In our site we have a smaller Cristo like the one in Cochabamba. It is on a small hill overlooking our town and has the stations of the cross and a cemetery nearby. A few weekends ago we finally went up for the first time. You get a nice view of our town and the surrounding mountains.
We traveled a few weekends ago up to visit some friends from our training group. There are two girls, Ellen and Stephanie, in towns about an hour away from each other and three hours north of us. Compared to our hamlet of 500 people, Ellen´s town of a few thousand seemed quite large to Erica and I. We went out for hamburgers, got to check our email, and went out to a cool Bolivian bar. We also spent some time shopping for fresh fruits and vegetables that we can not find in our town -- mostly broccoli. We also got to spend some time with Christian, a fellow volunteer in a town just an hour from Erica and I. Christian is just about to complete his two years of service and was able to give up tips and advice for the area where we are all now living. We hope to visit him one more time before he finishes his service and sets out to travel a bit in late June.
(L -- Erica and Christian)
(R -- Scenery near Villa Abecia)
Other highlights of the month have been our developing cooking skills. Erica has had more practice at carving chickens. We now know to ask for the half of the pollo sin cabeza. We also have gotten in the habit of boiling any unused parts, organs, and bones and then feeding them to the neighborhood dogs the next morning. I´ve had more practice with refried beans and homemade spaghetti sauce. We continue to love our stove and realize it was dinero well spent.
We also bought a nice mattress and blankets two weeks ago. For the previous five weeks we´d been sleeping on a wool mattress and using our sleeping bags as it has gotten colder. The wool mattress is the standard Bolivian style -- about 3 inches thick and very hard and lumpy. I woke up every morning with a sore back. We spent a full month´s salary for one of us, about $150 to buy a US style mattress and boxspring. It was considered quite lujo (luxurious), and we got some odd looks as we loaded it onto the top of a taxi.
Transporting them out to our site also proved to be an adventure. We didn´t think it wise to take both pieces at once so we opted to leave the boxspring at the PC office in Tarija and have our supervisor bring it out in a truck when he visits at the end of June. The mattress we took to the bus station with us as we were preparing to head back to our site. It is also standard Bolivian practice to ship or bring large items -- desks, chairs, stoves, etc. -- along with you on a bus trip. But we had a problem with the mattress. The cargo/luggage doors on the underside of the bus were not large enough to fit the mattress through. We had already bought our tickets for the 3 or 4 hour ride and had about 30 minutes before it was supposed to leave. We quickly had to make a decision; stay another night and try to find a larger bus, or send the mattress "encomienda" on another bus line. Basically send it as true cargo and hope it would be delivered to our site. We opted for the latter option. As Erica loaded our regular bags onto the bus I ran across the street to a shipping company and asked if they could fit the mattress. Of course they said yes, but they did not have an office in our small town. In order to receive the shipment we would have to be waiting on the side of the road the following evening as the bus passed by. If we missed it, our mattress would continue on to La Paz, another 22 hours north of us. I signed a small slip of paper, handed over 40 Bolivianos, wrote "Barajas" on the plastic covering the mattress, and said a small prayer that we would in fact see our lujo mattress again. We got on the bus and rode out to our site, half expecting never to see it again.
To our surprise, and to the credit of the Bolivian bus system, our mattress arrived as advertised the following evening around 8:00pm. I was down buying us some sandwiches and Erica waited by the side of the main road for the correct bus to pass by. It stopped at our town and a guy hopped out and called, "Colchon para Barajas." Erica let the guy know she was Barajas and out came the mattress from a larger cargo door at the back of the bus. We´ve slept like babies every night since.
Aside from the mattress we also got a wonderful package from the US from our good friend Evan. He asked us a little while ago what we would like. We said movies and books. Evan sent us 11 DVDs and 10 books. We´ve watched the entire 6 episodes of Star Wars and the trilogy of Indiana Jones. I´ve also read 4 of the books so far. Thanks Evan!
We also bought a nice mattress and blankets two weeks ago. For the previous five weeks we´d been sleeping on a wool mattress and using our sleeping bags as it has gotten colder. The wool mattress is the standard Bolivian style -- about 3 inches thick and very hard and lumpy. I woke up every morning with a sore back. We spent a full month´s salary for one of us, about $150 to buy a US style mattress and boxspring. It was considered quite lujo (luxurious), and we got some odd looks as we loaded it onto the top of a taxi.
Transporting them out to our site also proved to be an adventure. We didn´t think it wise to take both pieces at once so we opted to leave the boxspring at the PC office in Tarija and have our supervisor bring it out in a truck when he visits at the end of June. The mattress we took to the bus station with us as we were preparing to head back to our site. It is also standard Bolivian practice to ship or bring large items -- desks, chairs, stoves, etc. -- along with you on a bus trip. But we had a problem with the mattress. The cargo/luggage doors on the underside of the bus were not large enough to fit the mattress through. We had already bought our tickets for the 3 or 4 hour ride and had about 30 minutes before it was supposed to leave. We quickly had to make a decision; stay another night and try to find a larger bus, or send the mattress "encomienda" on another bus line. Basically send it as true cargo and hope it would be delivered to our site. We opted for the latter option. As Erica loaded our regular bags onto the bus I ran across the street to a shipping company and asked if they could fit the mattress. Of course they said yes, but they did not have an office in our small town. In order to receive the shipment we would have to be waiting on the side of the road the following evening as the bus passed by. If we missed it, our mattress would continue on to La Paz, another 22 hours north of us. I signed a small slip of paper, handed over 40 Bolivianos, wrote "Barajas" on the plastic covering the mattress, and said a small prayer that we would in fact see our lujo mattress again. We got on the bus and rode out to our site, half expecting never to see it again.
To our surprise, and to the credit of the Bolivian bus system, our mattress arrived as advertised the following evening around 8:00pm. I was down buying us some sandwiches and Erica waited by the side of the main road for the correct bus to pass by. It stopped at our town and a guy hopped out and called, "Colchon para Barajas." Erica let the guy know she was Barajas and out came the mattress from a larger cargo door at the back of the bus. We´ve slept like babies every night since.
Aside from the mattress we also got a wonderful package from the US from our good friend Evan. He asked us a little while ago what we would like. We said movies and books. Evan sent us 11 DVDs and 10 books. We´ve watched the entire 6 episodes of Star Wars and the trilogy of Indiana Jones. I´ve also read 4 of the books so far. Thanks Evan!
We also had our first experience riding in the back of a camión, or truck. Believe it or not, riding in a camión is an approved Peace Corps transportation method. They just urge us not to do it at night. We do have the option of large buses to bring us into Tarija, but they only come early in the morning between 6-8 AM and sometimes in the afternoon around 1pm. On this particular day we had lost electricity to our building the evening before and our landlady was out of town. A neighbor found the short in the main power box and a few of us tried to fix it, but we were not successful. So around 2 PM after waiting by the road for almost two hours, we hailed down a truck hauling garlic, squashes, and onions. We climbed up a ladder and made ourselves as comfortable as we could amongst the bags of garlic. There was a Bolivian family already settled in complete with blankets and bags who looked at us kind of funny. I doubt they see many gringos traveling this way. We were surprisingly comfortable and not too cold. The ride was nice as we were able to have great 360º views of the valley and mountains. The driver got out twice to check his tires and all seemed to be going well. When we got to the next town from us, and about the halfway point for Tarija, the driver checked the tires again... and this time he did have a flat. By then it was almost 5pm and was starting to get cold. The town we were at was higher up in the mountains, just over 11,000 ft. Our driver set out to find someone to repair the tire and told us just to wait. The Bolivian family did not seem worried so neither were we. Fortunately, there in another PC volunteer, Bill, in the town. We tracked Bill down and he came out and waited with us for the tire to be fixed. And waited. And waited. And waited. Two hours later I went to look for our driver and found him down the road with the truck just about ready to go. Another 20 minutes or so and we finally set out again. By then the sun had set and we still had to get over the summit. We climbed back up the ladder and settled in. We were not quite as prepared for the cold so we used whatever we could find in the back of the truck to keep warm. We ended up laying deflated intertubes over us to stop some of the wind. The night ride was cold, but the stars were beautiful. We could clearly see the Milky Way and spotted several shooting stars. Around 9PM we finally arrived in Tarija. What was usually a 3 hour bus ride had become a 7 hour camión adventure. I think we'll take the bus next time.
(L -- waiting for the tire to be fixed)
(R -- Tire fixed, heading out again)
Finally, we adopted a kitten a few weekends ago. She is a grey tabby that we named Salta. The Spanish verb "saltar" means to jump, and this cat loves to leap and climb. I adopted a cat in Mexico, Maya, who turned out to be slightly crazy. She was entertaining, but not too social. We lucked out with Salta. She is very playful and affectionate. She has also proved to be social so far and very curious. The last week was great as we got to know her and she became more comfortable with us. She definitely has helped this feel more like home. I´m sure we´ll have more stories and pictures of her as the time rolls on.
(L -- Salta climbing our door) (R -- Salta getting to know Bobby)
(L -- Salta climbing our door) (R -- Salta getting to know Bobby)
Oh yeah, and work... well right now we´re officially working eight hours a week. We teach two two-hour computer classes at the high school on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. We have ten students in each class from the school. We´ve had four weeks so far and are having fun getting to know the kids and learning their skills and weaknesses. We´ve also had time to reflect on the extreme differences from our last teaching gigs in Sacramento -- eight hours a day, three classes of 35 students each, five days a week, grading papers on the weekends. Wow! Erica also spends a few mornings at the Alcaldia (the mayor´s office) and I have been trying to spend time with the Direccion Distral (School district offices). All that time is simply spent chatting and getting to know the workings of the organizations and the people. We´ve had requests to teach English, and the school wants Erica to teach some art classes and me to start up the school band. I imagine soon we´ll start on those projects. But since our focus is supposed to be environmental work, we´re trying to take things slow.
We´re looking forward to July. Erica´s parents are visiting the first week of the month and my b-day is in the middle of the month. We´re planning on going backpacking in a nearby national park. Our guidebooks say there is a beautiful 2 or 3 day Inca trail starting at just over 10,000 feet and dropping into a lush valley. We´re trying to find a map and some more info. Then in late July our whole training group has a week of meetings back up in Cochabamba. Our three month"reconnect" they call it. It will be great to see everyone again and hear what people have been up to.
So we´ve enjoyed our relatively slow month and are looking forward to July. Stay tuned for pictures from the parents´visit and our camping trip!
Until then...
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