Final Days of Training

My last few weeks in Cochabamba were spent going on a few field trips with my Spanish class and getting ready to say goodbye to all the wonderful people I had gotten to know over the last three months. During one such field trip, we paid a visit to the giant Jesus Christ statue that overlooks the city. The Cristo is quite a spectacle. He is literally visible from anywhere in the city -- a constant presence with his outstretched arms, watching over us all. Comforting? I enjoy the fact that you can climb up inside him and look out through his armpits. Too bad he was all locked up during our visit.

Of course my favorite part was the view of the entire city from the top of the Cristo´s hill.

We also visited the home and gardens of Simón I. Patiño in the city of Cochabamba. Simón owned a mine back in the day and hence became a very very wealthy man. Since his death, his family has transformed his home and property into a cultural center. I would be more knowledgeable about this, except that our tour guide mumbled, was very unenthusiastic, and spoke very quickly. I couldn´t give her the concentration that would have been necessary to follow her tour because I was too busy thinking about how much I wished she would just smile. Just once. I think she would have looked like a pregnant, Bolivian Tanya Bruskewitz. (I apologize to those of you who don´t know Tanya. You´re missing out.)

After Simón´s house, we visited a natural history museum. I took a couple pictures there with a couple people in mind. Grandma A, this one´s for you: Bolivian hummingbirds! (They´re even found in Tarija!)

And, Mom, I couldn´t resist showing you the type of rodent I might encounter down here in Tarija: the carachupa. Isn´t he a cutie?

Okay, that´s all for field trips. Next we had a going away/thank you party for all the host families of all the trainees. As a special treat for the families (and the rest of us), the three girls in Basic Sanitation dressed up as Cholitas, traditional Bolivian country women. The Integrated Education girls and boys donned our own festive outfits and performed a traditional Bolivian dance. Actually, there were two dances. First, the queca, which is probably the most popular party dance. We had a little queca competition, and in three rounds determined which trainees were the best queca dancers in the group. Bryan and I didn´t even make it to the second round, but I blame the fact that we learned the dance in our Spanish classes, and different teachers were apparently teaching different versions. We had no time to practice and get our versions straight. Either that or I´m a horrible dancer. The second dance, performed exclusively by Integrated Ed as a gift to the families, was much better, though I have no photographic proof since I accidentally forgot to give my camera back to Cyntia to take pictures. Basically, it involved a lot of booty shaking and hat waving, and for the grand finale we invited all our families out to dance with us. By the way, that´s the way the hats are supposed to look. It is Bolivian style to wear these little black hats that are way too small perched atop the head.

As another going away party of sorts, the host moms of Susan and I prepared a Bolivian delicacy for our final lunch in Illataco: guinea pig. The picture on the left is of my host mom, Doña María Luisa, smiling proudly with a fried-up guinea pig head, also smiling and proudly perched atop the body from which it has been severed... or the body of his former buddy. I would try to be less vulgar, but I don´t think I have it in me. I also don´t have a whole lot to say about eating guinea pig. It´s not bad. Their little bodies are a bit slimy and don´t have much flavor. It also takes a lot of effort to get the meat off their bones. Doña María Luisa took great joy from showing me how to eat the brain (pictured on the right). Oh yes. I ate guinea pig brain. It has the consistency of butter and also lacks flavor. I couldn´t help thinking back to my days in the Juraska Lab, where I spent innumerable hours with rat brains. Could these guinea pigs lives have been better spent furthering scientific research rather than feeding my (growing) belly? Probably not. There seems to be a shortage of microscopes and sterile technique in Bolivia.

So anyway, next came the swear-in ceremony. I apologize for not having any pictures. It was a very nice event, with speeches from the Peace Corps Country Director, a representative from the Embassy, a representative from our own group, a horrible rendition of the Bolivian national anthem (We ran through it three times a few days before the event. Nobody really knew the melody, but we tried.), a slightly less horrible rendition of the United States national anthem (nobody can hit those high notes), a recitation of some oath to the US government (Just kidding. It was very meaningful.), and a presentation of certificates and sites. What made the ceremony even more meaningful was the presence of nearly all of our training and language instructors and current Volunteers who went out of their way to be at the event. I, of course, teared up (I´m such a wuss) at a few points during the ceremony, as it was very touching and powerful.

After the ceremony, the fresh, newly-born Peace Corps Volunteers ate an incredible dinner at a very schnazzy restaurant in Cochabamba, during which waiters constantly came around offering us different, sizzling cuts of meat on skewers. I don´t even know what I was eating most of the time, but wow was it good.

Oh yeah. The dinner and subsequent party had a rock star theme. I have no idea what I was supposed to be. We just explored the used clothes section of the cancha (remember the gigantic outdoor market from one of the first blog entries?) and tried to make me look as ridiculous as possible... with an '80s theme?

Within the next couple days, we gradually parted ways, travelling to our respective regional cities and sites. We will meet again in three months to share the progress we have made in our site diagnostics, the projects we have begun to undertake, and of course to receive more language instruction. Needless to say, it was difficult to say goodbye. We have become like a family in the past three months, learning nearly everything about one another... down to the quality and frequency of bowel movements. I can´t wait to see them again and hear about the crazy diseases they have contracted in my absence.