October, 2009

Settling in to the “high” life

So many have asked about my apt here and roommates so I took some pics of both! Davide is from the south of Italy and is starting up the Bolivian office of an Italian NGO that works on reforestation and other environmental issues. Marisol is from Cochabamba, Bolivia, the nearest large city to La Paz, and works as a marketing and distribution manager for a Chilean company. We are three busy professionals!

As far as my apt goes, here is the inside finally. I am slowly getting some things on my walls so you’ll have to use your imagination since I took the pics beforehand. My closet is behind the mirrored doors but thought it looked cooler to use the mirrors to show the whole room. I really like my new pad! And for those of you who remember me doing my laundry in Nicaragua with a washboard, those days are over. This apt does have a washing machine and no need for dryers here. Life is dry enough this high up and stuff dries very quickly. Cooking however takes twice as long. It is true what they write on the back of those instant cake mixes, you really do have to adjust for altitude when cooking!

Safari animals? Really?

Yes, it’s true! I swear, there are zebras everywhere here. I know you're thinking, but she doesn’t live in Africa anymore. Well, luckily Bolivia has its quirks. Here in La Paz, zebras direct the traffic. Although it’s not India, crossing the street here can still be quite the feat given the pushy cab and minibus drivers, actually all the drivers, so the government introduced the zebras to help literally stop the traffic and give some space to the pedestrians. They picked the zebra because it is supposed to represent the crosswalk lines on the street (ie. black and white stripes). Everyone, maybe minus the drivers, here loves the zebras, and of course the kids. How could you not?

La Paz has a lot to offer…

Besides the usual ongoings in the city, like getting to know the fun local hot spots which I’m still discovering, I have also gotten to do some exploring on the outskirts. It has been a very busy couple of months as you will see from my pictures. The first place I went when I had been here just a few weeks is called the “Muela del Diablo” which means the Devil’s Tooth. You can see from the far away view (all the way to the right in the pic below), it looks just like a tooth sticking right up out of the rock. I went with my friend Martin, who was a trooper with me as the last bit of the climb was not easy and actually a bit scary due to the scree (broken rock fragments – very slippery!). But we made it and the views of course were incredible.

This past month I went with some friends to another nearby place (not nearly as trekky) but with equally amazing landscape, called the “Valle de la Luna,” meaning Moon Valley. It’s called this because of its unusual rock formations which mimic the surface of the moon. The pictures truly speak for themselves on this one.

Venturing further afield…

So many of you wonder what it is I actually do my job – and a good question at that! To some degree my job is constantly shaping and reshaping itself over time, but here is the gist of it. I work with the government quite a lot, mostly the Ministry of Education, to help them formalize national school feeding. At the moment, school feeding exists throughout the country, but with many different organizations implementing different programs with no standardization whatsoever. Bolivian children exhibit high malnutrition rates and in order to combat this, providing food at school gives kids a greater chance to improve their learning and achievement. I work with the government on things such as organizing and creating ways to measure national data/statistics on school feeding, coordinating efforts among the organizations that work on school feeding, and with creating legislation that will obligate local governments to provide food in all schools. I’m really enjoying the variety of areas that I get to focus on like nutrition levels and fortification of foods, finding ways to understand the impact on education, and watching (albeit slowly) policy-making in motion.

So for my job, one of the nice perks is travel! So far I have been on two work trips and will likely be going on a third in November. My first trip was to one of the most southern areas of Bolivia. I flew into Tarija which is a very pretty small city where most of Bolivia’s wine is grown (it’s pretty good although definitely on the sweet side). As you can imagine, it’s a pretty region. The schools and government offices we were visiting however were in Tupiza, and other surrounding towns, which is a 6 hour drive away, and shockingly desert-like. I’m talking cactus and really dry dust bowls everywhere. I really wondered if I wasn’t for a moment in Arizona, red rock and all. Since distances are so far there and there is little in between destinations, much of my trip was spent in the car going from place to place. However I did get to see a few interesting sites, like this amazing tunnel they managed to create amidst the rock. I did also enjoy of course visiting the schools and seeing what life is like there for the kids (see below, me with kids and in school garden).

My second trip, I arguably went to the capital, Sucre. Since Sucre many years ago was at one time the capital, if you go there, they will tell you that you don’t live in the capital even if you are from La Paz. It is quite the spirited friendly debate. Since the government seat is now in La Paz, they have a harder time backing up their argument. Having been the capital though, it is a beautiful colonial city known as the white city since many of the buildings are white. It’s a real student town and the people couldn’t be more friendly. Plus, what’s not to like, they make some of the country’s best chocolate! One of the more unusual sites in Sucre that I didn’t get a picture of, is a fountain that cost a half million USD to create, which has light and music shows at night (like in Vegas at the Bellagio but well, not quite that big). It was pretty impressive though. Just outside of Sucre is Tarabuco, which makes some of Bolivia’s finest and most detailed weavings. (pics below of view of Sucre and my colleagues.)

Just at the border as you leave Sucre is the now famous, about to be declared a UNESCO Heritage site, called the Parque Cretácito, meaning Cretaceous Park. It is a park with to-scale size dinosaurs that roamed through this area of Bolivia 68 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. The park is interesting but the most amazing feature is the wall, once flat land that has become almost vertical due to the shifting of the tectonic plates, with tons of real dinosaur tracks on it (they estimate over 300 different dinosaurs). Many you can see with the naked eye, although they have telescopes if you don’t have a great zoom on your camera. I managed to get a few photos of the different types of tracks. It’s truly impressive.

Shake it, baby!

Lastly, dancing has been a very fun feature of my time so far in Bolivia, as I’ve taken up salsa. They offer classes here twice a week, they are not very formal and you can go as often as you want. They are extremely fun and I am slowly getting to know the group as it’s often many of the same people who attend. As most of them are Bolivian, since this is not a country of salsa dancers culturally, I have held my own so far!

I also had the pleasure of making a very quick trip to Quito, Ecuador for a weekend to attend my friends Siena and Alvaro’s wedding which was really a treat. I had such a good time, got to see some friends of hers that I already knew, as well as meeting some new ones. It was such a special ceremony as all of her in-laws participated in the wedding (various musical acts with some serious talent) and gave such forethought to everything. I was very glad to have gone and shared the day with them. And yes, there was some shaking it here to since the reception lasted about 12 hrs!

So needless to say it’s been a busy first few months getting my feet on the ground, but with many exciting endeavors and guaranteed many more to come. (For more pics, click on share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcOGzNk0ZMmLnA).

Wishing you all well in all parts of the world!