mid way through training...

Near where I live

THE Environmental Edu.Crew


Perhaps some of you fellow travelers have come across towns or cities that shut down at odd hours? Cochabamba is a city that is very quiet on the weekends. There are very few restaurants, bars and stores that are open during the day on Saturday and nearly everything is closed on Sunday. At night things open up, but if one wanted to cruise around, go to an internet café and then grab a beer afterwards, mid –day on the weekend, it would be nearly impossible. It seems to be a very late-night kind of place, which I unfortunately or fortunately have yet to experience. Our curfew right now is midnight, but my bed time typically falls between the hours of 10 and 11pm. About a week and a half ago, (on a Wednesday – a night after a day of classes at the training center, which is an hour southeast from where our communities are), I went into the city to eat dinner with some friends, and to my surprise found the city to be hopping. Everything was open: galleries, restaurants, bars, stores…. And I had my first taste of Mexican food in weeks, it was grand! It’s too bad that the only substantial free time I have right now is during the weekend when most things are closed.

Last weekend I had my first taste of good cheese. My friend Helen and I decided to pick up a snack at the IC norte, which is the large supermarket here. We decided on some blue cheese and Guava jam…..wow was it good. The cheese here, known as quesillo, is your typical central/south American white cheese. Depending on whom you buy it from the better the flavor. My family gets our quesillo from our neighbor who makes it and we eat it between bread for breakfast or drizzle it on dough when making bread. It sort of has a consistency that is a cross between ricotta and mozzarella but with a very bland taste. You either love it or hate it, and I fortunately have grown to love it.

Last weekend I was also attempting to upload my first video in Bolivia, but unfortunately after 3 hours at a café with wireless I gave up. The bandwidth here is very small. My plan B is to create a cd with videos on it over the course of the next few months and then send it to one of you reliable folks to upload it for me from the states. So until that time comes please enjoy the still shots.

I bought a cell phone, so for those of you interested in calling me, drop me a line over email and I’ll send you the number. Yes, cell phones exist here and actually the majority of people have them. There are three major phone servers, Entel, Tigo and Viva. I am on the Viva chip, which I am told is one of the better signals. I don’t know how reliable the service will be once I’m out in the campo, but for the time being I am connected. Feel free to call me whenever.

Speaking of sites… This week we were given the list of sites with their descriptions… so we are all getting excited about that next step in the Peace Corps experience. Out of seven sites that were designated for Environmental Education, there are three that are on my list of – “wow that town/job description sounds awesome”. The other four were either in areas way too hot for my liking or were too close to the city, so vamos a ver. The three that I’m interested in are in different departments, Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Potosi, and they all have extremely different climates. Two of three towns speak a lot of Quechua. Site placement works like this… the APCD (assistant Peace Corps director – program specific) receives calls from different Alcaldias (which are our equivalent to Mayors of the town) who wish to have a Peace Corps volunteer work in their town. The APCD then makes several visits to the towns (on average 3) to find a good work counterpart and to be make sure that it’s a valid request. The trainees are then given the list of sites to read and get excited about mid way through training. We then have another interview with the APCD during Tech Week, to explain which of the 7 sites we are interested in and why. However, the APCD has the final say in deciding where he wants to send us, based on our skills, personalities, flexibility, etc. Vamos a ver… March 24th I’ll have the word. Can you tell I’m excited???!!!! J Next week we are all on our tech week. Each program tours different communities where current volunteers are working to help out with some projects and get some more hands on experience. Our tech week will be in the Santa Cruz department, so we’ll get to see 7 different HOT sites, 2 of which are sites that have been selected for 2 people in my group. The last week of March I’ll be back in Cochabamba for a week more of class, and then the first week of April I’ll be in my new site, feeling it out for a week. I’ll be turning a year older in my new home. We then return back to Cochabamba for about 2 and a half more weeks for more classes and swearing in. And finally we move to our new sites on the 20th of April. El tiempo esta volando. (Time is flying)

This week we presented our first Charla. A charla is basically a presentation that can last anywhere between 15 minutes up to an hour or longer. My group of three presented our charla on Organic and Inorganic Trash to a class of about 35 sixth graders and we did our thing for about an hour. It was quite the experience. I would say half of it went really well and the other half definitely could use some improvement. It’s tough controlling that many students especially when it is the last period of the day, and in another language. But considering the odds I’d say it was a small success.

Good evening and good night to you all!
Sumaj p’unchaj - Sumaj Tuta – in Quecha

Diana on the job