some readers have asked for an explanation of the following word....
shmeh:
1. signifies uncertainty or uneasiness
ex:
person 1: "let's go into that haunted house"
person 2: "...shmeh"
2. it follows that...
ex:
"we could go play baseball but it's raining... so.... shmeh"
3. used to break an awkard silence
4. more or less, i guess so. (''shmyah'' could be used also for this one)
ex:
person 1: ''did you have a good day?''
person 2: ''um... shmeh"
5. lack of something to say
ex: I didn't know how to start an entry, so I wrote ''shmeh'' where the first paragraph should have been.
hope that explains things.
so anyways..
shmeh...
our trip to Canada went smoothly. We had an extra night in Santa Cruz because our flight was delayed. I used it to go out with Julio, Luis-Alberto and his friends to a Pirate/Techno themed bar until 10, which was when we had to be back at our hotel. After Chinese food.. Me, Devon, Alex and Romeo watched the newest Die Hard and Final Destination until we had to leave for the airport.
Because you're supposed to be 3 hours early for international flights. We decided not to sleep. We got to the airport at 3 in the morning and left Santa Cruz at 6 a.m.
In Lima, we spent our time exploring the town square and mall. We also loafed around the beech for a couple of hours. Me, Romeo and Mark swam in the Pacific Ocean the whole time, letting ourselves get sucked into the undertow to get washed up on the beach. lots of fun. From there, we flew to Toronto (I slept most of the way) and then to Montreal.
We stayed overnight in a camp in Iles Perrault and left the next morning at 2 p.m.
On the way to Perth, we treated ourselves to a coffe at Tim Hortons. Lots of people missed it. Having 9 Bolivians in assembly line service is hectic.
Our host families greated us at one of the local churches. There were a few snacks to go around, but we didn't stay long.
I'm staying in town with Liliane and her children Victoria and David. They're both in their mid-twentys.
I got a swimming membership at the local pool on my first day. I'm trying to get back into swimming shape by going 4 times a week. After 5 lane swims, I feel great.
For the next two months, I'm going to be working at the Salvation Army clothing store and Soup Kitchen. I'll also be chopping wood at a camp outside town.
I'm able to walk everywhere from my house, including group sessions, the pool, grocery store.. etc.
During our first couple of days, we had a couple of cultural presenations from a Cree woman, went to Ska show and decorated a giant Christmas tree. More to Come! There's going to be a polar dip fundraiser for the new year so that'll be fun.
It's been staying above zero for this entire week. I'm still walking around in jeans and a hoodie. I missed the cold.
that's it for now. still no snow. hope you guys are doing great. let me know what you're up to..
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Monday, November 23, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
After a short stop in Lima, we arrived in Toronto, Montreal and then Perth without incident. I got a membership at the local pool to get back into swimming shape. We have a meeting tomorrow morning where we'll figure out our volunteer work placements and activities. Me and Julio are staying with a family of three. Liliane and her children: Victoria and David. We have two Lhasa Apso dogs named Maverik and Jackson.
More news coming tomorrow.
More news coming tomorrow.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
I spent all yesterday at Julio´s cousins´ place. We spent all afternoon preparing a BBQ on the roof. The terrace has a pretty awesome view of Santa Cruz. I hadn´t eaten since the previous day at lunch so I almost died helping make all the salads and cutting up the chicken. The coals were ready at 4 in the afternoon and the food was ready at 4:45. I don´t think I´ve ever eaten more chicken in one day.
Unfortunately our plane has been delayed from today at 5p.m to tomorrow at 5 a.m. It´s a twelve hour delay, but we´re still planning to be in Montreal on Saturday. I have a feeling that we´re going to be late because voyages this far and long have the tendency to have at least one delayed flight. We´ll see.
Also. (This is a correction for a few posts back). It was actually my Dad, Yew Lee, and not my Mom who stayed up late uploading my favorite music to my ipod, packaged it, and shipped it to Bolivia for my enjoyment. So thanks go to him.
Shmeh.
Unfortunately our plane has been delayed from today at 5p.m to tomorrow at 5 a.m. It´s a twelve hour delay, but we´re still planning to be in Montreal on Saturday. I have a feeling that we´re going to be late because voyages this far and long have the tendency to have at least one delayed flight. We´ll see.
Also. (This is a correction for a few posts back). It was actually my Dad, Yew Lee, and not my Mom who stayed up late uploading my favorite music to my ipod, packaged it, and shipped it to Bolivia for my enjoyment. So thanks go to him.
Shmeh.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Last night was hectic. We had to throw together a thank-you party for the community. All at the last minute. The workers told us that they were going to set up the blockade at 3 a.m. so we had to get out sometime that night. Most of us were scurrying around town getting fingerfoods and decorations for the social club near the town plaza. I was helping by setting up chairs and bringing in the speakers for the speech readings.
That was another thing. We were supposed to be giving two speaches: one on behalf of Canada World Youth and one on behalf of FUNDEHUS, our counterpart volunteer program. Both needed to be in Spanish. Unfortunately, two other volunteers insisted on writing it in English and then translating it for that night and would be handed to me later on. It was literally thrust into my hand two and half minutes before I had to go up to speak. That two and half minutes was a mad panic for me, skimming through the text and asking my Bolivian friend, Gabriella, the pronuncation of some words. I ended up going up and speaking to everyone in Spanish, to completely sure as to the content of my speech. People seemed to enjoy it and everyone understood.
We were organized.
After a small slideshow of our work in Camiri and our group. People stayed to chat and eat the appertizers we had set out. But soon after we were dashing towards our homes to pack our things to be ready for the bus at 10:30. Me and Julio speed-walked to all of his relatives houses to give quick good-byes and I ran to the German´s house to do the same later on. Before I left, Julio´s family gave a bunch of small gifts.
Definitely rushed.
All the families and the Germans gathered around our bus to say goodbye. The Germans requested that we sing the national anthem. Jonas gave me a fresh lime to remember him by. Alex had just got back from Sucre that morning. We were looing forward to spending more time with him before we left but we were forced to say hello and goodbye at the same time.
The bus left at 11:30 and we arrived in Santa Cruz around 4:30-5 in the morning. I spent the trip watching Max Payne with my ipod as a constant soundtrack. I´m guessing it was better that way. I roomed with the Canadian guys in Santa Cruz. Alex, Devon and Romeo. We stayed up til 9 watching ¨what´s with Beaver´´ or something like that and got an hours sleep. Today, we were told that we could go visit our counterpart´s families and that´s what i´m doing now. Me and Julio just had lunch with his family and here I am at the cafe.
In terms of what i´ve been doing for the past few weeks.
Besides working at the orphanage 4 days a week...
I had my education day with Esmerelda and Claudio. The focus of my presentation was on the camparison between rural and urban education in Bolivia. Since a great deal of Bolivia´s is spread out over massive rural areas (Bolivia has one of the lowest density populations in the world... 7people/km sqared i think), it´s difficult for the people living there to establish a learning environment, especially with the lack of teachers, money and bilingualism (Guarany (sic) is a native language prominent in rural areas). I compared drop-out rates between the rural and urban and also talked a bit about a few program intitiatives in Bolivia that address these problems.
For Halloween, we went to the Nembotiyah bar with our faces painted. The bar was hosting a massive party because Monday was the ´´dia de los muertos... the day of the dead´´.. so all the students from Santa Cruz were taking advantage of the day of to come down to visit family in Camiri. The town was packed that day. I ended up painting my face completely.. eyes, ears, neck and all. I went for the zombie look. All white.. with sickly blue under my eyes and blood gushing from my throat. Nothing too over the top.
The Nembotiyah was packed. You could hardly walk. Some of Julio´s cousin´s were there, our entire group and the Germans too. After two hours, my face-paint was getting extremely annoying ( I was tired of drinking beer through a straw) so I spent 20 minutes scraping it off. As soon as the bar started getting packed, the owners Marcello and Alan opened up the back door and revealed a decorated patio with spider-webs, candels and massive speakers. It ended up being a huge danse floor. We met up with some friends from Santa Cruz and listened to loud music all night.
We had a week and a half of 40 degree weather... I ALMOST DIED. I over-heat too much. Not too pleasant for sleeping either. I ended up going to the beach with Julio and his brothers to sit in the water for 4 hours. The river was the warmest fresh water i´ve ever felt.
We had a big BBQ at Grecia´s house just for fun.
There was an end of school party this past Saturday as well. There was a big party outside in the pouring rain.
Ya so that´s what Ivé been up to.
Tomorrow at 5p.m. we take a plane to Lima... The whole next day we stay in Peru and that night we take the 9-10 hour flight to Toronto. I´m not sure if or for how long we´re staying there.. but we go from there to Montreal by plane for Saturday. ´We´re at the camp for one day and then we take a bus to Perth, Ontario to settle down. The entire voyage from Santa Cruz will be with the Santa Cruz and Montero exchanges. It´ll be sweet to reconnect with them.
My fingers hurt. I´ll try to update again soon. I have a long trip ahead of me so I don´t know when the next time i´ll be able to get to an internet cafe will be.
Love you guys.Peace.
Connor
That was another thing. We were supposed to be giving two speaches: one on behalf of Canada World Youth and one on behalf of FUNDEHUS, our counterpart volunteer program. Both needed to be in Spanish. Unfortunately, two other volunteers insisted on writing it in English and then translating it for that night and would be handed to me later on. It was literally thrust into my hand two and half minutes before I had to go up to speak. That two and half minutes was a mad panic for me, skimming through the text and asking my Bolivian friend, Gabriella, the pronuncation of some words. I ended up going up and speaking to everyone in Spanish, to completely sure as to the content of my speech. People seemed to enjoy it and everyone understood.
We were organized.
After a small slideshow of our work in Camiri and our group. People stayed to chat and eat the appertizers we had set out. But soon after we were dashing towards our homes to pack our things to be ready for the bus at 10:30. Me and Julio speed-walked to all of his relatives houses to give quick good-byes and I ran to the German´s house to do the same later on. Before I left, Julio´s family gave a bunch of small gifts.
Definitely rushed.
All the families and the Germans gathered around our bus to say goodbye. The Germans requested that we sing the national anthem. Jonas gave me a fresh lime to remember him by. Alex had just got back from Sucre that morning. We were looing forward to spending more time with him before we left but we were forced to say hello and goodbye at the same time.
The bus left at 11:30 and we arrived in Santa Cruz around 4:30-5 in the morning. I spent the trip watching Max Payne with my ipod as a constant soundtrack. I´m guessing it was better that way. I roomed with the Canadian guys in Santa Cruz. Alex, Devon and Romeo. We stayed up til 9 watching ¨what´s with Beaver´´ or something like that and got an hours sleep. Today, we were told that we could go visit our counterpart´s families and that´s what i´m doing now. Me and Julio just had lunch with his family and here I am at the cafe.
In terms of what i´ve been doing for the past few weeks.
Besides working at the orphanage 4 days a week...
I had my education day with Esmerelda and Claudio. The focus of my presentation was on the camparison between rural and urban education in Bolivia. Since a great deal of Bolivia´s is spread out over massive rural areas (Bolivia has one of the lowest density populations in the world... 7people/km sqared i think), it´s difficult for the people living there to establish a learning environment, especially with the lack of teachers, money and bilingualism (Guarany (sic) is a native language prominent in rural areas). I compared drop-out rates between the rural and urban and also talked a bit about a few program intitiatives in Bolivia that address these problems.
For Halloween, we went to the Nembotiyah bar with our faces painted. The bar was hosting a massive party because Monday was the ´´dia de los muertos... the day of the dead´´.. so all the students from Santa Cruz were taking advantage of the day of to come down to visit family in Camiri. The town was packed that day. I ended up painting my face completely.. eyes, ears, neck and all. I went for the zombie look. All white.. with sickly blue under my eyes and blood gushing from my throat. Nothing too over the top.
The Nembotiyah was packed. You could hardly walk. Some of Julio´s cousin´s were there, our entire group and the Germans too. After two hours, my face-paint was getting extremely annoying ( I was tired of drinking beer through a straw) so I spent 20 minutes scraping it off. As soon as the bar started getting packed, the owners Marcello and Alan opened up the back door and revealed a decorated patio with spider-webs, candels and massive speakers. It ended up being a huge danse floor. We met up with some friends from Santa Cruz and listened to loud music all night.
We had a week and a half of 40 degree weather... I ALMOST DIED. I over-heat too much. Not too pleasant for sleeping either. I ended up going to the beach with Julio and his brothers to sit in the water for 4 hours. The river was the warmest fresh water i´ve ever felt.
We had a big BBQ at Grecia´s house just for fun.
There was an end of school party this past Saturday as well. There was a big party outside in the pouring rain.
Ya so that´s what Ivé been up to.
Tomorrow at 5p.m. we take a plane to Lima... The whole next day we stay in Peru and that night we take the 9-10 hour flight to Toronto. I´m not sure if or for how long we´re staying there.. but we go from there to Montreal by plane for Saturday. ´We´re at the camp for one day and then we take a bus to Perth, Ontario to settle down. The entire voyage from Santa Cruz will be with the Santa Cruz and Montero exchanges. It´ll be sweet to reconnect with them.
My fingers hurt. I´ll try to update again soon. I have a long trip ahead of me so I don´t know when the next time i´ll be able to get to an internet cafe will be.
Love you guys.Peace.
Connor
Monday, November 9, 2009
this post is rushed... i know i have yet to update you guys on what i´ve been doing for the past two weeks, but that will have to come within the next two days because this entire week and tonight is especially busy.
We have to throw together a thank you party for the community tonight but also.. it turns out that we are leaving at 11p.m today. We were planning to leave the midnight between tuesday and wednesday, but due to a workers´blockade, we have to leave as soon as possible. The national government is trying to send in workers from all over the nation to drill into a newly discovered petrol resource. In response, the local workers are going to dump giant mounds of soil on the main road into camiri sometime early tomorrow morning as a protest. We have to get out before they set up the blockade.
more information to come. leaving for santa cruz tonight. will be there for 2 days. hopefully be able to update before we go to lima.
We have to throw together a thank you party for the community tonight but also.. it turns out that we are leaving at 11p.m today. We were planning to leave the midnight between tuesday and wednesday, but due to a workers´blockade, we have to leave as soon as possible. The national government is trying to send in workers from all over the nation to drill into a newly discovered petrol resource. In response, the local workers are going to dump giant mounds of soil on the main road into camiri sometime early tomorrow morning as a protest. We have to get out before they set up the blockade.
more information to come. leaving for santa cruz tonight. will be there for 2 days. hopefully be able to update before we go to lima.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
shmeh
There´s two weeks left of this program in Bolivia and I wish I had more time here. I´m definitely going to miss the rhythm and routine I´ve gotten myself into the past few months. I´ll miss my family, friends and food that i´ve been getting to know so well. I guess I´ll have to come back some day. Time to make the most of every moment I´ve got left.
Two weekends ago I went to a horse race with my counterpart´s family. It was a big event in Chorety, a small community just on the edge of Camiri. I went with Romeo (another canadian) Julio, his brother, uncle and a few other relatives. There were a couple hundred people in the field when we arrived, already drinking. Restless horses were tied to the surrounding trees, their owners feeding and watering them. Julio´s uncle used to be a sergeant for Santa Cruz´s mounted forces and reptutable horse trainer so me and Romeo were introduced to a lot of interesting people. Everyone we met was eager to chat and to offer us free beer. Good times.
I refused a beer and I was put in my place when the person responded by saying ¨´you´re not going to make many friends if you´re timid´´. True dat.
They had a BBQ set up in the center of the event. They were selling this delicious thing called Chorypan that was basically a sausage on a bun with onions and a bunch of wierd spices. Uuh.. So dilicious. I bought 4.While we were there from 12 until 5... we saw about 5 races.. 2 horses at a time. Both horses with their riders would race on a straight 300m dirt track while people yelled and screamed and waved their hats in the air, betting on the horses with beer. It was awesome to watch.To get home, everyone jumped into the back of anyone´s pick up and just went along for the ride.. me and julio did the same, yelling to the driver when we got relatively close to our house.
Julio´s brother Luis Alberto came down from Santa Cruz recently for his work vacation. Usually he only comes to Camiri every second weekend but now he´s here until the 6th of November. Him and his twin brother Luis Carlos have been hanging out with a lot of their old college friends. . They´re both 24 but they have their own houses. Me and Julio have been tagging along with them a lot. As a result, all last week I hung out with a lot of Bolivian groups. Usually I have someone I can talk English with, but for those 5 days.. just Spanish. At times I just listened, but for the most part I was actually able to have a few lengthy discussions. It was cool. I met a lot of their friends that live locally in Camiri but also a few who came to visit from Santa Cruz.
This weekend we went back to the same field in Chorety.. except this time for a drag race. We were supposed to go on Saturday but the event was rescheduled for Sunday because of heavy rain. It doesn´t usually rain here but when it does it´s really heavy and the river floods. Anyways.. we went on Sunday with the same crew, except this time without Luis Alberto and Romeo. Cars that looked like they had been through a demolition derby and a few dune buggies were being tended to by a crowd of mechanics. There was at least another hundred people more than at the horse race and just as much beer. More BBQ too. I got a lot of sun that day. It was a dusty 3 km track. The first event was who could do one lap the fastest. There was a lot of sharp turning involved. On each turn, every driver pulled a heavy drift. There was constantly a massive cloud of dust in the air from each car zooming by. People were standing at every turn getting sprayed with dirt but none of them really seemed to mind. The second event was three cars at a time in 10 second intervals. Even more dust. Again... I was introduced to A LOT of people. It always started out with a member of Julio´s family saying to someone ¨¨that boy.. he´s from Canada¨¨.. hearty handshaking and offering of beer would ensue.. people are REALLY friendly here. I ended up telling dozens of people about what Canada is like and how I´m enjoying Bolivia. Julio would reiterate questions for me in simple spanish if i didn´t understand.Definitely one of the highlights of the day was the awards ceremony. The top three drivers were soaked in beers as they were handed their trophies.... and the outburst of cheering that erupted upon the announcement of the first place winnner caused a drunk to fall off his cement block and pass out on the ground for about 2 hours. He was alright. he just needed his sleep.me and Julio jumped in the back of his friends pick up to get home. On the way we talked with 2 other randoms that had been at the races with us.
So ya.. that was my last two weekends.. lots of high velocity.
Tomorrow I´m giving a presentation at a local high school on violence against women. We´re going for an hour to do some exercises with one of their classes.. talking about verbal and physical abuse... mostly to engage them in discussion. Later tomorrow we´re going out of town to help a school fix and paint their broken chairs and tables and clean up some of the garbage in the town plaza. More on tomorrow in the next note.
Already, we´re talking to the Bolivians about dressing warmly and the dangers of yellow snow. Time has flown by pretty fast recently. We´ll be in Canada soon enough. Our exchange is invited to a local bar for Halloween this Saturday. Some of our friends in town are going back to Santa Cruz fairly soon so it will be our last chance to say goodbye.
The second part of our exchange will be another 2 and half months in Perth. Ontario. I actually have no idea what we´re doing there but it´s just an hour away from Ottawa. I do know that we´ll be coming down for at least a day to introduce the Bolivians to the Rideau canal and maybe even camp fortune or edelweiss. It´s pretty close to home.
So ya.. Canada really soon. I probably just have one more blog entry left from Bolivia. Again.. how are things going with you guys? send me an e'mail.. leave a comment.. whatever.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------RANDOM
I saw about 15 high school students dressed as michael jackson running through the plaza today.. gloves and all.
My mom sent me my ipod so I can now drown out any pitbull or Michael Jackson with slipknot or rage against the machine.
I have a papaya, orange and lemon tree in my house´s courtyard.. ridiculously delicious smoothies.
I´m being called Terminator or John Connor a lot.
More children pelvic thrusting and standing on their tiptoes.
Did I mention the poop buckets? In every washroom.. you´re supposed to put dirty toilet paper in the trash not the toilet. delicious.
The pronuncation of the word ´´years´´ in spanish is important.. it differenciates wether you´re saying how old you are or how many anuses you have.... a.. ani?
I was feeling fat so I put on all black clothes in 40 degree weather and ran for 2 hours. death.
I can´t wait for that breath of cold air.
There´s two weeks left of this program in Bolivia and I wish I had more time here. I´m definitely going to miss the rhythm and routine I´ve gotten myself into the past few months. I´ll miss my family, friends and food that i´ve been getting to know so well. I guess I´ll have to come back some day. Time to make the most of every moment I´ve got left.
Two weekends ago I went to a horse race with my counterpart´s family. It was a big event in Chorety, a small community just on the edge of Camiri. I went with Romeo (another canadian) Julio, his brother, uncle and a few other relatives. There were a couple hundred people in the field when we arrived, already drinking. Restless horses were tied to the surrounding trees, their owners feeding and watering them. Julio´s uncle used to be a sergeant for Santa Cruz´s mounted forces and reptutable horse trainer so me and Romeo were introduced to a lot of interesting people. Everyone we met was eager to chat and to offer us free beer. Good times.
I refused a beer and I was put in my place when the person responded by saying ¨´you´re not going to make many friends if you´re timid´´. True dat.
They had a BBQ set up in the center of the event. They were selling this delicious thing called Chorypan that was basically a sausage on a bun with onions and a bunch of wierd spices. Uuh.. So dilicious. I bought 4.While we were there from 12 until 5... we saw about 5 races.. 2 horses at a time. Both horses with their riders would race on a straight 300m dirt track while people yelled and screamed and waved their hats in the air, betting on the horses with beer. It was awesome to watch.To get home, everyone jumped into the back of anyone´s pick up and just went along for the ride.. me and julio did the same, yelling to the driver when we got relatively close to our house.
Julio´s brother Luis Alberto came down from Santa Cruz recently for his work vacation. Usually he only comes to Camiri every second weekend but now he´s here until the 6th of November. Him and his twin brother Luis Carlos have been hanging out with a lot of their old college friends. . They´re both 24 but they have their own houses. Me and Julio have been tagging along with them a lot. As a result, all last week I hung out with a lot of Bolivian groups. Usually I have someone I can talk English with, but for those 5 days.. just Spanish. At times I just listened, but for the most part I was actually able to have a few lengthy discussions. It was cool. I met a lot of their friends that live locally in Camiri but also a few who came to visit from Santa Cruz.
This weekend we went back to the same field in Chorety.. except this time for a drag race. We were supposed to go on Saturday but the event was rescheduled for Sunday because of heavy rain. It doesn´t usually rain here but when it does it´s really heavy and the river floods. Anyways.. we went on Sunday with the same crew, except this time without Luis Alberto and Romeo. Cars that looked like they had been through a demolition derby and a few dune buggies were being tended to by a crowd of mechanics. There was at least another hundred people more than at the horse race and just as much beer. More BBQ too. I got a lot of sun that day. It was a dusty 3 km track. The first event was who could do one lap the fastest. There was a lot of sharp turning involved. On each turn, every driver pulled a heavy drift. There was constantly a massive cloud of dust in the air from each car zooming by. People were standing at every turn getting sprayed with dirt but none of them really seemed to mind. The second event was three cars at a time in 10 second intervals. Even more dust. Again... I was introduced to A LOT of people. It always started out with a member of Julio´s family saying to someone ¨¨that boy.. he´s from Canada¨¨.. hearty handshaking and offering of beer would ensue.. people are REALLY friendly here. I ended up telling dozens of people about what Canada is like and how I´m enjoying Bolivia. Julio would reiterate questions for me in simple spanish if i didn´t understand.Definitely one of the highlights of the day was the awards ceremony. The top three drivers were soaked in beers as they were handed their trophies.... and the outburst of cheering that erupted upon the announcement of the first place winnner caused a drunk to fall off his cement block and pass out on the ground for about 2 hours. He was alright. he just needed his sleep.me and Julio jumped in the back of his friends pick up to get home. On the way we talked with 2 other randoms that had been at the races with us.
So ya.. that was my last two weekends.. lots of high velocity.
Tomorrow I´m giving a presentation at a local high school on violence against women. We´re going for an hour to do some exercises with one of their classes.. talking about verbal and physical abuse... mostly to engage them in discussion. Later tomorrow we´re going out of town to help a school fix and paint their broken chairs and tables and clean up some of the garbage in the town plaza. More on tomorrow in the next note.
Already, we´re talking to the Bolivians about dressing warmly and the dangers of yellow snow. Time has flown by pretty fast recently. We´ll be in Canada soon enough. Our exchange is invited to a local bar for Halloween this Saturday. Some of our friends in town are going back to Santa Cruz fairly soon so it will be our last chance to say goodbye.
The second part of our exchange will be another 2 and half months in Perth. Ontario. I actually have no idea what we´re doing there but it´s just an hour away from Ottawa. I do know that we´ll be coming down for at least a day to introduce the Bolivians to the Rideau canal and maybe even camp fortune or edelweiss. It´s pretty close to home.
So ya.. Canada really soon. I probably just have one more blog entry left from Bolivia. Again.. how are things going with you guys? send me an e'mail.. leave a comment.. whatever.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------RANDOM
I saw about 15 high school students dressed as michael jackson running through the plaza today.. gloves and all.
My mom sent me my ipod so I can now drown out any pitbull or Michael Jackson with slipknot or rage against the machine.
I have a papaya, orange and lemon tree in my house´s courtyard.. ridiculously delicious smoothies.
I´m being called Terminator or John Connor a lot.
More children pelvic thrusting and standing on their tiptoes.
Did I mention the poop buckets? In every washroom.. you´re supposed to put dirty toilet paper in the trash not the toilet. delicious.
The pronuncation of the word ´´years´´ in spanish is important.. it differenciates wether you´re saying how old you are or how many anuses you have.... a.. ani?
I was feeling fat so I put on all black clothes in 40 degree weather and ran for 2 hours. death.
I can´t wait for that breath of cold air.
Monday, October 12, 2009
So yesterday I went for a twelve hour hike.
We got up early in the morning and met at the plaza around 5 in the morning. Only a bit over half of the group showed up (about 11). Christoph and Alex, two German volunteers living in Camiri showed too. We took a cab all the way to the edge of town and followed a narrow cliff path for a few kilometers. Too cool. We walked underneath overhanging rock and through a couple of caves. You could look down and see the river rushing by far below and look across the valley to the massive cliff-face of the opposite hill. They call them hills but they really look like mountains. Anyways, lizards crawling all over the rocks, natural spring water seeping out of the rocks, no guard-rails... pretty sketchy but a super nice view.
We followed a water pipe all the way up to a water reservoir that is the only water source for a small rural community near by.. i don´t know how to spell this.. -eat-in-am-beek-wa. By this point we had been hiking for about an hour and a half. This is where the group split. Our final destination was the Chorro water fall.. but apperently the only way to get there was by using the river as a road. Not everyone felt like getting wet. Only me, our supervisor, ze germans, and 3 others from our group decided to go all the way.
The water was only 4 feet deep at most in some parts. The footing was difficult but at some points you could walk on the bank. We worried about running into snakes and bears, but ze germans had a machete that they bought the previous day. Hardcore. At first we just used it to chop away at anything that was well out of our way but we actually ended up needing it. There were parts where we had to cut away at vines and stuff that looked like bamboo.
It was a 3 hour hike to the falls. We were starting to think that it didn´t even exist along the way. Besides a few falls on slippery rocks and a bit of quicksand we were golden. It was just really far. My feat were wet all day. No snakes.
The waterfall was only about 12-14 meters high with a large clear and clean pool at the bottom. We all jumped in that and swam around in it in the 30 degree weather. It was only late morning. Me, Alex and ze Germans ended up climbing the waterfall to look at its 4 levels. Pretty fun bouldering. We found some wierd spiders and some brown frogs with blue eyes. I ended up dropping my camera in the water. No harm done though. We jumped off the side of the water fall into the pool below to get down. We got out of the water quickly because we´d pushed a bunch of mayflies into the water. So gross. We speared them with our bambooesque poles.
After taking a break we prepared for our long hike back. We didn´t talk much because we were focused on pace. We found a super long vine on the way back hanging down in the middle of the river. We stopped to swing on that for a while.. from bank to bank.
I was so hungry by this point. I needed some pollo sucre. It´s basically fried chicken. The fast food place of choice in Camiri. Basically the McDonalds equivalent.
Interlude: Me and the students take the dried kernels off the corn at my work. it goes to my friend Romeo´s work placement to be ground up and then fed to the chickens. the chickens go to pollo sucre for 18 cash bolivianos a pop. The circle of life. Very lion king.
Anyways. After vine-swinging we made the long wet hike back to the reservoir. We went through another cave to a different path that led down to a swimming hole, a part of the river at the bottom of the valley. The water was all brown from rainfall but it was fine to swim in. This river was a lot wider and deeper than the one leading to the waterfalls. Both banks were lined with huge smooth rocks sculpted by the river. Excellent for climbing. We bouldered up to the top of the rocks and jumped off 8m drops into the river. At first we were unsure if it was deep enough because the water was all chocolate-milky. I got one of ze Germans to jump off first. It was fine. There´s no way we´re not going back before we leave Camiri. We need more people next time.
So ya.. I got back around five thirty to a cold lunch. I showered and went straight to bed. So tired. But it was such a nice hike. I want to go back to do some more climbing and jumping. I have some sweet photos from that day too.
Best day in Camiri so far. Plus I got to clear the path with a machete.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random thoughts.
There´s a station with Simpsons in spanish 24/7. Since i´ve seen the episodes before it´s a good way to learn the language.
They drink wine mixed with coke here. Not the best.
Siempre el mismo pregunta. I´m always asked if i´m cold in 15 degree weather.
Michael Jackson is too popular here. I liked a few of his songs before the trip but now i´m just sick. I´ve been asked to translate few. I see little kids pelvic thrusting everywhere.
Ive been getting almost no exercise and eating and sleeping so much more. Ive felt so disgusting but apparently ive lost 3 pounds.
hamburger and fries is a dollar fifty.
stray dogs are so scary.. especially at night when you´re the only person in the street.
i have a parrot named florita.. it doesnt talk so much as go MRAH! MRAH! MRAH! for about 10 minutes every morning. Its going to get doused in gasoline sometime soon.
wearing a seatbelt is unheard of
We got up early in the morning and met at the plaza around 5 in the morning. Only a bit over half of the group showed up (about 11). Christoph and Alex, two German volunteers living in Camiri showed too. We took a cab all the way to the edge of town and followed a narrow cliff path for a few kilometers. Too cool. We walked underneath overhanging rock and through a couple of caves. You could look down and see the river rushing by far below and look across the valley to the massive cliff-face of the opposite hill. They call them hills but they really look like mountains. Anyways, lizards crawling all over the rocks, natural spring water seeping out of the rocks, no guard-rails... pretty sketchy but a super nice view.
We followed a water pipe all the way up to a water reservoir that is the only water source for a small rural community near by.. i don´t know how to spell this.. -eat-in-am-beek-wa. By this point we had been hiking for about an hour and a half. This is where the group split. Our final destination was the Chorro water fall.. but apperently the only way to get there was by using the river as a road. Not everyone felt like getting wet. Only me, our supervisor, ze germans, and 3 others from our group decided to go all the way.
The water was only 4 feet deep at most in some parts. The footing was difficult but at some points you could walk on the bank. We worried about running into snakes and bears, but ze germans had a machete that they bought the previous day. Hardcore. At first we just used it to chop away at anything that was well out of our way but we actually ended up needing it. There were parts where we had to cut away at vines and stuff that looked like bamboo.
It was a 3 hour hike to the falls. We were starting to think that it didn´t even exist along the way. Besides a few falls on slippery rocks and a bit of quicksand we were golden. It was just really far. My feat were wet all day. No snakes.
The waterfall was only about 12-14 meters high with a large clear and clean pool at the bottom. We all jumped in that and swam around in it in the 30 degree weather. It was only late morning. Me, Alex and ze Germans ended up climbing the waterfall to look at its 4 levels. Pretty fun bouldering. We found some wierd spiders and some brown frogs with blue eyes. I ended up dropping my camera in the water. No harm done though. We jumped off the side of the water fall into the pool below to get down. We got out of the water quickly because we´d pushed a bunch of mayflies into the water. So gross. We speared them with our bambooesque poles.
After taking a break we prepared for our long hike back. We didn´t talk much because we were focused on pace. We found a super long vine on the way back hanging down in the middle of the river. We stopped to swing on that for a while.. from bank to bank.
I was so hungry by this point. I needed some pollo sucre. It´s basically fried chicken. The fast food place of choice in Camiri. Basically the McDonalds equivalent.
Interlude: Me and the students take the dried kernels off the corn at my work. it goes to my friend Romeo´s work placement to be ground up and then fed to the chickens. the chickens go to pollo sucre for 18 cash bolivianos a pop. The circle of life. Very lion king.
Anyways. After vine-swinging we made the long wet hike back to the reservoir. We went through another cave to a different path that led down to a swimming hole, a part of the river at the bottom of the valley. The water was all brown from rainfall but it was fine to swim in. This river was a lot wider and deeper than the one leading to the waterfalls. Both banks were lined with huge smooth rocks sculpted by the river. Excellent for climbing. We bouldered up to the top of the rocks and jumped off 8m drops into the river. At first we were unsure if it was deep enough because the water was all chocolate-milky. I got one of ze Germans to jump off first. It was fine. There´s no way we´re not going back before we leave Camiri. We need more people next time.
So ya.. I got back around five thirty to a cold lunch. I showered and went straight to bed. So tired. But it was such a nice hike. I want to go back to do some more climbing and jumping. I have some sweet photos from that day too.
Best day in Camiri so far. Plus I got to clear the path with a machete.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random thoughts.
There´s a station with Simpsons in spanish 24/7. Since i´ve seen the episodes before it´s a good way to learn the language.
They drink wine mixed with coke here. Not the best.
Siempre el mismo pregunta. I´m always asked if i´m cold in 15 degree weather.
Michael Jackson is too popular here. I liked a few of his songs before the trip but now i´m just sick. I´ve been asked to translate few. I see little kids pelvic thrusting everywhere.
Ive been getting almost no exercise and eating and sleeping so much more. Ive felt so disgusting but apparently ive lost 3 pounds.
hamburger and fries is a dollar fifty.
stray dogs are so scary.. especially at night when you´re the only person in the street.
i have a parrot named florita.. it doesnt talk so much as go MRAH! MRAH! MRAH! for about 10 minutes every morning. Its going to get doused in gasoline sometime soon.
wearing a seatbelt is unheard of
Thursday, October 1, 2009
yo
So I was in Santa Cruz for 2 days... yeah. What I thought was going to be a cultural night of traditional Bolivian song and danse turned out to be a the most massive trade show i´ve ever seen... with a thirty boiviano entry fee. This place was packed. It was basically a large park filled with product mascots, 50 foot advertisements, and various stations filled with furniture, cars, cell phones.. everything. Everyone was hitting shoulders because it was so packed. The funny thing was that each sale station had at least 2 supermodels in heels showcasing the goods. In more ways than one i suppose.
´´Do YOU come with the car?´´
The professionals were straight-backed and constantly smiling while others were sitting down looking at their cell-phones with a bored ´why-am-i-here?´´ expression on their faces. Most people were attracted to each sale because you could take a picture with the ladies up front. I settled for a photo with two guys dressed up as a ketchup and mustard bottle.
After a lot of walking around, I found out that the other people in my group were just there to ´´look around´´ so I suggested we leave as soon as possible.
After that we met up with a bunch of people from the Santa Cruz exchange which was really cool. We hung out with them through various orientation sessions and hadn´t seen them for a month. Apparently there´s lots of tension in between the supervisors and volunteers there but all the participants were getting along in their exchange fine otherwise. We went to a couple of bars and hung out for the rest of the night. More photos i have to upload somehow.. magically.
I would´ve liked to stay in Santa Cruz longer but we had exhausted our time limit. Whatever. I think some Santa Cruzians are coming down this Saturday to chill.
Not much new to say. We had a dry electric storm which was pretty spectacular. Also, there are two new german volunteers that have joined the others. Alex and Christoph. They both speak fluent English and we´re just getting to know them.
I might be switching work placements for a week with Claudio. He´s getting tired of shovelling poop at the farm and needs a break.
When the Bolivians can´t pronounce my name.. I tell them it´s like John Connor from Terminator and their faces light up with understanding and recognition.
My ipod is on its way. Thank you so much mom and dad. If I hear uno, dos, tres, quatro one more time I might have an an aneurysm. Yes, I know you want me. Yes, I know I want you go take a long walk off a short pier. Soon I´ll be able to drown in all out with Protest.. soon.
I did heard dust in the wind in spanish the other day which was pretty cool.
Work´s going good. Mario´s has got addition and subtraction down over the past 2 weeks and we´re moving on to multiplication. Today was another session of removing the dried kernels from corn. SO much corn. They´re going to grind it all up to make a kind of flower. I tried to suggest that they should have a massive popcorn fiesta but the kids looked at me in confusion and threw kernels at me.... cunning.
Anyways.. that´s all I have for now. I´m probably forgetting a few things. I´ve found a usb-picture-uploader-thingy so hopefully I´ll have some photos up soon.
i bid you toodles
Connor
So I was in Santa Cruz for 2 days... yeah. What I thought was going to be a cultural night of traditional Bolivian song and danse turned out to be a the most massive trade show i´ve ever seen... with a thirty boiviano entry fee. This place was packed. It was basically a large park filled with product mascots, 50 foot advertisements, and various stations filled with furniture, cars, cell phones.. everything. Everyone was hitting shoulders because it was so packed. The funny thing was that each sale station had at least 2 supermodels in heels showcasing the goods. In more ways than one i suppose.
´´Do YOU come with the car?´´
The professionals were straight-backed and constantly smiling while others were sitting down looking at their cell-phones with a bored ´why-am-i-here?´´ expression on their faces. Most people were attracted to each sale because you could take a picture with the ladies up front. I settled for a photo with two guys dressed up as a ketchup and mustard bottle.
After a lot of walking around, I found out that the other people in my group were just there to ´´look around´´ so I suggested we leave as soon as possible.
After that we met up with a bunch of people from the Santa Cruz exchange which was really cool. We hung out with them through various orientation sessions and hadn´t seen them for a month. Apparently there´s lots of tension in between the supervisors and volunteers there but all the participants were getting along in their exchange fine otherwise. We went to a couple of bars and hung out for the rest of the night. More photos i have to upload somehow.. magically.
I would´ve liked to stay in Santa Cruz longer but we had exhausted our time limit. Whatever. I think some Santa Cruzians are coming down this Saturday to chill.
Not much new to say. We had a dry electric storm which was pretty spectacular. Also, there are two new german volunteers that have joined the others. Alex and Christoph. They both speak fluent English and we´re just getting to know them.
I might be switching work placements for a week with Claudio. He´s getting tired of shovelling poop at the farm and needs a break.
When the Bolivians can´t pronounce my name.. I tell them it´s like John Connor from Terminator and their faces light up with understanding and recognition.
My ipod is on its way. Thank you so much mom and dad. If I hear uno, dos, tres, quatro one more time I might have an an aneurysm. Yes, I know you want me. Yes, I know I want you go take a long walk off a short pier. Soon I´ll be able to drown in all out with Protest.. soon.
I did heard dust in the wind in spanish the other day which was pretty cool.
Work´s going good. Mario´s has got addition and subtraction down over the past 2 weeks and we´re moving on to multiplication. Today was another session of removing the dried kernels from corn. SO much corn. They´re going to grind it all up to make a kind of flower. I tried to suggest that they should have a massive popcorn fiesta but the kids looked at me in confusion and threw kernels at me.... cunning.
Anyways.. that´s all I have for now. I´m probably forgetting a few things. I´ve found a usb-picture-uploader-thingy so hopefully I´ll have some photos up soon.
i bid you toodles
Connor
Friday, September 25, 2009
I forgot to mention in my last entry the massive massive fires I witnessed on the horizon in Santa Cruz. At the orientation camp at night, the Bolivian volunteers seemed generally unphased by the massive, walls of flame burning the large fields in the distance. The wind there is really strong too. We were told that farmers, instead of paying hired-hands to remove the remnants of their previous crops, set fire to their land to make way for the new ones... which produces a pretty cool-looking effect at midnight. Metal.
So anways. I´m still at work 4 times a week at the orphanage. In the mornings I teach basic english conjugation and vocabulary. It´s usually by request. As I draw/write a fruit or animal on the board, all the children yell it out in spansih. So it´s also an extremely loud spanish lesson for me. Usually Julio and I teach a group of boys but now and again we get a group of girls who have a trifling interest in learning a new language. I also help the teacher translate brief descriptions of dinosaurs for pictures she´s posted around the room.
In the afternoon I teach addition, subtraction and multiplication to Mario while Julio teaches handwriting to Benito. These one on one sessions are two and a half hours but usually end up being around 2 because of short attention spans. The orphanage doubles as a catholic school, so all the kids take part in prayer, readings and help with all the chores within the building. The other day we helped them remove dried kernels from corn. There was a ridiculous amount. The entire inner courtyard was filled with bags of the stuff.
That reminds me. All the houses in Camiri are all one level. They all have an inner courtyard and open doorways/screen-doors to all the adjacent rooms of the house. There are no seals to conserve heat because it´s warm enough all year around to wear regular clothing and be comfortable. And if it does actually go down to 11, everyone´s dressed for winter. I get asked if I´m cold a lot. I respond by saying I´m Canadian. I like to remind all the Bolivian volunteers that Canadian winter goes down to minus 35. The 9 bolivian volunteers will be coming with us to Canada in November by the way. If you haven´t heard about my program, we´ll be going to Perth, Ontario for volunteer work placements until February.
The only exercise I´ve gotten so far was a volleyball match in a raquetball court and playing soccer against a high school. Volleyball works for me because i´m relatively tall here in bolivia, but there´s no way I can keep up in soccer. No hands is a stupid rule.
Our group has had a few food problems over the past little while. A supervisor and 2 canadian volunteers had a stomach infection for a couple of days while one of those three also had salmonella. So that´s super fun. They were in the clinic for a bit but their fine now and running around. I had, what appeared to be the onset of, a stomach infection but it was just a light fever for a day and it passed.
I swam in the river again and figured out why it´s called rio de la muerte. The legend is that a woman was waiting for her husband to come back from the war on one of the bridges they have crossing the river. When her tears fell into the water, the river flooded and washed away anyone along the shore. And that´s why flash-floods kill 20 men (only) men each year... a spiteful widow who´s condemned my gender. I won´t be swimming during rain. It hardly rains here anyway.
I´ve been hanging out with Julio´s family a lot. They like to drink. Everyone´s been getting a kick out of the flashing LED turtle lights my Dad gave me to give as gifts. The bolivians use them as rave lights in their cars at night while blasting their music. I´m officially sick of top 20s and michael jackson. I desperately need my ipod. Need slipknot. Need killswitch. I was asked to translate beat it into spanish. madness.
My spanish has been improving dramatically. I have a good foundation for learning the language as I know french. The two are shockingly similar.
We´ve been getting to know another group of volunteers in the town as welll. There are four germans doing a similar exchange and they have their own place. Nico, Hannah, Ronja and whatserface. Hannah and Nico speak fluent English while the other two are just learning. We´ve gone out with them a couple of times. Nico is easily the most massive person in the entire town. 6´´ 4 is an unheard of height here.
So i´ve been enjoying the sun, the fresh fruit and the company. I´ll be heading to the city of Santa Cruz for a couple of days at midnight tonight for the anniversary.
If you guys have any questions let me know. More importantly tell me about yourselves and Canada.
hasta luego
Connor
So anways. I´m still at work 4 times a week at the orphanage. In the mornings I teach basic english conjugation and vocabulary. It´s usually by request. As I draw/write a fruit or animal on the board, all the children yell it out in spansih. So it´s also an extremely loud spanish lesson for me. Usually Julio and I teach a group of boys but now and again we get a group of girls who have a trifling interest in learning a new language. I also help the teacher translate brief descriptions of dinosaurs for pictures she´s posted around the room.
In the afternoon I teach addition, subtraction and multiplication to Mario while Julio teaches handwriting to Benito. These one on one sessions are two and a half hours but usually end up being around 2 because of short attention spans. The orphanage doubles as a catholic school, so all the kids take part in prayer, readings and help with all the chores within the building. The other day we helped them remove dried kernels from corn. There was a ridiculous amount. The entire inner courtyard was filled with bags of the stuff.
That reminds me. All the houses in Camiri are all one level. They all have an inner courtyard and open doorways/screen-doors to all the adjacent rooms of the house. There are no seals to conserve heat because it´s warm enough all year around to wear regular clothing and be comfortable. And if it does actually go down to 11, everyone´s dressed for winter. I get asked if I´m cold a lot. I respond by saying I´m Canadian. I like to remind all the Bolivian volunteers that Canadian winter goes down to minus 35. The 9 bolivian volunteers will be coming with us to Canada in November by the way. If you haven´t heard about my program, we´ll be going to Perth, Ontario for volunteer work placements until February.
The only exercise I´ve gotten so far was a volleyball match in a raquetball court and playing soccer against a high school. Volleyball works for me because i´m relatively tall here in bolivia, but there´s no way I can keep up in soccer. No hands is a stupid rule.
Our group has had a few food problems over the past little while. A supervisor and 2 canadian volunteers had a stomach infection for a couple of days while one of those three also had salmonella. So that´s super fun. They were in the clinic for a bit but their fine now and running around. I had, what appeared to be the onset of, a stomach infection but it was just a light fever for a day and it passed.
I swam in the river again and figured out why it´s called rio de la muerte. The legend is that a woman was waiting for her husband to come back from the war on one of the bridges they have crossing the river. When her tears fell into the water, the river flooded and washed away anyone along the shore. And that´s why flash-floods kill 20 men (only) men each year... a spiteful widow who´s condemned my gender. I won´t be swimming during rain. It hardly rains here anyway.
I´ve been hanging out with Julio´s family a lot. They like to drink. Everyone´s been getting a kick out of the flashing LED turtle lights my Dad gave me to give as gifts. The bolivians use them as rave lights in their cars at night while blasting their music. I´m officially sick of top 20s and michael jackson. I desperately need my ipod. Need slipknot. Need killswitch. I was asked to translate beat it into spanish. madness.
My spanish has been improving dramatically. I have a good foundation for learning the language as I know french. The two are shockingly similar.
We´ve been getting to know another group of volunteers in the town as welll. There are four germans doing a similar exchange and they have their own place. Nico, Hannah, Ronja and whatserface. Hannah and Nico speak fluent English while the other two are just learning. We´ve gone out with them a couple of times. Nico is easily the most massive person in the entire town. 6´´ 4 is an unheard of height here.
So i´ve been enjoying the sun, the fresh fruit and the company. I´ll be heading to the city of Santa Cruz for a couple of days at midnight tonight for the anniversary.
If you guys have any questions let me know. More importantly tell me about yourselves and Canada.
hasta luego
Connor
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Hey peoples. Here´s what I´ve been up to...
After meeting at Canada World Youth headquarters, me and the 26 other volunteers took a bus to a camp just outside of Montreal where we had a 5 day orientation. We learned a bunch of useful stuff like spanish, bolivian customs and greetings but also boring stuff like teamwork and group dynamics.Besides the ridiculous amount of mystery pudding, we were fed well and had bunkbeds to sleep in (epic score).We had a soccer field and volleyball court just beside the st. laurence so it was a great place to hang out if you had free time. The group had a lot of bonding time.
After the camp.. we took a plane from Montreal to Toronto and then from Toronto to Lima, Peru where we stayed for the night. We were supposed to leave for Santa Cruz in the morning but our plane was cancelled so we had the entire day to chill in Lima.We went down to the Pacific ocean and watched the surfers for a while. Instead of sand, the beach was made of large, smooth stones. It sounded like a mini-avalanche every time a wave struck the shore. To occupy ourselves, we walked up and down the beach and threw rocks at a dead, washed-up penguin.Later that day we went to public park filled with massive fountains. Supposedly it holds the world record for most fountains in a public parc or something like that. These things were HUGE! i have some pretty awesome photos. Unfortunately I have no way of uploading them so far. Each fountain was a show in itself as it was constantly changing its behavior by shooting columns of water high up into the air or in different directions. Some of them ´´danced´´ to symphony or techno. It seemed like whatever I did I got a whistle blown at me. There are hundreds of staff armed with the damn things.. don´t walk on the grass, don´t climb on that, don´t pee in the water. whatever.
We got to the airport that night to catch our plane, but it was delayed for 2 and half hours. We arrived in Santa Cruz around 4 in the morning and took our bus to the second orientation camp with the bolivian partners. It was basically a never-ending orientation for the first while. Our bus drove over bumpy dirt roads in the dark through what resembled an african sahara. It felt like it too. It was 30 degrees out.When we got to the Bolivian camp, we were told to go into the building silently because the other volunteers were ´´sleeping´´. Once inside all the lights turned on and cake and food was set up everywhere. Totally called it.The greeting was shortlived because everyone was exhausted within the hour. We all went to bed at 6 to wake up 4 hours later. No-one slept well because 5 minutes after we went to bed, a million different kinds of birds started screeching with the sunrise. We couldn´t stop laughing. Insanity¨, the result of a group of sweaty jetlagged youth.
There was another 4 days of orientation at the camp. We had sessions outside in the 35 degree weather and strong strong winds. At times I couldn´t even hear what was being said. With the 27 other bolivian youth, we were constantly practicing our spanish. I started to realize how similar it is to French. We had a pool and basketball court and spent lots of time late at night under the stars listening to an accoustic. we started to learn the chacarella, a traditional bolivian danse. It´s basically a sexy tap-dance. Very similar to an aroused stallion. At the end of the orienation (finally) we still didn´t know what our work placements were, which i found frustrating. The gruop was split into thirds. Montero, Santa Cruz and Camiri. It was time to say goodbye. As I was in the Camiri crew, we had the farthest to go. We were also the last group to figure out who our counterparts were (the bolivian volunteer who we´d be living with in Camiri and Perth for the next 5 months). We ended up drawing names from a hat on the bus to Camiri. I drew the name of the only volunteer who was not at orientation because his grandmother was sick. All i knew was that his name was Julio Cesar.
We arrived in the town plaza at around 9 at night to the local militia band playing Camiri´s anthem. We ate dinner with the host familys at the plaza and were given an official greeting from our partner program FUNDEHUS. I still have no idea what that stands for. I also met Julio Cesar. He´s 22, chill and uses a lot of gel.
We all went to our host families that night. The next couple of days were difficult for my family because of julio´s sick grandmother. I ended up transferring to Claudio´s home (another Camirenian volunteer) to stay with Romeo for a few nights to allow the family some time. Claudio has the cutest dogs i´ve ever seen and I´m going to steal them. He also has a younger brother and sister that are learning English in elementary school. Me and Romeo flipped through their school books with them to teach some English adn learn some spanish.
I´ve since moved back to Julio´s place and Camiri is great. We had a few days off after we arrived. We used them to go to a sugar cane plantation where we drank sugar juice, chewed on fresh sugar cane and ate sugar cane molasses, which is basically a very thick maple syrup equivalent to sugar cane. Never have i used the word sugar so much in one sentence. We also swam in the local river which is called ´´el rio de la muerte´´ as flash floods kill 20 people each year, though most of the time it´s just 3 feet deep and 70 meters across. We walked over the suspension bridge over the river and watched fishermen reel in catches of fish by hand with nets at sunset.
Tequila shots and pitchers here are 2 dollars.
I´m picking up spanish quickly and am able to keep a conversation going for a short while. I´m still flipping through my dictionary whenever i can. I´ve been tripping a lot. My host family´s been great and the group has become pretty tight.
There are SO many stray dogs here. You can hear them all howling at night.
The food hear is cheap and delicious too. They´re big on carbs and proteins, not so much fruits and vegetables. One member of our group has contracted salmonella and an intestinal infection.. sketchy. It was up to me to break the news to her in french. total balls. I´m going to go visit her in the clinic after this.
So Camiri has been great. It´s a small down surrounded my tall tall hills. It´s been very hot most of the time and there´s hardly ever any rain. I´m still exploring the town and just learning to find my way around. Again, i have lots of pictures i´d love to show you guys. There´s lots to talk about.
My work placement is at an orphanage with julio where i´ve been teaching french, english, addition and subtraction to kids in between 3 and 15. I´m also a chemistry/physics homework-checker and designated paper-airplane maker. Me and juilo made 100 airplanes one day and they were flying everywhere. the sister wasn´t happy with us.
soooooooooooo.. yeah... It´s been fun here. I´m still breaching the language barrier but.. all in time. I hope you guys are doing great with your new trendy lives in mtl. I´d love to hear about your new school life and you´re new appartments. I´ve figured out a good place to get on fathebook and maybe even skype.. so let me know when you´d be down to chat it up.
I look forward to coming to crashing on one of your couches soon. LET ME KNOW WHAT´S GOING ON WITH YOU GUYS!!! my e'mails crawlingdragon@hotmail.com
have a good one
Connor
After meeting at Canada World Youth headquarters, me and the 26 other volunteers took a bus to a camp just outside of Montreal where we had a 5 day orientation. We learned a bunch of useful stuff like spanish, bolivian customs and greetings but also boring stuff like teamwork and group dynamics.Besides the ridiculous amount of mystery pudding, we were fed well and had bunkbeds to sleep in (epic score).We had a soccer field and volleyball court just beside the st. laurence so it was a great place to hang out if you had free time. The group had a lot of bonding time.
After the camp.. we took a plane from Montreal to Toronto and then from Toronto to Lima, Peru where we stayed for the night. We were supposed to leave for Santa Cruz in the morning but our plane was cancelled so we had the entire day to chill in Lima.We went down to the Pacific ocean and watched the surfers for a while. Instead of sand, the beach was made of large, smooth stones. It sounded like a mini-avalanche every time a wave struck the shore. To occupy ourselves, we walked up and down the beach and threw rocks at a dead, washed-up penguin.Later that day we went to public park filled with massive fountains. Supposedly it holds the world record for most fountains in a public parc or something like that. These things were HUGE! i have some pretty awesome photos. Unfortunately I have no way of uploading them so far. Each fountain was a show in itself as it was constantly changing its behavior by shooting columns of water high up into the air or in different directions. Some of them ´´danced´´ to symphony or techno. It seemed like whatever I did I got a whistle blown at me. There are hundreds of staff armed with the damn things.. don´t walk on the grass, don´t climb on that, don´t pee in the water. whatever.
We got to the airport that night to catch our plane, but it was delayed for 2 and half hours. We arrived in Santa Cruz around 4 in the morning and took our bus to the second orientation camp with the bolivian partners. It was basically a never-ending orientation for the first while. Our bus drove over bumpy dirt roads in the dark through what resembled an african sahara. It felt like it too. It was 30 degrees out.When we got to the Bolivian camp, we were told to go into the building silently because the other volunteers were ´´sleeping´´. Once inside all the lights turned on and cake and food was set up everywhere. Totally called it.The greeting was shortlived because everyone was exhausted within the hour. We all went to bed at 6 to wake up 4 hours later. No-one slept well because 5 minutes after we went to bed, a million different kinds of birds started screeching with the sunrise. We couldn´t stop laughing. Insanity¨, the result of a group of sweaty jetlagged youth.
There was another 4 days of orientation at the camp. We had sessions outside in the 35 degree weather and strong strong winds. At times I couldn´t even hear what was being said. With the 27 other bolivian youth, we were constantly practicing our spanish. I started to realize how similar it is to French. We had a pool and basketball court and spent lots of time late at night under the stars listening to an accoustic. we started to learn the chacarella, a traditional bolivian danse. It´s basically a sexy tap-dance. Very similar to an aroused stallion. At the end of the orienation (finally) we still didn´t know what our work placements were, which i found frustrating. The gruop was split into thirds. Montero, Santa Cruz and Camiri. It was time to say goodbye. As I was in the Camiri crew, we had the farthest to go. We were also the last group to figure out who our counterparts were (the bolivian volunteer who we´d be living with in Camiri and Perth for the next 5 months). We ended up drawing names from a hat on the bus to Camiri. I drew the name of the only volunteer who was not at orientation because his grandmother was sick. All i knew was that his name was Julio Cesar.
We arrived in the town plaza at around 9 at night to the local militia band playing Camiri´s anthem. We ate dinner with the host familys at the plaza and were given an official greeting from our partner program FUNDEHUS. I still have no idea what that stands for. I also met Julio Cesar. He´s 22, chill and uses a lot of gel.
We all went to our host families that night. The next couple of days were difficult for my family because of julio´s sick grandmother. I ended up transferring to Claudio´s home (another Camirenian volunteer) to stay with Romeo for a few nights to allow the family some time. Claudio has the cutest dogs i´ve ever seen and I´m going to steal them. He also has a younger brother and sister that are learning English in elementary school. Me and Romeo flipped through their school books with them to teach some English adn learn some spanish.
I´ve since moved back to Julio´s place and Camiri is great. We had a few days off after we arrived. We used them to go to a sugar cane plantation where we drank sugar juice, chewed on fresh sugar cane and ate sugar cane molasses, which is basically a very thick maple syrup equivalent to sugar cane. Never have i used the word sugar so much in one sentence. We also swam in the local river which is called ´´el rio de la muerte´´ as flash floods kill 20 people each year, though most of the time it´s just 3 feet deep and 70 meters across. We walked over the suspension bridge over the river and watched fishermen reel in catches of fish by hand with nets at sunset.
Tequila shots and pitchers here are 2 dollars.
I´m picking up spanish quickly and am able to keep a conversation going for a short while. I´m still flipping through my dictionary whenever i can. I´ve been tripping a lot. My host family´s been great and the group has become pretty tight.
There are SO many stray dogs here. You can hear them all howling at night.
The food hear is cheap and delicious too. They´re big on carbs and proteins, not so much fruits and vegetables. One member of our group has contracted salmonella and an intestinal infection.. sketchy. It was up to me to break the news to her in french. total balls. I´m going to go visit her in the clinic after this.
So Camiri has been great. It´s a small down surrounded my tall tall hills. It´s been very hot most of the time and there´s hardly ever any rain. I´m still exploring the town and just learning to find my way around. Again, i have lots of pictures i´d love to show you guys. There´s lots to talk about.
My work placement is at an orphanage with julio where i´ve been teaching french, english, addition and subtraction to kids in between 3 and 15. I´m also a chemistry/physics homework-checker and designated paper-airplane maker. Me and juilo made 100 airplanes one day and they were flying everywhere. the sister wasn´t happy with us.
soooooooooooo.. yeah... It´s been fun here. I´m still breaching the language barrier but.. all in time. I hope you guys are doing great with your new trendy lives in mtl. I´d love to hear about your new school life and you´re new appartments. I´ve figured out a good place to get on fathebook and maybe even skype.. so let me know when you´d be down to chat it up.
I look forward to coming to crashing on one of your couches soon. LET ME KNOW WHAT´S GOING ON WITH YOU GUYS!!! my e'mails crawlingdragon@hotmail.com
have a good one
Connor
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Hi everyone.
The bike ride was a big success. Thanks so much to everyone who donated and supported me.
I ended up leaving my house around 10:30 a.m. when I had originally planned to leave around 8-9a.m. I brought breakfast, water and a lunch in my backpack. Confident that I had more than enough time to reach Kingston before nightfall, I made my way slowly through hull towards the parliament buildings. I stopped to eat some of my food and didn't really exert myself at all. I made my way up the Ottawa river to Moodie where I realized that I was becoming pressed for time. On top of that I had a lot of trouble finding the beginning of the Ottawa-Carleton trail-way, an abandoned railway filled in with gravel. I asked several people where it was and they all seemed to have a different answer.
When I finally found the beginning of the trail, I was 2 and a half hours into my ride. It was time to get going. The trail-way was incredibly boring. It was 45km of crushed gravel, a straight line the entire way. I put my ipod in for the entire distance. This part of the ride wasn't to interesting although it did pass through several scenic marshes. When I finally arrived at Carleton place, I immediately started north keeping to residential highways. The ride was relatively flat until the ride to Westport. The road in between Perth and Kingston has many large hills in it. I had to face these after cycling over 100km, a distance I had never rode before. A lot of the time I stopped for a water break before attempting to climb them.
I arrived in Kingston without incident along the way. The whole thing was more mentally taxing that it was physically challenging. It took me about 10 hours in total. I regretted going slowly through Hull and Ottawa. More than once I had to check my maps to assure myself that I was heading in the right direction.
Fortunately I didn't have to sleep at a camp-site. My parents ended up meeting me in Kingston and we slept in a hotel for the night. I had a massive craving for pizza when I arrived and sure enough, my Dad had ordered one from pizza pizza. After eating, I fell asleep almost immediately.
The next morning I left to head home around 10:30. Another late start. I left with the looming feeling that I was going to get a flat right of the bat. Six kilometers after my departure from Kingston, I got a flat. I changed the tire as fast as I could as I was eager to get going. After another 20km, I took a look at my back tire. Apparently the reason for my previous flat had been a hole in the tread itself. The inner-tube that I had just put in was sticking through this hole like a tumor on the side of the wheel. I knew this was going to burst soon but insisted on seeing how far it would take me. 7km later I got another flat on the same tire and had to change the tire as well as the tread. I got the new tread that was lying in my parents' van. They passed by in the van about 20 mins after my flat.
Frustrated at the delays. I sped all the way back to Ottawa, pushing hard and keeping my speed above 25km/h. By the time I got to Carleton Place, my left knee was paining me. So much so that I ended up riding the whole trail-way back to Moodie on just my right leg. Again, I put in my ipod the whole way. I just really wanted to get home. I took the bike-path along the Ottawa river, mentally and physically exhausted all the while. I hot-shot cyclist came around a corner into my lane and almost hit me head-on. I wasn't too polite with him.
As a general rule for the past two years, I had made a conscious effort to stay above 2 and 1 gearing at all times. When I got to hull, I was forced to go to 1 and 1 gearing (the granny gear) for many hills because of faulty knee and general fatigue. The final challenge was the massive hill up to my home on my rode. One kilometer of loose, fresh gravel to finish of the ride.
I had a lot of coffee when I got home and didn't fall asleep til late. Work the next day wasn't too bad. My knee was starting to feel better and by the end of the day it was fine. I've continued to stretch since then and my legs are fine now. I did, however, loose 4-5 pounds during the ride.
So in the end, the ride was success. I had never attempted something like this in my life and it was an interesting way to spend two days. I got a nice view of the rideau lakes, and was able to take quiet back-roads as opposed to highways abundant with trucks zooming by all the time. It was extremely challenging. I don't think I'll be doing something like this again anytime soon. I'm definitely not Tour de France material. I'm also appreciative of the help my parents gave me along the way.
Again, thank you so much to everyone who donated to my Canada World Youth trip. I'll try to keep updates flowing through this blog as much as I can. More details on the program coming soon.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Hi everyone! I've decided that I'll be biking from Chelsea to Kingston and back on the 5th and 6th of August. To see the details on the route I'll be taking.... go to this link:
http://www.gobiking.ca/perth-kingston/index.html
or you can type Ottawa to Kingston on google maps and look at the "walking" route.
I'll be leaving from my home just off Larrimac, Chelsea early wednesday morning full of toast and eggs. It is about 200 km to Kingston so I'll be bringing a lot of water and chocolate to make sure I survive the long trip. I've never attempted a bike this long before but I'm confident that I'll have more than enough time to complete the ride within the two days. When I arrive in Kingston in the late afternoon or early evening, I'll be setting up camp at rideau acres campground (http://www.rideauacres.com/e-home.html).
I have a compact tent that I'll stuff into my back-pack. It will take up a lot of room but I should have enough space for my flat kit, water and food.
For now, I'm just counting down the work days until the 5th. I'm keeping in shape by biking to and from work (though it is only a 24km round trip). Hopefully, there will be no storm during my ride. I barely managed to pull off a 90km ride during the downpour last week so I've had a bit of practice. It's still unpleasant to be completely drenched so I'm hoping for clear skies.
Remember, this ride is a fundraiser for my exchange to Bolivia and Perth with Canada World Youth starting August 25th. I'm still short of the $2500 mark, so any donation you can make is greatly appreciated. Donations can be made at this site: http://www.canadaworldyouth.org/en/Content.aspx?PageId=201&Volunteer=d9533d9914410 or by a check payable to Canada World Youth. More information on Canada World Youth below. (CWY website: http://www.canadaworldyouth.org/en/Splash.aspx).
Thank you for your support!
- Canada World Youth has been running its programs for 37 years. It is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that offers international educational programs to youth between the ages of 17 and 24.
- Canada World Youth's mission is to increase the ability of people, and especially young people, to participate actively in the development of just, harmonious and sustainable societies.
- During my exchange, which will be six months long, I will live in two communities (one in Camiri, Bolivia and one in Perth) and carry out volunteer work projects with a group of other Canadians and youth volunteers from the exchange country.
- Through the CWY program, I will discover new realities, explore different cultures, and learn other languages.
- Canada World Youth is not just about travel. CWY programs make it possible for young people from all around the world to live and work in different communities in an active way, learning more about community and international development.
- Canada World Youth offers an educational program that will allow me to develop professional and personal skills.
- Many universities and colleges in Canada recognize the educational value of the CWY program and grant school credits to youth volunteers.
- The CWY program will equip me with many useful skills for the future, a better understanding of global issues, and the ability to contribute to and play a more active role in my community and Canadian society in general.
- One of my commitments to CWY is to fundraise $2,500. By supporting CWY, you will be making it possible for young people like me to take part in the CWY experience.
- Canada World Youth is a registered charity organization. CWY will issue tax receipts for donations of $20 or more.
http://www.canadaworldyouth.org/en/Content.aspx?PageId=201&Volunteer=d9533d9914410
Thanks for your support.
Connor
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)