Getting used to living at 4100m elevation

I´m here. I´m in one peice. And, I feel like my head is going to explode... from both mental overload (no wisecracks please) and the altitude.

I´m not sure what elevation we reached during the overnight bus ride across the altiplano, but I woke up around 3am, trying to remember how to ask the bus driver in Spanish if he could pull over so I could puke. Having ´settled´ out at around 4100m, I can now call this elevation home until April 2007, in the town of Potosí.

Altitude sickness aside, the were some impressive aspects to the bus ride, despite the fact it was an overnight trip in the dark. The thunderstorms that I had been hearing each night since being in Bolivia resulted in a spectacular lightening show, highlighting the plains of the Andes in a sillouette of rolling hills and jagged crevases. As dawn broke, you could see the richness of the earth and the contrasts in the landscape of land worn down my time and new earth being pushed up.

I wasn´t that impressed with the city of Potosí when we first arrived. It´s very brown since the earth here doesnøt seem to support anything that isn´t hand-cared for. However, walking through the streets took my breath away (in other ways than the altitude!). It has a touch of everything - character, colonialism, latin american flavour and the ´realness´ of people going about their every day.

Of course, I´ll upload pictures when I can... and write more about meeting the people I´m working with, the struggles with Spanish, and living in this city!

Off to my city of Potosí

Well, my week of acclimatizing in La Paz has almost come to an end. I´ll be heading to the bus stop for a 8 - 13 hour overnight bus ride out to my new home of Potosí.

Above: the view along the highway heading down into the city of La Paz.

It´s been an interesting week in La Paz, comprised of a combination of free time to roam the streets and many sessions meeting people of different NGOs around La Paz. The spanish has been a struggle, but I feel like I´m making progress... maybe a bit more so on the speaking side of things than the understanding other people talk side.

Eating, as always when traveling, has been interesting. I´m trying to eat as much vegetarian meals as possible. This was one of the ¨soups¨ that was served the other day...

It was a very interesting hunk of meat in the middle, although, it seemed like it was more bone and ¨nerve¨ than anything else. Other typical foods so far are these potatoes that are black the whole way through, and jumbo corn.

Seeing the sites of La Paz during free time definitely gives me a work out. Since La Paz is set in a valley of sorts, exploring means loosing your breath going up the streets. Still, the views are incredible and life has a way of ´happening´ on the side streets.

At night, things really start happening in La Paz. Most of the time when traveling, I find it is more dangerous at night. However here, the city seems to come to life with people piling into the streets. For that reason, it´s a great time to take in the various festivals that are around every corner - even the coca festival! The booths set up at this festival were very interesting, from coca tea (which is legal to export), to every other form of the coca plant short of cocaine, including jewelry, drinks, cake, natural remedies to everything from gout to diabetes, and even ¨starter plants¨ to start growing your own coca.

I´ve also had a really interesting introduction to the work that is going on in Bolivia on the NGO side of things. The people here are so capable and on top of things. The head office of Foncresol, the organizaton I´m working through in Potosi is here, and the staff are super nice. We were also able to go over and talk (or, in my case, listen and desperately try to understand!) to a sister organization that does the same type of work. And finally, we got a very comprehensive tour of an organization specifically aimed at women. This organization is amazing. It does everything from holding classes to teach sewing, weaving, handicrafts, etc., to providing counseling services for beaten women and broadcasting a radio program!

But, with that, I´m off to stage 2 of my time here. I don´t know what to expect from the family I´ll be living with, the office I´ll be working in or even the work I´ll be doing! And of course, I´ll still be cramming on my Spanish the whole way there...

Better than the Ngorongoro Crater

I remember the first time I peered over the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. Yes, I thought it was great... but, it didn´t have the same effect on me as my first site of La Paz. Bolivia´s capitol drops down off the planes into a crater-like landscape. But, instead of animals and landrovers, this crater comprises brick and stone buildings built up from the city base to the rim, a range of honking cars and micro-buses, and people bustling about getting to work. The road circles the inside wall of La Paz, descending from just over 4,000m to the center of the city at 3,592m, giving you a great view of the whole city and of the 6000m snow covered peak in the distance.

But wait... back to the beginning...

After my expected mad-panic day in Vancouver on Monday, arriving back from Montreal late Sunday night and leaving early Tuesday morning out of the country, I was ready (or at least at the airport) for a 23 hour journey down to Bolivia. My route took me through LA and Miami, before getting on the red-eye flight to La Paz, Bolivia.

The airport for La Paz, Bolivia´s capitol, is in El Alto, just outside the city on the ¨Altiplano¨ - the high planes. Since I fly quite a bit, I didn´t think much of the flight into Bolivia. That is, until someone on the plane mentioned they were nervous about landing at such a high altitude.

Of course, my scientific brain took over. I had flashbacks to my aerodynamics courses at university. Then, I read in my guide book: ¨because of the thin air, the runway is 5 miles long to accomodate planes that have to land at twice the normal landing speed and have a harder time slowing down... ¨ Hum... But, despite the obvious speed on the runway when we landed, it was one of the best landings I had.

Despite the traveling and being tired from the busy 3 week lead up to my departure, I was awake and very aware that I was now in Bolivia. And, surprisingly, this was the first trip I´ve had where I found myself apprenhensive instead of excited at what layed ahead. My biggest concern of the moment: how was I going to communicate with my elementary level of Spanish!

Well... I learnt quite quickly: with laughter - the universal language.

I was picked up from the airport by Edwardo, one of the employees working in La Paz with the NGO I´ll be working with in Potosi. After he asked how I was doing, and I responded with ¨I´m tired¨, he then asked me what my husband´s name was. When I then said I didn´t have a husband, he looked confused for 5 seconds before busting in laughter. This was my first of many informal spanish lessons I´ve had over the last 2 days. I had said ¨estoy CAsada¨... which means ¨I´m married¨, instead of ¨estoy CANsada¨ (I´m tired).

Either way, that kicked off a great 30 minute broken conversation in spanish, as I was caught in the middle of learning as much as I could from Edwardo and wanting to check out the sites around me.

And with that introduction to Bolivia, the familiar feelings returned of arriving in a new country... ¨Woohooooo!!! I´m here!¨

The last two days have since been a blur. I´m coping with flying directly into such a high altitude by drinking ¨mate de coca¨ - tea from coca leaves and by taking a few naps here and there. I´m realizing I have nothing to be embarassed about from being out of breath after climbing only a set of stairs, since it is no different with the locals.

What I read is true: there is no heat in any building and they stay at a cool temperture 24 hours a day in the low single digits. You would not believe how excited I was when I realized ¨c¨ on the tap of BOTH the sink and the shower meant ¨caliente¨ (hot) and not ¨cold¨. And, I have a new appreciation for llamas, after being toasty warm sleeping under 4 llama wool blankets.

That being said, despite having put on face cream with SPF to deal with the dryness of the air this morning, I still got a sunburn on my face today. I wonder if I´ll be able to find a toque with a brim on it in one of the markets here!

So, with a combination of being jetlagged, worn out from trying to interpret spanish, sunburnt, cold, and a little loopy from the high altitude, I´m off to bed... with the excitement about the days to come...

Je ne parle pas française...

Yikes! It's all starting! I'm off to Montreal for 5 days of training. I'm going to resist the french influence, as I'm still madly trying to get a hold on Spanish. Growing up, I was always accused of using Frenglish. In Bolivia... it will be Spanench.

A goodbye dinner last night with family made my trip all of a sudden seem real. The reality that my youngest neice is going to be twice as old when I get back... and that I'm going to be missing so much of the development of the two of them is sad. But, my brother and sis-in-law have promised to show them pictures of me while I'm gone (coupled with horrible lies I'm sure...).

The tricky part of my leaving for Montreal, is that I will be back. Not Arny style... but I do have next Monday in Vancouver as a transition day between training and leaving "officially" for my position in Bolivia. Hopefully it won't be too much of a mad panic as I realize over the next 5 days all the things I wished I had done....

The stress is mounting...

I think it is slowly getting to me. It is 4am and I am choosing to post a blog instead of toss and turn in bed.

I've got 4 days left before I fly out, albeit for the first time. I'm heading out on the morning of the 18th to Montreal for 5 days of training through Netcorps, the organization under CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) that is partially funding the costs associated with the volunteer job. Then, I'm back in Vancouver for 1 last day before catching my flight out for 6 - 7 months.

The one thing that I'm happy to be wrapping up is fundraising. My online total right now is showing a wopping $1,700... very close to the $2000 I'm trying to raise. I've even been told that the write up that I have on my online donation page is going to be used by the Canadian office in their mailouts! Pretty neat!

I have 2 days left at work. I think I need about 2 more weeks. Oh well. Maybe it's a good thing that I'm having to wrap up so quickly! That way I am forced to only do the important stuff and make better use of my time.

But... as for everything else.... I really could use more time. I started packing up my stuff to put into storage as soon as I found out about the position. But, I haven't done anything since! The stuff that's left is the tricky stuff... things I need to go through to decide what goes in storage and what comes with me.

I hope that I will be able to put my giant "to do" list that is in my head off to the side tonight. It is my NIGHT OFF, and I'm celebrating with friends... I don't know what... me leaving? (although, isn't that bad when your friends celebrate that you're leaving?) Eitherway, I think a few beverages is in order.

Here's to looking forward to tonight....