I spent 4 days in a small rural village on the coast of Lake Titicaca in the Altiplano of Bolivia - Tocoli, at an altitude of around 13,000 feet (or higher. It was on a mountain and different levels). Really interesting, really fun - got to learn a lot about Andean culture.
Expectations - going into it, I thought that I would be working all day in the fields, with a family that speaks only Aymaran (an indigenous language of Bolivia, and also a national language), and that I would have a comedy of mishaps occur throughout the duration of my stay.
Reality - Comedy of cultural mishaps, for sure. However, I had a father and son, both of whom spoke spanish. By father, I mean 25 year old. By son, I mean the most adorable little 3 year old ever. Also, since we´re coming out of the winter here, the crops weren´t ready to be planted yet, so there was little to do in terms of cultivation - so instead, we did a lot of hiking, and walked with the animals as the grazed. It was absolutely gorgeous, climbing mountains overlooking Lake Titicaca.
In general, in this village, all of the food grown stays within the village for subsistance. Many families have other hobbies with which to make money on the side (my host dad made women´s shoes), but in general, they live off of their land, with little outside money coming in. However, most children now in the village have the opportunity to go to high school (though it´s a two hour walk each way, and they don´t have cars), and even university (since it´s free if it´s public), which has recently caused the younger population to move into the cities, leaving the community to its older members and very young children. One way that they are trying to deal with this deteriorating situation is by creating ecotourism in their community. Our program staying there those 5 days was a preliminary stage towards launching a new program, in which they bring outsiders into their community for an exercise in intercultural exchange.
Food - I ate potatoes for every meal for 4 days straight. That´s what they grow here, and that´s what they eat. However, there are more than 20 different varieties of potatoes and potato-like crops that they cultivate, so we ate types of potatoes you ain´t never heard of before.
Never play a game of soccer at 13,000 feet, unless you live there already. Just advice for life.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
La Paz
Dude. So much to say about La Paz. I´ll stick to the highlights, though.
Sunday - visited the ruins of Tiwanaku, where there existed a civilization that lived with a stable society for more than 2700 years before the Incas. It was ridiculous how skilled they were at engineering.
Monday - great day. In the morning, I learned all about Aymaran (indigeous) religion, which is really cool. Then we went to meet a painter who is world renowned for his Andean-inspired art - it´s vibrant, colorful and very reflective of Aymaran religion.
In the afternoon we met with a member of the World Bank in Bolivia - the thing I took away from this meeting was that I really need to read up some more on the World Bank before I can decide how I feel about them, and how they operate right now (I really don´t know much about them).
Tuesday - In the morning we went to the University of El Alto (in a city that is 80% of indigenous descent, and really cool) and met with the students to do some cultural interchange. A little bit uncomfortable at first since we were introduced by a professor as students from "the capital of the world" visiting students from "one of the poorest, backward nations in the world" (created a lot of sterotypes which we had to try and break down). It all got better when they started teaching some of us how to salsa - in front of everyone! Then we showed dances from the U.S. - that was funny, and definitely made us all feel more comfortable.
In the afternoon, we visited another artist - this guy was also incredible. He is both a student and a master of many disciplines of art - not only with paintings, but as an architect and cook as well. He paints what he feels when he feels it, and has the amazing capacity to master any type of art - he´s a jack of all trades, and it was amazing to see the diversity of his work.
Yo Mama compliment of the day: yo Mama is so cool, she makes the Fonz look like Erkel (is that how you spell it?).
Sunday - visited the ruins of Tiwanaku, where there existed a civilization that lived with a stable society for more than 2700 years before the Incas. It was ridiculous how skilled they were at engineering.
Monday - great day. In the morning, I learned all about Aymaran (indigeous) religion, which is really cool. Then we went to meet a painter who is world renowned for his Andean-inspired art - it´s vibrant, colorful and very reflective of Aymaran religion.
In the afternoon we met with a member of the World Bank in Bolivia - the thing I took away from this meeting was that I really need to read up some more on the World Bank before I can decide how I feel about them, and how they operate right now (I really don´t know much about them).
Tuesday - In the morning we went to the University of El Alto (in a city that is 80% of indigenous descent, and really cool) and met with the students to do some cultural interchange. A little bit uncomfortable at first since we were introduced by a professor as students from "the capital of the world" visiting students from "one of the poorest, backward nations in the world" (created a lot of sterotypes which we had to try and break down). It all got better when they started teaching some of us how to salsa - in front of everyone! Then we showed dances from the U.S. - that was funny, and definitely made us all feel more comfortable.
In the afternoon, we visited another artist - this guy was also incredible. He is both a student and a master of many disciplines of art - not only with paintings, but as an architect and cook as well. He paints what he feels when he feels it, and has the amazing capacity to master any type of art - he´s a jack of all trades, and it was amazing to see the diversity of his work.
Yo Mama compliment of the day: yo Mama is so cool, she makes the Fonz look like Erkel (is that how you spell it?).
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Yom Kippur in Cochabamba
This is just a quick post for those of you who might be interested to hear about Jewish life in Bolivia.
I went to the synagogue (the only synagogue) in Cochabamba for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - the building was beautiful.There was a guard outside the synagogue, which I figured would happen - Jews are not particularly welcomed in Bolivia (though I understand it´s the same in many other countries too).
When we got inside, a lot of people would greet us (us being my friends on my program who are Jewish, and a friend I met who´s living in Bolivia for the year. Awesome guy.) - good evening, shanah tovah, etc... However, the interactions did not really extend beyond that. Everyone just went to their seats, talking with their family or close friends with whom they came.
The service for Rosh Hashanah lasted about an hour - for Kol Nidrei, it was two hours. There were no more than 55 people there, and at least 60% of the people were above 60 years of age. A man I met from Peru who´s studying medicine here (one of the few below 60) said that most of the young generation has moved to other countries, where they practice Judaism in larger communities. A lot of people were talking to each other during the service - the Rabbi had to hush them a bit. They sang the prayers pretty softly as well - a little above a mumble.
The Rabbi is from Buenos Aires, and comes to this synagogue once a year for the high holidays - otherwise, the congregation runs Shabbat by itself. Also, I was told that usually between 12-15 people go for Shabbat. The Rabbi´s singing is best characterized as Baroque - lots of ornamentation (probably more than necessary). He would try to get the community to be more lively during the service, but he didn´t try very hard. I didn´t understand much of his sermon, unfortunately (Spanish!), so I can´t say much about that.
Overall, it seemed like there was simply a "lack of" - of energy, for sure, but also presence in general. When I return from my 10-day trip, maybe I´ll have the opportunity to check out weekly Shabbat services and see the difference.
I went to the synagogue (the only synagogue) in Cochabamba for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - the building was beautiful.There was a guard outside the synagogue, which I figured would happen - Jews are not particularly welcomed in Bolivia (though I understand it´s the same in many other countries too).
When we got inside, a lot of people would greet us (us being my friends on my program who are Jewish, and a friend I met who´s living in Bolivia for the year. Awesome guy.) - good evening, shanah tovah, etc... However, the interactions did not really extend beyond that. Everyone just went to their seats, talking with their family or close friends with whom they came.
The service for Rosh Hashanah lasted about an hour - for Kol Nidrei, it was two hours. There were no more than 55 people there, and at least 60% of the people were above 60 years of age. A man I met from Peru who´s studying medicine here (one of the few below 60) said that most of the young generation has moved to other countries, where they practice Judaism in larger communities. A lot of people were talking to each other during the service - the Rabbi had to hush them a bit. They sang the prayers pretty softly as well - a little above a mumble.
The Rabbi is from Buenos Aires, and comes to this synagogue once a year for the high holidays - otherwise, the congregation runs Shabbat by itself. Also, I was told that usually between 12-15 people go for Shabbat. The Rabbi´s singing is best characterized as Baroque - lots of ornamentation (probably more than necessary). He would try to get the community to be more lively during the service, but he didn´t try very hard. I didn´t understand much of his sermon, unfortunately (Spanish!), so I can´t say much about that.
Overall, it seemed like there was simply a "lack of" - of energy, for sure, but also presence in general. When I return from my 10-day trip, maybe I´ll have the opportunity to check out weekly Shabbat services and see the difference.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Bicentennial
Tuesday was the bicentennial of Cochabamba! It was pretty cool. I didn't have class, there was a military parade, all sorts of music in the city - a lot of stuff happened over the weekend for it too (like a chocolate festival). Unfortunately I had a fever on Saturday and Sunday so I wasn't able to partake in said events much.
Another cool thing to happen this week: SIT took us to a small town outside of Cochabamba called Tarata - beautiful, peaceful place. While there, we talked to an 85 year-old man who maintains a large and gorgeous farm (with an amazing house as well). He's 6 feet tall, and is still able to do some manual labor even though he's 85! One of the interesting ideas he mentioned was that, as people have urbanized in Bolivia, they have forgotten the type of intelligence that comes along with working in the field. He said that there is an emotional, irrational connection that people develop with nature when they cultivate the fields, which involves a different type of intelligence - an ability to instinctively understand and react to nature. Along with this comes an appreciation for nature - something which many Bolivians have lost, he believes. (Or at least this is what my friend and I gathered from the Spanish we understood.)
My host mom and sister have begun to teach me the Charanga! It's a small, ukulele-type instrument, except it's double-stringed, 10 strings in all.
Another cool thing about my program: one of the academic directors on my program is also a documentary film maker, so one of the perks of my program is that, instead of writing papers, I can experiment with making videos, which has been pretty fun so far. On Sunday I'm leaving on a 10-day trip to La Paz and to do a rural village home-stay, so hopefully I can get some good video down while I'm there!
Tonight is Yom Kippur, so I will be going to services - I'll try and get a quick post tomorrow in describing what it's like going to services here.
And finally, a yo mama compliment! Some of you may know what this is, some of you may not. They're pretty much what you think - an adaptation of "yo mama" jokes in a way that compliments mothers instead. So, for instance:
Yo mama's so sweet, she gave me cavities in all of my teeth the first time I met her.
Abrazos!
Another cool thing to happen this week: SIT took us to a small town outside of Cochabamba called Tarata - beautiful, peaceful place. While there, we talked to an 85 year-old man who maintains a large and gorgeous farm (with an amazing house as well). He's 6 feet tall, and is still able to do some manual labor even though he's 85! One of the interesting ideas he mentioned was that, as people have urbanized in Bolivia, they have forgotten the type of intelligence that comes along with working in the field. He said that there is an emotional, irrational connection that people develop with nature when they cultivate the fields, which involves a different type of intelligence - an ability to instinctively understand and react to nature. Along with this comes an appreciation for nature - something which many Bolivians have lost, he believes. (Or at least this is what my friend and I gathered from the Spanish we understood.)
My host mom and sister have begun to teach me the Charanga! It's a small, ukulele-type instrument, except it's double-stringed, 10 strings in all.
Another cool thing about my program: one of the academic directors on my program is also a documentary film maker, so one of the perks of my program is that, instead of writing papers, I can experiment with making videos, which has been pretty fun so far. On Sunday I'm leaving on a 10-day trip to La Paz and to do a rural village home-stay, so hopefully I can get some good video down while I'm there!
Tonight is Yom Kippur, so I will be going to services - I'll try and get a quick post tomorrow in describing what it's like going to services here.
And finally, a yo mama compliment! Some of you may know what this is, some of you may not. They're pretty much what you think - an adaptation of "yo mama" jokes in a way that compliments mothers instead. So, for instance:
Yo mama's so sweet, she gave me cavities in all of my teeth the first time I met her.
Abrazos!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Sì! Que bueno!
I´d estimate that 50% of the words that I have spoken thus far have been one of those two phrases. During orientation, I thought I was at least at the level of "terrible" when speaking spanish - but no. My approximation of my spanish speaking abilities right now is "extremely terrible".
Until last night, I wasn´t really able to communicate beyond saying what my tasks were for the day, or if I was hungry, or what my interests are academically - I guess that last part is a consequence of learning spanish in a college setting. But then, for an entire hour last night, I had a non-stop conversation with my host mom about all sorts of things - it was awesome! It may not seem like much, but being able to talk for an hour after only being here for a week felt pretty good.
But it´s been a week! For me, it´s been a long week. I wouldn´t say that it has felt like two weeks or a month, or any extended period of time - it´s felt like one week. But it´s been one mentally taxing week. Every second has been devoted to absorbing my surroundings - learning spanish, learning the lay of the city, learning about the people I live with and study with, etc... Everything I experience requires a lot more processing than usual, and so it seems like each moment is accented with much more thought, subconcious and conscious.
Positive note: Cochabamba, as a city, places a lot of importance on food, and eating all the time, and eating well. I think that´s just great.
One last thing: I think that, because I don´t always know which words I should use to communicate my thoughts to other people in Spanish, I speak with much more animation here than I have in the past with English. It could also be the nature of the culture, or of the Spanish language itself. I´ll let you know what I discover as I learn more Spanish, and learn more about Cochabamban culture.
Until last night, I wasn´t really able to communicate beyond saying what my tasks were for the day, or if I was hungry, or what my interests are academically - I guess that last part is a consequence of learning spanish in a college setting. But then, for an entire hour last night, I had a non-stop conversation with my host mom about all sorts of things - it was awesome! It may not seem like much, but being able to talk for an hour after only being here for a week felt pretty good.
But it´s been a week! For me, it´s been a long week. I wouldn´t say that it has felt like two weeks or a month, or any extended period of time - it´s felt like one week. But it´s been one mentally taxing week. Every second has been devoted to absorbing my surroundings - learning spanish, learning the lay of the city, learning about the people I live with and study with, etc... Everything I experience requires a lot more processing than usual, and so it seems like each moment is accented with much more thought, subconcious and conscious.
Positive note: Cochabamba, as a city, places a lot of importance on food, and eating all the time, and eating well. I think that´s just great.
One last thing: I think that, because I don´t always know which words I should use to communicate my thoughts to other people in Spanish, I speak with much more animation here than I have in the past with English. It could also be the nature of the culture, or of the Spanish language itself. I´ll let you know what I discover as I learn more Spanish, and learn more about Cochabamban culture.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
I´m in Cochabamba!
It took a little while though. We got delayed in La Paz for 12 hours. Luckily, the academic directors of my program are awesome, and arranged a tour of La Paz for the day!
I was a little tired from an overnight airplane ride of little sleep (on top of Wilderness for the two previous weeks), so I slept on the bus ride around the city. But we stopped at some cool places. La Paz is an amazing city - it is extremely expansive, and is covered from end to end in rooftops. Except for a few areas, there aren´t really any open spaces within the city - just street after street, with new places to discover and things to see.
We arrived in Cochabamba, where I will be staying for the most part for the next 3.5 month, last night. I fell asleep immediately. This morning we began orientation, which definitely helped me to begin feeling more comfortable about living in a completely new city.
Due to the limited amount of time I have on this computer in this internet cafe, I think I should stop it there. I promise longer and better posts in the future, but all I can say right now is, I´m finally here, and excited to start the semester.
I was a little tired from an overnight airplane ride of little sleep (on top of Wilderness for the two previous weeks), so I slept on the bus ride around the city. But we stopped at some cool places. La Paz is an amazing city - it is extremely expansive, and is covered from end to end in rooftops. Except for a few areas, there aren´t really any open spaces within the city - just street after street, with new places to discover and things to see.
We arrived in Cochabamba, where I will be staying for the most part for the next 3.5 month, last night. I fell asleep immediately. This morning we began orientation, which definitely helped me to begin feeling more comfortable about living in a completely new city.
Due to the limited amount of time I have on this computer in this internet cafe, I think I should stop it there. I promise longer and better posts in the future, but all I can say right now is, I´m finally here, and excited to start the semester.
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