Sunday, July 29, 2012
ladrones
today started out beautifully. I met my friends Johnathon and Ryan and Pina the dog and we hiked up the mountain where the big ol' Christ statue is. It took about an hour to climb the stairs. I took a million beautiful photos. We climbed back down and got some gatorade on the way. After we were back in town we parted ways, the boys live at the main office/house and I live about a 15 minute walk northeast. I went the usual route, cautious as usual, both hands on my little bag. I started to walk by an alley and there was a guy seemingly just hanging out, leaning against the wall, and another on a motorcycle, which looked to me like he was unsure about driving or not. Well, I kept looking at them until I passed the alley and then all of a sudden my bag was ripped off of me from behind, giving me rope burn on my neck. It all happened so fast and so slow. I don't know what I was thinking, but after a few seconds I realized what happened and turned and yelled and chased the guy that took my bag. He reached his friend on the motorcycle and hopped on as the other started the bike. I had had my metal water bottle attached to my little purse and so all I had left in my hands was my half-empty gatorade bottle. I screamed at them and threw the bottle at their heads, hitting the one that took my bag in the back of the head. He looked startled and then they were gone. At first I stormed off down the street, angry, and then I just lost it as I registered the pain in my neck and what had just happened. Sobbing I called my host mom on my cell phone, which, luckily, was in my jeans pocket, along with my money and copy of my passport. The only thing the ladrones (thieves) got was my camera, which luckily only had pictures of today's trek, chapstick and dirty socks. I hope they're happy with the socks. (insert horrid insults and curses here). My host parents immediately hopped on their scooter to come find me, only 2 blocks from the house. I had been warned many times about thieves on the trail up to the Cristo statue, and all morning I was ready for it to happen, extremely aware of my surroundings. Then, back in town, I went my regular route and totalllyyyyy misread those two men in the alley, concentrating only on how wobbly my legs were after the climb of more than 2,000 stairs. I was surprised I was able to move as fast as I did during the robbery after that hike. It's 3 and 1/2 hours later and my heart is still racing, limbs still shaking, shoulders tense. I tried to lay down, take a shower, eat a little something. I don't want to leave my room. But I know I'll have to. Apparently, says my host mom, the thieves were so startled because the victims don't usually yell or chase them or anything. I'm glad, at least, I gave them a good scare in return. I hope they enjoy looking at my pictures of Jesus Christ, the statue, and my dirty socks.
the aftermath of pursegrabbing
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Red Lights
I think I now understand what “Red Light District” means. Before
I thought “red light” like stop, don’t go. But yesterday, in my first day at
work, we arrived in an alley in the “bad part” of town that I was told not to
venture into. One by one, sometimes in pairs, a bunch of young women arrived. Finally
we were let inside and I thought, “Oh, okay, we’re doing our workshop in a bar.”
And then I thought, “wow there are a LOT of
bathrooms here…”—and then it hit me. Each room, emanating a red glow, had a
toilet, a chair and a bed. Each door had a number on it. Some of the ladies
waiting outside with us went directly, each, to a room to claim as their own. And
I understood. No one explained to me where exactly we were going and it was a
total shock to me when I finally figured it out. Everything was fine during my
colleagues’ presentation. The girls paid attention, for the most part. They
were putting their makeup on. After the presentation we gave each girl about 20
condoms and a box of fried chicken and rice. 41 girls we had. We packed up to
leave and I followed Oscar outside. I waded through about 100 men and teenage
boys on the way to the car. The stares and general feeling rolling through the
crowd made me sick to my stomach. When I got home I was shaking and couldn’t
finish my dinner or tea. I think the worst sight of all was seeing a girl of
about 8 years, sitting amongst the men on the sidewalk with a basket, selling
cigarettes, condoms and candy. 8. years. old. What a first day.
Today was better, at first. I spent the morning looking for
lesson plans in Spanish, online. And then translating an article to English to
put on our website. I had the afternoon off, to do laundry and have lunch. And
then, with my bout of bad luck, I went off to meet some coworkers at a little
art center, café place. I left the house at 4:22. It’s called mARTadero
(Matadero is the place where they butcher cows, so mARTadero was in an old
matadero building). So I perfectly arrived by bus where I wanted to get off
with no problem, and then flagged a taxi to take me the next few blocks. I
should have known right off he didn’t know where to go when he told me it would
be $15Bs to go 5 blocks. It should have been $4. So, the taxi driver took me
way out of the city to the new “matadero.” Me, of all people, wanting to go to
a butcher farm? Yea, right. From the beginning I showed the guy my ticket with
the address on it AND the map! We got way out to the “matadero” and I was like ‘no
way dude, bring me back to the city, I told you already where to go,’ and so we
stopped like 3 times to ask directions. FINALLY we found it. Arriving at 5:50.
He wanted me to pay him now $30Bs for the long ride. I said, no way man it’s
your fault. I told you a million times where to go AND showed you a map. You’re
a friggin taxi driver, you should know major tourist places, like the mARTadero
Cultural Center
Not to mention that before all this stuff, yesterday at noon
I fell out of the Taxi/Trufi van onto the dirt and concrete.
Needless to say, my first few days of work have brought me
bad luck. I can only hope things get better!!! Ay ay ay!
Monday, July 23, 2012
Went to the post office.
Today I took the bus to the post office after lunch. This morning I went to work for the first time, just to introduce myself and my SB bosses to the Vivo en Positivo program. I'll start tomorrow for real!
Just part of the line of vendors that line the sidewalks around the post office.
The Virgin Mary that the nuns dropped off at our house today. It gets passed around the community. They'll be back tomorrow to bless the house, pray with my "family members" and take her to a new family.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Here's the shower. Fun, eh? The white cord goes to the sink, so you turn the shower on if you want to wash your hands with hot water. They shut our water off today anyways, though. They're doing some kind of plumbing construction in the street so they cut the water. Luckily, the shower still works, but the toilet and sinks don't. We don't know when it will be back on. Interesting!
Sunday/Domingo cont..
Host mom "Maybei" and brother "Santiago", on the way to church.
Lunch: boiled egg with lima beans, onion, carrots, potatoes, a sauce of some sort, and macaroni.
Sunday/Domingo
Today we had breakfast and mate out in the sun in our sweaters. Later, I will go to the Catholic Mass with my host family.
This is a bus. (micro)
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Small victories!!
Yesterday, I figured out the hot water for the shower!! Yay for small victories!! Today, though, I noticed that the shower water has a small electric current...ooy. I'll post a pic of the shower infrastructure soon. Yesterday I went to La Cancha, a HUGE market and bought a beautiful alpaca sweater. It's like a labyrinth there, if I went alone I don't know if I'd find my way out, let alone home. I've been walking around the city a lot. Here are some pictures. Also, we went to a celebration of a tv station's 68th anniversary and they had some live bands in a plaza with fireworks. It was pretty cool.
Las Kjarkas
Las Kjarkas
apparently while downloading this video i just lost all pictures from today.. :( there weren't many but there was a good one of me. poo.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Cochabamba
The Visa Story
I had to apply for a special visa since I will be staying until March. Usually US citizens can only stay a total of 90 days. So I sent my application to the consulate in NY because it was closer to Maine. They say to send it between 2 weeks and 1 month before your trip, so I sent it 2 weeks. A week later I get a call saying they need the hard copy of my letter of invitation...which could take 3 weeks, if at all, to arrive from Bolivia. So the organization I'm working for said, "Oh, you should have sent it to DC, so have them send it back and send it to DC." So I did. On Monday the 9th I overnighted it to DC with a return envelope pre-paid to overnight back (picture above). Needless to say...after much hassle.. I did not get my visa until 12:45 pm Tuesday the 17th. My flight to Miami from Boston was at 3:20pm in Boston, by the way. It takes at least 3 hours to get to Boston from my house in Greene, Maine. So I intercepted this "urgent" package in Auburn on the way to the airport. Meanwhile I called the airport saying that I wasn't going to make the 3:20 flight and did they have anything that would still allow me to catch the 10:35 flight leaving Miami to La Paz...they did at 5:45-- only 1 first class seat....costing me $880!!! I got to the airport just at 3 o'clock...my dad's wonderful at driving for punctuality.. We spewed my story to the lady at the American Airlines desk and she said it wasn't so that the 1st class was the only seat...So they changed it and I only got a $380 VOUCHER back... Let me be clear: I don't have an extra thousand dollars...i'm borrowing all of this money through school loans, since this is a school related trip. I was furious. $900 is 3 trips back and forth to Argentina, or a million trips around Bolivia. Anyway. That's that. I never thought I'd get here.
View from La Paz Airport
view of the Andes from the plane...
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