Orphanage Work

Maggie here....

You walk in through the laundry room, washing room, and the place where they isolate sick babies or have preemies, wash your hands and tie a apron around you, then step into the larger room and start the work. The big room has 35 cribs and 35 fussing babies, either on a mat, set on the ground, in walkers or in cribs. Their ages range from newborn to 1 year, the younger ones on one side, the older ones in larger cribs on the otherside of room reeking slightly of disinfectant and baby. Above each crib is a name tag with the babies name and birthday tied to the crib with a ribbon, or taped above it. You walk in and either just start propping bottles up with blankets and calming fussy babies, or you ask one of the two ladies, that work there full time, "como puedo ayudar?" how can I help. We come at 8 in the morning every Sunday and leave around 11 or 12. When we first get there, the babies are finishing bottles propped up on blankets and you just walk around readjusting them and waking up the sleeping ones. Then the older babies get fed with spoons and then every baby gets a bath. This is done with an assembly line and alot of happy wiggly naked babies, then everyone goes outside and sits on the patio in either walkers, playpen or car seats lined up in the shade. After the floors are washed everyone goes back inside and its bottles again and spoon feeding. The time each child gets with another human to just cuddle or be held is patheticaly small, with 35 babies and 2 care takers it is unrealistic, so the babies will cry, but the moment you pick them up they are happy... they could have a dirty diaper, be hungry or needing to be burped, but as long as your holding them, they are the happiest thing in the world... its too bad I don't have 35 hands, but the last time we did bring snugglies, and that way you can be hanging up wet bibs and diapers to dry and still be able to keep one baby happy and just let them feel your heart beat for a few minutes. (Note: it is against policy at the orphanage to take photos, so this little girl in the photo is not from the orphanage)

Cate gets her bird

I wanted a bird as soon as I got here, but with all our travelling, thought I'd wait till we slowed down a bit. I scoped out all the possibilities, even visiting a friend of a friend who has 70 birds as pets. The pet isle in the huge market is a little sad. You have to have a strong stomach. Crates with turkeys, chickens, kittens, puppies and even two little kestrel hawks. The smell is not the worst, but pretty bad. I spotted these loroitos (parakeets) that looked really healthy and decided to get one. It is officially a Canary-winged parakeet, even though we think of parakeets as the "budgies" from Australia. Parakeets are slimmer and have a long tail compared to real parrots. Their native range is about 1/2 of South America.
I named him/her Vientioch. Which is short for the number 28 in Spanish. In the market, the venders are so cute in that they shorten the words of numbers. For example, if something is 5 bolivianos, which are also called pesos, a vendor may say: "Solo cinco pesites". Like, its not that much! only 5 "small" pesos! Once the gal said vientioch instead of vientiocho. Shortening the word. So that's what I call my bird as it cost about that much. (which is $4. this same bird would cost $300 in the states.)So his name is pronounced, phonetically; benty-och. Here is the nice cage I got. He really likes mangos and bananas. We are trying to get him tamed up and he will eat out of our hands and soon will sit on our fingers.

Climbing Tunari, A mountain above Cochabamba

We heard you could do it in a day.... too tempting. So we and some other interested folks talked around until we found guides to go with us, and they arranged a bus and everything. $10 or so a person to climb the highest mountain that is above Cochabamba. The girls were off in another city at a school soccer tounament, so they didn't get in on the fun. They were really bummed. Not.
This photo is of our traditional lunch we had. Boiled eggs, potatoes, the bowl holds large boiled corn kernels, fresh cheese, apples (and other goodies, not so traditional, like my snickers bar! )Usually there is meat as well. We had good weather and drove from 8,000 ft in Cocha to 14,000 and started the hike there. It took about 4 hours to get to the top at a slow pace. This pace is enforced by the fact that there isn't a lot of oxygen to be had. Although the guides didn't seem to have any trouble and would literally run up and down between us handing out excederine. (great for immediate relief from minor altitude symptoms). There was only one steep part right before the summit, so I just didn't look down! Someone saw a condor fly by when I was 100 ft. from the top, but I was so winded that I couldn't hurry up the rest of the way to try to see it. darn! The bus ride was about 2 hours back home and my dramamine had worn off, so by time I got down off those switch backs and through the diesel of the city, I was done in. Tom had to go to the airport to collect the chicas from thier big soccer trip. Great day, beautiful valley, good to look down on the city. And now as I watch the sunset from our veranda I can say to myself.... I was on top of that peak!

Tom taking a breather

Almost above llama-line

OK, I can't help myself...got to throw in some natural history facts. Llamas are in the camelid family, have soft feet that don't ruin the fragile grass and were domesticated like 6,000 years ago. The animals they were domesticated from are now extinct. The Bolivian llamas are rather uppity and proud, as they should be.

Climbing Tunari, tallest mountain above Cochabamba

At the top. 16,600 feet. I am facing the valley where Cochabamba is nestled. I'm feeling a lot worse than I look in this photo! Going down was fast in the scree.

Funeral Mass

So, our landlady, Maria Luisa, lives downstairs on piso tres, just lost her husband to emphezema. Because of his serious illness for so long, many family have passed through and stayed in the building during the last few months, so we have gotten to know the whole family. One of the sons lives here with family full time, piso uno. It was Maria Luisa's birthday the day after she buried her husband and they had an intimate lunch downstairs out on the back porch. The last minute, Marie Luisa decides we should be invited. Tom already had a commitment at the orphange, so I went by myself. It was embarassing to be there as it was close family and friends. 4 people got up and made speaches and there were a lot of tears. I sat by awkwardly wishing I had thought to wear black like everybody else there. To make things worse, Maria Luisa had me sit next to her. I think she was afraid I would feel excluded. Anyway, I made it through the 3 hour lunch, noticing that all the old aunts and Maria Luisa were drinking beer, so it was fine if I did too. Two days later we recieve a petite envelope with a tiny invitation to a special mass for the deceased, on the main plaza and cathedral. It was gorgeous. Her husband had been a general in the Bolivian military, so there were like 30 military men if full uniforms and regalia, about 30 more in fatiques and the church was full of well dressed Cochabambinos, all freinds of Arturo. Live music in the cathedral included "the sound of silence" in spanish and Ave Maria, acapella (incredible acoustics in the cathedral). Long recieving line for family. I just now dropped off boquets of flowers for each family and hope things won't be too tough on Maria Luisa (married to Arturo for 53 years). Families are really tight here and kids show so much love and respect for thier grandparents. Anyway, it has been cool getting to know this family and through them, more of Bolivia. (This photo of our apt. building named after grandma, Maria Luisa. Top floor apartment is ours.)

46 kids who call me papi

Tom here ... I started this blog deal and Cate has done a great job keeping it up, its been awhile since i've piped in.... Today was my second day volunteering at Solomon Klein orphanage(ages birth to 6)...its part of Amanacer (dawn in spanish), a outreach to street kids and orphans here in Cochabamba. SK is a wonderfull place, in that these kids have their physical needs met and they are not on the streets... Its a shocking place in that the 27 5-6 year old boys in sala 5 have one Mama (employee) and when I show up 3 x /week I'm the Papi (and so is any other male voluteer, visitor, or passing pedestrian) there are 17 girls in sala 5 and they have a mama too. I help out however and wherever....wake-up,help dress, tie shoes, breakup fights, sling hash, wipe, carry , hold, retrieve balls off the roof, monitor swimming( if i'm an orphan next lap...please let there be a pool) wash dishes, encourage, say good job, and today cradle a little girl with a double nostril nose bleed from a slide assisted impact head injury ( read blood bath ) ....the play ground is a gaunlet of conibears....but these kids have navigated it their whole lives and all have all limbs and fingers,,,,thats all for my attention span.... we go again on sunday with Cate and Mag it'll probabaly generate another Blog....

Stencil on the streets of La Paz

No, not that bush!

Maggie as always, protecting the underdog.

Condoriri and Choro Trek

We went on a guided trek for 7 days from the high Andes NE of La Paz, to the Yunga Mtn. where the water drains to the Amazon. This was some high excitement as the photo shows. Here we are taking a "short cut" along a 70 year old water canal that traversed the mountain for 2-3 kilometers before we clambered over a pass and down into greener pastures. Thank god for trekking poles as they gave Cate a bit more stability. Looking past your boot toe to a 2,000 foot drop can sometimes throw your balance off! Needless to say, no burros for this part of the trek. We had 4 of Marcella's (guide) family to help carry the gear. They were foot sure and fast even though 2 of them had blown out tennies for footgear.

Hey! Thats our bus!

No Bridge? No problem. Just put it on a barge with an outboard on the back. This is part of Lake Titicaca we are crossing to get to Copacabana to start our acclimatization.

Isla del Sol, an Island of Lake Titicaca

To acclimate for our trek in the Andes north of La Paz, we took 3 days to see this area. Old terraces from the Inca days, friendly villages and cool nights were a treat here at about 12,000 ft. The girls and Tom hiked to a high point on the island for the sunset. No motor vehicles are on the island so burros abound to get supplies up to the village where we stayed in a hostal.

On the Way to School in Copacabana

These Aymara school girls were beautiful as they walked to school at 8:30am in the morning on the shores of Lake Titicaca! We passed as our family headed out of town to hike to Isla del Sol for 2 days of sight seeing and acclimitization before our Condoriri Trek. Copacabana is a beautiful town and gets a lot of tourists who are close by in Peru checking out Machu Pichu and Lake Titicaca. (the highest navigable lake in the world). There has been some debate in the family as to what "navigable" means. Maggie thinks it means the lake of highest altitude with duckie paddle boats on it.)

The Hardworkers of the Group

For the first 3 days we had these two burros to carry most of our gear. Our family had just light day packs and even then we couldn't keep up to these gals. They chose the traditional bundles over back packs. Always laughing and cheerful, it was delightful to hear our guide and the burro guide chattering away in thier musical Aymara language. I'd love to know what they were saying about our sorry white asses!

First 16,000 ft. Pass

Here we are, the morning of the second day after spending a couple hours climbing up this pass. Our guide Marcella is there between us. She is one of the only women guides and grew up in a village that we trekked through. She used to cook for the guide company on trips and after a while, approached the owner and asked if she could guide. She was great. She speaks her native Aymara and spanish, but no english. We only had one communication problem the whole week. She always wore the traditional heavy petty-coats and skirt, blouse and hat. No back-pack, she used the traditional striped cloth bundle across her back. Nontheless... she kicked our butts going up these passes! She did have a pair of hiking boots someone must have given her and a fleece jacket you see her in here.

Preparing the Evening Meal

Marcella, our guide is working hard to tempt our altitude supressed appetites here. Food was very different than the average camping fare we are used to. Soup, meat, potatoes, and hot drinks for dinner. This stove ran on gas and was packed, along with the food by burros or porters. Breakfast was hot drinks, bread, jam and instant oatmeal. Lunch was precooked (in the morning) meat and rice, served cold on the trail. Marcella did all the cooking and dish clean-up. She had a majic pink towel she wiped the cutlery and plates with that must have had incredible disinfectant properties as we never got sick, even after the towel had been used for 7 days without a washing!

Creative Homework Style

Heres Maggie in her room doing homework. Possibly this position moves more blood to the head? or her feet needed airing? Theres no saying for sure.

Burning the Midnight laptop

The computer is in almost constant use when we are home, between 4 people. It's the way to stay in contact with friends in the states, e-mail and skype calls; we use it to call friends here in Cochabamba who have cell phones, (our phone line has cell phones blocked); have an urge to make cookies? Google a recipe; our best dictionary; organizing the hundreds of photos we are taking, (this digital photo era makes it too easy to take too many!). So there is almost always someone looking north over Cocha and the laptop screen.

Everyday life in the apartment

Its not all blue skies and stunning treks... These two items were all I was concerned about for 3 days during a bout of stomach trouble. Toilet paper and Cipro. (a miraculous antibiotic that makes diarreah a 3 day journey instead of 10). If I wasn't on the john with this view, I was in bed looking at the ceiling.