Ocaso Lindo!

The word of the day: Ocaso. It is what the folks in Huanchaco call the sunset. Yesterday evening we caught this beautiful one at the beach. Que fuerte!!

First Impressions Together

1. It's hot.
Really hot.
Everyone says it will get cooler in March... but I don't think that they realize it already is March.

2. Fans are the greatest invention ever.

3. Cars have a million reasons to honk. And by cars, we mean taxis. There are more taxis here than there are people. It has to be somewhere around the same ratio as the number of sheep to number of people in New Zealand. You have regular taxis, you have collectivos where they'll squeeze anywhere from 5 to 10 people into a normal car; you have combis - a van; and you have micros which is a bus that supposedly runs on a schedule, but how you figure out what that is, I have no idea. Once they get to a check point, the driver's assistant sprints out of the bus while it's still moving and races to a little store where he gets a paper stamped which proves the bus made it there on time and then stops for a coca-cola, chats with his buddy and mozies back to the bus for us all to take off again. Each form of transportation has its own norms and etiquette.

4. Trujillo has good food, cheap shoes, and effective wizards - so said our taxi driver in Lima. We've loved the food (although Brian is suffering from it at the moment), the shoes really are cheap, but we've yet to try out a wizard's spell. Maybe I should see one about a cure for Brian's stomach...

5. Trujillo gets poorer from the inside out. The center of the city is beautifully structured: gorgeous and enormous churches, buildings of marigold and blue, and a statue in the center of the plaza that hails artistic value and hard work. As you work you way to the outskirts of the city, however luxuries and utilities begin to disappear. Houses go from concrete walls to adobe walls. Adobe to reed huts. As you work your way out, first goes water, then electricity, then means for an effective roof.

These are the areas where Brian and I will be working. We've seen so much already! Brian went with a group to find a new building to hold some classes that will start on Monday. They spent an entire day moving bricks out of the middle of the building and now I think they'll be ready to start classes. I've gotten to see a project in micro financing that is a pilot program in one of the areas and I was also able to tag along in signing up children to start school on Monday. We've been able to get a really good idea of what we will be doing for the next 3 months and can't wait to start teaching next week.

Okay, back to the list:

6. Surfing is awesome! We took our first surfing lesson yesterday. We had so much fun. We are living only 20 minutes and 30 cents away from the beach. We surfed until the sun set and my arms could no longer summon the strength to paddle. It was a beautiful day.

7. Guinnea pig is actually quite tasty.

Thanks so much to all of you who are posting comments. While it's more difficult to write back to you guys using this blogging program, it truly is great to hear from you. We think of all of you all the time and love hearing your thoughts. Thanks again!

Yanayo and the EWB trip

Yanayo was quite an experience, and it is very difficult to describe in words, but I´ll give it a try.

The trip started by having to hang out all Sunday in Cochabamba because we needed some materials from a store that wasn´t open until Monday morning. We were able to leave by about noon on Monday with the car (we rented a Toyota 4Runner very similar to mine) loaded on top with a bunch of HDPE pipe. I was the driver, and Andrea and German (Yanayo´s ¨mayor¨) were the passengers. After nearly 8 hours we made it the whopping 150 km (about 90 miles) to Yanayo. I had never been so gripped driving a car before. The roads were sketchy in places, but we made it. Myself and Andrea joined with Donee and Jeff whom had stayed in Yanayo.

The first day Jeff, Andrea, and I went to look at the sketchiest part of the road we are trying to fix/rebuild. To the right is a picture of a river that is now flowing where the road previously was. We were also treated to some great views, which became very common in this part of Bolivia, which they call the Valles. In the afternoon I went to a few houses with Donee and Ruben to fix some of the stoves that were installed this past summer. Ruben is the stove ¨guru¨ and we were mostly observing and helping him with fixing the stoves. It was very interesting to see the homes of people in the community. Everyone in the community is Quechua and only a few people can speak Spanish. It was difficult to communicate with some of the community, but I could understand the Spanish of Ruben fairly well. They live amazingly simple lives in very tough conditions.

We got rained on almost every night. This is the rainy season in Yanayo and everything was green as can be. In a few months, once the dry season has kicked in, all the green will disappear and turn to brown. Over the next couple days I continued to help Donee with the stoves as well as with some health and air quality testing she is doing. One highlight was when we went to the school and did spirometer tests and weight/height measurements with the kids. The kids did a good job with the spirometer testing, and it was amuzing as well.

Guido is the school teacher for Yanayo, and I was able to get to know him well (he speaks Spanish). Kids come from neighboring communities to go to school in Yanayo. But the school is only up to 3rd grade. After that kids have to go to Acasio for more education (20 km away). Not many children do that, most start helping their parents with farming and livestock. There are even children in the community that are younger than 3rd grade and are working (like the women in the family in the picture below).

The last night we were in Yanayo we bought a goat (with the help of Guido). It was cooked by Donna Pacifica (Ruben´s mother). She cooked it in an outdoor adobe stove, and she is a great cook. The only problem was the volume of food that was served. The first course was a big bowl of rice, potatoes, and fried goat (some of the inner organs). Then the second course came (and shown to the left), and it consisted of more rice, potatoes, and a mound of goat. I tried to force myself to finish, and got everything down except a bit of the rice. It was a ton of food to try and eat. But it was a nice evening and fun to eat at Donna Pacifica´s home.

We made it safely back to Cochabamba after another scary 7+ hour drive with a loaded down car. I learned a lot in the short time I was in Yanayo. It was amazing to see the Quechua culture and how they live. It was incredible to see how these people live simple, subsistence lives in often harsh conditions. The people of Yanayo always made us feel welcome and were very appreciative of what we are trying to do. There are going to be more successful projects in this community coming up this summer, and I am excited to see how they go.

I´ve left a lot of details out and I have a ton of good pictures, but for now I´ll leave you with this one of some kids having a good time on the swingset.

La Paz... and the end of Bolivia for now

Hola,
I am currently in La Paz (above is a picture of La Paz from El Alto). The EWB trip to Yanayo was successful and we left Cochabamba on Saturday. I will write a bit about the trip and post some pictures soon. There is a lot to talk about and I took a ton of pictures.

Today I went up to the only ski area in Bolivia: called Chacultaya. Doc Odle and two of his USAid colleagues stationed in La Paz went on the trip. Doc´s daughter, Andrea, was on the Yanayo trip and I also know his son Kevin from the dorms in Seattle... small world. The base of Chacultaya (which you can drive to) is at 17,000 feet above sea level. Then I hiked up to 17,500 ft. I actually felt OK at that elevation, especially for not spending a lot of time acclimatizing in La Paz. It was snowing up there, and it felt nice to be in snow again. The visibility was not very good, but Doc pointed out where the glacier used to be. It has receeded a ton in just the past 30 years or so. The Andes are definitely some of the most vunerable mountains affected by global warming.


Here I am at 17,500 ft. The visibility wasn´t great!

After that little hike we drove to the south end of Lake Titicaca and had trout for lunch. It was very cool to see this enormous lake at 13,000 ft, and experience the altiplano. The weather was not exceptional, but the mountains of Peru could be made out in the distance. It was a nice day.

In other news I think I have been suffering from altitude sickness and/or my first stomach issues of the trip. It is crazy how living at 12,000+ ft affects your body when you are not used to it. My Spanish is also improving, and I feel pretty confident communicating. Tomorrow morning I fly back to Lima, Peru. Kim gets in to Lima late tomorrow night, and I am very, very excited to see her and begin our adventure together.

Brian