First and foremost, my apologies to everyone for not keeping you guys up-to-date with Peace Corps Bolivia. I have been here for a little more than two weeks, but it feels like a month. Training is pretty intense. We spend four hours in the morning in our language class. It’s good to have it, but sometimes I feel like I’m being babied. The language teacher took us to the open air market to show us how to bargain. Now, I don’t mean to be snotty, but I can bargain in four different languages, two of the languages I can only understand 30 words total.
Speaking of bargaining, I later went back to that market to buy cell phone. I got a great deal. The lady in the stall tried to sell me a phone for 38USD, but I told her I didn’t have that much, which I didn’t and somehow a phone for 34USD appeared. Now I know that everyone is thinking, 4USD, is it really worth bargaining for that much. My answer is yes, because my training salary right now is 16USD a week. Mind you, all of my meals and housing is taken care of. However, I have to pay for toilet paper and hot showers, which costs me between 1.25 – 2USD a week. Then, I pay 40cents each time I want to go into the city to get away from the rural life. OK everyone, please don’t run and Western Union me money (wait until I go on vacation). The exchange rate is really good here: 7.4Bolivianos = 1USD. I can eat dinner for 4USD at a really nice restaurant.
So, back to training, in the afternoons, we spend learning about our program. There are three program groups here, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Education. I’m in Environmental Education. Last week, we spent a day teaching 10-11 year olds at a public school. It was a cake walk. I am so glad that I did substitute teaching before I came here because it really helped me. I have classroom management, lesson planning and student interaction under control. It really made me feel good about spending the next two years doing this, especially when a couple of the girls took to me after only 20 minutes. I also put the bully in her place.
I don’t know if I could work in the other groups like Agriculture. They had to dig gardens from scratch and plan out how they work. They also have to learn how agriculture works from the planting until the selling of the product. I couldn’t even begin to tell you about how my food got on my plate.
There are 31 people that came with me. They are all under 35. There is one married couple. There are a few with Master’s degrees. Everyone has a Bachelor’s degree in everything from Philosophy to Environmental Science. They are adventure types and/or free spirits (aka wannabe hippies). They all wear hiking boots, Columbia outdoor gear and those weird looking hiking sandals, Chacos. Some really want to rough it here i.e. no running water and little electricity. At first, I wasn’t as big on roughing it as they were, but it’s warming up to me. I do have running water, TV and electricity where I live. The shower is electric, which means that the water is hot for no more than 3 min and then it’s ice cold. I won’t lie, it’s not fun taking a shower in a concrete bathroom when it’s 60F in the morning. One thing that I’m learning to like, is washing my clothes by hand. It’s really relaxing listening to my MP3 player while washing clothes. I have to do it every week because if I wait two weeks, it takes hours for me to finish all of my clothes.
So my birthday is coming up in less than a month, and if you would like to send me a card and/or care package, you should probably do it ASAP, so it can get here before my birthday. Here are the things I could use: Ghirardelli chocolates, exercise DVDs (my diet is carbs and meat, bootleg copies of your movies would be preferable), packaged Indian food (in the ethnic aisle at Meijers), magazines (even used ones), books on teaching science or teaching in general. Declare that the package has a low value, because I have to pay a fee when it gets here, and I’m on a 2USD/day budget. Also, the package shouldn’t be more than 4lbs. Padded envelopes are the best way to send something.
All in all, I’m glad that I’m here especially when I see the sunset over the clouds on the mountains on a 85F day because I think to myself, at least it’s not 20F and pitch dark at 6pm.
I’ll write more next week.
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