Bedbugs Make Life Miserable

On the other hand, lots of things are starting to come together for me.

I can finally post about my job! Peace Corps always advises not to write anything that can be misinterpreted as negative or condescending towards host country nationals. If I were to say ugly things and a Bolivian I was working with became offended, let’s just say I’d be swimming in a pile of cow doo-doo bigger that the one I stepped in the other day. So pretty much the rule of thumb is the same one I learned from Sesame Street when I was young- “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Well, spending time in Bella Vista has been put on hold for awhile. That last time I was able to escape was pretty much the last time anyone was able to get in and out. The insane rain. The mudslides. The road hasn’t quite been cleaned up yet so tourists don’t make the trek but the word on the street is that it is cleaned up enough that you can enter on foot. We got a website together for the project, as well as a website for the NGO behind it. I can’t take too much credit on that front but it did keep me busy for a second. I’d also like to let you know, so you don’t faint the first time you see this mug of mine on TV, but I’m kind of a movie star now!! (Ok, maybe that is a little exaggerated… but I DO appear in the promotional video we made for the community!)

That would be the good news. The bad news… Well, the Bella Vista project is pretty much run by one family. When I say one family, I mean a family that has like 12 siblings and therefore actually count as 12 separate families. Everyone in the whole community is related. Anyhow, the project was basically guided and kept afloat by two brothers. In the last six months one of them decided to leave and start working somewhere else. So that left one. Now this one has 3 kids under a year old, a 5-year-old, and a wife who just found out that she has a tumor which needs an operation. It costs 3000 Bs, which is the equivalent of several months’ worth of salary. Several months’ worth of salary that they don’t have because with the absence of tourists comes the absence of money, being that their livelihood is based on the tourism project. This guy has been trying to wait it out but now he can’t take it anymore and says he needs to go to the city to make some money. Once he leaves then the only other people available are 60-year-old farmers and such who guide tours as a side project but do not have the leadership required to handle coordination between all involved. So what do we do now??? We don’t know!!

That’s why sustainability is such an issue with projects! I mean, get one hard rain from El Niño or La Niña or whoever it is these days, and poof!, it’s over. I’ve been diversifying as a result of projects failing from factors out of my control. I started projects in natural resources with the local schools. I’ve gone and helped with the de-paraciting of all the students my town and the surrounding communities. I work with the city government on marketing plans for Samaipata as a whole and throughout all, I’m learning to roll with other people’s ideas a bit more even though some are not that practical nor effective, but it earns me their trust and builds my credibility so that later when I present ideas that actually could work, they are more receptive.

I took a quick refresher course on web design and I am now teaching it to a lady in town. Right now she has to use my computer cause she doesn’t have one, which will surely be a problem later, but baby steps, BABY STEPS!! There is a huge demand here for websites and only one person who can do it. Let’s just suffice to say that just because you can type doesn’t mean that you can write a book, and that just because this dude knows Photoshop and Dreamweaver doesn’t mean that he can design a website. I’m out to stir up a little competition for him… A little competition and everybody wins!


So the work life is better while the social scene is not quite sorted out yet. I steered clear of the partying/drinking/clubbing/dancing/karaoke scene because I received too much unwanted attention from Bolivian men. Quitting dancing cold turkey was especially painful. Then when the whistling, catcalls, and men screeching “MI AMOR!!” from their doorstep didn’t stop, I started claiming random guys who visited as my boyfriend. That worked pretty well even with introducing 2 different guys as my boyfriend in the span of two weeks. For the most part, no one noticed that the short Asian dude and the tall white dude were different guys.

It kinda worked out- the men have laid off me for awhile. But it only kinda worked out because when the guys laid off me, they did it completely. So adult English class attendance went from 15 to 2. Crap.

But not to worry… when one thing doesn’t work out, you make up another. That’s what Peace Corps teaches you. Patience! Perseverance! And what did P&G teach me?? Be innovative!!

So, I miss dancing. And so, the guys are shady. And my class tanked. And I was feeling listless due to project failures and lack of exercise. Put all this ugliness into a pot, stir it around, bring in the magic wand, and VOILA!! I now teach an all-women’s aerobics class (aerobics infused with Tae-bo, Latin dance, and a slight dusting of hip-hop to really keep me going). It’s wonderful cause I get to spend time with ladies, I don’t have to continually come up with new lesson plans, and I’ve always thought that it would be fun to teach aerobics. That’s another beauty of Bolivia. If you wanna do it, then do it! Who needs to be certified or licensed in anything??

Overall, I’d have to say things are going pretty well now. Stay tuned as I will be updating shortly on the referendum to take place this weekend, a historical event that will change life in Bolivia as we know it.