El 23 de Febrero de 2008
The environmental education groups’ first trip outside of Cochabamba consisted of visiting two towns, Toco and Cliza, about a 55 minute drive SE from our communities. It began with an interesting start, with several roadblocks barricading the major highways. The major mode of public transportation here: Micros and Trufis, which are mini buses and minivans, protesting against the toll fees. Toll fees in which are meant to maintain the highways, and I guess which have yet to be used in this way? In any event it took us a little longer to get to our destination then expected. We started out at a nursery, known here as a vivero, where we got a tour of how to make good soil from sand, compost, and rice grains. It was a brief visit at the vivero followed by a great cenar (dinner). That night we were told that our original plans, planting trees with the Tozo Collegio (high school) 11th and 12th grade classes, had been cancelled. Instead we were destined to scramble up some lesson plans for a two hour visit with the same school and age group. Our group of 7 in environmental education decided to prepare lesson plans on composting and recycling/reuse. It wound up working out great, considering the lack of time and materials we had, and I even learned how to crotchet in the process. We taught the kids in the recycling group how to crotchet with plastic bags and how to reuse 2 liter bottles into upside down ‘tippy tops’ which is a very basic device to wash your hands where there is no sink or potable water. Entonces, this scramble of changes in the original plans to creating something last minute with very few resources was a great introduction to what we should be prepared for here in Bolivia, or so we are told.
Last Sunday I helped, my mom and brother, make my first 100+ loaves of bread. Of which I will be helping with again this Sunday. Prices of vegetables, rice, bread, meat and pretty much everything here in Bolivia has increased dramatically over the past 6 months. I am told it is because of the flooding this year and also because of Evo. So my pictures this time around are my first introduction to this experience. As you can see we bake our bread in an outside oven made of adobe. There is an oven in our house but supposedly the taste from this oven is much nicer.
It is now week 4 in Bolivia. I am getting the hang of the public transportation and the Bolivian way more and more day by day. My days are still jammed packed with classes and time is flying. In the next 3 weeks our EE (Environmental Edu.) group will be heading to the Santa Cruz department where we will be spending 1 week touring 4 different sites with current Volunteers who are nearing their end of service, followed by another week out in our site to be with our new counterpart to be. It is pretty insane to think that soon all this scheduled, time restricted training will be over and that we will soon all be in our new sites working alongside yet another very different lifestyle and culture here in Bolivia. We will most likely be placed in the campo (countryside), and it looks like we will either be placed in areas where the majority of people speak Guarani or Quechua. I look forward to it more and more. However I know I will miss the comfortableness that is/was training here in Cochabamba with the other 30 trainees.
My health has been fantastic thus far, considering that several of my companeros (colleagues) have been struggling with their bowels and the food. I am growing fonder of the meals here and am hungry at every sitting. Today I plan on playing some futbol with some of the other trainees and then hope to get some laundry done, since it takes a good hour to wash by hand. I do hope to get a video up soon, so hopefully by the next entry there will be some footage of the landscape and some verbage from the one and only moi. Until then, much love to you all.
The environmental education groups’ first trip outside of Cochabamba consisted of visiting two towns, Toco and Cliza, about a 55 minute drive SE from our communities. It began with an interesting start, with several roadblocks barricading the major highways. The major mode of public transportation here: Micros and Trufis, which are mini buses and minivans, protesting against the toll fees. Toll fees in which are meant to maintain the highways, and I guess which have yet to be used in this way? In any event it took us a little longer to get to our destination then expected. We started out at a nursery, known here as a vivero, where we got a tour of how to make good soil from sand, compost, and rice grains. It was a brief visit at the vivero followed by a great cenar (dinner). That night we were told that our original plans, planting trees with the Tozo Collegio (high school) 11th and 12th grade classes, had been cancelled. Instead we were destined to scramble up some lesson plans for a two hour visit with the same school and age group. Our group of 7 in environmental education decided to prepare lesson plans on composting and recycling/reuse. It wound up working out great, considering the lack of time and materials we had, and I even learned how to crotchet in the process. We taught the kids in the recycling group how to crotchet with plastic bags and how to reuse 2 liter bottles into upside down ‘tippy tops’ which is a very basic device to wash your hands where there is no sink or potable water. Entonces, this scramble of changes in the original plans to creating something last minute with very few resources was a great introduction to what we should be prepared for here in Bolivia, or so we are told.
Last Sunday I helped, my mom and brother, make my first 100+ loaves of bread. Of which I will be helping with again this Sunday. Prices of vegetables, rice, bread, meat and pretty much everything here in Bolivia has increased dramatically over the past 6 months. I am told it is because of the flooding this year and also because of Evo. So my pictures this time around are my first introduction to this experience. As you can see we bake our bread in an outside oven made of adobe. There is an oven in our house but supposedly the taste from this oven is much nicer.
It is now week 4 in Bolivia. I am getting the hang of the public transportation and the Bolivian way more and more day by day. My days are still jammed packed with classes and time is flying. In the next 3 weeks our EE (Environmental Edu.) group will be heading to the Santa Cruz department where we will be spending 1 week touring 4 different sites with current Volunteers who are nearing their end of service, followed by another week out in our site to be with our new counterpart to be. It is pretty insane to think that soon all this scheduled, time restricted training will be over and that we will soon all be in our new sites working alongside yet another very different lifestyle and culture here in Bolivia. We will most likely be placed in the campo (countryside), and it looks like we will either be placed in areas where the majority of people speak Guarani or Quechua. I look forward to it more and more. However I know I will miss the comfortableness that is/was training here in Cochabamba with the other 30 trainees.
My health has been fantastic thus far, considering that several of my companeros (colleagues) have been struggling with their bowels and the food. I am growing fonder of the meals here and am hungry at every sitting. Today I plan on playing some futbol with some of the other trainees and then hope to get some laundry done, since it takes a good hour to wash by hand. I do hope to get a video up soon, so hopefully by the next entry there will be some footage of the landscape and some verbage from the one and only moi. Until then, much love to you all.
1 comments:
Hola, guapa! Su aventura es muy fascinante!! No puedo creer que hace quatro semanas desde salio (?).
Sounds like you're working hard, and loving it. Keep up the great work! ...and watch out for those balloons! Come on, who hasn't been smacked with a urine-filled balloon heaved by a random child?!?! haha.
Looking forward to your next update!
Love ya!
mario
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