Hello again,

Sorry I haven´t been posting much on my blog. When I sit down to write something I am always either overwhelmed and don't know what to say or on the contrary, feel like I have nothing to say. Every single Peace Corps volunteer that I have talked to, past and present, says that the first three months of training are by far the hardest part of the experience. Only two weeks have passed and I already have tangible evidence justifying that statement. For me the hardest part has not been the culture shock, the language or trying to grasp the diversity of this country and her countrymen and women - those were the fun things! For me the hardest part has been sitting in classes for 8 hours every day learning what we all have to learn in order to do what we want to do when I would rather be out in the field working with the people. Just to give you some idea...here is a weekly synopsis:

Monday: wake up 6:30 (fucking dogs), language class 8:30 - 12:30, eat lunch with family 12:30 - 1:30, walk to technical classes 1:30 - 2:15, technical classes 2:15 - 6:00, walk home 6:00 - 6:45, eat dinner and chat with family 7:00 - 9:00, do homework for classes next day 9:00 - 10:00, tired = go to sleep.

Tuesday: do the same thing all over again but substitute technical classes for cultural classes.

Wednesday: take public transport to Peace Corps training center 7:15 - 8:30. Safety classes and Medical classes 8:30 - 5:30 (with a one hour break to eat lunch)

Thursday: same as monday but substitute 'walking around our communities attempting to meet people, understand their needs, and collect social statistics in an informal manner' for cultural classes.

Friday: Since my language level is SO advanced the peole from my language class and I get to do independent excursions around the city = whatever we want to investigate 7:30 - 12:30, eat lunch 12:30 - 1:30, go to training center to learn what the word 'work' means to Bolivian farmers 2:00 - saturday night. (last weekend we made an adobe greenhouse, put down three small gardens and a few seed plots then we learned how to change people's behavior so that the projects that we attempt to implement might be sustainable.

today, friday, was my first independent excursion. i went to the public university to try to talk to some literature and poetry professors. however, they are on vacasion until the beginning of march. sweet. that was a bust. after 30 minutes of messing with the computers, i finally figured out how to check out a book at the library and spent the next two hours reading about the origin of bolivian poetry.

Saturday: 8:30 - 7:30 work in the field some more at the training center.

Sunday: day with family.

OK, when explaining a normal week in words, it doesn't seem as bad as my mind internally is making me feel. However, I have felt very unpassionate, unmotivated, uninspired and uneasy lately. I think that this is due to the fact that much of the information that we are learning seems unnecesary or repetitive.

For me, the most profound knowledge has always come from experience, feelings, mistakes and personal contacts. I don't think that I would mind sitting in a class room all day if what I was learning was tangible or prodound, but it is neither of the two. you can't tell someone how to adapt to a culture, it just happens...

I am happy that I chose to do this (this meaning the peace corps), but I don't know that development work is my destiny. Either way I am looking forward to gaining a bit more freedom (right now we all have a 10:00 curfew), exploring the country some more (which won't happen for another 4 weeks) and attempting to reclaim the joy, passion and intensity that I seem to have lost somewhere on the plane while coming here. I think that the larger problem was the amount of time that i spent romanticizing about this experience. I know that things will get better, but romanticizing can be detrimental...welcome back to reality, erin.

That's all for now folks.

Disclaimer:

"The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any positino of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps."

Peace.

erin

I don´t know where to begin...

I guess I´ll start with that which has made the biggest impression on me...the natural wonders of Bolivia.

Although I haven´t been here very long, and definitely haven´t had the chance to do much hiking or exploring in the mountains, from afar the Andes are MAGNIFICENT! Unlike the Andes of Chille or Argentina, but just as impressive and much more inviting. They almost look like rolling hills because they appear to be so soft...however, they are massive!

My walk to language class and agriculture class is the best time of the day. I wake up at 7, have coffee and bread for breakfast with the family and then begin the walk...Cobblestone roads (usually full of numerous pot holes) take me to my classes. Yesterday while I was walking to class a herd of cows began following me...I think that they were just looking for some food though. I have class from 8.30 to 6.00 every day, but I get to go home to have lunch with my family. My family...they are wonderful! Nora, the 18 year old is obsessed with american pop culture, Araceli, 22 has a 6 month year old and we are going to learn how to play the guitar together...Irena is 24 and studing business. My father is an agronomist and HILLARIOUS and my mother is great as well.

Today some of us went to the big market in the city, La Cancha, which was both sad and exciting!

I am doing well. Very happy, but very busy trying to learn about the culture, improve my spanish and get to know my family...

Welp, got to go. Sorry...

Hopefully next time I write I will have an exciting adventure to tell you all about. For now...classes take up a lot of time and I don´t really get out of my little neighborhood much.

Hi again,

Bolivia. I'm here! We landed in Cochabamba on Wednesday and have been going to multiple orientaton/training sessions. I know, boring. Sorry...

I know that I am starting on an adventurous, exciting and challenging adventure - kind of like going away to college when I was a mere 18 years of age. Coincidentally landing in Cochabamba, Bolivia reminded me of the green that I saw from the airport as I landed in Manchester, NH on September 10, 2001 eager to start my 'college experience'. The soft leafyness of the trees here is in stark contrast to the pines of the northeast. It is the rainy season so everything is wet and green. They say in the spring and summer the mountains turn to a deep red clay color. I am very excited to experience the changing seasons and colors of this country.

I will most likely be placed in the mid-western or southern part of Bolivia. However, I won't know for a 7 more weeks.

I hate to cut this short, but I just wanted to update it quick. Whenever I get online there are usually about 10 other peace corps volunteers in line behind me. Anyway, take care, everyone.

-Erin

Dear Friends and Family,

There is a good chance that I have not talked to many of you for a while. After graduation in June, my parents were very willing to house their college graduate back in Nebraska for the remainder of the summer. There, I volunteered at the Nebraska State Coalition for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and an organic farm. I sold flowers at a local market a few times and made practice ACT tests for a guy that has a private ACT/SAT Prep class in Lincoln. I then moved out to Leavenworth, WA (a German Bavarian [tourist] Village on the eastern side of the Cascades) for a few months. There, I lived with R Kelly's son, Kelly, Maxwell Silverman and Kyle. They taught me rock-climber lingo and once in a while there was something easy enough for me to learn the beta to. I had a few different jobs, but the two most influential were my job as a gingerbread house construction worker at The Gingerbread Factory and as a soap maker/cash register runner at The Bavarian Soap Factory. I frolicked in the snow, did yoga on a nearby beach of a river, did some late season farming and even learned a little bit about logging from a tremendous individual and his son.

In terms of present day life - I leave for Miami tomorrow, January 23 at 6:25 am. From there I go to Cochabamba, Bolivia on the 25. All of the Peace Corps Volunteers train together in Cochabamba for the first 12 weeks while living with host-families. There we'll take classes in cross-cultural studies, technical skills, language, health and safety. From there we are each assigned to a specific location and will live with a different family for the following two years. I am doing agricultural work. This could mean small scale organic farming, llama or alpaca herding, animal husbandry, land conservation, agricultural marketing, bee keeping, etc...

I am keeping an open mind and simply feeling honored to have the opportunity to travel to another part of the world and moreover to return to the rich and inspiring culture of Latin America.

I know little more than this about the adventure that I am about to embark upon. However, recently the unknown has been more exciting to me than the mundane comforts of conformity and habitual routine.

I look forward to many exciting conversations with the other peace corps volunteers and members of the communities that I enter in Bolivia. I will be sending pictures when I get the chance and updating this blog periodically.

Please keep in touch and send letters, pictures, books, magazines or other small packages (not money or valuables though :)). When I get my address I'll send another exciting mass email. I apologize in advance for the mass emails. However, I don't know how frequent my internet usage will be while I am in Bolivia. If you want to keep in more constant contact you are going to have to pick up a writing utensil and some paper.

Peace and goodness to all.

Besos y abrazos,

Erin

The pictures that I have posted are (in order)The first - LeavenworthThe second - Me climbing in Leavenworth (with help from Kelly)!!The third - My sister and I at home for the holidays