Back in Cocha

I'm back in Cochabamba today and it's nice to be home with my host family in the warm weather again. It's also nice to be back where my meals are covered and I don't feel compelled to spend so much money. I like it in Cocha because it's a smaller city and it reminds me of Boston. I think it's a great fit for me.

Anyway, I'm still trying to catch up with what we did all week in La Paz. I forgot to mention something really important about Thursday in El Alto. Before we had our coca leaves read, we went to UPEA, Universidad Pública de El Alto, to talk with the public university students who are majoring in Ciencias del Desarrollo (Development Sciences). It was really interesting, especially since we haven't spent much time with Bolivian students (except for those of us who have host siblings in college). It became a discussion with all of us sitting in a circle and posing questions to the group and exchanging opinions and experiences. My favorite part was that this one girl kept posing really challenging questions to our group. For instance, when someone from out program said something like, "I'd like to know what your impressions are of the United States," the girl replied with a really right-on critique of the government, of society, of US culture, ending with, "Why does the United States feel like it has the right to use half of the oxygen on the planet?" It was really challenging, especially since I think almost everyone else was trying to be really diplomatic and hyper-respectful to the other group's culture, and she just came right out with a no-bullshit response. I think it was uncomfortable but productive, especially since she listened intently and respectfully to everyone's response, and it became a real conversation instead of a mutual ego boost for both groups of students. A bunch of us exchanged email addresses at the end so hopefully we'll be in touch and be able to have more conversations like that in the future.

That night Luis, Nicole, and I went back to the Cafe Carcajada because they were having a showing of Boys Don't Cry and we wanted to take part in one of their meetings before we left La Paz. There were actually a lot of people there, but most of them weren't watching the movie (we found out later that night that it was the birthday of the daughter of one of the women and they were there for the party). It took the three of us a while to get out of the funk that the movie put us in (I think it hit us a little harder because they hadn't put the Spanish subtitles on, so we were the only ones who could understand all of the dialogue) but they kept offering us food and drinks and eventually we got back into social mode. There didn't end up being any discussion of the film like we thought there would, and we had already eaten dinner, so after about a half hour or so we were going to leave, but we stopped at the bar to chat with Julieta and she convinced us to stay. I'm so glad we did! Right about then, they turned down the lights and put on some music and we started dancing. They had made this thing called "te con te" which means tea with tea if I understood it correctly, but it's cinnamon tea with whiskey in it, served hot and in a shot glass. It was SO good. It wasn't very strong and it tasted really spicy and Julieta kept walking around and filling a shot glass and giving to everyone one at a time, and it was really social and welcoming. We chatted and danced with some young anarchist guys, and once again the United States was on trial (but we averted the tension quickly once we clarified that we were socially liberal, not fiscally liberalist) and sang and danced around to remixes of Manu Chao, and at one point a guy came up to me and told me he was surprised because when he walked in, he thought I was a "really cute guy". He was loaded and told me this about nine times before I finally said bye to him and went to dance with my friends again, but it was really entertaining. The night was so much fun and it felt like a success specifically because we were finally hanging out with Bolivians instead of just our big group.

We had to get up around 6 yesterday morning (which was rough after dancing until 2) to go hear a talk about Andean cosmovision, which is the name for the belief of Andean peoples (like Quechuas and Aymaras) that everything is interconnected and in equilibrium. It was really interesting and helped illuminate the basis of much of Bolivian culture. I wish it hadn't been so early in the day (and that I hadn't stayed out so late the night before) because I had trouble concentrating on the discussion at times. At least all of the programming we have is interesting, because I think I would have actually fallen asleep otherwise.

Afterwards, we went to talk with Mamani Mamani, an Aymara artist who paints really vividly about themes that have to do with Aymara culture, specifically around La Paz. His work is AMAZING--some of my favorite paintings I've ever seen--and we got to have a conversation with him. At the end, he signed postcards of his works for us and he even drew pictures of some of us. I'll upload the one he drew of me on here.

We had the rest of the day free until our flight, and when I got back to my house I talked with my family for a long time about what we had done and what I'd learned. I think my Spanish has gotten better since last week, which I'm really excited about, because the conversation got to the point where we were having an intense discussion about radicalism and social change (because I told them I went to Mujeres Creando and my mom sort of raised her eyebrows and said they were too radical for her), and I was able to voice most of my opinions about it, with some help from Bruno, who translated a few words for me. Still, it was really cool to have a serious discussion that I would have had in English, and to be able to have it in Spanish. Once my mom went to bed, I had a beer with my dad and brother and we chatted for a while more. I really like my family. I think we're not in agreement over a fair amount of issues, but we're all respectful enough to discuss them productively anyway. I also know that I have a lot of beliefs in theory but I haven't had to live them out in my life, whereas they have (being politically moderate and of the middle or upper-middle class in a country where the government has swung wildly back and forth from right wing to left wing, from oligarchical to socialist, and where the marginalized lower classes are making sweeping advances, inevitably at the expense of those who have held all the power for hundreds of years). I really like the conversations we have. I get to interview my mom for an assignment this weekend and I'm looking forward to hearing more of what she has to say.

The photos I'm posting are: 1) Tiwanaku, 2) Lake Titicaca as seen from la Isla del Sol, 3) me jumping off the boat into the lake, 4) La Paz from above, 5) a Mamani Mamani painting, 6) my personal Mamani Mamani portrait!