From Thriving to Surviving

Well, today is day 35, which I am officially half way into my ETHOS trip here in Cochabamba! The past weeks have been amazing. I have gotten to participate in and experience some pretty cool and different things here. I have made and tasted traditional food, walked in a parade, continued to work on my banana peel filtration project, and, as most international travelers do, I have gotten sick.

Last week, I started off an awesome weekend by attending a cooking class. The subject: salteñas. Salteñas are a savory pastry often eaten between the hours of 9:00 am and 12:00 pm. You can often find them on the corner of busy streets here in Cochabamba.

Our Finished Salteñas

A group of about 10 of us, made the masa or dough, made three separate fillings, two vegetarian and one with meat, and folded close to 55 of these delicious pastries. Rather than using a rolling pin to roll out the large sheets of dough we made, we used a huge rock to flatten the dough.

We filled small circles of dough with the different fillings and popped all of the finished salteñas into the freezer overnight. We put them in the oven the next day and ate snacks for dinner on Friday night.

After eating waaay too many salteñas for dinner a few of us went out to celebrate the last night of one of our volunteers in Bolivia.

The next day I had the incredible pleasure of walking alongside Mr. Gay Cochabamba 2016, members of Vivo en Positivo, an organization working with those who live with HIV/AIDS and to educate others about HIV/AIDS, and other Sustainable Bolivia volunteers in the Cochabamba Pride Parade. The music, dancing, and people lining the streets of Cochabamba made me so incredibly happy that night.

Honestly, I think my favorite part of pride was seeing the number of people who brought their children to the parade. There were no people protesting the parade, no one shouting anti-LGBT hate, there was simply happiness and love. Cochabamba was not a place I expected to find something like this, and yet, on the streets of Cochabamba, on a Saturday night, I found that in Cochabamba, despite the machismo culture here, there is love for all people, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, or anything else for that matter.

To cap off a great weekend, that Sunday was the Fiesta Boliviana at the Sustainable Bolivia house. There was traditional food and dancing, as well as some lectures on the history of Cochabamba, Quechua, the indigenous language, and how to drink Chicha, a fermented corn alcohol drink.

Table of snacks and other local treats

I was there from about 10 in the morning, helping to prepare food until about 7 at night dancing and eating and enjoying the company of the other Sustainable Bolivia volunteers. Many of us left to go watch the final match of the Copa America games. However, while we were watching the game, one of the wires to the neon signs in the window behind our table caught on fire. The waiters were not paying any attention to us, so it took a while for us to get their attention yelling "fuego" and pointing. They brought us a free pitcher of Taquiña, basically the Bud Light of Bolivia, for helping them spot the fire before it got out of control. Most people in Bolivia dislike Chile because they did not support their claim in the war, so they were disappointed when Chile won, especially in PKs.

A few days after, I went from thriving in Bolivia to surviving in Bolivia when I started with the stomach flu. I'm happy my body waited to get sick until half way through my trip because I was comfortable enough with my surroundings that I could walk to the corner store to get a Powerade and comfortable enough with my Spanish and my host family that I could explain my symptoms and what I was and was not comfortable eating. 4 days later, I am now doing much better, but not convinced I will ever feel 100% for the duration of my stay. It is so dry here that I feel dehydrated nearly every morning when I wake up.

Since I was feeling well enough yesterday evening, I attended an art show put on by some of the Sustainable Bolivia volunteers and our artist in residence, Sandra. 

The art studio at the Sustainable Bolivia house was beautifully decorated with the books that were created by women who are served by an organization called Infante, which works with mothers who are victims of domestic violence.

54% of women in Bolivia experience sexual or domestic violence at some point in their life. All of the women who created books in the art show last night have left their abusive partners and cook and create works of art as forms of therapy. 

I ended up not staying too late due to my aforementioned stomach flu recovery, but all-in-all everything in Cochabamba is great. I look forward to 5 more great weeks here in Bolivia!

Paz

Winter is Coming

Here in Cochabamba it's starting to get pretty cold. Days are pleasant at about 78° F, but as soon as the sun goes down it becomes quite chilly. I find it harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning as the temperatures have dropped to about 38° F most evenings. In fact, a few nights ago I woke up so cold that I had to get out of bed and put my coat on before I could fall asleep again (I have since added another blanket to my bed). These chilly evenings and mornings are signs that winter, is indeed coming to Cochabamba. On Friday, we will celebrate San Juan, which is supposedly the longest and coldest night of the year, celebrated with chorizo, bonfires, and drinking.

It's hard to believe that today I start my fourth week in Bolivia. I've gotten to spend a good amount of time exploring the city here, which I hope to continue to do in the coming weeks. I've gotten to know the city pretty well and spent some of this past Saturday walking around the city. However, last weekend, a few of us from Sustainable Bolivia went on a weekend trip to Torotoro National Park. Torotoro is about 4 hours away by van, so Friday evening our group went to catch the last van to Torotoro around 8pm. However, there is no set schedule for these vans, they just leave whenever they are full, so we missed the last van. Rather than giving up on our plans for the weekend, we attempted to take the first van in the morning, which left at about 6:00 am. However, since that bus did not have room for all of us, we took the second one, which left around 7:00. The road to Torotoro is a winding cobblestone road through the mountains which surround Cochabamba. This makes for quite a bumpy trip in an old van with little to no suspension or shock absorption left. When we arrived we dropped our things off at our hostel and set out to find a tour guide for the park. However, since we arrived right around 11:30 and the tourism office closes from 11:30 - 1:30, we didn't have much choice but to go eat some lunch. We made a deal to meet back and start on our way at 12:30 in order to hike in the daylight, but of course, we couldn't leave until the office opened back up at 1:30 because we needed a single sheet of paper from inside the locked office that no one could give us but the woman who works behind the desk there. So around 1:45 we were finally on our way to see the dinosaur footprints and the waterfall, about a 5-hour hike.

The fossilized dinosaur footprints were so cool!

My foot inside a dino foot

After seeing the dinosaur footprints we began the hike to the waterfall, which, little did we know, was at the bottom of this canyon.

After walking all the way down into the canyon, twisting my ankle only 3 times, we made our way to the waterfall by climbing over boulders in the riverbed. A few of us got separated from our guide, Pablo, and things were dicey for a while, but eventually we made it!

After an exhausting hike back up the nearly 800 steps placed on the side of the canyon, we made it back up in time to watch the sunset behind the mountains. I left early the next morning to make it back to Cochabamba in time to wash a few of my things (I had no clean laundry when I went on this trip and had to wash something to wear to work on Monday) and meet Malcolm, the director of the ETHOS program, Gabi and Maria for dinner. This meant waking up around 5:30 and waiting outside by the station until the van was full enough to leave for Cochabamba (around 6:15). The van ride back was not quite as smooth as our trip there. We stopped 4 times to fix something on the car. At first, the car simply stopped, our driver got out and tinkered with something under the hood briefly and we were on our way again. Then, we got a flat tire. Rather than replacing the flat with the spare and being on our way, we stopped in a small village (10 buildings max) and had some boys attempt to fix the tire. We were there for about 45 mins. Once we got back on the road, the same tire popped again after 30 mins. Our driver replaced the tire with the spare and we got back on the road. About an hour later, another tire blew. Our driver took the tire and hopped on the back of a truck to get that tire patched. In the time it took for our driver to get the tire fixed and come back (about an hour) half of the people on the van found alternate forms of transportation home. The remaining two hours of the trip home was a bit crazy. Mostly I just closed my eyes and tried not to think about the fact that we were speeding up and down winding mountain roads. However, I made it back in plenty of time to wash some clothes and get to dinner.

At work, I have been researching filtration options and getting ready to build a prototype to test a banana peels ash to remove iron from water. Hopefully, by the end of this week I will have a good idea of where I need to go to get the materials necessary to build my prototype. My goal is to have my prototype solidified by week 7 so that I have three weeks to work on implementation.

Recently we found out that there is a local craft brewery in Cochabamba, but their beers are not sold in most places. However, we found an "Irish Pub" that sold their beer. After ordering an IPA, the waiter looked very confused. I pointed to the small display on the table and he immediately said "Ahh, 'EE-pah'", so at least now I know how the locals refer to IPAs for the future. We also ordered guacamole at this restaurant (certainly not what I expected to find at an Irish Pub" and when it came out, it came with french fries rather than tortilla chips, which we found a little shocking, but I guess that's how the Irish-Bolivians do it.

Tomorrow is a national holiday, so we will be off work, but I'm sure this fourth week will prove to be interesting and full of new learnings, as always.

Paz de Cocha

I Don't Speak Spanish Well (And Other Updates from Bolivia)

Today marks almost two weeks in Bolivia! Cochabamba is truly a beautiful place. Sometimes I stop walking to just look around, especially up to the mountains which completely surround the city. My walk to work each morning is full of beautiful flowers, as well as a few really beautiful houses (I work in a nicer part of town). I'm starting to get more confident in making my way around the city on my own, but I still carry my map of Cochabamba with me just in case (shout out to my dad for teaching me how to read one).

I've been quite busy since I last posted!
       On Saturday, we celebrated the 23rd birthday of Liz, a fellow Sustainable Bolivia volunteer with SODIS. We went to a restaurant called La Muela del Diablo (the molar of the devil - an old rock form in La Paz) and hung out for a while. They had great food, and we also discovered the dryest Bolivian red wine we have been able to find. Most red wines here are vino tinto dulce and are quite sweet, but this one is pretty good.
       On Sunday, I went to La Cancha to do some shopping. La Cancha is the large outdoor market here in Cochabamba. I would guess it's about 16 blocks x 16 blocks. When people told me you could find anything at La Cancha I didn't believe them, but after walking around for three hours, I can tell you, you can find anything at La Cancha. I saw fresh fruits and veggies, meats and fish, clothing, ping pong balls, washing machines, cell phones, bikes, and llama fetuses (which is apparently a big thing here in Cochabamba but I just think they're creepy), just to give you an idea of the diversity.
       On Monday, Sustainable Bolivia hosted a cena compartida or shared dinner. This week's theme was comfort food, so everyone made a comfort food dish and brought it to share. Dinner was supposed to start at 6:30, but it actually started closer to 9, so it's a good thing I brought guacamole as my dish because it served as a great appetizer.

However, before I could make my guacamole, I had my first Spanish lesson here. My teacher, Patricia, is awesome, but I think she overestimates my knowledge. I meet with her twice a week, for two hours at a time. By the end of two hours, my brain is about fried.
       On Tuesday, we celebrated the 21st birthday of Taylor, another SB and SODIS volunteer. Jenna and Taylor and I went to a vegetarian restaurant about a 25-minute walk from work (~10 minutes from my house) for lunch.  We had some awesome fresh juice mixes and veggie burgers. It felt like we could be sitting in downtown Cincinnati enjoying our meal.

Taylor hosted a party at her volunteer home that evening, which was a ton of fun. The other volunteers in her house even got her a cake (not easy to find here)!
       On Wednesday, I got to speak with my boss here at SODIS, Jeremy, and get some direction for my work here. It looks like I will be working on iron removal from water in the more jungle-y area outside of Cochabamba.

The World Health Organization recommends that iron should be kept at a level of about 0.3 mg/L of water. In Chapare, the ground water has about 30 mg/L of iron. Right now I'm in the process of investigating the possibility of using ashes from dried and burnt banana peels as a way to help oxidize the iron in solution with the water in order to precipitate it out of the water and increase the possibility for its removal. I also hope to build an EMAS manual water pump (check out this video for more info), which is basically a tube well pump made almost entirely out of PVC pipe.      
         Later that evening a few of us from SB went to Las Islas which is a strip of fast food places right between where I work and where I live. I had a vegetarian taco and it was delicious! Avocados are so cheap here that the tables had condiment bottles of guacamole. I'd be willing to move here forever just so I won't ever have to pay extra for guac.

 After dinner, all eight of us piled into one taxi (Joey and I rode in the trunk) and went to see X-Men Apocolypse.  The movie theater near us serves most of Cochabamba, so it's huge. It was also 2 for 1 tickets, so the place was packed. People lined up nearly 45 minutes before the movie started so they could get good seats in the theater. Another big thing here in Bolivia is "sugared" popcorn. I assumed it was similar to kettle corn. It is not. It is more like someone melted bubblegum flavoring and drizzled it over popcorn. The movie was in Spanish (duh?) but I forgot it would be dubbed in Spanish. It's quite funny to watch actors "speak" in a voice you know does not sound like their real voice.

During this incredibly busy week, I've learned something super important about Cochabamba. The city is currently rationing water. In the north, where I live, there is almost never a problem with having enough water, because it's where the wealthier people live. However, there are places in the south of Cochabamba that haven't had any water for over three weeks (learn more by reading this article written by a fellow volunteer). Despite the fact that water is being rationed, many of the plazas in town, and a park I walk past four times a day, coming and going from work, have large fountains. To me, this is such a crazy and wasteful use of the water in this city, which only sees 14" of rain per year. However, no one says anything because they are all in areas where the wealthy live.

 

This is why I would like to build a manual pump for water. Becuase in communities where water is scarce, a pump is a way to have control over your situation.

Paz de Bolivia!

Bienvenidos a Cochabamba (Welcome to Cochabamba)

So I’ve been in Bolivia for two days now and I’m settling in and trying to learn the city.  Cochabamba is a vibrant, busy city with people and cars everywhere you look.  All of the buildings here are painted with bright colors.  The new building going up outside my bedroom window is being painted black, white, and bright pink.

Our first stop in Bolivia was Santa Cruz, where we went through Bolivian customs.  We arrived in Santa Cruz with a Christian Mission group from the US and all of us trying to get our Bolivian visas at the same time was certainly interesting.  There was only one man working the desk where you apply for visas and he didn’t seem to speak English, which did not make things any easier since my Spanish is not great. Thank goodness Gabi speaks fluently. She helped Maria and me through the airport after we passed through customs.  The planes in Santa Cruz not being used were simply parked outside in the grass.  There were no hangars at all, which really surprised me.  There were also, what looked like to me, broken down airplanes which have just been sitting outside the airport and will probably be left to rust and decay there.

When we arrived in Cochabamba we had all our luggage (thank God), found some ATMs, and took a taxi to our hostel for the evening (again, thank goodness Gabi could speak Spanish to the driver).  We were a little early to the hostel, but they allowed us to check into our three-bed suite (1 queen and 1 bunk bed).  However, when we arrived the sheets had not been changed on the queen bed and there were no sheets on the bunk beds.  We were promised multiple times that someone would be in to change the sheets, but we ended up taking matters into our own hands around 10 pm.

On Monday morning, we checked out of the hostel and took a taxi to the Sustainable Bolivia house and office (we got sent directions in Spanish for that by someone from the SB office, so we at least knew how to get there).  The Sustainable Bolivia office is in a residential area on a smaller street, so most taxis don’t know the street name.  Once we got to Sustainable Bolivia I was relieved to be able to speak with pretty much everyone there.  The house has a beautiful backyard with herb gardens, apple trees, fig trees and some hammocks and chairs around it all, which I can’t wait to relax and read in.  Once we went through the brief orientation of the office and house and signed some paperwork, we went on a walking tour of the surrounding city with some of the other volunteers.  So far I have met volunteers from Ohio State, Boston College, and a university in France, but there are many I have yet to meet.  The walking tour was great to get some big landmarks for the city of Cochabamba around where Sustainable Bolivia is, but I think I probably could take that tour 10 more times and still not really know where I am.

After the tour, I went to meet my host family with Alex, the director of Sustainable Bolivia.  We decided to take public transportation to the house since my luggage is a backpack, however trying to stuff it in a truffi (minibus/van) and not stop traffic in the process proved difficult, but not impossible, since that’s what we did.  My host mother, Teresa, lives about half a block from la Plazuela Cala Cala, which is a large roundabout with many banks and shops near it, as well as one of the nicest hotels in Cochabamba.  Since this is a pretty popular spot, it’s easy to take a truffi to Cala Cala and walk the half block from there.  Teresa’s home is a beautifully furnished house with 4 bedrooms, 1 ½ baths, an office, a computer room, formal dining room, living room, sitting room, and eat-in kitchen.  Another Sustainable Bolivia volunteer from Ohio State, Jenna, lives in the main house with Teresa.  Behind the main house is another house where Justi, Teresa’s housekeeper, lives with her family, and my “casita”.  The best way to describe my casita is a studio apartment with an upstairs office.  Basically, it is waaaaay too much room for just me and my one backpack of items to fill, but it is incredibly nice to have my own space and my own bathroom.

I am struggling a little bit with my conversational Spanish, as this is not what is generally taught in schools in the US, so Jenna has been carrying most of the meal-time conversations, and Teresa asks me very basic questions that I mostly respond “Si”, “No”, or “Me gusta mucho” to.  Hopefully once I start taking Spanish lessons at Sustainable Bolivia and listening to more Spanish conversations I will pick it up pretty quickly.  Justi cooks all the meals for us and of the two meals I’ve had, they were both awesome.  She is even cooking vegetarian for me!  For lunch, rather than the pork that everyone else had with their meal, she made me some pumpkin schnitzel!  Lunch is the largest meal of the day here, and many people go home from work for lunch from about 12 pm - 2 pm.  So far we have also had freshly squeezed orange juice with our meals (yum!)

Anyways, I still have a lot to learn, and I while I visited with SODIS, the organization I will be working directly for (which is where Jenna works too) today, I don't start my work there until tomorrow. I am incredibly excited for my 10 weeks to get started and I can’t wait to get my hands dirty working on projects with SODIS.  For now, that’s all from Cochabamba! More soon.

The Calm Before the Storm

So now that my departure is five days away (eek!) I guess it's time to start my blog back up.  This summer, I am lucky enough that I get to spend 10 weeks in Cochabamba, Bolivia.  I am once again participating in the ETHOS program through the University of Dayton and will continue to work on water purification like I did in Cameroon.  While in Bolivia, I will be working with an organization called Sustainable Bolivia, which pairs volunteers with various non-profits across the country.  I will be specifically working for a non-profit called SODIS, which serves people in rural and semi-rural areas surrounding Cochabamba.

With only five days left, there are many things on my to-do list, but the one that is weighing over my head the most is packing.  Anyone who has ever lived with me knows I hate packing. No matter what I'm packing for, I tend to draw it out and procrastinate as much as I can, which does not lend itself well to the organization of my pack.  There is also still some shopping I need to do, as well as try to get things as well setup as I can for when I return to UD for grad school in the fall.

For anyone who wishes to communicate with me or keep up with my travels this summer, I will be using WhatsApp and Facebook mostly, but will also be available by email (I think...still not really sure what my internet usage will look like).  I will also try to post new pictures and blog posts every week about what we have been working on in Bolivia and new things I have learned.

For now, that's all from Cincinnati, but I thank you all in advance for your thoughts, prayers, good vibes, etc.  My next post will be from Cochabamba!

Buses and Breakdowns and Bribes, Oh My!

Hello everyone!

13 days and counting until I return home from Cameroon! I now have less days left in this country than the Dugger family has children (See TLC show "19 Kids and Counting").

Last weekend we took a trip to Kribi, which is a beautiful town on the Atlantic Ocean in the South region of Cameroon. It should have taken us about 5 hours to get there...it took us 8.

We began our journey at 10 AM by meeting at the bus station to get on a bus headed to the capital of Cameroon, Yaounde. Chinedum was getting her Nigerian visa that morning and said she would meet us at the station. She arrived as the bus was pulling out of the station, giving Alyssa and I some serious anxiety. Then there were more people on the bus than there were seats, so the bus took another 30 minutes to pull out onto the road. About an hour and a half into the journey, we passed through a police checkpoint where the police officers walked through the bus, checking ID cards. Most of the time we never travel with our passports, but our "legalized" photocopies so that we don't lose our original passports. Jose had brought his original with him, and Chinedum had her original because she was getting her visa right before, but the police officer asked Alyssa and I to get off the bus because we had only photocopies and no proof of our Yellow Fever vaccination (which is required to get the visa in the first place). We explained to him that the card was required to get our visa and that it was unnecessary for us to have it, but he asked for a bribe of 2000 CFA (about $4) from both of us. I told the police officer that I would call the US Embassy ans that he could speak to them and that they would verify that my visa is valid and that I have my vaccinations. He seemed very unhappy and begrudgingly let us return to the bus.

After another hour and a half we got off the bus and stopped in a city called Edea, which is about an hour from Kribi. We walked to a bus station where we caught a "bus" (van) that was going to Kribi, but about 15 minutes into our drive, the car broke down. So there we were, 4 foreigners and our Cameroonian friend Mandela, stranded on the side of the road with other travelers for 2 hours. We finally decided to head back to where we began and try to find another car to take us to Kribi. So we hopped in a truck that was going down the hill (3 in the back seat, 2 in the truck bed) and caught a ride back to Edea where we began. After about another hour we found someone who was willing to drive us to our hotel in Kribi, so we piled into to this man's car and went on our way.

We arrived at our hotel at around 6 PM, checked into our bungalow and immediately sought out the only restaurant nearby. The menu had pizza and drinks besides beer, so we were in heaven. The outdoor dining area was right on the beach, so we always dined outside, looking out at the ocean. Our way home went much smoother on Sunday, as we went through Douala, as we probably should have done on our way there.

Other than our weekend away, not much has been going on here in Cameroon. Since we finished our filters we have not had a lot to do. The people who have the information for our next project have both been out of the office until today, so we have been reading and watching movies in the office every day and leaving at lunchtime. So far, in the last 8 weeks I have read 11 books and began a 12th. These books include:
1. Water for Elephants
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Lonely Planet's Best of Travel 2014
4. The Invention of Wings
5. Divergent
6. Gone Girl
7. Inferno
8. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
9. Insurgent
10. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
11. Allegiant
12. A Game of Thrones: A Song of Fire and Ice: Book 1 

As you can tell, we have a lot of free time here. The kids I live with think I am weird because I like to read so much, but since I don't have a lot of time to read for pleasure during the school year, I am taking this opportunity to do a lot of reading and enjoying it.

Well that's all from Cameroon! Now that the World Cup is over there's not much to do here...
Peace, Love and Clean Water!

Rain Is A Good Thing

As I was sitting in my room on Saturday listening to the rain fall heavily on the metal roof over my bed this song happened to come on in my ears. Rainy season is now in full swing here in Buea and that comes with all sorts of challenges and learning experiences. Since we are at such a high altitude it is cloudy a lot and we walk through the clouds pretty regularly and it's pretty neat to watch them roll down the street towards you. The streets I take to work can no longer be referred to as streets. Mud puts or creeks would be more appropriate names for most of the unpaved roads here.

We have officially completed all 6 filters we set out to complete when we arrived here, which we are very happy about. We finished just before the roads got too soupy, which is great because driving on some of the muddy roads was like driving on unplowed snowy streets. We are now planning on spending our laat weeks here working on education and learning about the organization as a whole. Hopefully we will be able to help out a little bit with other projects that are happening through NKong, but in Cameroon you really never know.

I apologize for the shortness of this post, but there's not much to report. I miss everyone back home and I am countin down the next 19 days until I head home!
Katie