Becoming a Bolivian Socialite

Don't be too jealous, but I'm basically famous here now. After only two weeks in Bolivia I got my picture in the paper! That is pretty impressive seeing as after 21 years in the US the most I can say is that my picture was in Foote Prints. No offense Foote but this is cooler.

Can you find me? (hint, I'm the only white one)

A close up view

The other day I came back from morning classes and my host dad said "eres famosa." I was confused and assumed I had misunderstood him as I usually do. Me? Famous? What? But then he started looking through his copy of "Opinion" one of the Bolivian newspapers and stopped on a page filled with pictures from the club that Marita and I went to last weekend. I think it is an ad, although I'm not totally sure, but either way it makes me feel pretty cool. Despite the fact that I was underdressed and have no idea how to dance I made it into the picture. Marita is the one in the blue dress all the way to the left and the other two girls are friends of hers. My host dad told me I should send copies home, but I'm going to consider a picture on this blog good enough. I will keep my copy forever though, obviously.

In other news, I think I have decided to change my topic for my ISP. I'm sure this will happen numerous times over the course of this semester but right now I want to work with kids in some way. What I'm thinking now is to focus on one of the night schools here and do my project about kids who work during the day and go to school at night. This hopefully will mean working with a variety of kids who have different situations and work in different places.

The first of  hopefully very few sunburns. Yikes.

The rainy season here is being INSANE and the weather changes constantly. One second it is hot and sunny and the next second it is poring rain. It rains pretty consistently every day here and is grey and cloudy about as often as it is sunny and bright. So much for eternal spring, amiright?

I had an interview the other day with a guy from Defensoria del Pueblo which is an organization that works to educate different populations about their human rights. I met him at the meeting at the Domestic Workers Union and thought the organization would be useful no matter which topic I chose. However, when I went there he told me I need to choose a population to work with before he can help me. That was kind of embarrassing, but with more time and research hopefully I'll figure it out.

Yesterday we went to the cemetery with our spanish class and met with a few young people who work there. It was really interesting and cool to hear their stories, although most of them were too shy to elaborate much. The cemeteries here are well attended and these kids bring water to people to wash graves, park cars, etc. There is also a newly formed cemetery band that people hire to sing and funerals and as they visit their loved ones. It was Abby's birthday so they sang to her. I think it is a traditional Bolivan song, but I can't be sure. Either way it was pretty cool!

Today we watched two documentaries. The first one was about kids who work in the mines in Potosi, where we are going next week. It was really hard to watch and we were informed that this excursion is always quite emotional. I think seeing the direct affects of colonialism and how hard life is for the people who have to work in the mines will be difficult. The documentary is called The Devil's Mine and I highly recommend it to those who are interested. During spanish class this afternoon we watched a documentary made by a previous SIT student about kids who live in the streets in Cochabamba and sniff glue. I guess that kind of drug addiction is really common here, they are called "cleferos" and the area that they live in is very dangerous. In fact, our program prohibits us from going there but I guess this guy didn't care. It was super upsetting but also really interesting. There are so many things to research that it is proving impossible to chose just one.

Inside my trufi 

What else? I have officially mastered the micro/trufi/bus system. By that I mean I know how to take the one line that goes from my house to my school, but it still feels pretty cool. I feel like a more legit "Cochabambina" now that I can flag down the trufi to get one and say "en la esquina por favor" (on the corner, please) without hesitation when I want to get off.  That is all for now but I will hopefully have more updates after this weekend and definitely after our trip to Potosi and Sucre next week.