peas corps finds the beet

passion fruit cremolada on the lips

2009-07-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Dancer Pose Machu Picchu

excited about coffee plants

at the peak 11,000 ft.
still breathing

Nora's Amaryllis
all the way from Holland to Peru

Host siblings and Juanito

Juanito and China

Tejas

Rooftop Tejas

Dream House

Firstly I know I have been rather incommunicado with all of you in these last months. I apologize for that. Work, or rather, random activities have been keeping me busy ever since the rains stopped sometime mid May. A quick update:

I have gotten involved in a few community gardens one with the high school the other with the health post. Vince, my site mate, and I hosted our July regional meeting in Canchaque and 12 volunteers came to learn about gardening. We oooed and ahhhed over some serious worm composting learned about seed saving etc… and ended up planting a garden in the health post, conveniently located a block from my house. So I am found there daily watering and loving our seedlings.

Our HIV/AIDS classes have been mixed up a bit since there hasn’t really been any school since the beginning of June due to the schools week long anniversary party, a visit from the Mother Superior from India, the town festival celebrating campesinos and now three weeks of vacation for Peru’s Independence day and the spreading of Swine09 as Jenn calls it. But we are working with the health post nurse and have given five classes to the teachers on adolescence, puberty etc. So once we finish with them in August the idea is for the teachers to pass info onto the kids. If all goes well, we will have a fair in September and each class will present something that they have learned about a healthy adolescence.

Song club goes along learning Enrique Iglesias now. And the Expo Feria is in full swing. At least preparations are, making bamboo stands, getting participants for the coffee fair, the artisan fashion show and the traditional food fair. Once its done I can say I never have to work alongside small town government again too many formalities for me. I did however have fun experimenting with Adobe Illustrator in designing the programs and such, so that’s a bonus.

Finishing up a world map manual complete with country profiles, recipes, pictures of traditional dress, music, movies, fun stuff and am excited to go to Lima and present the project to the current training group. I started for the third time 100 Years of Solitude and seem to be sticking to it though the characters are as difficult to keep track of.

I had a lovely visit from a dear friend from MMC. We walked for five days to get to Machu Picchu. It was fantastic. I lament the fact that it took me a while to situate myself amongst many tourists spending a good amount of money, myself included. It was very different than what I have been used to for the past year and a half. But it was worth all the frustration, exhaustion from climbing to 11,000 feet, cold nights in tents and then another hour climb at four in the morning to stand at the top of the astrology tower welcoming the first rays of the sun over the ruins. We formed a band, called Kissing Kiwicha, wrote a song about Camel Backs, delighted in our Flash Packer status and danced a trio one night along with T-Huff, Pink Floyd and a dingy club in a dingy town in the southern Amazon.

Jenn then visited Canchaque and taught some dance classes which the kids just loved. We talked a lot, philosophized, dreamed, laughed and enjoyed catching up.

Her visit has put me in a good place. Everyday I feel like I could stay here longer, and then in the same day I have moments of intense frustration and longing to be done with all of the social behaviors that are now becoming annoying rather than new and interesting. I found myself the other day confused as to my role here as a women, not that I even make conscious decisions to be submissive, but that’s just how it is and I guess I have adapted so fully and immersed myself to the point of losing my place. It was quite shocking. So it seems I really am in the back end of my service, shocking again. I feel good about loving it here but also will soon be ready to move on to the next adventure. There are plans, but I will wait to elaborate until they are a bit more specific.

I hope that you all are still well and good and enjoying wherever you are.

burning blue and green into our veins, the sun shines down once again

2009-05-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

The rains have stopped!

We had our first HIV/Aids session with the teachers
We had a great three day program with Pep-Far in April and I am now working with the obstetriz, profe Juanita and my friend Fabiola in the high school. Two sessions with the teachers then 1 class a month per classroom for five months culminating in a Feria open to the town where each classroom will present on something that they learned.

As secretary of the party planning committee I am proud to announce we raised 700 nuevo soles (a little over $300) for our Expo feria we are planning in July.

It is shaping up to be like a small county fair a place where people can sell their fruits and veggies, cheese, coffee, deserts, weavings etc… and we are having a Gastronomic contest between the restaurants. Oh and the veterinarians want to offer services on how to care for animals and Tio Julio said he’d provide the worms to promote worm composting.

Tio Julio ordered five honeybee colonies!

I went camping at the beach for Easter with some excellent company ate waffles did yoga, sang round bonfires and danced on the beach

The other day Vince and I rode our bikes to Piura. It took me 7 hours to come within 51K. And I decided it wasn’t worth it anymore to ride through the Piuran desert so I jumped on a bus.
I am part of the activities committee for Valor.

This is a three-day camp for high school boys where we have sessions on planning for the future, responsibility, leadership etc. We are organizing frozen t-shit contests, capture the flag, scavenger hunts and lots of stuff to keep us active and deserving of the pool after running around all day in the Piuran sun.

The kids and I are organizing a movie night here in Canchaque to raise funds for them to go for free.
My English song club is all right the kids come and go. But we are learning High School Musical songs so later we can learn the dances that go with them!

The high school is inaugurating their Center for Ecological Recreation for their anniversary next week. I am helping with the garden, we have cucumber, spinach, Swiss chard, lettuce, celery and cabbage growing, and I am still searching for eggplant seeds. They are also building this little cabin out of Bamboo which will be really fun for camp outs and maybe cooking classes?

I will have a few visitors in these next months, which I am excited about beyond description.
If only I had so much to do this whole time. But then I wouldn’t have made the friendships I did. I see now that there is a strong bond built between people suffering from constant drizzle and lack of activities.

"Animal Vegetable Miracle"...read it

2009-03-27T08:48:00.000-07:00

Havivi told me this morning that a spider peed on my eye after I showed her that my eyelid was all red and gooey and burned like it was sun burnt. John said it was a Zorro, which is like this tiny little scorpion that releases a sort of acid, so much for my mosquitoes net working.
I went to Ecuador to visit Megs and saw Michelle too. It was all good and difficult at the same time. Wonderful to see them but hard also to realize we are all in similar situations and struggling to figure out what’s right, what our purpose is and where we currently are on the emotional rollercoaster.

“No Claudio would never wear pants that loose” –Megan when asked if the guy wearing normal jeans walking towards us was her boyfriend Claudio

I met Claudio shortly after. Played a game of basketball with his family and friends and then later that night discovered he played drums in a Kiss cover band. This was amazing information. I whipped out my new Emo Morales t-shirt lined my eyes charcoal black and was set to rock out with the Ecuadorian Kiss fans only to hear that Claudio was a little embarrassed and didn’t want his girl to see him play. Alas, Megan has promised to fill me in when she actually gets to see the band perform.

We made bagels and cheesecake, stir-fry and green curry. And discovered a new fruit called Zapote. It is a mix between a peach a mango and a bitty squash. It is real tasty. We also went to a cardio striptease class. Megan told Michelle and I that she often went to a salsa aerobics class during the week so of course we jumped on board. At first it was good clean salsa, then the amazingly flexible young man teaching us became suddenly more excited after “Thriller”. Maybe it was the music, or the arrival of an audience, or the 40-year-old women taking of their sweatbands, whatever it was, it was no salsa. It was oh so much more.

Upon returning home I was greeted warmly by my family and friends. We even had a glorious day of sun and a soft whispering Spring Breeze that lifted everyone’s rainy disposition. As the school year starts Marisella once again enters into her prison. I realize now she is the only person I have met, ever in my life that could care for the girls in the boarding house with such empathy, heart and warmth. I don’t know how she does it.

March has flown by and the rain seems to be throwing in some twists to remind us of her power. I crossed the river today thankfully, but the water was almost up to the bus windows and you could feel the current struggling to pull us off track. I sure hope this is the end of the rainy season because if it gets any worse in April I imagine some tragic things could happen. We already had two landslides an earthquake and various thunderstorms. I have posted a list on my wall. It is called “In case of …” and I have listed my go to items should I suddenly have to escape. Ha-ha I don’t foresee this happening but better prepared than not. I have started keeping some dear valuables in my backpack ready to grab and go too!

I have started helping out in the high school. One of the nuns and I are trying to get a food project started so we can give a little snack to the kids that walk 2-3 hours to school without breakfast. We are in the process of getting funding from the municipality, but all moves rather slowly in that office.

I am also helping the English teacher with her advanced classes, though advanced isn’t saying much. There is a disappointing mix of the students being to afraid to learn and make mistakes and the teacher rushing through her exercises to stay on track, that no progress is really made. So I am committing myself to working on vocabulary. The teacher will start a unit without going over vocabulary first and then we just go around translating everything for the kids. So I told her I would make a vocab list weekly and try and ignite some memorization and fun learning in her classes.

Chicope production continues we have washed peeled, strained, cooked and jarred hundreds of Chicope so I am glad the season is almost over. Although I guess oranges are next. Marisella just keeps going, I don’t know how but she is a great inspiration.

Lots of things planned for the upcoming months and though I may not have figured out my exact purpose here yet, I am enjoying my time more and more with the hope that things come together
A long lost friend, recently found again reminded me that….

poco a poco anda lejos or
Little by little you go far
So that is my current mantra

mis patas

2009-02-25T14:35:00.000-08:00

golden bananas

Luciana at her class party

Luciana and Fabiola

Christmas dinner
Havivi Marisella Maricarmen Abuelita Carlitos

Abuelita and Marisella

Luminarias

Juanito asleep in the manger

the rain

the green

the day we planted veggies in our decorated milk cans
Franklin has the knife, good thing the banisters were far away

Mañana es para siempre

2009-02-22T17:53:00.000-08:00

Much to report.
First I am to tell you that Juanito, my cat, ate lentils four times today. Havivi wanted you to know this. We think he has worms and is therefore feeding an army.

This afternoon, as I am peeling mountains of chicope for jam, Abuelita comes in to prepare her daily soymilk. I say,” Abuelita, careful with the ants” and she laughs and tells me they were in the sugar the other day. And that is why I found her at the sink spooning ants out of her soymilk one by one. So five minutes later she is back spooning ants and laughing, I pull out the strainer once again to help her out. Maybe this is why the other day she said as we were sitting down to lunch, “ con la gringa somos como familia” With the gringa we are like family.

It might also be because Tuesday night as the rain was pouring down me Havivi and Marisella are lounging waiting for Havivis boyfriend to come for dinner. One of us says something about the infinite rain and Marisella says, “ I know lets scare Joel”, the boyfriend. So we get to it expecting him any moment now. I have the comforter over my head and am sitting behind the dining room door which I am too shut after joel enters and start making creepy noises. Marisella is crouched behind the curtain into the bedroom with black gloves on to reach for Joel’s feet as he enters the room and Havivi is in bed luring Joel through the trap. All the lights are off and Abuelita is watching Chabo in the living room.

Joel knocks on the door comes in and greets abuelita. Havivi calls from the bedroom and Joel proceeds into the dining room, but he turns the light on. HA. So here I am covered having just closed the door feeling Joel staring at me very confused. Now instead of turning the light off, I somehow think rolling around on the floor in my sheet would be scarier. So that is what I do and I can just see Joel looking down at me totally confused. He tries to pull the comforter off but I don’t let him and I try and force him into Marisellas trap but by this time no one can keep from laughing and we all end up rolling around on the floor.
But poor abuelita was terrified almost to tears that we were going crazy what with our frantic preparation and then our hysterically poor performance. I sat and watched the rest of Chabo worried Abuelita wouldn’t recover.

Lately……

I have learned Spanish soap operas are just as terribly addicting.

That one never throws out pineapple peel because Agua de Pina is one of the greatest delicacies on earth

And that the minute something is dirty, you wash it, otherwise mold will come

I learned not to wear pants that are see through when wet if you plan on playing with water

And I have grown into a deep relationship with The Guardian Weekly, so much so that like my father, I am always three or four behind and once finished can’t bear to throw them out feeling a sense of accomplishment and sentiment towards such a wealth of information so easily compactable.

Finally I have learned that the community here looking for anything to do with a youth development volunteer seems to be in hiding or of very shy, perhaps invisible personalities and yet somehow there is enough work for two volunteers. Yes, starting tomorrow I have a site mate, wonderful. Now he does come for small business management so I am happy for Marisella and her many products waiting to be commercialized. And I wont be the only foreigner dancing at the discoteca but I have officially given up trying to understand reason behind pc administration.

I’m off to Ecuador in a bit here so you all take care now and just boil that pineapple peel in water with brown sugar and cloves. Good for your kidneys too.
Leba-Flava

And the fruit keeps falling

2009-02-08T07:59:00.000-08:00

I heard some voices outside my room. A little girl her parents and my landlord making small talk before the real work began. My landlord is a dentist, this I new before moving in but really only understood when I came home one day and found bloody cotton swabs and teeth garnishing my front door. Since then it has become normal to see people comfortably seated in the Guayacill furniture with their heads tilted up and there mouths filled with plaster or whatever he uses to make fake teeth. This morning however was a bit more than I bargained for. Waking up to the whimpering of a child as novacain is inserted into her gums and teeth are pulled out is not all that pleasant. Thankfully I was very rested having gone to bed early last night so Iw as able to get up and out of ear of the torment.

Yesterday we, Havivi, her two friends and I ventured into the dewy green mountains in search of Maracuya aka Passion Fruit. Though after three hours of hiking we were unable to locate the treasured fruit we did happen upon banana apples, yes a hybrid of bananas and apples, Lucuma, an orange chalky fruit that looks like a coconut on the outside and is better served as a flavoring in ice cream and yogurt, plenty of guineos, the unripened bananas people love so much for breakfast and loads of Avocados, the buttery kinds. Quite the successful trip to the chakra I would say. I tendo to go once a week. Usually with my friend Pedro. And this way I have unlimited fruits, sometimes veggies and I get to go hiking. Saturdays are a good day to go and if we are lucky the rain will hold off for a few hours and only the mist will blanket our outing. Yesterday was the first half day of sun since Christmas I think. It was glorious and all my clothes dried so fast instead of the normal week long process.

All this week I have been helping Marisella process her jams. She made Chicope jam which is a fruit similar to papaya but oh so so so much better. You can smell them a block away! So we made Jam and also processed Alcaparras. The dictionary translates it to capers, but these are different. They are actually the flowers of the Agave plant from which Tequila is made. Marisella pickles the flowers with hot peppers and well in fifteen days I expect they will be quite good having been soaked in apple vinegar.

Summer school continues for three more weeks. My students vary, somedays we have 12 other days three. We have planted seeds, made rainsticks, learned about nutrition, though I think these kids have had so many Nutrition sessions that they can spit out the correct answers without knowing why they are correct. I actually asked the question, how many glasses of water do you drink everyday?
"eight" says Franklin casually knowing he is right, but not knowing why.
So that was a bit frustrating. I moved on to reading but only three kids came that day and Franklin would only read all the easy books so he could get a star faster, I told him that to finish his sheet he needed to start reading chapter books and he refused and instead went to slide down the railings of the mayors office. I know my patience is being tested, but come on, how many times do you have to tell the kid he cant run around screaming and playing in the mayors office?

Really hoping for some luck in the trash stuff come March, though now it seems plans might be changing and money may be shifted around for an agricultural project. Beautiful right I cant wait to ge tinvolved in planting Maracuya, Peaches and Avocados...but then where is the youth development? Still thinking of going to the campo schools too when school starts up again, we shall see, its all about connections right and relationships so working on those in the meantime.
And loving it really. I have a wonderful family, great group of friends, we are having a luncheon today, Cebiche, Papa a la Hunacallina, Sabado, Tallerines Verdes( like a pesto sauce)and ranch with veggies, they love ranch dressing here thanks to the five previous volunteers. So it goes. and the sun is out again today. wahoo.
hope you are all well
lebo

and the rain came down down down

2009-01-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

yikes January!

right now I am sitting on the back steps in my Mayors office charpsing the free internet. Having just come from another meeting about this summer school we keep talking about. I almost wish i hadn't even tried to get help and had just done it alone. I say that really just because after pushing to get something planned amidst the Christmas and New Years shuffle was impossible and then after returning from vacation, a lovely one at that in Buenos Aires with my fellow Bolivia volunteer Michelle, I find that my original counterpart good old JV has somehow been ousted by my 16 year old host sister. Yesterday, since the rains wouldn't let up I found out through good old fashioned girl talk with my two host sisters that the personnel in the office are being changed due to some sort of corruption. But the only reason JV is out is because my host sister is the Queen of the town, she won the pagent last year, and with the victory comes a year of work in the mayors office and somehow it means she is the new secretary. Amazing. Good in some ways and bad in others. I think JV will still help me out a bit, but I am far from understanding and frankly feel that to ask questions would be silly. So again we have met and planned to meet again and the months slip away like the slugs trying to crawl up my wall.

yes I have slugs and fleas and spiders and all sorts of creatures searching safety from the rains. Girl talk also revealed the potential danger of the mine up the mountain possibly, due to heavy rains, caving in and barraling into town in the form of mudslides. Needless to say I am packing an emergency bag and looking for potential higher ground. In the meantime I will hopefully be participating in a reading club, maybe weekly movie showings, dance classes and any other fun activity we can come up with to keep us sane in all this rain.

Reading heavily as well and experimenting in the kitchen with my family. We made a plethora of desserts for our midnight Christmas feast including brownies, key lime pie, craisen white chocolate chip cookies and two types of banana bread, one being bomb banana muffins. Mari Carmen is a genius in the kitchen and she graciously allows me to observe and sometimes help. Though I am never allowed to wash dishes, even after I tell them how many dishes I washed at home with dad singing his "Do the Dishees" song so fervently in the background. It doesn't translate all that well into Spanish. Abuelita (grandma) watches tv, Chabo, at 6pm everyday. She usually falls asleep but I sat with her the other day and I think we had a a good time. Granted she doesn't hear very well so its hard to have a conversation me shouting into her ear and loosing all faith in my Spanish as she nods, smiles, sometimes responds and laughs. Oh how she laughs, little pearls. It is one of my most favorite things Abuelitas laughing. So it goes here in the mountain rains but in a way it is nice and leaves time for lazy afternoons spent chatting or dreaming or dozing in my hammock. Thrilled to have more time for letters, I hope I stay true to my promise. Might go and salvage an old bookshelf to put in my room now, or help Mari Carmen read a childrens book in English. We do an hour a day and she is really good just needs practice. I guess I am looking forward to the green that the rains bring. I feel like a frog hopping around the puddles in my green shoes!
till soon
slug hugs
lebo

feel the love generation....

2008-12-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

Lego. that is what i hear now as i sit in the hostel in Piura. My friend forgot my name, rightly so after a month in site and he saw me again and called me Lego. It stuck. ha. I have also heard Lebo like Lobo(wolf in Spanish) but Loba(feminine ending) cause I'm a girl. Listening to the new Beyonz song after practicing our socio dram for the aids meeting tomorrow. I hear the same five cumbia and reggeton songs wherever I go. They have fabulous lyrics and beets that don't lie! I heard the ocean these past few days. And the sound of the surf board squeaking and gliding through the water. I heard the sounds of a real belgian waffle crunching beneath my teeth and the chatter of multiple languages floating in the salty air. Soon I will hear the rain as it rushes down the mountain. I will hear the birds and the dogs and my extended host family waking me up every morning. And I will share all these sounds with visitors. My first ones. This is an exciting couple of weeks, I hope the same goes for you all.

hugs

lebo

Not just havanas or bananas or daiquiris

2008-11-11T13:59:00.000-08:00

So much to say. So much I have seen lately that rocked. Mango trees hanging low with the bounty of ripening fruit looking like gaudy 80`s earrings. Days of rain with only a bit of blue sky for a moment in the morning. Wet clothes that never seem to dry, socks oh wet socks are the worst. Three of us spunky ladies staying up late into the night making chocolates filled with delicious cappuchino cream and roasted coffee beans. A frighteningly close fireworks display so that I dont ever have to wonder what would happen if you were underneath the shower of sparks. Night walks along the road with the full moon shadowing the endless mountains. My new room with open windows and the shriek of finding a new kind of bug in my bed everyday. And most absolutly amazing, thirty americans crammed into a hostel room watching the change our country has been screaming for.

All beautiful things in their own special way making me realize spectacularity.
trying to get more pictures for you all too...

fall is hot and the rain twinkles on my tin roof

2008-10-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

Spotted: one golden Papaya on Wed, fruit day in La Via
Bought: for 2 soles 50
Eaten: this morning sliced in half attacked with spoon
accompanied by fresh from the cow milk
Issac and Jesus helped me out
they are just two of the many people that are in my house all the time. all the time.
I love my host mom, but times are tough with such close quarters, there are always parties and all the people she cooks meals for never leave and well i am feeling a bit claustrophobic looking to ammend the situation soon.

then i streatched for an hour because i went for a walk yesterday ending up halfway up the mountain- I went to check out the reforestation project the district is doing, saw the little coffee beans sprouting and sang songs with the five kids in the school. The teacher goes up and down everyday from my site to the school 2 hours away. Incredible.

I am sitting in the bank with Issac and Javier, Patty and Milagros just walked in. The house follows me wherever i go ahhhhh. I am using the internet and spontaneously dancing around to the brilliant techno jams Issac has chosen as our ambiant music this fine day. Last night we made tacos, we being Cheriden and her best friend Marisella, who makes toffee filled chocolates, and her family and tio came over and we rambled long into the night whilst devouring a container of Dulce de Leche.

I have a friend in the Mayors office. He told me the other day that if I hang out with him I will work, a lot. This is good. The rainy season is begining soon and though I will prepare myself with oodles of books and baking ingredients I hope to do something with some of the kids who hang around. So me and my friend are planning a summer school of sorts plus a rec center deal. So the kids have some options other than waiting for three months for the rain to stop. We are thinking dance, art, cooking, movies, theater groups, reading club, cheriden made a twister board I am ready to use that! really whatever they want to do I am game. Lately i have been having impromptu creative moment moments with my host brother and his cousin, they like to be puppets and move like sad and happy and angry and loud and quiet and surprised and shocked puppets, but only if their homework is done.

Another barnacle to my house runs a milk program for the kids in the smaller towns round us and we are talking of starting gardens to go along with the milk. Actually I dropped the idea one night over rice n meat and salad and guineo which they love here but its just kinda like a real unripe banana and coffee, coffee at night all the time but it is esencia that they make. Like a strong syrup that they mix into hot water. Of course I didnt realize how concentrated it was and the first time I drank it was vibrant and shaking for the next hour or so. hehe. So anyway the next day he and another engineer working with the coffee growers tell me they are 90% done with the planning for the gardens have talked to five communities and we just need to talk in terms of how much we want to plant and plan the budget. Yikes!

Went to the Parolles the other weekend. BBQ and swam in the pool beneath the waterfall. Durring the rainy season the pool overflows and makes another smooth waterfall, like a nutrual waterslide into another pool...cant wait! And they say Aguas Blancas is incredible, though a four hour hike into the montains it was just discovered after this last years rain washed so much sand and silt away creating a run of falls and swimming holes. It is totally wierd to have friends I am not working with, cant say the living feels much different than the boarding school in Bolivia but its cool to walk around a town with other people some I have never seen playing volleyball with a net they have strung up across the street.

So awsuuuume to have Cheriden here. A blessing really. She has been so thoughtful and helpful with my transition and I love getting to hear all about her service. It will be sad when she leaves but weird thing is she has family four blocks from mom and dad in Min. Crazy. Thursday means pulseritas, friendship bracelets with the girls in the boarding school. Reading a good bit, Loving listening to Javier go crazy with the stamps on all the bank papers right now, but I have been inside too long and am craving a peach and more coffee and raul should be home by now. Yesterday we played with his cars and we like to read together at night, I want to start on Harry Potter with him I think.

eep almost forgot! you know the smell when you enter a conservatory garden, especially in the winter and the fog and humidty and tropical madness enters your nose? I smelt that all day yesterday on my hike just around me all over. beautiful.

the nights a cold
and the winds a blowin
its the time of the scare crowin
chains a rattlin in the attic
scaring up a bit of static
whoooos gonna be running down those streets
the sound of pitter patter little feet
you know whats right around the corner
ghosts and witches, black cats and skeletons
dragons and pirates all out of order

there are beets in peru too

2008-09-29T12:07:00.000-07:00

mmm empanadas
they make the day so delightful

quick update for those in the dark. Peace Corps was evacuated from Bolivia Sept. 14th 2008 after president Evo Morales kindly asked the ambassador of the US to leave the country. Amazing things going on in Bolivia these days, quite interesting in fact, but maybe not the best place to try and get work done amidst road blocks, gas shortages and consolidations. In my eight months of service we had, I believe, 6 EAP's (emergency action plans), 2 consolidations, and 1 evacuation. Quite the record.

So for those wondering, yes I am still in Peace Corps, but have moved to Peru, the northern province of Piura. Really terrible to leave Bolivia and my Bolivia volunteers, but now we have many people to visit all over the world! Today I am going to site for the first time. It is about four hours on the bus, up in the mountains where i hear it smells like roasting coffee half the year and the other half it rains. I will be living in a much larger community than in Bolivia which will be a change, in a good way. Looking forward to getting settled again and not feeling like I am floating around in PC limbo. The paperwork and transfer process was not the most fun thing to do. But that is done now and I LOVE Bolivia, so much, I cant wait to go back and visit and see all the things I planned to see and do. Someday soon. For now I will concentrate on getting to know Peru. I changed projects from Ag to youth development and am excited to play with kids but still have plans for a community garden and to hang out with the coffee growers some.

new mailing address:

Lebo Moore
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 066
SerPost Piura
Piura, Peru
South America

looking to get some postcards out soon! Hope everyone is well. Prayers to Mittens and Grandma and Grandpa are comming from me from across the Panama canal. Maybe I'll see some of you done here soonish, you know Lima has Starbucks....crazy!

will post again with news of the rainforest, maybe I can have a monkey as a pet....?
love
lebo

and the beet goes on

2008-08-31T13:53:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while. My apologies. I find myself now listening to the varied music collection on the schools computer, backstreet boys for the moment, I might put it on repeat…just saying. I never thought I’d do it, but I made it two consecutive weekends in site and really enjoyed myself. Read two books on worms and spent the days dozing in my room or at the river while all the kids did homework. Had two really great productive, in a peace corps way, weeks and think, if I needed to i.e. more bloqueos kept me from going to Sucre I could probably stay again. In would only need someone to bring me some chocolate. I am embarrassed to recount the number of glasses of chocolate milk I have made. I almost finished 1800g of powdered milk in 14 days! But before I get carried away let me briefly update.

End of June and July was all a mess but nowhere to go but up….
Regional meeting rescheduled but good
Made honey shampoo with some Ag peeps for a fair
Visited some friends for a mental vacation and re-inspiration
First ultimate game midst the chuqui gang and first annual Eduardo Sureña hands
(Sureña being the local brew)
Visitors to site from Cordoba, one being an Argentine George Michael, which I loved (Arrested Development not the singer)
Work wise kinda a bust since three weeks were vacation but I planted a seed bed! Woot!

August arrived
All PC Bolivia (120 of us) got together for a conference, project meetings, open space etc…really enjoyable to meet everyone share ideas, projects what not, it felt like a well deserved vacation. Though work in site isn’t really going yet, I still sleep 10 hours a night and am exhausted from trying to learn everyone’s names and roles and my role and possible projects and ahhh felt good to go swimming multiple times a day, charps* the saunas, beach volleyball and dance my heart out at the all vol cross dressing ball oh and sing about Quinoa with Misahy.

*Meghan and I are slowly translating slang into Spanish
Charps:
Origin: aprovechar pues
Meaning: make use of that, pues, or preferably, tap that

After the all vol came back to site and had those two great weeks. Reason being, well I actually did some stuff. The first week the administrator, the Ag teacher and the fruitculturist and I all made a FODA, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, for the Ag program in the center. We also budgeted for all the projects and made a yearly calendar. It felt really good to be on the same page with everyone and agreeing on things we need to collaborate on. So I guess it gave me a sense of justification, that I really can be a part of the team and make some changes, so that felt good.
Also I made a compost pile, which seems so small, but was so exhilarating. We, the fruit guy and I gave a little lesson on compost and made a demonstration pile and in a day things were heating up and wowed everyone. We are spending way too much money on manure when we can make compost for free. I forgot too that I have started with a school garden in a community a half hours walk up the mountain. I also gave a lesson there on compost and am learning a few Quechua words every time I go. My plan is to go once a week with kids from my site who can teach all the beautiful things they are learning about vegetables.
Instead of just observing the kids in class I actually feel like I have something to contribute and I’m uber stoked about worms now. Actually I have decided to dedicate myself to soil seduction. I don’t just want one box of worms I want lots to harvest eggs from and plant in our soil so little by little we introduce wormy worms who are gonna make us better soil and tastier veggies and fruits. Because the peaches and apples and plums are all flowering now and they are so beautiful I can’t wait to bite into them!
But I have to be careful. I have learned two things
One: The center has had a plethora of people projecting. But nothing has lasted once the volunteer has left. The grapes and olives are dried up almost, the Apiary lost six colonies of bees, the rabbits are in sad shape and the chicken coop was built two years ago with not one penny in the budget to actually buy chickens! Que Marcan! So I am not going to start on a new project until what we have is working well and organized and I’m sure it will continue once I leave.
Two: The changeover in staff and teachers at the center and in the foundation is so quick that I’m actually starting to question if anything is sustainable if the people I work with and teach leave. The kids don’t stay either so who can manage? Just today I was telling my work partner that we found an entire drop irrigation system in the garage that we could totally charps for the vineyards. Because they are dying of thirst and the canal system is a waste of resources, ¨Oh yeah¨ she says ¨they installed that when they planted the grapes and the peach trees but then administration changed and we took it all out¨ Now what do I do with that? It sure doesn’t give much hope for anything I do. That’s why I’m starting from the ground up; literally, I will be the queen of worms, able to bait my own hook next time I’m at the lake!

That pretty much brings us to the here and now. Many more thoughts, feelings, doubts etc have all surfaced and I am ever thankful for skype and being able to talk to mom and dad and Nora for some perspective. Life goes on and my room feels like home, really and I after four months this is what I have learned….

I know that the third bell at 8 means I have two minutes to get in line for Breakfast
That at least once a week we have cow stomach or pig skin and I have to find a way to scalp it to the dog or to the students saying it’s too spicy
I know that if I don’t show up for a meal someone will come find me
And that Don Mario always has cookies or chicha
I know when I go to Sucre I can vent and drink litres of yogurt which I always crave and have tea with Roxanna at our hostel and loose myself at the cinesas in a movie
I know when the padre says we leave Monday morning at 7 it really means 830
And that when someone tells me ahorita me vengo it could be 2 hours or tomorrow
I know all the students and staffs names and they call me yvonniendo and always want their picture taken or a piece of fruit, because they know I buy it for them
I know that it has only been four months and I have twenty to go but I’m not even counting down the days and I love myself in this place and want to share it with any and all who will listen and or visit.

Peas
Love
Lebo

2008-07-13T16:21:00.000-07:00

sorry i have not been so vocal lately much has happeed. wrote a lot down but my computer doesnt want to turn on for me to upload anything. kinda knew it would happen at some point, wasbanking on it lasting more than six months though. amazing how it is the last thing on my mind though. Six months! amazing and I can tell you what a crazy ride. I have been up and down this rollercoaster of emotions high high up and far far down as some have had the pleasure to hear, my experience is all over the place.

a little frazzled to write much we shall try to coax my comp to be kind and let me use her a bit more. wont be in for a while but ill try and find a way to keep updated.
really hope you are all doing well and being very good to yourselfs.
i love you dearly
lebo

and that is why you eat pancakes with a friend

2008-06-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

May 25th

Today is a great day. I knew it waking up too. Not only have I decided that at this point for me Rubber Soul is the greatest Beatles album ever, but two things happened today. I was reminded of life before Bolivia (LBB) and it made me realize why I am so happy here.

One: Mom and Dad sent me some pictures I had taken last summer and fall of school friends and ropes course buddies in NY. I hung them on my wall and it was like I had forgotten everything I had been doing last year. Sad, but it made me happy to have a reminder and made me feel settled here in my room with pictures of my friends and of things past that were lovely. I realized I was busy and happy enough to be well involved in my work here, which is a really stupendous thing.

Two: After lunch today I helped with the bread. We make it once a week, enough to last the week. That’s a lot of bread, one roll per person twice a day. A lot of bread. Anyway, amidst the rolling, placing, transporting to the clay oven up the hill, quickly baking and testing the warm doughy goodness I somehow got to thinking about dance. And I decided I was quite lucky to be in this little valley as the sun was setting making bread and jokes with my friends and though I miss dance it just is a lot better this way. Plus I bought this felt bell shaped hat this weekend. It is so rad.

“ The future still looks good
And you’ve got time to rectify
all of the things you should
Do what you want to do
Go where your going to
Think for yourself ”
- Think for yourself, The Beatles, Rubber Soul

One problem with those lyrics is the word “should”. I don’t like it. I think that it has a negative connotation. Think about it, anytime you say “I should do this or that” “you should go here or there” it implies something that you don’t necessarily want to do but have to. The only time I can see the word doing any good is when you are working on something and out of confusion you use it. Example: this should work. But then again if it doesn’t work and you want it to that can be negative as well. So lately I have been trying to use the word less. Unfortunately it seems to be similar to when you learn a new word, it pops up everywhere. So now I think I am saying it more than I used to, I really should stop…haha see negative vibe, I know you felt it. Now what makes it negative? Seems to me this linguistic dilemma of mine stems from my recent adjustment to la hora Boliviana. Knowing that things will happen in good time and not worrying if they aren’t finished in time. In time for what? In what time? Is how the Bolivians live. Anyway I don’t limit myself and certainly don’t do anything I don’t want to. That is all. I still like the song.

I thought about “should” more. I guess it can be useful in some ways as a sort of motivator. Hmmm now I am torn.

Spotted: on a brisk fall morning, 7:30 am in the chapel. The Annunciation by Fra Angelico, tucked into a corner illuminating a small space with the glory of the angel Gabriel’s multi-colored wings.

June 1 2008

Don Hugo asked if I wanted to give art history classes! How awesome would that be little cultural sessions on Saturdays of course starting with the Venus of Willendorf all the way to what…anything I suppose, though I would probably load up on all my favorites! Not so sure it is something that would interest the gatos, but if I had enough pictures it may work. Really I just want to emulate Ms. Glynn, my high school humanities teacher who instilled the love for art in me. I remember her asking if we could own any piece of art what would it be. I said a Della Robbia blue ceramic piece from the Della Robbia factory in Florence. They made white ceramic busts and sculptures that had this deep blue background. No one could ever replicate the blue. They are gorgeous. I would still want that and a Matisse.

Made banana bread for mothers day somehow managed to feed 120 people that showed up
Danced barefoot circles in a maroon toga
Noticed excellent improvement in two bee hives
Started a community bank with the graduating class
Made pasta for the teachers who drenched it in ketchup and mustard
Managed the phone in site for a week, something I refuse to do again
7 layer dip with Helen for the potluck
Pancakes with syrup and jam
Chocolate with coffee

pulling back the curtain

2008-06-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

May 22 2008

Don Hugo of course has a burly semi cholita wife. Don Hugo is the administrator of the center. He is new, only has been working for about a year but a real whippersnapper of a guy. Mid sixties I would say, real skinny and well dressed. Today he was wearing a camel v neck sweater with a blue, gray and white plaid scarf tucked nicely into the front. His jeans are always clean and he always wears his hat, always. And he looks kind of like a cartoon character. Oh and he loves his pocket knife. Always finding reasons to use it and I think enjoying those moments quite simply. Sometimes he stresses me out, other times I am so glad we sit at the same table in the dinning room. Often I feel like everyday he has a new project for us to work on.

“Sabes que” (you know) he will say, “ a tourist agency contacted me we can work with them”
or, “ I talked to the mayors office they could buy part of our harvest for the meal programs in the schools”
“ oh and did you know that with the five rabbits we have now we could have fifty in six months,”

Of course I agree enthusiastically, really I am excited but then the list gets longer everyday and I don’t know where to start working. Good news is though that I finished the project proposal for the bees to be presented to the Foundation so we may get some funding sooner than I thought. Plus this means I already have a project written for when I can submit to Peace Corps! Yeah! And I am eating raspberry jam by the spoonful as I write because well it is raspberry jam and I don’t have any bread, am sick of moraditas which here is a whole sixth food group and I wanted something sweet after lunch, besides the chocolate milk. First glass of the day, sometimes it is only one, other days its three. Why is powdered milk so good, you tell me, I just couldn’t live without it. Couldn’t live without Don Hugo at my table either because without him awkward silence especially since the gatos changed seats so we have a new group. They don’t talk and when I ask questions always one worded answers even though outside the dining room we converse normally. I don’t get it. And Luisa she is great, really invested in her work, but she’s so funny she gives Guillermo her potatoes out of her soup everyday but then eats the ones in the second plate because she says they taste better??. I don’t get it they taste the same to me, like a potato. So Don Hugo’s wife is here for her first visit and she is exactly the impressive big personality one would expect to accompany such a strict determined guy. And she has pink crocs!

Saturday we get to march in a parade for the anniversary of Chuquisaca. Last night we spent an hour marching around the cancha (sports court) in the cold. I didn’t march I guess the teachers just walk behind the students. I have to buy a light pink dress shirt and black pants for the occasion. Odd choice of colors since the flag is red yellow and green. Speaking of colors the Bolivians are mad for red and navy blue. Like every other piece of clothing they have is one of those colors. One day Nabel wore a lime green shirt and it floored me. I kind of forgot about green. I love green. So I went out and bought a green paper lantern to hang over my bare light bulb. Miiiiistake. Once I finally found a ladder to reach my very high ceiling I was doused in a eerie hospital twilight zone glow. Awful. I think because the walls are so white the light just has nothing to blend with, its creepy I need to change it but the ladder was so scary I have to wait a few days.

When I first read my site description, I was so excited about being around high school kids, learning from them and being there in case they needed to talk. That’s what Pepe told me at first was that being so far from home they often need someone to talk to. Great sign me up.
So two things.
They have sought out my advice which is awesome and so soon. After a month I have people coming to my room after dinner to talk get help with homework etc.. Problem is that I just don’t have the words in Spanish yet. I keep giving the same advice over and over again because I don’t know how to say anything more in depth. Very frustrating. And the problems are so sad. Nothing kids this age need to deal with. It all leads back to money, money for tuition, money for their sick family members, money for the baby they just had etc.. breaks my heart cause I can’t give them money and then what I am doing seems rather trivial even though I know its not and really is better in the end but it is so hard to listen to their stories and to empathize and understand and not feel guilty. Especially since they are my friends and I would do anything for them.
Second problem.
They are high school students. I knew this but didn’t remember what that meant. The foundation works with university students studying psychology so twice a month they come for a few days to give presentations to the teachers and talk with and observe the kids. Last week we had presentations all about relationships and identity and all the awkwardness of adolescents I soo quickly forgot about even though it isn’t that far behind me. So then that led into thoughts and discussions about behavior and discipline. It seems like after every meal the principle has something to say to all or some of the students some punishment or lecture and so we sit on stools without backs for a half an hour sometimes listening, feeling worse and worse about our behavior. Thankfully the psychologists said this had to end because we were beginning to associate the end of a meal with a lecture and negative feelings. So that’s good, but things keep happening. Cell phones are stolen at least once a week. Why? There is no where to go, 60 people is not that big and someone is gonna get caught, where do they think they will hide it???

A couple weeks ago some kids stole vegetables from a neighbors garden. Turns out the neighbor is the one helping us build the canal we so desperately need for all of our dried up gardens, orchards and vineyards. So then the gatos had to pay, of course they couldn’t round up the 80 Bs so then they had to work, keeping them out of school, giving the school a bad reputation round the hood and the guy didn’t want to continue helping. Machetes are missing everyday after agriculture classes and are found under the pile of potatoes in the garage! I don’t know if they are bored or tired, definitely hunger is a reason for stealing veggies. I don’t want to think what it will be like once we have honey, pretty soon all the honey will be gone, nothing to sell nothing for the bees to eat. it’s a rough time. I don’t envy them and I am scrapping my brain for things to keep them busy. I really want to play sardines and kick the can but its sooo cold at night might have to wait.

Not all of what goes on round here, but a few examples. My mornings are still time for cleaning and working on my own things and the afternoons are Ag classes. Throughout the week I will stop in on Dona Marina and help with lunch or dinner. We gave our first bee class on Monday, simple theory stuff to start while we wait for materials to actually get the gatos working with the bees. I go to the morning prayer twice a week. Sundays and Wed. sometimes Friday for a whole mass when the priest comes. I have some favorite songs and on the days I don’t go I like laying in my bed listening to them sing. I have fire now so I planned 12 menus. 12 Wednesdays when I will invite a group of four to make our own dinner and get to know each other better. Quite amazed at how quickly the time is passing and love the days when I can sit in my balcony open all three sets of doors in my room and let the afternoon sun make it all nice and cozy for the cold nights. That’s when I read or write letters and watch the gatos go swimming, too cold for me still.

Weird how it feels like this is exactly where I want to be right now. Good. Though I think of NY all the time and Backus and summers on the porch in my house on Niles on the futon spending a whole day reading cause I know that’s what Nora does on the weekends and everyone is going up to the lake at some point and the summer movies and concerts in the parks are starting and central park picnics can’t be beat. But then again, I am going to Sucre soon and will explode with all the English words I have been wanting to say and eat brownies and Chinese food and maybe the SAS (grocery store) has brought back the Dr. Pepper or fountain Fanta and we can go see a movie and people will call me Lebo. I don’t mind Yvonne, just not used to it and well my attempts at changing it haven’t taken.

The Sound of Silence wakes me every morning as the gatos sing their own Spanish version...

2008-05-11T09:35:00.001-07:00

May 8th 2008
Almost another weeks has passed and I am in awe. Though I have experienced in the thousands moments in which I don’t really know what to do with myself , I have read almost three books and have reflected a lot. On everything under the hot sun set against the blue blue blue sky so blue you cant breathe if you think about the blueness for too long. I really felt like I was drowning in blue one day and I couldn’t pull myself out. I used to think the blue in NY was awesome because on clear days the numerous skyscrapers reaching up into the endless sky made the blue seem like the background of a painting we in our busy goings and comings were stuck inside. It was awesome but creepy. Here in Bolivia the blue is much purer and there is nothing even trying to breach its shores. That’s frightening. And the night sky, a whole different story. The stars are brilliantly endless. Anyway, lots of conversations and being silly so we can laugh together. Slightly swollen arm from some bee stings but sweet honey to taste away the bother.

The problem with my little home here is the number of projects available, I don’t know where to start. The bees are good, but it is a slow process especially since we lack materials. So then I got to thinking why wait to buy suits and smokers and hive tools and boxes when we have sewing, carpentry and metal works classes. We can make our own. That lead to the realization that Sucre doesn’t have a store where bee keepers can buy supplies. You need to go to Santa Cruz or Cochabamba. If we are going to make our own materials, then couldn’t we also make them to sell…? So that on top of managing the colonies and teaching the Gatos about beekeeping.

Gardens are also in need of improvement, mostly intercropping and better watering systems. But then I realized that during the summer, the growing season, all the kids leave. So who is going to water and harvest etc.. me and Don Mario? Not so much. Plus that’s when all the honey harvests are too, the summer, duh. So my idea here is to research a bit about WWOOFING. Willing Workers on Organic Farms. An Australian organization that is quite global, I think. People sign up and are sent around the world to work on farms. No pay but room and board and the chance to live and work somewhere else for a stint. So my idea is to combine the garden problem with our lack of tourism. Make a whole eco green tourist hot spot. Bring the tourists in the summer months to help with the bees and gardens and such. We have plenty of rooms and a communal kitchen/dining room….the wheels are a turning, merely ideas but like I said soooo much time to think. Though two years is a long time I may need to think more realistically about the way things move, but aim big right.

There are countless opportunities to have exercise classes, English lessons, art and dance classes. These Gatos soak up everything with twinkles brewing in their eyes. So far their only form of entertainment is football and on special occasions they get stuck in front of the TV. Best so far the principle of the school said today that they couldn’t watch a movie with any violence in it, but that they could watch the news. For any of you who have seen the Bolivian news it is rather like an action film with nothing but dramatized stories about murders and blockades, riots and scandals. I laughed to myself!

Excellent part last night for may birthdays we even got to dance to our own music! Wanting to return to site so I can work on settling in. Figured out a color scheme for the room got a wardrobe to make some paper lanterns to hang and a budget proposal to work on for the bee project. Went fabric pricing with the sewing teacher yesterday to figure out how much it would cost to make our suits, real fun and now I know where the fabric stores are for any other projects I might dream up!
More musings as they come to me.
later

May 1, 2008
Today there was ropa interior stolen from the girls dormitory and tacked to the backboard of the basketball hoop in the cancha. Before that was addressed, however, we raised the Bolivian flag and sang the national anthem. I expect to have it memorized within these first strange three months. Strange for it seemed like I was on vacation as I had my coffee and plums on my balcony, my supplementary breakfast, while everyone was getting ready for classes to start.

Moved on to plant broccoli and utilized the gravity fed irrigation trenches we dug to water. Tomorrow to the bees if I don’t die from eating cow stomach again. My own gas tank is imminent as asking to boil water for a single cup of green tea everyday is taxing. Loft has been approved and may even be finished before I put up the sleeping cage. Can’t wait to have somewhere to plop down, to couch, if you will. Bolivians don’t plop. They don’t perch either. They slouch, I think, sink, and saunter. What do you think? I am proud of my patience so far. I can sit and watch for hours nothing in particular and once I am tired of asking questions, silent dinners pass less awkwardly. The best of today came at dusk as I finished helping someone level their garden plot. I looked up and the remaining bits of sun filtered through the mountains uncovered all the tiny specks of dust. Millions of particles floating along in no particular direction reacting somehow to whatever came their way paying no attention to amazed me.

You know the ever reliant mound of rice. Well today instead of rice it was quinoa, sweet right, guess again because well instead of potatoes or pasta on the side it was more quinoa, a protein Everest. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even use the energy in the soccer tournament because our team played our games in the morning. I was goalie won and then lost, so I helped make bread for the rest of the day. Fascinating experience though, last night, trying to organize the tournament. Four guys teams three girls not that hard right. Well it took the kids about an hour to get everything straight, I was so tired I slept for ten hours, and felt oh so good this morning. Oh but during the game one girl twisted her ankle pretty bad and I spent fifteen minutes trying to convince the groundskeeper that she needed to elevate it and put something cold on it, he insisted that mule grease was sufficient, end of story.

Loft fell through, not literally, that would be sad, plaster all over my magenta shower curtain. Did you know that my shower curtain is magenta? With silver spirals to boot, and I didn’t even pick it out. I did however pick out a matching towel without even knowing. My bathroom is pink, it is a beautiful thing. But yeah the top of the bathroom isn’t finished, the ceiling is but above it is not covered. I need some plywood or planks of sorts then mattresses. Ahh well TIB.

I spent a day gluing rice to a wall. Actually it was more like flinging rice at the wall hoping it would stick to the sugary paste we applied beforehand. Brother Hector, from Chile, is constructing a pub, for the non existent tourists. Before I thought his interior design couldn’t get anymore wonderfully tacky the rice happened, and then we spray painted the rice multicolor, oh yeeah! And the rest of the room has a border of horses and bulls and lizards and chickens and elephants and there are these little vignettes of campo like scenes and every color imaginable is represented except purple which saddens me because it is such a soothing color. Who knew it would feel so satisfying to fling rice, though I may have inhaled a bit too much of the paint, it was worth it to pass the time while my new friends were in their academic classes.

The gardens are growing, and we turned compost piles the other day, almost ready for worms! My main job has been to check in and out tools, lame but it helps me learn names and plus I don’t want to do the work for the kids, that’s even lamer. Yo, we have like an uber population of bees that are outta control. Miriam, my counterpart, and Jose, the guy who is writing his thesis on bees, and I checked out the hives a few days back. Three really strong colonies with honey even in the alzas but there weren’t enough frames so we had to attach comb and add frames and well they need a lot of work but super stoked to start having bee classes. I want to have a bee song, suggestions welcome….And I want to teach the kids football and Jose Limon’s modern dance technique. It is all about fall and recovery and these kids are doing such while playing soccer falling so gracefully so as not to hurt themselves too badly on the concrete. In Limon you gather up energy till you can’t hold it in any longer and swoosh out it goes in a turn, jump, fall, mmm satisfying.

There are more people who believe they are Napolean, than have done Peace Corps

2008-04-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

April 23 2008

my dear friend Ben is an inspiration. His crackpot ideas always make me laugh and thanks to him we have this lovely blog title.

So I am here stuck in Sucre waiting for transport to my site. Tuesday the Priest said he would call and update me on the condition of the truck, it is in the shop. No word until today when I found out that yes I probablly wouldn't leave until Friday.
TIB (this is Bolivia)

Stuck am I without my fellow B-47's to hang with, but thats cool I can finally upload pictures. And I will use these extra days to get a coffee maker, a good pillow and some paint to make my space comfortable, my own little nest. Then off to site for a few weeks to start the PDA-ing looking for projects and integrating. The plan is to break the kids into groups and invite a group a week to cook with me. The reasons for this are threefold.
One: I get to eat some variety.
Two: The kids get to try something different
Three: We become friends faster and I can learn their names

other preliminary projects seem to be worm composting, English classes, planting gardens, and working with the University student on our bee colonies. I believe he is writing a thesis on Apicultura. Vamos a ver ( we will see). Quick wins are what we are looking for at this moment so I don't feel totally useless and the school recognizes my abilities and dedication. Don Hugo, the administrator of the building has grand plans for starting a nursery and fish farming. And I am interested in cleaning up the olives and grapes, but must figure out the growing seasons and such. There is such a market in Sucre for organic and locally grown products because of all the tourists and the restaurants that cater to tourists. So I think we will be looking at marketing the products the kids make which is just totally rad. We can design a label and everything, t-shirts even.

Speaking of t-shirts the Sucre crew has grand plans. Said plans I can not divulge at this time due to some surprises for IST (in service training) in three months when we all return to Coch for two weeks. But I will say the Sucre band will definitely have a shirt, or two or three. You see the band has many names for we shall play many types of music and need different Alias'.
So far we are
The Albino Cockroaches: our grunge soundings
The Chicken Burgers: our classic rock musings and
Los Perezosos de Cinco Dedos (The five fingered Sloths/lazies): our Bolivian creations

Not much else to say since I was all pumped to get to site and am now stuck...but i have no doubt the next two weeks will pass like molasses and before I know it I will be back in Sucre to celebrate my birthday and will bring with me long long posts since I will have so much time to write an think these upcoming days. Actually maybe I will have a short story, I was thinking of writing one about two tree stumps we chanced upon one night at Marqa. I shall work on a draft.

Till then keep well all of you. Me I am doing just that for I am realizing, re-learning, understanding that there is nothing better than patience and knowing that time just happens and what you do in it is reliant only on what you wish to do most. Doing something that you know will work instead of worrying about what is stuck makes life a whole lot easier. With that said, I love that I am in Sucre and look forward to whats next.

peas and love and beets, always beets to eat and jam to
lebo

2008-04-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

Read this second, more recent April 14^th, 2008

We won; our garden won one of three prizes! And Carla told us today it actually was the best

Well watered, good variety, well weeded, presence of organic pesticides (marigolds), fenced in..Awesome.

What else, passed the handbook exam, theoretical bees and product transformation, and practical plant and seed and pest identification, so does that mean I am qualified to be a pcv??? I guess.

Lots to say but crazy week ahead with swear in and leaving host families so when there is time to reflect I will say more. Post office stroke continues, the winter is approaching with chilly morning breezes and I am throughout it all still here being.

Here is my commitment statement to Peace Corps that we read the other day.

One year ago I lost my identity. It has been twelve months since I have spent at least five hours a day in a studio where my mind was focused on movement, musicality, expression, speechless existence in space. I used to get antsy after a week of not dancing, my muscles would twitch and I had so much energy I wouldn’t sleep. It is bittersweet to realize I haven’t felt that again.

I danced for 13 years, 11 of them were wonderful. For 9 years I was beautifully trained in the Vagonova classical Russian Ballet Technique. I am fourth generation in line directly with Agrapina Vagonova herself. It is a delicate technique very stylized and precise, but with a frothy majestic overtone. The last four years I trained at Marymount Manhattan College Ballet and Modern Dance. My dancing was too pretty and too exact it didn't fit into the 20th century distortion that George Balanchine brought to Ballet. I totally respect what he did, but as liberal as I am, when it comes to Ballet I am a pure classicist. The Modern I loved, it was so different and allowed me to move in so many new ways. But with Ballet we clashed they wanted me to change and I was so insulted and stubborn so I didn't. It was good though because it allowed me to realize that it wasn’t for me and I began to feel really selfish. Growing up in a family where social justice defined everything dance just didn’t suffice.

Leaving dance was on of the hardest things I have ever had to do. It defined me; I didn’t really know who I was without it. It took me two years to finally stop; who was I going to be if I didn’t dance? On top of that everyone was telling me I would regret leaving and that I couldn’t let my talent go to waste, and I listened to them instead of myself for two years.

My parents were great, behind me 100% but they reminded me I would have to do something after graduation. So I looked to what made me happy and it was travel and language and sharing and learning and teaching and giving back and I was lead to Peace Corps. I didn't know what it would be like at all, but the idea of it fit and so I jumped. The biggest decision I had actually made for myself in years and it feels so good, still, to be rediscovering. I think that’s why I am so happy all the time because I am seeing things in a new way. Everyday has been fascinating learning something new figuring out who I am in a new place, but mostly I love that I am here able to appreciate where I come from knowing there are things I bring to the table with the expectation that there are even more things I can take away. I know I can do some good, help kids to learn so they have more opportunities and ways in which they can work to give something back, to their communities, to Bolivia.

My favorite book my mom would always read to me is Miss Rumphius, the Lupin Lady.

When Miss Rumphius was young her grandfather who lived in a house by the sea would tell her of all his travels to exotic lands. And Miss Rumphius would say "When I grow up I too want to travel the world and when I have seen it all I too will live by the sea."

“That is all very well, little Alice", her grandfather would say,

"But there is a third thing you must do"

"You must do something to make the world more beautiful"

So Miss Rumphius grew up and she visited all the exotic lands, climbed mountains rode camels found deserted beaches and when she was old moved into a house by the sea. But she wasn't happy; she still had one thing left to do. She had to do something to make the world more beautiful. So after a walk one evening where she saw remains of the summer’s lupin she pulled out a seed catalogue and ordered boxes of seeds. That spring Miss Rumphius carried seeds in her pockets wherever she went and the people thought she was crazy. But when the summer came and the lupin were everywhere in the town, along the rode, in the hills and the children could gather bundles everyday Miss Rumphius knew she had succeeded in her third task. She had done something to make the world more beautiful and she was happy.

I too am committed to the third task. So I’m going to maintain some bees, help harvest some veggies, learn a few sentences in Quechua that generate laughter and plant lilies of the valley, my favorite. I’m going to share something and learn something all the while making the world more beautiful.

Sometime in the beginning of April

If one has food porn

One should have adequate FPV (food porn vocabulary)

So a common topic amongst us here in PC Bolivia is our dietary adventures. It starts out with, so rice or pasta with your potatoes today and then quickly evolves into what we have discovered has been termed food porn. Yes we give into the desire and can’t help but talk of all those delicacies we have willingly left behind for two years. So we have been salivating and dreaming these past few weeks during training and yesterday when we found the German bakery in Sucre with divine chocolate cake we, Ben (JB- just Ben, there are three in the group) and I decided we really needed a word to describe our delight when we are able to treat our taste buds. We decided it had to be something like transcendence because that is naturally what we feel when consuming. So simply enough we came up with tranze, tranzear in the verb form, thanks to Helen, so we can say me da tranze and me pone tranzeado.

Needless to say the title of the blog came from this conversation as well as

BLG: beard licking good

And

BSI: beard scene investigation

Since when one has a beard, culinary delights can often be experienced more than once thanks to the lingering bits. One can also recall events of the previous evening through the reminder of the caught food. TSM: taste sense memory

We got real into acronyms as well and have begun encryption of this wonder of the spoken word. But least we forget, we also learned how to sign Sucre, Llama and Bolivia. It gave us some lovely ideas for t-shirts so we are working on that hopefully with some success before these last two weeks of training are up.

So my site is loverly. The four days flew by and I was quite impressed at my ability to understand and be understood. It was actually real neat to not speak English for an extended period of time. My last night there I did have a mini English lesson though. We worked on the vowels and sang Raffi’s I like to eat apples and bananas.

Side note: They liked it. For a while now I have been trying to figure out the obsession Bolivia has with tacky. But its not tacky here, it is totally the fashion to have loony toons characters and wwf posters pasted on the micro bus walls, and my 22 year old sister has a whinnie the pooh back pack and it totally flies. So the kids liking the silly song didn’t surprise me but just added to my query…still confused but I think it might be as simple as the bigger, brighter more outrageous the better. It is more fun that way I guess. But where does it come from?

SO the kids, yes they are great. I arrived Monday night to applause and bouquets of flowers and singing. After dinner I was given a tour and ended up in the assembly room where they had prepared a program (yes programs were there) where I got a flower wreath to wear and a box of chocolates and got to hear songs, dance all the traditional dances and sees a few skits. It was the best welcome ever.

The first day I spent with Don Hugo, the administrator of the building, which is btw (by the way) the locale where Jose Marie Serrano wrote Bolivia’s first constitution, we went with the groundskeeper, Don Mario up into the mountains to see why the water flow to the reservoir wasn’t as strong as usual. We found that the spring has been clogged by fallen rocks so were going to clean it on Wed, but then the rains came and they lasted until Friday and it was cold and I was glad for my stripped smart wool socks and silk sleeping sheet, again.

We worked a bit in the gardens, preparing the land for the students to plant in their individual plots and we weeded the grounds too. I helped the cook shell beans one afternoon and chatted with the resident doctor. She is super nice and super proud of her office fully stocked with whatever the kids would need. She loves her job and the kids, it was really inspiring. Actually all the staff is so devoted to the kids, I love that. My last day there a teacher was leaving for good and she cried during her goodbye and well it just made me realize that I am really lucky to be in this place where I have so many friendships to make and things to learn as a result. I was telling mom and dad on the phone today how it is such a different thing to become friends with people you can’t talk to so easily. You know I have just been thinking how can people really know who I am if I can’t speak to them the way I am used to. It’s really hard to be sarcastic in Spanish. And then Spanish sarcasm is different too, hmmm. Quite the challenge but it really feels cool when you do have conversations where things click and you can just tell that it is a turning point. I love thinking about when I really knew my friends were my friends, there is always that moment. Debatable, but there.

Dot.

Venice hostel, white bread tomato tuna sandwich.

Alias.

701.

Western Civ.

Lost in Garre du Nord.

APPI.

Legos in the playroom, I think.

And now I have all these great trainee friends and we are all off on our own going to nourish our little corners and find more friends and defining moments. It is a beautiful thing no?

Lassie the dog is hanging out front I can see her from the balcony; she is sweet, real quiet and curious. And her puppies equally divine creatures, though they like our garden a little too much. But it is growing and surviving and all these school buses are driving by right now and whistling and cheering on the awkward teen couple twirling in front of my driveway. And back to the garden which our teachers have said is the best so far which adds to the completeness of the setting sun behind the row of Eucalyptus, making my red toe nails sparkle in the filtered beams.

Oh did I mention my site is a two hour walk from any transportation. And the priest comes only on Friday and Monday to transport the teachers. And there is a two month period where everyone leaves for vacation. So far no twins, mazes or anyone named Johnny, Juan maybe……

2008-03-29T07:12:00.000-07:00

3.29.03

The aroma of burning eucalyptus
The stench of fermented corn which you think is cow food, but really is chicha
The beat of cumbia against the yapping dogs
The wafts of diesel air through my window every morning as the trucks are warming up

And the cheers from the site visit announcements

that’s right we have our sites! Woot! And the best part is that we had a semi relay race that involved blowing plastic cups along a piece of string tied between two chairs only to pick up a chocolate egg with someone’s name and site inside. Trembles of nervous energy were felt the whole day and once we all knew our sites we couldn’t stop talking about them even though all we really know are some descriptive words on a page.

So we leave for our sites this weekend. I am off on a flota to Sucre, the capitol city of the Chuquisaca region. My site, Pintantorilla is an estimated 30 minutes southwest of Sucre, though word on the street is the road is not so great, complete with a shaky bridge over a river. Maybe I will have good stories now about crossing a sketchy bridge just like you dad! We have a great group going to Chuquisaca, though dear Mishay is off to Tarija where the papaya surplus is thrown into the river. We dream of swimming in papaya someday.

Cuatro Esquinas is really getting torn apart, but all for the best since we will now have many opportunities for tech exchanges and visitas! So I guess I will have some pictures if I ever have the patience to let them load. Pepe, the Ag project director gave me a cd with a couple slideshows, one to Hotel California, totally rad. The school looks amazing and the kids though rarely smiling in pictures look to be having a good time. Seems like they enjoy singing and shows and they have made cabinets and wardrobes and welded and sewn and planted and grown and swum and played and laughed throughout. But that’s all to be seen with my own eyes.

You’d think the site announcements at the beginning of the week would make the remaining days last forever, but even in Bolivia, where time rarely factors in, the days continue to fly. Forced down what I’m pretty sure was some sort of feet, duck, cow…last night only to get spinach fritters for lunch today! We also toured the alpaca factory. Most relaxed factory I have seen and the speed and precision at which those ladies can knit is awesome. I found myself a nice little shawl blanket but some of the sweaters were out of this world pattern wise, not sure anyone could really rock them.

Securing the subjunctive in my language learning. Almost a mole moment, in which I totally could grasp the concept, but not quite. The rules and uses are of course easy, the application and repetition is what’s moving about as fast as a crowded micro on cobblestones. New teacher though and she is very patient and creative. We got to sing a song by Sui Genesis an Argentinean group from the 60’s we want to sing it for the host family party, which is a week after we get back from site visits and then we are in Coch for a few days and then that’s it. Training is over as reality sets in.

But before that we are to make our commitment statements and really make sure we are in the right place. So since that is overwhelming I think I will end here with hope.

Hope that traveling goes well for all of us and we can reaffirm our decision to be here.

Hope too that the wonderful things you all are doing in this moment are like tasty bits of fresh honey on soft chewy bread in the early morning of a fall day in Bolivia as the sun slowly melts the dew off the mountains.

Love in barrels in tons
Lebo

2008-03-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

March 21, 2008

I missed St Patrick’s Day. Totally unintentional and loving the fact that I was so wrapped up in tech week that I forgot what day it was, but still a little embarrassed. So we semi celebrated our last night of tech week in Semaipata. Pepe, the project director for Ag bought us some sheep for dinner had them slow roasted over coals and we had a little wrap partay. I even danced, or tried to dance the Chacarera. The dance native of the Chaco. Kilo, one of the volunteers in Santa Cruz is an amazing dancer and I some how got talked into attempting to follow unsuccessfully but fun. We went on to a karaoke called....with some of the PCV's and io redeemed my dancing, i think....

Semipata was our last stop during tech week. Beautiful town, semi touristic because of the oldest Incan ruins around and some lovely waterfalls, or so we hear. We were wrapped up with bee product transformation. We made lip balm, stamped wax used in bee hives and for those natural rolled candles, and a mixture of honey, pollen and royal jelly that like any bee product cures most illness and helps with anything and everything else you could thunk of. I am a bee junkie now, no turning back.

Most of tech week we worked with bees. In Villa Esperanza, with Armando, we made Nucleos which are smaller hives to produce queens and royal Jelly. So we learned how to make the beginings of queen cells, how to harvest royal jelly, and honey and how to collect propolis. the glue like substance that the bees use to repair the hive and control the temperature. Which we can use as a preservative. learned also that when eating larva, royal jelly and propolio a honey chaser is really the only way to make them semi tasty. The propolio miracle liquid is drops of 98% alcohol and propolio. It doesnt go down well nor does it taste good but it cures everything.

From Villa Esperanza we headed to Chilon, one of our sites, to meet the womens group that is very excited to have a volunteer to help them with their surplus peaches. We made jam and did a small talk on begining bees and cost of production for the jam.The group was so enthusiastic and like all mothers fed us extremely well many times over. And then we drove to a bigger town for sleeping and a few of us were lucky enough to hear from Just Ben (JB) of his animated film idea featuring a small bat, Andrew of course is along for the ride as long as he can use his moon system. Would you rather have a moon system or an imune system...think about it. I reccomend eating peanut butter s'mores while you think.

Villa Esperanza was set amidst the winding mountain roads and in less than a day we found ourselves driving through semi jungle and into chilons dry desert climate complete with towering cactus and dust. Chilon to Quirusillas, our next stop, was again quite the change in landscape. One night in Quirusillas after a playful figth with Tito over the last coco flavoured ice cream I found myself looking at the square surrounded by cyprus tress illluminated by the almost full moon drifting in and out of wispy clouds. Couldn't help but pretend I was in Van Gough's Starry Night!More bees here, still didn't really see any knees though. To wrapped up in capturing a ferral colony! We had to chop open the base of a tree, which I wasn't really on board with since it didn't seem right to destroy one living thin in order to reign in a bee colony, but we did it and then cut the combs out, attached them to frames and put them in the box only to wait two or so more hours to make sure the queen had been transfered. In the meantime we captured bees in bags and threw them into the box.

Quirusillas was lovely for many reasons the most important one for the warm cheesey salty sugary empanadas every morning. 1b each! (7 something b's to the doller) The valleys of Santa Cruz are really quite stunning and since i havn't seen much else of the country could easily bee happy there, but I am still holding out for the boarding school. Pepe interviewed us again and once I told him Pinantorella was my first choice we talked about it for the next 5 minutes...so things are looking pretty good and the site is sounding better and better! Dont want to count any chickens so until Monday that is all I will say. Quirusillas to Semaipata where we dined at a veggie restaraunt and had a sublime experience. French Bakery too the morning we left with pan au chocolate to boot we hit the road for th 14 hour drive back to Coch. No dance parties this time due to the duration, but we partied it up just fine throughout the week. Raquel has embarrasing footage for the training montage no doubt.

Really tech week was bomb. More confident with bees and products and my amigos here. We got lucky with the group, I am super grateful for that.

and for these

going halfses with Tito on steak and eggs
moon systems
having to climb down a ladder to get to the bathroom
mystery box, in spanish
cuba libre
brownies
bitter royal jelly
getting Don Roque dancing as he is driving the bus...so much happiness
gatos, dude, che

2008-03-12T10:59:00.001-07:00

Feb 12th 2008
My room is on a balcony very New Orleans style, long balcony with six rooms each with a window overlooking the courtyard. There is a long row of Eucalyptus trees behind the house bordering a stream/drainage for Tiquipaya, the town up the road. The balcony wraps around the corner and overlooks the street, one of the main drags in Cuatro Esquinas, Four Corners, my neighborhood. Through the balcony I can see if there are any of my fellow gringos wandering and say hello to the cows across the street.

All 31 of us have been placed in home stays about 20 minutes outside of Cochabamba in adjoining neighborhoods. Rachel lives next door, Michelle down the street and Garret, Meredith and Brandon round the corner a bit towards the mountains. We are in a valley so the mountains surround us and look divine round 6 or 7 when the sun is setting and casts and eerie yet warming glow on the topmost part while the rest is in cloud shadows. For all of us in B47 (47th group in Bolivia) we wake to four hours of Spanish class with no more than four people in a class. We meet at one of our houses and return home for lunch. The afternoon is then devoted to technical work. We usually meet in one of our houses and well, learn a lot!

As of now I have
nine spiral bound manuals on policy, health, women’s groups you name it,
four Spanish textbooks,
one cultural textbook,
one PACA book (participatory analysis for community action) to go along with our PDA (participatory diagnostic assessment)
Where there is no Doctor
Where there is no Dentist
And a huge binder full of articles on: vocab, conditions of agriculture in Bolivia, Gardening, pests and disease, conserving fruits and veggies, drying fruit, solar dryer construction, nutrition, beekeeping and Ag business.
Apparently this is only half of the materials we get…..

The Ag people have to make gardens, my group has it at my house, lucky but watering falls on me then. So we tilled 30 square meters mostly by hand on Sunday. Yesterday we planted a seed bed in our tech session in another groups garden. Added sand, manure, om (organic material) and planted. We even wove tape from a cassette through stakes above the bed to protect the seeds from birds. We have to plan our gardens in accordance with our PDA meaning we have to canvas the neighborhood and see what grows well, what sells, what’s needed, who grows what, who buys and when do they buy etc…We are also starting a community bank and have to market a product to sell, take out loans, pay interest all that. Overload of info but taking it as the Bolivians do there is always tomorrow to do things.

The group is of good spirits. Very varied and eclectic interests from all over the states. Big enough to have lots of friends and small enough to have closer friends and know everyone. Have met a good number of PVC’s already when they come into Coch from their sites which is nice because they are so helpful with questions. Seems like the Ag people will be in Santa Cruz, Tarija or the Chaco which means the down jacket is totally unnecessary except for when I visit the altiplano. Silk sleeping sack, though, best thing I could have brought, so cozy and functional, thanks ann!

Nos cheque
Lebo

March 8, 2008
Yes my blog, how fancy no?
Recap since so much has happened

Our garden is thriving! Especially the radishes and onions. Thanks to the rainy two weeks I haven’t had to water and the plantitas are loving it!

Our Queso de Paz (Peace Cheese) was quite the success. Andrew Marlise and I made queso fresco, basically a fresh cheese, simple flavor that we pressed in molds of pvc pipes and sold. We made 9 b’s profit. Took out a loan of 90, but only spent 60 so we still have to pay the ten percent interest on the 90. Sold the 12 cheeses for 7b’s a pop. Glad to have sold them all because though the consistency was primo, we lacked salt, a lot of salt, it really just tasted like molded milk, but it was soo good in the super protein salad another group made.

On Sunday Andrew Marlise and I have our PDA Charla. We discovered an interest in yoga among many of our sisters so we are combining Yoga classes with nutrition and exercise. So on Sunday we will have a basic Yoga class accompanied by Andrew on the guitar and after we are going to make smoothies to get people into fruits and milk.

Received our site descriptions on Wed. There are 15, 5 in each department, Santa Cruz, Chiquisaca and Tarija. I have my eyes on a sight in Chiquisaca in the municipality of Yotola. The site is Pitantorilla and it is a boarding school for high school dropouts who want to learn a trade. So they have carpentry and metal working and huge gardens with fruit trees and veggies and bees and ooo it would be sweet. I could probably have dance classes if I wanted! Surprisingly not that many people want it so I might have a good chance, though really any of the sites would be great. There is one in Tarija where they produce a surplus of papaya and end up throwing it in the river!!!!!! So the volunteer would be working on product transformation, imagine papaya all the time dried, juice, smoothies. Mom.

Mishay and Natalie and I signed up to do our tutoring in a university where the students want to hear native English speakers and then we can practice Spanish and meet some Bolivians who are our age. Going to make cookies with Alejandra my nine year old sister and then back into the city for a birthday celebration at the only sushi place in town. Brazilia Café, I guess it is Japanese Brazilian fusion???

Must catch the trufi now. Last wed I had to stand for 30 minutes with my back pressed against the ceiling in the crowded trufi. There were 25 people in one of those white vans….amazing.

2008-03-08T05:24:00.000-08:00

got my malaria pills a blog but no outlet for my usb drive soooo mañana time as usual.