And, we´re back

If any of you have been using Gmail and gotten disconnected from the internet, you might have noticed google chat on the left hand side saying that the internet connection had been lost. And then when it is restored, it says: "And...we´re back." That is sort of how I feel sometimes here. Things are frustrating, at least the not understanding Spanish part of life, and then things get better and there´s nowhere I´d rather be.

I was annoyed with myself on Saturday morning because I hadn´t gone to an animal refuge that I should have just planned to go to, instead of hoping that tentative plans to go to nearby thermal swimming pools, which didn´t interest me much any way, would pan out (they didn´t). But after a huge lunch, I was hanging out with the family, reading a book, and was happy. At night one sister, Rommy, and I went out to meet up with some of her friends (Bolivian and German) who are goingto La Paz with us tomorrow for a winter solstice festival in a place with ruins, I can never remember the name. Because the world, or at least Cochabamba, is small, the Peace Corps guy who I met the week before was at the cafe we went to, along with in the end about 10 other Peace Corps people. It was nice to speak English for a little while guilt-free, but then I returned to Rommy and her friends. We went to this circus-like party, but decided not to go inside because it was so crowded, and returned to a bar across the street from the cafe. We spoke Spanish all night and I guess because I was either with Spanish-as-a-second language (or in the case of the Germans, probably fourth) speakers, or Bolivians used to being with foreigners, I actually understood most of what people said.

Sunday, being a weekend day, meant of course: fiestas! There were 2 birthday parties in the family, and the sisters and I headed to the house of the mother´s sister first, for her birthday. We had to take 2 trufis to get there. The house itself was huge but looked like what most Americans would consider unfinished...no balconies on some of the porches, concrete floors, broken windows. I think that is what makes Bolivia very different from a developed country. The aunt has been divorced from her husband for 4 or 5 years but he still lives there because neither wanted to sell the house. So he, the daugher and the exwife all have their own floor, but I don´t think there´s more than one kitchen or bathroom so its not like a department building. After eating my millionth soup in Bolivia, the sisters and I hung out in the cousin´s room (shes about our age). She is the equivalent of an Avon or Mary Kaye lady in Bolivia, so we had fun smelling different trial sized vials of perfume that she had. I felt like I understood a little more of the conversation than I have been. Then we left the party, returned home and picked up the father to go to his niece´s birthday party.

That party was at the home/restuarant of the father´s sister and her daughter, who is married with kids. We ate fish, played a popular dice game that is very similar to Yatzee, and then ate another meal, or a rice with cheese that isn´t as good as you might think, some kind of dry-ish root vegetable, and chicken. Even for me it was too much food in one day (the sisters and I ate a big breakfast with french toast and eggs). We also drank chicha, a fermented maize drink that used to be made with saliva and I hope isn´t any more, and I drank some kind of an alcohol made from grapes but it isnt exactly wine. The sisters and I left around 7, before the dancing. Waiting outside for the taxis, I noticed a dummy hanging on the electricity pole. On it was written: "Neighbors, help us hang all theives." The sisters asked the aunt who had put it up, and she replied without any shame, "Me!" She said there were five overall. I think the sisters thought it was as strange as I did...

This week I´m two-timing when it comes to teachers. Monday and today I had classes with 2 different teachers in two different places...a little tiring getting from one to another! I just have one teacher tomorrow and will probably continue with him when I get back. He´s got a whole system going and there´s lots of drills. I´m back to being frustrated with things...11 weeks of classes and I still have tons of trouble deciding between the two verbs for "to be." Why do there have to be two verbs for to be???

Yesterday morning my first class was at 8 am, and its a 45 minute walk to the profesor´s house. But I couldn´t take a taxi or trufi because I only had a 50 bolivano bill. Thats only about 6 dollars, but with costs in Bolivia what they are, its the equivalent of having a 50 dollar bill in the states and wanting to takea $1.50 bus ride (trufis cost B1.50). So I walked all the way there, and then to my next class with only a half hour in between. It felt great to go to the bank and get some cambio....I felt richer than I´d been in the morning, even though I had exactly the same amount of money. Ah, the ceaseless fight in South America for cambio (change).

In the afternoon my sister and I went to a women´s weaving cooperative in a little town 50 minutes from Cochabamba. They use alpaca, which is warmer than wool. Rommy´s boyfriend knows of a store in Maine that wants to sell their goods, but Rommy wants more modern sweaters, not the traditional thick ones with kind of ugly designs. The stuff the women showed us was more for 60 year olds than 20 year olds, and we´re both not sure they can do what Rommy wants (really thin alpaca "wool" is really expensive). For me the visit was interesting because there´s a Peace Corp volunteer working with the women, so I got to see a tiny bit of what its like to be a PCV. And Maggie, I take my hat off to you for having done it. Yes, her rent is 100 bolivianos a month (about 13 dollars) but I just don´t think I could live in a really small place for two years. She said she´s there until November 08. I know I won´t be graduating from law school until long after that, but its one thing to be in NY and studying for 3 years. And another to live in a place with 50 other people for 2 years. And she´s lucky to be only 50 minutes from a "big" city - some volunteers are much further.

Tomorrow to La Paz and then probably a few days in the jungle after that, which should make for much more interesting pictures than I have right now.