Fotos del Cristo

This is it: The biggest statue of Christ in South America. It was a gift to Cochabamba, but I sadly forgot from whom... maybe Chile. It has little holes in it, so you can use stairs inside the Cristo to climb up to the arms and have a great look over Cochabamba and the mountains around.

Me, after we finally managed to get to the top of this mountain. And no, I havent shaven my hair off, its just an updo to support the heat better :p



Cochabamba with a view on the Laguna Alalay. Sadly, its water is too dirty to swim in it.



All those pictures have been taken from the top of the hill where the Cristo stands, and show Cochabamba and its surroundings.

Ants... Why'd it have to be ants??

My bathroom is infected with ants. Hundreds of ants, thousands of ants, in my trashbin, around my shower, even in my toothpaste...!! What have I done to deserve this...!

Chicha, Chicharon and Llama-Meat

Today I had the pleasure of testing out several types of typical Cochabambino-food. It started off with Llama-Meat at Noon, then Chicharon, which is cerf, or "Wildschwein" in the afternoon, and - very unfortunately- also Chicha, Bolivian beer brewed on a maiz-basis. Unlike the two former, the latter was pretty disgusting. Yuk. (Especially since I know how it is made.. the detailed description of which I shall keep to myself, to save the appreciated reader some stomach turmoil. Suffice to say, making Chicha it is not the cleanest form of beer brewing.)

In the morning, I went to the "Cristo de la Concordia" with Feli, an indigenous girl living and working in the house of my host parents. We had to walk up the hill by ourselves, since the teleférico ("Sessellift") was out of service. Boy do I hate stairs..Especially if there is at least a thousand of them!!

Sadly my camera died on me during this adventure, so I have only very few pictures, and I can only post them later when I have recharged the batteries.

Also, another very interesting observation, to conclude today's posting: Bolivian cars do not have safety belts. For some obscure reason. I think most of them are simply too old, and back in the fifties, safety belts didnt belong to the standard equipment of cars, so most of them still dont have them today. Kinda scary, considering the fact that there is only one rule on Bolivian streets: The strong eats the weak...

Somos "La Mancha"!

This afternoon I had my first self-led workshop at the Attilka library. And how could it be different- I got lost on the way :p However, I managed to arrive, an hour late, but anyhow, people just started to show up. It was only three children for the reading workshop today, since all the boys just arrived when playtime was about to start.. I wonder why :p

We worked with the spanish fairytale "Las dos hadas", which is a story about self acceptance and overcoming shyness. We also created our first wall decoration, a collection of paper flowers with our names and birthdates on it, to create a better identification of the children with the library community. They loved it! Here are some pictures to illustrate this afternoon.

I really liked working with them.. Sociology, Pedagogy or Education would have been something Id have enjoyed studying too, I think. This, btw, is Jacqueline and her brother Luiz, who was here for the first time today. Jaqueline has been coming to the workshop last week, and she has been extremely shy, to a point where I wasnt even sure if she actually KNEW how to read and write. But it seems she overcame her initial shyness, since today she was extremely cute and opened up way more.

This is me with little Yessena. It breaks my heart how lovely and caring this girl is, and how much attention and care she needs. She told me her parents dont get her anything for christmas, and for her birthday, she got 20 Bolivianos. This is about three dollars, or not even two Euros. Sad world.

Fabio and his friend doing Michael Jackson.

Finally another group picture with the finished wallpaper. Next week we'll be working on "El gato con botas", or "Der gestiefelte Kater". Oh and tomorrow I'll be going to a capacitation workshop with the kids of the library.. getting up at 7 am on a saturday, eep! :s
Also, I have an interview with the director of INFANTE next week, and they have accepted me as an intern. We will be discussing the projects I will be involved in on tuesday.

Random..

Today I do not have anything particularly intelligent to add, so I figured, I might just throw up some pictures I took at home while I was bored.


Picture 1: Me with open hair!


Picture 2: Me with Bavarian updo. Even if it doesnt show it right. But have you ever tried to selfshoot something thats on the backside of your head? No? Right.



Picture 3: Me.. oehm.. bored! I was just fooling around with my camera, but somehow I liked the pic.. sooooo..!

Pictures from Urkupina... finally!

This is not forced labor, but a religious-spiritual ritual to honor the Virgen and the Pachamama, and to bless one's family with wealth throughout the year. The concept is quite basic: Take a hammer, clobber stones, get them blessed by a priest and carry them home. Keep them until the next year, then bring them back to the temple and clobber new stones! Needless to say, I wasnt very successful in my attempts to get stones out of this big rock, but my host family let me have two little pieces of their stones :) In Bolivia, religion and ancestral indigenous traditions are closely intertwined, and some historians say, this is the part where the 'conquista' of the Spaniards has been incomplete: The Roman Catholic Church, although it tried extremely hard, could never completely eradicate the indigenous cultural heritage of the people in South America. This has led to a "mezcla" in beliefs and traditions, which forms today part of the cultural richness of Bolivia.

I forgot to mention: Alcohol, particularly Beer, is such an important part of daily life and traditions in Bolivia that it even has religious value for the Urkupina ceremony: Before you start clobbering the stones, you have to verse a more or less little quantity of alcohol on the stones, to thank the Pachamama (Mother Earth) for the fruits she bears. Then you have to drink yourself, and then you can start the actual ceremony. This, btw, is el Doctor Jorge Arébalo, or 'papito', my host dad :)

An indigenous woman, called "Cholita", with her child. The skirt she is wearing is called "chola", and is fashioned according to the skirts the Spanish conquistadores forced the indigenous women to wear when they arrived in South America. Today it is widely common and available in a thousand different colors and variations.

Indigenous children in traditional clothing. Indigenous people believe that each picture steals a part of their soul, so I did not take too many. In Bolivia, only married couples can adopt children, so in order for my future family planning to work out, I will either have to find a husband that shares my dreams, or adopt in Colombia, where single women can legally adopt in selected orphanages.

The right to vote??

As a political scientist, I have a natural interest for democratic processes in developing countries. However, what I learned today contradicts most of what I have heard in lectures so far. It seems that in Bolivia, especially in rural areas of the Chapare and the Yungas, the right to vote is not a right like we know it in developed countries. Instead, people are obliged to go to cast their ballot, and go to manifestations, because if they dont, they have to pay a 50$ fine, which almost noone can afford, or their barracks are burnt down, or they are penalized in some other fashion. In the cities, it seems that people get a little paper when they register to vote, and when they want to claim their paychecks, they have to show that paper. If they do not have it, they do not get paid.

Makes me wonder about the validity of statistics that equal high voter turnout with a functioning representative democracy.

Bolivia, Sex and Family Traditions

Today I learned some very interesting details about Bolivian culture, particularly with regards to womens' rights and family traditions. It seems that girls cannot leave the house of their parents to live elsewhere unless they are married. Also, girls (or boys) cannot stay over night at the house of their girlfriend or boyfriend, since this would be a mortal sin. Even if they have children together, as long as they are not married, they cannot live together, which I find kind of weird.

Also, it is pretty impressive how much the Bolivian culture is still marked by patriarchism and the idea of virginity until marriage. It was weird to hear that it is widely believed that graduation parties are the most common place for young girls to lose their virginity.. which, in itself, might not be that uncommon, but people seem to believe it because they see it in American films!

New things every day..

Also, I seem to have been promised to Paolo, the brother of my host brother's wife, who comes back from the States in October o.0 family gatherings are evil...!

A whole new world

This post is dedicated to the children of Attilka Bibliotecas Populares, who have showed me today what really counts in life. I have never been that happy in work before, and have never received so much love, trust and gratitude from the very first moment on of meeting someone.

Attilka Bibliotecas Populares are very small, extremely spartanic styled public libraries in the barrios of Cochabamba, where only one volunteer works as librarian. Young children, from 7 to 11 go there in the afternoon for workshops with volunteers who help them read and write, and then spend some time playing with them. I have never worked at a place before where I felt that my work made a bigger impact, and I am looking forward to going back next Friday afternoon for the weekly workshop.

Also, I am waiting to hear from Infante, a NGO dedicated to defending womens and childrens rights, where I hope to work full time soon. Cross fingers!

Airport pictures!! *yay*

1st stop: Brazil, Sao Paolo. I have never been more grateful for the internationality of McDonalds. And btw.. when they say CABINE, they do mean it.. the Rest and Sleep motel I went to at the airport was nothing more than a cleaning room with a 2 story bed in it. Whatever, I slept!! :D

2nd stop: Asuncion, Paraguay. The gap between rich and poor is so huge, it seems like there are worlds in between the top of a 12 story hotel, and dust eating children down in the streets. Btw, the picture shows my view from said hotel window over the Paraguay river.

3rd and final stop: Cochabamba. I do not have a representative picture I could add; however, when I get some more time (and my willingness to wait 30min until one picture is uploaded), I may post some pics

from Urkupina.

Claro, claro, claro.. did I say claro??

Its August 17, and I suck at finding places in a city. Definitely.
Several conclusions have been made.
1. Bolivian women have long hair. I have not seen ANY short cut since I am here.
2. Dont go to Bolivian parties unless you drink. A lot!
3. I have never wasted a thought on how much the inventor of the Dixie toilet has served humanity. Now I do.

On another note, I have been to the festival of the Virgen de Urcupina with my host family. I have rarely seen so many people in one place! We went on a huge hill to clobber stones, which we then took back home and will take to some temple next sunday to get the Virgen's benediction. The stones are symbols for wealth and shall help the family to have much money all throughout the year.

Departure: August 13

5 hours to go and everything is packed and ready... or, at least, that's what I try to believe. The flight to Cochabamba will first take me to Brazil, with a short plane change in Sao Paolo, before I will have to find myself a place to spend the night in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. On Saturday, 15, I shall then arrive in Cochabamba, if everything goes according to plan.

Keep checking my blog for more or less regular updates :)

Piece yoh!