Outside My Southern Comfort Zone: 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.