexican food, so we had some quesadillas and drank fresh juice. it was great until erin started to feel sick again and we had to leave. but before we left we bought some delicious chocolate chip muffins for breakfast the next day.
mathias was still sick and erin had to go back to the hospital. peace corps considered flying them both back to cochabamba, but in the end they had to come with us on the bus in the morning. the doctors loading them up with drugs so they would not have to go to the bathroom on the 12 hour trip. i thought that was kind of a bad way to handle the situation, but that is what we did. so we all got on the bus and made the 12 hour bumpy road trip back to cochabamba. and my bottom hurt the whole time pretty much, because thebus was bouncing around and the nurse had given me some pretty big bruises when she gave me the shots. and to make things worse my throat really was not feeling any better. but no worries, i feel much better now.
we arrived in cochabamba around 10 pm, and we took everyone home. they even took mathias to his house, though we all thought it was a bad idea. we had been stopping all day for him to use the bathroom and i did not think he wasin a good condition to go home. and i was right, because the next morning he ended up in the hospital again.
wow, i am going to be late for class. that will have to be all for now. i will try to write later or tomorrow and tell you all more about my trip and my site. i hope you enjoyed my ongoing babble.
have a wonderful day and take care. don´t worry, i am feeling better and soare my friends. mathias got out of the hospital yesterday.
ok, sorry to cut this short. more to come, i promise.
love and hugs to allpaz y amor,
beth in bolivia
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Beth is Alive!!
hola todos,
beth is alive! i am back from my trip and i have so many things to writeabout. i unfortunately do not have time right now to write a long update. ihope to do so later today, tomorrow or thursday.
my trip was truly amazing. we had a ton of fun and i saw so many wonderfulthings. i will write in detail about it all soon. but just to get youinterested...i saw dozens of people walk across hot coals to celebrate eldia de san juan! it was so awesome!
a lot of my friends got sick...salmonella, amoebas, giardia, shagella...buti only got tonsilitis and or strep, so no worries. they all got sick fromplaying with dirty dogs and eating poorly prepared meat dishes, in my caseit paid off being scared of dogs and being a vegetarian. i will share moredetails in my next email, because some of the story is actually quite funny.
in case some of you are dying to know...i got my site assignment yesterday.
beth is the newest member of a community called El Puquio!
El Puquio is a small community in the tropical lowlands that consists ofabout 300 or so people. there is 1 school and 2 churches, electricity from7-10 pm every other night, radio communication, a sometimes reliable public phone and seldom available internet service. it is one of the truly "middleof no where" sites. the climate is hot and humid, much like a michigansummer...but hotter. i will be involved in helping promote the use of thenew library, after school recreation activities and possibly teachingenglish and health in the school. there are 115 elementary students and 65 high school students. my counterpart is the english and literature teacher,who is supposed to be a really nice guy. the living conditions will be challenging, hole in the ground latrine bathroom, without electricity in myhome, no cell phone service, a long 10 hour bus ride to the nearest bigcity, and i will be carrying water from a public pump. but no worries, i am up for the challenge.
ok, more to come soon. i hope that all of you are doing well. happy latebday to aunt june and anyone else i missed. i really need to catch up onbday and holidays. happy early 4th of july to you all, celebrate for me!
thanks for all of the emails that you have been sending, i appreciate it. iwill write back soon.
love and hugs to all
and i repeat, i am doing fine. i am healthy and have not dropped weight,that is a good sign.
*all you need is love, love never fails*
paz y amor, beth
beth is alive! i am back from my trip and i have so many things to writeabout. i unfortunately do not have time right now to write a long update. ihope to do so later today, tomorrow or thursday.
my trip was truly amazing. we had a ton of fun and i saw so many wonderfulthings. i will write in detail about it all soon. but just to get youinterested...i saw dozens of people walk across hot coals to celebrate eldia de san juan! it was so awesome!
a lot of my friends got sick...salmonella, amoebas, giardia, shagella...buti only got tonsilitis and or strep, so no worries. they all got sick fromplaying with dirty dogs and eating poorly prepared meat dishes, in my caseit paid off being scared of dogs and being a vegetarian. i will share moredetails in my next email, because some of the story is actually quite funny.
in case some of you are dying to know...i got my site assignment yesterday.
beth is the newest member of a community called El Puquio!
El Puquio is a small community in the tropical lowlands that consists ofabout 300 or so people. there is 1 school and 2 churches, electricity from7-10 pm every other night, radio communication, a sometimes reliable public phone and seldom available internet service. it is one of the truly "middleof no where" sites. the climate is hot and humid, much like a michigansummer...but hotter. i will be involved in helping promote the use of thenew library, after school recreation activities and possibly teachingenglish and health in the school. there are 115 elementary students and 65 high school students. my counterpart is the english and literature teacher,who is supposed to be a really nice guy. the living conditions will be challenging, hole in the ground latrine bathroom, without electricity in myhome, no cell phone service, a long 10 hour bus ride to the nearest bigcity, and i will be carrying water from a public pump. but no worries, i am up for the challenge.
ok, more to come soon. i hope that all of you are doing well. happy latebday to aunt june and anyone else i missed. i really need to catch up onbday and holidays. happy early 4th of july to you all, celebrate for me!
thanks for all of the emails that you have been sending, i appreciate it. iwill write back soon.
love and hugs to all
and i repeat, i am doing fine. i am healthy and have not dropped weight,that is a good sign.
*all you need is love, love never fails*
paz y amor, beth
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