Yucca

my trip this week to the department of Santa Cruz, was filled with adventure, up and downs, heat, bugs, organic gardens, rainforest burnings, bolivian conflict, yucca, platano, bread, stomach issues, popsicles, dirt and delicious fried dough. also a small side now, i am tanning in from of my window of my apt right now, have maybe been sitting here for 5 minutes and my skin is turning pink. THE SUN IS SO STRONG HERE.

the journey began at 4:30 am on thursday morning when i woke up to get ready to go to the airport. my two friends on the program slept over at my house the night before because i live closer to the airport making getting there much easier. so we woke up at 4:30, had some tea and went downstairs to wait for the taxi that we had called the day before. he never showed up so we just found another taxi driving roaming the streets of la paz at 5:20 am and he took us to the airport. when we got to el alto, the city above la paz where the airport is, i nearly turned into an icicle. i thought la paz was cold? holy S***, el alto is frigid. anyway, we got on the plane safe and sound and i had a window seat facing illimani ( the famous mountain) from the plane. i have some prettty sweet pictures that can be seen below.

we got into santa cruz at around 8:00, the flight is an hour, and were picked up in a huge white van and driven to our first hotel. there we took a nap and then headed out to lunch. my lunch consisted of homony off the cob and a stew of flavorless peppers onions and potatoes. first warning sign that i was going to be miserable food wise on this trip. later that day we went to a b'hai university to have a lecture with other students from the university. my attention span equaled that of a fly so for 2.75 hours i learned nothing besides how bolivian students act in class and that my pen wasnt of good quality ink. the students came in about 45 minutes late, chatting, sodas in hand. santa cruz is very very diffferent from la paz, it is in the low lands, tropical, VERY white, the "center" of economic development for the country and snooty. so the students were all dolled up, the girls had their mirrors out to do their makeup in class, passed notes, etc. i think you get the picture. after the lecture i wanted to punch a wall because i was so bored, but instead we went to dinner with the professor who gave the lecture. i sat farthest away from him so that i didnt have to as questions or pretend to be interested. i had a salad for dinner with a side of steamed vegetables. my last delicious meal for 4 days. that night we also went to a "parade" for the 200 year aniversary of the city. it wasnt very interesting or fun so we went to a bar instead. then we went to sleep.

in the morning, we left for San Julian, a small town about 2.5 hours away. the town was started in the 1950's after the revolution in bolivian. agrarian reform tried to give large plots of land in the low lands to campesinos from the high lands ( potosi, sucre, la paz, oruro). so the town of San Julian is made up of people from the high lands, living in the low lands. as you can imagine, this makes for some interesting conflict. i interviewed the owners of the place we had breakfast at every morning and the wife is from the low lands and the husband is from the high lands. they dont live near the wifes family because her family does not approve of the husband. the reform was meant to give land to people so that they could grow their own food and live off of what they grew, instead, because of pressures and the need for an income planted large plots of soy, sorgum, corn and rice. this is all exported to brasil now. there are also TONS of menonites that live in san julian and they ride around in their horse and buggies and have enormous plots of land to grow on. the most incredible thing about the drive in was the "chaqueos." this is when they take huge plots of rainforest and burn it down to make space for growing these raw materials. the entire city ( of santa cruz and san julian) smelled like fire and you couldnt see very far away. it looked like the world was ending. the airport was closed for a few days because visibility was so bad. here are some pictures:

when in san julian we met with the local government, put on a workshop about the environment: water, trash and burning of the rainforest, which turned into a 3.5 hour discussion and talk about the problems with all three of these items in san julian. it was incredibly interesting and incredibly hot in the room. it was maybe 98 degrees with 200% humidity and no fan. i almost fainted several times. but anyway, the conclusion is that access to water here is a huge problem and that with global warming is has gotten much worse. it was so so so dry there that my eyes were burning from the dirt that the wind swept up. there are little ponds all over that are filled with trash and pigs taking naps. a bottle of water in san julian costs 8 bolivianos and in santa cruz it costs 4. water is a huge issue. we also got the chance to go to a small "chaco" which is like a small farm of one of the women from the local government. we drove for 30 minutes and walked through her plot filled with cows and a banana tree to her well and small "huerta" or garden. there is a bolivian ngo called renase that is working with local people to help them start small edible gardens. so dona lorenza showed us hers. she is growing some kind of kale, potatoes and onions. she was telling us about how her neighbors on both sides have huge plots of land from growing sorgum and soy and that they use planes to drop pesticides and that these pesticides get on her plants. basically it turned into an incredibly interesting discussion about food sovereignty and organic produce. the next day i went to a workshop in a SUPER small pueblo, about 1.5 hours away from san julian called san miguel de puerto rico to see what this co-op of women is doing. they are growing organic produce in their backyards to feed their families and make their children healthier. they offered us food, which for people who basically have nothing is a HUGE gesture and we ate lunch with them. they are all originally from the high lands but have lived in the low lands for 20 something years. we walked around and they each showed us their gardens in their backyards filled with cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, kale, lettuce, herbs of every kind, celery, watermelon, squash. water is a very big issue here as well. all the plots were extremely dry and im not quite sure how anything was growing. on our way back there wasnt any transportation to bring us home, probably because we were in the middle of nowhere, so we found a neighbor with a car to drive us. 12 people fit into a 5 seater car. my friend jenny and i were in the trunk with 2 full grown men and a large woman. i loved every minute of it. i felt like i was really getting to experience bolivia and see the reality of life for most people here.

the next day we headed back to santa cruz and got back a little late because of traffic and a popped tire. i had never wanted protein more in my life, because the entire time we were in san julian i ate french fries, tomatoes bread and apples. i ran over to the super market and shoved a bunch of brazil nuts, walnuts and almonds into my mouth and then went into a protein coma. it felt great. the rest of the time in santa cruz we kind of just hung around, slept a lot and interviewed a leader from the el alto of santa cruz called plan 3,000. he told us about conflicts in 2008 in which people with darker skin were beaten in the streets, bombs were sent to community leaders in the mail and death threats were a part of every day life. the conflicts have cooled down a little bit now, but the tensions and memories will always be there. that night for dinner we went to a funny restaurant with typical food from santa cruz. the waiters were wearing costumes. we ordered this drink called chiccha which is fermented corn with cinnamon and cloves. SO goood. the rest of the menu was basically meat so i had steamed carrots, peas and beets with yucca for dinner. i also had some "chuno" which is dehydrated potato and super delicious. at this restaurant our bus boy was the most attractive person i have ever seen. also the shyest. the next day we explored around for a few hours and then left for the airport. now altitude is a reality again and i have become semi-pacena (someone from la paz) with my wad of coca in my mouth to help ease the effects of altitude. it feels good to be back at home and frigid.

I saw my first fly this week!

yes, as the title of this entry suggests i saw my first bolivian fly this week. because the altitude is so high, the little buggers have a hard time standing their own here, but this week as i was breakfasting on some bolivian baguettes ( maraquettas) and quince jam (O.M.G) i saw a fruit fly! it was quite magical and surreal. some other exciting things that happened this week, that again will involve food are: i bought these 100 calorie bars ( i guess they are into the 100 calorie packs here too) at Irupana, a health food store, that are puffed quinoa, amarynth or canawa covered in chocolate. they are pretty f-ing delicious.

i also drank a rather strange drink that i was skeptical about, but which turned out to be very delish: you take dried peaches, put them in a pot with a few cups of water and boil it for a while with some cinnamon. then you drink the water. and then you eat the peaches. its called mocochinchi.

i also had some coca and cinnamon tea this week because i was sick and had to miss school. i for some reason thought that dried fruit= safe, but as it turns out prunes late at night here that have not been washed it not a good idea. i woke up the next morning and couldnt walk because it felt like 10 ninjas were stabbing my small intestines with shark teeth. i slept for 3 hours, ate some crackers and then got examined by a family doctor. i had just had some soup right before she came and my estomago was digesting it, when she heard this with her stethascope she immediately diagnosed me with a bacterial infection and prescribed me anti-biotics. i said thank you very much and threw the prescription out. some other VERY exciting news in the life of adrienne in bolivia is that today, sunday september 20, i had some mexican food!!!!!!! such a relief and i will definitely sleep well tonight. i only have two more food items to tell you all about and then i will move onto the more boring things in my life. i found this AMAZING little health food store called " arco iris" and they literally sell everything delishous in this world. croissants, chocolate, jam, whole wheat breads, smoked trout, hummus, fruit juices, dried fruit, cookies, nuts, nuts covered in chocolate, cake, coffee, tea, cheese, babagonush, sundried tomatoes, you name it and they have it. i bought my family some goodies as a thank you for being so sweet to me and buying me basically everything i need and also things i dont need. i also tried to make brussel sprouts, and failed miserably. i used regular oil instead of olive and it just wasnt the same. also, the brussels here are about the size of olives ( precious size).

i will finish my food items with a segway into my jewish items. i went to yom kippur services and breakfast this fine saturday afternoon. yes, i attended services at THE highest synagogue in the WORLD. exciting, right? the temple was conservative, i had to show my passport to enter, then walked through 2 high security, vault-like doors to a room filled with maybe 60 bolivian jews. women on one side, men on the other. i sat there for 2 hours not being able to follow anything waiting to eat. i also didnt really take into account that not eating for 24 hours at 13,000 ft above sea level might not be the best idea. basically i almost fainted a few times, wanted to vomit, and couldnt really stand up. but hey, i was united with jews all around the world for a day so who cares, at least i am still alive and blogging! i broke my fast with potato empanadas, chocolate covered dried pineapple, challah, peanut stuff covered in chocolate, orange juice and some tea. it was all very delicious, but nothing compared to break fast at the beitcher residence. i havent really felt homesick yet, but last night i definitely did.

this week i also went to the museo de metales and the folkloric art museum. they were both very interesting and both very small. i got to see gold and silver from a very ling time ago.

my blogging this week is a little out of order and a little sans pictures because a lot of the things i did i couldnt take picutres of, like my volunteering on saturday. jenny ( a friend from my program) and i went to volunteer at this restaurant that helps children shoe shiners. the shoeshiners are anywhere from ages 8-28 and shine shoes on the street. some of them live on the street and some of them live in houses. every saturday they come to this restaurant to eat breakfast ( maraquettas with cheese and some tea) and discuss different things. every 2 weeks they publish a mini newspapers with articles that they write themselves about whatever topic they choose. this week it was mainly little kids who came so we ate breakfast, colored, wrote our names and then one of the little girls read her article to me. her name is karen, she is probably 11, and wrote a little article about when she was in the hospital having surgery. jenny and i are going to try to go every saturday that we are here in la paz.

the amount of bread they eat here is out of control and if i dont start saying no to my bolivian dad when he offers me delicious bread, i am going to turn into pan integral.

my mom also arraganged for a woman to come to our apt to sell me and my sister bras, so instead of a tupperware party, we had a bra party. my family also bought be new blouses, as seen in the picture above. there is a lot more that i have to write and tell but i have to pack my suitcase for tomorrow because we leave at 5:15 am for Santa Cruz, another city in Bolivia. I will get back next wednesday night and will have lots of blogging to do!

my new shirt, also proof that i am alive and not actually as preppy as the foto suggests

view from my window at nigh

tme and sis going out together plaza around the corner

view from my teachers apt, that is the famous mt.illimani

my eye is like this from the altitude here, but it doesnt hurt
zebras that help you cross the street. they are fake people but real zebras.

Comida comida comida

i heard from a few people before coming to bolivia that the internet is as slow as turtles here and this beautiful city has proven them right. the internet is terrible everywhere. anyway, this week has been pretty overwhelming, frustrating, filled with delicious food, afro-bolivian music, vegan cafes, visits to a rural town near my university campus, tons of reading, abitas, museums and sunshine!! the week was overwhelming and frustrating because of how much school work i have, the fact that i use up 2 hours of my day just to travel to school and back, and the fact that because of these two things i dont have time to explore or relax during the week. i really only have 2 more weeks of serious school work and lectures and then its off traveling to different regions in bolivia, argentina and brazil. this week at school we had lectures on the history of bolivia, the cuban revolution, the bolivarian revolution in venezuela and an economic history and framework of bolivia in the past and present. the constitution of bolivia is pretty awesome, it states water as a human right and recognizes bolivia as a plurinational state with 36 different ethnic groups.

now on to the FUN stuff that i did get a chance to do this week. it all started off with typical bolivian food: saltenas. they are like empanadas but filled with a stew, mine was vegetarian of course. there is a special technique to eating them to that all of the juice doesnt spill out and i ate mine like a pacena ( someone from la paz) until the very end when i looked down and my hands were covered in juice. it was pretty much the most delicious thing i have ever had though aside from "abitas" which are roasted fava beans. you make them like roasted peanuts, except with dried fava beans. a pack of them costs 1 boliviano ( the exchange rate is $7 to 1 boliviano) so they are the cheapest delicious food i have ever had. this week i also ate some figs again, found some prunes, quinoa salad, vegan cookies, cocapi ( a drink made with red api flour, orange peel, spices and coca flour heated up), quinoa lasagna, homony, strawberry ice cream sans milk and the MOST incredible potato to ever exist in the entire world. i am telling you, there has never been a better potato. its called camote and at lunch on friday it was very quiet so i broke the silence with an intense conversation about potatos and made everyone vote to say if the camote was their favorite potato on the planet. its dark purple on the outside and orange on the inside and so sweet and carmelized. i will try to send samples to the US of A.

ok, aside from food i also did other things this week, like visit a rural town near my university campus and hang out with kids at an afterschool program. at the school they have rooms for homework, rooms for playing, a kitchen where they learn how to cook, a huge playground, vegetable gardens, bunnies, llamas, alpacas, turkeys, chickens, ducks and a dining room. the kids are aymara and get a stipend from the government to pay for this afterschool program. the girls were making a bolivian dessert called "bonuelos" which is flour, amarynth tea, salt, sugar and milk and then cooked in hot water very quickly. we are thinking of going to the school one day a week during spanish class to hang out with the kids. the mountain that you see in the picture is Illimani, the famous mountain of La Paz, seen from the school. the mountain used to be covered in snow but now has very little because of global warming. i also went to a talk put on by students from the public university called UMSA, where 4 students presented their senior thesis on the politics of the body and the different ways in which it can be politicized and objectified. it made us all wish that we were taking classes at UMSA so that we could be more involved with students in social movements here and have something to talk about with fellow students. at the UPB university where we are taking classes, the kids only talk to us about getting drunk and partying. so it was a little frustrating to see that there is a university perfect for us and that we arent taking classes there. on thursday night we went to a famous discoteca here, like 3 blocks from my house, where a group of afro-bolivianos come on thursday nights and play a set of music with huge drums and there is a woman who sings. it was SO SO fun!! the music was great, the company was great, this boy taught me merengue and then at 2:30 am we called it a night and my sister Denisse and I went home. my friend eloise also slept over because she lives kind of far and it was too late to go home alone. also, in case you were wondering, breathing hasnt gotten any easier. dancing for about 2 minutes knocks the wind out of you basically. then today i woke up and did a bunch of reading for class so i could get ahead and then my family took me to a famous vegetarian restaurant here in la paz. lunch costs 25 bolivianos which is like $3 dollars and you get soup, steamed veggies, salad, dessert, your main course a drink and bread. i ate brocolli soup, tomatoes, lentils with whole wheat pasta, horchata, flan, plantain, quinoa, potato stew with vegetables for 3 DOLLARS!! very crazy. you also have to eat a lot at lunch time here because nobody eats dinner; because the altitude is so high its reallllly hard to digest things late at night so people dont usually eat dinner. in my house we have a few crackers and tea at around 7 or 8. then after the vegetarian restaurant we went to the art museum in la paz; it was a little boring until the end because all the paintings were of saints and virgens. at the end it was more contemporary. then i went off on my own and found this vegan restaurant and tea house that i have been waiting for a month to find, yes before i even got here i was excited about this place. i went in, got a cup of coffee and did some reading. the menu looks really delicious and i will be back several times. to get home, i took a mini bus. for everyone out there, this is a HUGE accomplishment. they are the craziest forms of public transportation: someone sits in the back or stands yelling where the bus is going, you have to flag the bus down, basically sit on people laps because they get so full and yell to the driver when you want to get off. very intimidating, but also exciting and fun! they only cost 1.50 bolivianos. i hope that this week at school gets better and that we start to make a few more friends; right now we are like animals in a cage being stared at, so i hope that this ends soon.

ok, aside from food i also did other things this week, like visit a rural town near my university campus and hang out with kids at an afterschool program. at the school they have rooms for homework, rooms for playing, a kitchen where they learn how to cook, a huge playground, vegetable gardens, bunnies, llamas, alpacas, turkeys, chickens, ducks and a dining room. the kids are aymara and get a stipend from the government to pay for this afterschool program. the girls were making a bolivian dessert called "bonuelos" which is flour, amarynth tea, salt, sugar and milk and then cooked in hot water very quickly. we are thinking of going to the school one day a week during spanish class to hang out with the kids. the mountain that you see in the picture is Illimani, the famous mountain of La Paz, seen from the school. the mountain used to be covered in snow but now has very little because of global warming. i also went to a talk put on by students from the public university called UMSA, where 4 students presented their senior thesis on the politics of the body and the different ways in which it can be politicized and objectified. it made us all wish that we were taking classes at UMSA so that we could be more involved with students in social movements here and have something to talk about with fellow students. at the UPB university where we are taking classes, the kids only talk to us about getting drunk and partying. so it was a little frustrating to see that there is a university perfect for us and that we arent taking classes there. on thursday night we went to a famous discoteca here, like 3 blocks from my house, where a group of afro-bolivianos come on thursday nights and play a set of music with huge drums and there is a woman who sings. it was SO SO fun!! the music was great, the company was great, this boy taught me merengue and then at 2:30 am we called it a night and my sister Denisse and I went home. my friend eloise also slept over because she lives kind of far and it was too late to go home alone. also, in case you were wondering, breathing hasnt gotten any easier. dancing for about 2 minutes knocks the wind out of you basically.

today, sunday, i went to " la feria de 16 de julio" which is a HUGE flea market in El Alto, the Aymara city above La Paz. It stretched for miles and was the craziest market i have ever been to. people were literally selling everything from tires, to a handful of mushrooms, matchbox cars, toothpaste, used clothing from the US, organce juice, yogurt, basically anything you could ever need or want could be found there. i also went to the famous farmers market here callled " mercado rodriguez" which was also miles long. everything looked so beautiful and delicious and i bought a mango, carrots, camote, brocolli, bitty baby brussel sprouts and some ginger. then i got lost on my way home and made friends with this 80 year old woman who helped me find my mini bus home. great day, now for the homework! i miss everyone at home very much and mexican food from holy guacamole and tacos por favor. if anyone thinks of a way to send me these things, as well as flavor queen or flavor grenade pluots from the farmers market, please let me know or just send them my way!

Hablas como un paceño

sorry to all of my fans for not posting in a while! here is a brief summary of what the past week has been like: hectic, crazy, fun, beautiful, difficult. here is a not so brief summary: in the past week so much has happened that it will be hard to tell all. i moved in with my family, i have a mom Eli, dad Pepe and sister Denisse. its seems as if i got the beitcher family of bolivia, they are the nicest people, health freaks, my sister and mom are vegetarians and semi lactose intolerant, and they are extremely acommidating. they bought me a box of bon bons, 6 types of shampoo, 5 bars of soap, a towel, new comforter and FIGS!! secile, if you are reading this, the figs in bolivia are nowhere close to being as amazing as yours. they are still good though. so, my family situation is great. next item on the list is my weekend, my dad and sister took me all around the city to show me various parts and neighborhoods. we went drove to my university campus to see it and its literally in the middle of the andes mountains. everytime i look out my window of either my apt, car or school i am amazed that all of this ( the city, people, everything) exists in the middle of some of the craziest mountains in the world. its mind blowing. to get to school i have to take a 45 minute bus down a road that isnt paved and cross a mini river in the bus. anyway, on our way back from visiting the campus, a woman was herding her sheep and goats down the road we were driving on. pepe, my dad, asked her if we could pet them and she brought a 5 day old one up to the window for us to say hi to. nothing has ever been cuter. on saturday night my family took me to the theater downtown to see a 3.5 hour performance of traditional folkloric dances from all different regions in bolivia. it was AMAZING!! as our snack for the concert, my sister bought be popped pasta covered in chocolate. its definitely something to get used to, but they were good. the dances were beautiful and i know have a pretty good grip on what kind of fabrics and social setting each region of the country has. some have more of a colonial legacy than others, reflected in the clothing and fabric, and others are still completely indigenous and traditional. it was cool to see this all through dance and music. my sister taught me about a region called Potosi, which used to be the backbone of the spanish empire. there are now women in the streets in la paz called "potosinas" because they are sent from Potosi by their "bosses" to beg in the streets. for the most part they are older women who come with small babies. they come here, beg for money, return to Potosi and the "boss" divides the money up for the community. if you try to give food to these potosinas, they throw it on the floor because they only want money. people from potosi have a distinct look to them and you can tell by their hats and type of fabric their clothing is made of that they are from potosi. i also started classes this week! it has been a very humbling and interesting experience; we take classes at a private university and the students that attend this university are very wealthy and its a little discomforting to sort of be moved from one bubble in the united states to another bubble in bolivia. we are all wishing that we were taking classes at the public university where they have classes in social sciences as opposed to the private school that only has classes in business and marketing which means we cant really talk about anything with the other students. anyway, everything else is going great and i am loving the city. i will post again this weekend because right now i have to do homework, but this week has been full of lots of exciting things including FOOD!! also, the internet is awful everywhere in bolivia, so my posts might be pretty sporadic... pictures top left: folkloric dance from santa cruz, aymara woman with one of her baby goats, my new bedroom. bottom row: view from my new apt, mate de coca ( coca tea)