Evolution of Man, Salar de Uyuni

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¡Hola comunidad Carpe Diem! It´s Megan (SAM Fall 2011) blogging from Cochabamba, Bolivia, my home for the past casi dos meses y me voy a quedar para dos meses mas I am volunteering through Sustainable Bolivia (http://www.sustainablebolivia.org/) with Centro de Apoyo Integral Carcelario y Comunitario (CAICC). According to SB´s website (http://www.sustainablebolivia.org/CAICC.html)…

CAICC serves children and adolescents whose parents are either incarcerated, or were abandoned because their parents have migrated to other countries in search of economic opportunities… The primary goal of CAICC is to offer the children a space in which they can grow. It hopes to be a spark of hope for these children and to help them develop their self-esteem and discover their potential. CAICC offers recreational activities, a balanced diet, and sees that children attend school.

So yes, many of the kids live in prison. Bolivian law states children can live in prison until they are age 6 but the laws are not enforced here and parents want to raise their own children, even if it´s in prison.

To add to the above, CAICC also serves children from at-risk families (may involve single parents, domestic violence, young mothers). Currently, there are about 97 children and adolescents in total from both the prisons and community. I specifically work at CISS, which I believe stands for Centro Infantil San Sebastian, and which serves 52 children ages 1 to 6. There are three classrooms, one for babies (1-2), one for 2 and 3 year olds and one for pre-kinder (4, 5 and 6) where I work mostly, assisting the profesora. My schedule…

• 7:20am – Take the micro ¨S¨to Sumunpaya (about a 30 to 45 minute bus ride, depending on if we stop for gas, which we usually do)
• 8:00am – Arrive at CISS to hugs and calls of ¨¡TIA!¨
• 9:00am – All the children have arrived by now from the prisons and community. Breakfast time! Usually bread and tea or arroz con leche if we´re lucky.
•  9:45am – ¡A curso! Everybody disperses to their respective classrooms.
• 9:45-11:30am – Babies are playing, 3 year olds are doing puzzles, pre-kinder is copying lines in their cuadernos. On Mondays we go to the volleyball courts to play in the sand. Some days we go to the park.
• 11:30am – Wash hands for lunch
• 11:40am-1:00pm – Lunch! Usually soup and a segundo (today we had rice, fried eggs, plantains and beets)
• 1:00-3:30pm – Refresco and frutas. Little kids are napping and changing their clothes. Pre-kinder might watch a movie or go to the park or do more lines…
• 4:00pm – Everybody boards the bus to go back to the prisons and/or parets pick up the kids

Tuesday is my day to recoger and retornar con los niños a las carceles. I have to meet Doña Ruth at la Carcel San Sebastian at 7:30am (about a 25 minute walk from my house) where we begin picking up the kids. I ride the bus, go into the prison entryways and request ¨los niños del CAICC¨and parents pass children through the windows of the bus. It´s a good time! This is my longest day and it doesn´t end until 5:30pm when we get back to San Sebastian.

I am enjoying my placement, though it is difficult working with children, of course, and in another language. I work Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 8am – 1:30pm and Tuesdays 7:30am – 5:30pm. I love the kids and since I have been there almost eight weeks now, they trust me a lot more and I am a familiar face. Starting next week, I will be planning projects for one or two days a week to do with the pre-kinder kids.

I live in a volunteer house with six other volunteers from Australia, Brasil, England, the States, Canada and France. I cook for myself (what??) or get street food. There is a delicious hamburger stand four blocks from here and I am definitely a frequent buyer of the cheese empanadas on the corner of Oquendo and Heroinas for 2Bs each. I shop at the market full of delicious fruits, veggies, meats, makeup products, cleaning supplies and other things near my house. I still can´t dance so have to resort to fist-pumping in da club. I have a running list of Things That are Normal in Bolivia but Definitely Not Normal in the US. Things include: liquids come in bags (milk, soda to go), people laugh when you tell them you´re sick and insist you greet them with a kiss anyway, taxis and buses have almost no visibility out their dashboard windows, bloqueos are where it´s at (except not, really.).

Anyways, bullet points are easier to read. In my almost two months in Bolivia I have…

• lost/had my passport stolen
• almost gotten my new passport (it should be ready this week)
• become a regular at Bolivian Migración and the US Consulate here
• become very good at arguing in Spanish (por ejemplo: ridiculous gringo prices) and speaking Spanish en general
• been sick with a cold at least 75% of the time
• missed a week of work due to a super duper bad cough/cold
• missed a week of work due to a bloqueo (massive protest involving roadblocks and lots of inconvenience. Nobody likes them except the protesters)
• been above 5000 meters
• experienced four or more bloqueos that have impeded my travels to work or elsewhere
• become a regular at the fresh-squeezed orange juice stand by my house so much that the cholita selling them asked me yesterday why I wasn´t stopping to buy some…
• seen too many llamas for a lifetime (but I do love them)
• traveled to Villa Tunari (where Andy volunteered!), Santa Cruz, Samaipata, Tupiza and Salar de Uyuni
• marched in a parade playing a drum and wearing a vest to advertise Earth Hour (THAT was awesome!)
• learned a lot about myself and my country from living with non-Americans
• made children smile
• laughed till I cried
• climbed the Cristo here in Cocha
• felt very appreciative of the Universe
• y mas!

Here are photos from my super awesome time so far!

Well that´s all for now. Bolivia is awesome! I´ll be here in Cocha for another two months (till approximately June 24), then my very loose tentative plan is to travel around Bolivia for two-ish weeks, make my way down to Argentina, hit up Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls and maybe pop over to Uruguay. Add Chile in there before Argetina, too, I´m not sure. I really have no clue. I´m excited to explore and see beautiful things, though not excited to go somewhere more expensive than Bolivia (a.k.a. the entire rest of the world…). So many options! I´ll probably be home in August or September.

I hope all is well with everybody, especially SAM! How´s the jungle?? I miss my SAM Fall 2011 group so much and I hope you all recognize I was reppin my Cow Megan hat hard at the Salar.

¿Nos vemos pronto?

Megan

(sprague.megan@yahoo.com — email me if you want to visit or are passing through! Or if you have any questions about anything. SB and Cocha are awesome for volunteering and life in general!!)

Whats up Carpe Diem, family, friends and prospective students?! Cecilia and Josie here writing from The Meeting Place Cafe in Cuzco, Peru. Life has been really excellent so far. We’re both currently living in the healing house which is why we are writing this together. Literally, we are each using one hand to type this….

We do yoga everyday, en la manana, and then spend our afternoons chillin, talk to other housemates/travelers, making jewelry (http://www.etsy.com/shop/1OM?ref=seller_info), and doing acroyoga. We were actually just introduced to Acroyoga and we are already obsessed! Josie met a bunch of Peruvian Clowns and got to perform with them at a 7 year old’s birthday party, and has been taking informal poi lessons and been playing with fuego everynight!

We’ve also been volunteering at a local cafe The Meeting Place, making coffee, serving tables and experimenting with the espresso machine. Originally Josie was planning on volunteering with another organization but life happened and it didnt work out. So she found Cecilia and fell in love and now they live in the same house and it’s awesome.

We have both completed our Reiki trainings so now we are all attuned to the universe and it’s energy. Anyone want a healing??

Cuzco is fantastic and very Peruvian. There are tons of tourists in the area we live but we still find plenty of opportunities to practice our Spanish and interact with locals and Argentinean hippies.

Thats it for now, we’ll update you when we’ve gotten better at acroyoga!

chao chao chao !!

Hey Guys!

Its Andy Piper here from Cusco Peru!! I am currently into my second placement in Latitudes and am loving it. But first a description of what exactly I have been doing.

Villa Tunari, Bolivia

From early January to early February I was in Bolivia, at Inti Wara Yassi a wildlife refuge center for monkeys, pumas, other jungle creatures. I worked from 700-1800 everyday. It was hard work but I really enjoyed working there and the other volunteers just made the place even better. I worked with the monkeys in clinic, before they were put in Quarantine where they would band together before being released. It was great fun. We cleaned up monkey poo and the messes they made after being feed. We feed them many times a day so that meant lots of times to clean up. We also would let them out on runners( string or rope that are attached from one spot to another) so they could play with each other and enjoy the sunshine that was sometimes available. Then at the end of the day we would put them back in their cages so they could sleep for the night. It was awesome to work with them. Since I was the only guy in the clinic, this meant that I was the only one would could handle them. Most of the monkeys didn´t like girls so I was the lucky one who got to take them out of their cages and put them on the runners. This also meant I got to play with them. I would throw them up into the air(not too high) and then catch them. I got to scratch their bellies and fight with them. I am pretty sure they liked me because I didnt end up with any scratches or serious bites from any of them. At the end of my placement I was happy and sad to leave them. Happy because I would get to move onto a new place where I would learn about the culture and experience the foods and meet new people. Sad because I had come to know the quirks and characteristics of every monkey in the clinic. I knew their names and where they went and who they liked and mostly everything important you need to know about them. But know I am in Cusco and I am loving every moment here.

Cusco, Peru

From Early February to now (21/03/12) I have been in Cusco, Peru. I am currently working with an organization called Aldea Yanapay(I encourage everyone to fully google who they are and what their mission is). It is an after school program in which we teach the kids (ages 6-16) the following: computers, reading, educational games, and art. We also help them with their homework if they have any. We also try to instill in the kids how to become better people in general. The culture down here is very different from the states. We want them to become a better parent, better uncle/aunt, a better member of society. We do this by bringing volunteers from all around the world to show them that there are different ways of living from what they sometimes see in their houses. Because sometimes most of these kids come from violent families. Anyways (sorry that was a long tangent but a necessary one) Ill tell you a little about what a day looks like in school.

We the volunteers arrive at school at 1450(2:50pm) and get ready for the arrival of the kids. From 1500 on the kids start to arrive. Sometimes by themselves, sometimes with a group. From 1500-1700 we have classes(Art, Computers, Games, Homework, and Reading). Then from 1700-1730 we have the famous Circle of Expression. In this circle we talk about anything and everything that is on the kids mind. The other day it was the situation of dogs to yesterday where we talked about the situation of the police. It can get quite serious in the circle so we have rules that help control the chaos if chaos does ensue (which it usually does). Then from 1730-1840 we have familia time. Each kid is divided into a familia. The current familias are Hormigas(4 year olds), Delfines(5-6), Tigres(7-8), Corazon, which is my familia (9), and then Sol (10-11). The older kids are also divided into familas. But I am just working with the younger ones(4-11). During familia time the kids learn about a variety of things. Last week it was countries in Europe. This week we are learning about values such as Love, Friendship, Responsibility, Ethics and Respect. (If anybody has any ideas on respect feel free to email me at pipes.jr3@gmail.com Thanks!!) Moving on after familia time the kids go back to their homes. Then the day ends and a new one begins. And we start all over again

The volunteers here are absolutely awesome, and all of them care about the kids. We also care about each other and look after one another. We are like one big family. I absolutely love it here.

I will keep you guys all updated on how things go!!
Thank you so much for reading (if in fact you read all of this!!)

Cheers,
Andy Piper

Okay, well I guess I'll be the first Latitudes student to upload a post, so here it goes.

I chose for my volunteer placement to help out in a locally owned and operated Bed and Breakfast, Landhotel Bierhausle, in
the VERY small "town" of Altglashutten. It is situated in the heart of the Schwarzwald (The Black Forest) very close to the
borders with France and Switzerland. I arrived here at the end of January, and after a month and a half or so I couldn't
be happier with my decision! Alex and Thomas, the owners of the B&B, have been incredibly nice, accommodating, and just fun
people to work for. Even though my job basically consists of cleaning the dishes, vacuuming/mopping, and just general
unexciting restaurant cleaning with a little food preparation thrown in, I still love working here and the time has flown
by!

Apart from working, on my time off I have gone for loads of nature walks to frozen lakes and waterfall, threw the woods, up
small mountains and just around this beautiful area. I have also learned how to cross country ski, took a nice relaxing trip
to a local indoor pool and day spa, have taken day trips to the towns of Freiburg and Strasbourg, France and have taken
multi-day trips to Munich and now Heidelberg (which is where I am posting this from)! Needless to say, I haven't been bored
at all. Also now that the weather is warming up a bit, I have been going for incredibly scenic bike rides threw other small
villages and towns nearby.

My plan is to stay here until the end of the month and then off to Paris to see my family! They are flying out to meet me,
and we are renting an apartment in the city for a few days. After that, I am heading to another family-run B&B in the south
of France, in a small town called Ceret. After my stay there I have planned a 10-day, 400 km, coastal bike trip from
Marseille, France to Genoa, Italy! I am beyond excited for this, and after that I still have two more weeks of traveling
before I have to head back to Frankfurt for my flight home.

This trip has been amazing in so many ways. Obviously I have seen and done crazy things, with crazier things on the way,
but it has been significant in more ways than just that. I have learned how to independently travel, manage my money,
deal with loneliness, appreciate everything, and most of all I think I have gotten much better at Greta's motto,
"Be Here Now". I didn't know what this trip had in store for me, especially after having such a great first semester
(Shout out to FANZ-Hongi 2k11!) but it has been so great that I find it hard to describe. I would also like to give a
shout out to the whole Carpe Diem team because I think I can safely say that this past year has been the best year of my
life to date...so thank you!

I think that is a long enough blog entry, even though I only skimmed the surface of my experience so far. I will try to
post another one after I have done some more crazy things, and hopefully I can survive the bike trip because I don't
think I mentioned but I am doing it solo! That's all for now. Love and miss you family! See you in a couple weeks!
Auf Wiedersehen! I hope this was a good first entry. 

-Matt Schafer