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.