I've had a busy week folks! Monday I stayed home sick (the expected bathroom issues). Tuesday was the grand fiesta de la Virgen de Urkupina (pictures below), which was like a 15 hour parade of dancers and music and partying. It was really crazy. You're not supposed to be allowed to drink on the sidelines of the festival, but behind every bleacher row there was someone selling beer or chicha (featured as the pink liquid in a Coke bottle below). The military police came around often to dump out people's drinks, but they'd just buy more. Every time this happened the whole row of bleachers would boo and yell. Because we're white we were picked out and a lady police officer yelled at our boss, "Vuelvan a su pais!" (Go back to your country!). That would get you suspended or worse, back home, in "our country." We were in no way any louder or rowdier than our surrounding neighbors, but we stuck out just enough to take the attention away from them, which I'm sure they appreciated as they didn't have as many drinks dumped. Other than the occasional military police interruption, the parade was amazing. The colors and costumes were just beautiful. Many of the dances were repetitive, as they were to resemble indigenous dances, but it was pretty. Oh, one Bolivian thing about the drinking: everyone is very friendly about sharing drinks. So when dancers were backed up people would run out into the street to take a picture and/or offer a dancer/musician a gulp of their beverage. You might also see a dancer dancing along with a beer in hand. I don't understand why the police didn't put a stop to this part of the drinking, but it was fun to watch. It made everyone feel closer and more communal with the dancers and not just audience members.
Here are some borrowed pictures from the Festival of the Virgin of Urkupina
On another note, cat litter. My host mom was so surprised at this "magical sand" I bought at the grocery store and is convinced it has a special smell to attract cats to use it because Pepito used it right away. She'd never heard of kitty litter before and had wanted to train Pepito to go to the bathroom outside. This blew her mind. As you know, my neighbor bought a puppy. So my host mom and neighbor went to the grocery store to find "puppy litter." To their disappointment the store didn't carry it. Because it doesn't exist. I tried to explain this, but they're convinced it has some special ingredient in it to make animals use it. Our neighbor bought kitty litter for her puppy and is still very disappointed that it's not working out. We babysat that puppy Monday night while the neighbor went to a family party. She had just got him the day before, so she didn't want to leave him alone.
At first, Pepito didn't want anything to do with Tuto.
Wednesday night we had poker night for a 20 Boliviano buy in ($2.89). I've never played, but I won a couple rounds, but after a second buy in, I was the first one out. Oh, well. Last night, Thursday night we had a shared dinner at the SB house. It was yummy! Also, I made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes from scratch for the first time! With butter cream frosting! This leads me to discuss my new project proposal: I proposed to my work a list of things for me to do, since it's been painfully slow going at work. I do a translation of a paragraph or page or three here and there, but most of the time I sit and wait for a boss to show up and give me something to do. I can tell you I'm up to level 45 on the jewel game on my phone. :/ SO- I proposed 1) art therapy sessions for HIV positive clients and their children, art lessons to gain funds for the organization; 2) Fundraising activities likes cupcake courses on how to make and sell cupcakes, as well as selling cupcakes myself (this is a new idea down here, no one really knows what a cupcake is), selling art lessons, and having a monthly theme dance somewhere with a cover fee that will go to VIVO+ (my organization). 3)4)5) is to create binders of activities, ice breakers and lessons for different groups: children regarding health and HIV prevention, HIV positive adults and MSM for health and prevention, and educating the general community about HIV. The idea is that they'll have a collection of resources and can flip through the binder to quickly find a 45 minute - 2 hour activity or lesson to do with their groups. I've created a calendar of activities for September, so we'll see how that starts off!
Also, had to take a shower across the street at Tuto's owner's house, Carmina, because this was our third day without water!! Though today, thankfully, we have enough water in the tank to flush the toilet and do dishes. So maybe that means tonight or tomorrow, Saturday, we'll get full water back!
