I love Spanish! Today is Monday and the 4th day of official language class for me. The first two days last week were orientation - overview of the institute, method, tour of the campus, health and safety in Cochabamba, living with a Bolivian family, volunteer service opportunities, and presentations from different groups here (Service for mission and leadership in Latin America for example is one group). This is a picture of me (yes, I really am THAT pale and likewise feeling awful because of the altitude on top of the mountain) overlooking the city of Cochabamba on Saturday. More pictures will come next post.
There are 4 classes every day and I will either start at 8am, 8:50am or 11:30am. The time slot changes every 2 weeks and this week it’s 8am for me, so I’m done by 11:30am. We stay in one room and the 4 teachers switch and come to us. We each have one class-mate and mine was a priest from Tongo but is now a sister from Cleveland, OH who will be going to El Salvador. Classes are going well and I’m so grateful to be living with a family because that’s where I get so much practice and learn a lot of vocabulary and culture (a key ingredient in learning a language).
Speaking of my host family, they’re great! I couldn’t have asked for a better fit. One of my fears in coming here was that I’d mostly be offered meat, potatoes and rice. Being a vegetarian who loves fresh produce, this would be an area of real growth for me. As it turns out, the family is very health-conscious and eats lots of fruits and vegetables. The sisters spent a few months in Chile last year with their church. They were talking about how Chileans only eat potatoes, meat and rice and fruits maybe once a month…funny that’s what I thought about parts of Bolivia. I’m so fortunate to be in this fertile valley of “eternal spring” and with a family that likes to eat lots of tofu and eggs, mmmm mmmm good!
Food is important and last night I learned how to make a well-loved typical Bolivian dish, “umpistes” (like Mexican tamales) with “choclo” (corn, but different than US corn –has bigger kernals). I was in my room getting ready to do some homework and my host mother asked me if I was busy. I said no and she invited me, I thought, to learn where the laundry was and how to do it….ha, no. Instead, I spent the next 2 ½ hours learning how to make this dish, which was WAY more fun and interesting than laundry.
Making umpistes involved carefully peeling off the layers of husks (because they will be used later on); cutting off the kernels; putting them into a “mushing” device that mushes the kernels by turning a handle; mixing melted vegetable oil, salt, sugar, and anise with the mush; spooning about 1 c. of the mush onto 2 corn husks partly layered and then wrapped up and tied with a thin husk. These can either be cooked in the oven or steamed in a pot with the de-kerneled cobs on the bottom along with water and anise and then piled to the top with these “mush pouches”, covered and left to cook for about an hour. I had one for dinner at about 9pm when it was FINALLY all said and done and then another for breakfast this morning.
I loved being included in the making of it because it was a real family event – my host mother, her sister-in-law, brother and mother were all there taking part. It’s very sweet to observe the way they treat each other—joking, chatting, and casually rubbing the grandmother’s head, working hard but also enjoying the process and together-ness, not rushing. I couldn’t help but think of how I would be brainstorming with my sisters how to get the task done most efficiently…but that just didn’t matter to them and made the hours much more enjoyable (sorry sisters! I’m learning).
Some other signs that I’m learning new things every day:
1. For the first several days, it was so hard for me to remember NOT to put toilet paper in the toilet…I’ve done it more times than I’d like to remember. I rejoiced the first day I made it all the way through putting it in the trash can
2. Apparently we don’t get water between 1am-6am. There’s a tank on top of the house and I think we get a tank a day…but I didn’t really understand a lot of that conversation, so I’ll have to get back to you on that
3. We went to the supermercado (supermarket) and my host mom had to put her purse in a locker and took her wallet with her. I guess you can’t carry anything that would allow you to steal? I saw a man in the store speaking English on his cell phone and wearing a Maryknoll hat. He’s a lay missioner here with his family.
4. You always kiss cheek to cheek whenever you meet someone or they enter the room or you enter a room – basically whenever you greet anyone informally. I like that, because it feels like “I think enough of you that I’m going to give you a kiss out of respect”.
5. I’ve been sick with a bad cold, but I’m being so well taken care of! For the past three nights, I’ve been give a cup of hot water with one garlic clove chopped up, honey & lemon to drink right before getting into bed. I was told this is a grandmother’s secret, passed down through the generations and one that I can now pass down to my own children. I felt honored to be in on the secret Guess what? I’m so much better.
Last weekend, I heard the church bells ring at 8:45 and then again at 9:00. As my host mom and I ate breakfast, we could hear the music very clearly playing over loud speakers. Anita (host mom) told me it was Christmas music and that her past students had told her that music so loud in the morning was not allowed in parts of the US. I agreed that people wouldn’t like being disturbed. She responded that the sisters have helped the neighborhood out a lot – something about getting a water system put in…something very good so people don’t complain.
My host mom walked me just around the corner to the chapel, a smaller church associate with the larger Catholic church about 10 min. away. Afterwards she met me outside with her brother. She explained that there was a neighborhood meeting about to start, and I agreed to stay. They brought the pews/benches from the church out under some trees and just like with mass, people trickled in over the course of the meeting. The meeting began with one man and two women standing up in front of us. We all had a piece of paper with an agenda and things to vote on i.e. to pave certain alleys, to complete a park etc. I don’t’ know what brought this on, but people started standing up and asking to have a word, a “palabra”. They would talk for a while then others would start talking about them to each other or would shout out in argument. Someone would quiet everyone down and then it’d start all over again except with a different person speaking to the group.
At one point an elderly man stood up and when he spoke, people appeared to respect him and clapped for him afterwards. He spoke about us needing to be united as a neighborhood etc. The arguing and interrupting went on for a long time, until finally Anita and her brother got up and left and I followed. I think it went on for at least another hour. Anita says that meetings are not normally like this.
Later on Sunday Anita invited me to the “Mercado”. We drove to this place that is like an open-air warehouse in size and height, but had fewer walls. At the Mercado, we got lots and lots of produce. There were things I’d never seen before and couldn’t tell you what they were. The thing that impressed me the most was this giant gourd/pumpkin – it was probably 2 feet in diameter and you’d only buy and take home a piece of it. There were probably a hundred vendors or so, most selling food but many selling house-hold items too.
I don’t think I feel comfortable enough yet to maneuver something like the mercado with so much human interaction. There are so many social rules and expectations I don’t know yet. I did observe that it’s ok to touch the food but it seemed like some people interrupted or helped themselves while others were standing there…yet no one seemed upset. I don’t understand the order of conduct. Again, so glad I have a host family to mitigate that stress, at least for now. Amazing how something so simple as buying food can be so intimidating here and yet totally mundane and comfortable in the US.
In our orientation, we learned that Reciprocity is a very key value in Bolivian culture. There’s an undertone of sharing, giving and receiving in the way people live and interact. For example, instead of always splitting a check at restaurant individually if with friends, one person may cover it, knowing someone else will get it another time. I’m beginning to sense this more and more – a sense caring for one another and also of belonging to one another. One American, who I think also understood this value greatly and is one of my favorite people, is especially remembered today and has a memorial in San Francisco with the following quote:
“Through our scientific genius, we have made this world a neighborhood; now through our moral and spiritual development, we must make of it a brotherhood. In a real sense, we must learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish together as fools.” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I’ve been feeling very sad about the situation in Haiti. I think the wise words above are good to reflect on especially now in this context, at least for me.
5 things I’m grateful for today: the ability to hear, MLK Jr., a bed, beautiful gardens, sharing meals with friends
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