This is to be the first of I don´t know how many emails that will chronicle my thrilling adventures here in Cochabamba, Bolivia. As many of you know, and some of you don´t, I´m here for about 10 months to with and organization called Centro Cultural TINKU, which I´m sure I´ll talk more about later, to learn Spanish, and to...well, I don´t really know what else. I suppose my primary goal is to see llamas in their natural habitat. My host family thinks this is hilarious. I think it is perfectly valid.
As it is, this first week has been llama free, but potato-rich and really interesting.
I arrived last Saturday in the morning after 4 flights and too many hours.
In La Paz, I had to transfer to a domestic airline called Aerosur, and what a disaster. I had one hour to get through customs and immigration, pick up my ticket and check in and get myself on the plane to Cochabamba. Actually, everything was fine up until the Aerosur line. This collection of people was not so much a line as a circus, and wasn´t feeling too hot what with the altitude and the sleep deprivation doing a serious number on my body. Fortunately and strangely, during this hour in line I started talking with two academics from Pennsylvania who actually knew one of my professors from Sarah Lawrence quite well. They helped get me through the line and onto the plane and thank God, too, because there was some confusion with my ticket. Apparently Glessner is not a common last name in Bolivia. Can´t imagine why not.
Anyway, I arrived in Cochabamba, got picked up by the program director here and dropped off with my new family, the Vasquez de Colques. They are incredible. The family consists of Don Dario and Doña Guida, the abuelos, their son Vladimir and his wife Karina, their daughter Ciria who is a devilish 5 year old and their niece Dayana who is 12. The house is a a series of rooms around a central patio and I have my own little adobe room which is lovely. The house is located to the north of the city in Barrio Colquiri Norte which is very chill and easy to get to from the city center. I have to say, this family is incredible. They couldn't have and wouldn´t have welcomed me any more warmly if I were actually related and they have made a huge effort to include me and introduce me around to the rest of the wonderful and huge extended family. (Photo: The Vasquez de Colque Women, Karina, Ciria, Me, Doña Guida, and Dayana)
(Photos: kitchen, garden, and my room)The spanish has been an adventure but I had no opportunity to speak anything else, and I mean AT ALL until Friday, so my ability has just skyrocketed. I still say incredible and stupid things that even shock the kids, but all in all, it´s been pretty wonderful experience to learn this much this quickly.
So...My first week has been a huge learning experience. Lots of things I didn´t really think about are bigger considerations than I expected. For example, I knew that water was an issue here in Cochabamba and that the house would only have water for certain hours out of the day. But knowing and applying that knowledge in daily life is difficult and finding a pattern for simple things like showering has been a small challenge. Too, just having to think ahead more to be able to brush my teeth at night is new and I´m adjusting.
So, my first few days...wow, I´ve done a lot. So...to give you all a taste. On Sunday I went to mass way too early and then tried my first pasteles and api (fried dough with cheese inside covered with powdered sugar and a hot purple and white drink made from ground up maize). Traditional post-mass snacks here but hot juice stuff in the early morning was not my thing given the altitude and the amounts the family´s been feeding me. Monday, I went to La Cancha with Karina and Doña Guida. La Cancha is the big open-air market here which is incredible. You can find anything and everything there and I understand it´s actually the largest of it´s kind in South America. It was really fun and interesting to see all of the potato varieties and the fruits. I didn´t know cassava melon got that big. On Tuesday night I went with Vladi, Karina and the girls to play volleyball with Karina´s family. What this turned out to mean was that about 12 of us piled into a squash court with a net and ran around for an hour and a half trying to keep the ball of the ground, which is, I suppose, essentially volleyball. Apparently there were rules, though I have no clue what they were.
On Wednesday, I began work. For these first few weeks, I´ll go to work in the morning and Spanish lessons with a tutor in the afternoon. I don´t want to say much but at this point, work sucks but my tutor is incredible.
On Friday, I went to a meeting with the rest of the program participants, it was uneventful but after we went out and wound up at a coha Cohas take place the first Friday of every month in Quechua tradition and are a ritual where an offering is made to Pachamama, the earth goddess. People drink chicha, a beverage made from fermented maize and dance and sing and it´s incredible. I was invited to make an offering to Pachamama by dripping agua del fuego at the four corners around the fire . What I didn´t know was that you had to drink what was left in the little cup when you were done and, having never been one for rubbing alcohol, it was pretty rough on me. The dancing and everything was incredible, so fun and everyone was really welcoming and invited all of us to dance and I´d never experienced anything quite like it.
Saturday, I went to lunch with the Shermans, distant friends of the family who are here in Cochabamba as Maryknoll missioners with their two kids, Josh and Celia. It was really nice to meet other extranjeros especially ones who had been here so long. When I got home Karina rushed me out the door for her little cousin´s 8th birthday party. That was the best thing ever. The family is welcoming and kind and patient with my spanish and are so fun and the kids are so interested and love to help me learn and understand and it was just really cool. it´s interesting to see how family interacts here, how different it is and how important is is and how close it is. After that, Vladi and Karina took me to a wedding of a friend of theirs which was also amazing. I´ve still got confetti all over from when I went through the reception line.
Today, more extended family came to visit and I´m a little sick with a nasty stomachache which was bound to happen at some point.
Hope you all are well and an especial congrats to my christy-bug who I havent had a chance to email but will soon! For today, I am done!
llama besos!
Mollie
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