Me gusta la chicha me gusta chicharron

Buen dia!

Today is a lovely lovely day in Cochabamba. I have classes over 8 hours a day, half Spanish and half technical training or cultural training. Tech is all agricultural stuff that goes along with our two main objectives when we get to our sites. First is to get people using more efficient organic gardening techniques like companion planting and composting. Second is to work with beehives or fisheries and their secondary products, like shampoo or fish food respectively. Thus far we have made vegetable gardens at home, learned gardening techniques, and learned about soil composition. It is by far my favorite class. Soon we will begin to learn more about beekeeping and fisheries, which I am so very very excited for. Each site has either beekeeping or fish, and as a vegetarian, I am pretty sure they´ll put me in a beekeeping site-woohooo!

As for my day today, my spanish class lets us do an independent project one day a week, so I chose to familiarize myself with the local newspapers, comparing and contrasting them. It is really just an excuse to be more of my EEUU self- I get to spend four hours in the city, drinking cafe cortado at the only cafe I´ve seen thus far in Cochabamba and reading the papers. It is so nice being alone for the first time since the 22nd, using the bus system by myself and making my own schedule. I think that reading the papers will improve my vocabulary a whole heck of a lot as well as reminding me what correct spanish looks like, as opposed to the campo-speak, where verbs and adjectives can fall just about wherever you feel like. After I finish with this side project in a couple weeks, I will make a project of touring the local hospitals and clinics to see what the medical system is like. I originally wanted to work with public health with the PC, and fortunately I have a very nice doctor neighbor who may show me around a bit and tell me about the health care system.

Some of you may have read about the unrest going on in La Paz, and you need not worry about me here in Cochabamba. I honestly hadn´t heard a thing about it, as my days are occupied and I don´t have time for newspapers nor really do I usually have access. I have caught wind that the strife will likely escalate again after carnaval ends in a month or two. I really hope things stay calm and my time here is not compromised. I have already become attached to this project. I really want to work with women, agriculture, and maybe a little micro enterprise in this country. I would love to work with women here because I feel like I have a good start on understanding how to work here with my language ability and experience in Peru (although in one recent conversation I learned about some of the big stinking differences between Peruvian and Bolivian women.) In the meantime, I will continue loving life here, getting pegged by water balloons on Sundays (its a carnaval tradition), and helping my donas prepare chicha and chicharron for carnaval.

One lovely illustration I´d like to share before I go. Last night I came home after an evening in the city with some of the other kids in my group. My abuela and host sister were in the bedroom to let me in, and my donas Demetria and Sabina were outside of the kitchen in the moonlight, bundling roses and yerba buena they had gotten from the garden. The yerba buena smelled so good and we chatted briefly about what changes they think would best benefit the community. Dona Sabina told me she thinks the high school should offer night classes, especially ones for women like baking or haircutting, so women can better support themselves. They then proceeded to joke with me, as usual, about how every boy in my group is my boyfriend and how my nickname, Jacky, sounds a whole heck of a lot like the Quechua word for headache. The evening ended with a kiss on the cheek to Dona Sabina as she stirred the huge cauldron where the chicha was cooking. I slept well in my netted double bed, smelling the eucalyptus smoke coming in from the chicha fire.

Take care all of you, and until the proxima vez,
Yakelyn


ps: please excuse all typos-these spanish keyboardsa are taking so getting use to!