Mailing address...

Hey All.... just a quick update, our mailing address will be changing soon, so I would suggest not sending mail to the address that is both on this website and on my e-mail, when I know the correct address, ya´ll will be the first to know! adios for now!

but, you know you can all call me with Latin American calling cards, I´m usually around in the evenings and it´s super easy to call, just dial from the states like this,
011-56-2-278-5051 --- we all speak English in the house, so don´t worry about Spanish skills when trying to ask for me! :-) adios!

take care! natalie

January in Chile

So I realized that I haven´t exactly updated this whole blog thing in awhile, granted I have been busy and unable to, but still, I´m sure I have many adoring fans waiting on pins and needles to find out what and how I am doing.

First, let me start off with the how: I am doing great. The transition to Chile has been a challenge, a new accent to learn, a new city to get around, new people to live with, but truth be told, I feel very at home and very comfortable here in Chile. The people are so friendly and welcoming and man do they feed you to death, thank goodness I walk everywhere or I would be a big as a blimp.

Now the second part, the what: Well, since landing in Chile, it´s been go, go, go. We celebrated Christmas Eve at the house in Pocuro, went to midnight mass, had a fantastic dinner and then woke up early on Christmas day to go where else, camping. Who would have thought that camping would be so big down here on Christmas day, but hey I learned something new this year, not everyone celebrates Christmas in snowpants, some like here in Chile celebrate in swimsuits. After Christmas we had a few days to unwind before heading to missions with St. George, the famous Holy Cross high school in Santiago. We went to Chiloé and all I can say was, amazing. My group from the high school left me wanting but my experience talking to the people down South was worth it. (Just for reference, Chiloé is about a 20 hour bus ride down to Southern Chile, we saw sea lions, and some even saw penguins on their trip) We got back from missions on Jan 14 and left for Pocuro on the 17th for CEVA, which in basic terms in summer camp for the kids in the pueblo. We played in a tree-less field from 9-6, Monday thru Friday, with some visits from firemen, a visit to the pool and on Saturday a trip to Santiago. As one camper said, we out did ourselves, every kid enjoyed it and now that I have time to think about it, so did I. We stayed up in Pocuro to celebrate Ryan´s birthday and finally headed back to Santiago. It´s been a January that has flown by and now moving onto February, pretty soon it will be March and time to start working, until then I think I´m going to rest and enjoy the Santiago summer.

Looking back on the month of January, I realize that I have done a lot of things. Each one being a challenge, yet each one I have passed. While I was in Bolivia, I never would have thought that two months in Chile would pass by so quickly, but here I am. I have learned so much about myself, challenged myself and succeded. I have been given such an amazing opportunity to do something wonderful here in Chile and if the rest of my time here is anything like January, then life will good, a challenge, but good.

Estoy en Chile... I am in Chile

Well, it´s been awhile since Thanksgiving and I have some very exciting news, I am officially all moved in and loving the Chilean life. That´s right folks, I am in Santiago, living in Peñalolén, which is a neighborhood of the city. After an interesting begginning here in Chile, life has been pretty fantastic. So, this is a quick update letting everyone know that I am here, safe and really enjoying myself. Things can only get better from here.

One more quick note: I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year! Don´t do anything I wouldn´t do!

One last note: You can call Chile for much cheaper than Bolivia, buy a phone card (Latin America ones work) and give me a ring! Dial directly to the house in Santiago, though we answer in Spanish, we do speak English, just ask for Natalie. The number as you dial from the states is: 011-56-2-278-5051

I think that about sums it up, hope to talk to everyone soon. Loves!

Turkey Day

November 23rd, Thanksgiving, national holiday, a day to gorge ourselves on turkey, a day to watch the Macy´s Parade in the morning and football in the afternoon, a day to spend with family. This November 23rd was quite different. It is the first holiday that I have spent away from my family, the first holiday that I did not follow tradition and the first holiday where I think I truly learned the meaning of giving thanks.

I woke up on turkey day not to the parade but to rush to take a shower and head to class. This past week most of the North American students at school have worked on preparing a presentation about the true meaning of Thanksgiving; the origins (both good and bad), decorations and most importantly a feast for all to share. Turkey was carefully prepared, mashed potatoes and gravy, green-been casserole, corn on the cob, sweet potato casserole and stuffing were all set out. We shared our holiday with our Bolivian teachers who had never eaten stuffing or green-been casserole and kept asking for the recipes. Overall I enjoyed the experience of presenting something new to a culture that has been sharing itself so willingly with me. We cleaned up the mess from the feast and Thanksgiving at the Institute was over. Yet the day had only just begun.

Next was a stop in the post office, which unlike in the states was open, as was everything else, since Thanksgiving is not exactly a Bolivian holiday. It was an interesting experience to walk around to all of the shops here, knowing that they would all be closed back home. A few of us stopped for a bottle of wine on the Prado, the main drag of Cochabamba, complete with wonderful cafes and eateries. We sat and enjoyed the over-priced bottle of wine and talked about our presentation, which we agreed went really well. We soon realized it was time for dance class, so we quickly headed back to school to prepare for the end of the year talent show. Two hours later and many frustrations danced out, it was onto the next activity, a conference for missioners in Latin American countries. To be honest I only went because of the promise of free pizza after, but what I learned and the people I met were well worth the time spent. I was surprised by the variety of Latin-Americans working in mission all throughout Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Argentina. I typically assume it is North Americans who travel to work in other countries, not people from Latin-America to work here as well. I even met a Chilean, who true to form, showed more pride in her `tierra` or land than anyone I have ever encountered. She made me excited to be headed to Chile with people who love their country and who take pride in where they come from. Finally, after a long day, I headed back to my host family and my Bolivian house.

At home I sat and reflected on the day that I had just had. It was so busy I hardly felt that I was missing out on being at home, while at the same time really wishing that I was eating my mom’s perfectly cooked turkey and stuffing. But, while I was wishing that I was gorging myself on her turkey, I realized more than ever before how much I have to be thankful for. I am so incredibly grateful for everything I have: the family who loves me more than anything, the friends who support me in my crazy adventure to South America, my community members here who let me cry when I was sad, the food I have to eat, the clothes on my back, the shoes on my feet, the comfortable house which I call home, my college education, my faith, my life, my experience in Bolivia and soon my experience in Chile, everything. I lack nothing. So, on this Thanksgiving I learned such a valuable lesson that, although it was different and difficult, I would never trade to be back at home because when I do go back home, I will never again take for granted waking up to Katie Couric commenting on the wonderful marching band in the Macy´s parade and I will never again take for granted a home cooked meal and never will I forget this Bolivian Thanksgiving, for this is the true meaning of a holiday, coming together, sharing and just being.

We call it Volley, they call it Walley

Imagine yourself in a racquetball court. There is a net strung across the court, separating the small court into even smaller halves. Teams are divided into three to four persons, you’re handed what looks like a beach volleyball and the walleyball game begins.

What is walleyball you ask? Well, it is the Bolivian version of volleyball, played in a racquetball court. The most tricky part of the rules to walley is that you USE the side walls, but NOT the back walls. Now, it sounds easy, but when you are used to serving the ball in an outdoor court, your forget your own strength and smack the ball right into the otherside´s back wall, earning a point for that team. Which points out yet another change in rules, you earn points for your team simply by not being able to return the ball back to the other side, whereas in outdoor volleyball when you fail to return the ball, the other team gets to serve for points. Tricky does not even begin to describe the point system, especially when some people try and cheat you out of points, which does happen from time to time.

Some of the best moments here in Bolivia with my Bolivian family have been spent in las canchas (the courts) playing walley with both my host family and the HCA group. The level of competition each time we play rises as does our ability. Every time we get to the court, all rules are left at the small door and we just let loose and have a blast. We fall down, we laugh, we get balls to the face, yet we always manage to come out from the game excited about the next court reservation. Plus, I have never seen grown men (my Bolivian dad and brother) be so competitive, where they play the whole court and steal your opportunities to spike the ball, granted my host dad is by far the worst ball-hog. I think I went through a whole game without once touching the ball or if I did touch the ball, it was a mistake on his part.

It’s a funny sport this walleyball, yet I have really come to love it. It’s great for me to play, since the net is slightly shorter than regulation nets and I can pretend to be Gabrielle Reese and spike the crap out of the ball. Plus, it’s a wonderful chance to bond with not only my Bolivian family, but with the HCA group as well. So, if I had to pick between walley and volley, I might actually go for the Bolivian version, after all, where else can I pretend to be the queen of the court?

Me Jane, you Tarzan...

The Chaparé, the Bolivian´s version of the jungle, what an adventure. A couple of weekends ago, weekend a group of students organized a trip to the jungle, complete with monkeys, rope swings and giant spiders, it truly was a blast!

The trip started out at 4am, with 8 people pilled into a mini-van of sorts and we were off. The roller-coaster ride had the three priests travelling with us praying for our lives and those prayers must have been answered because we made it in one piece. In fact, there was a brief period in time when we stopped so that our driver could splash some water on his face. Perhaps next time we take a trip we should start the adventure at a more appropriate time of day, say 7am.

We arrived in Valle Tunari around 8am, ate a quick breakfast, dropped our bags off at an interesting hostel (more to come on the hostel later) and headed to Parque Machia, a elementary school field trip haven, complete with wild monkeys, pumas and lots and lots of parrots. Now I had heard about this park from my Bolivian host family and all I gathered from them was protect your camera from the monkeys who love to steal shiny objects. You know, they weren´t kidding. At the entrance to the park, we happily locked up our valuable possesions and went to find the monkeys. Within minutes, the monkeys were literally crawling and jumping all over us. Katie had a sucker with her and as like a flash of lightening, a monkey jumped on her shoulder, grabbed the sucker, hopped down and was happily eating the sucker, after the wrapper had been taken off of course. It was nuts I tell you! Where else do you get to hold monkeys who steal? We then started a climb up to a wonderful vista of the confluence of two rivers with the jungle in the background, it was absolutely stunning. Lots of walking in mud followed and then it was off to our next activity.

Parque Carassco: We were told while we were eating lunch that this park was even better than the first park, to which I at first was a bit pessimestic, but David our guide was right. Parque Carassco was like walking through The Jungle Book. When you start the afternoon off with a giant spider in the bathroom, you know that the rest of the day will be full of adventures, which it was. First, we crossed the raging river in a steal cage suspended above the water on cables, and headed off into the jungle with our guides explaing every tree, plant and flower on the way to the bat caves. There are several different species of bats that live in the park, but thankfully the ones we visited were the fruit eating variety. I have never before climbed willingly into a cave full of bats, but when in Bolivia do as the guides tell you and climb away. We were standing in the cave as the flashlights illuminated the bats all nestled into groups sleeping the day away upside down, granted a few were flying around which I must say, was creepy. After the bat caves, we kept hearing this strange noise, like a wild tiger growling, only to find out it was these blind birds, Guarachos, that hiss to keep away predators. We completed the circle around the park and crossed the river once again, squished 9 people into a cab (including the driver) and headed back to town to our hostel.

The hostel: Well, that was a trip in itself. First off, we could have picked something slightly nicer, but since we were only staying for one night, no one argued and I think we were too tired to care. It was right off the main road, which meant it was a noisy night for the guys who slept in the room facing the street. I think Patrick, Katie and I were too tired because despite the noise we all slept soundly through the night. All I can say is, thank goodness we only stayed for one night. So, half of the group woke up refreshed and ready for the next day, while the other half was sleep deprieved. So, some of us were ready for the next adventure and other were not.

Next up a botanical garden, which just happened to be closed. I was ready to turn around and move onto the next item on our agenda, but no, instead we broke into the park and enjoyed the orchids, crocodiles and turtles all for free. Again, when in Bolivia... the garden was really interesting despite the fact that it wasn´t quite orchid season and the flowers were lacking. The crocodiles were enough to keep us occupied since the fence between us and the ancient reptiles was literally 3 feet tall. We escaped the botanical garden without any penalty and headed off to yet another jungle adventure.

La Jungla: another field trip oasis, yet this park came with dangerous rope swings suspended from trees that I swear moved when you were swinging. In fact, Katie was saved by the safety harness on the 18 meter swing. I think my heart skipped a beat when I saw that she wasn´t on the small piece of wood they considered a seat, but hanging in between the seat. La Jungla was tons of fun simply for the fact that you could pretend to be Tarzan and scream and yell as you went swinging through the trees. After La Jungla is was time to head back to Cochabamba and thus back into reality, leaving behind Tarzan, Jane and all of our monkey friends.

Overall, the short trip to the Chaparé was simply an amazing weekend. I´ve said this to many people before, but not many places in the world are as diverse as Bolivia. Where else do you get the Andes mountains and the beginning of the Amazon basin in one country? So, was it worth the sleeping in the sub-par hostel and risking our lives on the drive up there? You bet. Would I do it again despite the giant spider in the bathroom and the stealing monkeys? In a heartbeat.

The Jesuit Missions and Samaipata--vacation week

After five weeks of class, we all had the chance to visit the mission towns of Bolivia, in the lowlands of Eastern Bolivia (read, hot and semi-humid). It´s been a few weeks since the vacation, but I figured it´s about time to fill ya´ll in on what we did.

First: "It [the mission towns] name comes from the indigenous region of Bolivia where the Spanish Jesuits developed a large part of Evangelism during the Colonial Period, in the 16th and 17th centuries, and in 1992, was included in the list of the Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad (Patrimony of Humanity) by UNESCO. The major attractions of this region are its churches, architectural jewels guarded by different villages which still possess interesting cultural manifestations from the period of the Missions. The Missions represented the Christian voice in the middle of this savage world. This region remained hidden for nearly two centuries until the release of the movie "La Mission", which awoke interest in the region and made it internationally known (http://bolivia.gotolatin.com/eng/Attr/htm/Bolivia-Misiones.asp)." The Jesuits were expelled from these regions and much later the Fransicians came and claimed these mission towns, which are now run by this order. That´s just for a small piece of background information, it is by no means all of what these towns are about, but it´s a start.

The trip started bright and early as we took a quick flight into Santa Cruz, the semi-tropical and hip city of Bolivia. We hopped on an air-conditioned bus, which was slightly larger than a 15 passenger van, and headed for our first stop in San Javier, where we were welcomed with an amazing Baroque concert put on by the children of the town. I cannot even begin to describe the quality of this concert. When I think of children putting on a concert, I tend to think of a cute, amateur production, but there was nothing amateur about these kids in San Javier, it was like we were at the symphony. Not to mention the spectacular church we were in, which has been renovated and is beautiful. I forgot to mention the restaurant that we ate lunch at, had 2 toucans, which were quite a sight to see. I kept thinking to myself, where are the fruitloops when you need them? Next stop: Concepción-the city with the sweet hotel pool, it truly was like a lagoon and a giant reprieve from the cramped bus ride. This hotel also had an orchid garden, which was full of indegiindigenouses to Bolivia, incredibly beautiful. We didn´t see much in Concepción this time around as we quickly headed for San Ignacio. There, we once again saw the church with it´s beautiful wood carvings, but also celebrated mass there, to be greeted afterwards by a peace gathering. Everyone was waving white flags and repeating the prayer of Saint Francis of Asis. After the tour in San Ignacio, we headed for a loop around three other mission towns: San Miguel, San Rafael and Santa Ana. At each place it was like we were in another world. These towns are all incredibly small, but each has a distinct character. For example; the church in Santa Ana was so simple in comparassion to the other towns, it seemed more down to earth and humble. We also toured a wood carving factory if you will, where the local children go and learn how to restore the churches and also make jewlery boxes, crosses, and angels. These kids have amazing talent and I ended up buying myself a jewlery box. After that tour of the small pueblos, it was back to Concepción, again the pool (yes!). This was probably my favorite church becuase of the extensive work in remoldeling it. There has been much time and effort put into making this church a work of art. It was there that the stations of the cross have been repainted, making the crucifixion relevant to the lives of Bolivians. These painting depicted Bolivians crucifying Jesus, yet it also depicted how they are using slash and burn agriculture (which is destryoing the forests) in relation to the crucifiction. Simply fastinating. After our worldwind tour, we made a quick stop at Las Piedras (the rock formations) and headed back to Santa Cruz for the night.

A few of us decided to extend our stay in Santa Cruz and ended up heading to Samaipata, a semi-tropical region of Bolivia, full of archeological sights and things to see and do. We stayed there two wonderful nights in the cutest hostel and were able to see Las Cuevas, the waterfalls, which was a really fun hike to the top as we looked down into the pool of water. We also went to the national park, La Fuerte, which is a world heritage sight. "The archaeological site of Samaipata consists of two parts: the hill with its many carvings, believed to have been the ceremonial centre of the old town (14th–16th centuries), and the area to the south of the hill, which formed the administrative and residential district. The huge sculptured rock, dominating the town below, is a unique testimony to pre-Hispanic traditions and beliefs, and has no parallel anywhere in the Americas (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/883)." We walked all around the giant carved rock, saw where they had their houses and where they offered sacrifices to the gods, truly an interesting experience. It was then back to Santa Cruz and back to Cochabamaba to start classes once again, but it was truly a wonderful week exploring the diverse country of Bolivia. It´s crazy to think Bolivia is home to the Andes mountains and also a jungle, pre-incan ruins (el Fuerte) and much more that I have yet to see. I better get a move on it, there´s not much time left here in Bolivia!

So, that was my vacation week from classes. It was weird to get back to my house and have my host family tell me how much they missed me, yet at the same time, I was ready to get back to the normal routine of going to school and improving my spanish skills. Overall, the more of Bolivia that I have gotten to know, the more I realize how fortunate I am to be here studying. Everyday I realize that I am so lucky to be here and so lucky to have a family who supports me not matter what. Basically I am a lucky girl, forunate in every way.

More to come, hopefully soon! :-) chao! Natalie