Wow I haven't had any time to update this lately! I've been so busy!
Monday the 16th-18th
I worked Monday all day, Tuesday morning and Wednesday all day. Still loving it and it's getting easier to communicate! I worked in the bakery at my work. The woman who works there doesn't speak English but we managed to have a decent conversation anyways.
Tuesday the 17th I worked in the morning then went home with the girl I work with for lunch then we went off to meet the other CWY girls at a university. When we got to the university we had about 3 hours more of welcome to culture stuff then a professional director came to do some acting excersises with us. For our sector project we will be doing 2 or 3 short skits on violence against women to show to schools with him as our director. I thought it was pretty fun, it really loosened everyone up.
After that the group split up into Canadias and Bolivians. One of the girls had the idea to go out for vegetarian food with the Canadians beause some of the girls have been having some trouble being vegetarian here. I think the fact that this would split the group was overlooked though. I felt a bit uncomfortable going out with just the Canadians as I felt like this experience is supposed to be multicultural. It was good though we didnt end up going to the vegetarian restaraunt as it was closed though. I don't think it changed the group dynamic that much, and if we want to change it (which some of us do I believe) then we can. Wednesday I had work again. It's pretty much different everyday! We got to watch the kids practice their dances that they are going to preform in the “friendship tourniment”! They've gotten a lot better, I can't wait to see when they're all ready!
Thursday we had our first “educational day”. Every Thursday a team of counterparts will put on an educational day from 8:30-4 or so on our programs topic (violence against women) or an evironmental topic. I thought the first half of the day was good, there was a bit of activity but the second half there was a guest speaker who talked the whole time about gender. It got to be pretty boring and I think everyone was nodding off!
Friday we had work again. It's been really dry and dusty lately (it hasn't rained in the month I've been here!) so the kids hadd to play inside instead of outside.After that I went home with the girl I work with again and finished reading my book (The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, if you haven't read it you have to!). Around 8 we went to another girls house because there was a welcoming party for the 2 new Canadians that came (2 Canadian girls dropped out at the last minute and so these girls were the replacements). They're both from Quebec, French being their first language. They both seem to have a good grasp of English too though.They both seemed really nice, although I felt bad for them since theyre both new jumping into a group that's already formed its own dynamics. It's good to shake it up a bit though and I think these girls will fit in perfectly!
Saturday the 21st My family and I went to the Country. It seemed very much the same as ours except there was no water! My “sisters” showed me the “river” and it just looked like a huge sandy road with one or two holes of water maybe twice as big around as I am! We ate took some pictures and then came home. I went straight from the countryside to the movies in town with one of the girls from the program. I was so dusty and dirty I felt like I could have passed for a brunette Ke$ha! We saw Salt with Angelina Jolie. I actually loved it, she was so badass in it, but my friend didn't like it much, there was a lot of violence. Then we went from there to a meeting for her work placement. I went along so that we could just go from there to the party that was happening that night at another girls house.
The meeting was hilarious and so awkward for me! We all met at a church and sat in front of this statue of what I assumed to be Mary. They started off with a prayer and then a story that I assume is from the Bible. Then we had to turn to the person beside us hold their hands, look them in the eyes and say “Belive in God” (in Spanish “Creer en Dios” or something like that) 30 times! I felt so awkward and I almost laughed the whole time. Luckily they cut it short because we had somewhere to be. When I eft I kissed everyone on the cheek here (as is the custom) but when I got to Brother so-and-so ( I think he might have been a priest or something) he just sat there stiffly and didnt respond at all. Then I heard on of the girls behind me say “no” I don't know if she was talking to me or not but I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to kiss him! We left there so fast and walked to the nearest supermarket to buy some alcohol for the night! We felt so incredibly bad! We ended up spending around 40 minutess in the alcohol section of the supermarket trying to decide what to buy. Everything was so cheap. We ended up buying a 6 pack of beer and this huge thing of Margaritas (already all mixed up) and it only cost 20$ Canadian. (Don't worry Mom/Dad, we didn't drink it all by ourselves)! We then got a taxi to the party but the taxi driver didn't know where to go so we ended up getting off at a stop that we knew was close and then calling one of the girls to come meet us. The party was really fun. It was just us CWY girls but we got to eat, dance and talk in a comfortable environment. It was way better then going to a club. Ally and I took a cab to her grandmothers around 1/1:30 where a party was going on for her Aunts birthday. It was fun for a while but I became super exhausted so I layed down on the spare bed for a while. By the time her family left there it was 4:30. We didn't get home until 5 in the morning.
Today 22nd
Everyone woke up around 8:30 this morning. I don't know how they were functioning on 3.5 hours of sleep. I woke up sick, with a sore throat and a cough. It always happens when I don't sleep well. Ally's dad told me we were all going to his friends house for lunch and I asked if I could stay home because I was sick. I don't think anyone was too pleased about that and I felt incredibly guilty. Especially when I realised Ally couldn't go because she had to stay home with me because I wasn't allowed to stay home alone... I slept for another 5 hours or so and now am just waiting to see if the family is coming back to pick us up and go to a river. I guess this is going to be a bit more difficult then I thought. Especially the doing school online here part. I haven't had a minute to myself all week, and if I ever do I'm so tired I just want to sleep.
Now that I have some time though I'm going to get back to studying some Global Politics!