Getting to know La Paz

I have been teaching for two and a half weeks now. I am beginning to adjust to the city. Lucy and I have tested and located all our favorite coffee shops, and we are meeting a few people through couch surfing and other volunteers here with the methodist church.


There are a few things I can rely on these days...

- If I walk along El Prado after school lets out I will get hit by a water balloon chucked at me by a group of high school boys enjoying the pre-carnival frenzy that has overtaken the city.

- Most afternoons of the week there will be a traffic jam and the sound of gunshots that are really flare guns due to a massive protest by people who want jobs, better education, or perhaps a side of papas fritas free with their order of pollo at the local Copacabana chain. I´m not sure, I stopped paying attention.

-If I step outside and it is sunny and warm it will probably be hailing an hour later. If it is rainy and cold when I leave, it will definitely be sunny and hot an hour later. Locals like to complain that in La Paz you get all the seasons in a single day.
I have also learned to expect that my children, who range in ages from pre-k to third grade have been educated in an environment that demands very different expectations for discipline and order. This has taken some adjusting to, and the fact that I cannot fully communicate also adds to my frustrations. I am really lucky to have Luz as ,y teaching partner. She is very supportive and much more receptive to the teaching ideas I have than most teachers might be. We do alot of singing, which those of you who know me is not very enjoyable for those around me usually, but the kids don´t seem to mind. I spent all of last week teaching all the older kids a cheer about school supplies. Picture me waving my arms around and yelling,¨"small, yellow, square... NOTEBOOK!" I was a little horse by the end of the week. I am enjoying myself, but end each day exhausted and dreaming of the orginization of Two Rivers, my old school. My schedule and the orginization of the school can be frustratingly hectic and confusing at times.


I am also benefiting from my connections with the methodist church. Lucy and I need to extend our visa so we can travel after we are finished working. The school´s director assured us that he could have this arranged. Today Lucy and I were escorted by a police officer, in the puffy green coat that made his shoulders appear massive, and lace-up, black boots that go up to mid-shin to arrange for a one year work permit and ID. All in all he was pretty imposing leading us through the city and navigated through all the red tape at interpol. Three hours later the school´s lawyer had typed up a contract and the necessary paperwork and we had our applications in order. In ten days we should have a Bolivian ID good for a year, fingers crossed. This whole development came entirely out of the blue. 

One thing I cannot rely on is my accomodation at the hotel.  Our hotel reaches new levels of absurdity with each passing day. We are currently the only guests there. Our room has no hot water and is freezing which usually means I put off taking a shower a lot longer than I should. We have asked about hot water several times and have been told a variety of things - it takes a long time for the water to reach us because it is high up, if we wait just five more minutes it will start, and finally that someone was going to turn on the hot water... but the shower was still cold. Today however, we walked in to find several employees huddled in our bathrrom. When we came back there was a long black wire attached to nothing, and draped over our sink. There was also a chair in the center of the bathroom. When Lucy went down to ask about TP she was told they were installing a new shower... We´ll see how long that takes. This is just one of the many odd things going on at our hotel. (The entire lobby is currently lying in pieces that we have to step around to make it to the stairs because they are cleaning.)

We also do alot of cooking in our room on an ubsurdely small burner we bought in the black market (the area of la paz where everything from lawn care to cholita skirts and pirated dvds are on sale). We have a teeny pot and pan and were cooking on the floor until we singed the rug so the operation has been moved to the bathroom. We sit and eat the meals we´ve concocted in a little window box in our room. It looks out onto a staircase where we watch people walking by on their way to work or school. There are always a few regulars, a small girl who sings for money at about ten, the Andian woman selling sticks of gum in the morning, and the shoe shiners who sleep beneath our window every night. This is enough to remind me that even if my shower was cold, and I am wearing five layers for warmth at night, things really aren´t so bad.

La Paz

Colca Canyon took five days instead of the planned three because of a bout of Souroche and lessons on Peruvian and Argentinian Pisco Sours. The trek was beautiful and we saw a few Condors as well as a whole lot of Llamas, vicuna, and alpaca. The Canyon is the second deepest in the world and it starts out incredibly arrid and rocky and by the bottom we were surrounded by tropical fruits and tons of vegetation. There were avocado trees everywhere and also cactus fruit. I got some moderately uncumfortable pricks in my hands trying to harvest a few tuna (cactus fruit), and spent the next few hours of trekking picking them from my fingers. That and a bit of a sundburn were the only complaints I could make about the trek. Overall it was a great chance to stay in some of the small towns around the Canyon. The culture here is distinctly different from other parts of Peru. The woman all where brigh, ornately embroidered caps, skirts, and vests and the men are usually sporting a cowboy hats and ride around on horses. Overall it seemed like a Peruvian twist on an old wild west film.
We have been in La Paz for two weeks now. After our trek we returned to Arequipa and quickly got a bus to Puno and then over the border to La Paz. The border crossing was a mess of forms, additional money we did not expect to pay, and much more effort because we are Americans. We were the last ones back on the bus because all the other gringos get to pay a small fee and quickly get their visas. We got shuffled into our own special line as soon as they saw our passports. We made it to La Paz and have a visa for ninety days so I can´t really complain.
The weekend we arrived was the beginning of Alasitas and the vote for the new constitution in Bolivia. On Saturday we went to the packed opening day of Alasitas. This is a festival devoted to the god Ekeko, the god of abundance and whatever you buy in miniature is supposed to be given to you by Ekeko. Stalls line the streets selling every type of tiny object you can imagine. There are tiny animals, each representing a different character trait, money in every denomination, passports, work permits, marriage licenses, and divorce papers not to mention an assortment of electronics, cars, and mansion. Even the food was in miniature and Lucy and I had a lunch of mini empanadas, sandwhiches, and pastels. This weekend was also a little crazy because the country is voting on a new, very progressive constitution drafted by Evo Morales. It grants universal access to health care and education. It also provides many indigenous communities with access to land and citizenship rights they were denied previously. It was voted on on Sunday. The whole city was closed down. There was literally barely a vehicle in the streets, just people walking around with their families or on their way to the voting booths. Everyone had purple on their finger to show they had voted. Our hostel is located right down the street from the President´s House so we headed over there at 6 and stood outside for 3 and a half hours to see Evo Morales come out and announce the ratification of the new constitution. We were really close. I could have chucked my shoe at him, that´s how close I was, but so far I am pretty impressed with his policies, even his reactions to the US and our stupid reactions to cocoa production in Bolivia. If George Bush had ever tasted Mate de Coca or Coca cookies he too would have a different opinion about growing coca, plus it helps with altitude sickness and upset stomachs. It is just the cocaine form that is bad, and Bolivians blame the US and other country´s demand for the illegal form of the product for the illegal drug trafficing that is causing so many problems. At the rally for Evo there were alot of derogatory cheers about the US in which we were called junkies. Hmmm...
We also met the first indigenous woman to be elected into the Peruvian Congress. She was staying at Mary Fritz´s hotel (the family friend who is hooking us up with this teaching oportunity). She is so nice and gave us her contact so when we are back in Lima we can look her up. She said she would show us around the Peruvian congress!! Mary has introduced us to a number of other people she knows from her many years living and working in the city. There is a helpful list of young people she has provided for us to show us around the city. It was also great hearing her perspective on the school and politics here. She flew out a few days ago and both Lucy and I are really sad that we can´t count on stopping by her hotel room to badger her and her travel partner, Hope, with questions and dinner invitations.
School started monday and today marks the end of our first week of work. I am in a smaller school in a suberb a 15 minute ride from the center of La Paz. Lucy and I are stayinga t a hotel right on the Prado, the main street in La Paz. It is a really great location right in the center of everything. The hotel is only used for church business and to house volunteers who come down for short trips from churches in the states so we pretty have full run of the hotel.
I am assistant teaching PK through third grade english classes with Luzmilla, one of the English teachers at the school. The kids are adorable but crazy and the disorginization of the whole school system will require another blog post.