Saturday,Dec 31 2005, 11:45:45 AMDecember 21st. update

Dear Family and Friends,

Many thanks again for your emails. It means alot to us volunteers to get support from family and friends. So please keep it up.It's been two weeks since the last mass email from Bolivia and alot of things can happen in two weeks of time and DO happen.Though sometimes this can mean that nothing happens but the way nothing happens works in a way that makes it interesting. I told you that the gringas were coming to San Juancito right? Well I also told the entire village that they were gonna come and that we needed to organize ourselves to provide the horses, the guides, the donkeyz for eventual transport to the fields,clean the rooms, the food and just about everything possible that tourists need to have and know about the place. Nothing happened. Well they did get drunk that night so they probably forgot on the next day what we tried to tell them. The Podemos party campaigners had come to the village for the presidential election propaganda, donated a battery for some light and brought a couple of gallons of trago which they mix with orange soda and drink till they drop...That is how they win the votes in this country with promises,a battery and liquor. It works and politicians do what they need to do right? Alright so nothing really happened during the week except for my older students whom I had to ask to help me sweep the center, clean the rooms, find some sheets for the beds, clean the bathroom...and thanks to them it did work. The tourism people were drinking some more on that day Friday and celebrating some local Virgin Mary and didn{t really care...until the tourists actually arrived with a cag of beer they all rushed to the center and played music and danced with and for them.

The experience was pretty good except maybe for the horse issue..a stud (male horse??) kicked one of the horses that Lenna was riding and almost hit her own leg...the other horse just randomly went into the bushes and Anna hurt her finger in fending off a branch. Well everything else was great they LOVED the breakfast local papaya mango bread, margarine, milk, coffee and limonade. (have pictures will send them soon)Everything from the village exceept for the margarine.That was a continental breakfast and would probably cost like ten bucks in our countrries but this is something that we offer with the night{s stay. THose are the services that we try to develop among other things to get a reputation.Papa you tought me this. Word of mouth is the best propagande.Well the tourists brought 115 Bolivianos to the village (15 dollars) and profits were of 81 Bolivianos. We had a meeting with the tourism people and I asked them what we were going to do with the money 15 boilivianos each? they all said yes!! but none of them actually did any work at all to clean the center and THAT was funny.I convinced them about the need to save the money and invest in something for the center and we came up with the most urgent need to build a solid fence around the center to keep the pigs donkeys chicken and all the rest away from the tourists' space. So I am going to LOAN them some money (15,20 dollars)so that they can call on a Minga, a collectivist system that gathers the whole village to do some work and in exchange they get breakfast and lunch. So that is planned for January. We also need the fences to protect the plants (delivered but not planted yet) from the donkeyz.We did plant with the kids some flowers that we found in the forest/jungle but the donkeyz got in there one night and ate them all. That{s how it works and we anticipated that to happen but we also wanted the place to look nice and tidy for the tourists stay. SO there is no point in having the alcaldia to donate trees and plants and flowers if the roaming donkeyz are gonna eat them in one night. This is something that we need to work on before planting the trees, make sure the community takes care of them.and this is what we call SUSTAINABLE development.It takes time to convince the people about avocado trees and flowers etc...they have no clue no experience of how pretty and useful all of this COULD be...hopefully the center will be an example for many and will inspire the community.

Soooo many things have happened in these two weeks. IT works somehow step by step and I do have good hopes of achieving results in these two years. Some gringos have told me that they would come to San Juancito to go night fish with the machete so that's good and we'll have to plan better this time for them and organize the services that we can provide.

The English classes keep me busy and motivated at all times. The exams went ok...like in any school in the world you have to good students in the front row the lazy ones in the back the noisy but smart on the chairs or throwing erasors and the teacher that sends them home when they misbehave. One of those kids Wilbert is pretty wild and noisy but he did score a high gradee so there isn't much I can say. One of the kids had a mini stroke during the exam and was able to finish it and still scored 47/50 the highest grade of all of my classes. Crazy isnt it? and that is rewarding. AUnt Margy I have a special gift for you but will not send it in this email this time.its a picture of the chalk board The when two vowels go on a walkin the first one does the talkin' Rule worked just GREAT. They all laughed and now remember the rule. Cuando dos vocales van caminando la primera es la que se queda hablando (they can't do it yet in English). I used the word boat and drew a boy with the O and a girl with the A...then joked about how the girls are usually the ones who do the talkin...Good times.Thanks Aunt Margy again.As I told you, I think you would do a great job with the kids in the Peace Corps.Lots of experience and great results:) One of the challenges with the English classes is to keep the students in each class all at the same level...some kids don't study at all and don't know the alphabet yet so we have to wait till they get through that to move forward.I think I will charge 5 boilivianos for the next course so that the parents push them to study. We'll use the money for some class material or some soccer balls. The other problem is class participation the older students starting 11 are the shyest kids ever IN the classroom and during the five goals soccer breaks they are the wildest!! So I do have a class participation policy now too.

There we go. Gotta move out my stuff from the hotel before they charge me an other night. Back to San Juancito tonight. Election day is tomorrow and the senate will elect the president from the first two candidates in January.Absolute majority is needed for the candidate to win the election at the polls otherwise the senate elects him. We fear unrest in the countrry (not is San Juancito!! rather la Paz and Cochabamba) in these next weeks and this could threaten Peace Corps presence.Also the favorite presidential candidate, Evo Morales is a strrong opponent to the the "american imperialism" and campaigns for the nationalization of Bolivia's natural resources. He gets his funding from VEnezuela's Hugo Chavez's petrodollars...we{ll see. There is the news.Grandpa and Papa, to answer your questions I get my potable water from a pump. Have to carry the water to my house every day for my dishes and my food.building up some muscle Grandpa!!They all tell me I need a woman in San Juancito at least for the water. The women do the household duties. I do my cooking and some of my neighbors bring me mangos and papayas and occasionally even chicken with rice. So I do eat ok...I bathe in the lake with the rest of the community at least three times a day.Great exercise a lot of swiming and integration with the community.Papa I don't think they need Stanley tools. We try to avoid donations unless it is really necessary and that they are unable to pay. SOme italian NGO donated a battery last year and they didnñt take care of it and broke...so if THEY want something they have to want it really and take care of it.sustainable deevelopment.Besides they seem to share their tools and have all the necessary. Thanks though.What you can do to help is give teach them a course on something when you come. Tourism class or something they need to understand some things.The other question the older members of the community do speak chiquitano an indigenous language that survived the spanish conquest and the Ignacio de Loyolas education in school.Very few people speak it. But the kids don't learn it anymore which is too bad. They are learning English now the universal language.I do have to walk for half an hour to get to the road and catch any transportation available to get into San Ignacio 20 km down the road. SOmetimes it's a bus sometimes a pick up truck etc...sometimes you have to wait for ages (two hours) till someone stops and gives you a ride. But its worth the effort and the chilled beer here in San Ignacio just tastes better.OTherwise there is transportation very early in the morning but I never catch that since I have my classes during those times. I think that this is the longest email I have written in my whole life. Just have a lot to tell. Hope ur still awake. I like the news too and the pictures. I will get some pictures to you soon after Xmas. THe connection here is slow and very expensive to do some picture uploading. Xmas in San Juancito fishing swimming and eating papayas. I bought myself a Stanley Collins machete that daddy was in charge of making back in the day in Colombia. Very proud and I use it for the night fishing and the jungle. THose machetes are good tools. Stanley helps you do things right!!

Alright gotta go for sure!!!Merry Xmas to all of you.Lots of love family and presents, right?
Take care,

Willy

77 Views | 1 Comments | Share with Friends | Recommend