Sunday, February 17, 2008

What would you do with a year off?

Well, as I only have about 9 weeks left here in Bolivia before I head back to Alaska, I'm asking myself if I've done what I've wanted to do here, and what else I really want to accomplish. One thing these 9 months have showed me is that back home, I tell myself I would be doing certain things if I had more time. Now that I do have time for those things here, I have found myself kind of falling into a similar routine and not really desiring the things I craved when I was really busy at home.
For example; I always said I would excersise more if only I had time. Here I excersice a bit more, but not nearly as much as I thought I would. Also I do not pick up my sketch book unless I really get after myself to do it. And sometimes, I choose to do, and really enjoy things that are very similar to what I do at work. Sitting at the computer and working on some project. So I guess the meaning I'll take home with me is that I probably contruct my life more than I think I do in Homer, and its not always external forces making me spend my days how I do. Having had the opportunity to do just what I want this winter, my life is not incredibly different than when I am at home.
On the other hand, I have taken time to do fun stuff and one of them is taking this photo of a plant outside our elevator door on our floor. I also planted a small flower garden as well on our terazza, so yes, I am doing somethings I kind of gave up when I went back to school and work.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Ann, Armed with Super-Soaker visits Cochabamba.

Since Tom's Mom arrived just before Carnaval, we wanted to be sure she was prepared in a culturally appropriate way. After a lot of consideration and target practice, we choose the Super-Soaker H2O plus model. She really likes the action and range and it gives a new meaning to Agua-cise with her bicep measurements increasing daily. She has emerged from Carnaval with only 2 bruises from water balloons, and we highly recommend this model for the self defense of newly arrived relatives.

Grandma Anna comes for a visit

And just in time! The girls were invited to a "formal" 15 party for one of thier friends and so off they went with Grandma to buy dresses for the event. Here they are on the way out. Ann has negotiated the very unperdictable sidewalks, Bolivian bacteria, and some chilly rainey days very well and now 3 weeks have gone by and we are sad to see her go!

Sunday, February 3, 2008

CARNAVAL!

Carnival in Bolivia is kind of like Mardi Gras. The heart of it lasts three days and on the first day is a parade of all the dancers that have come to town. Oruro has the largest carnival celebration in the country. Advise from other folks about whether to go or not swung like a crazy compass needle...But we decided we must go see it, as crazy as it sounded.

We opted for the 20 hour day tour. Four hour bus ride there and back and dancers going by all day during the "Entrada" or the entrance of the dancers. This photo above, Tom took of dancers from the low lands with exotic bird feathers. I learned recently some of the history of Carnaval, which started in the high Andes. When the first potato harvest is in, it was time to relax a bit and recharge for the next planting. Original peoples believed that there were spirits in the ground and you released them when you pulled up your potatos. These spirits were neither bad nor good. (The bad/good concept was introduced by the Catholics?). But the spirits did party with you for three days, and during these three days there was no God. It was time to let loose. When the party was over, you had to convince the spirits to go back into the ground to help your potatos grow in the next season. One way to help get them get back in, was to throw water. This has somehow lasted throughout the years but I'm sure the young people have no idea the water balloons, called "globos" here, they hurl at girls from car windows while going 30 mph are actually accomplishing such noble things. So water, specifically throwing it at someone else, is a huge part of Carnaval. Also such mutations as cans of spray foam and huge "super soaker" squirt guns.

Diablos!

Even though some of the dance groups travel to town after town during carnaval, one famous dance is unique to Oruro; the dance of the Diablos, or devils. Some say this is somehow linked to the mining history in Oruro. (perhaps the catholic influence of the "underground") There is always one Micheal the Archangel dancer in the group of devils to keep the devils under control. He usually has huge blue eyes and large wings. I guess when the dancers get to the end of the parade, they enter the church and ask the blessing of the virgin of the mines. Then the archangel puts his sword at the backs of the devils knees and makes them kneel in front of the Virgin. There is usually also a statue of this virgin carried on a litter at the front of the group. No matter how wild the party got, no one EVER hit her with a water balloon!

Groups from all over Bolivia come to dance.

Just to give you some background, thousands and thousands of dancers come into Oruro, and ontop of the spectators, it triples the normal population of 200,000 people. The dancers start practicing and working on costumes in November. The parade route is 8 miles long and they dance 2-4 times along that route during carnaval. We saw some dancers in high-heels limping over to the side and thier support person sprayed some kind of numbing novicane on their feet so they could keep going. The costumes are expensive and "sponsors" help finance the groups expenses.

Things began to escalate!

After a while, it became apparent that it was all out war between the two sides of the parade grounds. Expert "globo" throwers were identified in the opposing stands by thier t-shirt color and "hit-children" were enlisted by Maggie to get in close, targeting the worst offenders. Ettiqute began to loosen and there was no longer cease-fire when dancers came through. Some lost patience with mere water balloons and entire buckets of water were thrown into the crowd. I kept waiting for the supply of globos to slacken, but this is Bolivia, and as long as someone can make .25 cents on 10 filled water balloons there would be no lack. Entire families squatted and filled balloons as fast as they could for hours behind the stands, raking in the dough, 2 bolivianos at a time.
I witnessed a toddler hanging around her families globo filling bucket. She was cranky and went up whining to her mom. Mom scolded her and pushed her away, but after a second attempt, the toddler was rewarded with a boob pulled out of busy working mom's shirt, while Mom continued cranking out the globos, which might mean food besides breast milk the next day. There have been many books written lately about how to juggle work and motherhood in the US, but I doubt this woman has read them.

This is when we started thinking about leaving...


(Photo of Ann Bursch on left, (71 years young) and new friend Cindy)
Well, enough is enough, and if you are over the age of an arrested 21 years, after 5 hours of this, your thoughts begin to wander away from this incredibly rich, cultural parade to things like dry clothes and days were there is a God. Someone said something about having coffee in a hotel cafe. Could a haven like this exist in Oruro? Will we survive the gantlet to find it? We know there will not be toilet paper in any bathroom, even an expensive hotel, during caraval, but a china toilet will be enough.