Evacuation

So. Most of you know that we have been evacuated from Bolivia and are now in Peru. I got a call at 11:00 PM last friday saying I needed to be in the city by 6 AM the next day, which was impossible, due to transportation in my site. So the next day I caught a bus to the city as early as I could. I didnt have time to say goodbye to anyone, and as I was rushing, I didn't really feel that sad. Plus we all thought I would be back in a couple weeks. It was mostly uneventful until we got about 20 Km outside of Tarija and reached the first blockade, a giant pile of dirt and rocks. The driver got out a pickax and all the men moved rocks until the bus could get over. There were two more like this after, at which point I got off and called the police, as PC had instructed me. They came and picked me up on a motorcycle and we set off for the city with my luggage on my back. We had to go through the main blockade and they told me to lie and say I was really sick if they stopped us, because thats what they had to say to get through in the first place. There were men walking around with slingshots and whips and staring us down as we drove past. They had set up barriers to pop tires and were burning big piles of tires and trash. I got to the city safely (thank you Tarija police) and headed directly to the next location to meet up with the rest of the volunteers. We had one day there where it seemed that things were calming down and we thought we would be returning to our sites. We got a call at 9 PM telling us to be at the airport the next morning to leave and a 1960's C130 arrived and picked us up...en route to Cochabamba we were told we were leaving the country. We had no idea that this would be different than the other close calls and all assumed that we would be going back in a few days or week, and so many of us didnt get to say good bye. Its been very difficult for us to leave our friends and families (and pets) behind. Especially when we don't know what will happen to them. Its scary to think that some of my coworkers could soon be involved in a civil war. Also feel slighlty guilty for hopping on a plane and leaving them to it. It doesn't seem fair that I have that option, while they do not. They decided to close down Peace Corps Bolivia indefinitely, and we were given the choice of continuing our service in another country or going home. After a long and stressful week, I decided not to continue my service and retain all the benefits of a returned volunteer. I'm really sad about having to leave Bolivia, especially at this time, when my friendships were really starting to develop and we had some exciting projects in the works. Also, its been really hard saying goodbye to not just my life in Bolivia, but my fellow volunteers as we are all going our different directions. I did leave the option of reenrolling open, but we will see what happens. Right now the plan is to travel Peru and come home for my sister's wedding! Then grad school? All I can say is, it was weird and weirdly liberating to wake up this morning and realize I am an unemployed returned Peace Corps Volunteer.

a much needed latte in Lima, Peru>

Sunset in the mountains

Maizy: Biting the hand that feeds her.

Random thoughts on being here, and being american

Its the 208th anniversary of Entre Rios on Monday, which is interesting to think about what was going on in the US in 1800, and here Entre Rios was just getting started. So in many ways I'm very impressed at how far they've come. But this is more about how far I have come. (Not to be selfish or anything). I was just writing in my journal today, and the prompt was about the hard times you've come through to get to where you are, and so I started thinking back through my life. I won't bore you with the details of all my trials and sufferings (and the good stuff too!), and I don't think they have all led me to this one point in my life, like the songs all say. But I don't think I could be here and content and happy without them. So my point is, as much as I complain (I gotta let it out somehow) and even though I have my moments, I really do love it here. Its kind of scary to think how quickly this year went, and how quickly the next will go, and then I'll be back, which makes me both excited and sad. I might actually have to figure out what else I want to do with my life. Eek! Its also been interesting, and refreshing, to step out of the America Sucks culture. I mean, if we are honest with ourselves, there's a lot of room for improvement in our treatment of the world and our own citizens. But its all too easy to talk about how bad we are at those things, or whine about the political situation or whatever, even while we do our own little part to help others. Coming here, I had to think about how I really felt about being a US citizen, seeing as how one of our goals is to promote understanding of America on the part of our host country friends. Did I really want to come in and say I felt like the US was awful? (no) But would I be lying if I said I thought we were doing a great job in the world? (yes) So what to do? Ultimately, I decided one of the best things I could do was be a good person, as best I can, admit that while there is room for improvement, there are people who care and are working for change also. And remain neutral whenever asked my opinion about Bush or Iraq. So cue the music, I love that I can be proud of where I came from, even as I admit it needs work. The capacity for change is there, maybe easier for some than others, and much more difficult to do collectively, but it needs to happen. So go out and save the world, people! Ok, I'm off the soapbox.

So I decided to start this blog forever ago, and of course put it off til now. But here we are! This way you guys can keep up with what I'm doing work wise and otherwise.

I just had my 26th birthday here in my site (otherwise known as the ER). It was a pretty chill day, I didn't do a whole lot, because I had just gotten back from being consolidated for a week and a half. Also, no one here really knew it was my birthday (I mentioned it Doña Inuca (ee new ka) and Sole (So lay) my host family but I wasn't sure they were listening). But last night they surprised me with a dinner at Doña Inuca's daughter's (Doña Nancy) house. I don't think it was specifically for my bday, but they brought me in and everyone said Happy Birthday and we ate the traditional party meal, which is steak, potatoes and the traditional beverage- the chufly. Yes, as in chufly, don't bother me. Its a liquor called Sigani, made from grapes and citrus soda, with usually lemon or lime squeezed in it. Bolivians drink a shocking amount of singani. And no one gets their own glass...there are a few depending on the size of the group. One person has the glass and they look at you and say te invito (i invite you) to which you respond salud! or sirvete (serve yourself..kind of like after you) they drink and then pass you the glass and you do the same to someone else. its culturally very rude to refuse a te invito but i've gotten over it. i can get away with it because i'm a gringa, i think. i just can't drink like they can and nor do i want to! Doña Inuca, who is 66, can drink me under the table.

As you may or may not know, I am here doing micro enterprise development, or MED, as we like to call it. Specifically, I am working in tourism, because the ER is beautiful and awesome and people ought to come here. But, due to budget cuts they are elimating the med project so I can merge with either integrated education or agribusiness. I am kind of excited about this chance to mix things up a bit and expand my horizons. Random story: We had an outbreak of testing here and it was discovered that there are something like 30 cases of AIDS in my site. So I was at a store one day talking to the lady and she was like 'we have AIDS here now.' AIDS in spanish is SIDA. Well I had no idea what SIDA was so i responded 'cool!' And she looked at me like I was an idiot, which after i looked up what SIDA was, i felt like one. Anyway, I'm hoping to maybe work with the youth on AIDS education but we will see.