Tech Week

A Thursday in Independencia at noon, overlooking a soccer field and primary school.
We have been here since Sunday for our tech week….which included but not limited to: teaching a class on natural resources, painting a mural in the town square and another for arbor day, giving a workshop to restaurant/tienda/hotel owners, trailblazing through Pajchanti, a 4,000m cloud forest, and planting 50 trees with 6th graders.All is going well and we are finally winding down… we are all exhausted, but it has been a great warm-up for what is to come. Aside from a clumsy Claire fall in the river and cut across my hand (and bruise to my ego!) we are all healthy and happy. The hike on Tuesday was to Phiña Laguna and the Bosque Pajchanti. It was an amazing 8-hour hike with an altitude (4,000 ft.), views of La Paz, and climbing through native grasses thigh deep! Some of the time we were able to use the animal trails or fallow, terraced fields, but out goal is to create a trail and map for tourists where there presently is none. Now we have to organize all our pictures, design a map, and make a trailhead sign to place outside of the town of Independencia.
Our last day in Independencia was spent painting our trailhead, making a brochure for an ecological farm right outside of town, and cementing our signs into the ground. I woke up and ran around the soccer field, kicked the ball around with some boys and helped them move their goals. Girls never play on the field, they are limited to playing on the basketball court next to the big field… not sure if that is just the way it is, whether they could play on the field if they tried… but I plan on changing that when I get to my site. I realized this week while living next to a soccer field that getting out there playing and coaching excites me. Working with girls in general to develop their social skills and confidence outside the home is clearly a necessity- and what a better way to do it than through the outdoors and sports. So Bolivian National Women’s Soccer team, here we come! With Shannon, Sarah, Greby, and the two volunteers Liz and Emily, we placed our signs and had a celebratory dinner. We then went to Liz’s house and had a bonfire, complete with wine and s’mores… later we went and performed a C’haia… a Quechua offering on the bridge where we placed our sign. We offered beer, alcohol, coca leaves, and cigarettes to the Pachamama (Mother Earth) to watch over our sign and ensure that it lasts. In reality we just hope it doesn’t get cut for firewood as most signs do in the campo! We walked home down the hill on an overcast night with the moon peering through the clouds. The mountains were so dark it looked like black and white cutouts against the clouds… and despite the frustrations of the week and the exhaustion that will ensure tomorrow, I still wonder why I was the lucky one to be experiencing this. This week we are in Cochabamba: Monday we find out our sites, Thursday-Friday Sarah, Shannon and I have to work the artesania fair downtown, and Sunday we leave to visit our sites and meet out counterparts and host families.