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.