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.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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
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