Come Fly With Me

“Come fly with me, we’ll float down to Peru. In llama-land there’s a one-man band and he’ll toot his flute for you. Come on fly with me, we’ll float down in the blue.”

• ·         “Well, Bolivia is close enough,” I thought as I listened to my vocal coach, Frank Sinatra, sing these words over my kids as they worked on an art project today. It was fun to play some of my music for them, now that we have a speaker in the classroom for when we practice the group dance that I have been teaching them since Wednesday.

   July 23

  Go hard or go home. That’s what I’m telling myself as I look at the stains on my sweater after an hour of rolling around and getting pummeled by young’uns. It’s so much fun getting to be a complete goofball around them. I think one of my roles in life is to show kids that growing up doesn’t mean you have to lose your inner kid. I wish it was this easy to make friends with other 19 year-olds. I even got to hold and play with a baby the other day. So cute. It’s also nice to let my affectionate side out. Haha I’ve given so many pecks on the cheek to the little ones. Vanesa kissed me back after I kissed her! It was such a precious moment.

  So today I got spat on again, this time by my namesake, Jonathan (pronounced Joe-nah-tahn in Spanish), although this time it was slightly my fault. But yesterday I was rocketship blasting a tiny one named Daniela and she just spat on me point blank, out of nowhere. It reminded me of earlier this summer when the youngest daughter of my campus pastor and I were staring each other down from inches apart, and she decided that my face would be a good place to land a sneeze. Long showers are coming.

  In the morning the kids made cards for El Día de la Amistad, the Bolivian version of Valentines’ day (which I like much better, since it hasn’t been distorted like ours has to connote only romantic relationships). In the afternoon the kids worked on homework, then played concentration (making pairs between the names of fruits in Spanish and those names in English!) and bingo. The older kids had a celebration for the holiday, with a dance party and everything.

  I found out today that I get to choreograph a dance for the kids that they’ll perform next week! I think I’m going to use “La Calle” by Juan Luis Guerra. I also get to teach an English class next Thursday! I’m so excited.

  
  

  July 24

   I woke up at 7:20 in order to get a headstart on the day. Figured I’d fry me up an egg and eat as I got ready. Now, this summer at CEJUPA is my first time using a manual gas stove, but over the past few weeks I’ve gotten the hang of it pretty well. But today my suburban upbringing let me down. Turned the nozzle to open up the gas like we always do, then I struck a match and held it close to the burner, at which point it usually catches and voila. But the first match didn’t catch. Neither did the second. So I figured, maybe I need to open the gas a little bit more and turn up the nozzles on the burners a bit more. Apparently that is a no-no, because upon striking the third match (I wasn’t even holding it anywhere near the burners) a whoosh of flame erupted from the match and the burners. The front layer of my hair was singed. Burnt hair is absolutely the worst smell in the world. Thank God there wasn’t any severe pain or damage, though.

  Our shower broke last week, so today Oscar and I heated up a pot of water and used it to shower. We’ve earned so many man points here.

  So today we began learning the dance. It wasn’t too bad! The kids’ attention span was short, as to be expected, but when it was there, they did pretty well. ‘m including the cabbage patch, the shopping cart, the basic salsa step, the stir-the-stew, and a soul train line. I ended up using a song by what was my favorite band for many years, Salvador, as it lends itself to both latin dancing and hip-hop dancing.

   July 25

  We got through the soul train today with the morning group, and past the soul train all the way to the box step with the afternoon group! It’s crazy how much better behaved the afternoon group is than the morning group. Granted, the morning group is larger, and today they were riled up due to playing for a good 20 min before Meri was able to get to class and give them something to do. But still. If there’s one thing I’m learning here, it’s patience, with both groups of kids.

  I started studying 2 Corinthians today, and I hope the end of the first chapter (verses 19-22, Holman Christian Standard) encourages you and amazes you as it did me:

  "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us… did not become "Yes and no"; on the contrary, a final "Yes" has come in Him. For every one of God’s promises is "Yes" in Him. Therefore, the "Amen" is spoken through Him by us for God’s glory… He has also sealed us and given us the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts."

  - TJ Stokes

My New Favorite Place on Earth

July 20

 Today we are visiting Copacabana, Bolivia. I may have found the place where I want to spend my life.

Ever since my parents took me to the mountains of the northern tip of California when I was three or four years old, where I first saw snow, further embedded by the three years of living in the Santa Fe Hills of San Marcos, California (where I rode my bike down the hill to school without pedaling more than once or twice), I have always loved hilly terrain. That’s part of the reason why I’ve always loved Uva in hilly Charlottesville, Virginia, and Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA, and almost went to either one. I’ll never forget the feeling of surprise and letdown when I tried riding my bike in flat Hampton, VA for the first time in 2003. My thoughts: “Why is this whole place so flat? You mean I have to pedal all the time?”

        I also love the water, never having lived more than an hour away from the ocean. So as we were on our way here, the pure, sparkling waters of this enormous lake and the untouched, sprawling hills drew me in. To give you an idea of how big Lake Titicaca is: the ride from El Alto to Copacabana takes about 3 hours. One can see the lake for at least 2 hours of the ride. Also, at one point they ship people, cars, and buses across the lake on boats because going around takes too long. I can definitely see myself living far enough outside of the town to have a dream house on the side of one of these greenish-yellow hills, with ten other hills and the highest navegable lake in the world as our backyard. Yet close enough to the town to where I can buy food and other nice things. Just give me a kayak, a small motorboat, a fishing pole, and a hot water heater, and I’m good to go.

        I made sure to dip my hand in the water as we took the boat across the lake between segments of the boat ride, so that I could say that I’ve touched Lake Titicaca. I also saw llamas right before we boarded.

        I’ve seen more American products (Pringles, Gatorade, Doritos, etc.) here in Copacabana than anywhere else I’ve been over the past two weeks, including the capital city of La Paz (granted, I didn’t explore the capital too extensively). There are also a lot of tourists here, both from other Latin American countries and from around the world. It’s a nice burst of diversity. I’m even starting to see the differences between the various ethnicities of the “plurinacional” Bolivia; from Aymara to sun-baked brown skin to the lighter tones and even those that I wouldn’t have looked twice at if I had seen them in East Asia.

This town reminds me of Santo Domingo, especially the area surrounding the really nice hotel that I and my youth group stayed at while we were there. The restaurant that we ate lunch at today (Oscar and Michael tried fresh trout straight out of the lake, I went American and got a hamburger) and most of the hotels closest to the beach are quite remiscent of the Dominican Republic’s capital, for me at least.

The cathedral in the main plaza is unreal. The three crosses outside, the elegant architecture, the carvings on the entrance doors, the figurines on the side of the interior, the myriad of golden designs at the altar, the white-bearded priest giving the address, the holy feeling of being there, all were worth the cost of the trip by themselves alone. Photographs weren’t allowed, but I think Michael got one or two :p. We met Michael last night when we crashed at Samuel’s house after getting to the bus station and finding the last bus to Copacabana for the day full to the brim. I love how God will sometimes say no to what we ask for (in this case, that we would catch the evening bus), knowing that taking the morning bus the next day would allow me to see the countryside in its full splendor. Anyway, Michael is an AISEC exchange student from Colombia. So now we’ve got the US, Mexico, and Colombia represented in our band of adventurers.

Right now I’m at the top of El Calvario. We took maybe 30 minutes’ worth of walking up large stone steps to get to the Mirador Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (a lookout over the lake) first, and now we’re at an even higher summit. There were 11 crosses along the path, each with a different refrain with respect to Jesus’ death.

On the way down, Oscar and I finally tried Inca Kola, both of us having wanted to try it for quite a while. It wasn’t that great, actually.

Oscar and I walked along the beach for a while. The water is pretty turbulent today, which is why almost no one was out on the water.

So today we took a taxi from Sam’s to the bus station, took the bus from El Alto to Copacabana, took a short boat ride across the lake, had lunch, had an Inca Kola, had dinner, and paid for a motel room, all for about 100 bolivianos (about $15). Now that’s a deal that I can live with.

July 21

       

        Oh my goodness. That bed was so comfortable. We went to bed at around 8:30 last night, since there’s not much to do/see after the sun sets. I woke up at around 7:30 this morning and attended church at the Cathedral at 8. It was really special. I understood some to most of the songs, most of the homily, and a little bit of the rest (blessings, recitations, short addresses) The worship was both aesthetically really good and theologically powerful. It was one guy with a guitar and an awesome voice. The songs were simple enough for me to catch on without having the words on a screen, which is not something I can say about many worship services that I’ve been to in the US :p. Of course, there’s a place for both the simple and the complex worship song, but I was glad that it worked out the way it did today. I truly felt that I was able to fellowship, be convicted by the Spirit and the preaching of the Word, and praise God corporately, which is the point of a church service, whether Protestant or Catholic. Of course, there were a few aspects of the service that I disagreed with, but as a whole I felt much at home. They even had announcements and a “greet your neighbor” time, which reminded me of and made me miss my home church in New Haven. I liked how they used an Old Testament account, a gospel account, and a passage from the epistles to work towards the doctrine of the message. I watched as everyone took communion and then (as best as I could tell) got sprinkled by holy water at the end of the service. Truly an experience.

        Now that I’ve attended one North American and one South American Catholic mass, I’m interested in learning more about the similarities and differences between the two, as well as more about Catholicism itself. The service got me thinking about how to minister, witness to, and shepherd a church and greater area made up of those who are well-acquainted with this tradition, whether or not that means that they are redeemed disciples of Jesus (just as many in the US claim Protestantism without actually knowing and following God). It’ll surely be a very different approach to sharing the truth than that which we employed earlier this summer in East Asia, where the vast majority have never heard the good news.

        We went paddleboating after mass! So much fun to be out on the water.

        Maybe 15 minutes into the ride back, an Aymaran couple got off in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere (At first I didn’t see any type of abode, despite being able to see for miles, but later I saw some crop plots, sheep, donkeys, and houses). I really want to get to know these people. So in addition to Greek and Hebrew, this summer I’ve added Mandarin and Aymara to the list of languages that I want to learn. I can’t wait to get started.

- TJ Stokes

Feliz Cumple, La Paz :)

July 15

Successfully washed my clothes by hand for the first time in my life yesterday. Now today (at around 5 pm) they’re fairly dry from hanging. I feel like a real rugged man now.

I felt significant again today. In the morning Ariel (the little boy with the heavy accent who has taken to me, and I to him) and I worked on adding, subtracting, and comparing numbers (greater than, less than, etc.). Subtracting ended up being much harder for him than adding, which I guess makes sense as I try to remember back to my elementary school days. We worked through those struggles fairly easily, but then when we finished he wanted to play chess. The struggle was real. I think I explained at least 20 times that pawns can only move forward, except in the case of taking the opponent’s piece diagonally. Granted, chess is a fairly complicated game, but I just can’t bring myself to let him learn the game wrong. If he had said, “Let’s play make believe with these chess pieces on this chess board!” then I would have had no problem. But even though I corrected him a thousand times, he always took it well and never got angry. It was really impressive. My philosophy is that one should never go easy on anyone in any game. Life isn’t going to go easy on them! Plus, the feeling of finally beating someone of your own merit after losing so many times (having to learn and get better each time knowing that they’re not going to cut you any slack), is one of the most deeply satisfying feelings ever. How dare I rob anyone of that?

In the afternoon I worked with Eddy Luis, who really struggled with the same worksheet that Ariel did. He almost never spoke, and when he did it was a barely audible whisper. I wasn’t sure if he just had never learned how to do this, and thus was despondent due to feeling incompetent, or if he was just having a really bad day. I felt my impatience waning at several points, but God reminded me that I had deliberately ignored His instructions a billion times more than Ariel or Eddy had ignored mine, and that helped a ton. He slowly started to get it, and by the end when it was snacktime, it took significant coaxing to tear hiim away from the math worksheet! 

July 16

Today was La Paz’s (the whole department, not just the city) birthday, so it was a day of no work and many festivities. Samuel, one of the AISEC friends who picked me up at the airport, came over at around 11 and took us to where the main party was in El Alto. We walked for at least a mile, if not two, and passed by at least 20 different marching bands complete with dancers (usually either completely male or completely female) with traditional garb (the women’s dress was super fancy and expensive). People would just pee all over the sidewalk, it was kinda gross.

Later we went to Samuel’s house and watched Thor (which was really good) and Gulliver’s Travels, in Spanish of course.

July 17

A thousand more piggy back rides and rocketship blastoffs today. Taught a couple of kids how to play checkers.

It’s interesting that although Bolivia does have regular bottles for beverages, also popular are packets or plastic bags for juice or yogurt, especially among kids.

After classes were over, I helped cut carrots and potatoes for a special dinner with two local friends, and then we went to play Wally, or indoor volleyball where you can use any part of your body to get the ball over the net, as well as the side walls (but not the ceiling or the back wall). It was so much fun!! At one point Victor, the director, kicked the ball and it went through an opening that led to the second floor. I was dying. We played for a good hour and a half or two hours.

July 18

Wow, one month to go. So much has happened in these past 11 days, yet they’ve passed so quickly.

Just washed dishes with Oscar. We definitely need to start rinsing or at least doing some type of pre-wash before we put dishes in the dirty dish tub so that it doesn’t take dynamite to get the residue off later. It was fun though. I put my library on random and ended up listening to two songs that I’d never listened to all the way through before- Running From the Devil by the Ohio Players and Love Is Right On by the Emotions

I usually help with the medium-age group for the first half of each shift (morning and afternoon), and then the tiny tots for the second half. In the morning class of the tiny tots we have a Fernando and a Fernanda, which caused me quite a bit of confusion before I realized what was going on.

Tonight we kick off weekend 2 by heading to the place I have most wanted to visit since I learned where I would be doing this internship: Lake Titicaca, the largest freshwater lake in South America and the highest navegable lake in the world. It’s super cool to be so close to so many places that I learned about in my Ancient Civilizations of the Andes class first semester.

Well, my last post was of the photos that accompany the blog if you missed it. I would love to hear from you on what you’ve been up to, so shoot me an email!

-TJ

Nuestra Senora de La Paz!

It's been a while since I last posted but I finally found some time this weekend to sit down and recap my adventure to one of the craziest cites I've ever been to. I went to meet with two people/organizations that work with artisan goods as it is one of the ideas I have for replacing the soap factory at Warmi. I also went for a Model UN conference, something I used to do in high school but have not done at the collegiate level—nor in a foreign language!

Two Mondays ago I went to the bus terminal in Cochabamba and took the overnight bus with the president of AIESEC Bolivia, Quitnen Van Duin. It was fun talking to him about AIESEC, Bolivia, life, and Holland (where he is originally from). I was also glad it was dark out so I couldn't actually see the roads we were driving on—which are notoriously dangerous but for $7 I wasn't going to complain. The only thing that did bother me was the fact that my "reclining bed-chair" reverted to its upright position every ten minutes so by the time we arrived around 7am I hadn't gotten much sleep.

The lack of sleep plus the altitude—the elevation of La Paz is 12,000ft whereas Cochabamba is only 8,400ft—made for an interesting walk across the city to a well-known café. There I met up with Daniela Viscarra, a social business consultant who works with the design and product development of artisan and textile products. She is also a senior designer at the foundation she helped found, Fundacion Jalsuri (Qechua for "spring") after a very successful Aid to Artisans (ATA) project that sold and exported more than $500,000 of traditional goods. She was also a consultant on an ATA project inAfghanistan. We talked with her for several hours over breakfast about her work, AIESEC, development, and the artisan industry in Bolivia—conversations that would continue for the next two days.

After breakfast, Quinten had his AIESEC business to attend to and Daniela and I went off to explore the city a little. We first went to the touristic area to look at some of the artisan stores. She explained to me the difference between machine made products and hand made products, how one could tell the difference, and how sad she was to see the dominance of modern day cheap knock-offs of traditional designs and products. It was interesting to see how animated the ladies selling the goods would become the moment they discovered that Daniela actually knew what she was talking about when it came to their traditional goods—both of us looked pretty foreign on the outside although she is fully Bolivian. She also explained to me how the traditional Cholita dress was originally from Philippines via Spain, something I could never have guess before but struck me as interesting: what today is considered very "traditional" of rural ladies is in fact a product of globalization, albeit a few hundred years ago.

We also passed by the Calle de las Brujas (Street of the Witches) where they sell all kinds of "magical" charms and potions for all kinds of reasons. What threw me off the most were the dried alpaca fetuses. Daniela and I had a hard time rationalizing between what is traditional culture—and therefore should be respected—and what—although it may be traditional—is a lack of respect for mother nature and animal rights.

The bowl, seen from a little higher up

After the interesting yet unsettling witch street, we ate lunch in a very rustic restaurant which was located in a colonial Spanish building. These buildings are spotted throughout the city and their signature characteristic is the inner courtyard that they have and the balconies that surround it. The whole city is a rather interesting mix of colonization and modernity—at times a very stark contrast as right next to one of these traditional and protected architectural gems you can find a skyscraper. Not much city planning went into the construction of modern La Paz—at least on the surface to tourist eyes.

What is most striking about the city, however, is how it really is built inside of a hole, as the Bolivians say. La Paz is located in a little round valley up in the mountains and as such, every street either goes up or goes down. If I could go back in time I would love to meet the guy that arrived there in the mountains and said, "well, this seems like a good place to build a city!" Additionally—and this the founders could not have anticipated but its still their fault—because La Paz is essentially build in a valley, like Cochabamba, the air pollution is extremely strong. Many of the cars and busses and decades old and the only thing that doesn't stop the air from being intolerably polluted are the cross-winds that clean out the valley.

All the interns dressed up in traditional Bolivian costumes the week before

After lunch, Daniela took me to visit the Museum for Ethnography and Folklore to learn a little more aboutBolivia's traditional roots. I finally understood the roots of Qechua and Aymara, two of the most commonly spoken traditional languages, and the pre-columbian past of Bolivia in an exhibit designed by one of her co-workers. We also passed through the masks exhibit, which are mainly used during the Carniavales celebrations in Oruro. The interns actually had to dress up in many of the traditional costumes that were on display in the museum the week before in our "trainee shower." After the masks I got to see the feather-art exhibit, which was quite impressive—I just wish I had taken my camera with me! After passing through the traditional textile exhibit (some of which were several hundred years old) I saw the location where one of Daniela's stores used to be in the museum before the government shut it down.

The reasons why it was shut down is in part due to Daniela's philosophy on the textile market. She has realized that it is impossible for Bolivians to compete with Chinese and even Peruvian prices for cheaply made goods. As such she always insists that the best market to compete in is high-quality goods that tourists and expats will buy not only because they want to support the preservation of traditional Bolivian culture and provide a fair wage to the producers so they can have an adequate standard of living, but also because the goods are nice in and of themselves. The nominally (as most Bolivians refer to it) socialist government, however, considered her domestically sold products "elitist" and forced her to shut down. Daniela, in her frustration, wondered if the government therefore preferred that the producers were paid next to nothing in order to sell the goods at a lower price. I guess we'll never know.

Daniela told me how her domestic stores also suffered from the owners believing they could run the store without her intervention. For example, one of her museum shops in a famous resort in Copacabana (on the shore of lake Titikaka) was taken over by the owners who rented the store out to her and for the last two years has been empty because they don't know how to run it properly.

The next day Daniel showed me her collection of textiles as well as reports from past projects. We also talked about her Ford Fellowship at Columbia University last summer and her visit to Yale. One of the directors at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where I hope to study international relations, was actually interested in turning her work into a Capstone project for Global Affairs seniors and I hope I can somehow help to make that happen! After lunch we went to visit some of her stores in hotels in the southern part of the city and then she dropped me off near a mini-bus stop (which don't actually exist but it was a corner where many of them frequently pass by) and sent me on my way to El Alto.

El Alto is a former suburb of La Paz located at the rim of the bowl that contains the city. It got to big over the years that it eventually became its own city—although markedly poorer and a lot less safe thanLa Paz. I was there to meet with another group that helps artisans called ASARBOLSEM. I spent a good hour talking to the son of the founder about their business model and the help they could potentially provide Warmi should we decide that we would like to go into textiles or handicrafts. They essentially help with product development and market access, and after a 2 year cycle hope that the producers are self-sufficient at the end of it. I also got to meet the founder, a former government minister and highly respected woman in the artisan world in Bolivia, Antonia Rodriguez.

The next day was the Model UN conference. It started off pretty bad since all I brought was a cheap button-down and khakis. I was kindly asked to find more formal clothes for the next day. I managed to survive the first day, although not without some hiccups. When being asked questions on my position, the law-students in my forum had no mercy and asked me things that I had a small chance answering even if I was a native Spanish speaker. I struggled a lot the second day as well when after hearing the position of another delegate (and understanding very little of it) the moderator (who really did not like me very much) asked me to please make a commentary. I stood up, shaking, and spewed a few lines of complete garbage that made really no sense and would have been a better use of everyone's time if I had not said anything at all. As awkward and silly as I felt, I knew that was exactly why I had come and what AIESEC strives to do: help you get out of your comfort zone. And boy, was I uncomfortable! Debating Bolivian politics, in Spanish, with Bolivians—who study law! It was a match made in out-of-my-comfort-zone-heaven.

The National Forum

By the third and final day I had made two significant contributions, as unrecognized as they may have went. The first was when we debated solutions to the issue of community justice. The forum split into two working groups, and during one of the open sessions I did not immediately get up and join my group. In stead, I sat and listened a little to what the other group, who had gathered right in front of my seat, where saying and they began trying to convince me to join their resolution. I began suggesting that our resolutions weren't all that different just as the other group that I had previously been working with nervously came running over to ask me what I was doing there. I told them we'd be best off putting our resolutions together and all of a sudden a dialogue began between the groups about how best to do it. Although really I didn't do much, I still feel my laziness about getting up may have just been the spark necessary to end an unnecessary debate between two groups that were more or less in agreement.

The second contribution was regarding a scholarship for elementary through high school students that we were debating as part of our discussion on the first three Millennium Development Goals. When looking for improvements, the delegates were arguing about the best time during the year to give out the scholarship when I suggested breaking it up and giving out parts of it every few months. Everyone turned to me and acted as if it was the smartest thing they'd ever heard (well, it certainly was the smartest thing I'd said all weekend). I felt very proud of my albeit small contributions given the difficulties I had with the language barrier.

"CAPTURED THIEVES WILL BE BURNED"

Awesome way to end the week in La Paz!

Finally on Sunday I went to visit lake Titikaka, the highest lake in the world, with the cousin of the friend I went to the conference with. The cousin actually is a rising sophomore (just like me!) at Columbia. It was an incredible drive out there as I got to see a lot of the countryside around La Paz. One of the most striking things I saw were the human sized puppets hanged by their neck from random edifices. They were indicators that in those areas community justice was practiced, a topic we debated in the Model UN conference!

When we finally got the lake it was incredible to see how blue it was. We had an amazing lunch of fish that came from the lake and then even went on a private boat ride on the lake. It is definitely a place I'd love to retire in.













- Attila

First week of work already done!

I was so wrapped up in my post about the ideas I have for how to replace the soap factory yesterday that I forgot it marked the 1 week point since I arrived in Bolivia. It's hard to believe all the things that have happened in such a short period of time. I've met so many incredible people, been to so many interesting places, eaten so many new foods, and had so many experiences that I can't wait for the next 10 week!

Today at work we said goodbye to a Belgian volunteer at Warmi today, and it made me think of how soon I will be leaving. 9 weeks make sound like a lot, but the things I want to achieve could take a year or longer! I have to present to the administration on Monday what exactly my project will be for my time here. As I've mentioned before I want to set something up to fill the void that the soap factory will leave when it closes in a month or two.

I've been reading through a lot of information about Fair Trade, doing research on all kinds of organizations including producers, retailers, and trade associations. I've also been browsing a lot of product catalog to see what kind product we could produce. I e-mailed two wholesalers here in Bolivia asking about how they started their businesses and already got a response from one of the biggest Bolivian fair trade organizations. I also e-mailed a retailer from the US and got a response with lots of useful information concerning the fair trade market and organizations that help start fair trade businesses.

The progress has been small, but the first steps are always the most difficult. I have no experience in small businesses or start-ups, and have only recently immersed myself in the fair trade scene. I also don't know about my ability to determine what an attractive product is, but whilst I was gazing into the distance today at work and thinking I had an idea that might just work. What if instead of trying to come up with the next big thing, or simply replicate whats already in the market and try to compete, I simply revitalized the existing soap factory? What if instead of letting the factory close I were to launch a fundraising campaign in order to get the paperwork renewed, and found a way to start selling high-quality artisan soaps? Its still just an idea, but it might make sense to just use the capital and resources we already have, and try to improve on it, instead of saying goodbye to soap and searching far and wide for a replacement which will take a lot of time and energy and might be risky in terms of success. Energy I have lots of, but time is something I unfortunately do not and risk is something that I feel uncomfortable playing with since the administrators of Warmi already have so many things to worry about--I don't want to initiate a process that will become a burden on anyone once I leave.

I don't think I'll be able to settle on a product by Monday but I think presenting what I've thought of so far will get some wheels turning in people's minds and hopefully based on their feedback I can begin focusing my efforts on an achievable goal. For now I am looking forward to relaxing a little this weekend, the Champions League Final between Bayern and Dortmund (two German teams fighting to be crowned the best club team in Europe), doing some laundry, and preparing my presentation which I will post here once it is finished.

- Attila

To read more: attilainbolivia.blogspot.com

Attila's First Few Days in Bolivia!

FIRST DAY AT WORK AND A NEW INTERN ARRIVES - May 20th

Today was my first day working at Centro Integral Warmi, where I will continue working for the next 10 weeks or so. I met the directors, volunteers (about ten or so), some mothers, and all the adorable little children! Bruno arrived at around 10:30 in the morning after the catholic service--which happens every Monday morning--was over. At around 11 we had a three hour meeting to recap the kermesse that happened yesterday.

After our meeting we had lunch with the children who were bouncing off the walls, diving under chairs, and literally running in circles. A bunch of them asked me my name, laughed, and then ran away again--it was too cute. To help them unwind some of the volunteers took them to the park to go play. I went upstairs to start doing some research on how I can contribute to Warmi. I already have some interesting ideas which I'll share in tomorrow's post after I meet with one of the directors tomorrow morning to talk about my responsibilities.

At around 4:30 Janka and I took the bus back and I met Marcos who went with me to the market to buy some things. It was a crazy place with little shops and people all over the place. I would never want to drive a car there because people pay almost no attention to them. The market reminded me a lot of the Grand Bazaar in Turkey. We also passed through the central plaza of Cochabamba, the Plaza del 14 Deciembre, which I will definitely return to to take some pictures.

All along the journey Marcos and I talked about his thesis for his major in economics and math, how people view foreigners in our respective countries, our families, our respective university systems, and he spent a good amount of time trying to learn German from me but I kept getting it confused with Spanish! Most of the vendors were closing up by the time we got there and we began walking to a few stores that different people we asked recommended. By the time we visited them all we were only 6 blocks from the intern house despite having taken a twenty minute bus ride to get there--quite an excursion.

Once we were back Bruno told us another Warmi intern was arriving from Milwaukee so we immediately got in a taxi and left for the airport with Janka and Arde (and iranian-dutch intern working at a different organization). We met some other AIESECers at the airport who had driven there. Once the intern, Angela, arrived, all 9 of us squeezed into the 5-seat car (2 in the passenger seat, 2 in the trunk, and met on top of the three in the backseat).

Group photo with the new intern, Angela (in the batman shirt)

How many people can you fit in a crossover? Come to Cochabamba to prove yourself wrong

We survived the car-ride and got some nice dinner--I finally tried a trancapechu which is basically a burger with egg, rice, some flat meat, and a bunch of little things I don't remember now but it tasted amazing. It's almost midnight now so I think I finally digested it and am now going to attempt to begin the exercise regime known as P90X. Fingers crossed that I don't discover what trancapechu tastes like coming back up.

AIESEC IN THE PARK - May 18th

Saturday I attended my first AIESEC local committee meeting. I woke up around 1PM (still exhausted from festival the night before) to the sound of an AIESEC functional team meeting going on in the living room. I rolled over and began reading one of my books whilst eating some bread rolls that I had bought the day before at the supermarket. I've never felt so lazy in my life.

After the fourth roll at around 3PM, I heard a knock on my door. Rodrigo, the intern experience manager, was inviting me to join them for their local committee meeting in a nearby park. After paying the 30 cent entrance fee, I met the president of the AIESEC Bolivia national team (MCP) as well as the vice president elect of incoming exchange. I also learned that the national team is actually based here in Cochabamba so I will have more opportunities to interact with them.

The national team members introduced themselves to everyone once we all took our seats on a small hill and began the meeting. I had the chance to say a few words as well and then we did broke up and did some activities. In one of them the VP-elect told me about the national conference they and the rest of the Bolivian AIESEC committees had attended the week before I arrived. What struck me as incredible was how similar the messages that were communicated to them were to the messages that were delivered to the AIESEC Yale delegation when we attended a leadership development conference inHolland over spring break.

AIESEC Cochabamba local committee meeting in the park

They also told me a very inspirational story about one of the former national presidents of AIESEC Bolivia. He was from Cochabamba, and ran for vice president of Talent Management (VP TM). After being rejected from the role the first time he applied he didn't quit and was successful a year later. He continued to work really hard and then became VP TM on the Bolivian national team. His dedication to the organization eventually got him elected to national president of AIESEC Bolivia. Early in his term when he went to the biggest international AIESEC conference (IC) in Egypt, however, he was involved in a car accident and died. It shocked everyone at the time, but his story has not been forgotten here inBolivia. At the conference last week everyone lit candles and talked about the foot print they wanted to leave in the world through their experience in AIESEC in honor of the late president.

Bolivian's passion for AIESEC shines through when one hears stories like these, or when the local committee meeting that I was at with about 40 other members lasts over three hours! Once we were done, Diego invited me to get "nuggets" with some of his friends (who were also at the meeting). It turned out it was just a plate full of fried chicken and French fries (about 2 dollars). Marcos continued teaching me Portuguese—since he comes from a region of Bolivia where many people speak it in addition to Spanish—on the walk to Diego's house which was nearby. Diego then gave me a ride back to the intern housing on the back of his motorcycle. It was dark and with no lights and no helmets, I wasn't convinced of how safe what we were doing was, especially after we made a left turn on red. But again, this is Bolivia!

He dropped me off safely at the intern house where I found some of the members from the national team and some members of the Cochabamba committee in the living room drinking rum and coke and dancing to traditional Bolivian music on someone's cell phone. I picked up some of the basic steps pretty quickly, but lost it as soon as they incorporated some jumping into it.

We then did some typical AIESEC dances (known as "roll-calls") which made me realize just how true it is that dancing is the international language of AIESEC. I had danced the same dances in Stamford,Newark, and even Holland, and now I was doing them in Bolivia. We even did the American roll-call to "Bad Touch" which someone had on their phone.

The evening continued with the game "detective," which Bruno from Brazil taught to everyone. We talked about discrimination in America, and the difficulties in doing social work while earning enough to sustain ones self, and the trouble that Bolivians have in doing development projects through AIESEC because they are usually unpaid volunteer work and they simply can't afford it. Bruno then made us a typical Brazilian drink called caipirinha and I taught everyone how to play "Cheers to the Governor" which everyone really loved.

Bruno making caipirinha

Everyone left by 2AM and Bruno, who lives in the room next to mine, and I quickly went to bed because we have to get up tomorrow morning at 6AM for the Kermesse event the next day at the Centro Integral Warmi. I'm still not fully sure what it is but I can't wait to find out!

To follow more of Attila's travels, visit his blog at http://attilainbolvia.blogspot.com/