Saturday, March 29, 2008

Fotos: Semana Tecnica

...Corps.

Armando, my PCV role model. Unfortunately, I currently lack the testosterone to grow such an amazing beard.



As promised, a picture of me eating a queen bee larva. A week later, I am growing strange hairs on my back and craving honey. Weird.





From this height I can almost see the U of L game...





Mountains, flowers. The usual.






PCT Brandon playing horsey with a Bolivian niña.






Me and my host-dad, Don Orlando. He´s holding a portrait of himself done by some guy whose house he painted in Spain. Apparently the guy was buena gente.






Honey harvesting in Villa.








Monday, March 24, 2008

Chuquisaca, Mi Hogar Nuevo

This afternoon, our training group´s site locations were announced. My new home is located in the department of Chuquisaca (choo-kee-sock-uh). Of the fifteen potential sites for agriculture trainees, this was my first choice. I´m psyched.

My pueblo, the name of which I have been instructed not to divulge for security reasons, is about a seven-hour bus ride from Sucre, the historical capital of Bolivia (La Paz is the governmental capital). There are a few hundred people living in the town, and around 2000 in the surrounding municipality. Current volunteers and training coordinators tell me it´s an excellent site, and a place of exceptional beauty.

I will be replacing Daniel, a PCV from B-41 (the forty-first group of Bolivian PCV´s -- we are B-47). Apparently, I have a lot to live up to. Daniel has done some exceptional work with beekeeping: the apicultores with whom he works are involved in advanced beekeeping activities, including harvesting royal jelly (bee milk, mas o menos). So I, who had no experience with apiculture prior to training, have much to learn in a short time. Bring it on, I say.
We leave on Saturday night for our site visits; I will travel 10 hours by bus to Sucre, and then it´s another 7 hours to my site. I´ll spend four days next week getting to know the place, and learning as much as possible from Dan, whose service ends in April. Then it´s back to Coch for the final two weeks of this head-spinning entrenamiento.

I couldn´t have asked for a better placement. I can´t wait to get started.

I´m scouring the city in search of a replacement part for my camera. Until then, use your imaginations!

Peace and love.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Semana Tecnica

We have just returned from an exhilarating tech week. The 15 Agriculture trainees and our coordinators visited several different PCV sites in the Cochabamba and Santa Cruz departments of Bolivia (Villa Esperanza, Chilon, Quirusillas, and Samaipata), getting a taste of what life is like as a Volunteer. We worked mostly with bees during the week, from queen rearing to colony division. One day we went in teams of three to capture wild beehives and transplant them into managed colonies... I got stung about six times, but supposedly bee venom is good for you, so that´s all to the good.

I took some killer pictures during the week, but unfortunately I seem to have misplaced my USB cable, so I´m not able to load them onto the computer. Hopefully it will turn up soon -- I have this great picture of me eating a queen bee larva.

Less than a month remains in training. On Monday I will find out my site placement, where I will live for the next two years. Stay tuned!

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Aprendiendo a la Velocidad de la Luz

Friends,



The pace of training continues to approach the speed of light.


How much can one possibly teach a human being in three months? Well, start with developing a understanding of Spanish and the intricacies of Bolivian culture (e.g. how to navigate the labyrinth of Bolivian public transportation without getting robbed or lost); then there´s compost making, pest and disease management, vermiculture (worm farming), apiculture (beekeeping), and product transformation (marmelades, peanut butter, dehydrated fruit and meat, yogurt and cheese); finally, there´s the enigma of effective development work (e.g. presenting formal presentations to a Bolivian audience, operating a community bank, conducting a ¨participatory diagnostic analysis¨ and forming a project proposal). You might say it´s the hippie equivalent of boot camp. And yes, I´m loving it.

In our agriculture group, we formed sub-groups of three to form mini-enterprises. Our group decided to make cheese -- which, of course, we had absolutely no idea how to do. So we received a loan of 90 Bolivianos to buy supplies and basically winged it (we did have a one-page summary of the cheese-making process). To our surprise and delight, the cheese turned out great! It had a perfect consistency, color and texture (admittedly, however, it could have used a bit more salt). We packaged our cheese rounds in plastic wrap and printed labels. The best part of the business was the name: In Spanish, ¨Peace Corps¨is Cuerpo de Paz; thus, we dubbed our product Queso de Paz (i.e., Peace Cheese. It´s funnier in Spanish). And, would you believe it, we actually made a profit... of just over a dollar.





We are about halfway through this training thing, and I am feeling pretty comfortable here. My host family and I are getting along really well. It´s still easiest to talk to my youngest brother, who´s just 11, because he speaks clearly and uses pretty simple language. We have gotten pretty close -- the other day we played soccer one-on-one. The 11 year-old won, 6-5. Yes, I was trying my hardest. But in fairness to myself, I was wearing Chaco´s, no match for his spikes. And he´s a Bolivian, he has been playing soccer all his life -- even his name, Ronaldo (Ronaldiño for short, like the Brazilian superstar) screams soccer skills. But then, I do have about 18 inches on him. He´s a really funny kid... when he´s angry, he screams ¨Shrek!¨ Apparently he thinks it´s a bad word in English. He tells me a former volunteer taught him that mala palablra: Los Omonte have had a dozen or more trainees in their home over the years, all of whom Ronaldiño refers to as ¨mis gringos¨(my white boys), as if we were pets or shoes or something. I get a kick out of it.



There are many moments of cultural miscommunication, and most often I am the one who ends up looking ridiculous: One night, for example, my host mother came home with a few huge sacks of potatoes and rice, and went inside to ask for my help. She said, ¨ven, ven¨(come here) but was making a hand motion that in the USA means ¨go away!¨ Confused, I stood up, sat down, stood up again, and finally went outside to help her. When I explained the source of my confusion, namely the difference in hand gestures, she almost died laughing. That was like three weeks ago, and they still tell the story several times a week. Very funny. Silly white boy.


On Wednesday, the Agriculture group (there are fifteen of us; the other 16 trainees of B47 are in Environmental Education or Natural Resources) leaves Cochabamba to embark on ¨Tech Week¨: We will travel by bus to several departments of Bolivia, visiting volunteers´sites and honing our technical skills. The main focus is beekeeping, which interests me more and more as I learn about it. Bees are truly fascinating creatures, and you can make a killing selling honey with very low production costs. I hope to be involved in apiculture when I get to my site.


Speaking of sites, in about two weeks I should know for certain where I´ll be living for the next two years. There are fifteen possible sites for Agriculture, and they are all located in warm to tropical areas of Bolivia. Thank God! It doesn´t matter much to me where I am placed, although there are a couple of sites in which I am particularly interested; so long as I am working outside, in the campo rather than the bustling, smelly city, I will be a happy gringo.


Much love to all of you, friends and family. I miss you all and keep you always in my thoughts. Keep the faith.

Eve

To all who knew and loved Eve Carson, who passed away tragically this week, I want to express my sorrow and sympathy for this dreadful loss. Though I did not know Eve well, I was struck by her radiance, her joy and kindness. One of my close friends loved her very much. I honor her memory and give thanks for the joy she brought to him and to this world. I send my love and prayers to all those who are suffering now.