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