Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hello everyone! To start off, I want to wish you all a very happy thanksgiving!!! Last time I updated this blog was in August! I’m a bit behind. Sorry about that. Lots to update you on but I will try to keep this entry short. So here are a couple little snippets of some stuff that has gone down.

The Tribute
First off, I regret to inform you all that Carlos and Shaniqua, my two very cool fish, have past away. I am pretty sure that Shaniqua killed Carlos…his death looked awfully suspicious. And I’m pretty sure Shaniqua was actually a male fish. Nevertheless, they were both very chill fish and will be missed.

The Flight…
A couple weeks back, I took to the air in my first parasailing flight which was pretty exciting. A friend of my here does parapente (parasailing) as a side job so I figured it was time to try it out. Normally the flight lasts about 8 minutes. I was lucky and had ideal conditions that resulted in my flight lasting about 30 minutes. The ride started off incredible smooth. Then, by request, we did some “tricks” up in the air (i.e. some spinning, diving etc.) which was amazing! It put to shame any roller coaster ride I have ever been on. Highly recommend it. Here’s me and Christian before the flight.

My new ride!
About a month back I bought a bike. The bike I got isn’t just any bike…it is a red GT bmx bike! Since the age of 11, I’ve dreamt of owning my very own GT bmx. Ten years later, my dream has become a reality. The only thing is I am the only person over the age of 16 that I have seen here riding a red GT bmx bike. Still, it’s a great bike. The main reason why I bought a bike is because my truffi (it’s a van that follows a route, like a bus) kept running into roadblocks or parades (I live very close to a road that seems to be part of every parade route) or breaking down and I kept having to jog to work.

Biking through the streets of Cochabamba has taken some time to get used to. Main reason for that is because the streets here are absolutely insane. With no stop signs and traffic lights that are treated like suggestions, there is no such thing as the right of way. I remember when I first got here, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the cars in front of me were doing. To me it looked like total chaos. Five months later, I still haven’t figured out what the cars in front of me are doing. But with a lot of practice and a set of very good breaks, I have managed to figure out how to get around on my bike.

The Beef…
The month of September marked a bit of a low point for the violence and political drama that’s been taking place in Bolivia. Things were a bit wild. There was widespread violence in certain parts of the country, regional martial law, accusations of attempted coup d’tats, the kicking out of Washington’s ambassador, even charges of genocide. For a couple weeks, the news largely consisted of video loops showcasing all the violence taking place. It wasn’t the most comforting thing to watch. Lucky for me, Cocha has been largely untouched by all this chaos. Life has been relatively normal here.

The Weather
Spring has finally arrived here in Cochabamba. After a chilly Bolivian winter (and before that a very chilly Canadian winter), I am very ready for some spring weather. These past couple weeks the weather here has been warming up nicely. I have shed my jacket, toque, and gloves and broken out my shorts and t-shirts. It is going to be very weird for me not to have a Canadian winter this year (including my first green x-mas), but I think I’ll be ok with it.

Alfredo…doorman extraordinaire
And to end off, I just wanted to take this moment and give a special shout out to Alfredo, my door man. I’ve met a lot of amazing people here and Alfredo would be near the top of the list. He is a very cool guy. The best way to describe him would have to be that he is the closest thing to my Bolivian mother-figure (but in a masculine kind of way). By that I mean when I get home at night, he always asks me how my day was. He will scold me for not wearing a sweater on cold days. When I am sick, he’ll scold me that I’m sick because I wasn’t a wearing sweater on cold days. He always lists off things I should consume (albeit completely random things) when I’m not feeling well. He always asks how things are going at work. And, like all good doormen, he always opens the door for me. What a guy. And with a name like Alfredo, I think he was destined from birth to be a great doorman. So here’s to Alfredo. Me and Alfredo

So it’s been awhile…

Hello everybody! So it’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog. My apologies for that. Today marks my 14th week of living and working here in the beautiful city of Cochabamba. That means that I have officially completed one third of my placement which is insane. I feel like I am just getting the hang of all this…I am just warming up. As per usual, a ton has happened within this past month and a bit so here is a brief sum up.

First off, I had my first official international visitor…my sister!!! It was good having her here. Good times were had. It probably wasn’t the best time for her to visit because there was a LOT of political and social turmoil going on. A major reason for that was Bolivia’s big old referendum took place on the 10th. People were preparing for things to turn very ugly on that weekend. I was told to stock up on a couple days worth of food, water, and cash. I was also told not to leave my apartment on the 10th. But luckily there weren’t any major problems; it was actually the quietest day I have experienced in Cocha. No cars were allowed on the roads, people were prohibited from carrying guns, even the sale of liquor was limited. The normal parade of non stop honking/lawn motor sounding car engines was replaced by silence. It was actually kind of nice. Still the same, the two weeks leading up to the 10th were jammed packed with roadblocks, protests, heightened police presence, and general demonstrations, which meant we had to alter our traveling plans quite a bit. But we were still able to do some travelling.

We managed to make it to Copacabana for Independence Day which is said to be one of the places to be in Bolivia for the big day. The normally quiet community was absolutely packed with people. There was non-stop music and partying. We stayed two nights there then hit up the Isla de Sol, the place where the Inca dynasty was apparently born. With no cars, surrounded by the massive Lago Titicaca, and snow capped mountains in the distance, this place was very chill. Here’s us on the Island.
There, we hiked some 7 hours across the island, which isn’t the easiest thing to do at an altitude of some 4000+ meters. When first got to the island, we had to climb a massive hill with all our bags. While we were struggling to make it up, this little old frail man that lives on the island was casually walking up the hill, encouraging us telling us to keep on climbing.

Considering all that was going on, we only ran into a couple problems traveling. In retrospect things could have been very bad. Nevertheless, traveling back was a bit of an adventure. First off, we had a very, very rough, two hour (normally it should take one hour) boat ride back from the Isla because of bad weather. Our bus ride to El Alto also took a bit longer than expected. Once in El Alto, the roads leading to the airport were in total gridlock. We ran weaving through gridlock traffic amazing race style trying to get to the airport on time for our flight to Cocha. (Again, at some 4500+ meters, not all that easy to do.) We made to the airport on time only to find out our flight was delayed then cancelled because of snow. We were told that we would have a flight the next day so we ended up crashing at the airport in a lounge. The employees decided to lock the lounge door for our safety but kind of forgot about us. The next morning, after about an hour of trying to get out of the locked lounge, we found out that we were no longer entitled to our flight. This was somewhat problematic because there were no more flights or buses to Cocha after 2:00pm because of the referendum. So if we were not on that flight, we would be stuck in El Alto for a couple days until after the referendum. After talking to a bunch of people and a bit of waiting, we finally managed to get last minute tickets on the flight and, again in amazing race style, ran through the airport, caught the plane and finally got home to Cocha.

We also did a lot of sightseeing and chillin in Cocha. Lots more exciting stuff happened, this would be the abridged version. I must say, it was really good having her. I’ve posted lots more pics on facebook.


And now I would like to introduce you all to Carlos and Shaniqua, my new fish! There are not the most photogenic of fish but here they are.
In the picture they look massive but in reality they are less than an inch big. I normally don’t really like fish but these two are the chillist fish I’ve every seen. The only thing is that they are absolutely petrified of me...oh and lately Shaniqua has been attacking Carlos. I fear for his life.

In other exciting new, my whistling skills have improved significantly! Being able to whistle in Cocha, and all of Latin America for that matter, is a critical skill. Just to clarify, I am not talking about the plucking style whistle. I am talking about the other super loud style of whistling that can stop a bus a block away. Here, it is used for everything. A couple friends here have been coaching me, teaching me the ways. The other day I stopped my first bus on the other side of the street at rush hour with my whistle. A humble but significant accomplishment for me.


As many of my fellow IDSers have noted in their blogs, month 3 is typically one of the toughest months on placement. But half way through the month, I must say things are going alright. My health good, work is good, visitors are good, weather is good, things are good. These next couple months are going to be busy ones but hopefully good ones. I am pretty excited about what is in the works. I’ll be starting to conduct my research very soon which means lots of traveling and lots of rap, which is cool with me. By October, I will hopefully be launching a new program for youth (a LIT program) which I am really pumped about. Anyways, hope everyone is doing well!

Parasite-free living is good living…

It has been a while since I have updated you all. Main reason for that is because I have been super busy. And the main reason that I have been super busy is because I am feeling a ton better and am able to do more stuff!! Yup. I have set a new record for myself here in Cocha having gone 10 days without being sick!!! Double digits! I know!! In all seriousness it has been amazing. This past weekend was the first in many where I was able to go out and have a great time partying it up without some parasite or infection sending me to bed early. I feel like a new man.

For most of last week I became very germaphobic, petrified of getting sick again. I was paranoid about eating in general or touching anything dirty, both of which are unavoidable here in Cocha. Well, the whole eating thing is kind of universally unavoidable. Avoiding dirty conditions in Cocha is extremely hard; it’s apparently the third most polluted city in South America. I also work with kids, who aren’t the most hygienic of people. And I run an environmental program i.e. I have to deal with composting, recycling, dirt and stuff. That’s a lot of germs. Despite all that, my health is still holding up.


So I am closely edging toward the quarter mark of my little trip which is insane. I don’t know if it is the altitude or what but time here in Cochabamba flies by ridiculously fast. These past two and half months have just shot by. At the same time though, a ton has happened. It has felt like all the events that have taken place should have taken months and months to unfold.

A gazillion things have happened since I lasted updated this blog. I know that in what will follow will not do justice to what has gone down but here is a quick sum up.

Thesis stuff…I finally dusted off my thesis binder and starting working on that this past weekend. My ill health had put my thesis work on hold but now that I am feeling better, I’ve got a lot of work to do. I have decided to conduct the majority of my research in El Alto, a city some 9 hours away from where I live. I have been told that I am a little crazy for doing my research so far away but I going to go for it. My thesis title - “The soundtrack of marginalized: hip-hop and migrant youth of El Alto”. More on that later.

Work…First off I should back up a bit because I don’t think I have mentioned very much about what my job is. So what do I do all day? I am the project manager of two programs at the mARTadero. The first is an after school drop-in program for kids from the surrounding barrios; I spend the overwhelming of my time with this program. The second is an environmental sustainability and education program, oddly enough a topic I know next to nothing about.

During my first month and a bit of work, things were very rough for a number of reasons. For one, I have never run a project solo before let alone run two projects solo. And by solo I mean very solo. The mARTadero is a great place with tons of things happening at once but it is also very understaffed and I have felt that from day one. It also has no money. When I was assigned the two projects, there was less than $30 available for the kids program and zero for the enviro project. One of my major tasks has been to find funding, which is yet another thing I know very little about. There have also been a couple other issues that I am not going to be too explicit about only to say that at times it felt like I was pushing a big old elephant; it was pretty tough. But slowly, very slowly, things have improved significantly and now the big old elephant is starting to move along.

In the little time that I have been working here, I have learned a ton, albeit most of my lessons have been learnt the hard way. It has been like learning to swim by jumping into the deep end. But I am proud to say that I am still afloat, barely, but still afloat.

So this past week was a big one for the kids program. We launched a big campaign to try to get more kids from the barrio to come to the program, which included a big fiesta free for all the kids from the barrio. So far things have gone extremely well.

Slowly help has arrived in the form of volunteers. I am extremely grateful for all the help I have received in these past weeks. While it has created a bit more work for me trying to coordinate them all, it has been a massive help and welcomed change from doing everything myself. Here’s the crew who helped run the fiesta last week.

Vacations…This Monday my sister will be flying down to visit me!! What! The original plan was for me to take the week off to travel to Bolivia’s famous salt fields. With a little over a week before my sister’s arrival, I found that I would not be entitled to any vacation time, zero, zip, nada during my ten months here, only civil holidays. I was originally told that I would have 3 or 4 weeks. Yet another of many little miscommunications. I talked with my boss at work who very understanding of the whole situation and we worked some things out so the current plan is to take a shorter trip to Lake Titicaca and the surrounding area with my sis in two weeks. Pretty pumped!

Lots more to write but I must go. Hope everyone is doing well!

Still Strugglin…

My apologies for not updating this blog with greater frequency. I am blaming the guys on the right who are currently chillin in my intestines.

So ya, I am sick again in what is feeling like a marathon of illness. I am now entering week 5 of being sick. During that time, there have been a couple days of feeling good, but very few. This time I have a bunch of parasites and, from what I understand, a salmonella infection in my intestines. These little guys have done quite a number on my body. Good news is that it is relatively easy to treat so hopefully in a couple days I’ll be good.

One thing that I am glad about is that the different causes of my ill health have been changing regularly; it has helped keep things interesting. If I had the same illness with the same symptoms this whole time, I would not be too happy. My doctor tells me that all the different ailments that I have been experiencing one after the other are completely unrelated. I have just had some serious bad luck.

It has been funny because the people that I have met here have only known me as being sick. One of my friends told me, completely seriously, that he used to be fragile like me. I like how he put it, fragile. The employees at the clinic I go to know and treat me like a regular. And I must be going to the pharmacy with some regularity because the pharmacist there has started getting pretty chummy and, when I went this morning to pick up some antibiotics, asked for my number because she wants to go clubbing with me. Oh boy. I really hope I get better.

In other more exciting news, I finally got a bank account! That means CUSO can pay me which means I will finally have some money!! And in even more exciting news, my big sister is visiting me at the end of July. I am taking a week off and the current plan is to hit up the Salar de Uyuni. Salt and my sister. Should be good.


This is completely unrelated to the above but the other day I was thinking how different placement has been from what I expected. Since first year, I had known that I would be spending some 8 to 12 months doing something, somewhere, for my placement year. I didn’t know any specifics but from hearing many stories from others who have had their placement experience and from my own personal travels, I felt like I had a pretty good idea of what my placement would be like. I was pretty wrong.

I always pictured landing in a hot tropical country, with palm trees swaying in the ocean breeze, being met by locals wearing flip-flops, shorts, and t-shirts. I thought I would be living in a simple house with a straw roof surrounded by weird looking, exotic bugs. Like I said before, I was a bit off.

When I landed here in Bolivia, it was literally freezing, just under zero degrees. Instead of flip-flops, shorts, and t-shirts, everyone was wearing boots, plants, sweaters, and a warm coat. Bolivia also happens to be landlocked so no ocean and, unfortunately, no ocean breeze. Right now I am living in an apartment building, so no straw roof. Looking out my bedroom window, I can see snow. Never thought that would be the case. And as for the exotic bugs, there are none. I don’t know if it’s because of the altitude or that I am in the city, but there aren’t even that many normal bugs (by that I mean spiders, flies etc). Before coming here, I even bought a big fancy mosquito net to keep all the mosquitoes away. In my time here in Cocha, I have only seen 3 mosquitoes, 2 of which were dead.

Although it’s not what I expected, Cochabamba is still a pretty sweet place to live. Yes there are mornings that I wish I could hit the beach, work on my tan, or at least not have to wear a sweater, jacket, and hat but things are pretty good here. And I mean with a name like Cochabamba, you know good times are had here. Cochabamba! Brilliant.

Anyways, hope you all are doing well. Take care!

1st month on my 21st

This past Monday marked my first month living here in Bolivia. It was also my 21st birthday! I must say it was a pretty sweet birthday. A whole bunch of us hit up a shnazzy restaurant and had a great time. Later on today there is a big music thing at work so, if I am feeling well, I’ll be partying it up again with some people from work.

My Beef
And I am sick again. That is why I have been MIA this past week and a half. Last Wednesday I was hit hard with what I thought was a bad cold. Since Sunday I have been feeling a bit better but I’ve still been pretty sick. Yesterday, I had it and decided to go to the doctor, something I should have done early. My doc was pretty convinced that I had Hepatitis A. After a whole bunch of tests, the good news is that I do NOT have Hep A. My understanding is that my trachea is inflamed which has caused an infection (or the infection caused the inflammation, not to sure). When my doc was explaining this, I was very confused because he was saying that my ´amigdalas´(in spanish) were swollen. I understood amygdala (in english), as in part of my brain, which is pretty serious. Turns out amigdalas are tonsils in spanish. Makes sense.

And then this morning I went to the clinic for an injection for my infection. While the nurse was preparing the needle, I took my sweater off, rolled up my sleeve getting my arm ready for my shot. When the nurse turned around she just smiled and shook her head. Turns out the needle was for my butt. For an hour after the shot I experienced the most awkward sensation I think I have ever felt, my whole left cheek had no feeling. I live pretty close to the clinic and I didn´t want to pay for a taxi, so I walked home. What should have been a 10 minute walk turned into a 30 waddle. I just hope the stuff works.

As a whole, my time in Bolivia has been amazing but for over half the time that I have been here, I have been sick. That has been my only real low for this past month and it has been driving me crazy. Being sick, no doubt, has limited my ability to really live it up here Cocha and have a good time. Here’s hoping my 21st year will be a healthy year.

Work update
On Monday I had a meeting with my boss, the big boss at the Martadero, and the regional director from CUSO. For two and half hours we discussed nothing but me. It was quite the meeting and in the end it went really well. We cleared up some major issues/problems and miscommunications. I’ll talk more about work later on but the short of it is that things are looking much better on the work front.

My vice
I love Nestea. Back in Toronto I used to drink a lot of it. Here in Cocha, I have yet to find the delicious stuff. They have it powder form (I also brought a whole bunch from Toronto just in case) but it is just not the same. I didn’t realize how much the lack of Nestea was affecting me until I started dreaming about it. Ya, the other night I had a wild dream about receiving a case of Nestea. I starting chugging can after can. I had a massive smile on my face. Then I woke up. I am slightly concerned because I don’t think it is very healthy to be dreaming about Nestea. I have a feeling I am going to receive some heat for this cause it may seem like I am missing a drink more than people (i.e. I am not dreaming about people). Rest assured I am missing you all.
Snow?!
Cocha has some pretty amazing weather. For almost everyday I have been here, by mid-day in the sun, the temperature has been a brilliant 26/27 degrees; not to hot not to cold. That being said, when you are not in the sun, especially first thing in the morning and at night, it can get pretty chilly. Last week, parts of Bolivia got hit with some very cold weather. In some of the higher altitude cities, like El Alto, it snowed! Here in Cocha, it was cold but it didn’t snow. But it did snow on some of the mountains surrounding Cocha a couple kms away. It was pretty cool to wake up to snow capped mountains. It was like Christmas. Heres a pic.
So when I was packing to come here, I didn’t expect that the temperature would drop so much. I only brought a few sweaters and no jacket. The other day I went out to buy some warmer clothes, Bolivian style.

This is me decked out in the latest alpaca and llama attire. (If my pants look kind of big that is because they are massive on me. With all the weight Ive lost, none of my pants fit anymore). I look like such a tourist with the llama prints but the stuff is warm.
And to end off, I have a confession to make. I am not particularly proud of this but I think it is important to set the record straight. At the top of my blog there is picture overlooking a city and ‘cochabamba!!’ written across. Well, that is kind of deceiving. That is actually a picture of La Paz, which is a couple hours bus ride from Cocha, but is not Cochabamba. When I was setting up this blog, the overwhelming majority of the pictures of Cocha were of protesters with police in riot gear. I found the above picture, liked it, and put it up. At the time I didn’t really know it was La Paz. But now that I have seen La Paz and Cocha, that is definitely a picture of La Paz. Once I find/take a really nice picture of Cocha, I’ll change the picture.

Oh and contact info. The number I wrote in my previous blog entry is not correct. It is +591 70727466. So call and text away. Just know that my phone is very fickle when it comes to international calling/texting; sometimes it works, most times it doesn´t. And, more economically, I am now skyping so you want to set a skype date, let me know. Finally my address is:
Calle Ayacucho Dept. 4A Piso 4 Edificio San Rafael Cochabamba
To be honest I don’t know if I trust the mail service here. I have heard many not so good stores. So if you are going to send some love via mail, there is a chance it might not make it.

So a month has past. Crazy. My four weeks (now almost five) here have gone by extremely quickly. At the same time a ton has happened. This is also the longest I have ever been away from home, which sounds crazy but that is how it is. Overall, my time in Bolivia has been amazing. I’ve met some amazing people, seen some amazing stuff. Looking forward to the month number two.

Work and stuff...

My first ‘official’ week at work
I don’t think I have mentioned much about work in this blog. Main reason for that is because, between traveling and being sick, I hadn’t really started work. This past week, however, was my first big official week at the martadero project and it was quite a week.

On my first day I was told that I would be managing three projects. One solo, the other two with some help. And these are kind of big projects. Ya, I wasn’t really expecting that much responsibility. But ok cool. The other thing was that two of the projects have nothing to do with my job description from CUSO. I talked to my boss about this and it turns she had never seen my job description. I was just assigned to where help was needed. Communication between certain groups has been pretty weak. But hopefully this week things will get figured out. I’ll keep you posted.

To be completely honest, prior to starting work, I had heard some interesting things about the project. Some good, some not so good. The martadero project is a busy place with lots of things happening at once. By no means is it a conventional ‘development’ project. It has taken me some time to really understand what the project is all about. A central aspect is the idea of cultural and social development, something that is often overlooked within the world of academia. But in spending time at the martadero, the project seems like a pretty cool place that has an important role to play for the surrounding community.

My first set of roadblocks and protests
Demonstrations are a very common occurrence here in Bolivia. The overwhelming majority are peaceful but all are annoying. It is part of everyday life here. When I was looking for my apartment I was advised to get one within the centro because when protests occur within the city they often block the roads going into downtown. That’s not all that hard to do because there is a river that wraps around downtown so all that protesters have to do is block off a couple bridges. When I heard this I kind of shrugged it off and didn’t think much of it. Well, this past week I got to experience my first set of Bolivia’s famous street demonstrations.

So apparently, for most of last week, protesters had blocked off all the roads leading into and out of Cochabamba. To be straight up, my initial reaction was that of slight concern. But walking around the city, you would have never known what was going on. People just carried on with their everyday life. It wasn’t even a major news item. It was just another roadblock.

Then on Friday, there was a small protest a couple streets over from where I live. As a result of that, it took me an hour and twenty minutes to get to work when it normally takes me about 15. When I got to work, no one was surprised. Demonstrations here are like snow days back home; there is often not much you can do so when things are bad people just take the day off. No doubt this is going to take some time to get used to.

Crib update
My place is slowly turning into a place I can call home. After two full weekends of shopping, I have most of the items I need to survive. I have also developed quite impressive bargaining skills. Later today I am going to pick up some plants, big thanks for that suggestion.

I have officially lost about 10 pounds. The majority of that was from when I was sick. The rest, I think, can be attributed to the fact that I am now cooking for myself. At home, I cook with some frequency, just not every meal, every day. That has been a bit of a struggle for me here. But Cochabamba is considered the breadbasket of Bolivia. There is a ton of fresh food everywhere you go. I just need to figure out how to prepare that food into decent meals. I have, however, mastered the liquid aspect of my diet.

The other day I decided to treat myself to a blender. Hands down, it has been the best buy I have made. Every couple blocks there is a little tienda with fresh fruit. I have been blending away fresh juice and smoothies everyday for the past week. It has been brilliant.

I have been getting some requests to put up more pictures. Thing is this is the first time I have owned a digital camera and I keep forgetting to take pictures. I’ll work on that. Also, it takes a long, long time to upload pictures. For now here is one of the view from my window.
I don’t think I have mentioned my contact info for down here. I don’t really know the official address for my place. They don’t have simple street numbers and postal codes here. I’ll look into that. But for now, my cell number is 70727466. I don’t really know how the whole international calling/texting works. The country code is 591, and Cocha’s code is 4 so my guess is to dial 1591470727466. Calling my cell is not the most economical means of communication for me but until I figure something else, feel me to call/text.

So this is for real...

Feeling good
I am feeling a lot better now. Earlier this week was not so good. Monday night was a rough night for me as I was throwing up throughout the night. Tuesday and Wednesday wasn't as bad but I stayed home spending most of my time in bed. Within a couple days I dropped a little over 6 lbs. But the good news is that now things are looking much better. I've got my energy back, I've starting eating again, and I am slowly packing some pounds back on. Throughout the week Coopers, the family I am staying with, took very good care of me.

The Crib.
I am officially the proud renter of my very own apartment located in the heart of Cocha! I know!...Exciting. This is my very first apartment ever, let alone in a foreign country. This past week, when I wasn't sick in bed, with the help of Jill, I was apartment hunting. Turns out that finding an apartment takes a lot of work. We looked at a couple options. The first place I was shown was a massive 2 story, 2 bedroom gated house with a big old patio. It was very nice, amazingly in my price range, but massive. We saw a couple other options and, by luck, came across a small 2 bedroom apartment in a prime location. The owner is one of the nicest guys I have ever met. The only problem with the apartment is that it is not furnished. So this past weekend I've been running around the Cancha, Cochabamba's famous massive mercado, looking for stuff. The Cancha is pretty sweet. You can get pretty much anything at dirt cheap prices. If only the black market was this accessible in Toronto.

When I was making a list of stuff that I needed to buy it kind of hit me that this whole trip to Bolivia is for real. I am going to be living here for 10 more months. In that time I will most likely need floss, a bottle opener, spoons, a fridge etc. My super long list of stuff made me realize that I going to be here a while and I best get comfy.

Having my own place means that I am now more than ready to host some visitors. So if you happen to be or plan to be in the Cochabamba area any time soon let me know. My door is always open...

What a week...

Ok...so I am already running behind in updating this thing. Not a good start. In my defence my access to internet has been very limited and also I've starting getting pretty sick. I am realizing now that it is going to be very difficult to keep up with emails and stay in touch but Ill be doing my best.

So my first week in Bolivia has come and lots has happened. Here is a brief breakdown of this past week.

Kickin it in La Paz/El Alto

I spent most of tuesday in the CUSO office in La Paz where I had a mini-orientation. I then went out and enjoyed my final night in La Paz.

Me in La Paz.

On Wednesday morning I got a sweet tour of La Paz and El Alto by Don Guillermo, taxi driver extraordinaire. He has been driving the very unforgiving roads of La Paz with great skill for the past 30 years. He has become the official taxi driver for the CUSO office. For a couple hours I got the honour to tour around checking out the spots. Here is a picture of me and Don Guillermo.

Me in El Alto. Behind me and down, very very down, is La Paz.

In the afternoon I flew out to Cochabamba. I was meet by the Cooper family, my hosts and fellow CUSO cooperants, who have been extremely helpful here.

Coca and Chica in the Chapare

Thursday was a holiday and most people took friday off so it was a nice long weekend. The Coopers, some more fellow CUSOers, their friends, and myself bussed off to the Chapare region and stayed there until Sunday. The Chapare, in the amazon, is one of Bolivia's major coca growing regions. Good times were had white water rafting, hiking in the jungle, and just relaxing.

As a whole, this past week has been sweet. Thinking back it has been amazing seeing the diversity that is Bolivia. Culturally, economically, political, as seen on graffitied walls, and most evidently geographically. I went from the cold, dry, gray, high altitude cities of La Paz and El Alto to the warm, green, mid-altitude valley in Cochabamba to the super hot, humid amazon. At the same time, though, the change of one extreme environment to the other in such a short time has been a little physically taxing. Now that my stomach is acting up, physically I am hurting a bit but other than that all is good in Cocha!

Day One in Bolivia!

After some 20 hours of airports and planes, I finally made it safe and sound to the beautiful city of La Paz. At about 5 am this morning, I landed at El Alto airport, which at some 4000 m above sea level, is the highest international airport in the world. When the plane was landing, it kind of felt like the plane was ascending more than it was descending. It was kind of sketchy. Other than that things went extremely smoothly. Luggage, customs, immigration, all without any problems.

Leaving the airport, I got to briefly drive through El Alto, the city where I am hoping to conduct most of my research. El Alto has become one of Bolivia's poorest and fastest growing cities. It has also become an epicentre of political and social mobilization in Bolivia. There has been a lot of very interesting stuff taking place in recent year.

From El Alto, I got a lift down to La Paz, about 500 m bellow. The sun was rising over the surrounding mountains just was we were driving down. The view was pretty amazing! Currently I am staying in the apartment of a fellow CUSO cooperant living in La Paz.

One of my major fears was that I would get altitude sickness. I've gotten it before and it sucks. But so far so good. Anything remotely physical in nature leaves me a little short of breath but other than looking completely out of shape I am feeling pretty good. I been told to take it easy these next couple days.

I'll be in La Paz until Wednesday after which I will make the final leg of my journey to Cochabamba!

Cochabamba, Bolivia!

Alright so here it is….my blog! I was hoping to have this up sooner but these past couple weeks have been pretty crazy. This sunday I will be flying out to Bolivia where I will be living and working for the next 10 or so months. Just to make sure everyone is in the loop, here is a breakdown of what I will be doing on my placement.

I will be working as part of the Martadero Project which “seeks to promote socio-cultural, economic and productive development, in particular among the poorest sectors, through the arts as an essential component in integral participatory human development”

My official job title is ‘Youth Employment Promoter and Assistant Project Manager’. This consists of four major roles. The first is to support in the planning of the project, facilitating existing activities. The second is to design activities and strategies that seek the economic and social inclusion of youth. The third is to develop activities, in collaboration with the project team, that promote the inclusion of youth and children. Finally, the fourth is to support the development and management of new funding proposals for the project.

In addition to the above, a quarter of my time will be spent doing research for my thesis that I will have to write when I get back. More on that later.

To be completely honest, this whole blogging thing is pretty foreign to me. It will probably take some time for me to get used to but I think it will be a good way to keep in touch and let you all know what I am up to.

Just to end off, I wanted to give a special shout out to all the fellow IDSers who will be heading out/have left for their placement. Take care, keep in touch, and best of luck!