Street signs

I mentioned a few posts ago how I missed street signs. That might sound really random, so let me explain a little.

In Cochabamba, I haven't seen any street signs remotely "normal" by Canadian standards. Instead, there are signs posted on the sides of buildings and on walls and gates labelling the streets. For example, to the right.

Most streets don't actually have these signs, you have to look really closely at the address. In Canada, we have a number for our house, here there's the number with the street name underneath it. In case they want to change the name of the street halfway down, I guess.

Then, there's a significant portion of the city that doesn't have named streets. I have a map that has a lot of blank streets and I wondered if they were just too small for the mapmaker to put words on. No, the streets just don't have any names. You have to tell the taxi driver: "left here, right here, passed this street, etc."

Also, in Cochabamba they have an annoying habit of having like a million streets named the same thing, so you can't even say "Calle Antezana, por favor," because there are at least two. Here's a photo of the intersection of Pando and Pando.

Cochabamba also has a really strange habit of naming streets after important dates. It's entirely possible to say "we're having dinner on the 25th of May" and mean a location. Or, even better, "I live on September the 10th between America and Beijing."

I'm pretty sure I've also seen only two different stop signs in the whole city. I realized this when, after being here for two weeks, I still didn't know the word for stop. So how do the drivers here deal with this? They honk some more.

So here's the breakdown, as far as I can tell, in terms of when people might honk:

• To see if you want a ride
• Because someone else is driving stupidly
• Because they're approaching an intersection and don't feel like slowing down
• Because they see a cute girl

In case you're wondering, it's really hard to tell which is which.

Warmi

So some of you know this, some of you don't, but I wasn't really enjoying working at CEDIB. Sorry to Josh and anyone else who was just starting to figure out what it was I'm doing in Bolivia.



Anyways, my placement got changed, and now I'm working with an organization called Warmi, which means Woman in Quechua. It started off 20 years ago as a women's support group, and since then has expanded to include a lot of other activities, like a day care, after school program, youth group, and soap factory. I'm not exactly sure how the soap factory fits into the big picture, give me some time.

It's currently winter vacation in Bolivia, so that means that at Warmi, the place has pretty much been transformed into a camp. I get to play with kids all day, woohoo. So far I've taught them a bunch of English, I've learned a tiny bit of Quechua, and I've taught them how to play Optiball and a few other sailing games.

Bolivian Security

It's kind of odd around here. There are tons of military people, but very few police officers. I think I've seen a total of three police cars, and two motorcycles in the month I've been here. Most of the police actually can be seen in banks (and they're armed with really big guns, too, it's a little scary). I'm pretty sure it's illegal to photograph military installations so, well, I haven't.

It's not that neighbourhoods are unsafe to live in, far from. It's really common to see little wooden buildings, about the size and shape of outhouses, on the side of the street. I wondered what they were for, for a while, then I realized that they were for security guards to hang out in when it rained. At night (and other times too, I guess), a guard sits near his little box, and watches the cars and the houses nearby for signs of unsavory activity. They like to blow their whistle a lot too, and for a while I wondered why - but it's so that would-be criminals know that there's a guard around. The houses nearby all get together and pay a little bit of money to keep the guard around.

Even more scary is the neighbourhood in which my work is. I think the sign speaks for itself: "warning: armed vigilante community."

A plea for help

Hi everybody, here's a little update.

Overall, I'm doing just fine here in Bolivia. I was pretty homesick for a while, but I'm figuring things out now. I can get around in the city just fine, my family and I have come to an agreement regarding food, and I have a new thing for work so that's good too (I'll explain when I get some decent pictures to post).

So here's an interesting list of things that I never thought I'd miss about Canada:

• Q-tips
• French
• wearing shorts (yes, I'm at the equator and I don't get to wear shorts)
• being able to pet the cute doggies I see
• the sun not setting at 6pm
• street signs
• humidity
• no smoking
• normal keyboards

Things that I don't miss about Canada:

• expensive things (I'm getting used to paying 25 cents for an hour of internet usage and 10 cents for a Coke)
• being in a hurry or late all the time (here if a meeting is supposed to start at 2, that really means at the earliest 2:30, and someone probably won't show up)
• having to drive everywhere (that's more directed at Oakville than Canada in general)
• having to go inside to buy something and
• having to go somewhere specific in order to buy something

Things that, if someone was being nice and thinking about sending a care package, keeping in mind that it might take a month to get here, I might hypothetically want included:

• a burned copy of the Princess Bride, if it has a Spanish language option. Or a real one, but don't count on it coming back in one piece.
• the real estate section of the Toronto Star (my sister here is an architect)
• Harry Potter 5 and/or 6
• really, anything to read that's in English
• Q-tips
• candy and junk food. I miss gummy worms and cheesies and cookies that aren't Double Chocolate Oreos
• my bed, but I don't think it'll fit

Anyways, thanks everybody for reading my blog! I'll try to keep posting, but my life is becoming slightly duller and I don't have a steady stream of cool pictures to post.

¡Hasta luego!

The morning line up

Every morning as I go to work, I pass a bank in between where the bus stops and where I work. And every morning, there are hundreds of people lined up. Here's a picture of the front door of the bank, but let me tell you that the line goes all the way down the block to the corner.

I asked about it, and turns out they start lining up at five in the morning. I think it's for something like welfare cheques. They said that every month they get them, but it's staggered so every day there's a lineup, for a certain group's turn.

Makes me wonder though, how much money they get, and how many people don't get welfare that need it.

This is going to sound like a strange example, but one of the other volunteers works with people in prisons. She says that it's really difficult, because there's like no state funding, so prisoners are forced to pay for the cost of their incarceration - that is, buy food, toilet paper, their uniform, even build their own cell. Apparently, the state only provides funding for about 1.50 Bolivianos per day per prisoner, which is approximately 20 cents. And while it's true that money goes a lot farther in a country like Bolivia, the UN has declared the international poverty line to be 1$ per day.

Anyways, so that sort of makes me wonder if the state funding for welfare is around 2Bs per day, in which case, no wonder there's so many homeless people around. Well it's just really sad, I guess, to see so many poor people gathered together in one area. I think I'm done rambling for now.

(As for why one of the volunteers works with people in prisons, the answer is this: because it actually costs money to go to prison, most families of prisoners can't afford to keep their house, and go to prison with the convict. The organization works with the mothers and children, ensuring that they get a decent education and stuff like that.)

Weird foods

Don't let the title throw you off - I'm not going to start talking about how Bolivian food is so weird and tastes funny and how terrible it is or anything like that. Instead, I just want to point out a few things similar, but very different between Bolivian cuisine and Canadian.

For example: sometimes I get tea from the cafe down the street from my office. Well one thing I've noticed since I got here is milk is always hot. In order to put milk in tea, they heat it up for you. To me, that's silly, why not just put it in and let the tea heat up the milk. Anyways, this particular cafe insists on frothing up the milk, and putting not only milk but also foam in my tea. I find it amusing.

At first it was fun to learn that in addition to the bunches of Bolivian cookies and candy, etc., you can also get American brands, like Chips Ahoy. You can also get Oreos, but only the double chocolate kind. You can't get M&Ms here, but instead they have "Chubis" - which look exactly the same, but the English translation says "candy-coated chocolaty lentils." I'm not sure about those...

In the mornings, everyone likes to drink hot drinks. It is winter here, after all, and these Bolivians are not from Canada and don't know what a real winter is. Anyways, we have a few choices, and all of them, in my humble opinion, are weird. We can drink tea (which is pretty good, they put cinnamon and cloves in it), except for it's like this syrupy stuff that you're supposed to add hot water to. Like they'll make a pot of tea every few weeks and boil it down to just some syrup, and then keep that and pour a little bit into a mug and add boiling water. Voila, tea! There's a similar thing for coffee. I think they pretty much make espresso, and then you're supposed to pour yourself a little bit and water it down with hot water. They call it "concentrated coffee" - I don't know if that means something different than espresso or not. Or, one can drink Avena, my favourite. That's what's in the pot to the left, but you can't really tell what it is. Well, it's basically really really liquidy oatmeal, and you drink it instead of eating. It's actually really delicious.

Another dish that they have here that sounds a little confused is peanut soup. No, not peanut butter, peanut soup. They put like potatoes and meat in it and it's all yummy and warm. Yes, peanut soup.

Political graffiti

One of my favourite things in Cochabamba is the political graffiti all over the place. At first I was really surprised that there was so much writing everywhere, but now I'm actually reading it and find most of it terribly amusing.

The picture above and to the left says "Viva la insurreccion popular y armada." In English that means "Long live popular, armed insurrection." I love it.



"No to the payment of the foreign debt"






Oscar Olivera was the leader of the "Water War," a time in 2000 when basically the whole city got together and overthrew the company that privately owned the water system.

CEDIB

Finally, a post about my actual work. For a while it was really confusing, me having no idea what I was supposed to be doing, which is why I didn't post anything about it. Well now, at last, your burning curiosity can finally be satisfied.

So, I work at a place called the Center of Documentation and Information of Bolivia. Sounds really exciting, right? Well it gets even better. They have a bunch of different departments, which is why I couldn't explain to anyone before I got here what I was going to be doing.

So. I'm working with the department that is very similar to a library. They collect and catalogue newspaper articles about politics, economics, whatever. So I'm getting a lot of exposure to Bolivian news. It's kind of incredible, actually, how far away Bolivia feels from Canada at times like this. There are huge things going on here all the time, and I have no doubt in my mind that none of them reach even the alternative news sources in Canada.

For example, this weekend, on Saturday, was the elections at the University for student council. Sounds boring, right? Well, someone brought some dynamite, and the whole thing turned into a huge protest. Apparently people really wanted their team to win, or something. There were over seventy casualties, both students and faculty members.

If that's not news enough for you, how 'bout last January. The entire city of Cochabamba was shut down for a week while there were riots between people who supported the government and those who didn't. People came in from the surrounding countryside to protest. Most people were afraid to leave their houses; the rioters burned the city hall building; and a few people died and hundreds were injured. The people here say it took weeks to get the blood off the streets.

These are huge stories, in my humble opinion. If a major city in the US was shut down for a week because of protests against the government, if the police and military were called in, if people died, everyone all over the world would know about it. It's just so weird, I kind of feel like I'm living in an alternate reality.

Sorry, after that sidenote, back to what I'm actually doing. Well, they started me off here with a huge project. They want to set up a sort of "sister library" relationship with other library(s) in other parts of the world. So they put me in charge of that entire project, on only my second day. (I think it's because I speak English, but shh don't tell!) I've been corresponding with American universities in Texas, California, and Florida (well, the Spanish speaking parts of the US), and to my amazement, I've actually had some success. I mean, I really didn't think an email starting with "Hello from Bolivia" from a complete stranger would get any responses, but I've had at least three universities state their interest. At the very least, the responses I'm getting are "what a noble cause!"

Anyways, although I feel important, it's pretty boring, and I hope that I get to start doing something different soon. I'm sure it's a big deal for the people here at CEDIB, but I really don't feel like I'm doing anything development related, which is what I came here to do. Well, we'll see how things turn out.

What I´m reading

I just finished reading Michael Crichton´s "State of Fear," and it was really good. Different, but good. It was about global warming. Sounds like an exciting topic, right? Especially from the writer of Jurassic Park.

Anyways, the book is written under the assumption that global warming is not, in fact, happening, that it´s all a hoax so that some people can make money. The some people being environmental NGOs. No mom, I´m not attacking you. But I suggest that anyone who is interested and has a little bit of time on their hands (it´s an easy read) should take a peek.

Of course, you should read it with a grain of salt. But, it does have some very good insights about what happens when people have their heart in the right place but don´t have a good understanding of what they´re fighting for.

Overall, it´s a very provocative book and I highly recommend it. Thanks Dad for lending it to me!

Interesting Statues

There are a lot of statues around the city here. I don't have a whole lot to say about them, but I'll show you a bunch of pictures. Yay pictures!

Public Transportation

... is definitely an interesting adventure every time.

There are four different ways of getting around in the city, other than walking. First of all we have what are called "Micros," which are as close to buses as you get, except they're much smaller than the ones you see in Canada. Except for they look hilarious, they're all either bright red, blue, green, yellow, orange, or a combination of the above. To the right is a picture of one.

Next we have "Truffis" which to me seem to be pretty much the same as Micros, but go on different routes. Go figure. First, however, they're not as funny looking, and they only hold about fifteen people instead of like 20. Huge difference. Well here's a picture of one.

Okay. After the Truffis, we have Taxi Truffis, which are taxis that run along set routes, the same as the Truffis. You can ride them as long as you like for only 1.50 bolivianos, but a lot of the time you have to share with other people. It's kind of weird.

Then there's also normal taxis, which in comparison are really boring.

Another thing I haven't really gotten used to is the fact that buses, taxis, and truffis all honk at people to inquire whether or not they want to get on. There are no actual bus stops, you just stick your arm out like you're hailing a taxi when the bus you want comes along. Or they'll honk at you anyways.

Mi Familia!

Okay, so I've been living with my family for about five days now. Sorry I didn't post anything about them earlier, but in my brother's words, "Bolivia es le strange" and I don't understand it yet. So apparently my internet cafe was closed on the weekend, so I went to go find another one, but the USB ports didn't work. So I found another one, and it didn't understand my camera, and I just decided it wasn't meant to be. Anyways, allow me to introduce you to my Bolivian family!

First of all, we have the grandma, Fanny. She is so matronly it's incredible, she insists on taking the bus with me if I have to go somewhere I haven't been before, just so I don't get lost. And if I don't like some food, she'll offer to make something different for me right then and there. (No mom, I don't actually take her up on it. Yes mom, I'm being a good girl and eating what's being put in front of me.) She also wants me to get a cell phone so that in case I'm lost, she can come and rescue me. So sweet.

Next is Jaime (pronounced Hi-may), the grandpa, who I haven't gotten to know very well yet but he's pretty funny, I think. Or at least he would be if I understood him. He's a biochemist, I think, so he's at work a lot.

Then we have Karin, my "sister." She's an architect and she's really cool. She introduced me to a bunch of her friends and we played pictionary together, which was really weird at first cuz I had no idea how to guess "square" in Spanish, but I ended up doing pretty well. Who would have known that "water polo" was the same in Spanish and English? We played guys against girls, and whoever lost had to buy movie tickets for the winners - we're going to see Las Tortugas Ninja! Karin works really close to my work, so we're going to have lunch together and go to work together and things like that.

Finally, there's Laurita, who is adorable. She's Karin's daughter, six years old and in kindergarden. She calls me "Tia" (which means Auntie) and always wants to play with me and she's just so cute!

As for the house that I'm living in, it's actually very nice (I was quite surprised, I was expecting to be living in the slums). They have a computer (which I haven't seen on yet, but apparently it's for Karin's work) and a lot of movies, so I've been watching Disney in Spanish with Laurita and trying to figure out what they're saying.

So overall, I'm very well taken care of, I have a nice family who has definitely adopted me. They loved the gifts I brought (mostly a photo tour of Toronto and a stuffed moose and generally everything's pretty good!

Hike

We went on a hike today, as our last event as a group. We've actually already moved in with our families (yesterday), I'll make a post about my family as soon as I have pictures.

We went to a park that was set up a while ago by a guy named Simón Patiño, a Bolivian who struck it rich in the mines and was the third richest man in the world. As far as I can tell, he's dead now, but there are a lot of things he built in Cochabamba.

Anyways, he started this park/camping area on the side of a mountain that's really pretty. We went hiking up the mountain and man, it was hard work. Probably just because I'm a wus, but I blame the altitude.

We found this dog, too. Well really, he found us, and hiked up the mountain with us, waited while we rested and ate, and hiked back down with us. I wanted to bring him home with me but I don't think that would have gone over well with customs.

Strange things

So I´ve been in Cochabamba for almost a week now, and I´m pretty much getting used to some of the strange things I see. But there are some things that I´m not sure I´ll ever get used to, and I feel like sharing.

First of all, we have advertisements painted on walls, rather than on billboards. There´s a lot of graffiti, so sometimes it´s hard to tell if something´s an advertisement or just some scribbling. To the right, a Pepsi ad; below, some graffiti.

Next, we also have a strange occurance that keeps happening that completely boggles my mind. A lot of the dogs here wear little doggie clothes, like a blanket or a sweater or something. I don´t understand at all, there are a lot of really really furry dogs (i.e. huskies) that still wear little clothes. Here is a particularly amusing picture of a dog in a shirt.

Futból!

We went to go see a soccer game yesterday. The Cocha team, "La Aurora", was playing the Bolivian national team, and for a long time it looked like they were actually going to win! The final score was 2-1 for the Bolivian team, but there was more exciting about it than just the game.

For example, soccer is really really really popular around here, as in most places in Latin America. As we were heading to the game, we passed a number of bars that were playing the game on TV, and most of them had huge crowds gathered around the windows to watch.

There was also a huge mass of people gathered around the entrance to the stadium. Almost like a mini market, there were people there selling everything. Besides the obvious sports apparel and food, there were like temporary restaurants set up with seating and stuff, where everyone would gather around the portable radio to listen to the game. There were a lot of people selling stuff like confetti (ripped up newspapers) and seat cushions (collected from the end of last game). Apparently there are many entrepreneurs around here! It´s not a very good picture, but the man to the left was walking around the stands and taking bets for the game.

Soccer is also really political around here. Recently, FIFA (the world soccer organization) made a rule that says that no games can be played above a certain height. Any that are played don´t count internationally. Since the international games in Bolivia are played in La Paz, which is at 11,500 feet above sea level, this means that either Bolivia can´t host any international games, or they have to move the team´s home to a different city.

I know it sounds like a very arbitrary rule, but the reasoning goes like this: the oxygen is really thin when you get up high like in Cochabamba, and people who aren´t used to it get sick really easily, which includes being short of breath, getting nauseous, lightheaded, or having to throw up. So obviously for traveling soccer players, this is a problem - they need to be at their best in order to play well, but if they just came to the city for like one game, they´ll be at a disadvantage. The rule is to level the playing field a bit and not give so much home field advantage.

But the rule has all the Andean nations, like Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Bolivia, all upset - they feel like they´re being discriminated against. A lot of the soccer players from here are all proud of their ability to play with the thinner oxygen, and think everyone else should just suck it up. But more commonly, the people who live in these countries are upset because they can´t watch their favourite sport play in their country. Pretty much all of the fans around here are protesting then (not unusual for Cochabamba), and there were an abundance of signs that said something about the subject. The sign in the picture to the right says "We are united for soccer - We say NO to the altitude ban." Obviously, that´s paraphrased a little.

Dance show

We went to see a performance last night by a local dance club of traditional Latin American dances. It was really incredible, especially if you realize how poor a lot of Cochabambans are. The costumes were absolutely amazing.

One of the girls who is here with Foundation for Sustainable Development has been here for ten months and had joined the dance group, which is why we went to go see it.

Anyways, I don´t really have much to say about it, so here are a bunch of pictures.

Tour of Cochabamba!

Hey all!

Today we went on a bus tour of Cochabamba. It was very interesting and there were a lot of strange things to be seen.

The photo over here is a picture of a church that we passed by, very old and very pretty. There were actually people inside praying and stuff! Amazing.

Where else did we go? Well, let´s see. There´s the Christ statue on the top of the hill in the middle of the city. Heard of the famous one in Rio de Janiero, Brazil? Well this one´s even bigger, the biggest in the world. It´s called El Christo de la Concordia, which basically means the Christ of Unity. It was built in an effort to unify a country that was geographically, ethnically and philosophically divided. There´s also an awesome view of the city from there.

We drove throughout most of the city and saw lots of random scenes of the city. A lot of the city is very poor and so as a result we saw lots of run down housing, people selling things on the side of the road, and stray dogs. There are a lot of very nice gardens though, which are always full of people .


There is also an abundance of cheap stuff here. For instance, I´m at an internet cafe which charges about 25 cents per hour. There are all kinds of knock-off products, including fake McDonalds´ and stuff. Actually I´m quite surprised at the lack of American chains here. I´ve seen one Burger King, that´s all. There´s very few coffeeshops, not really any fast food restaurants.

So basically, Cochabamba is very different from what I am used to, in some good ways and some bad. It is definitely going to take some getting used to, but I think I´ll be able to manage.