Last Friday, our group had a coa at the house of one of our academic directors with his wife. A coa is an Andean traditional ceremony - it is performed at on the first Friday of every month. It is performed differently depending who you're with (and whether you're in the city or the countryside), but in general, you burn coca leaves with various other spices as an prayer for a safe and healthy month.
You may be saying to yourself, "but Matt, last Friday wasn't the first Friday of the month - it was the 22nd! What sort of tomfoolery are you up to?" (tomfoolery? yes, tomfoolery. fantastic word.) Well, the reality of the situation was this - our academic director, the one who's house we were at, has been in the hospital for the past month due to issues with his pancreas. The day before the coa he received life threatening surgery, so we did the coa for him - to ask for safe and healthy recovery. And it's getting better - he's out of intensive care now! So, hopefully he'll continue the upward trend.
The next day we went to the city of Santa Cruz for a 5-day excursion. Santa Cruz is in the tropic lowlands of Bolivia, so the climate was much different from here in Cochabamba, or La Paz or PotosÃ. Here are some highlights from the trip:
There is a national park that we visited that possesses more species of birds that the entirety of the U.S.
Bolivia has 1,000 species of moss - more than all of the Americas combined.
There were mango trees everywhere - I ate 5 mangos in one day, for free, by taking them from trees around the area.
The GuaranÃ, an indigenous nation from the lowlands, was the only group to resist conquer by both the Incas and the Spaniards. They had an advanced form of guerilla warfare.
For much of the trip, we were visiting small towns and national parks outside of Santa Cruz. I can count the number of paved roads available for the people of these communities on one hand.
The indigenous communities of the lowlands make up about 5% of the population of Bolivia. Consequently, they are often marginalized - even by andean indigenous groups, sometimes.
That's all for now!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Potosi/Sucre
My latest excursion! Kind of like two sides of the same coin - both are full of history, but with different lasting effects. I only had about a day and a half in each city, which was kind of disappointing, but here's what happened.
Potosi - the highest city in the world! (I don't know by what measures this is true, but someone made some system and Potosi came out on top. It's like 14,000 feet high, so, you know, that's a lot.) This city has a lot of history - it was at one point the 2nd largest city in the world (1600s), and, at that time, it supplied Europe with pretty much all of its wealth in terms of silver from its mines (something like 16,000,000 kilos of pure silver came from this city over the course of 50-100 years). This is probably the most heartbreakingly beautiful city I have ever had the chance to see or hear about. It is rich with beautiful architecture, but riddled with economic strife - Europe and the U.S. squeezed its silver and tin mines for all they were worth, leaving nothing to the people who live there now. I got the chance to visit the mines, which are still active, actually - but that story is a little long for this post.
Another thing I did while I was there was visit a school created for the children of the miners (who might not be able to send their children to school otherwise). little. children. are. so. ADORABLE! It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them, and I hope that if I have some time free later in the semester I can go back and visit the school.
Sucre - like Potosi, this city is rich with architecture from the 16-1700s. Unlike Potosi, this city is rich in money. It attracts a lot of European tourists due to its clean-cut beauty and museums, and is also sometimes called the "intellectual center" of Bolivia, since it has the oldest university in Bolivia (and the supreme court). We got to visit an indigenous music group there called Los Masis - they tour around the world playing their music, and have also founded a school for children to teach indigenous music. I didn't really get the opportunity to do much else there besides visit some museums, due to lack of time.
It would have been nice to spend more time in each of these cities to learn some more about them, but I guess the program wants us to do concrete schoolwork too? I dunno.
Potosi - the highest city in the world! (I don't know by what measures this is true, but someone made some system and Potosi came out on top. It's like 14,000 feet high, so, you know, that's a lot.) This city has a lot of history - it was at one point the 2nd largest city in the world (1600s), and, at that time, it supplied Europe with pretty much all of its wealth in terms of silver from its mines (something like 16,000,000 kilos of pure silver came from this city over the course of 50-100 years). This is probably the most heartbreakingly beautiful city I have ever had the chance to see or hear about. It is rich with beautiful architecture, but riddled with economic strife - Europe and the U.S. squeezed its silver and tin mines for all they were worth, leaving nothing to the people who live there now. I got the chance to visit the mines, which are still active, actually - but that story is a little long for this post.
Another thing I did while I was there was visit a school created for the children of the miners (who might not be able to send their children to school otherwise). little. children. are. so. ADORABLE! It was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them, and I hope that if I have some time free later in the semester I can go back and visit the school.
Sucre - like Potosi, this city is rich with architecture from the 16-1700s. Unlike Potosi, this city is rich in money. It attracts a lot of European tourists due to its clean-cut beauty and museums, and is also sometimes called the "intellectual center" of Bolivia, since it has the oldest university in Bolivia (and the supreme court). We got to visit an indigenous music group there called Los Masis - they tour around the world playing their music, and have also founded a school for children to teach indigenous music. I didn't really get the opportunity to do much else there besides visit some museums, due to lack of time.
It would have been nice to spend more time in each of these cities to learn some more about them, but I guess the program wants us to do concrete schoolwork too? I dunno.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Something...
Something Old: Last Saturday night, the SIT students all went out to celebrate our friend's birthday (it was also my Mom's birthday! Yaaaaay!). We first went to a cafe/bar to get her a cake and drinks, and then decided to go to a club afterward. Everyone began to enter the club - it is important to mention here that, because there are 20 girls and 3 guys on my program, our group was heavy in numbers for girls. So, as I get to the front and am asked to show ID, I am told that I can't go in the club because I'm not 21. Apparently a lot of clubs in Cochabamba require girls to be 18 and guys to be 21 to keep the ratio at 50-50 or something, according to my Bolivian friend. I decided to just call it a night since I was tired, but as I turned to go, all of my friends who had just gone in (I was literally the only one who was not either 21 or a girl) came back out, saying that they would be happy to find somewhere else where we could all hang out. However, as our group of 13 or 14 girls and 2 guys began to exit the club, the bouncers suddenly had a change of heart, and out of the kindness of their souls decided to let me go inside. Wasn't that really nice of them?
Something new: I just bought Final Cut Pro - for 23 dollars. (For those of you who don't know, it costs 1000 dollars in the U.S.) Jealous? Well, don't be - it's not a very becoming trait on you.
Something borrowed: I just started learning how to play the charango - it's a small, mandolin-like instrument with 5 double strings (How many strings is that? 10! 5 times 2 equals 10!) that sounds beautiful, and is very popular here. I'm currently using my teacher's charango until I get my own.
Something blue: It has yet to rain since the first day I got here. Kinda nice, but at the same time, the farmers have to wait a month longer than usual to plant their crops.
Something new: I just bought Final Cut Pro - for 23 dollars. (For those of you who don't know, it costs 1000 dollars in the U.S.) Jealous? Well, don't be - it's not a very becoming trait on you.
Something borrowed: I just started learning how to play the charango - it's a small, mandolin-like instrument with 5 double strings (How many strings is that? 10! 5 times 2 equals 10!) that sounds beautiful, and is very popular here. I'm currently using my teacher's charango until I get my own.
Something blue: It has yet to rain since the first day I got here. Kinda nice, but at the same time, the farmers have to wait a month longer than usual to plant their crops.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Village Stay
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.
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.
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.
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