Public Transportation

Public Transportation.

I have a love/hate relationship with public transportation. On one hand, you can be a passive traveler. I have yet to find a way to read or study while I’m driving but on a bus, all I have to do is look up once in a while so I don’t miss my stop.

On the other hand, if you try to go anywhere during rush hour, your personal space bubble will most likely disappear. You will be pressed up against whoever is next to you and will have to crawl and wiggle to get around people when you need to get off.

Public transportation in Santa Cruz is like the Knight Bus in Harry Potter. There are lots of sudden starting, stopping and near crashes. The only thing the Harry Potter bus needs to make it a perfect simile is more people, lots more people. 

Let me share with you some of the things I have learned about the Bolivian public transportation, in case you ever find yourself needing to use it.

To start with, there are no designated bus stops here. To get on a bus, you wait along the street curb until the correctly numbered bus comes along. Then just reach out your hand and give a little wave and the driver will swerve right over to pick you up. It’s important to hop on as quickly as you can. If the bus goes past you, you may have to run to get on before the driver gets tired of waiting – the drivers here have the patience of two year olds. Likewise, when you need to get off, you simply yell out “pare, por favor!” and, as long as he hears you and your accent isn’t too heavy, the bus driver will pull over and let you off.

When you are getting on, it is always prudent to do a bit of forward thinking and try to anticipate what things will be like when you need to get off. One time I made the mistake of sitting in the very back because the bus wasn’t very full when I got on. By the time I had to get off, it had filled up so much that it took me two blocks of climbing over people and saying “excuse me” before I could squeeze my way out the door.

There you go! If you are ever using similar public transportation, I hope you find this helpful. If nothing else, perhaps it will make you appreciate your car a bit more!

Empanadas

I have found two things that make the world a better place: Saltanias and Empanadas. Saltanias are a morning food, similar to a sweet meet pie wrapped in a croissant rolls. They are filled with juice. The best way to judge how long someone has been in Bolivia is by how much saltania juice ends up on their clothes.

Empanadas are an anytime kind of food, but are more common in the evening. They are a sweet bread filled with cheese and then fried. Its like eating huge cheese curds and calling it supper.

I couldn’t believe my good luck when I came home one evening this week and found my host mom and aunt hard at work in the kitchen making empanadas. I jumped right in, determined to learn as much as I could in one go. The dough was already mixed up so my aunt showed me how to fill, fold and seal the empanadas.

Her’s all looked beautiful and uniform with a tiny delicate bread around the edges. Try as I might I could not get mine to look anything close to her’s. The moment I thought I had it figured out, I would mess up again. It produced a lot of good laughs as we compared her bonita (beautiful) empanadas with my feo (ugly) empanadas.

It wasn’t until we were eating that they admitted their mother sells empanadas and every mornings makes hundreds of them. My new goal is to be able to make bonita empanadas before I return to the states.

And suddenly I'm an Aunt!

Monday was my first day of work. After a month of preparation, orientation, and language lessons, I was ready to start doing what I came here to do: help the orphanage, abandoned and abused children of Santa Cruz.

Talita Cumi is a lovely orphanage that is a fifteen-minute bus ride where I live. It has a history of darkness and God’s grace. It is currently home to 25 children, ages 4 – 18. Each child I’ve met has greeted me warmly, with a Bolivian kiss and hug but I’ve already heard enough to know they each carry heavy baggage and old wounds. Many of them have already known a lifetimes worth of tragedy, betrayal and hurt from those that were supposed to love them the most.  There are about 10 workers plus additional volunteers who help take care of the children. All adults are given the title of Tio (Uncle) or Tia (Aunt).

Have way through the morning, I found myself sitting on a small stool outside, in the warm sun. To my left, Tia Hidie was finishing a handpainted scarf with two of the boys. To my right, a young girl was finishing the English homework I had been helping here with. I watched the girl whose hair I had just French braded run off to join a soccer game and Tarisa behind me slowly combed through my hair and began weaving small French braids around my scalp. How did I get here? I thought to myself. What a beautiful place and how incredibly lucky I am to be with these people.

The next Indiana Jones?

A couple weekends ago we went on a day trip with the language school we were attending to go hiking in the Andes rain forest at Incachaca. I could try to describe it, the wild calla lilies, the parrots, the waterfalls and lakes, but I think instead I’ll just show you some pictures.

This is the office of the park that we went hiking in. It had one bathroom.
When I used the sink to wash my hands, I discovered
the pipe wasn't connected and the water ran straight onto the floor.

Doesn't this look rather Indiana Jones-ish? I was quite certain
I would see arrows flying at me at any moment!

This is the river where we ate lunch. Just upstream was a lovely waterfall.

And here we are, walking through the rain forest. That is not a sentence
a Minnesotan gets to say every day.

The View from where I'm sitting

When we got back to Santa Cruz for Cochabamba, we had two lovely days of relaxation at the MCC headquarters. This is the view from my favorite place there.

Pedestrian Day

Cochabamba is one of the most polluted cities in South America. Perhaps in an effort to raise awareness or to fix this, Cochabamba has an annual Pedestrian Dan where cars and motorized vehicles are not allowed on the streets. By 7:30 the police were out in full force to make sure all the cars stayed put. I got the impression Pedestrian Day is the highlight of the police forces’ year. They all seemed so excited to get to chase down the few cars that were out and about.

We had plans to meet with one of the MCC leaders at 7:30 that morning and were hoping to be able to take a taxi before the roads were closed. Sadly, we were misinformed and instead had to set out walking with the rest of Cochabamba’s population. 

Normally, Bolivia roads in the cities are crowded and chaotic. Driving rules are taken more as suggestions and its each man for himself. But on Pedestrian day, it’s completely different. The streets were calm and full of happy families. Parents were teaching their children to ride bikes and small bands were playing on the street corners. It was like some strange apocalypse where the world had run out of gas but everyone had learned how to get along just fine without it.

Cochabamba boasts the second largest statue of Christ in Latin America and it was there that we headed. The view was amazing. We could see the whole city stretched out before us. Of course, the problem with walking so far for an amazing view was that you have to talk all the way home again. Fortunately, there was a lovely ice cream shop along the way to make the journey shorter.

25 in Bolivia

This is what my 21^st birthday in Germany looked like.

This is what my 25^th birthday in Bolivia looked like.

There is something about spending your birthday overseas that makes it so memorable. It makes you miss the friends and family back home but makes you so thankful for the new friends you've made. I had a wonderful 25th birthday that started with Spanish and ending with lots of laughter, language and friends. The other four girls from America came over to my house plus some of the other students from the school.

Every parade needs dancing cows!

Yes, that is a dancing cow.

During the first week of our time in Cochabamba, one of the hosts mom’s of our group offered to take us with her to a festival in a near by town. The problem with being a foreign language learner, is that half the time I don’t really know what’s going on. I didn’t know where we were going, how far away it was, or what was really going to be happening when we got there, but all those questions created a whole lot of intrigue, and I couldn't wait to see what all the excitement was about?

After class that day, all 10 of us piled into a van and started driving out of town and through the mountains. Two hours later, we arrived in Arani, a small little village high in the mountains that for this festival, was filled with dancers from all over Bolivia.

It was like a parade I’ve never seen before. Each group was wearing brightly colored traditional costumes of their region. As they danced, they were followed by a small band of musicians, drums, brass and the occasional woodwind. Everyone was smiling and happy and seemed to know everyone else.

The other four Americans that I was with and I stood out like nobody’s business in the sea of black hair and dark skin around us. Our novelty was only heightened as the host family kept pointing us out to everyone as the visiting Americans. Not that we minded. When they heard we were visiting, the dancers would come over and explain their costumes, where they were from and what everything meant. It was a lovely afternoon. As we were leaving, the host dad we were with spread his arms open wide, as if embracing the street of people before him and said, “Esta es Bolivia, ” - “This is Bolivia.” 

This little dancing cow got tired. Its hard work!

The Food

Of course the most interesting part of being in another country is the food. (Ok, perhaps it isn’t the most interesting but it must be up there on the list, don’t you think?) Believe it or not, I’m fairly certain you would all like the food here. If you like, I can tell you how to make a Cochabamino Bolivian meal. Really, its easy.

1. Potatoes. You can’t eat a meal without potatoes, usually boiled but if you are feeling fancy, feel free to mash them.

2. Meat. You need meat at every meal too. Beef or chicken, it doesn’t matter.

3. Rice. White rice is a good filler too and its like wearing black, it goes with everything.

4. Salad. Just a little bit but a good mixture of lettuce, tomatoes, beets (which I still think taste like dirt), onions, and tomatoes.

5. Soup – of any variety. Usually with lots of vegetables and French fries and a chunk of meat the size of my fist.

And that’s it! See, it isn’t that different! Wait, wait, wait. That isn’t enough food on your plate! Come on, add some more. No, no no. More. Pretend its Thanksgiving. That’s how much food you need. You might not think so but trust me, your American, you don’t know how much food your going to need here in Bolivia!

Other than that, we’ve had lots of wonderfully fresh fruit – mangos, papaya, oranges, peaches, and bananas. Fried bananas! Oh how I love fried bananas!

If you want to try my new favorite South American food, go to the Latino section of your nearest good-sized grocery store and find yourself some Dulce de Leche. It’s a breakfast food that is used similar to peanut butter but tastes so different. Its like melted Werther’s Caramels probably mixed with sweet and condensed milk too. So wonderfully good.

La Cancha

My fellow Bolivian Salter, Maggie wrote this blog post about the market in Cochabamba. I thought it was so well done that I asked her if I could pass it along to you. Enjoy!

http://mjalmdale.blogspot.com/2011/09/la-cancha-97-miercoles.html

Oh Spanish!

Anyone who has ever tried to learn a language before knows that task is fraught with challenges and that embarrassment is inevitable. Since I am of the opinion that if people are going to be laughing with me, it might as well be my friends, I thought I would share some of my more memorable blunders with you all.

Tengo/tienes/tenemos hambre.

This one apparently is my favorite because I get it wrong all the time. What I meant to say is usually I/you/we are hungry. What I end up saying is “I/you/we have man.” Great. Now we’re cannibals.

Montan cebollas.

I was talking to one of my professors and she asked me if we had horses on our farm. MN farming is a constant source of interest to Bolivians and I thought I was explaining things well until she said “oh, like little house on the prairie?” No. Not really. So then I tried to explain the difference between farmers and ranchers and instead of saying ranchers ride horses, I said ranchers ride onions.

Fumo parros.

This was one of the exercises I was working on in class. Really, I have no excuse for getting this wrong, I was reading it verbatim from the page in front of my. But apparently my mind was somewhere else, because instead of saying “I smoke cigars”, I said “I smoke dogs.” (Neither of which is true, by the way).

I did not fall off the edge of the earth!!

I’m sure by now you have come to the conclusion that instead of finding the city of Cochabamba, I found the edge of the earth and slipped right off. Let me allay your fears. I am alive and well and am back in Santa Cruz. But after three weeks of being separated from my computer, I have lots of experiences to share with you all!

Let me start by filling you in with exactly I have been up to since you heard from me last. Three weeks ago tomorrow, the other four SALTers and I left Santa Cruz for Cochabamba, Bolivia to study Spanish. Cochabamba is about eight hours by over night bus to the northwest of Santa Cruz across the mountains. I was told it was a good thing we were driving at night because during the day, the drive is terrifying.

For three weeks, we spent four hours a day in class learning verbs, conjugations, and prepositions one on one with a Spanish tutor. We all stayed with different families and had a wonderful time exploring the city and making mistakes in Spanish.

We now have a week more of training and orientation at the MCC center in Santa Cruz before we start our placements next Monday!