Outside My Southern Comfort Zone: 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.