Ok, so yes, we do know that it´s been a while since we´ve update the blog, but we´ve been super busy lately and just haven´t had the time. Since the last post we´ve been having an amazing time here. We spent our week at the language school, Escuela Runawasi, during this time we stayed with a Bolivia family in Juan XXIII (see picture), that was the name of the neighbourhood the school was in as well. This was probably the best decision we made staying with the family because we got to eat traditional Bolivian food every day.
Our family consisted of an older couple (Vita and Renee). They lived on their own, but their granddaughter, Melanie, was visiting from La Paz and we shared a few meals with her and her mom too! The interesting thing about this family is they did not speak ANY English. SO...we had to really make use of the Spanish we were learning that we at the school. Caleb saved me on a number of occasions, especially the time when Vita was trying to tell us what we were eating and I did not quite understand what was happening. Caleb then turns to me and tells me that we´re eating Sheep. Yep, that´s right, Sheep, not lamb, but sheep. Apparently lamb is really good, Caleb was shocked to hear that I´ve never had lamb before, but yeah, sheep, is not so good. It´s a very tough meat. Now both of us can say we´ve tried it, and we´ll never have it again (if we can help it)!.
We took a number of pictures while we were at the homestay. Vita and Renee had a great property, while it seemed small at first I came to realize that it was just the layout that made it seem smaller. Caleb and I had a room at the back of their courtyard (see picture). We had to walk across the courtyard if we needed to use the bathroom, which on the cold nights (every night) it was a pain to do. I think if I could name one thing Caleb fell in love with while we were at Vita and Renee it would have to be el perro (the dog). While the dog was cute, I did not fall so in love with him, because the concept of cleaning your dog is not one that they seemed to be accustomed to. So needless to say, el perro (Nicholas) was VERY dirty. I made sure Caleb washed his hands after each timehe pet el perro.
As for the school. Well, it turned out to be a great experience. We were told on the first day that they like to switch our teachers every day for us, but if there happens to be one that we particularly liked then we could request to have them. Was I ever thankful for that! My first day of language school was not all I had hoped it would be. Mi professora made the assumption that I knew some Spanish, and she made an even bigger assumption that I was fluent in French. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Yeah right!
ANyway, if that was not bad enough, then we started to have a discussion about religion and she asked what religion I was, wantingto know whether or not I was Catholic, Pentecostal, Lutheran, etc... Since I´ve been attending Erb Street Mennonite for a year now I decided to say that I was Mennonite. Well was that not the wrong answer. She was shocked that I as a Mennonite would be coming to her as a Catholic for language lessons. I later learned that her understanding of Mennonites is a little bit off, at least with regards to the type of Mennonite I was describing to her. Anyway, I think I was able to get her to understand that I was in fact a really great person who was giving and wanted to learn from her, but needless to say, I did not wish to have her as my teacher for the rest of the week. She was just a bit too strong willed for me.
So the next day I got a new professora, her name was Ingrid, and she was lovely. Most of the professoras at the school have different backgrounds than teaching, and Ingrid was a lawyer. Caleb´s professora´s name was Naomi. She was the first professora he had, and while didn´t get to keep her the second day, he did request her after the second day, because on the second day he ended up with la professora I had on the first day.
Just to give you a little better taste of this lady...Caleb explained to her that we were in Bolivia visiting my cousins, because I guess she did not understand this from the first day when I told her that. And her remark to Caleb after he told her that we were staying in a homestay, was *Well what´s wrong with your cousins, are they cheap?" Obviously Caleb´s remark was NO!!! Then he explained to her that Tyson and Carolina thought a homestay experience would be better for us, because this was we would have the opportunity to see how a real Bolivian family lives and the food they eat. Anyway, all was clear after that, but what nerve to make the assumption she did...
So language school was good. We were VERY exhausted after the five days, and looking forward to moving on with our travels. We left last Saturday morning and headed to our hostal, which was more central to the down town and a number of great restaurants. We looked forward to eating out at less traditional Bolilvian restaurants, because we came to learn after the week in the homestay that a lot of the food tasted the same. And, our stomachs and tastebuds were getting a bit tired of the food. So we did enjoy a much more North American meal Saturday afternoon for lunch.
Before lunch though, we did what many Bolivians do on a Saturday morning, and that was head to La Cancha or el marcado (the market). In Cochabamba they call it La Cancha. We had been to La Cancha our first Saturday in Cochabamba, but this was our first time heading down there on our own. What an experience. This place does not compare to any market we have in Canada. It is said to be the largest market in Bolivia, and I believe it. If you´re clostraphobic, it´s not a good idea to go. There are people EVERYWHERE!
After spending a couple hours there we heading back into town for our NA lunch, and enjoyed a couple cups of coca tea. THis then gave us enough energy to head back to La Cancha, for another two hours. When we were there we picked up a Cacho cup. Cacho is a very popular dice game that is played by a number of Bolivians. It´s very similar to Yahtzee. We´ll have to teach it when we´re back.The next day, Carolina showed us the way to the orphanage we´d be painting, and then we spent the afternoon with the Malos. We did lunch and then afterwards headed back into the city.
Stay tuned to hear about our exciting week of volunteering!
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