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)
No comments:
Post a Comment