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!