Fragile times

Things for the moment have calmed down a bit; enough for some of us to attend a soccer game last night and to possibly head out to Santiago to start working with the orchestra (the game was pretty great, only uncertainty was that two fan groups, both blooming fans, after the game got into a bit of a brawl).  Since Saturday things, at least here in Santa Cruz, have returned to life as usual.  There is still violence in northern parts of the country with the military coming in and some nervousness here over the weekend with rumours of some military being moved to Santa Cruz also.  There has been some dialogue initiated here in the country.  The Prefect of Tarija, the representative of the departments in conflict, has been in dialogue sessions with Evo Morales.  Also the presidents of Argentina, Chile, and Brazil have been trying to initiate some dialogue as well.

The new issue is trying to get out of the city.  Some of the bloqueos have been lifted, but not the ones in the part of the department that I want to go.  The trains, rumour has it, can go, but the offices in the bus/train station were all destroyed last week in the rioting business.  We looked into flying in small private airplane but all the other passengers have recently back down and we would be left with dividing up the bill in-between two people instead of eight.  There is always the bus, but with the bloqueo business it adds another problem in the already iffy travel situation when it comes to busses.

So as of right now I’m just as stuck in Santa Cruz as I was before.  But this gives me a great chance to continue networking with folks here, and maybe a chance to see more soccer games.

I hope all are well back in the states, feel free to respond by comments or emails, I do love hearing from you all just as much as you love hearing from me (because I know you all rush home from work or whatever and run to you computers to see what exciting new blog post Peter might have thought up…….) But honestly I’m a little out of the loop on the goings-on’s of the north, I try to read up online but I’m spending plenty of time reading and watching about Bolivia as well. I have to say, if any of you know people in high places, now would be a great time to suggest that Gov. Bill Richardson come down and help mediate the conflict. (-:

Week back in Santa Cruz de la Sierra

This week has been pretty tranquilo in Santa Cruz.  The main activity has been getting to know the city and my host family here in the Plan 3000, a barrio a little way outside of the city.  So I have a 1 micro, or bus, ride into CCM every morning. Here at CCM I have been mainly trying to network with people, then in the afternoons I get three hours with a tutor. My tutor is Delicia, a sweet little girl from Santiago.  She actually did IVEP, International Volunteer Exchange Program, with MCC last year in Canada. She has been helping me out with the ins and outs of Santa Cruz as well and plenty of background on Santiago.

            I have also been filling my time getting to know several scores of music, some of them Chiquitano which is very exciting, since I will be directing the orchestra in a festival out in Corumbá and Puerto Suarez, right on the border of Brazil and Bolivia, in two weeks. As long as the bloqueos are lifted and I can get out to Santiago.

            It has also been wonderfully chilly this past week, after the rains the temperatures dropped, but that will not be the norm since we’re getting into the wet and hot season here soon. The other fun stuff this week was my host brother Mauricio was going to take Caleb and I to a Blooming and Independientes soccer game last Friday.  Unfortunately the game was cancelled, but on Saturday we were able to watch the Argentina game on TV after we had a big lunch festival here at CCM, to raise money for one of the workers mothers.

            This coming week will be similar to the last week except that this Friday we are travelling as a group to Moro-moro, a town South West of Santa Cruz in the mountains.  One of the SALTers will be there for the next year so we’re going to get to know his work and what programs CCM has there.

 

I have pictures from the lunch this past Saturday.

My host mom is the one in blue and white

Lots of Carrots

working on more carrots

Mate never ends

Host brother

Santiago de Chiquitos

This past week I had the wonderful experience of staying with my host family here in Santa Cruz de la Sierra but also travelling out to Santiago de Chiquitos in eastern Bolivia.  The in Santiago, I got to meet my host family there and spend the week working with the youth orchestra and choir.  So know I have an idea of what my entire year will look like.  But I’m getting ahead of myself I should start from the beginning.

            I’m hoping that I’m starting here where I left offbefore….

            But last Monday I was supposed to leave for Santiago on the train, el espresso, or the express.  The organization that I will be working with, Systema de Orchestas y Coros, System for Orchestras and Choirs, SICOR ask me on Friday to go out to Santiago with another director here from Santa Cruz.  The Temporada or annual music festival was scheduled for this past weekend and Jose, the direct from Santa Cruz, was going to conduct the orchestra and I was supposed to go along and help out where I could, and get to know the program.  The tickets did not get to the train office in time so I ended up going on Tuesday on the rapido, or fast train instead.  This gave me a chance to rehears with the Santa Cruz youth orchestra on Monday night and meet the French director who was really upset about me going out to Santiago and not staying in Santa Cruz to help him with his cellos.

            I made it to the town of Roboré around midnight on Tuesday after the 12-hour train ride and a friend of Milton and Kathrynne Whittaker (I’ll explain who these folks are in a bit), Eddy Milson picked me up to take me the 20km ride out to Santiago.

            In the morning I awoke to the landscape of the little town and to Kathrynne and Paul inviting me into get to know the town.  Milton Whittaker is a wonderful gentleman from Uniontown, Indiana who came to Bolivia with MCC about 40 years ago and has since settled into Santiago.  Milton and his wife Kathrynne, who is also an Earlham grad from Indiana and who came to Bolivia in the past 20 years, run a dairy farm and make all sorts of wonderful yogurts, and cheeses and whathaveyou.  They have five wonderfully Santiageño kids: Ramona, Raquel, Santiago, John, and Paul.  Milton and Kathrynne in fact are one of the reasons why I’m working there with the orchestra in at all.

            Anyways, that day, Wednesday, I got to meet my “boss” Doña Filomena, and get to know the setting where I will be working.  In the afternoon I started right away working with the orchestra.  In the afternoons, every day, there is a rehearsal for the niños, or little kids.  At four there is the youth orchestra rehearsal and then at six the choir rehearsal.  This week we did orchestra and choir separated at four since Jose and I were both working and then a joint rehearsal in the evening at six until eight o’clock.  That night there was a meeting for all the parents of the orchestra and choir to figure out how the weekend concert/trip was going to work.  During the meeting we got the news that the Temporada had been canceled by SICOR due to bloqueos and paradas around the country.  These are pretty much acts of civil disobedience of sorts; people put big branches, stones, or trucks across the roads so people and cargo can’t go by.  The paradas are like the before mentioned civil boycotts.  The people of the province of Santa Cruz who are working to get a more decentralized government are doing this to slow down the economics and the day to day processes of the country to get there voices heard.

            Since the concert was canceled, much to the disappointment of the kids, we ended up staying around in Santiago giving classes until Monday afternoon.  So we continued classes as normal except we gave extra rehearsals, two on Saturday and one on Sunday afternoon.  On Sunday I got the chance to meet Dieter, a friend of Milton, who is a German that lives in Paraguay and owns property, called Florida, near Santiago. Most of Sunday was spent going to and from Florida and seeing the property, the old house, the river and Ramona and I working on our German.

            On Monday Jose, his girlfriend and I came back to Santa Cruz.  We left Roboré at eight in the evening and got back to Santa Cruz around two in the afternoon.  There was a delay since three hours out of Roboré the locomotive broke down and we got to sit there for three hours until another one from the station came and took us the rest of the way back to Santa Cruz.

            So now I will be staying in Santa Cruz for a couple of weeks until I head back to Santiago to direct a festival that is coming up.  There is lots of work ahead but I’m excited and have plenty of help along the way.

 

Albaro is my little host brother in Sanata Cruz

Mauricio is my host brother in Santa Cruz

This is Cesar and the Escuelita where I will be living

Kitchen in la escuelita

Host mom in Santiago

the rest of la escuelita

Home sweet home

the town of Santiago

Bells at the mission church

the orchestra room in the mission school

Paul running down the lane of the Whittaker residence

entrance to florida

Old house at Florida

picnic area at Florida

Jose and his girlfriend on the way back from Santiago

Sunset at San Jose train station

Próxima Estancia Santiago

It has been an enjoyable week in Santa Cruz.  We have been living at CCM at the guest house in downtown Santa Cruz and been doing orientation stuff every day.  We’ve done all sorts of things, from visiting orphanages to just getting to know the city.  On Tuesday earlier this week we actually were unable to do anything since there was a parade municipal, or a civil boycott.   The entire city was shut down in protest against the national government in La Paz (I will devote on of my entire post some day to the political situation here in Bolivia).  So I’ve started reading some books, Marquez and the like.  On Wednesday we went to visit a MCC couple that are living in Plan 3000, one of the parts of town that lower on the socioeconomic scale, and working with several different programs in that part of town.  While we were there I got to meet my host mom who lives just a couple of blocks from this couple.  In the afternoon we also visited a reflexology clinic that she works at and a small community library that CCM supports and where one of her sons works.  Many of the evenings here have been spent, reading, playing soccer and going out for ice-cream.  

On Thursday we went out to visit an old order Mennonite colony. This was a very interesting experience.   One of the large project of CCM Bolivia is actually working with these colony Mennonites.  They have an entire office devoted to working with them called Centro Menno.  Most of them only speak Low German (none of the women speak Spanish and few of the men);  they separate themselves from the Bolivians and are excommunicated if they use cell phones, or learn Spanish in school.  So they have a lots and lots of odd and fairly old rules.  One of the Centro Menno workers, a German Mennonite, told us that it seems like these particular colonies have lost a lot of there original faith and vitality after all the moving that they have done, (most of these came from Mexico since they were actually more conservative and wanted to break off from the colonies there).  But we visited a cheese factory, and also had lunch with a family (this particular family was excommunicated since the father of the small family was so poor he went to work for a Bolivian outside of the colony to feed his family).

            On Friday we visited and orphanage and a day-care.  Both very interesting programs.  Three of the SALTers will be working in these two programs.  Kathleen and Heidi will be working at Guardería Moisés (the day-care), and Toni will be working at Tali-Tacumi.  In the afternoon we were given a interesting talk by Phil Bender on Bolivian history and politics.

            Today, Saturday, has been pretty laid back.  We fixed breakfast together and then went shopping in the largest market I’ve ever come across.  It was pretty much the size if the Indiana State Fair, but with vendors everywhere.  And this happens every single Wednesday and Saturday.  And there I got an amazing pair of recycled sandals (called Jesus sandals by some), and a new mate equipo.  See pics below

Anywho, crazy fun times. Next week I’m going to Santiago for a couple of days to see the Orchestra, and there are several concerts next weekend, the San Jose orchestra and my Santiago orchestra and choir as well.  So I’m looking forward to seeing those and starting to meet all the people I will be working with.

 

Tire Sandals I got at a market

Guampa and Thermos I got at Nueva Feria

Próxima Estancia

I have safely arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  After a fairly long day of travelling yesterday from Phili to Miami (12 hour layover there) then on to La Paz (sweet mountains) and on to Santa Cruz.  The past week was really quite fun.  We spent the entire time in Akron with 54 SALTers, 52 IVEPers, and 6 folks doing Yamen! The SALTers were doing service outside of North America, the IVEPers doing service in North America (from all over the world) and Yamen! is a south to south exchange.  It was great to get to know all the folks there during the week.  And now there are 7 of us who travelled together to Bolivia and will be spending the next month or so together here at CCM doing orientation.  We will be doing language study, getting to know the city, doing some retreats as a group out to some of the locations where we will be working and just generally having a good time getting to know folks… 

not so exciting post #2

Made it to Akron PA.
All sorts of people here, I’m staying in Asia house here at MCC. The internet is pretty slow. so we will see how correspondence works.
Getting geared up for a week of orientating….  here are the pics from the last two weeks or so…

 

Time well spent…

And it has ended and will now begin anew… or at least in a little bit. The summer in MN was great and the current break in Indy is also great. and Akron I’m expecting to be great… You can imagine how Bolivia should be….

These little post things should get longer and more interesting as soon as stuff starts to happen… i just wanted to get started.

But… I do have some cool pics of the summer:

We built this big yurt thing, kinda cool

we worked hard

Start of 70 mile paddle-a-thon

our stealth canoe

some place in international waters…

had to find where to go on the paddle-a-thon

made it to rocky point, 35 miles there….so 35 miles back

last hours of the paddle-a-thon

went over to the north shore to do some climbing

had a sunset there