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.

Fun time during training

Training was really busy, but we found time to be inspired by the Big Lebowski, dude.

An unidentified friend trying the local fermented corn alcohol drink, Chicha. This is kind of what it made you feel like.
Some of our host family children at my host family's restaraunt and pool. We had one holiday during training, so we had a barbeque. USA!!!!
This is my host family and me at dinner of deep fried pig parts, hopefully it was cooked well enough to keep me from getting brain worms. Only time will tell.
Tom, Anna, and I showing how bad ass we can be when we want to

Some pics from our 3 month training

This is my training group walking over to an overlook of Cochabamba from near the radio and radar towers for the Cochabamba airport

This is a view of Tiraque from the top of our hostel during a weekend trip during training

Altiplano full moon during Tech Week

This is an Inca Era building, so long abandoned, and so well built, that this huge tree has grown atop a doorway

I had half of my language classes during traing at this house in Illataco, outside of Cochabamaba
Across this river valley there is what looks to be a 1 room house, as tranquil as anything I could imagine. I want to vacation there when I'm retired.

Some Training Projects

Ok, I'm sorry, but I have to. I've been told that I'm built like a brick shit house. During training we actually built this one. It's a great design though, and I could expound on the benefits of dry latrines, or baños ecologicos, at length if there is interest from you guys.

This is the skeleton of a rain water catchment tank that B-45 (the 45th PC group in Bolivia) built in a boarding school in Tin Tin on our tech week trip.

This is just before we were going to put the cap on and call it almost good.

These are three of the beneficiaries with our 3rd year PC Volunteer Leader, Lex inside of the tank. It should be holding 10,000 liters now.

First Post

Sunset in Antipichaca at Don Roberto's house where I have been drilling a well

President Evo Morales in Corque

Baseball at 12,500 feet in Oruro