Merry Christmas from Bolivia!

Hello everyone,

Merry Christmas! This is my first Christmas away from home and it's a little different. First off, its not cold here. Also there is no Christmas music playing consistently and few Christmas carols sung. I did bake cookies when I was in Santa Cruz for our Christmas pool party (strange isn't it to think of having a Christmas pool party). In Moro Moro Christmas is mostly celebrated with fireworks and feasting on pork. Tonight I'll have a late night feast on roasted pork with Andy's family who is visiting and some Moro Moro neighbors. There will be plenty of fireworks in the plaza.

I'm looking forward to a vist from my dad and brother. We plan to visit Santa Cruz, Amboró National Park, and my home and worksites in Moro Moro. I'm looking forward to receiving good ol' PA pretzels and some more books to read.

My current work project is measuring contour lines for planting strips of grass in really sloped fields to control erosion. Erosion is a major problem here. This morning as I was driving my motorcycle to Vallegrande I saw several places where large portions of rich topsoil had washed down onto the road with our most recent rainfall. There is a lot of interest in this project because people realize that erosion is a problem. Also we are giving fencing to make a garden as an incentive to cooperate with the project.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas!

news from Moro Moro

Well it’s been a while since I wrote a blog post, I hope people are still checking this out. It will soon be three months since I arrived in Bolivia. I’ve gotten quite used to living here, but I still find new things that surprise me and things that I miss about the States. I’ve gotten used to seeing flocks of green parrots fly by as I’m riding my motorcycle, but their beauty never ceases to amaze me. There are many interesting birds here, but I still haven’t been able to find a bird book for the region of Bolivia that I live in. For the most part I like the food here, it’s usually not to different from things we eat in the U.S. There’s lots of soup, potatoes, meat, and the occasional salad. Occasionally I’m served something that I’m really not interested in eating like “Patasca” for example. Patasca is a soup made for breakfast out of various parts of the cow’s head. When I was still sick with something flu-like I was served Patasca for breakfast and I just didn’t feel like eating it. I ate the corn and some broth, but left the ominous unknown piece of something that resembled meat. Most of the soups they make here are quite delicious. One of my favorites is “Lagua.” Its made with cornmeal in the broth and has potatoes, carrots, onions, rice, and a piece of chicken or really tough beef. The soups are usually really good until you get to the meat whose only purpose should be flavoring the soup, but it’s rude to leave food behind so I usually eat the meat and spend the next half hour picking meat from my teeth. You don’t have a meal without eating potatoes. Potatoes are present in every soup and are served with every dish. The foods I miss eating most are sandwiches made with soft sliced bread (there is almost no sliced bread here, and if you find sliced bread, it’s almost always super hard in order to survive shipping), dishes made with fresh vegetables.

Two weeks ago we had an all MCC Bolivia retreat in Buena Vista which is a gorgeous small town on the Northeast side of Amboro Nation Park. The resort we stayed at had a pool where I spent a lot of time and a toucan in a cage which I took numerous pictures of. We had a speaker from the Catholic missionary association Mary Knoll who spoke about walking with Jesus in the midst of diversity. Even though he was a Catholic priest he didn’t seem to say anything that was specifically Catholic and I really enjoyed his insights. We had a talent show in which I was involved in three acts. The first was with the group of MCCers from the East Coast of the U.S. which happened to include people from only two neighboring counties in PA, Berks and Lancaster. We danced to the song Cotton-eyed Joe and called it the traditional dance from our area. Next I did a solo number singing and playing guitar. The song is called “the one semester of Spanish love song” and you can look it up on youtube. The show ended with the SALTers doing the skit where you have someone sitting behind you being your hands. The theme was a kindergarten class, so we played with glue (which got in my beard), sang a song with motions, ate a snack (which I choked on), and brushed our teeth (needless to say toothpaste got everywhere). I really enjoy every time I get to see my fellow SALTers because in Moro Moro there are very few people my age. They’ve either left for a bigger city or have settled down and have their own families now. While in Santa Cruz for the retreat, Lynn and Laurie Longenecker had me over for lunch and I became quite excited when I found out they have the game Settlers of Catan. Now every time I come into Santa Cruz I’m going to beg to play Settlers with them.

The day I left to come back to Moro Moro I came down with a nasty cold which turned into something like the flu. It kept me in bed reading for several days. A few days ago I found this scorpion in my room. I caught it and preserved it in alcohol. Work in Moro Moro is going well. Andy and I finished fixing the poorly made latrines in Potorillos and now I’m starting my own project of fixing the latrines in Buena Vista (a different Buena Vista). We’ve done numerous workshops on themes like the importance of clean water, how to use dry latrines, how to more safely use pesticides (although we say it’s better not to use any pesticides), and how to make organic fertilizers. One of the highlights of working is getting to ride motorcycle. I’m getting more and more confident of my motorcycle abilities. Things I’m looking forward to include the Dec. 10 MCC Christmas party in Santa Cruz, and a visit from Steve and Josh in late December.

Today in Vallegrande I went to see the Che Guevara museum. It was semi-interesting, but rather lackluster as I'm finding most museums in Bolivia to be.

More from Moro Moro

Well folks, I’ve completed a second week in Moro Moro. I’m getting used to it. Moro Moro is both the name of the town pictured above as well as the surrounding municipality (think county). Depending on how you count there are between 500 and 1500 people that live in the town itself and approximately 3500 in the municipality. The confusing thing is that a lot of people have a room or small house in town and in one or more of the surrounding communities. I live with the family of the pastor of the evangelical church in the town of Moro Moro. The church is attached to the pastor’s house and is the process of being remodelled from its former state of a garage to a sanctuary half the size of the sanctuary of S. 7^th St. Mennonite Church. There are two services on Sunday and two more during the week. MCC’s office in Moro Moro is the front room of the house where Andy and Cassie Herringshaw live which is only a few blocks from where I live. The other MCCer in Moro Moro, Nathan Harder, lives in the community of La Abra de Astillero which is a quick motorcycle ride or a two hour hike from the town of Moro Moro. Andy and Cassie work primarily with potable water systems and dry latrines and Nathan works mostly with sustainable agriculture projects although sometimes things overlap a bit. Although we are still working to define my exact role here, I will be working with a mix of both sustainable agriculture projects, dry latrines, teaching a class on caring for the environment, and occasionally a bit water systems. Andy and Cassie are the water systems experts and so my role with water systems will be limited. MCC works mostly in the communities surrounding the town of Moro Moro. To reach our worksites we either ride motorcycle or hike. As witnessed by my landscape photos above, hiking here can be really beautiful and quite literally breath taking as the air is thinner at this higher altitude.

A quick list of things I’ve done with my host family:

Eat lots of good (and often greasy) food cooked by my host mom Marleny

Bake oatmeal cookies

Watch soccer games at the local soccer field

Play checkers with my 8 year old host brother Jabez (Hah-bayz)

Clean up trash in the back yard to make room for a garden

Attend church where my host dad Jairo (Hai-row) preaches and leads singing

Share music, violin, singing, guitar

Even though I enjoy spending time with my host family I get bored easily and go to my room to read. So far in Bolivia I have read Dignity and Defiance (stories of Bolivia’s response to globalization), two Dan Brown novels, Angels and Demons and Deception Point, The Smith of Whooton Minor and Farmer Giles of Ham by J.R.R. Tolkien, half of Irresistible Revolution by Shaine Claiborne, and I’m most of the way through Catch-22. I’m really enjoying catching up on doing pleasure reading that I didn’t find time for during college. MCC’s office in Santa Cruz has a nice library with books on theology, peace, farming, the environment, Bolivia, and a decent fiction selection made up of books left by various past volunteers. Each time I get back to Santa Cruz I will swap out the books I’ve read for new books to satiate my book wormy appetite.

This is a picture of me in Cochabamba. It can also be found on my Facebook page.

I arrived safely in Moro Moro Monday night. It feels good to finally be at my final destination where I will be serving until next July. Moro Moro is vastly different from any other place I've ever lived before to try to explain everything in one blog post would be way too much and then I wouldn't have anything to write about for the rest of the year. So this blog post will focus on roads and transportation.

Leaving Santa Cruz the roads are all paved, but once you get further out into the campo (countryside) the roads are no longer paved. Not only are they not paved, but they can be pretty rocky and uneven. Gravel roads are unheard of here, the roads are a mixture of clay, dust, rock, and sand, whatever is the natural terrain. Car rides are very bumpy and are only somewhat faster than walking. The roads zig zag up and down mountains and in many places the roads are not wide enough for two vehicles to pass. The custom when going around a blind curve is to blow your horn.

Only in the past few years have people in Moro Moro been able to earn enough to buy vehicles. The most common vehicles found in Moro Moro are motorcycles, station wagons, and trucks for transporting agricultural goods. The station wagons here are almost all illegal imports from Japan that originally had the steering wheel on the right side of the car, but have been switched to have the steering wheel on the left side, not that it really matters when there is really only one lane of traffic. Most cars here don't have license plates because there isn't much of a police presence in Moro Moro. Hitchhiking is standard practice here. If you want to go somewhere like Vallegrande, you just wait along the road that leaves town and ask passing vehicles where they're going. Yesterday on the way back from doing some work in preparation for a potable water system we hitched a ride in the back of an ambulance that was returning from doing an animal vaccination campaign in a rural community. That's all for now, next I'll tell you more about my work.

A week in Santa Cruz

Today I will be traveling to Moro Moro, the town where I'll be working for the rest of my time here in Bolivia. I'm very excited to finally get there because I've been in Bolivia a month now, but still haven't gotten to see the place where I will be working. I've been told the climate is very nice and mountain scenery is gorgeous. I'm glad I will be traveling mostly during the day so I can see the scenery as we travel. I will be going in a truck with fellow MCCer Nathan Harder who came as a one year SALTer, but decided to stay on and has now been here for four years.

My time in Santa Cruz has been very pleasant. With the other SALTers we visited all the workplaces of the volunteers that are staying in Santa Cruz. We visited Talitha Kumi, an orphanage for abandoned children, Guarderia Moises which is part of the Stansberry Children´s home (Guarderia means daycare/preschool), Guarderia Samuelito, and Centro Menno (the drop in center for low German speaking Mennonite colonists in Bolivia). We also visited a Mennonite colony outside of Santa Cruz. We got to see a Mennonite run mozzarella cheese factory. The Mennonite colonists in Bolivia are much like the Amish in North America. After visiting the Mennonite colony we went back to Santa Cruz to see the area of town that caters to the Mennonites. Our lunch was a very interesting cultural experience. Our international group of Americans, a Canadian, a Nicaraguan, and a Bolivian ate lunch in a restaurant that is owned by Asians, serves Mexican tacos, is patronized by low German speaking Mennonites, and is located in Bolivia. If that isn't globalization I don't know what is.

This week I've been living with a wonderful family in Santa Cruz. The parents are doctors and they have a one year old little girl. Being doctors, they have significantly more money than average Bolivian. It has been a little awkward for me to be living such a posh lifestyle this week when I know that it is not the reality for most Bolivians at all. To make things more complicated I've been reading Shane Claiborne's book "Irresistible Revolution" that talks about leaving sheltered lifestyles and putting oneself in the midst of the poor to be able to minister to them by sharing their joys and sorrows. This month of Spanish lessons and orientation has been good for me to learn about the variety of experiences in Bolivia, but now I am ready to dive into my work and life in Moro Moro. Pray for me that I may find the things that God wants me to be doing in Moro Moro.

Time winding down in Cochabamba

This weekend the rest of the SALTers in Bolivia that didn´t need language studies came to Cochabamba along with some other MCC staff. On Saturday we visited MaryKnoll which is more or less the Catholic equivalent of MCC. There we had two lectures. The first was on Andean cosmovision, essentially how people from the Andes Mountains region view the world, time, space, and spirituality. It was interesting to learn about. Andean people have a lot of symbolism that is represented in many different things. They view the world as containing three parts, the depths, the earth, and the heights. Many Christians would see this as hell, earth, and heaven, but we were told that in the Andea cosmovision the depths do not have a negative conotation, nor do the heights have an inherently positive connotation. They are just different realms that are inhabited by different creatures. For example, fish live in the depths, birds and deities in the heights, and most mammals in the earth, but some animals like frogs bridge the realms of the depths and the earth. Humans are supposed balance living in all three realms. I found this talk interesting, but did not find much meaning in it for myself. I do think that it is good for me to understand how people here think so that I can appropriately relate to them. We then shared a traditional Andean picnic which was followed by a discussion about coca.

Coca leaves are most notoriously known in the United States as the precursor to cocaine, a highly addictive and harmful drug. However, what most Americans don't realize is that the coca leaf is a very nutritional vitamin supplement. It just so happens that with extensive processing you can extract a miniscule amount of a very potent chemical, the cocaine alkaloid. By chewing coca leaves or drinking tea made from them a person receives essential vitamins, A, D, and calcium. The miniscule amount of the cocaine alkaloid is easily digested by the body's digestive system without getting high or receiving any toxic effects. The coca leaf is revered in Andean tradition with traditions surrounding how it is shared and chewed. The U.S. sponsored war on drugs in Bolivia has caused massive tension and extensive violence without significantly reducing the amount of cocaine that makes its way to the U.S. The war on drugs in Bolivia is not working, maybe it's time a different approach was taken like trying to reduce the consumption of cocaine in the U.S. or making products such as coca tea and coca candies legal in the U.S. so that coca farmers have a legitimate market for their coca.

Sunday was pedestrian day in Cochabamba. That means no cars, buses, or motorcycles from 8:00 am until 6:00 pm. It was an awesome sight to see the busy streets of Cochabamba void of all motorized vehicles. The streets were taken over by bicycles. Downtown a mechanical bull was set up in the middle of the street, and of course I just had to ride it. I managed to stay on a full 22 seconds just shy of the 26 seconds that Andy stayed on. It was fun. We witnessed a kid's bike race with a small girl pedaling a tricycle coming first in her division. We walked all the way to the edge of town where a the world's largest statue of Christ sits atop a hill overlooking Cochabamba. We rode the gondola up the hill to see it. I thought that this was a very cool symbol. I wish more cities had statues of Christ as opposed to ubiquitous statues of military generals that dot parks and intersections.

Monday and Tuesday I had more Spanish classes and in the afternoons with the other MCCers we had lectures on Bolivian culture and history. Tuesday we were introduced to the concept of "vivir bien" meaning to live well. It is an Andean concept of living well by sharing with and receiving from others. It is different from the western concept of living better, (which happens to be part of WalMart's slogan, "Save money, live better"). Vivir bien means to live well without striving to receive more and more, and if you have more and more you should share more and more while still being open to receive from others. This is a really neat concept to me that I'd like to learn more about, it really seems to fit into the lifestyle that Jesus led.

This Friday night I will take a bus back to Santa Cruz where I will spend a week and then I will head out to Moro Moro. May peace be with you all!

More from Cochabamba

Hi folks. Things continue to go well here in Bolivia. Spanish studies continue to go well. This past weekend I got to experience some interesting Bolivian traditions. I was invited to a birthday party for the grandson of my host family. I was told the party was to start at four. Then when I asked my host family what time I should get there they suggested around 5:00. I was playing card games with the other SALTers in Cochabamba and figured that 5:30 wouldn't be too late to arrive to the party. So I went back to my house a bit after 5:30 and no one had left yet. So by a little after six we walked across the street to the party and the party was just starting. The German guy that lived with my host family before me was also at the party, but he had rushed to get there by 5:00 figuring that he would be late. He ended up being the first one to arrive. This phenomenon of things not starting on time is called "La hora Latina Americana" (Latin American time). At the party we ate, sat around and chatted, ate cake, and played a game called rayuelas. Before the birthday boy blew out the candles on the cake we sang "Hoppy Baretday To Jou" and "Cumpleaños Feliz." After blowing out the candles the birthday boy had his face smashed into the cake, I guess that's the tradition around here. The cake was delicioius. Later we played rayuelas which is similar to corn hole or washers. There is a small platform with a small hole in it and you throw coins and try to get them in the hole or land on the platform. It's a whole lot harder with small coins than with beanbags or large washers.




On Sunday afternoon my host family took me to the neighboring city of Quillacollo (Key-ya-co-yo) to witness the traditions surrounding the Virgin of Urkupiña. This is one of those mixing catholicism with folk beliefs. I don't really understand the whole tradition. We arrived in Quillacollo to find hundreds of vendors selling miniature versions of everthing you could imagine, houses, cars, money, vegetables, fake diplomas, etc. My host family bought a few of the things and explained to me that the belief is that if you buy these things here and perform this traditional ritual you will have these things in the next year. Then, with miniature house and fake money in tow, we made our way up the rocky hill to where people were breaking pieces of rock with sledge hammers and setting off fire crackers. We searched for a place where we could do the same. Before starting working at breaking up some rocks, beer was poured on the rock for Pachamama (Mother Earth). Then the broken rocks were placed in a bag with confetti and fake money and chicha (corn beer) was poured over it with each person asking for things in the year to come, health, money, etc. Next we went to a place where a woman was selling meter square plots of land. There was a similar ceremony with chicha and beer blessing the plot of land.

The whole experience was quite interesting, but was entirely empty of meaning for me. It seemed like more of a commercial adventure for those selling things than a religious experience of any kind. It reminded me of the vendors in the temple that Jesus drove out. It is unfortunate to me to see such a mixing of Christianity and paganism. To some degree I appreciate the Andean tradition of Pachamama (mother earth) because I believe it helps people respect the earth, but the earth is nothing to be worshiped.

I finally got to meet Andy and Cassie Herringshaw who I will be working with in Moro Moro. They are here in Cochabamba for some Spanish refresher courses. More MCCers are coming to Cochabamba this weekend for a get together.

Cochabamba

Well folks, the next part of my time in Bolivia is language study in Cochabamba. I'm living with a host family here in Cochabamba. I have my own room with a view of the city. The front room of the house is a hair salon. The family is nice, but they are used to having people living with them all the time so they just leave me to do my own thing most of the time. The food is really good. They always serve me plenty. Patrick is my little host brother who tells me he is 10 years old, but I'm sure he's only 7 at the most. Last night we played ping pong without a table, played bowling with plastic 2-liter bottles (they're heavier here because they are returnable), and then we built castles out of the bottles which was difficult because they fall over easily. I took some cool pictures, but I'm still having problems with uploading them. I couldn't upload them at the MCC office and the internet cafes don't have USB plugs on the front of the computers.

My Spanish classes are going well. Part of the class is just a conversation with the teacher in Spanish. Mostly my conversations have involved trying to explain what a Mennonite is and what I'm doing in Bolivia. Bolivians are familiar with colony Mennonites who are very conservative and keep to themselves. They are known for their cheese, milk, eggs, and other farm products. Some Bolivians are a bit skeptical of them because they are so separate from Bolivian society and do not allow Bolivians into their colonies. The Mennonites had problems with a disease that just wouldn't go away and the Bolivian government had to force the Mennonite colonists to accept medical aid from Bolivian doctors. The Mennonite colonies have very limited education because none of them ever go past the 8th grade. Teachers are chosen not on the basis of their ability to teach but whether or not they're good at anything else. If someone isn't a good farmer, the colony offers the person a job as a teacher. I've also had some really good religious and political discussions with my teachers. As well as just talking in Spanish I'm improving my grammar and expanding my vocabulary.

Exploring Cochabamba has been fun. Most afternoons after lunch the group of four of us take a micro (bus) to the center of the city. Just walking the streets in Cochabamba is a cultural experience. There are ladies pushing around carts with orange juicers that sell the most amazing orange juice for 2 bolivianos which is about 30 cents. Everyone is trying to sell you something whether it's a bottle of coke or snacks, fruit, jewelry, clothes, shoes, or my favorite, Bolivian handicrafts. I bought a really cool faux suede jacket. Of course they told me it was real leather, but for less than $12 who can argue.

Next weekend the other Bolivia SALTers are coming to Cochabamba and we're planning to hike to the huge Christ statue that overlooks the city. Then at some point Andy and Cassie (the Moro Moro MCC workers) will be coming to Cochabamba to do a Spanish refresher course. It will be cool to finally meet the people I'll be working with. After 2 more weeks of language study I will head back to Santa Cruz for some more orientation, then I'll be off to Moro Moro.

Arrival in Bolivia

The rest of orientation was good. I made lots of new friends there and it was sad to say goodbye to them so soon. Orientation had lots of sessions about cross cultural communication and living with host families as well as worship services and sessions about Jesus' call to peacemaking. Each morning we had worship in different styles from around the world and we learned lots of new songs.

Thursday the Bolivia SALTers and YAMENer flew to Bolivia. We left MCC in Akron at 9:20 am and we arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia at around 8:00 am on Friday. Everything went smoothly. I was worried about the process of getting the visa to enter Bolivia, but it is really quite a simple process as long as you have the $135 in nice new US bills. The Canadian (Jada Dyck), the Nicaraguan (Consuelo Mendoza), and Natasha Diener all got through really quickly because only citizens from countries where Bolivians are required to pay for a visa have to pay for a visa. Natasha already had a visa from a previous visit. The other four Americans, myself, Karla Santiago, Becca Martin, and Vicencia Abundis, quickly caught up to the others by having an airport worker help us bypass the luggage inspection point. He just walked us right passed a long line of Canadians who looked frustrated as we just walked by. Of course the airport worker asked for a tip when got to the parking lot. I didn´t have any Bolivianos yet, but one of the MCCers obliged and gave the man a tip, he deserved it.

We were all quite tired on Friday because we had traveled all day the day before. We were introduced to the MCC headquarters in Santa Cruz where we are staying for the next few days and we met the MCC Bolivia team which includes North Americans as well as Bolivians and a couple from Honduras (who happen to know Nelson Weber). We went out for supper where most of us had a dish called "Majadito" which has rice with beef pieces served with a fried plantain, fried egg, and a piece of boiled yuca. It was quite good. To drink we had "mocochinchi" which is a drink made from dried peaches. Afterwards we took a "micro," (a van sized bus) to an ice cream place. The ice cream place was very Americanized. We were surprised to here that there are no McDonalds in Bolivia. There used to be a few, but they didn´t make it. There are a few Burger Kings and quite a few other burger chains. Like in Peru, fried and rotisserie chicken joints are everywhere as well as "Chifas" which are Chinese restaurants. So far Bolivia seems exactly like Peru to me. Well that´s all for now. More to come when there´s more to tell.

Orientation 2nd day

Wow, it feels like I've been here for a long time already. I've met so many people already and learned so much. The greatest thing about orientation is that it includes people from all around the world who are in the International Volunteer Exchange Program (IVEP) and YAMEN programs as well as the Serving And Learning Together (SALT) program. I'm already practicing my Spanish with people from Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, and even Haiti. I've met so many of the SALT participants that are going all around the world that it makes me sad I only have one week to spend with them.

As well as meeting lots of people we've had various sessions on how to mentally prepare for our assignments as well as the philosophy and history of Mennonite Central Committee.

Orientation

Hi everyone. Today is the long awaited day when I leave for orientation. I have one week of orientation at MCC's headquarters in Akron, PA. Next Thursday I fly to Bolivia. On Sunday I shared at my home church a little about what I will be doing in Bolivia and why I'm going. I'm really excited to be leaving for Bolivia so soon. I promise that my future blog posts will be more interesting...