tejidos, chicha, y bodas

I go to weaving classes on Sundays taught by indigenous women. We meet in an outside area and weave for about three hours. I'm still working on simple patterns with only a few strings, but the pieces are coming out nice. The women use their toes to hold the strings when they weave, but they insert a large metal object in the ground for us to use instead. I think I'm going to refuse the metal next time and use my toe… I've gotta put my fat feet to some good use. The weavings here are incredible… unique patterns and bright colors! I've been reading a lot about weavings (patterns, symbolisms, development projects) in one of our main books (written by a GW professor, Kevin Healy) for my eventual research project and it's all so interesting! Our first travel excursion is to Sucre tomorrow, which is known for its weaving and has a whole museum dedicated to rural weavings.

Weaving class

Things are slowly getting better with Spanish. I can understand things a lot more than I could at the beginning and I'm not so lost during mealtime conversation with my family. I often substitute hand gestures and short skits for words that I don't know… my verbal skills are coming slowly. My family laughs at me a lot, but they like me because I'm a good eater. Eating a lot wins mucho points with Bolivians so maybe that will compensate for the lack of language.

My house

On Thursday, we took a day trip to a country town called Tarata. We were each assigned partners and given tasks based on our interests. I was with a friend, Amy, and we were supposed to find "weaving activities." We were really confused by the assignment so we decided to talk to random women and ask about weaving. Communication was kind of a disaster and kind of great. I stumbled with my words, but was good enough for some basic communication. People laughed at us a lot and we laughed at ourselves a lot and it was kind of fun to be forced into intense animation/ relying on body language and facial expressions. We were invited into several people's homes and saw women making yarn from wool and people tried to force the local alcohol on us (one guy dropped to his knees begging "POR FAVOR!!"). Knowing how the brew is made (it's called chicha - indig. women chew corn and spit into a vase and then their spit ferments into a fruity beer), we declined. Language really isn't necessary for communication…. But it sure does help.

Man drinking chicha in Tarata

I joined a gym here.. it's funny. The Bolivians that hang out there are super glam and jock-ish. I feel like they use the gym as a an excuse to hang out with each other in spandex rather than to exersice. But they have the same system of classes at the JCC in Birmingham… Bodypump, Bodyjam, rpm, etc. Oh, globalization…
I go to spinning classes with two other girls from my program. The instructor knows we are from the U.S. and uses every possible moment to make sure that the rest of class knows as well. He often interrupts the class for stupid translations. Example: once he started class with "Vamos!" and then turned to us, "So..a… we are.. a.. going to star the class." Thanks… we couldn't tell.

I went to a fancy catholic wedding last night and it was out of control. It was pretty similar to a bar mitzvah party (we left during the Grease medley) except that dinner was served at half past midnight and there was a lot more alcohol involved. On each table were center pieces of flowers, a bottle of rum and a bottle of whiskey. I danced with a lot of drunk old men and everyone was trying their sloppy English on me. People with babies and young children had to leave early, around 1 am. Eloisa and I left early also, around 3:30 am, because it was an outdoor wedding and it was getting really cold. I have another wedding next weekend. Oy vey.

My hermana and her boyfriend at the wedding

I just finished a first draft of a 7 page paper (in Spanish!) and my head really hurts. I'm pretty sure its just a jumble of words, but that's what 2nd drafts are for. For those of you following the news about Bolivia, don't worry! The U.S. media is blowing up the situation because of the whole mess with the ambassador, but everything is totally fine in the city I'm in. It's really interesting to be here right now and to here people's perceptions about what's going on.

Bienvenidos a Bolivia

Hola! I've made it through my first week in Bolivia. This country is way underrated. I'm living in a city called Cochabamba - a crowded valley surrounded by the Andes mountains. The city has typical "developing country" characteristics… crowded and dusty streets, mansions next to slums, street dogs, political graffiti, loud busy markets, street vendors everywhere, child beggars, colorful buildings, etc… but when I'm in a crowded street and look up to see the Andes skyline, the contrast is breathtaking. And the people here are beautiful! All of them!

El Cristo

After we arrived, we had a welcome dinner at Ismael's, one of our Academic Directors, house. He's a Bolivian vegetarian artist and Tai-chi instructor. Before dinner his wife led a two-hour Hare Krishna/Bolivian fusion ceremony where we made offerings with Coca leaves and colorful paper, poured alcohol on the floors for Pachamama (mother earth), and sprinkled grains in a fire. After dinner we meditated. My first Bolivian experience was not what I had in mind before I left. On my third day here, I was walking with five girls to the city center. We got separated at a cross street and I got stuck behind with two girls. When we crossed the street a few seconds later, the two girls ahead of us were running into a restaurant, so we followed them. A young boy, probably eight years old, had approached the girls and robbed one of them at knifepoint. She only lost 20 US dollars, but how crazy! It was about 3pm and there were people everywhere watching. Apparently that happens a lot here…


There are 23 students in my group and everyone is super nice. I'm probably the worst Spanish speaker... It's a challenge to communicate with people because I'm not outgoing and I don't like to make mistakes in front of large groups. Our lectures are all in Spanish too! I try so hard to focus during the lectures but towards the end I get completely overwhelmed with the language. Not being able to fully understand lectures and instructions is the worst thing ever. It's hard not to get frustrated with myself, but I'm trying to look at it as a fun learning game rather than a language barrier problem.

I'm living with a family in a cute neighborhood 20 minutes by bus to my school. Although they might think I'm mentally deranged, the whole family is incredibly nice and understanding of my language skills. During meals, I feel like I'm in a skit for Spanish class or something… it doesn't feel real - I struggle to link vocabulary together and the family just smiles and nods at me. It gets a little better each day, but it's hard living with people whom I can't fully communicate with. The father, Carlos, is a farmer and the mother, Esther, is a nurse. I have two siblings, a 14 year old brother, Samuel, and a 19 year old sister, Eloisa.

Mis padres

Saturday night, Eloisa, her boyfriend, and her cousin took me to a concert. After circling around the concert area 6 or 7 times with the windows down and music blasting, we finally parked on the side of the road to join the others tailgaiting with rum and redbull and Spanish electronica. We met up with Eloisa's friends and had a street-side dance party (not listening to or seeing the concert at all) for 4 hours. All of her friends were super posh and I was little out of place... I felt like I needed to trade my outfit for clothes two sizes smaller. Lined with the Andes, the area was filled with tons of glam Bolivians and every once in a while, a street child, or an indigenous woman dressed in the traditional outfit, would come through selling gum and cigarettes. What an authentic experience.

Bolivian tailgate

Sunday was El Dia de Peatons, The Day of the Patrons. No cars or buses were allowed on the streets ad everyone had their bicycles out. There were concerts and vendors and people everywhere. It was really nice.
That's it for now. Hope everyone is doing well and for those of you who started school, buena suerte with this semester!