Toccoli (Village Stay)

You can kind of see my host family's house in the middle of that clump of trees

The view of the lake from my host family's house

After leaving La Paz at 5:45AM (horrible) we took a long bus ride to Toccoli, a small village right on the edge of Lake Titicaca. The bus ride down the narrow dirt road to the center of town was terrifying but we all made it alive and were greeted by most of the adults in the village. We had a welcome ceremony that included wearing aguayos filled with flowers, greeting everybody with an awkward almost hug (multiple times), and a lunch of potatoes, platanos, chuño (freeze dried potatoes that taste like dirt) and some tiny fish that I forget the name of.

Greetings with the community

Lunch
We were instructed beforehand to never
step over the food. It seemed like a weird piece of
advice but now it makes sense.

Olivia in her Aguayo

Nina and I lived in the room upstairs, to
the right is the kitchen and to the left is the
pen where they keep their animals

That evening Nina and I got assigned our host family and followed our host mother (who didn't say anything to us at first) up an incredibly steep hill for around 45 minutes until we reached our house. It was touch and go if I was going to make it while carrying the huge bag of vegetables we had been given to give our families as gifts, but luckily after about 10 minutes of struggling my host mom distributed them between some of her neighbors so I was left only carrying my own stuff.

Me, Beethoven, my host brother (Miguel
Angél and my little host sister

In our family there was the mom, the dad, a thirteen year old daughter, a 9 year old son, and then a 3 year old daughter. They also had two tiny kittens, a dog named Beethoven, sheep, a rooster, a mule, and a cow. Although our host mom seemed less than enthused to meet us, she opened up and started answering our questions and even asking us some questions once her husband came home. I think I only heard the oldest daughter speak about 3 words, but our host brother was incredibly friendly and seemed excited to have us there. We had tea (warm sugar water), soup, and bread for dinner and went to bed at about 9:00PM because we had mother else to do. It was freezing cold all night and I got pretty sick in the middle of the night but other than that I had survived my first day of the village stay.

The next day we were invited to The Festival of the Cross that was in a slightly larger pueblo about a half hour drive away. After our bus picked us up two hours late, we arrived at the church armed with flowered crosses that our host families had made us. The service was interesting but long: all in Aymara, the indigenous language which obviously I don't understand, plus no seats so lots of standing. The coolest part was when we all walked around the town square and sang.

Nina and me with our flower crosses

Church

Lunch 

I also found out when I got on the bus that morning that besides one student being left sick in La Paz, there were two others who had gotten bien ill during the night. That afternoon I accompanied Maddy to the local hospital, then that night somebody else from our group ended up joining her. Apparently our group won the prize for most sick students so I'm glad I made it out alive.

After getting back Nina and I herded sheep with our host brother. While the sheep were eating in various different fields we built houses (and schools, hospitals etc) out of rocks and sticks. Apparently when he has to herd sheep that is how he occupies his time and he was really excited to have some people to do it with. It is amazing to think that he is only nine. I can't imagine myself at nine years old spending so much time working alone and occupying myself with rocks and sticks. His parents both work outside of the village though, and sometimes it is just him and his older sister so I guess he is used to working hard.

Me and Nina. Why was I wearing my hat backwards?
Because it is cool looking, obvi.

Our adorable host brother

The next day Nina and I "helped" our mother. AKA we watched while she herded sheep, then each carried one log walking behind her with a huge pile of logs on her back. It was pretty comical how much we couldn't help, however my potato peeling skills have greatly improved and I like to think I was at least a little helpful in the kitchen. 

Nina loved the cats

That afternoon we had a closing/goodbye ceremony with Calixto, the catholic shaman from orientation who is SIT's contact in the village. It was really interesting and we all danced as a family at the end. My host mom and brother danced with Nina and me and my host mom seemed much more enthusiastic and warm towards us than she had in the past.

The next morning after another meal of tea, bread, and soup (they literally eat that for every meal) we got on the bus to head back to La Paz, the airport, and eventually our host families in Cochabamba. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch and had trout which was amazing especially after subsisting on potatoes and bread for three days. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to spend longer in the village and really get to know our host families. Between the language barrier (most of them speak spanish and aymara but mostly aymara to each other) and the fact that they took a while to warm up to us it was hard to feel comfortable in such a short amount of time. However, it was an amazing learning experience and I am so glad we got to do it, even if my host mother here may or may not have been disgusted to have me sit in her kitchen after not showering for four days. yolo, amiright?

Me and the family minus the older sister who had gone to school, and yes that is the view from their yard. Amazing.