Holly Globos!

If there´s one thing that´s ticked me off about Bolivia it´s this - jugar con agua (water play). Every carnival for about a month kids, teenagers, and young men go nuts with globos (water balloons), squirt guns and buckets of water. It sounds like a lot of fun, and it is if you want to play. But when your freshly showered (which doesn´t happen often... believe me), dressed sort of nice and are minding your own business walking down the street to a party and some brat kid throws a bucket of water over you... it´s not so fun. And this is after they have spit in the bucket (and they have made sure that you have seen them do this) and you tell them your not playing, you don´t have any globos, your going to a party, POR FAVOR NO!!! And did I mention this water is straight from the gutter running in front of the house... which in addition to sewage has been known to contains random animal parts. Oh man was I pissed!! I had to calm myself down and remind myself that they´re just kids and it´s just water (poo water though!). I was threatening to throw my sandal at them, after it fell off from trying to run away, to hopefully distract them getting me. And looking back I probably would have thrown it at them if I had known they were going to get me after all. Humm...am I being culturally insensitive here? Oh yeah... and it´s just lovely when your waiting for the bus and someone in a passing car squirts you in the face or drive by globos you. And they throw freakin´hard too! Some Bolivian kid actually went blind last year from receiving a globo in the eye! I guess I´m bitter because I feel that I´m getting more than my fair share of the globos because I´m this blond gringa. ¨Let´s get the gringa!¨ I´ve heard more than a few times. I wonder if 26 year old Bolivian women have to worry about this crap?

I´m in down town Coch right now. My friend and I decided to brave the globos and check out the big carnival parade ¨Corso de Corsos¨ down town. Actually... I was pretty surprised. The globo situation wasn´t nearly as bad as I imagined. I thought for sure I would be dodging globos from 5,000 Bolivians, but to my surprise I only got a few thrown at me. By a few I mean around 20. But only a few managed to hit me. You know just as soon as I walk out of this Internet cafe I´m going to get slammed...haha...At least it´s not sewage water in the city...err I think!

The whole globo thing if fun I guess for the kids who want to play. But if you don´t want to play it gets really old really fast. Many Bolivian´s don´t like to even come down and watch the parade because of the globo madness. The poor dancers in the parade aren´t even safe! People from the stands (usually teenagers) are assaulting them with globos and espuma (foam). I just saw a well dressed middle aged woman spray foam right in the face of a dancer. What the hell?! And many of the dancers looked more concerned about protecting their faces than actually dancing in the parade. The parade is really great to watch. There are great costumes and dances, but the whole globo thing really distracts you. Your so paranoid the whole time... wondering if the kids looking at you funny across the street are about to launch one at you. And this is definitely my American mentality starting to show.... I´m just not cool with some random person throwing a globo at me. Actually, I get kind of pissed. I´ve had to bite my tongue (well...sometimes it doesn´t work, but luckily I swear in English) more than a few times and refrain from flipping the bird.

Actually, it doesn´t even seem like the Bolivians really enjoy it. It´s not like ¨Ha! You really got me there! Nice one!¨ One guy gets one in the face then looks at the guy who just threw it at him slightly annoyed, but doesn´t say anything then keeps on walking. And the guy who threw the globo gives a little ¨Ha¨ with a satisfied smirk on his face. Even he doesn´t seem like he´s really enjoying himself. What can I say? It´s weird. I obviously don´t get it.

Around the campfire...

Dammit!! I brought my camera into the city to finally download some pictures on here and what do ya know? The computer is not only a Mac but in espanol as well... so I have no idea what I´m doing. Sorry, you´re going to have to wait a little bit more.

Anyways... my EE group went camping in Parque Paruimani (not sure exactly the spelling on that) last Friday night. It was a total blast. Our camp site was right next to this river overlooking Cochabamba. We did a little hiking, singing to guitar around the fire, drank some cervezas and had, by far, the most delicious meal since arriving in Bolivia... an amazing BBQ with the biggest slab of meat I´ve ever seen and some grilled veggies, which we´ve all been craving. Look Mom, no carbs! I´m not really that big of a meat eater to begin with, but I was chowing down. I prefer my meat a little well done, but there were girls eating these huge chunks of bleeding meat with their bare hands. It was pretty barbaric, but awesome at the same time. I also had my first experience with Chicha, the local homemade brew, and made it out alive. Although, I was definitely hurting the next day. More from a lack of sleep than anything else.

The next day we headed over to Cochabamba´s first vivero (tree nursery) and learned the basics on raising plants in a nursery. I have always loved plants, so I especially liked this tech session. It got me really excited about the possibility of working within a nursery.

Oh my goodness, it 1 30 already I told my family I´d be home by 2 00. It´s been kind of difficult feeling like your 12 years old again. Making sure you come home for lunch, dinner and whatnot and not staying out too late. But I guess it´s for my own good...

And if anyone would like to send me anything, like letters/pictures, which I would love to receive, or a new battery recharger for instance, send it to :

Allison Brown
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla 1603
Cochabamba, Bolivia
South America

and make sure it´s under 4 pounds, that way I won´t get taxed on it, and say it´s "ropa usada" (used clothes). If you want to give me a call just send an email and I´ll send you the number.

B-44

There are 29 of us in B-44. Everyone is either in there twenties or early thirties. I thought that I would be on of the older people of the group. I was imagining a bunch of recently graduated kids. But there are quite a few of us in our mid-twenties. Which is nice. We´ve got two married couples and the rest of us are single (some more than others). And I´ve never been so happy to be single! Everyone is pretty darn cool. No wackos or super obnoxious people. With big groups your bound to get a couple of odd balls, but I must say... we´re pretty awesome. We have a really good group dynamic going on. It will be really interesting to see who will make it through training and the subsequent two years. So far everyone (that I know of anyway) is still going strong.

There are 9 of us un the Environmental Ed. program. I think we hands down have the best job assignment. We learned how to put on a puppet show (so fun!), recycle paper, crochet plastic bags into actual functional bags to bring to the market for your groceries and what not. Guess what you´re all getting for Christmas? Right now we are in the middle of writing a script for a tv spot that we will produce and run in a small community in the Santa Cruz department during our tech week. We are also preparing a charla (talk), for a class of 4th graders in a local school, on reducing garbage. It feels sort of hypocritical to tell Bolivians to stop producing so much garbage because we Americans produce soooo much more. But there is so little infrastructure to deal with all of it here. It´s either thrown on the ground or into the river to be magically ´taken away´. Seriously, there are people who´s job it is to collect the garbage around the neighborhood and throw it in the dry river bed. Luckily this doesn´t happen in our neighborhood, but it´s pretty common in others. Even at my house I have no idea what they do with the garbage. Every time I´ve asked where to throw away something I kind of get this strange look and am told to put it in some random place or another. Never an actual garbage can. I´ve started a little garbage bag in my room. And when it´s full I´ll toss it in the river...haha...just joshin´ ; )

Bienvenidos a Bolivia!

El Christo, Cochabamba, Bolivia. I had to stand in a crowd of about 500 high schoolers chanting "U-S-A" and "I love you" to get this photo.

Plaza Principal Cochabamba, Bolivia. Where the riots took place in early January.

Sorry if anyone has been worrying about me. It´s not so convenient to get on the Internet over here. At least, not out in the campo where all of us are living now. But I´m here and doing good. We arrived in Bolivia a little over a week ago and so much has happened I don´t really know where to begin. Humm.. let´s see...

We are living in the suburbs of Cochabamba. It´s considered the campo (country) and that´s a pretty accurate description. Although this is pretty tame campo living. My host family has a couple cows, pigs, chickens, guinue pigs (which is considered a delicacy over here, have not eaten one yet...that I know of) and a couple of flea ridin dogs Chile and Chubi. They are my favorite, probably because I do not have to speak in Spanish to them. And they love me because I am the only one that pays any attention to them. There is apparently a big plot of land in the back of the house where they grow guess what! Potatoes (papas) which are some how incorporated into every meal. Everyone says that the women gain about 10 lbs and the men lose about 15 lbs. Which I hope is not always the case because we have some pretty skinny men in our group! We are going to have some dead gringos over here! ha...ha...

View of Tunari, the tallest mountain in Central Bolivia, from my neighborhood.

And I have a latrine and outdoor cold shower. There are only a few of us that got that honor. I was a little bit bitter at first, but actually it´s really not that big of a deal. I can always brag about it and I feel pretty tough after taking a cold show at 6 o´clock in the morning. The latrine is actually amazingly clean and rarely smells. It´s piped to the gutter, not the pit kind. We´ll see how I feel about it when I get sick and have to use it 10 times a day...I guess I will have gotten broken in early if nothing else.

My family is pretty mellow. They don´t shove food down my throat or anything... which some people have had some trouble with. Generally, they want to see us eat a lot and get fat. But my host family had already had 8 volunteers so I think they are used to us Gringitos. I have been having a pretty difficult time understanding them. The accent is pretty different than what I was used to in Costa Rica. They actually speak Castillano which I don´t know what exactly is the difference, but it definitely is different. And it´s kind of a slurred speech. So it´s been kind of frustrating, but it gets a little better everyday. ¨Poco a poco¨ they say. They also speak Quechua amongst each other. I have three brothers and one sister. They are all 15 to 21 years old. There quite, but friendly. I know as my Spanish gets better we´ll all talk more.

The neighborhood is pretty traditional. The short, round cholita women all wear long braids in their hair and this kind of dressy blouse, many times with a checked apron and a skirt that falls past their knees. And I love it! All the women wear hats (the style depending upon what region they are from). I really want to get one at the Cancha (market) soon, the sun is fierce over here! I will take a good picture and post it soon! My description is not doing them any justice.

I´m pretty exhausted right now. Training is intense! We have language classes from 8 30 to 1 00 then lunch, and a moment to catch our breath, then various technical, cultural, safety training from 2 00 till 6 oo. Bye the time dinner´s over I´m pretty wiped out and ready for some lite studying than bed. I think I´ve been going to bed at 9 30 lately, it´s pretty pathetic. I think I´m still getting used to the time change (actually we are one hour later than EST over here), the schedule (not waking up at noon everyday) and trying to understand the language is freakin´exhausting. So it´s like this for the next 11 weeks. I was talking to some current volunteers are they were saying if you can make it through the next couple of months you´ll be alright.

Chillin' at the training center.

That´s all for now.... Ciao!

Oh Bolivia....

So I thought it would be a good idear to write a little bit about Bolivia. No, it is not an Eastern European country. You may be thinking of Bulgaria. Bolivia is a landlocked, South American country. It borders Peru to the west, Brazil to the north/east, and Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile to the south. That means lots of nearby countries to visit! Yay! I am a little bummed about it's landlocked status. What's this California baby to do!?! Those damn Chileans! I personally blame Pepe for this ;)

Bolivia is probably best known for it's high altitude and is home to the world's highest capital city, La Paz (~12,000 ft) and the world's highest navigable (not sure exactly what that means) and silliest named lake, Lago Titicaca. It has been called the Tibet of the America's for it's remoteness and altitude. It is probably more recently known for it's 'radical' president, Evo Morales, and his stance on the controversial coca industry. Coca is the raw plant material from which cocaine is made. You should take a minute to check out the links I've put on here and read some good articles on Evo and the whole coca issue.

Bolivia was once part of the mighty Incan empire and still has a huge population of indigenous peoples (over 60%). In addition to Spanish, there are three official indigenous languages! I was reading over a brief introduction to the Quechua language (materials sent from the Peace Corps.) and you could say I'm a little bit freaked out! But I guess I'll worry about that when I get there.

Bolivia is the one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere and has a long history of political upheaval. From reading my Lonely Planet (and I know my Lonely Planet should not be thought of as the authoritative guide to the history of Bolivia, but it's convenient) it sounds like Bolivia has had some really bad luck and has basically been dumped on for the most part of recent history.

So it's gonna be crazy!It's going to be a big change, but I can't wait! And hopefully I can do some good...

Cochabamba Chaos...

Alright just a week till I begin this little adventure. Perfect timing too...apparently there have been some pretty violent protests in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This is where I'm scheduled to be in about 10 days! Leftist Evo supporters have been protesting, calling for the resignation of the conservative governor of Cochabamba. It started out peacefully, but got pretty outta hand when protesters tried to storm city haul causing a violent response from police. Tear gas canisters were flying... fires were set. At least one person has died and many others were injured. Evo sent in the military and more police and it appears that things have settled down. However, Evo supporters have vowed to keep up protests until the governor resigns. I guess the situation was bad enough to evacuate the all the Peace Corp Volunteers (PCV's) living within the city.

So it's a big mystery how this is going to affect our training group. We are supposed to spend the first three months living and training in Cochabamba. Hopefully things will cool off by the time we arrive... or this situation could throw a big ol' monkey wrench into our plans.

It's an unfortunate situation. However, I am not personally very worried about it. I don't plan on picking up a machete and joining the protests or anything. People have the right to protest and should when they are not happy with their leaders. It' s just unfortunate it had to escalate into violence. This is a very critical time in the history of Bolivia and call me crazy, but I'm actually pretty excited about witnessing these changes (albeit from a safe distance!).

America in 7 Days

We made it! 7 days and I don't even want to think about how many tanks of gas later. But I'm home... and it feels good.

Day 1- Providence, RI to Columbus, OH.

The most grueling drive of the trip and the most horrific display of roadkill I've ever witnessed. I'm happy to say we made it to Columbus without killing any wildlife. We visited my friend Dave, his wife Kate and Dawn's friend Kaleb. I was too delirious after driving all day to remember to take photos. Dammit! Oh well, Ohio pretty much sucks anyway haha....

Day 2- Columbus, OH to Nashville, TN.

As soon as we headed south we started to see lots of things like this...

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but there are also advertisements for frozen beef patties on the side of the truck...weird. My personal favorites were the "Hell is for Real" billboards (usually located across from trucker porn shops) on the highway. We were a little too slow with the camera to get those.

While in Nashville we checked out the strip downtown and had some fried pickles (which are surprisingly tasty), which Dawn is enjoying here. I'm sure she is just loving this picture on here ; )

We were determined to eat some sort of meat while in the south (i.e. not chicken). We knew we weren't realistically going to get ribs or a big ol' steak. We decided to split a burger which was 'crazy' enough for us. We then went on to watch one of the most miserable bands I've ever seen beg for beer and money. I was embarrassed for them, but the tourists seemed to fall for it. Did I mention we were the only people under the age of 45 in there? I suppose Monday night is not the best night for checking out the Nashville music scene.

Day 3- Nashville,TN to Greenville, TX.

On the way through Memphis we just had to check out Graceland. We couldn't tour the house because it was closed on Tuesdays. Dammit!The luck! That was a bummer, but we did get to walk around the house and see The King's grave site. Elvis is truly an American Icon, so it was pretty darn cool to see that on our trip across the country. Did you know Elvis had a stillborn twin brother, Jessie? Imagine... two Elvis's!

Day4 - Greenville,TX to Carlsbad, NM

We spent a long day driving through the emptiness of Texas thanking God we hadn't grown up in one of those depressing, run-down, roadside towns. We picked up Dawn's brother Dustin along the way at the Midland airport, hometown of G.W. and Lara Bush. Let's just say it explains a lot...

Day5- Carlsbad,NM to Demming, NM.

Finally we got to get out of the car! We started the morning walking through Carlsbad Cavern's National Park. Still one of the most amazing places I've ever been. Absolutely nobody was there, so we practically had the cave to ourselves.


We then headed to White Sands National Monument where there are these dramatic white sand dunes. Gorgeous! It looked like we were in the snow and it felt like it too. We were freezing our butts off !


Day 6- Demming, NM to Tempe, AZ

We started the day with a relatively short drive to Saguaro National Park. We drove around the park and did a little hike through the Senoran Dessert. The scenery was beautiful, the weather was absulutely perfect, and the cacti were amazing.


We then drove to Dawn's friend's place in Tempe, just outside of Phoenix, hit up some bars and fought off the cockroaches in our sleep.

Day 7- Tempe, AZ to Thousand Oaks, CA

We made it to Joshua Tree, National Park with just enough time to drive through the park and walk around a little bit before sundown. As we drove through the park (listening to some 'experimental' Pink Floyd) I felt like I was on another planet. It was a shame we didn't have more sunlight to get out and walk around some more, but whatcha gonna do?


I want to thank Dawn for driving all the way home with me. I couldn't imagine the drive without her. Your a great friend and an overall awesome person! Oh jezz.. I'm getting teary eyed writing this. I'm such a sap! I'm gonna miss you!