How to throw a Bolivian grape harvest festival

DAY ONE

Step 1 - Decorations!

Make creative plastic cutouts corresponding to the theme of your festival. In our case grapes for stringing across the streets and plazas proved to be quite fitting. The woman in pink wrapping the finished grapes around a piece of cardboard is one of my work partners, Ana. Lourdes, another work partner, and Calixta are cutting more grapes and leaves for me to happily staple to the string.

Step 2 - Get your friends to help!

Lourdes may have mistakenly informed me, and I may have communicated the lie to Winston, that the festival was to begin at 11am. When Winston arrived, it wasn´t time to party but rather time to clean up the smaller plaza where the opening ceremony was to be held. Much of the ¨cleaning¨ involved pulling weeds. Lourdes cleverly roped Winston in by saying we needed his manly muscles to conquer the really tough weeds. I should have reminded him to lift with his legs.

Step 3 - Take a break to watch others work

Head over to the fairgrounds, also known as the soccer field, to see what the men have been up to while you were pulling weeds. Take note that the stalls for food and wine vendors have been set up. Watch the men put the bleachers in place. (Carlos, my third work partner, is in the yellow, directing.) When asked to stop standing around watching and do some work, whinily protest that you´ve just cleaned the entire little plaza by yourselves and this is deservedly your break time. Besides, it´s really hot out to be doing so much work. To prove that you´re on a legitimate break, go visit a friend´s stall to sample some grape chicha. (Remember the corn chicha from training? This grape stuff is better.) Lourdes is on the left drinking chicha, and my new, sarcastic friend, Noami, is holding the pitcher on the right.

Side note: I learned during my interview with the Inspector General from Washington, DC the day after the festival that it is against Peace Corps Bolivia rules for volunteers to consume chicha. I laughed and told him I had consumed about six liters of it over the weekend. It was a confidential interview.

Step 4 - Prepare for opening ceremony

Preparations include ensuring that the little plaza is properly strung with plastic cutout grapes, setting up and testing stereo equipment for amplifying the mayor´s speech to all 20 people who will attend, setting up an ample selection of local wines for tasting once all speeches have been said, and talking the Gringa into a see-who´s-tallest competition with the grape-toting statue inhabiting the plaza.

Step 5 - Let the festivities begin!

Make some speeches, taste some wine, and make your way over to the festival grounds to party the night away with local music and more wine and chicha.

DAY TWO

Step 1 - Wake up early to water the street in your nightgown.

Step 2 - Finish decorating

Start making giant, fake bunches of grapes to decorate the stage. There´s Lourdes again on the right. Olga, our clean water lady, with whom I plan to have a few choice words, is on the left; and Rebeca, my former host mom, is in the background.

Pose proudly with your bunch of grapes.

Step 3 - Check out the vendors and their wares

Discover the Taste of Chicago-esque presence of... dun dun dunnnn! .... hot, candied grapes ON A STICK!!!! Don´t even try to resist buying some. Take note that the hotness of the grapes combined with the crunch of the candy coating distract you from the fact that you should still spit out the seeds. I have planted a grape vine in my stomach. Hopefully US customs will let it slide. (If you ever get sick of my jokes, don´t tell me.)

Step 4 - Bring out the emcees

Head back over to the stage, and have your emcees starts sound testing and inviting all present to make their way to the stage to begin the party for the day.

Notice the stage with its fresh background paint job depicting the famous local bodega and a proud Tarijan stomping grapes.

Also proudly take note of your own handiwork strung from the roof. Ooooooh. Aaaaaaah.

Step 5 - Make sure all government officials and important people are in place.

Step 6 - Start the party!

Put your local mayor (in reddish) on display with local dancers. Follow that act with an endless lineup of popular bands, and you´ve got yourself a hoppin´ Bolivian grape harvest festival.

Step 7 - Admire your work

And now for something completely off topic. Almost as important as supporting the local wine-producing community is supporting your Peace Corps volunteers. Perhaps some of you have been itching to contribute. Well, your chance is coming up. A friend of mine here in Bolivia, Katie Gordon of California, is working with an organization in Cochabamba that promotes education about HIV/AIDS in Bolivia. She is working on a project to train Bolivian school teachers on how to put on HIV/AIDS workshops in their schools. I will be attending her capacitation workshop in April with three of the teachers from my local school. In about a week, her project will be posted on the Peace Corps website, and anyone and everyone will be free to donate. I will let you know when it is posted, but in case any of you are curious the website is http://www.peacecorps.gov/. On the left side of the screen, click on ¨Donate Now¨. In the middle of the screen, you will see an option for ¨Volunteer Projects¨, and after that you search for Bolivia in the list of countries and K. Gordon´s project. It is highly recommended that you contibute using your credit card since personal checks can take up to two months to process. (They have to check for Anthrax. I wish I were kidding.)

Again, I will let you know when Katie tells me the project has been posted.

Thanks for reading!

Remember that the opinions expressed in this blog are those of Sarah Anderson and do not reflect the opinions of the United States Government or Peace Corps. Please do not reproduce or advertise this blog, unless you´re my mom making copies for grandmas and sisters. Thank you.