Life on Bolivian Time
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2011
1
4
11
Trip End
May 03, 2011
Cochabamba, Bolivia
Friday, February 18, 2011
However, the first two days of my service job required me to rush through lunch and stress about which number truffi (form of public transportation.. more later) to take and more importantly identifying where to get out of the truffi. The first day my host mom went with me but the second day I had to do it by myself. The second day proved to be my most stressful so far in Cochabamba. I managed to get into the correct truffi.. and, with the help of the girl next to me,to get out on a street somewhere close to my service site. As usual though.. my sense of direction failed me and I found myself a little lost in a part of town where I am not comfortable being lost.
The important thing to keep in mind while picturing this scenario is that I'm in another country where they do not speak English. I am not someone who finds the adventure in being lost. Unfortunately for me being lost conjures up images of CSI episodes. But, I found a friendly older lady working a telephone stand and I managed to successfully ask her the location of the street and organization that I couldn't find. She was very helpful and I soon found CEOLI, where I settled in for a few hours of work. I know that I'll be lucky if this is the worst experience that I have while on this trip.. but for now I truly dread the 30 minute trip across town to my work site.
I can happy report that I do enjoy my work site. Amizade (the program that I am participating in) has been working with CEOLI for around a decade. CEOLI is a center that provides therapy, basic living skills, medical treatment, education and vocational training to over 180 disabled children and young adults in Cochabamba. I work in the craft room with the same group of people everyday. The participants appear to be around my age and have a wide range of disabilities. Everyone has been really sweet to me. If you want to know more about CEOLI here is the link to their webpage: http://fundacionceoli.org/
I am scheduled to go to CEOLI everyday during the week to fulfill my service hours. On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday I don't come home after CEOLI but instead catch a different truffi to downtown Cochabamba where we have classes. On Monday Nora, Justin and I met our teacher Vivian. She will be teaching two classes: Politics and Civil Society (with a focus on Bolivia) and Global Citizenship. Vivian is from Bolivia but actually attended graduate school in Nashville, Tennessee. She is young, fun and passionate about what she does. I'm almost positive that I am going to love her classes.
So, the beginning of the week went as scheduled.. but on Wednesday morning everything changed. The public transportation workers went on a 48 hour strike because they want to raise the fees for riders. (A truffi costs 2 bolivianos. 7 bolivianos = 1 US dollar.. math isn't my thing.) This is a strange situation and no one seems to really be able to explain it to us because there are a number of actors involved. I can tell you how it has impacted my week. I still attended my morning Spanish class this week because I can walk there. However, CEOLI has been closed and we were not able to go downtown for classes on Wednesday because there were blockades in the streets. Apparently blockading the street is a favorite protest method here. Most schools and some businesses have been closed due to this protest.
Yesterday we were able to have classes with Vivian downtown but we had to either walk or take a taxi. Taxis are privately owned and are not part of the protest.. in fact they are probably making a profit off of the situation. I've enjoyed the empty streets and increased amount of free time because the weather has been beautiful this week.
Surprisingly protests are still occurring today. Last night it was rumored that the streets were going to be closed to all vehicles today. This caused a ridiculous rush on the grocery store and increased traffic last night. But, so far today things seem pretty normal. The truffi's and micros (little buses) aren't running but I've seen plenty of taxis. I'm assuming that if the streets are blocked it must be downtown and not in the part of the city where I live.
Today is a slow enjoyable day in my house because Tarek doesn't have school and there is just a general atmosphere in the city akin to the atmosphere of a snowday. Lunch is going to be served much later than usual because the men are taking the time to make homemade pizzas and cook them in the outside oven. In addition to this strange day throughout the city it is also the Rymer's (the German) last night before heading back to Germany after around a year of traveling. A reason to celebrate with a special lunch and what is sure to be a fun night. It's Friday in Cochabamba. :)
