First of all, I’d like to thank all of you for your patience. Living in Bolivia (especially the parts I’ve been in for the last 1/3 of a year) doesn’t always include living with abundant internet access or flushing toilets. Fortunately (if nothing else for the sake of this blog), my site assignment for the next two years has landed me in a town called Camiri in the “Chaco” (aka a dense, thick jungle at the base of the Andes Mountains near the borders of Argentina and Paraguay) of Bolivia. The city I am and will be living in is inhabited by roughly 30,000 Bolivians and does offer regular internet services… hence, let the blogging being.
Highlights of the last 4 months: Learning (enough) Spanish, Saltanias (Bolivian chicken pot pies), having the Andes Mountains as a back drop to life, traveling, learning to live life in completely different but equally acceptable ways, and being adopted by 2 or 3 Bolivian mothers.
Lowlights of the last 4 months: Diharea, more diharea, packs of wild dogs, angry parrots, crazy taxi drivers, sun burns, and diharea.
My life as of today: About a month ago I was officially sworn in from PC trainee to PC Volunteer… which was both exciting and scary at the same time. Exciting because I was finally starting what I came here to do. Scary because I was now leaving all of the Bolivian and Peace Corps friends I had made in the last 3 months to start my work. I don’t think I fully realized what the heck I was doing until I was dropped off at my site – the city of Camiri – and the Peace Corps van drove off. Alone. In Bolivia. Scary.
Over the past month though, I’ve found a great place to live, an amazing host family, and a job with a lot of potential. Right now I live in a house with a third floor patio over looking the city. The family I’m living with is a young couple (the wife is 22 and the husband is 26) who have two children. My home life consists of grilling Bolivian food and drinking mate (really good Bolivian tea… stuff).
Work life is always interesting. I’m currently working with two organizations… One of which is more like going to some crazy party in an office every day (ie. employees cracking open brewskis at the end of a long day… or in the middle of the day… whichever comes first, planning birthday parties and kareoke meetings on company time, and employees disappearing mysteriously for entire days on end) Personally I find a lot of humor in it and it’s been a great way to integrate with the community since everyone in the office is well known. The actual amount of work accomplished is another story. Thus…
The second organization I’m working with is in charge of daily testing water quality for the entire city as well as doing random maintenence on water pumps, etc. I’m learning tons from these guys and the job is very well structured. Work starts at 7:00 bright and early and the crazy life is kept at a relative low.
Alternate names I’ve aquired in Bolivia: Wes, Lee, Wesley, Oeste (Spanish word for “west”), juez (pronounced “Wes,” means “judge”), Wilson, Poncho, Don Wesley… more to come, I’m sure.
Random Side Notes: There is never a dull moment in the Bolivian culture. The people are generally poor and passionate in all they do. It’s not uncommon for heavy-set Bolivian housewives to set up road blocks on major roads and refuse to move until the price of bread at the super market is lowered. There is always some sort of celebration going on. The American perception here is amazingly positive. I have no doubt that part of my purpose here is strictly to entertain the locals with my foreign accent and constant inquiries to their endless expertise on how to eat indigenous food and dance the cueca.
Ending: Thanks for bearing with me. I promise the next posts won’t be nearly as long since I will be posting weekly rather than… never. Bolivia has been and continues to be a great experience and I’m looking foward to sharing a lot of funny stories with you. Keep posted and be sure to send any other email addresses my way of other who’d like to be part of my blog.
Paz,
Wesley
