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melissainbolivia's Homepage http://www.zorpia.com/melissainbolivia Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:03 EST Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:03 EST Zorpia.com March News http://www.zorpia.com/melissainbolivia/journal/1492514 Hi All,  I apologize for the latness of this update.  I was trying to get this done the last time I was in town, in February but things just got in the way like getting stuck in the hospital for 4 days.  No worries!  I am much better now and have gained back my big appetite which is a sure sign of salud for me!  The last couple of months here in Bolivia have been a roller coaster ride.  Politics are running smoothly, the people seem to be happy with Evo Morales who was elected in December.  This means no road blocks which is a nice change from my first year in Bolivia.   My Desayuno Escolar (school breakfast) program has been coming along steadily but slowly.  The construction of the building itself is about 3/4 done and we have started to train the mothers who will be the cooks for the program.  The foreman gives me hopes of finalization of the construction by late March or early April.  The library is continuing to do well.  I took Juana, one of our librarians to Cochabamba to share our expertise with other librarians in Punata.  We had a good time sharing ideas and picked up a few new ideas ourselves for the Alice and Marc Library in El Carmen.  We have lost two librarians who graduated and found work outside of El Carmen.  Three new librarians took there place and have been training with me.  We have implemented a new library card that is printed out in comparison to our old hand written one and have also computerized versions of all of the our logs for checking out books, librarian schedules etc.  I am working now on a book-a-thon of sorts with the elementary and secondary school students.   On a personal note things had been going very well.  After getting sick with quasi Dengue Fever in January-February I was able to return to site for nearly a full month to push hard with our projects.  It is hard to get work done in site when I am not there so this needed to be done.  Hence, an excuse for not writing sooner!   Things were going quite well until February 17th.  That day the teachers were leaving for a workshop in Concepcion, 1 hr. by microbus, when we recieved word that all of the ProcchioÂ´s (my host familyÂ´s surname) needed to go to Santa Cruz immediately.  We were not sure what exactly had happened but had a good idea that something might be wrong with Profe. Hugo.   Profe. Hugo was my host Dad and work counterpart as he had been for the previous 2 volunteers in El Carmen.  He has 10 children who live in El Carmen, Concepcion and Santa Cruz city with his 30 in total grandchildren.  He was 67 years old and retired from teaching and even being a principal in El Carmen.  He was continuing to work as a public notary for El Carmen and surrounding communities.  Unfortunately we found out that Profe. had had chest pains in the morning and passed away that afternoon in the hospital in Santa Cruz.  We were all very shocked since he had left healthy and happy, joking around as he always did with us.  He had even planned to return back to El Carmen with me and my mom who was scheduled to visit this last week.   Things have been turned upsidedown with our huge loss.  Profe. Hugo was not only an ambassador for extranjeros to the community and his home but also one of the most respected people in El Carmen and Concepcion.  His family held a wake service for 2 days in Santa Cruz and Concepcion before burial in Concepcion.  We also held novena which is 9 days of prayer in Santa Cruz, Conce. and El Carmen which is a tradition in our region.   MomÂ´s trip could not have been planned better.  I really needed her here after losing my host dad.  It had been over a year since we saw eachother so we have been trying to make the most of it even though she has only been here for a week and a half and is returning tomorrow.   We were able to do some travelling in the departments of Oruro and Cochabamba and then made it out to El Carmen in Santa Cruz.  Bolivia wowed her with its friendly people, simple lifestyle, amazing and varied landscapes and yummy food.  I feel very blessed that she was able to make it down and share a bit of my experience here with me.  Now I am headed off to return to El Carmen and try to finish up the projects these last few months.  There is still un monton (a lot) of work to be done so I donÂ´t feel the fact that I will be leaving this wonderful place in less than 6 months.   In fact the idea of returning to the states is a bit scary at this point.  I have become quite accustomed to my lifestyle here, my little pueblo my friends and host family.  I am really looking forward to seeing family back home in the states but it is going to be a challenge.  Tranquillo is a word I think of while I write this.  So, that is what I will have to do.  Take it all easy and go with the flow.  If not anything else, Bolivia and Peace Corps has taught me that.   I hope this update finds you all doing well and enjoying the end of winter!  Mom had mentioned it was a balmy 35 when she left Madison!  We are in the 70-80s now and enjoying the rainy season.  It is sooooo green!  I would love to hear from you and what you have been up to these past few months as well as plans for spring!  Hugs,  Melissa     Personal http://www.zorpia.com/melissainbolivia/journal/1492514 Sun, 05 Mar 2006 14:51 EST New YearÂ´s http://www.zorpia.com/melissainbolivia/journal/1457620 <table height="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"><tr><td width="100%" height="250"> </td></tr><tr><td height="1"><div /></td></tr></table> Personal http://www.zorpia.com/melissainbolivia/journal/1457620 Mon, 02 Jan 2006 20:39 EST Enjoy the Pics! http://www.zorpia.com/melissainbolivia/journal/1455136 Wednesday December 28, 2005Hello All,I hope this email finds you all doing well.  First as you may have noticed I have now become a Zorpia member hopefully giving you all an easier way to view photos and read my journal entries than before with shutterfly.  It is really quite simple just go to <a href="../melissainbolivia">www.zorpia.com/melissainbolivia</a>.  I have minimized the photos for easier uploading but they should be good enough quality and big enough for you all to get an idea of my latest.So, what is new here?  I was fortunate enough to have my second visitor from the states here from Dec. 8 to 28.  Amanda and I met up in Cuzco enjoyed the 4 day Machu Picchu trek and the Cuzco itself for a few days.   From there we headed to Copacabana and Isla del Sol where we stayed one day and one night walking the island and enjoying the water and fresh air.  On December 17th we caught the last bus leaving for La Paz and made it just in time for Boliviaâ€™s presidential elections.  In La Paz we rested and were awed at the night and day difference between Election Day (no alcohol sales, no transportation, and most importantly no meetings or â€œgroupsâ€ allowed) and December 19.  Not only did Bolivia come through with a majority elected indigenous president but we were transformed into a metropolis that resembled nothing of our first day in the Capital city.From La Paz we took an overnight bus to Santa Cruz.  It was 18 hours long but one of the nicer buses I have been on in my 1yr 8months (whoâ€™s counting) in Bolivia and we met some interesting travelers from South Africa so the time did not seem so long.  In Santa Cruz I felt back at â€œhomeâ€ no longer in the cooler, drier land of Peru and La Paz but back to the hot and humid, Miami like culture of Santa Cruz!  Here we did some major shopping to stock up for Christmas in the Bolivian campo.  We ran into a few Peace Corps friends and made a point to stop into the office to check mailâ€¦(thanks for the cards and pressies!), see our beloved office and catch up on PC gossip.El Carmen was tranquillo and wonderful as always.  We had a warm long ride up and spent much of the first afternoon de polvo-ising (dusting) my room that had been abandoned for a week and a half.  While there we enjoyed spending time with my host family, making paper snow flakes, baking cookies and cakes with them and singing any Christmas tunes we could think of to make it feel a little more like Christmas.  Geoff, another volunteer from San Antonio arrived on Christmas eve. to join us and partake in the festivities.  Christmas in the campoâ€¦.well to say it was like any other day would be a lie but it definitely did not feel like a â€œtraditionalâ€ Christmas.  My host family killed a pig and prepared it for a midnight feast.  Amanda and I joined the evangelical church for an 8pm to 11pm mass and we even sang Rudolph!  What a sight we were.  I ate chancho (what Bolivians call pig) and put out about 20 stockings for my host familyâ€™s grand kids.  It was nice to be with them and in my site.  I could not have preferred any less and of course having Amanda and Geoff there helped me to not concentrate on the fact that this was my first Christmas ever away from home!  Christmas morning we made a feast for kings complete with hash browns, eggs and fruit filled pancakes, exchanged stockings and listed to James Taylorâ€™s â€œHave Yourself a Merry Christmas.â€  With this I felt closer to home knowing that maybe the Ganshertâ€™s were listening to a little James, and the Pulverâ€™s and Traces were most definitely carrying on with card games at the end of Christmas feasts.  The 26th we caught a cab and a bus to return to Santa Cruz and see Miss Amanda off.  It was sad to see her go but as always we know that we will see each other in the near future and pick up right where we left off so all is good.Well, I hope this update brings you all up to date with me.  It would be great to hear from all of you how your holiday festivities are coming along.   Big Hugs,Melissa    Personal http://www.zorpia.com/melissainbolivia/journal/1455136 Thu, 29 Dec 2005 15:46 EST