Hello everyone! I am alive and kicking in Cochabamba, Bolivia. That is in the mountains of central Bolivia. Bolivia is the size of Texas and California put together, so that is a lot of land mass to cover in two years.
Since I left Saginaw, MI on Sunday, I have been at a briefing at Washington D.C., which was a lot of talk and not a lot of content. I will say that the most interesting workshop that we did was a simulation of the Peace Corp/philanthropy project in a different culture. A group of ten people in the group were taken outside and explained that they are going into a new culture where they will be helping the people do things. The rest of the group was told our “cultural norms.” They were not able to talk to people of the other sex. If they were asked a question, they could only answer yes or no depending of the person asking the question smiled. It was pretty interesting to see if the outsiders could figure out the cultural norms.
So, I don’t know how I feel about the people in the group. They are all a little weird to me. I would consider myself more of the most normal one here. Scary, I know. They’re all outdoor-ish and adventure seekers. I’m trying to feel everyone out and see people are cool. There definitely are some hippies…no surprise there.
So we left D.C. at 7pm on Tuesday and got to Cochabamba at about 9am the next morning. On our layover in La Paz, I felt like I was going to die because of the 13,000ft altitude. We were met in the Cochabamba airport by 25 other Peace Corp volunteers who brought signs and cheered when we got off the plane. It was a really welcoming gesture.
My first impression of Bolivia: It definitely in South America and the indigenous is definitely seen, which is a difference from Ecuador, where the presence was seen from the corner of your eye and not really felt. Then again, I was going to school with the wealthiest kids in the nation. You can really feel the lack of infrastructure, even in the cities. This is a contrast to Ecuador, which by far had more infrastructure.
So on Saturday, I will be moving into the “suburbs” of Cochabamba with a host family for the next 10 or so weeks where I will be training.
Anyways, this is just a small glance into what I am doing right because they are throwing information at us left and right. It’s like being in school again.
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