So it has finally cooled down and the mosquitos have taken the attack indoors. There is one that lives in my room and wakes me up about 3 times a week. A week or so ago I woke up with a swollen red eye (I looked like someone had slugged me) where the little unpleasant creature had bit me just beneath the eye socket where it's most sensitive. I could tolerate that, but the interruption of my sleep is unacceptable (even good coffee cannot substitute for a good night's rest). So today they put me up a mosquito net that should hopefully help me rest more peacefully at night (a peaceful alternative to taking back the blood stolen from me).
Other than yesterday being Monday (we all know how Mondays can be), there's not much new to report other than the mundanities of office life. There is soon to be a mass exodous here at MCC Bolivia with several families either leaving for good or just going on vacation for 2 months. So I'm not sure what my life will look like in the next few months - they've all been here since I got here so I'll need to adapt to yet another rhythm of life.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Ama sua, ama llulla, ama kella
After 3 delightful days in La Paz I'm back in Santa Cruz and it's hot...miserably hot - If you don't believe in global climate change start believing - this time of year is fall here, but you would never know it - normally we should be moving into the cooler time of year here, but that simply isn't the case.
Other than catching a cold and some mild fatigue from the altitude it was a pleasant trip. It was a joy to get to spend time with Tig, campus pastor at Bluffton who has been a real joy and inspiration to me.
It was an eye-opening experience for me to spend time with Bluffton students, many of who have never been out of the US. I think their response to life in a third world country will help prepare me to be gracious and patient with the new volunteers who will be coming in the fall.
Other than catching a cold and some mild fatigue from the altitude it was a pleasant trip. It was a joy to get to spend time with Tig, campus pastor at Bluffton who has been a real joy and inspiration to me.
It was an eye-opening experience for me to spend time with Bluffton students, many of who have never been out of the US. I think their response to life in a third world country will help prepare me to be gracious and patient with the new volunteers who will be coming in the fall.
Friday, May 16, 2008
A busy week
Well, it's been a crazy week with two groups here - one from my ama mater, my beloved Bluffton University, and one a group of MCC volunteers who will be working in the Paraguayan Chaco with an indigenous resettlement project of the Paraguayan Mennonite Church.
It's been good to see familiar faces and to share with them a little of my life here in Bolivia. Both groups are composed of people I know - from Bluffton (of course) and the volunteers were a part of my MCC orientation group in Akron.
In addition to the usual trips to MCC programs we've also had a chance to eat ice cream together, walk together, and share good conversations. Although groups can be an additional stress for me, they also help curb the loneliness I often feel. Sometimes the job before me seems so daunting, but then there are good moments when I can see small glimpses of the progress we are making and I begin to think it might just be worthwhile.
Today we visited a cheese factory at one of the Mennonite Colonies just outside of Santa Cruz and then shared a meal with a Mennonite family. It was shocking how much the women looked like my Amish cousins (Elsie has a twin around her! Shocking!) I didn't take any pictures or I would post one of her (it just didn't seem like a respectful thing to do).
Tomorrow I have a recycling workshop to give and then I will be leaving early Sunday morning for La Paz. We'll be flying, but then returning in bus - a 36 hour bus ride down "el camino de la muerte" - the road of death! Can't wait!! =)
It's been good to see familiar faces and to share with them a little of my life here in Bolivia. Both groups are composed of people I know - from Bluffton (of course) and the volunteers were a part of my MCC orientation group in Akron.
In addition to the usual trips to MCC programs we've also had a chance to eat ice cream together, walk together, and share good conversations. Although groups can be an additional stress for me, they also help curb the loneliness I often feel. Sometimes the job before me seems so daunting, but then there are good moments when I can see small glimpses of the progress we are making and I begin to think it might just be worthwhile.
Today we visited a cheese factory at one of the Mennonite Colonies just outside of Santa Cruz and then shared a meal with a Mennonite family. It was shocking how much the women looked like my Amish cousins (Elsie has a twin around her! Shocking!) I didn't take any pictures or I would post one of her (it just didn't seem like a respectful thing to do).
Tomorrow I have a recycling workshop to give and then I will be leaving early Sunday morning for La Paz. We'll be flying, but then returning in bus - a 36 hour bus ride down "el camino de la muerte" - the road of death! Can't wait!! =)
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Happy Mother's Day
So it's a bit late in the day to be writing this, but I wanted to send a very happy mother's day wish to my Mom =) Sorry I couldn't be with you today Mom, but I hope it was a good day for you. Take care! Love, your daughter Laura
Monday, May 5, 2008
Hard Questions...
I've now been in Bolivia for 3 months - in some ways it seems like the time has gone very quickly and in others it seems like the longest 3 months of my life. This experience to date has not been what I bargained for and that has been painful and has caused me to reflect and re-evaluate why I wanted to do service in the first place and if I need to re-adjust those expectations.
I am an idealistic person - a peaceful revolutionary even. I like to think that I live in solidarity with the people - that I am a common person and live with the common people. Choosing to do service, for me, was a deliberate choice to be more intentional about living in solidarity - working side by side with the marginalized. However, that is not my reality here. I am marginalized from the marginalized and any contact with them will require me going against the grain - an intentional choice to invest energy outside of my job to do what I thought would be an intentional part of my job.
But making such a choice is hard to do when your energy is like fossil fuel (in high demand, but short in supply and not being renewed). Although I know I have support from my church, friends, and family back home, the support I receive is still from a distance and not the same as having warm bodies on the ground here to support me. Sometimes the loneliness is overwhelming, even when I'm surrounded by people. So my job takes energy out of me, but doesn't put the energy back in and I wonder about the sustainability of making this a meaningful experience for myself when I struggle so deeply with the disconnected life-style my job implies and my own inability to connect with the job itself.
I do have people who support me here, but outside of seeing people at work, I have no contact with anyone except other MCCers who are going to be leaving in the next two months. My goal in that time is to radicalize my existence here - to change where I live and to find a church that doesn't drain the life out of me (to this point going to church here has been such a painful, life-draining experience that I've stopped going). I'm even considering volunteering while volunteering to try to find some kind of connection with the poor. I did not leave my friends and family for 3 years to live a posh gringo life, or to just survive MCC Bolivia. I was prepared to be challenged and to be pushed outside of my comfort zone, but I never dreamed that would mean being uncomfortable with comfort, or fighting off apathy and working to break through a bubble that makes the poor of a third world country invisible to me.
I'm going to borrow the term "word vomit" from a friend of mine. This is word vomit, but I need to put it on paper. I can be happy here, but I cannot be content with the death of my service ideals. Please pray for me, that God will give me the strength and energy I need to work for change here even if I don't get to enjoy it myself, and that God will help me find a community that gives me the life-energy I need to do so.
I am an idealistic person - a peaceful revolutionary even. I like to think that I live in solidarity with the people - that I am a common person and live with the common people. Choosing to do service, for me, was a deliberate choice to be more intentional about living in solidarity - working side by side with the marginalized. However, that is not my reality here. I am marginalized from the marginalized and any contact with them will require me going against the grain - an intentional choice to invest energy outside of my job to do what I thought would be an intentional part of my job.
But making such a choice is hard to do when your energy is like fossil fuel (in high demand, but short in supply and not being renewed). Although I know I have support from my church, friends, and family back home, the support I receive is still from a distance and not the same as having warm bodies on the ground here to support me. Sometimes the loneliness is overwhelming, even when I'm surrounded by people. So my job takes energy out of me, but doesn't put the energy back in and I wonder about the sustainability of making this a meaningful experience for myself when I struggle so deeply with the disconnected life-style my job implies and my own inability to connect with the job itself.
I do have people who support me here, but outside of seeing people at work, I have no contact with anyone except other MCCers who are going to be leaving in the next two months. My goal in that time is to radicalize my existence here - to change where I live and to find a church that doesn't drain the life out of me (to this point going to church here has been such a painful, life-draining experience that I've stopped going). I'm even considering volunteering while volunteering to try to find some kind of connection with the poor. I did not leave my friends and family for 3 years to live a posh gringo life, or to just survive MCC Bolivia. I was prepared to be challenged and to be pushed outside of my comfort zone, but I never dreamed that would mean being uncomfortable with comfort, or fighting off apathy and working to break through a bubble that makes the poor of a third world country invisible to me.
I'm going to borrow the term "word vomit" from a friend of mine. This is word vomit, but I need to put it on paper. I can be happy here, but I cannot be content with the death of my service ideals. Please pray for me, that God will give me the strength and energy I need to work for change here even if I don't get to enjoy it myself, and that God will help me find a community that gives me the life-energy I need to do so.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
A refuge in refuse...and veggies... and autonomía...
I've been promising pictures of the recycling project so here they are! I've invested countless hours of my free time in this little project and already have several "talleres" (workshops) scheduled this month. It's an honor to be included and to have the opportunity to raise environmental awareness and greater consciousness about caring for creation through recycling.
The bags and book-covers (still in the works) that I'm making are made out of plastic juice and milk bags (Pilfrut bags) that are ubiquitous! Many MCC team-members have brought me bags - either from personal use or that they have found in the street (the record to date is 65 bags found in 2 blocks!). The supply of Pilfrut bags is virtually endless - if I'm running short I just go pick some up off the street (you all should see some of the looks I get!). (FYI, it takes about 100 Pilfrut bags to make one clutch-size purse, or about 45 of the larger Pil milk bags).
And veggies...
Vegetables, although abundant, are often lacking in the local cuisine - unless they are members of a starch family (potatoes, yucca) or fried, so my SALT (Bridgette) and my SALT alumni (Dovanna) decided to take advantage of the national holiday (May 1st was labor day) - the day of the worker - and put ourselves to work making stir fry with quinua (a local wonder food - a protein-loaded grain!). The quinua was a bit on the natural side with extra minerals included (rocks and dirt, but still amazingly tasty and all my teeth are still in tact :).
And autonomía...
It appears the referendum for regional autonomy has been approved in Santa Cruz, despite ballot box burning in some of the outlying areas and strong opposition from many of the western departments. Although the current constitution does not provide for regional autonomy, SC has gone ahead with the vote. However, because of its unconstitutional status, it is yet to be seen if the approval of regional autonomy will result in tangible change, or just in controversy.
Ultimately, the reaction of the people to the vote is what is most important - we hope and pray for peace, for unity for Bolivia between east and west, Camba and Colla.
PS. A special thanks to Aunt Jane and Krissy for inspiring this project and proving to me that it could be done! I wouldn't have had the spunk to under take it without your inspiring example!
The bags and book-covers (still in the works) that I'm making are made out of plastic juice and milk bags (Pilfrut bags) that are ubiquitous! Many MCC team-members have brought me bags - either from personal use or that they have found in the street (the record to date is 65 bags found in 2 blocks!). The supply of Pilfrut bags is virtually endless - if I'm running short I just go pick some up off the street (you all should see some of the looks I get!). (FYI, it takes about 100 Pilfrut bags to make one clutch-size purse, or about 45 of the larger Pil milk bags).
And veggies...
Vegetables, although abundant, are often lacking in the local cuisine - unless they are members of a starch family (potatoes, yucca) or fried, so my SALT (Bridgette) and my SALT alumni (Dovanna) decided to take advantage of the national holiday (May 1st was labor day) - the day of the worker - and put ourselves to work making stir fry with quinua (a local wonder food - a protein-loaded grain!). The quinua was a bit on the natural side with extra minerals included (rocks and dirt, but still amazingly tasty and all my teeth are still in tact :).
And autonomía...
It appears the referendum for regional autonomy has been approved in Santa Cruz, despite ballot box burning in some of the outlying areas and strong opposition from many of the western departments. Although the current constitution does not provide for regional autonomy, SC has gone ahead with the vote. However, because of its unconstitutional status, it is yet to be seen if the approval of regional autonomy will result in tangible change, or just in controversy.
Ultimately, the reaction of the people to the vote is what is most important - we hope and pray for peace, for unity for Bolivia between east and west, Camba and Colla.
PS. A special thanks to Aunt Jane and Krissy for inspiring this project and proving to me that it could be done! I wouldn't have had the spunk to under take it without your inspiring example!
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