Christmas in Tapacarí

Here's some of the stuff we've been up to for Christmas-
At the health clinic in Aramasí we had a Christmas BBQ. It was the most delicious meat I have ever tasted. Probably because I was really hungry and ate it with my hands straight off the grill. Putting meat on a plate is already taking something away from it's charm. After eating our fill, we chewed some coca and toasted with rum and coke, until it started raining on us.
That's the bag of coca and Boivian rum there on the table. And just to clarify, coca IS the raw ingredient in cocaine, BUT it takes lots of other chemicals and processes to turn 1,000 kilos of coca into 1 kilo of cocaine. 1 kilo of coca is about the size of a grocery bag, stuffed full, you can see the bag on the table, more than enough for all of us, is quite small. We had to Jerry-rig a grill from a stove-top and a oven rack propped up on an adobe brick, a couple rocks and a red brick. And since we got back late from our days' activities, a flashlight was necessary for monitoring the meat. All the Bolivians loaded their meat with salt and wanted it on the grill till it was cooked grey all the way through. I kept taking the meat off the grill, they would put it on their plate, cut into it with their knife and fork, taste it and say, "Diego! This meat is raw!" And I would pick it up, take a bite and say, "No way, it's perfect!" We had some good laughs. Also, I made them try BBQ sauce and sauerkraut with the sausages. They loved it.

Previous to the BBQ we were in Katariri, Bombeo, and Huaynakasa. The medical staff had invited me along for vaccinations, basic health check-ups, pregnancy and new-born check-ups and gift distribution. We made a lot of kids cry with needles, but I think they forgot all about the needles when they received a toy and a hug from a nurse with a warm smile. The kids were really timid at first, but after an hour of exchanging smiles and some toy distribution, they came out of their shells.
























After the kids in Katariri, we went to tend a case of tuberculosis in Huaynakasa. The landscape was mind-blowing, we were another strata higher, and the vegetation was completely distinct. Knarlled and rugged and dense. All the low, bushy plants had tiny leaves. And we found Muña, which is a minty-basil type flavor, delicious to put over soups, like cilantro. So I brought some back to Aramasí.



The day before, we had a Health workshop focusing on women. It's always fun to see all the women from the isolated communities dress-up in their best polleras and make the effort to come to Aramasí to learn about nutrition, first-aide, treating sicknesses, domestic health etc.
And to eat free food.





And on Christmas Eve, we had a little party at Villa Amistad. Santa came with a goofy plastic nose and an Italian accent with bags for all the kids. Then all the staff exchanged secret Santa gifts and received "Canastas" (plastic tubs full of things you can eat, from stuffed green olives, instant coffee, sparkling cider, to good ol' fruit bread).






Even Pope John Paul II got a little carried away at the Christmas parties.

Finally, the Ñawpa Mikhuna

It's the end of December, but it doesn't really feel like the Holidays. But I feel like their's plenty of celebrating life with family and acknowledgment of the sacred without Santa Claus and gaudy decorations. But still, Christmas just isn't the same away from family and church.
A while ago, I got to help with a big festival in Huayk'ampara, a community near Aramasi.
Here are some photos from Huayk'amapra. I'm sorry that I can't figure out how to post the photos more orderly. The blog format changes when I post and get's all mixed up. So bear with me, please.
The first one is of the fire for the burnt offering or "mesa" for the K'oa, asking the blessing of the Pachamama. This was performed at the church, there's another pic from this K'oa on the previous blog about the Ñawpa Mikhuna.
The morning of the feria, the men went out into the river bed, also used as a road most of the visitors would be arriving on, to put up the welcome banner.

Oh, look, there's a Preview button. That should help.


These handsome gentlemen are the Huayk'ampara band play/posing for their first ever group portrait. They were in rare form this day.
These young men are dressed to dance their traditional dance, the 'chacarera' I believe.
Below are the 'Sabrocitas' with Juvenal, our project administrator. He requested this photo.














This is the feria from above right as everyone was arriving and the 'Sabrocitas' were warming up the stage.

And these are the 'Tinkus Lygas', a siki-patasan (ass-kickin') college dance group. Excuse my Quechua.







The Huayk'ampara dance crew.










The Fresia-Lindas (The Pretty Strawberries, it sounds much better in Quechuafied Spanish) rocking the audience with their original cumbia and lots of flashy, energetic dancing. They are sisters and daughters of Huayk'ampara's leader.

The effect of the FresiaLindas on the crowd-














Some young Huayk'amparians ready for the chacarera with the Tinkus Laygas waiting in the background.

Well, there's a little gallery of the 1st Feria Ancestral de la Ñawpa Mikhuna in Huayk'ampara, Tapacari.

Celebrations

14 Dec.
I got my hair and chops growing out nicely, as you may notice, but then I got a call from Leo to do a jeans add. The same day I got invited to Leoncia and Leonarda's graduation. Weird, three calls from people nicknamed Leo, which means Lion. But one of them had me sheered and shaved, which is ok I guess; I looked more presentable for the graduation ceremonies, etc.
There have been a lot of graduation parties lately. It's kind of funny, all my friends are getting married and getting invited to weddings. I'm getting invited to high school and preschool graduations. I don't mind, though, but the graduation ceremonies are painful, much worse than wedding ceremonies. But the dancing at the graduation parties is awesome. Everyone dances in lines, facing each other. Plenty of room for the HS (wink to anyone grown up in American Christian culture). It was really fun to teach all these super hip swiveling Latinas the sprinkler, the skank, the MC Hammer, and of course, the worm. One of the cool things they do here for any celebration is anoint each other with confetti. They grab a handful of paper confetti, walk over to you, cover your head in white flakes and say, "Que sea una buena hora," which means "May it be a happy moment." That's why it looks like everyone has dandruff. I like it, it feels very festive and meaningful. I also got invited to a baptism of some friends from Villa Amistad with my goddaughter's family. It pretty cool my goddaughter has a family. That's all for now. I've gotta take a nap!

La Wayllunk'a

This week I learned what a Wayllunka is. As usual, I got up Monday Morning not knowing if I would be going to Aramasí or not. At nine thirty I got a call from José, telling me to meet him in 15 minutes at an office 20 minutes away. We met-up and went directly to Vinto, where we bought tons and tons of food. Then I learned that we were going to do a health workshop for women the next day and would provide food for all the people that showed up, maybe over 100. I bought a guitar last week only to discover that I play more naturally left-handed and the guitar I bought has a nice cut-out for right-handed players, but for lefties, the design does not work. I thought the guitar should be donated to Aramasí for anyone to play when they wanted to. My job at the market in Vinto was to sit on the truck bed and guard all the purchases. So I sat there with the guitar and learned a song (right handed). It was quite enjoyable, sitting peacefully in the middle of a busy market morning, picking at a guitar with everyone rushing around me. None of the stuff was stolen, either; a job well done, I thought.
That evening we unloaded and sorted all the stuff and prepared for the health workshop. Early the next morning women started showing up from all over, colorful brightly dressed women trickled in from every direction, in there best going-out garb. The themes of the workshop were: nutrition, domestic violence, community organization, human rights, sanitation, disease and illness prevention, first aide procedures, and governmental health system services and access. There was a really funny video where the roles of men and women were switched and the women acted like men stereotypically do and the men as women do. Then the man woke up at the end and realized it was all a dream and that he should treat his wife better. All in Quechua. I got to participate in a demonstration.














After the health workshop they set-up two 40 foot poles with a loose rope hanging down between them. And about 25 feet away, another couple of poles with a cross beam decorated with aguayos and flowers and buckets hanging across it. The rope hanging from the high poles was the swing and it had two smaller ropes tied to either side for pulling the swinger. So the swinger was virtually catapulted by two people toward the cross beam until he/she could grab a bucket with his/her feet. And then, if you were young, they would continue swinging you higher and higher until you begged them to stop, or you had enough fun and they got bored. It was more exciting when girls were swinging and started laughing, then screaming to stop. Once you caught a bucket, you were given a tutuma of chicha, your bucket full of goodies and a handful of confetti on your head (hopefully the picture will illustrate any questions).













We did a Wayllunka in Aramasí after the workshop, and the next day, went to Huayk'ampara to do another for the kids. The one for the kids was a lot of fun. Kids are just fun in general. Adults are more reserved and careful and care more about self-image and not looking silly. Kids love silly. These are mostly pics from Huayk'ampara.
That's all for now. Hopefully I'll come back and edit this. Surely the format will mess everything up when I post.

Huayk'ampara, a Visit and the Chapare

I haven't been able to access my blog for a while now because the internet has been crummy. But just recently, I've found that using the phone in my new kitchen, I can get a pretty good connection. So I guess my last entry was during my visit stateside.
I arrived back in Bolivia, September 2nd. And sitting in the La Paz bus terminal, listening to the people calling "Cochabamba, Cochabamba, ya sale!" I thought, 'I need to go to Rurrenabaque.'
So I repacked my luggage a little, left my big suitcase at the bus terminal and went down to Villa Fatima, where the buses to the Amazon leave from (you're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, are you?). So I arrived in Rurrenabaque and immediately ran into an old friend that invited me to spend a week on a cattle ranch, translating and riding horseback. I said, "Oui! Qué super, c'est une chose plus bon que je'est puveir imaginée!" My friend is French. I surprised him when I entered his office and greeted him in French. When we knew each other, I had dread locks and didn't know French. It was funny, and I was pretty proud of myself. The idea of the tour company and the ranch is that it's not classic tourism, the ranch is a working ranch and the guides are the ranch hands and the food is the same as they eat there, and the days are organized according to the work that needs doing on the ranch. We got to brand cattle and castrate bulls.
So I spent a week on horseback and got paid for it. Good birthday present.
When I arrived back in Cochabamba, I dove right into organizing a cultural fair of indigenous food, dance and textiles in a neighboring community, Huayk'ampara. It was called "Primera Feria de la Ñawpa Mikhuna, Huak'amapara, Tapacarí." Ñawpa is Quechua for 'ancestral' and Mikhuna is food. The pictures tell most everything that needs to be said. The night meetings were the most tiring part. We'd meet starting at 8pm when everyone came in from their lands and stayed talking and organizing until 11 or 12. Long days. Then it was really hilarious to go into the city with the community leaders asking for support and donations. We even got to go on TV! The Friday night before the event, also the first Friday of the month, the day of the K'oa we had a combined K'oa/Ch'alla, giving thanks to and asking the blessing of the Pachamama for the event. The fair was way better than we could have expected. The music and dance groups were spectacular, so much energy, and the local groups were incredibly authentic. It was truly a demonstration that the ancient cultures here are still alive and well, although below the surface.
After the cultural fair, I got a modeling job in the Chapare, the southern tropical region of Bolivia near Cochabamba, also where they grow a lot of coca and have a lot of cocaine production problems. So we found a beach looking river bed and a tropical resort and took some pictures. Pretty fun, but the clothing company sent us without any representatives and weren't happy with the results. So I haven't been paid yet, and we haven't officially finished the campaign. Pretty lame, Almanza.
Then my mom came to visit with some good folks from the Presbyterian Church at New Providence, NJ. We spent a ton of time at Villa Amistad, painting the house, but mostly playing with the kids, making puppets, establishing relationships that have continued through email and packages and word of mouth. It was a good thing. Especially for the kids. They just lit-up, after the first day or two. We also visited Huayk'ampara on All Saints Day and everyone got to try chicha. Hehehe. Especially our pastor, Jeff.
After that, I was doing a lot of Visa stuff. I got turned away four times. Had to start over from scratch once, went to La Paz to get more pages putin my passport at the US Embassy. I was kind of wanting a smile and a warm hug, but instead I was treated like a potential terrorist and made to wait behind thick nuclear war proof windows and talk through speakers. Pretty disappointing. And I had to pay an arm and a leg. Thanks for the hospitality, homeland.
Recently, I've been twice more to the Chapare, once to be in a Taquiña beer commercial and then hang out at some friends' cabin and again for a team building retreat with my coworkers from Aramasí. We went out to the land of one of the nurses at the clinic. Then we hiked through the jungle looking for a river to fish in. We must have walked 15 miles that day. I was pretty happy to be back in the jungle with a machete in my hand. Ok, I've gotta go work at Casablanca. I'll put more pics from the cultural fair up soon. They're awesome.