One of These Things is Not like the Other Ones

To quell the concerns you all might have- I am alive and well in Bolivia. I arrived about two weeks ago and stayed in a hotel for the first few nights, then left the city of Cochabamba and moved in with a family in what you may call a ¨suburb¨of the 4th largest city in Bolivia. Internet access is a half hour ride away by public transport so I will do my best to get to a computer here and there.


Contact info:

Mailing Address:

Tammy Truong PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla #1603
Cochabamba, Bolivia
South America

If sending a care package (please!), make sure it is under 4 lbs and that you write that it is of zero value or I will end up paying quite a bit to retrieve it. USPS is the cheapest service to use.

I also have a cell phone now. All incoming calls are free to me. From the US what you dial is 011-591-79714189.

Living Conditions

Living conditions here are quite similar to what I experienced in Vietnam and Central America, though I must admit the city was much more impressive than I imagined. There are nice highrises and even a sushi restaurant one block from our hotel! As for my homestay, unlike many others in the Peace Corps program, the only major annoyance are the nightly bathroom runs. The Peace Corps requires that we sleep in mosquito nets as to not be bitten by the chincuca bug, the carrier of Chagas disease- a horrific affiliction that causes your internal organs to swell and ultimately results in heart failure. This makes it difficult to run out in the middle of the night as I have to unzip the mosquito net, manuver my way out of the 2 foot long opening, unlock myself out of my room, unlock myself out of the dining room, and run down the sidewalk being sure not to be surprised by the family watchdog before I arrive at the bathroom.

But at least I have a bathroom! We had interviews when we first arrived regarding host families, and mine went a little something like this...

Interviewer: What are you looking for in a host family? Are you outgoing? Would you prefer an outgoing family?

Me: Yes, I love to talk. I want a family that will hang out with me and take me to the community events.

Interviewer: How about living conditions? Remember that many families only have latrines and no showers. (At the training center are several varieties of latrines to make sure all volunteers understand how to use them.)

Me: Oh, I can rough it. I would prefer to have a shower if possible, but I can certainly make do with a latrine.

Interviewer: So what you´re saying is family before facilities.

Me: Yes, of course! Family before facilities! People are important. That´s what makes the experience!

Interviewer: Well that´s great! If it were me, I´d definitely want a shower. And a toilet. I can´t take all that squatting. It´s uncomfortable and my legs get tired and god....

Me: Um...wait. Now that I think about it.... I do get sick a lot. And it would be awful to have to throw up into a latrine...and then all the other stuff too.... Uh, I think I´m going to need a shower for sure. And can I go ahead and add a toilet? I changed my mind...

Interviewer: So you´re requiring both of these now?

Me: (rather sheepish) Yes please.

Interviewer: (Cracking up). So what you´re saying now is facilities before family.

Me: Definitely.

And as a result, I have an insanely clean house with a hot shower and flushing toilet, while my cohorts dump freezing cold water over their heads from a bucket each morning and build their quads from frequent squat exercises over the latrines. I´m not sure I know I´m living in Bolivia.


Language

I tested into Advanced- low, the highest of all volunteers in my group but not the highest level possible. I am in a class with one other student and we spend 4 hours every morning trying to improve our spanish. The ultimate goal is to test into superior, which means I have to get past advance medium and advanced high. The little twist however, is that high level spanish speakers may get phased into an indigenous community that speaks another language. So next week I may find myself halting the Spanish and instead learning Quechua or Guarani, languages of the native South americans. At first I didn´t think I´d be interested, but heck, as long as we´re at it, what´s one or two more indigenous languages anyway??