dinosaurs, halloween, urban fest, quechua, elections

I have been fortunate enough to volunteer a few days at the Universidad de San Simon's Archaeology Museum. I cut and mounted informational blurbs, painted the cubes that artifacts are placed on, and retouched/painted a dinosaur model that was eventually put up in the prehistoric wing.

I also made a little box covered in sawdust and dirt to place little Incan houses on to show how their settlements were set up!

We had a Halloween party at Sustainable Bolivia.... there were some "cultural" costumes..

Santiago had his 14th birthday the day before Halloween, so Maybe made a Jack-o-Lantern cake.

Spaghetti with homemade sauce

I got him back... remember the tradition where the birthday girl/boy takes the first bite? :)

This was the "mesa" or altar set up for Todos Santos/Dia de los Muertos (All Saints Day/Day of the Dead) Usually you put pictures up of the deceased, but they just wrote the names on a card. Then you put food out that they like. The deceased souls come at noon on Nov. 1 to start their feast and leave at noon on Nov. 2. Then children of the families pray, sing, and eat what's edible from the altars. 

Pepito under the bathroom mat

These were some T'ANTA WAWAs (bread babies in Quechua) that were also placed at the altar

Then this past weekend there was the 2nd annual Urban Fest, created by an American living here in Cochabamba. Rap, graffiti, skateboarding, BMX, etc. Santiago (14) dressed up like a lady and won a skate deck for best costume! 

Their friend Dilan's makeup

Sebastian

A bunch of BMX riders came up from Iquique, Chile to participate. They owned the park. There really isn't a big skate/BMX/"urban" culture in Cochabamba, so they had an advantage. They were really fun guys, too.

Mario..also from Iquique

Little brother!

This is Sebastian Concha from Iquique. Really nice guy, really awesome at BMX.

My beautiful brother... heh

Oh, by the way, finally got my visa!! YAYY so not only can I stay but I can leave too!

My friend Gabriel, from work, had a masquerade ball for his birthday. :)

We had an elections party the other night...we were biting our nails til 1 am...then popped some champagne!

What a way to celebrate American elections... American plastic cheese sauce!

Chile and Uruguay

I've also had 4 or 5 classes of Quechua now. It's really interesting and difficult, too! It's the language of the Inca... how cool is that!? And it is still widely spoken throughout Bolivia, and parts of Peru, Chile, and Argentina. 

IMAYNATA KANKI ---how are you?

WALEJLLA KANI--- im fine

ISKAY CHUNKA TAWAYOJ KANI - i'm 24 years old. 

TUKUY COCHABAMBA LLAJTATA QHWARIYTA MUNANKI CHAYQA, SAN PEDRO ORQOMAN WICHARIYTA ATINKI, CHAYPI "CRISTO DE LA CONCORDIA" KASAN. MANA SAYK'UYTA MUNANKI CHAYQA, TELEFERICUPI WHICHARIYTA ATINKI. CHANTA FOTOSTA ORQHOYTA ATINKI TUKUY K'ACHA COCHABAMBA LLAJTAMANTA.  -- If you want to see all of Cochabamba, you can go the San Pedro mountain where the Cristo statue is. If you don't want to exhaust yourself, you can take the gondola to the top. After you can take photos of the entire beautiful city of Cochabamba...

cool huh?