La felicidad es una decisión!

View out one of my families windows

Not much happened this week so I’ll give you a quick overview of things.  I visited a few families this week which was a little difficult because many of them were crying as they were telling me about their challenges in their lives.  It is always hard to hold back the tears while listening to them.  Many of the volunteers have been sick this week with food poisoning, colds, sore throats, and parasites.  The food here can be interesting at times in the project.  Monday I had Panza de Vaca (I’m not going to tell you what it is.  Just Google it!).  I’ll eventually do a blog post on food here in La Paz but first I need to take some more pictures and try some more things.  I have been pretty lucky lately since I haven’t been sick (knock on wood).  I pray that I can continue to stay healthy because being sick does not look very fun from what I have observed this week.  This week in Doña Maria’s cooking class we made the most incredible cake I have ever eaten!  I am eventually going to try to recreate it soon, but a little bit different.  We had a work shop this week for the parents of the families in our project.  The topic was sexual abuse.  Did you know that every day 20 kids are sexually abused in the La Paz area?  It is very sad that this is so common and that it severely damages the kid’s lives.  What I greatly appreciate about the efforts of Fundaćion Arco Iris is that it is attempting to empower these people and the kids to break the cycle.  We have the same cycle in the United States.  People who are uneducated and cannot get ahead in life and constantly drag their kids down the same road with them.  They live in extreme poverty because they cannot find jobs because they have no skill set.  Here in La Paz, many kids drop out of school to work and help support their family or get away from the poverty of their family.  The foundation encourages the kids to stay in school and get that valuable education so that they can in turn break the cycle.  Also the foundation helps the parents to learn valuable skills and ways to better the lives of their kids. 

 

Amazing Cake!!

Friday, a husband and wife (Kay and Bill) from the church in Florida came to help a family in our project.  They are spending about a week here in La Paz to see the work of Fundaćion Arco Iris and Hope Worldwide here in the city.  Justus and I took them to El Alto to one of our families who need help.  The mother stays pretty busy raising five kids and washing other people’s clothes and cleaning to make money to provide for those kids.  When we arrived to the place where they lived we didn’t know where to start.  We began by picking up the trash that was scattered around in the yard area.  We helped to organize the piles of clothes that the children had received from donations.  We continued to clean out their one bedroom home.  Afterwards we gave the kids a bath.  The kids were very dirty.  Many don’t bathe regularly because they don’t have bathrooms.  We warmed up some water on the stove so that they wouldn’t freeze.  After the kids were clean, I had the job to help comb the tangles out of the little girls’ hair.   I am not a professional at this but she was so patient.  She said oww a few times but when I asked her if she was ok she just shook her head yes.  It’s amazing what a little shampoo and coming out the tangles will do.  They all seemed pretty happy and grateful.  I think it is great that many people will take the time to come down here to visit and to want to help a family in need.  I look forward to many more visitors willing to do the same thing. 

 

Kay and Bill

Me very Concentrated trying to comb out those tangles

So all of us volunteers are about to begin a cooking competition.  We are dividing up into groups of two and three and are planning our dinner ideas.  We have two brackets.  One bracket is the volunteers here in the house and the other bracket is the volunteers in Niñas Obrajes.  We will cook dinner for all the people in our bracket. Each team has one week and one meal.  The others in the house will vote on a scale of 1-10 to get the final score.  The winner of the house will compete against the winner of Niñas Obrajes. I am really looking forward to showing off some more of my cooking skills because I still have some tricks up my sleeve.  Also I am looking forward to eating a bunch of good meals, but most of all I am looking forward to winning….  It will be no easy feat but I am always up for a challenge.  If anyone has any good ideas be sure to let me know.  I could use a bit of inspiration to perfect our meals and take home the gold.

One of my beneficiary 

Guinea Pigs.  I'll let you figure out why I have a picture of them for

Two Months!!

Another picture of me from Lago Titikaka in my new Jacket

So just in case you were wondering how the Saltiñas turned out, they were pretty amazing.  This was a short week at work since we had Monday off after our trip to Copacabana and we had Friday off as well to have a meeting with all the volunteers to see how things are going so far in Bolivia.  On Tuesday Justus and I had to go to the far end of El Alto twice.  We ended up not getting home Tuesday night until after 8 o’clock.  So of course I was starving and had to go visit Rosalita down the street and order me some Salchipapas.  I have fallen in love with these things.  I go maybe 3 or 4 times a week to eat them.  They are basically sliced sausage and French fries smothered in mustard, ketchup, and mayonnaise.  And they only cost 7 bolivianos which equals about one dollar American. Ugh, now I am craving some.  I need to hurry up and finish this blog post so I can get some.  On Wednesday Justus and I went to visit a family in the afternoon not to far from where we live.  I was very saddened by the dynamics of this family.  The mother and father both are in prison.  The oldest daughter who is 26 is raising 5 of her brothers and sisters who range from the ages of 9 to 17.  She also has a sister of 24 who is in prison as well and is raising her daughter of 5 years old.  Oh and I did I mention she has her own daughter who is 4 years old.  So she is raising 7 children in a one bedroom house with one bed and she is only 26 years old.  She works everyday nearby cleaning to make enough money to provide for all of them.  I cannot imagine how difficult that must be.  She says that the children are very sad on mothers day and fathers day because they cannot see their parents. 

 

The road winding down into the valley

So Friday was our meeting for us to talk about how things are going here in Bolivia and talk about future plans and trips.  So we went just south outside the city to a area called Jupapina.  Once off the main road we winded down a dirt road into a green valley to a house that the foundation owns.  After we were there for a while and the vans were gone we realized that we had everything we needed for the cookout except the most important thing. MATCHES!  I volunteered to run back up to the main road and buy some.  So I took off winding up the mountain.  It was no easy feat with such thin air.  As I was near the top I was met with a pack of Golden Retrievers who ran alongside me to the main road.  Finally at the little tienda on the main road, I bought some matches and a bottle of water.  Once I caught my breathe, I whistled for the dogs and began heading back towards the valley.  It was a lot easier to run down the mountain.  As we passed their house the dogs veered off and I finished my descent.  Upon returning we began the next task of trying to start a fire to cook the food.  There is no instant light charcoal here and they rarely use starter fluid.  And did I mention the lack of oxygen here?  One of the things necessary for a fire.  Once we got some embers going, we blew and blew until all the coals were a glowing red.  Oh man was that food good.  We grilled chicken, chorizos(sausage), and steaks.  Since Matthias and I were the ones grilling we ate quite a bit.  After lunch we talked about our future plans and where we wanted to go on a trip.  And after that we played soccer.  It was a great time to hang out with everyone.

The house down in the Valley

Some friends I made in the valley

Doing what us Americans do best

Doesn't this just make your mouth water? 

Today we began our volleyball tournament.  Everyone has been practicing and training for weeks.  Everyone showed up to show off their teams new jerseys.  We had the first and the last games.  Our first game we started off very well but then we choked and ended up losing.  After waiting for all the other games, it was finally our turn again.  We started off strong again but this time we held on to it.  We went on a scoring streak and never looked back.  We won by a landslide.  It was a lot of fun! We play every Saturday for the next two months.  I’m hoping we have a chance at the championship in November.

Justus and I sporting off our new Jerseys before the game

Nuestro Equipo

A little action shot....

Just A Few Thoughts

Sun setting behind Peru

When coming to Bolivia, I think that it is easy to think that everyone hates you.  I know for me, I thought because I was a gringo from the United States, people would be mean.  But the longer I am here the more that this thought just becomes non-sense.  People here are genuinely nice.  Of course there is always a bad egg in the bunch no matter where in the world you are.  Every day I meet some of the nicest and politest people.  People who are always genuinely interested about what you have to say and who know it can be a bit difficult being a gringo, so they look out for you and make sure no one takes advantage of you.  That is the same way we should be in the United States.  There are so many immigrants from Mexico and Central America that are treated badly and token advantage of.  Many are pushed to the side and ignored because they struggle to communicate in English.  I wonder why we have such a bad reputation among many of the Hispanics in our own country.  I say that it is our job to look out for them and make them feel welcomed.  Don’t get frustrated when you can understand them, just be patient.  Trust me It is not easy to communicate in a new language and it is a very good feeling when someone takes the time to try to understand and help you.  You can feel very lonely when you are surrounded by people if no one takes the time to communicate.  Why do you think in certain cities that people of the same language or same race tend to live in the same area?  Because they don’t want to feel alone. 

Have you ever bought something that don’t need?  Not because you wanted it, but because the person that was selling it needed the money.  I have a feeling that I will return home with a bunch of things that I don’t really need.  But it is a way of helping people out who are struggling by giving them money without just giving them money.  So if I return home with a random gift for you, now you know why… This week on Wednesday we did not work.  It was pretty interesting.  Apparently, last year when the census was done, the population in the area had went down by a large number since the census before, which makes no sense at all.  The result of the decrease was that La Paz receives millions of dollars less in finding from the government.  Many people in La Paz were unhappy about this and decided to do something about it.  This is what baffles me the most.  These people worked together to shut down the whole city.  They used boulders, debris, and piles of dirt to shut down all the main roads in and around the city.  The city was paralyzed and there was no public transportation (the reason we didn’t work today).  Seeing this, I asked why in the United States we have such a hard time working together?  How come when we are not happy with something we are to busy fighting amongst ourselves that we can not band together and do something about it.  Yea, they shut down the city but they worked together to achieve a goal to let the government know that they were not happy.  Something I have learn about the people here in La Paz is that if they are not happy with something going on, they ban together and have a march through the streets of the city to let people know.

This week at work we had a bunch of clothes that were piling up in the office.  So one afternoon, after a cooking workshop that we had (I love our cooking workshops), we brought the ladies to the office and dumped all the clothes out on the floor.  It was like Black Friday in the United States.  These women were digging through all the clothes as quickly as possible so that they could find the good stuff before the others.  Clothes were flying in the air people bumping each other aside.  It was mayhem.  As soon as I dumped the bags I backed away so not to lose a limb or get injured.  All I could think about while watching this was sitting at home the day after Thanksgiving and watching the news while eating leftovers, waiting to see people fighting over clothes and the newest gadgets.  After about 40 minutes of ladies rummaging through clothes they were done.  We packed up what was left in to bags and drug it back into the office.  Afterwards we stood there for a couple minutes to admire how much space we now have in the office.  Now let us get back to these cooking classes….  We have cooking workshops for the ladies every week (thanks to Doña Maria).  The ladies come in and cook whatever Doña Maria has planned for that day.  And let me tell you something, I do not mind being the Guinea Pig.  This week we had some Chocolate African Cake, Cheesy bread, and some pretzel like bread.  Next week they are preparing Saltiñas.  I can’t wait!!!

So this weekend we went to Copacabana.  It is on an island in Lake Titicaca.  It is a very beautiful place.  We had about 1000 people load into 21 buses and we drove about 3 hours to get there.  In my group we had 100 people from my project.  Many of them were little kids.  Luckily their mothers were on the trip to.  By the end of the first day these kids were hanging all over Justus and I.  If we had a free hand it wasn’t long before we had a little one tugging on it.  The first day we walked into the city with our color coded hats that were in the order of the colors of the rainbow.  Later from the beach, we watched the sun set behind Peru which is on the other side of the lake.  It was a very beautiful sight.  I’m not complaining but, our sleeping arrangements were not what you would expect.  We stayed in some sort of a hostel.  In my room were about 6 cholita moms and about 15 of their little ones.  We slept on mats in the floor that were stuffed with hay.  Let’s just say that I didn’t sleep the whole night long.  Then there were the bathrooms.  It is very difficult to use the toilet without a toilet seat!!  The next morning we hiked to the top of Calvary Mountain which is right next to the water and the city.  We were at the top in time to watch the sun rise over the island.  It was one of the most beautiful sunrise’s I have ever seen.  As the sun was rising you could see the shoreline and mountains of Peru appearing in the distance.  The rest of the day we chilled on the beach and ate Trucha (Trout I think) which was very good.  The other volunteers and I were talking and we definitely want to come back another weekend on our own and go to some of the other islands around the lake. 

Copacabana from the top of Calvary Mountain

Some of My kids

Me standing on a dock on Lago Titicaca

The Straight of Tiquina

Our Sleeping Arrangements 

Calvary Mountain

Our march into the city

The Nine to Five

Me out in the far edge of the city in the zone of Tangani

So not much has happened in the past week other than work.  So I guess that I will talk about work.  This was a nice week at work.  We started off our week going to visit a family in Tangani.  It is a zone in the northern edge of the city.  We took a mini bus from near Casa de Paso and started heading up.  The mini bus began to wind down a dirt road around the edges of a few cliffs until we finally reached the bus stop.  The bus stop is just a dirt place at the end of the road. From there, we had to walk up another dirt road which was pretty steep.  After a few breath taking views we finally reached the house of the family we were visiting.

The house of the Family in Tangani

While we were talking to the lady she was telling us that she has no water.  Apparently the city has not put water lines to this part of the city.  This is the first time we had encountered anything like this.  And of course the water companies don't deliver jugs of water out this far either.  We asked the lady, "well what do you do? How do you get your water?"  She then pointed to the river which is about 50 yards away.  This was no gushing river.  I didn't really see any water at all.  She said that they dig holes in the edges that will fill up with water so they can wash clothes in the river or retrieve water for dishes of what not.  I was a little bit taken back.  Getting down to this river is no easy feat.  It is a good 50 to 100 foot climb down to the bottom.  I realized how much can be taken for granted at home.  Just being able to do to the sink and get water is a blessing.  Also not having to boil your water is another blessing.  Until you live somewhere that you have to do this, you never really realize how lucky you have been.  You may have heard about it but until you see it first hand it never sinks in.  We continued talking with her and asked her how she liked living in this part of the city.  She responded that she really loved living there.  She said that it was " Muy Tranquillo." (Very Calm and Peaceful).  I agreed with her. It was very beautiful and peaceful.  If it wasn't for the water issue i think that I would love to live there as well.

The River where she washes clothes and gets her water. Notice the man standing in the upper right corner to get a judge of how deep it is.

The first Wednesday of every month we give out food to the families in our project we have a little more than 150.  They all come into pick up there food and it gives us a chance to set up times to go visit their homes.  It was alot of work because we had to take big bags of rice and sugar and seperate them into smaller bags to distribute.  When the families come to pick up their food the load it into bags and blankets.  It totals up to about 50 pounds of food by the time you add in the pineapple and everything.  Then the families, many who live over an hour away, head back to their homes.  Many ride in mini buses with these bags of food then have to walk the rest of the way to their homes (usually up hill).  It is amazing that how much these people do.  Again it shows me how much we take for granted back at home.  Just the ability to load up everything in our cars and drive to our homes and park right by the door.  The only fiscal work we have to do is loading and unloading the car.  

Me handing out food to the families on Wednesday

Another thing I have noticed about many of these families is that they are very grateful and thoughtful people.  Thursday, Justus and I went to a ladies house first thing in the morning.  Again we road this mini bus to the far end of the route where it dropped us off at the bus stop.  We then proceeded to walk up the road, up the mountain, to this ladies house.  When the road ran out, we continued to walk up a dirt path.  I think we may have walked a quarter mile or maybe half a mile up this mountain to this ladies house.  Once there, the lady offered us some drink that she made from boiling water and some of the pineapple that we had given her the day before.  I was a little scared to drink it but i was very thirsty.  It tasted very good and i didn't get sick.  Another house the we visited Earlier in the week was the same.  When we finally got to her house we sat in a room with 5 of her 7 kids and watched Spongebob in Spanish of course,  Next thing you know she was handing us plates of food to eat with her and her friends.  I was again shocked.  These people have very little but they are compelled to give to you when you are a guest in their house.  You feel bad about eating or drinking but i believe it is more disrespectful not to......

Part of the mountain we had to walk up to get to the house.  You cant even see the bus stop anymore.

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Another View of El Alto

Tres Puentes lit up at night.  It is actually 3 bridges that connect 4 parts of the city

A March against the war in Syria

Spanglish

Techno Music Concert we went to lastnight.. CRAZY

So it has been another interesting week here in La Paz.  My Spanish continues to get better with everyday.  It has to considering mostly everyone you meet and talk to everyday usually only speak Spanish.  Though when I am with the volunteers (even the Germans) it gets kind of confusing switching from language to language and I end up speaking in Spanglish.  Believe it or not I’m actually beginning to understand a bit of German which is scary.  I’m going to be all confused when I start accidently mixing in German words.  What would you call that? (Spanglermish?).  Anyways, I feel like I have adjusted to life pretty well here so far, considering I have been here for almost 2 months.  Riding mini buses and haggling with taxi drivers and the ladies down at the market have become a way of life.  Also, I am making friends with a few of the locals here on our street.  Just down the road is a little tienda that is right on the side of the road.  Inside is a little lady named Rosalita.  She is one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met.  She cooks hamburgers and salchipapas every night for 7 bolivianos (about 1 dollar).  So of course I have been down there many times each week and I always meet people while we are waiting on our food.  It reminds me of home, going to a small local place where everyone likes to stop in and talk.

Our Favorite Vegetable Lady at The Market

 Speaking of haggling, we are planning on having a cookout here at the house tomorrow, so Jean Phillip, Nils, and I went down the street to the market today to buy some groceries.  It’s nothing like going to Food Lion or Wal-Mart.  It is a place with all kinds of vegetables, meats, and many other random things to buy.  There are many little Cholita ladies yelling at you to come see what they have to sell in hopes that you will buy something.  It’s pretty fun to see all the things and search for the things you need amongst the mountains of colorful vegetables and fruits.  There are a few butchers hacking up cows and chickens which gives off a bit of an odor.  But I’m not the only one that smells it because there are always a few dogs roaming around hoping that someone might drop a piece of tasty meat on the ground.  There are no shopping carts or baskets available so when we know we are going to buy a good bit of things we make sure that we bring a backpack or two to haul all the stuff back up the street.  And the way we go through milk in this house it’s the only way to carry all the bags back.  I think we go through about 15 or 20 bags of milk a week…

Notice the Kid sleeping up on the shelf

Random Dog looking for Something to eat in the Market

You can Smell the Fresh meat as soon as you walk in the door

Getting ready for the cookout

This week at work Justus and I went to El Alto a few more times.  It still amazes me every time we go.  One day we were told to go meet a lady at a chicken restaurant called Pollolandia near Ceja in El Alto.  Do you recognize how many chicken restaurants are near Ceja? A LOT!  We walked around for about 30 minutes asking random people where it was chasing down there directions with no luck.  Then finally we found it.  It was this big restaurant on the corner but not where we were looking.  So we looked for this lady and ended up waiting there for about another 30 minutes.  She never showed up so we headed back to Casa de Paso.  So, about 3 hours of our day ended up being wasted.  But that is life here in La Paz.  There are many times that people are late or don’t even show up.  The next day we went to El Alto again, but to the far edge of the city near Huyana Potosi.  This part of El Alto didn’t have paved roads.  The road was full of rocks piles of dirt and a flock of sheep that was wondering around.  Most people that live this far out on the edge of the city are very poor.  And the family that we went to visit was no different.  We were invited in to the house to look around.  The house was very organized and clean which is rare in many of the poor homes.  They only had a dirt floor and it was very cold.  Upstairs, which you had to use a ladder to get to, had a sort of platform that was flopping around in front of the door.  Once we entered, there were a few beds where 11 people sleep at night.  It is mind blowing at how big these families are and how many of them have to cram into one bed.  After Justus and I climbed down, we found out that the mother had fixed us something to eat.  This is very common for us.  People want to cook for us or pay for our mini bus ride even though they don’t have much money for themselves.  Normally, I tell them I am not hungry or I have to go but she had already cooked it for us.  I figured at this point the worst thing I could do was not to eat it.  I was a little afraid of getting sick but it seemed pretty safe.  Turned out it was very good and we didn’t get sick.  The thing that I am beginning to notice is that the people with the least amount of money usually have one of the best views from their houses.  From this house you could look off into the Altiplano where there are no houses but only wide open space and of course some of the most beautiful mountains in the Andes.  

Flock of sheep wandering around in the street

Stairs going to upstairs

The end of the road in El Alto

Chillin in the backyard waiting to grill out

Life is so difficult here.....