Copacabana and freakin frickity duncan banotine

Chicken Feast

So hi keen readers, it has been another busy week, at the weekend we went on the big trip to Copacabana with 2000 other excited kids in 40 buses.  The day before we were making sandwiches for them which looked a bit like this:

Ive never seen such a mountain of chickens in my life-

Anyway the big trip: we left the house at 5.20 and arrived at casa esperanza where we work, met the very excited boys and got our uniform.



Me and Lukas in our Casa Esperanza outfit



Then we left in our buses which were soo full some people had to stand for the 4 hour journey!  After 4 hours of  sleep (Anna, one of the german girls had her birthday the night before so we had a chocalate fondoo which was so good) I tried to sleep on the bus but was constantly woken by the guys drawing mostaches on my face :) We then arrived at Tikina and had to cross part of the lake - courtesy of the bolivian navy who have there headquarters there due to a lack of sea in bolivia (Chile stole it off them in one of their unsucessful wars.  However, they are still very proud of there navy and long on getting their sea back).  We then had lunch in the navy base, which consists of a few ferries that took us across,  after that we continued our journey until we finally arrived in copacabana sometime in the afternoon. 

Some of our boys in front of the 'Super Marine Unit HQ'

Arco Iris march through Copacabana

 We then started our proscesion through the town, each project had different coloured caps to mae an Arco Iris - rainbow.  The actual point of the trip was a pilgramage to see the statue of the virigin mary and take a little Mary roud the town on a back of a pickup truck, which was followed by 2000 children singing songs to her.  After 3 trips round the town, a mass in the cathederal and a march with laterns in the evening, we said a sad farewell to our little Mary who was taken out to the lake on a boat - the whole thing was a little bit wierd for me but it was fun with the kids and we had lots of free time to enjoy ourselves!   

Lukas and Johnny on the right (a teacher from casa esperanza who is hilarious and also who pretty much snored that whole night)

Our accomodation was also interesting, we stayed in like a building owned by the church - and we slept with our projects on straw sacks, with like 25 people in some rooms, none of which had windows and were probably only just bigger than my bedroom at home. Luckily me and lukas were in a room with only 15 staff and well behaved kids, and we managed to sleep on a matress.  During the day we decided to treat ourselves and eat out in a restruant, which did look fairly good from the outside and was more expensive for bolivian standards.  After we ordered a small pizza we went and sat down a little bit confused about where the restruant actually was.  We were in a yard with rubbish, empty beer bottles, a random matress (thought about taking it for our room) and caged birds.  We sat down while 'the staff' played cards on a balcony - it was so funny we thought we would make a review of this small quiant lakeside cafe, and took lots of pictures.  After 40 mins of waiting our small luke warm pizza arrived, but considering the circumstances wasnt bad!  We promptly left but not before warning two other tourists who had also uknowingly wandered in about the service.

A happy customer with his Pizza

For the kids in the evening they organised a show with clowns, dancers etc. and a fiesta, which was really good and the kids loved it.  The next day we went back home on a very quiet sleeping bus! The whole trip was a really good experience and everyone enjoyed it, but we were ready to come home.

This week has also been busy and yesterday we had an eventful day.   Me and Lukas were helping the cooks (who absolutely love us) before lunch with some of the boys, we were messing around a bit and lukas was playing with Johnny, who is actually a really nice guy, when he got a bit carried away and sprayed window cleaner in Lukas' eyes.  He washed his eyes straight away for a long time and then went to the doctor and had his eyes washed out again - fortunately he is fine but it was a bit of a scare.  Then later on that day we were in the centre of La Paz after work when Iwe walked past a man I thought i recognised.  I turned around and looked at him and realised it was the duncan banotine from dragons den!  When I realised I was like  'HEY LUKAS IT'S DUNCAN BANOTINE' - dragons den is obviously not popular in germany as he had no idea who he was.  Duncan (i feel like we should be on first name terms now) heard me and said hello - to me I will point out. I didn't have time to ask him but i'm guessing theres going to be a 'dragons den Bolivian special.  So tonight we are going to cochabamba with the Bus, which takes 8 hours - luckily the bus has beds.   We are staying there for the weekend and then coming back on sunday, so it will be our first little holiday.  Oh yeah, Also me and Lukas are about to shave off all our hair for our project - we have about 500 bolis which is about £50 - from the other volunteers to buy something for our project with.  The pictures will come soon.  Ok until the next post, which will come soon!  Bye bye :)

el Rey Leon and valle de la luna

Quite alot has happened since I last wrote, we have now been here exactly a month today - it's scary how fast it's gone!  Last Saturday we went to the theatro Municipal La Paz to see the lion king for 30 bolis (3 pounds!), maybe not comparable to the west end and it was interesting hearing the songs in spanish, but it was really good!

Me, toby and su outside theatro municipal

the cast of the lion king!

us and some of the germans with camoon

me an lukas at valle de la luna

 This week has been good at work, there was drama on sunday when Jonathon, a 10 year old in casa esperanza fell off a roof and landed on his head.  He went to hospital Arco Iris (run by Arco Iris), fortunately he only broke his collar bone and has to wear a neck brace, which means he wonders round like a robot, but he's making a speedy recovery.  We're getting to know the kids better and most of the time it is a laugh to be with them, however we had an incident this week:  we we're sitting watching football when a coin fell out of someone's pocket, Osman then grabbed it straight away, but I was so sure it was mine as I was missing 5.  So after many strong words, with him still refusing to give it back, we went to the coordinator who said he had until lunchtime to give it back or there would be serious consequences.  Just before lunch me and lukas went to go and pick up the guys from school when I realised i'd been a massive idiot and had brought water before work for 5 bolis - i ran back and told the coordinator and massively apologised to osman, i then took him to eat an ice cream which I think made him forgive me!  Apart from that though it has been a good week and my spanish is improving: we are having 4 hours of lessons a week with a tutor.

Lukas with some of the boys

 On friday we also had the day off to go on a group trip to valle de luna - moon valley - which is where rocks have eroded to make a really funky landscape.  After that we went to a park with Sebastian and Johanna (the volunteer coordinator people) and had a meeting about how the first weeks have gone - it's wierd to think that this isn't a big holiday anymore and we are here for the year, but also exciting.  In the evening I went to a german restaurant with some of the germans to drink some proper Deutsches Weizenbier and eat schnitzel, which tasted soo good and was a nice change to the food we've been eating this week as we've had no gas - i've pretty much been living of the toasty machine.

ein richtiges gutes Weizenbier

 Luckily the crises is over and 'we' once again can cook, i am actually learning from the house chef (mainly toby) and can now make a pretty good salad with dressing- (joke, although it is true, i can rustle up a tasty salad now).  In the evenings I've been keeping myself busy this week, with spanish lessons, going with the germans to play football - mostly against the 13 year olds who play near our house, and going with Lukas to the gym, we've made good friends with the guy who owns it and he likes to train/torture us.  Afterwards we normally go and buy many burgers from a stall nearby - which probably destroys all the hard work we have just done - lukas has now eaten over 25 burgers at the stall since we got here, he's been keeping a tally.  We havn't done alot today, just went shopping and looked around the shops near the cathedral San Fransisco, I/toby brought myself a canjon, thats like a box you sit on and play like a drum, i've been practising quite alot but I think it's going to drive my house-mates crazy... Anyway I'll hopefully have more to talk about next week as we are going with the Fundacion and 1000s of children to copacabana, which should be pretty crazy!  Until then - adios :)

me and su in luna valley

A view of La Paz

So new week: On sunday I got up early and tried to find a church, where my sister knows the pastor and his family.  I got a taxi and was dropped off outside what I thought was the church, went inside into this really posh building where everyone was ridiculously overdressed, the service had already started, with me walking straight into the front.  I realised I was in the wrong place and awkwardly walked out again realising it was a mormon church, with a group of guys chasing after me to try and get me to stay.  Luckily the taxi was still there and we made a quick get-away and found where I was meant to be.  I met marcelo (the pastor) and his family and will go back next week and have lunch with them.  After that me, Toby, Su and Nora went to the market in El Alto , which is the biggest in Bolivia.  Compared to where we are El Alto is really poor, with people living in half built houses and washing their clothes in the gutter.  It's kind of like a massive suburb of La Paz, with 700,000 people living in it, almost as big as La Paz itself.  I didn't buy anything, but was tempted by the 100's of live guinea pigs, we could have one as a pet and then breed them and eat them, not sure where we would start our guinea pig farm and how happy I would be eating little baby 'pedro'. 

Both me and Lukas have been given boys in our project who we are going to befriend and support, they all have problems in school and we are going to act as a link between esperanza and their teachers.  However getting them to school is also a serious task, I have 5 12+ year old boys to try and get to school, none of whom are that excited by the idea and in the busy streets they can easily disappear.  Yesterday us 5 left the house, by about half way 2 were missing then I realised we were just two. Then just as we reached the school mario told me he needed his school bag and ran bag to the house.  I dissparingly walked back and bumped into one of them, taking him back towards the school and ensured the teacher grabbed him.  I then bumped into mario with his school bag and walked him back towards the school, by which point we were quite late.  Apart from that we havn't really started 'work' yet, we just talk to the boys and spend time with them.  Some of their stories are very sad, one boy said he had brothers and sisters but did not know how many or their names, another boy's mother drowned in the river leaving him and his 3 siblings.  They are always really smiley and fun to be with though. 

Had a scare this week, I went to go shopping with Lukas and realised I'd been a massive doofus and left my card in the cash machine.  The machines here are also designed to make you vulnerable to having your account emptied by any passer-by - they give you the money and then you have to select to finish and remove your card.  I just took the money and forgot about my card - luckily to my knowledge I still have all my money and i've canceled my card.  So we've finished our fist full week of work, it's been really really intense - especially trying to communicate with school teachers in spanish which was a nightmare- but good.  I'll see what next week brings and keep you posted.  Take care (don't really know what to write at this point) and I am missing friends and family - but don't worry i'm not crying myself to sleep yet - to toby's relief.  Hopefully i'll write soon - adios :)

First Post

Hey, I don't know if many other people will read this but i thought I would do a blog for myself so I can actually remember what I've been doing.  If it's not the most exciting reading I apologise, although you may not think it my life is also normal at times even though I am in Bolivia.  I've kind of missed the first few weeks, it's crazy to think iv'e only been here that long!!; but will try and summarise them in this first post.  After an exciting 19 hour journey we arrived in Bolivia and moved into our new house.  We are sharing with 8 germans, which sounds worse than it actually is - joke they are nice.  So, there are 11 of us in total with me, su and toby, living in our apartment in Hogar Ninas Obrajes which is a girls home run by Arco Iris.  It`s kind of like an orphanage apart from most of the girls have parents, who are either in prison or are not able to care for them.  We have made quite alot of new little friends and they are always so happy to see us and are alot of fun.  It's also pretty handy that they really love teaching me spanish, except they often find it hilarious to tell me complete rubbish then hear me go around repeating it.  Quite alot has happened since we got here, its hard to know where to start....we went on a training week near the mountains, about 4300m, which was cool, we heard about the projects and played alot of werewolf, a game the germans are obsessed with.  We have also been to a football match in Stadium La Paz and watched the biggest rivals Bolivar and 'the Strongest' play (hilarious name as apparantly the normally lose) The atmosphere was mental with music, alot of swearing in spanish, and people throwing water down onto the terrace below.  After an eventful game, in which the strongest received two red cards, riot police came onto the pitch and surrounded the ref - to protect him from angry players.  We will definately go to the next game!

The view from mine and Toby's room

We have also been to lots of markets, me and toby brought a guitar for 300 Bolis - 30 pound and so much food.  Su went crazy and brought loads of really funky fruit and a blender to make smoothies. we also had a funny incident with a man in the street who talked to us, asking me if I knew his friend 'charlie' - i thought he was just joking as we were english and was like 'yeah of course I know charlie!'  Su then told me charlie was a street name for cocaine - I now know i don't have any friends called charlie.  However more importantly we chose our projects last wednesday and I am now working in Casa Esperanza, a home for boys who have come of the streets.  I am working with a german guy called Lukas, we get on really well and have alot of laughs, he also speaks reasonable spanish which is very helpful.  At the moment we are just hanging around and getting to know the guys there, playing football and helping them with homework.  Many of them have social problems and have understandably had very tough and sad lives, we have already had to break up fights on our first day.  But they are very friendly and seem to really take an interest in getting to know us.   It's quite intense with the spanish but i'm getting lessons next week with some others.  Today we went on a mega shop and brought so much food at a local market - i proudly wore my project trust tee-shirt, on which i stupidly sewed the bolivian flag upside down, this was pointed out today by locals to my embaressment and i have now taken it off.  We have just made the most amazing battered sweet and sour chicken and I feel sick.  So, first post is now finished.  I hope this will be the first of many more- hasta pronto!

Me and Toby at El Mercado Negro