Chris Brings Tanks to the Altiplano

(Manager of Learning) MOL is a concept that my boss loves, and that's exactly what has gone on during this tank building taller headed by Chris, the new PCVL boss, and JICA (the Japanese Peace Corps-type organization).

The girl, Leydi, taught us how to find cactus fruit and showed us which ones were ripe and which ones still needed time. They tasted like a mixture of kiwi and raspberry, and we learned something from a 6 year old. That was very gratifying.

A view of Beautiful Oruro from the hill we were building the tank on. These suburbs don't have a car in every garage, let alone two. But they are working together, men and women and children all working really hard together. It was great because it helped changed the opinions that Chris had about the altiplano. He was really impressed and complimentary. He served his first two years in the Santa Cruz region.
Here is a picture of the tank being built. A little bit too much concrete and sand mixture (1 to 3 mix) was put on at this part and it sluffed off. They fixed it when it had dried a little more and it shouldn't have any effect on the strength of the tank.

These tanks can be used to harvest rain water from your roof and it comes out of there clean and drinkable.

Old Bones

These bones were dug up at the original site for the 30,000 Liter tank being constructed on the outskirts of Oruro with my PCVL boss Chris. The Jaw bone is strange, take a closer look. The marble was already in the eye, maybe put there by the kids who hung around. It was dug up with the pottery beside its head, which led us to believe it might be really old. We moved the placement of the tank.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Now all I need is a football.

Alpaca Land

I bet you don't have one of those signs where you live. When I get to the truck stop town where we are drilling wells--which are going much better-- the road is paved. It's the international highway and it is always a huge relief to my nalgas to get to the paved part
I recently found myself surrounded by a bunch of alpacas on my way back to Corque from drilling a well. This is an alpaca baby, probably only a few weeks old.
They are really curious and have these giant bugged out eyes that seem to be wondering what the heck I'm doing there.
So fluffy and soft, but...
their meat is kind of tough. Those big black things in there are chuño. They are not good. This is a pretty typical lunch in the campo.

An attempt to show what it feels like

This is one of my favorite pictures ever. The kids here remind me why I'm here, and bring extra joy to my life.

Feeling: hope and happiness

This is the big mountain outside of La Paz from the air plane when we arrived in May

Feeling: Fianlly Real

This is a salty lake bed outside of Huari, another altiplano site, which is starting to fill in now that the rainy season has arrived.

Feeling: Awe

One of the hardest things about Peace Corps is constantly saying good bye to all of the great people you meet while you're here.

Feeling: Sad, awww

Kids and !&$%#

All Bolivian babies are this adorable. I'm not kidding

I'm happier to be here than they are

Do you smell the shit that I'm shovelin'? Me neither because it was a properly maintained ecological dry latrine and it is now fertilizer in a garden. I knew I would eventually be dealing with poop in the Peace Corps, but at least not as frequently as I thought.

Talkin' trash to little kids

During training we gave a "charla" to kids about not littering, recycling and reduction of waste.
In one of the classes a little girl stood up and sang a song for us. It was pretty incredible. So then they wanted us to sing a song so we sang "I'm a little tea pot."
We gave little candies out for people who would answer questions, unfortunately a lot of the wrappers ended up as litter, but it was still a great experience.

Sorry these pictures are lame, but at least they're new

Swanking away the blooze at a fancy place in Cochabamba for my friend Jamel's birthday
Unfortunately you can't see the title, but if you could it would say Phony Baloney, the Counterfiet Kid, starring MR. T

You can find some crazy stuff in the markets of Bolivia, but not what I need... besides rice
This is my best friend in Corque, a plant I named Frank. If there is ever another picture of this or my other plants on my blog I will delete it and you will never have to come here again.
That's all for now. I'll try to improve, faithful reader.

Baby steps to little league

OYE alcalde! (that's his office in the background) Softball is the next big thing!

She's using a lefty mitt on the wrong hand because it's all I had, but I have a feeling that's going to change, right faithful readers?
Just about the cutest (not a word I like to use mind you) thing I've ever seen

Fielding some questions

1. The couple with the llama....what happened to the wool????
These people don't look real.
Are you sure you didn't dress them up like this just for the photo??

They use the wool. Either they spin it themselves or they take it into town (Oruro) and have it spun for them I think. I swear, that was real.

2. Where did you get the "prom" dresses???

You can get all sorts of stuff here. Every night at don Pedro's house we'd see 10-15 semi-trucks go past on the highway from Chile and they told me that they were filled with contraband. I had to wonder what it was, because the only direction drugs go in Bolivia is out and these trucks were headed toward the city of Oruro. They said that they were filled clothing from the U.S. True? who knows, but there are markets filled with used clothing, and among the clothes are indeed prom dresses.

3. That governor guy looks like he is wearing giant fruit loops around his neck.
What gives??

They pretty much are giant fruit loops. It is puffed grain that they wear at fiestas. My guess, although I should have asked by now, is that it is a festive way to celebrate a good harvest.

4. I'm up for an explanation of the benefits of dry latrines.

Oooh, I'm so glad you asked!
1. No water usage, very nice in the dry dry dry dry altiplano.
2. When used properly there is no bad odor.
3. When built properly the bad stuff won't leak out and get into the aquafer.
4. Six months after closing one side and beginning to use the other (there are two chambers where the poop goes) the contents are sterile and can be used as fertilizer.
5. You can throw the toilet paper into the hole instead of into a trash basket (that's bigger for me than for Bolivians).

5. The kids are adorable. Is there anything I can send you for them?

Just well wishes or prayers, if I do my job you guys letting me go should be enough. But if I think of anything I'll let you know.

6. I have some money from our Church Women's Circle (Susanna Wesley Circle) and
will be sending some baseball things to you in a week or so, in packages less than
4 pounds each. Do you still need that "cup"?

My dad said he'd take care of that, but thank you!

7. Thanks for sharing about the diet of Bolivian pigs. I'll think twice before I eat bacon.

American bacon is totally safe, and one of my friends who went to culinary school once chewed me out big time because I was over cooking bacon. I'd just stay away from the value brand unless you want company in your head in the form of a worm.

8. Fabulous photos. I feel like I am there with ya'all, except for the extra comforts.

Thank you very much!!!

The ongoing misadventure of Don Pedro's well

It's tough to see, but there is beautiful Sajama on the left from don Pedro's hill
And here it is again from the hill behind my house
And this is don Pedro's house, where we ran into some trouble drilling. We're going to get back at it on Monday and hopefully that will be the end of that. The first building is where we all slept, and I think the building in the back is where they keep mountains of chuño, the almost flavorless and nutritionless freeze dried potato relative which is a staple of the altiplano. In the foreground is doña Rosa in her kitchen. The "walls" are made of the sticks that they use for fuel. It's pretty interesting to imagine my grandma cooking thanksgiving dinner outside on her knees with a mixture of sticks and llama poop for the fire.

God bless Amerrruhca!

I swear, we do work in Peace Corps

This is pretty dark, but there's my fellow volunteer walking into the rainbow. We were looking for the house where they were drilling. This is success for us. They are drilling in Condoriri without our help. We spent a few hours walking around looking for the equipo before we had to give up and go back into the central plaza where we found beds for the night.
Many of the houses in the countryside have little chapels, this one was like something out of Indiana Jones (which I hope they show here). It's original purpose seems to have been forgotten. It has been used as a sheep corral for a long enough time to turn the floor black... because of the poop.
33 meters deep with 1 inch galvanized pipe. These campesinos were earning the water that will **hopefully** come from this well. They pull a this stick, which is attached to the rope that is attatched to the tubing.
We use a bipod set up with 4 guide lines. If you have suggestions to make it better or questions as to how it works, comment.
This is the "bus" back to town from our drilling site. That day, the only day of the week when there is transport, 14 other adults, 3 bicycles, 4 llama hides, a baby, and a rowdy rooster wanted to get to Corque in addition to me. We fit in a regular cab, regular bed Ford pickup truck.

This picture just can't do it justice.

After I got back from a week in the campo drilling, llama tripe soup for breakfast, alpaca liver for lunch and tea with bread for dinner I stopped at this pension (house that serves food) for some french fries and chicken. It's never tasted so good. These children live there, and are my future Corque little league all star team.

Kirby's Birthday

We went and taught ultimate frisbee to some Bolivian children. Gotta squeeze some work in there, right?
Kirby in Bolivian birthday garb with his girlfriend. The armadillo in his hand is a percussion insturment like a rattle.

Baseball in Oruro

B, the other gringo on the Peligrosos Rojos (Dangerous Reds) throwing smoke.
That's me. I'm having a really hard time finding a cup here in Oruro. Scary.
These are some of the Bolivians and Cubanos on our team. Two of our Oruro volunteer friends are also pictured here.
This is just to show the field in Oruro, where we play. It needs some work, but there is a lot of interest in baseball here, so in a few years they might do something to make it better. Other cities have really nice diamonds, like Okinawa, which is a Japanese settlement in the Santa Cruz region.

If you don't like it, don't eat meat. ¡Evo viene!

This was taken minutes before I almost keeled over and died from lack of oxygen. Before the Evo came there were soccer tournaments and other feats of strenght. I took part in the bike race and came in last by about 15 minutes. But I still have my pride?
For the town's anniversary they slaughtered 5 llamas in addition to the pig. It's not every day that the president comes around.

This cute little girl was sort of interested in what was making all the noise. She was looking inside the pen where the next picture was taken. This is how we get bacon. I didn't eat this pig, and wouldn't eat any pig that was killed in my town. They eat from the latrines (which are right next to the stream see below).

As you can see, I was really keen on helping with this one. Check out the disgusting, trash filled, project for the rainy season stream in the background.

This little girl was so curious, it was almost disturbing, and yet cute at the same time.

The townsfolk from our whole county crowd in to see Evo, please remember that I got to shake his hand.Evo and the Prefectura, who is the equivalent of the governor of Oruro province

Evo right before he takes off back to La Paz with some lawyers from my town.