more espresso? more buddhism?

Do you ever feel numb? I don't know if numb is the right word, but it's the word that has come into my head a lot recently. I think it's one of the most awful states of emotions. It's like you're seeing something that is supposed to be moving or stirring, and all you can think about is something mundane. I am probably exagerrating my feelings, but in the last couple days I have been thinking about this state of emotion. I think what triggered it was actually reading my friend Zoe's email from her current adventure at a 4-month retreat at a Buddhist meditation center. I actually hate to admit that it stirred me so much, but she talked about the clarity in which she understands her own being and voice which will now help her understand and live in the world. I think I'm kind of nervous that I am close to understanding and caring about things, but maybe I don't always get all the way there to real clarity. Maybe I'm not totally aware of myself in a way that will keep me from really opening up to and perceiving others?

Sometimes when I feel like I am not adequately expressing my emotions after observing something impressively beautiful or touching, I think about this friend from my abroad trip in Bolivia. Denali was overly expressive in Bolivia, and I am happy that don't express the exact same way as her. But sometimes I feel like I need a little caffeine boost, and then I will be really excited about something or really expressive. Maybe that's really all it is. A couple weeks ago I had an espresso, and I just got in this great lively mood. Maybe I just need a little more coffee in my life.

Anyway, I was thinking about all this stuff last Friday when I was in Carabayllo, which is the northern part of Lima which is mostly shantytowns and farms. It's where I do my water research, Carlos works with the children, and Collin teaches swimming. As I was riding along on the long trip out to the small town I was visiting that afternoon, Huarangal, I was wondering if I was really open and aware in a way that was really letting me observe and get excited. I had just read Zoe's email and was getting worried that I won't really experience life with as much excitement as I can until I am retired and discovered Buddhism. (I don't really have plans to discover Buddhism when I'm retired.) To put up a case saying that I DO really feel things and experience the world, I should describe my afternoon in Huarangal that day that I made reference to in my last post. It was a really amazing afternoon in terms of seeing how another culture welcomes in a public works project.

On the bus ride a mother and son got on with a chicken and baby chicks. Right after them another pair came on with a dead pig in a bucket. Literally. I think they had maybe cut off it's hind legs and butt and just stuffed it in a bucket. It's front legs and head were sticking out. The skin was all white. Later that day at the eating part of the festival for the water, we were served pig. On Carmen's plate I could see a hairy piece of pig. Eww.

cuye!

I have not been good about posting lately-- I'm sorry! Here's a picture from a good afternoon I had yesterday. I went to this small town I have visited a number of times now for my water project. They were having an inauguration of their new water system. It ended up being this really cool event to observe, especially after taking Michael's anthropology classes at Skidmore on how other cultures talk about and handle water. They had a nun bless the water and hold a mass for the people. Then the dude in the town who is in charge of the water works project had the NGO people give speeches to the town, Carmen, and then me! It was pretty funny to give a speech to a town where I haven't really done anything, nor did I at all have anything prepared. Anyway, I will post more later, but leave you with this picture of the plate of food they gave to the president of the NGO who helped finance the building of the school and water tank. Note the guinea pig (cuye) in the front lying on his back. His head is on the left side and you can see his little feet sticking out.

fieldtrip pictures

So a couple weekends ago Socios organized a fieldtrip for the volunteers and other coworkers who wanted to come. It was a packed day of eating breakfast at roadside place serving only pig products (not so good for our Jewish volunteer Collin,) a stop at a beautiful little beach town Cerro Azul where Peruvian's world champion female surfer grew up, a boat trip around the Islas Bellestas (the main event of the trip,) and a short tour of a couple wineries (where we really just got fed a whole lot of sweet wine and pisco, and didn't learn much about the wineries.) A fun day indeed. Anyway, here are some photos:

Here's a shot from the beach at Cerro Azul.














A baby sea lion hanging out next to our boat! The sea lions were really amazing. I guess babies start going out in the ocean alone when they are 6 months old. Big fat sea lions were just draped all over the rocks.










Sea lions congregated on the island. In the shade there were heaps of sea lions all on top of each other barking and yelling all sorts of things. I guess the mom's are all yelling out to their kids. A frequent reason why babies die is from being squished by their parents. Poor little guys.











The islands themselves were completely covered in birds of all kinds just crammed in and pooping. They export the guana, which gives the trip around the islands a distinct smell. There were pelicans, penguins (my favorite!) and all sorts of birds that I don't remember the names of.

start raising hell!

We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we’re for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush’s proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on Jan. 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, “Stop it, now!”

-Excerpt from Molly Ivin's last column on The Texas Observer, January 27, 2007.

Here's a nice tribute to a pretty noteworthy journalist from AlterNet.

indie rock + giving = cool in my book

Check this out!

Indie rock music is fun and by nature of being "indie" is pretty cool. I think so, at least. Anyway, some indie rock bands also give back to the community. A couple of my favorite bands in fact. I was reading on the PIH website, and Arcade Fire has decided to donate a dollar from each ticket they sell on their tour to PIH. They have a pretty cool website too.

Along the same line of indie rock band's cool non-music activities, our dearest Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has a very nice looking t-shirt at this place called the Yellow Bird Project. All the profits of the shirt goes to a non-profit. Pretty cool!

p.s. I am trying to figure out how to put an mp3 of the Arcade Fire song "haiti" on the blog so you all can listen to it.

"because the world owes us nothing, and we owe each other the world" -from joyful girl by ani difranco.

ouch.

Sunday morning. Well, Sunday afternoon. Last week at lunch one day I complained to Holly and Collin saying, why don't they ever sit with us? We've been here for 5 months, and still when there are seats at lunch next to us, people rarely take them. If Carmen's crew or the Salud Infantil crew came in, I know they would want to sit with us, so I am kind of exaggerating. Sometimes I just get annoyed at how hard it is to be included. Right after New Year's I heard all this commotion on the first floor right outside our cubicle. I turned to Holly and said, now what are we missing? All annoyed. I peaked my head out and they were leading a prayer for that event that January 6th marks. Suddenly I regretted poking my head out and quickly snuck back in. The next day when commotion was happening outside our office, they were celebrating a birthday. So I guess it's worth taking my chance and just trying to include myself.

Anyway, point is we were invited to a despedida for one of the engineers who works at Socios. He's leaving Socios, and as far as I can tell, no one knows why. Including him. It seems kind of typical Socios actually. A couple computer programmers from the Boston PIH office have been here all week training him and Pablo, and now he's leaving. Jorge, to be replaced by another Jorge.

So even though I had other plans, I knew I couldn't not go to the event. Especially since they were actively including me by inviting us. I appreciate that. (oh, I should express that. one of my new year's resolutions is to express gratitude more.) In any event, Aldo (the newest volunteer), Darius, Mike (the PIH guys), and I piled into a taxi that felt like it was about to fall apart and headed out to the Boulevard de Los Olivos. Even though it's really far away, I like going there more than the street of discotecas near our house where all the rich limeñans and gringos normally go. It has a more relaxed real feeling to it. Upstairs at the Rock and Latin Discoteca we found the 2 nurses I work closely with (one is my boss), another lady I don't know, and the secretary who has CEO like responsibilities and power. So, as if dancing doesn't make me uncomfortable enough, now I get to dance with people who I am nervous around anyway.

At one point in our six hour stay at this bar, I realized that for most people dancing is fun. It's not torturous. I am a bad dancer with tight shoulders, hips that don't move, and feet that can't keep up with the salsa beat. I can handle regeaton. It's just a whole lot of gyrating. When I realized that this is an activity other people probably look forward to doing, I felt kind of happy looking around at all the happy dancing people. I am sometimes happy dancing, but in very specific environments with specific people. My co-volunteer Carlos is great for my dancing because he is a really good leader, and I feel very comfortable with him. I also enjoy dancing to Chuck Berry with my high school friends.

Our little glasses of beer were filled over and over and over again, yet still I could hardly relax to have fun dancing. When my favorite latin pop songs came on though, I admit I really did have the urge to dance. Little by little, maybe one day I will get there. Where a Saturday night with coworkers is fun and not torturous.

p.s. The ouch refers to the head ache the beers, that did not make me more relaxed and fun dancing, gave me.

birthday season

This is a picture from last Friday night at a birthday party for our wonderful coworker Carmen. She is in the background on the left side. That's Collin, Rachel (from PIH who comes down here pretty frequently, and is kind of my American boss,) and me.

Collin and I went to her house right after work along with some of the girls that work on her team. At 6:30 we were served sangria and whiskey, music was put on, and we started dancing. People kept showing up, and we kept dancing. She works on a team of researchers studying rapid method TB testing, so goes to a lot of health centers and labs around Lima. A lot of the guests were people that work at the labs and health centers. Around 11:30 they served dinner. We heard the next day that it's custom at a birthday party like this one to serve dinner closer to 1 or 2am, but because there were gringos there who were eager to stop dancing, get to bed, and not eat a plate of chicken and rice in the middle of the night, they served it early. It was really fun. Not as fun to wake up and go to work the next day. The negatives of working on Saturdays.

motivation

Something must have motivated me because I am back to work. Or maybe it was when Holly (office mate and now roommate) said that she might have to have an intervention in regards to my excessive time spent on MySpace.com. In any event, the numerous projects I had been working on are all back in action. Full force.

Still really enjoying the summer weather. Reminds me once again how you don't realize how you feel sometimes until something changes. I didn't realize how down the cloudy cold weather of Lima had been making me feel until I got off the plane after New Year's to find a warm, sunnier home. I just feel so much happier and energized. I love that the sun doesn't go down till after 7. Also didn't realize how much I enjoyed solo time in my bedroom at night until we switched rooms around, so now I share with Holly. Fortunately I have wonderful roommates (thanks Carlos!) who think about our needs, so Holly and I got the bigger room.

Temporary slump.

This week started out strong. I had a good conversation with a coworker who I don't work directly with, in fact we work in different offices, but we're close friends. She offered good advice on how I can go about my work. I told her that I knew there were some projects that people had wanted me to help get done, but they had been put aside when more urgent projects came up. So in a New Year's kind of way, I made a list of them and ideas on how to complete the projects. Then I told my coworker that I was just waiting to meet with the nurses to go over it. She said, Chloe, why wait? Just start them. I said, well, yes, but I might need help from other people. She said, Chloe, then ask those people for help. I suddenly realized how I had been pretty blind in thinking that the nurses I work for have to confirm and approve and be a part of every step I do here. They are busy nurses and want me here to get those projects done, without involving them too much. Obviously when it comes to actually putting something into action, I need to check in with them. Anyway, after my coworker told me that I started feeling really motivated and began the next day on the projects. But now I have finished a few steps and temporarily misplaced my motivation. It is harder when I am not working with people to show me that this is what they want, get that constant praise, or at least attention.

When I had my surf lesons in Mancora with Meggie, the first day a younger guy was teaching me. He was constantly paying attention to what I was doing, praising me for little improvements, and I was eager to get better (and hear more praise?) The next day a slightly older, more distracted guy was teaching me and kept repeating the steps necessary to stand up. He tried the tough love approach saying, look, your friend is standing up. (nice work, meggie!) My lesson with him left me less excited and less confident about surfing. But with the first guy was I really excited about standing up or about getting praise from other people?

Anyway, some how that story came into my head after thinking about my work here this week with Socios. Like how sometimes I think I focus too much on the little things and lose sight of the end goal. Standing up on the surf board!

"home improvement" and summer

Since I've been gone, summer came in full force to Lima. It's amazing. It smells like summer. The small trees that line our street are now full of leaves. Flowers bloom year round here, but there are more blooming now than before. The days are refreshingly longer than days in Boston.

Mostly we take taxis around Lima because they are so cheap, the city is so big, and we don't know the bus system. Slowly I have been trying to figure out which buses I can take to the places I like going to. Meggie and I took a combi out to Carabayllo which is far away on the otherside of the city. This weekend I learned how to take a combi from our house to my friend César's house in San Miguel. So far, so good. After living here for 5 months, it's good to finally learn different ways of getting around, as well as learning about the different bus stops near our apartment.

Holly came back from the States and felt like our apartment really doesn't feel like home. Now it could be more than just putting up decorations to make us feel like Lima is our home, but making our home look less like a hotel is definitely part of it. So yesterday we ventured into el Barrio China (Chinatown) to look for cheap decorations. We came across a huge indoor market with lots of Asian decorating items, so now our apartment will look very international. Next we went to Lima's big flower market where I had been once before and bought a couple plants. We got home to realize one is the plant manifestation of Holly and one of me. Mine is a yucca plant and is short and spikey and I call it "Fat Albert." The other is tall and skinny and has fraggle-like hair, which we call "Fraggle."

After doing really well living the 4 of us together for a few months, it feels like we're encountering some frustrations that come from living in close quarters with other people. I have taken my typical role of not participating, not reacting, and not expressing my opinion when a debate comes up in fear of something. It's amazing, really. A discussion can happen right next to me, and my defense mechanism turns on and it's like I am reading a magazine. It might also have to do with the kind of people they are, not just an observation of who I am since I can think of past living situations where I was more vocal. Or at least I think I was. Anyway, might be something I can work on while understanding we all need to get along, express our needs, and live together for many more months.

okay okay, i'm back

Feliz año nuevo!

I had a great break. Started with showing Meggie around Lima, my work, and spending a few days with her at a beautiful beach town. The beach life is something I don't think I could do on a permanent basis, but it was a totally awesome break for a few days. Although I admit it took me a day to learn that at the beach you really have no obligations. Except to put sunblock on every hour.

Boston was wonderful. A quick trip that felt like a long one where I recharged my battery with lots of Christmas cookies, homemade food, winter-themed drinks with friends, and a visit to New York. At some point this past week I remembered that I have a job here in Lima which I had forgotten about in my short return to my life from 5 months ago.

Now that I am back home in Lima, I also have to remind myself about my job here. After finishing projects, it's right back to the challenging beginning in terms of figuring out how to be part of the work that goes on here. Since the last few months here went by so fast, I want to make sure that I don't let the rest (7 months?) pass by without doing what's on my mind. It's a difficult balance of assertiveness, creativity, and passiveness that I need to find. I need to remember that I have shown my colleagues and supervisors that I am capable and trustworthy, so that allows me to be a little more assertive. But I also need to constantely make sure I am not overstepping my boundaries. I have thought of a couple concrete goals which I will work on here. Starting with going back to all the little projects one of my busy supervisors started with me, but got left behind when more urgent ones came up.

In Peru at midnight on New Year's Eve they eat 12 grapes, with each grape making a wish for the New Year. I don't understand the symbolism of the grapes, but I like the idea of making wishes. This year I am also into doable resolutions, so I can constantly feel good about myself instead of feeling worse when I don't complete them.

chloe is on vacation

Fieldnotes and fleas (well, I can never put the fleas on hold...) are on vacation. Please check in after the New Year for some resolutions and my near-mid-year reports. I have now been here in Lima for 5 months. It really seems like home to me. I will leave you with some pictures from our wonderful few day trip to Mancora beach where we took surfing lessons, laid in the sun, and drank Cuba Libres.

very close

I am very close to being done with this informe I am writing on my water research. I am trying to write it in a way that gets my advisor more excited about the project since I actually think there is a lot Socios could do with a water project. I do however think that it will involve more than just me wandering through the fields taking pictures of pretty springs.

I am very close to being done with the paseo for MDR TB patients that I am organizing. So many little and big details keep coming up! Can so and so bring his mother because she always comes to therapy? Make sure to get the name and ID of the bus driver because last time someone got on the bus and pretended to be from the bus company and took the money. Make sure to fill the water balloons up with water before getting to the place in case they don't have faucets small enough. Divide up all the responsibilities, the treats for the bus ride, the prizes for the group games. Make gift baskets for a raffle. Pay the bus company. Just to mention a few...

I am very close to seeing Meggie.

I am very close to being home in Belmont for Christmas and New Year's. I will be home from December 23 to January 4. I would love to see you all when I'm home. Those of you who are in the Boston area.

I am very close to being really exhausted and annoyed by little things.

Thankfully come Sunday I will be on a 14 hour bus ride with Meggie up to Mancora, starting what should be a wonderful vacation--both part 1 and part 2.

surfear!

OK, so this is the beginning of Chloe's surfing experience. Collin and I went to a beach right beneath the city of Lima where I had previously sworn to never swim. They say that something like 80% of the sewage from the city goes untreated into the ocean. Yum. I tried not to swallow it, but I definitely came out with salty lips.

I had a lesson from a dude who has given a few lessons to Collin. He was really chill and eased my fears. For one thing, he didn't leave us out of the water for too long so my fears didn't escalate fully. A little stretching, a little practice how to stand up on the board using a bench, and then we jumped right into the waves. Fortunately on the first wave coming towards me I fell off, so I learned quickly that waves are not always scary. In fact, waves are really fun.





OK, so the person actually standing up is not me. But Collin got a nice shot of my hands on the board right before I attempted to stand up. He had his nifty water proof case for his camera and was chilling in the water 25 feet in front of me. Right before I would go over him with my board, he ducked down.

All in prep for my week with Meggie at the beach! A vacation for this hard working volunteer. This is a long week filled with lots of work...

head vs. heart

I was just reading a friend's blog and she had a critical comment from a former coworker who said something like "it sounds like this is all coming from your head, not your heart." Based on my own worries about my blog, I think her coworker was just trying to push her, knowing that she has more inside her that she wanted to read on her blog. Not just her observations and commentary. Those don't show what we all love about Alexa. When I first started writing my blog, I think I was so caught up in worrying about what my readers would want to learn about my Peruvian experience that I lost a lot of "my heart" from what I wrote. I hope that is changing! I am not writing this blog specifically to be a formal report on working in Lima. I am more interested in sharing my experiences, observations, fears, joys, and difficulties with people back at home.

I was really worried about writing a blog that was too formal and elite sounding. For whatever reason it feels like some blogs out there are inaccessible and snobby. Writing on a blog, depending on your readership, is kind of like trying out ideas and processing them. Those ideas might not be always from your heart, nor they might not always be the definitive answer on a subject. Your feelings of the subject might change. In Alexa's blog perhaps she was trying out an idea she had about her recent move to New York City, and in a few weeks, her whole opinion on that subject will change.

In any event, I do hope that I am getting some of my "heart" into my blog. My professors in college always told me that I try to squish too many ideas into too few words. I always assumed people could read my thought process when reading what I wrote. Or maybe I assumed it wasn't necessary or interesting to explain the thought process. Grace Burton, my spanish literature teacher, was the first person to point this out in my writing, and it led to a big change in my perspective of how I think, process, and write. She encouraged me to tease out what I am trying to say. Help the reader along. Show each step my mind took as it jumped from one concept to the next, instead of assuming that those were unnecessary steps to explain.

While I am writing this, I am considering the report I need to write to evaluate the water investigation I have done so far. I have to turn it in before Christmas, which I just realized is quite soon. I have been keeping myself busy at work organizing a fun recreational day for MDR TB patients who are in group therapy in metropolitan Lima. There are about 120 patients in total. Should be a fun day full of soccer games, three-legged race, the egg toss, and swimming. Meggie is coming the day before, and Socios has quite generously invited her to come along. Socios takes a while to trust people, including their employees and volunteers, so it takes a while before the volunteers can work directly with patients or community members. So I am very thankful and slightly surprised they are inviting Meggie along. After the fun day (aka paseo,) Meggie and I are heading up to a beach town on the northern coast. Then I am flying home to Boston for Christmas and New Year's! I would love to see anyone who is around Boston!

fotos...

I just realized that I have a half written blog post waiting to be published. Hard for you all to read my half written posts just like the emails that end up waiting longer than they should in my "draft" folder. I love that Gmail has that option, but sometimes I feel like I wrote an email to someone since I started it, so then I stop thinking about it--but since I never finish, and it remains in my "draft" folder. Anyway, in the meantime before I finish my draft post, I'll post a couple photos.



The above photo kind of catches everyone's faces in odd expressions. It was out in the campo at a workshop for mothers about nutrition for kids under 1. During the workshop we drank (including a nursing baby) orange soda and Frito-like spicy chips. The poor baby after consuming too much, vomited up most of what she took in.



This picture is at a training we held recently to train the public hospital nurses and psychologists in how we run group therapy sessions for MDR TB patients. I am sitting next to a psychiatrist and 2 Socios nurses that I work with. The plan, I think, is for a switchover so that group therapy sessions will be run by the public hospitals and be part of the MDR TB treatment. If it works, it would be a great way to make it more accessible and sustainable.

While we're talking about pictures, I put a link to my fellow volunteer Collin's photo blog. He's the big photographer of the 4 of us.

how does one spend life outside of work?

A topic that goes through my head frequently is how I spend my time outside of work. We are at work (in the office or in the field) a significant period of time: 8-5 Monday through Friday, 8-1 Saturdays, and sometimes Saturday afternoons as well. But that still leaves a lot of time outside of work to recharge, relax, have fun, explore, process, read, and write. Sunday is the big day for all those activities.

When I first got here I think I felt a pressure to get out and explore the city, and not just stay in our comfortable cable/internet outfitted apartment. I have done some exploring, but I admit it's hard to do alone in a big city. One Sunday I went to the Lima art museum, walked around a park, ate at a cafe, all by myself. When my coworkers asked me the next day what I had done the day before, I proudly said, "I went to the art museum!" Everyone was shocked to hear I went alone and encouraged me to next time go with another volunteer. But how can I always just do what I can get someone else excited about doing too? It felt kind of liberating to go to the museum and not worry about who to invite, who I should spend time with, who I should call. I have very few social obligations in my life in Lima, which is sometimes isolating, but also liberating. And while I do love my fellow volunteers (some of whom are reading this,) I also need a break from them from time to time. We work together, eat lunch together, and live together. Fortunately they're buena gente.

Anyway, after a while of resisting the limitless amount of HBO programming and DVDs we can cheaply buy here, I feel like I have folded and have watched more HBO on DVDs than I thought possible. You know, they're great shows, "Six Feet Under," "The Wire," "Arrested Development," and "Entourage." But in moderation I could enjoy them more. I would also probably feel better about my life here if it didn't revolve around work and watching HBO. Anyway, I try to make an effort to do a variety of activities outside of work in order to not fall into an unstimulating routine. For example, going to spinning or pilates classes with Holly (fellow volunteer.) Or going to the movie theatre with César (non-work Peruvian friend of a friend.) Not having lots of other non-work Peruvian friends makes it challenging sometimes. Poco a poco I'm getting there though. Slowly, but surely, I am getting to know this city of 10 million people (more than the entire population of Bolivia.)

Yesterday Holly, Collin and I headed to a town on the southside of the city and came across a rocky beach that didn't smell so good, but offered a great escape from the city. We enjoyed a lunch of ceviche and pisco sours (they served us even though it was election day and alcohol is prohibited the weekend of elections) at a restaurant playing hits from the 1950s in Spanish. The town felt like a town from a different era. Today a coworker told me it was a popular place to go in the 1950s. Here's some pictures including Holly and Collin in one of their many political debates, and a view of Lima from where we were:

más fotos

Sra. Valeria, her son, and her grandson. One of her daughters is trying to find work in Buenos Aires and the other in Spain. So far the one in Argentina has been there for more than a year and hasn't sent home any money. A lot of Bolivians travel to other countries to work for a couple years since there are zero jobs in Bolivia, but it's not always more beneficial than staying.



Our stop at Sipe Sipe at the best house to buy huarapo, sweet fermented grape drink. The woman on the right owns the place and was filling up our yellow jugs with the drink from her barrels of it.

fotos de Bolivia

Raul for diputado! Unfortunately he didn't win. Raul was my advisor for my water research in the Zona Sur of Cochabamba. It was pretty exciting to drive past his name on the walls.



Ruins outside of Cochabamba where until recently the people who live around there played soccer in the ruins.

ah, the sweet smell of cochabamba

When I got off the plane early in the morning I smelled the familiar urine smell of Cochabamba and saw the striking cordillera, the mountain range the surrounds the small valley city. It was really great to be back for a few days. I saw a lot more stray dogs, smooth sidewalks, less clouds, familiar faces, cholitas, political graffiti on the walls, people speaking quechua, and heard less cars honking. Cochabamba has a calm feeling to it. Everyone is doing something, but slowly, with intention.

Fortunately I was able to catch up with almost everyone I know who lives there. The first day Juan Pablo took me along with his classmates on a fieldtrip to see ruins that I had never seen. The bus ride through the wrinkled-sheet mountains reminded me of when I was there before. The ruins were of big buildings and houses, but no one know much about them because there is no funding for a study.

Back in the city I enjoyed a long lunch with a siesta (Peruvians don't take a siesta after lunch like they do in Bolivia) at my former director's new house. I spoke at my program's field studies class about the research I did in Bolivia, giving suggestions and warning about the potential frustrations. I ventured to the Zona Sur, the poor part of Cochabamba, to visit the families I knew when I did my research there. I first went to Valeria's house to find that she had moved. Wandering through the familiar dirt roads, I found Fabiola sitting outside of her house. I actually walked by the house, not sure which one it was, but she yelled out, "la chloe?" It was great to see her and her family. It is so weird to see kids I know grow up. I felt like such an adult remarking on how much they had all grown. They said they thought about me often and had assumed I was for sure married by now.

The next day I found the cell phone number of Raul, my supervisor for my water research, who helped me find Valeria's new house. She moved in to a shared lot, her daughters have both left (one to Spain, one to Argentina) to make money for a couple years, and she is alone with the 2 ten year old boys. Unfortunately it seemed they had not grown as much as the other kids I know. Or they just stretched out. Raul was in charge of buying a ton of huarapo, a fermented grape drink, for a big cholita festival, so we all piled into his rented taxi to head out to Sipe Sipe where they supposedly have the best huarapo. I had lunch with my host family the next day, and my host father said, oh no, they have fake huarapo in Sipe Sipe. So, who knows. I enjoyed catching up with my host sisters who have both now graduated.

It was a great trip and really hard to leave. Everyone talked badly about Peruvians, so I found myself defending my new people. Whereas in Peru, I have to defend Bolivians as well. Bolivians and Peruvians really should be friends, as I understand. Although now they have presidents who are not too fond of each other. Last time I was in Bolivia the conservative gringo Goni was president, so it was pretty great to be there and talk to people about Evo, the coca grower who is making a lot of great reformations. He has already advanced really successfully with a literarization project and an agrarian reform project giving people deeds to land that they live on.

Anyway, on top of all the great people I saw, places I saw, and salteñas I ate, it was also really great for my spanish since I spoke spanish the whole time I was there. Now it's back to work until me next fun break in December when Meggie comes!