Hola amig@s y familia!
I hope you're all doing well! When I wrote the following post, I was sitting in an Indian restaurant in La Paz during my week off between the end of my program and the start of my job. That was about 3 weeks ago! Yikes! Since then I've moved into my new apartment, started my new job(s), and started settling into a different rhythm here in Cochabamba. So, the following thoughts are three weeks old. I'll send a long a more thorough update soon!
May 16th, 2012
"I'm about to head off on a four day trek with my good friend Julie. In the meantime, I have a day or so to collect my thoughts and catchup with the important people in my life. Traveling along is always a little unnerving, but I must say it's nice to have this time to myself.
"To catch you all up on my life...I'll start chronologically. I think I last wrote to you all right before the start of my ISP.
For the past month, I've been studying the public transportation system in Cochabamba. It took me into government buildings and the chronically underdeveloped southern zone of Cochabamba. I had the opportunity to speak with Taxi drivers (always chatty and friendly), government officials (surprisingly helpful), bus riders, and people who founded their own bus line to accommodate their community. It was such a wonderful experience, although definitely challenging, to take a month of my life to fully explore a subject. I realized how passionate I am about regional planning and community development. My work/study in Cocha has helped me realize that I'm also grateful to Oberlin for supporting me (obviously intellectually) but also financially, to stay here this summer.
"I've received two grants, one to continue my research and one to work for an NGO (the Andean Information Network), but more on that later. Here's a selection of funny/meaningful stories from the past month:
-"During one of my visits to the Zona Sur: I wanted to find members of the community who had been involved in the founding of their own bus line. But of course, we were visiting the neighborhood called "1er de Mayo" (May 1st) ON May 1st! So of coouuurse there was a large party (not to mention it was also Día de los Trabajadores: worker's day). I looked at my advisor with a semi-lost looks, hoping she had some ideas for what she should do. She looked around and spotted an elderly man in a brown sweater sitting on the curb in front of his shop. We went over and asked where we could find the dirigente (representative) of the community. He gave us an "are-you-kidding-me" look...So I asked if I could just interview him. Turns out, not only as he one of the most senior members of the barrio, he was also directly involved in the founding of the bus line. He told me his story, pausing occasionally for a toothless grin that said: "no ve?" (essentially, ya know?). As I was finishing the interview, the dirigente walked by. We snagged him and managed to interview him as well. Que suerte! (What luck!)
I hope you're all doing well! When I wrote the following post, I was sitting in an Indian restaurant in La Paz during my week off between the end of my program and the start of my job. That was about 3 weeks ago! Yikes! Since then I've moved into my new apartment, started my new job(s), and started settling into a different rhythm here in Cochabamba. So, the following thoughts are three weeks old. I'll send a long a more thorough update soon!
May 16th, 2012
"I'm about to head off on a four day trek with my good friend Julie. In the meantime, I have a day or so to collect my thoughts and catchup with the important people in my life. Traveling along is always a little unnerving, but I must say it's nice to have this time to myself.
"To catch you all up on my life...I'll start chronologically. I think I last wrote to you all right before the start of my ISP.
For the past month, I've been studying the public transportation system in Cochabamba. It took me into government buildings and the chronically underdeveloped southern zone of Cochabamba. I had the opportunity to speak with Taxi drivers (always chatty and friendly), government officials (surprisingly helpful), bus riders, and people who founded their own bus line to accommodate their community. It was such a wonderful experience, although definitely challenging, to take a month of my life to fully explore a subject. I realized how passionate I am about regional planning and community development. My work/study in Cocha has helped me realize that I'm also grateful to Oberlin for supporting me (obviously intellectually) but also financially, to stay here this summer.
"I've received two grants, one to continue my research and one to work for an NGO (the Andean Information Network), but more on that later. Here's a selection of funny/meaningful stories from the past month:
-"During one of my visits to the Zona Sur: I wanted to find members of the community who had been involved in the founding of their own bus line. But of course, we were visiting the neighborhood called "1er de Mayo" (May 1st) ON May 1st! So of coouuurse there was a large party (not to mention it was also Día de los Trabajadores: worker's day). I looked at my advisor with a semi-lost looks, hoping she had some ideas for what she should do. She looked around and spotted an elderly man in a brown sweater sitting on the curb in front of his shop. We went over and asked where we could find the dirigente (representative) of the community. He gave us an "are-you-kidding-me" look...So I asked if I could just interview him. Turns out, not only as he one of the most senior members of the barrio, he was also directly involved in the founding of the bus line. He told me his story, pausing occasionally for a toothless grin that said: "no ve?" (essentially, ya know?). As I was finishing the interview, the dirigente walked by. We snagged him and managed to interview him as well. Que suerte! (What luck!)
-“One weekend, I went to Santa Cruz to interview the urban
engineer in the city hall. One
thing I LOVE about Bolivia is that you jut have to show up, and chances are,
you can interview the head of city/transportation planning. I climbed the steps of the building
that looked FAR more like an American business building that I had seen
previously in Bolivia. I ended up
interviewing Jorge, who showed me the INCREDIBLE interactive map of their plan
to redesign Santa Cruz’s transit system.
SO COOL! I left there so energized about my project and about urban
planning in general. My friend
shared in my joy...we were so excited we just had to buy Api (delicious, hot,
sweet, corn drink....kind of like if hot chocolate were actually made of really
sweet purple corn) on the way out.
-“Later that weekend, a group of 7 of us (3 American women,
3 French women, and one Bolivian man) made our way to Samaipata, a beautiful
town about a 3 hour ride (through the mountains) from Santa Cruz. The breathtaking views of the mountains
and forest were quickly covered over on our second day by think but
non-menacing clouds. But not
before we managed to visit some gorgeous Incan ruins at the top of an intense
mountain with a bumpy “road” to bring us to the top. (Pictures
on my Picasa account!) The next day (the cloudy one), we commissioned a
trufi to take us to a volcanic lake. The bumpy ride was made calmer
when Sol insisted we listen to Simon and Garfunkel. But when we started
up the volcano/mountain, the terrain got even rougher. Twice, we had
to get out and push the can through deep red muddy rivets in the road.
45 minutes later, we made it up the mountain to be greeted by....a golf
course??? We hiked across the enormous and sopping wet field and found
our way to a stunning view of an Andean valley. But after all that, we
were hoping for a bit more (hence the sad faces in the pictures). Sol
issued a challenge: "first one to find a trail up that hill will get hot
chocolate." Thinking of our soaking wet feet, we all bolted toward one
of the nearby hills. Bushwhacking a little, we found our way to the
top and were rewarded with another incredibly gorgeous view of the
surrounding valley and mountains. Success!! Exhausted, we made our way
back down and eventually back to our hotel, where we ate dinner at the
AMAZING Tex-Mex/comfort food/fancy restaurant attached to our hotel.
The owners are Bolivian woman (from Cochabamba!) and a Texan man (her
husband) who makes a mean burrito and speaks perfect Spanish with a
thick (and slightly ridiculous) Texas accent. And of course, there were
Israelis. Everytime I attempted to speak to them in Hebrew, I
humiliated myself less and less (there's still hope for my Hebrew!).
Anyway, the next morning, Sol and I went to a monkey rescue reserve and
played with howler and spider monkeys. SO AWESOME! (Check out the
photos.) Sol found a a fellow French woman and I found fellow
monkeys.
"We took the bumpy
road back to the hotel, packed up our stuff, and found a driver to take
us to the "cuevas" and then back to Santa Cruz. The cuevas are a series
of 3 stunnnnnnning water falls connected by a gently flowing river.
The driver gave us two hours but it quickly became obvious that we would
be there for longer. We lounged in the mossy wading pools and let the
powerful water falls pound against our backs and warmed and dried
ourselves in the sun. It was definitely going to be hard to back to
work after that. But we got back in the van (3 hours later, with a
grumpy driver) and made our way back to Santa Cruz. Sol, Sophie and I
took a "bus cama" (bed bus) back to Cochabamba. In the morning, I
started fresh with my interviews still feeling the waterfalls and
hearing my friends giggling. It's always helpful to have these moments
of bliss to surround me as I dive into stressful work. But at the same
time, it makes it more difficult/powerful as I cross geographic and
socioeconomic divides in the city. Every minute is an opportunity to
learn here.
As I sat down to compile all of the date and
information I'd collected, I realized that the conversations I had with
the talkative and friendly taxi drivers informed my understanding of the
city far more than my interviews with the (equally friendly) government
officials. Even though my research had taken a pause, I can't kick the
habit of started up conversations with the taxi and trufi drivers
(making my friends roll their eyes and laugh at me everytime).
Oy I don't want to drown you in my stories, so I'll give you just one more anecdote.
"Last
weekend (actually about a month ago), the whole group (24 of us) and
our two AMAZING academic directors came together for the first time in a
month. We had our final Spanish exam (during which I ended up talking
about Kabbalah and organic farming....surprise!) Then we all headed to a
hotel in Tiquipaya, a province to the NW of the city. That evening and
all of the next day, we listened to our fellow students present the
incredible work they had done. There were 9 documentaries, several of
which brought me to tears. The topics ranged from the fight for more
rights for people with disabilities to the effects of climate change on
one of Bolivia's glaciers. One student (my friend Sarah) made a
beautiful and poignant documentary about the effects of pollution in
Lake Titicaca. Another made an emotional documentary about the Afro
Bolivian community. But there weren't just documentaries! My friend
Amelia made a beautiful one woman play about the experiences of the Afro
Bolivians in Cochabamba. Six students wrote children's books (my
favorite was about bats in Bolivia!) and a few of us were boring and
just wrote papers :-)
Although we sat
through about 18 hours of presentations, it was so wonderful to see
everyone's work and it made me feel proud to be a part of this
community. We had a very emotional discussion (in English! Woah!) about
reentering into our home countries carrying the weight of what we had
learned and experienced. It was so powerful to hear everyone reflect on
their semester and about their hopes and fears for returning. It was
emotional and empowering for me to think about the expectations I had
before I left (fear, nervousness, lack of confidence, excitement)...In
the past 4 months, I've dont a lot of growing and changing and all of
these experiences have helped me become a more confident person. One
example that I can think of is language. After 4 months, I feel fully
able to express myself in Spanish. During a recent conversation, I
said: "After having had to do everything in Spanish, it's going to be
fun and bizarre to go back and order something in English, not have to
repeat myself, and think, YEA!!! I OWN this language." :-)
Anyway, that's 2
months away. In the meantime, I'm working for the Andean Information
Network putting together an educational program about the effects of
climate change on Bolivian society, economy and culture. I'll also be
doing some outreach consulting for the Democracy Center. With luck,
I'll also be doing a bit more research on transportation here.
Before I started
this work, my friend Julie and I went for a a trek for 3ish days in the
mountains near La Paz. After 3ish months in the city, it was so nice to
get back to where my soul and body feel most comfortable...in the
woods!"
.....
Soooo, that was written a while ago! I have another long update to send to you, but I'll wait a few days.
Since the trek, I started my job(s), done some
more traveling, and begun soaking up the wonderful community I'm
continuing to build for myself here. More on that later!!
Shabbat shalom! Have a wonderful weekend all!
Thanks for reading this far.
Much love,
Eliana
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