Sacaca

My first visit to my new site has finally arrived but quickly passed. And what a trip it was. Sacaca is absolutely incredible. It lies southwest of Cochabamba taking about 6 hours on the direct road, and about 7 hours if I was to go from Coch. to Oruro to Sacaca. But all the roads into and out of Sacaca are anything but comfortable. Beautiful and breathtaking yes, but incredibly serpent-like, uneven, narrow and possibly the scariest roads I have ever been on. And yet, this isn’t even “the most scariest road in the world”, which is located a couple of hundred kilometers north of where I will be living. The mountain range is magnificent, resting at 12,000 ft. in Sacaca and taller in some places. You can see wild llamas, sheep, potato, haba, and wheat fields. The town has about 2,000 residents and gives off very good vibes. The center of town is the plaza which is beautiful, surrounded by tiendas, the mayors office, superintendents office, a church, police station, Entel office, a hotel and some homes. It technically is considered part of the Altiplano, however it is way different then the majority of the Altiplano which means high and flat. It rests in a semi valley like area and has quite a bit of green to it. It is one of the largest municipalities in the department of Potosi with 183 communities, 78 schools and 9 nucleos (schools with principals). It is definitely cold, and we are entering winter here so my first purchase will be about 5 warm blankets. There are three languages spoken within Sacaca proper; Quechua, Aymara, and Spanish. Several of the schools I will be working with will definitely be a challenge for that reason. Fortunately for me teachers here are required to teach in Spanish, but my goal is to learn at least the basics of both Quechua and Aymara so I can play with the kids and kick it with the seniors. My new boss is the Director of the Districtal, (his position is like a superintendent in the states) and he has asked me to focus my work on supporting environmental education in three of the nucleos. There are many NGOs that work in this town, two of which have already reached out asking for help over the next two years in both Environmental Education and in Natural Resources. There is definitely interest and motivation in this community and more than enough work for both my site mate Garrett and I to carry out. My site mate and I are fortunate enough to be taking over a site where there was a previous volunteer; so our week in the Altiplano was filled with loads of helpful information and comfortable presentations, thanks to her. I will be living in the room where the previous volunteer was living, which is a nice size and costs about $12 a month! The living situation is sort of like studios in a boarding house; there are several rooms that are rented out, we all share a bathroom and we all cook in our own personal rooms. I think I will be cooking a lot here since I only noticed one restaurant in town. I have yet to meet the owners of the house, who only live there on the weekends since they are both professors who work out in the campo during the week. But I hear they are nice. I am so happy to be moving to the Altiplano!!!

My transportation hub, which is the nearest city to my site, is Oruro. I get cell phone service there and we have a PO Box, so I will probably be dropping in a couple of times a month. (Volunteers are limited to 5 days a month). This city is popularly known for its Carnaval during February and is awesome! It is one of the older cities in Bolivia and has such vibrant energy. However, public transportation from my site to Oruro is limited; we have 3 bus companies in town that leave Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays all at 4am. A bit odd eh? So Garrett and I left Friday morning and spent our last day and half in Oruro. The two of us, plus two other new volunteers in my group met up with 3 of the other 11 volunteers who live in the region and had a great time. It was so nice to finally feel like a volunteer and not a trainee. Only two more weeks until that is actually our reality.

I am back in Cochabamba now and have exactly a week left with my wonderful host family. Next Wednesday we move out and spend the last 4 nights in a hotel in the center of town. It is absolutely insane that we are already in the middle of April and that swear in is less then 2 weeks away. I am more than ready to be done with training and cannot stop thinking about my new site. No pics this time around, but I hope to get a web album up with all my training shots sometime in the near future. Peace