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!