Ch -Ch- Ch- Changes

I've just started teaching an English conversation class at a local English institute. There are ten students in the class, mainly 15 to 17 years old. There's one 36 year old who works at the local army post. My old site mate Julia used to teach the class so I'm sort of taking over for her and hopefully I can start it up again for the next year. So yeah... my site mate's gone and so are a few other Tarija volunteers and a new group is already here to replace them (called our shadow group because they are exactly a year behind us). It's sad but, thus is the vicious cycle of PC.

The new guy in Bermejo, Peter, seems pretty chill... just not Julia! No one to swap clothes, drink wine and watch American Idol with anymore! Well... Peter can put back the wine but, we just can't then gossip and watch girlie sitcoms together.

So anyway... I'm bummed that Julia is gone but, pretty happy about the English class. It's nice to have a little more structure to my life! (it's an everyday class) And the kids (so far) are pretty fun to work with. Lots of positive energy. And I'll get more experience with high school kids which is really what I need.

Oh yeah... almost forgot! It appears that I now have a cat. I ran across this filthy, wet, shivering and crying kitten that looked to have been lost or abandoned. She was the most miserable thing I had ever seen and after a few minutes of staring at her while I debated the pro's and con's of taking her in I finally decided that I couldn't just leave her there in the street. (it's that damn guilt again!) So I took her home, gave her a bath and now she's undergoing treatment with the vet, She's so skinny, but hardly eats so I took her to the vet to get her checked out. He's giving her antibiotics. She's not particularly cute, orange and white patches with one blue and one hazel eye, but she's a good cuddler.

Some thoughts on one year

Well well... it's been a little over one year in site (one year and three months total in Bolivia and eleven months left! Yes... I've officially begun the countdown and not because I can't wait to get out of here, but rather I can't wait to get back to the states! I´m beginning to really miss it.) and looking back on it well... I'm not really sure where to begin. Overall I feel pretty content about my service. Not amazing, and by no means horrible... ya know... pretty good. I suppose that the one thing keeping me from feeling great about it is the feeling that I should have accomplished incredible things by now (don't really know what those incredible things might have been exactly), but it's been a year and I feel like I should have something substantial to show for it. But here I am, still just chugging along, waiting for my big success. Don't get me wrong, I have had many little mini successes, but as far as one great (tangible) success story... I'm still working on it. Everyone says that things don´t really get cracking work wise till your second year anyways so I´ll try not to dwell on it.

I guess it doesn't help that I just got back in site from a pretty long absence (one week in Cochabamba for mandatory med appointments and meetings and two weeks in Peru vacationing with Mom...pics to be included in the next blog!) and after any long absence I feel like I'm starting from scratch all over again. Well... not from scratch exactly, but the energy to get it going again is substantial. A more accurate description would be that the energy to get ME going again is substantial. I guess that's just the nature of having a job with no real structure, one that starts and stops according to my whims.

And it also doesn't help that just before I left I had my first big project (the one I was so excited about, the one I thought would be the most significant and beneficial for my community, my success story!) basically blow up in my face. So to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to returning. Not because I'm sick of Bermejo or anything (actually it feels good to be back, it's got it's own quirky kind of charm)... it's just that I was kind of dreading starting it all back up again. The fear of failing again I suppose.

It was really great to see everyone in Cochabamba. Besides just getting to spend time with some of the most amazing people I've meet in my life (really we're pretty awesome in PC ; ) it was really reassuring to hear that basically everyone is having the same troubles and frustrations as you. The most universal complaints being: unreliable work partners, cheap and otherwise useless Alcaldias, constant guilt that your not doing enough, people expecting you to do EVERYTHING for them, and the list goes on... and I can definitely relate to all of them!

Actually, I was a little surprised about the guilt one. A little guilt is good, it keeps you from being a completely worthless bum. But I thought I was the only one putting copious amount of completely unnecessary guilt on myself. I've always been kind of rough on myself... definitely guilty of being my own worst critic. I have high expectations of myself and for my Peace Corps service, but there comes a point when you have to realize that there are other factors preventing your success than you (especially true in Bolivia!). And your expectations are not always realistic (doubly true in Bolivia!). So yeah... I'm trying to lighten up on myself! It's funny you run across people that well... your not really sure what they've been doing in their sites all this time, but they are so proud of their service! Then there are others who are like golden glimmering model volunteers. They've done so much cool stuff and still they feel like they should of done more! People are funny like that.

I've definitely learned one thing from this whole crazy experience and that is- Development work is not easy! Especially when you have no money to offer... such is the case with PC. Bolivia is such a poor country that the people are used to having NGO's come in and just handing them projects with little or no investment from the people who are supposed to be benefiting from them. And many times because of that...a year later the big expensive project is a complete failure. Because no one had any investment in it! They don't care if it fails... it wasn't their money.

I do like the Peace Corp's philosophy- small projects with community investment (the theory is they are more successful and sustainable that way), but damn it's really hard to do! You'll talk about these ideas for projects and everybody is like yeah, yeah, that sounds great! But when you actually need to collect the money or have people show up to work it's a totally different story (I'll be sure to include my project horror story in here later so you can see exactly what I'm talking about).

Wish List

So a few people have been asking lately what I need. And the short answer is that I don't really need anything. I can find pretty much all of the essentials down here and the "I just can't do PC without" things like Carmex SPF chap stick, Assie spray in conditioner, and Oil of Olay anti-aging cream have pretty much been taken care of till I leave here thanks to some awesome friends and family. But there are a few things that, while not per say "necessary", would be pretty amazing to receive...

red vines (twizzlers are not an acceptable substitute)
reeses pieces
chex mix
pesto sauce packets (and any other handy sauce mix like that)
Chinese rice crackers
one of those Hickory Farms sausage logs (I eat a lot of crackers down here)
new music, movies or tv shows (i-tunes cards!!) I now have a computer!
interesting "light" reading material (Rolling Stone, Nat. Geo., Jane, ect...)
perfume samples (anything citrus, floral or sweet smelling) or a body spray!

Carnaval Oruro Style!

Aftermath of a globo/espuma (water balloon/foam) war. During pauses in the parade we would either initiate globo wars with, or do the best to defend ourselves from, other spectators watching the parade. Actually the globo/espuma fighting can be really fun if you want to play. I never actually initiated any fights with anyone, but if somebody tried to get mess with me I had no qualms about going after them. I didn´t care if it was just a little kid! haha...I can´t tell you how good it felt to espuma some punk kid right in the face after all I went through last carnaval! And I should also mention that the spectators are much more respectful of the dancers in Oruro. If you tried to throw a water ballon at one of the dancers you would be publicly humiliated.

Los Diablos (the devils) getting ready to dance.

Every group of dancers some a few hundred strong, has a band backing them up. A lot of the band members don´t look so good. A combination of exhaustion from walking the parade route with their heavy instruments and drunkenness (mostly drunkenness). But this band was pretty awesome. Sharply dressed and full of energy.

These dancers are performing the Tinku. My favorite Bolivian dance. It´s basically a reenactment of a fighting ritual that the Tinku people still do to this day (to the death!). Both the music and the dance is really high energy and really exciting to watch.

And last but not least... my favorite Carnaval character the Oso! It´s supposed to be a bear, not a deranged giant rat.

More to come...

New Years in Buenos Aires!

I didn´t get to do too much sightseeing since I was only in town for a few days, but we did manage to check out the Recoleta. A little city of mausoleums. Some sparkling new, obnoxiously huge and made of black polished granite (can not even begin to imagine how much something like that would cost) and others, like the the one above, hundreds of years old crumbling apart but full of character.

We celebrated New Years Eve with a rooftop BBQ. It was so hot and humid! We were wiping off sweat while watching the fireworks ring in the New Year. All the girls were looking cute in there dresses and heels while the boys were all shirtless a drinking beer...real classy guys. The girl in blue is my awesome site mate Julia and the shirtless man is her boyfriend Dan, another Tarija volunteer. Check out my cast. All that for a little broken finger!

A huge crowd was gathered in front of the Casa Rosada, the Argentinean equivalent of the White House, holding up pictures of loved ones (the majority of them very young) and banners with sayings like ¨Never Again¨. A tragic nightclub fire the year before had killed over a hundred people. Basically the place was ridiculously packed full of people and when a fire broke out they ran for the emergency exits only to find them chained shut, trapping them inside. The trial for the club owners was taking place that week and the people wanted to make sure their friends and family members were not forgotten.

Sippin´ on a McDonald´s soda on the Subte (subway). I felt like I had been teleported 20 years into the future. Bought the very hippy t-shirt in one of the many cutesy cheap little boutiques in Palermo. Argentineans are very stylish people.

Another blow to US/Bolivian relations

The following article was run by ABC news last week -

In an apparent violation of U.S. policy, Peace Corps volunteers and a Fulbright scholar were asked by a U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia "to basically spy" on Cubans and Venezuelans in the country, according to Peace Corps personnel and the Fulbright scholar involved.

"I was told to provide the names, addresses and activities of any Venezuelan or Cuban doctors or field workers I come across during my time here," Fulbright scholar John Alexander van Schaick told ABCNews.com in an interview in La Paz.

Van Schaick's account matches that of Peace Corps members and staff who claim that last July their entire group of new volunteers was instructed by the same U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia to report on Cuban and Venezuelan nationals.

The State Department says any such request was "in error" and a violation of long-standing U.S. policy which prohibits the use of Peace Corps personnel or Fulbright scholars for intelligence purposes. "We take this very seriously and want to stress this is not in any way our policy," a senior State Department official told ABCNews.com.

The Fulbright scholar van Schaick, a 2006 Rutgers University graduate, says the request came at a mandatory orientation and security briefing meeting with Assistant Regional Security Officer Vincent Cooper at the embassy on the morning of Nov. 5, 2007. According to van Schaick, the request for information gathering "surfaced casually" halfway through Cooper's 30-minute, one-on-one briefing, which initially dealt with helpful tips about life and security concerns in Bolivia.

"He said, 'We know the Venezuelans and Cubans are here, and we want to keep tabs on them,'" said van Schaick who recalls feeling "appalled" at the comment. "I was in shock," van Schaick said. "My immediate thought was 'oh my God! Somebody from the U.S. Embassy just asked me to basically spy for the U.S. Embassy.'"

A similar pattern emerges in the account of the three Peace Corps volunteers and their supervisor. On July 29, 2007, just before the new volunteers were sworn in, they say embassy security officer Vincent Cooper visited the 30-person group to give a talk on safety and made his request about the Cubans and Venezuelans. "He said it had to do with the fight against terrorism," said one, of the briefing from the embassy official. Others remember being told, "It's for your own safety."

Peace Corps Deputy Director Doreen Salazar remembers the incident vividly because she says it was the first time she had heard an embassy official make such a request to a Peace Corps group. Salazar says she and her fellow staff found the comment so out of line that they interrupted the briefing to clarify that volunteers did not have to follow the embassy's instructions, and she later complained directly to the embassy about the incident.
"Peace Corps is an a-political institution," Salazar says. "We made it clear to the embassy that this was an inappropriate request, and they agreed."

Indeed, the State Department admits having acknowledged the infraction and assuring Salazar that it would not happen again. Yet, it was just four months later that Fulbright scholar van Schaick says he was asked by the same embassy official, Cooper, to "spy" on the Cubans and Venezuelans. A U.S. Embassy official in La Paz, Bolivia said Cooper was referring all calls for comment to the State Department in Washington.

Van Schaick says he never considered complying with the request, fearful he would violate Bolivian espionage laws and that he would jeopardize the integrity of the Fulbright program, which yearly sends hundreds of American college graduates to countries around the world.
"I am supposed to be a cultural ambassador increasing mutual understanding between us and the Bolivian people," van Schaick explains. "This flies in face of everything Fulbright stands for."
The Fulbright program receives its funding from the U.S. State Department and the Peace Corps is a federal agency, but the State Department insists that neither group has the obligation to act in an intelligence capacity. In fact, both have strict regulations against members getting involved in politics in their host country.

The press director at the Peace Corps told ABC News in no uncertain terms that the corps is not involved in any intelligence gathering. "Since Peace Corps' inception in 1961, it has been the practice of the Peace Corps to keep volunteers separate from any official duties pertaining to U.S. foreign policy, including the reality or the appearance of involvement in intelligence-related activities," said Amanda Beck, press director of the Peace Corps. "Any connection between the Peace Corps and the intelligence community would seriously compromise the ability of the Peace Corps to develop and maintain the trust and confidence of the people in the host countries we serve." Read the Peace Corps' full statement.

Like many of the Peace Corps workers, van Schaick is carrying out his research in the Santa Cruz countryside, where a number of Cuban doctors are deployed providing free medical services as part of Cuba's solidarity with its socialist ally, Bolivia's President Evo Morales.
The accusations are likely to reverberate in Bolivia, especially given the already shaky relationship between the Bush administration and President Morales' two-year-old government.
"These are serious incidents that we will investigate thoroughly," says Bolivia's Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca in an interview. "Any U.S. government use of their students or volunteers to provide intelligence represents a grave threat to Bolivia's sovereignty." Bolivian law provides severe penalties in espionage cases. According to Article 111 of the country's penal code, "he who procures secretive documents, objects or information…concerning [Bolivia's] foreign relations in an espionage effort for other countries during times of peace, endangering the security of the State, will incur a penalty of 30 years in prison." In lay man's terms: if any U.S. citizen provides information of use in a spying effort, they would be subject to Bolivia's maximum prison sentence.

But the U.S. citizens who reported being approached in this way by the State Department official said no mention was made of any legal risks arising from complying with the request to keep tabs on foreign nationals in Bolivia. There is no indication that any of the volunteers made reports to the U.S. Embassy.

Van Schaick says he is keenly aware of the Pandora's box now knocked open. The Hoboken, N.J. native, however, was adamant that the incident be brought to light -- in the hopes for change. "I came forward because the Bolivian people have a right to know," former union activist van Schaick says. "Asking Fulbrighters to spy is just not OK."

Three of the other four Fulbright scholars currently in Bolivia say they were never asked about Cubans or Venezuelans in their briefings. A fourth Fulbright scholar declined repeated requests for an interview on the subject.

I can´t really say to much about such a politically controversial situation like this on my blog. But I´d like to personally thank Mr. Vincent Cooper for getting us into this mess. There about 130 PC volunteers here in Bolivia that are here for all the right reasons and you´re ¨slip up¨ puts all of our credibility into question. Thanks.

More Pics...

Some pictures that I really like for one reason or another...

This is just a pretty flower on a giant cactus on the Isla del Peces in the Salar.

"I'm too beautiful to be a volunteer"...haha! What is with that look?! This is my buddy Kilo at Rodeo right before the most amazing parrillada of my life. Relax folks... parrillada is a BBQ!

This is my buddy Loro. I made the mistake of being nice to him and ever since he's managed to crawl up my huge flight of stairs (well... huge for a little loro) every morning and squawk and shriek to wake me up at six in the morning. That was until his mysterious disappearance... I swear I had nothing to do with it! I actually kind of miss that little guy.

These are kids from the first class I ever worked with. After about five minutes of watching me and wondering what I was doing... I managed to convince them that picking up trash was way cool! These kids were sooo adorable. When I waved goodbye to them a group of girls all looked at each other and said something between themselves. Then the next second they all come running to me and each give me a goodbye kiss. I was too sweet! (It looks like the boy on the right is trying to make the moves on the cutie in pink)

One of the things I really like about Bolivia is the frequency of band music and parades. This was a parade in Tarija after Dia de Santos. Can't wait to see the "mack daddy" of all parades in Oruro for carnaval this Feb!!!

These are Julia's Kids. A group of kids from the local orphanage in Bermejo. We took the kids out of the city and to the campo for an afternoon of soccer and raiding oranges form a nearby orchard. I know it's wrong to have favorites.... but these two are mine! The kid in pink is probably 8 years old and not even four feet tall, but he is the most bas ass futbolero you've ever seen! He's like waist tall but dribbles straight for you like he's going to run right over you. It's hilarious! Me and Dan tried not to laugh every time this kid got the ball. The other one is just so cute. He's always holding your hand and asking about some plant, your earrings, why your in a cast. It's probably a good thing foreigners can't adopt Bolivian children cause otherwise this one might end up coming home with me.