Super Sucre!!!!

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Sucre

Well we finally left La Paz and headed to Sucre. We got the overnight bus which was freezing!!!!

Sucre couldn´t be more different from La Paz. Where La Paz is a big city with wide roads and crazy traffic... Sucre is small (for a city), colonial (all the buildings are white with red tiled roofs), the traffic is crazy but it´s all one lane!! Sucre is nestled amongst the hills - its only about 2800m above sea level so its warmer than La Paz. Almost every day the sky is completely blue (although we have had 1 crazy thunder storm).

The markets are great here. There is the Central Market and the Mercardo Campesino. In the central market there are more tourists and they hike the prices for us! The Campesino is the best... it´s a huge street market with stalls selling huge piles of fruit and veg and a section with clothes and everything else. The Fruit stalls often just sell onions or tomatoes - there is one alley filled with tomatoes. There are piles of chilli peppers - you see people buying bags full of them!! When we explained we only wanted a few... we gave her 1p for about 30 chilli peppers! They think we´re mad buying only 2 carrots etc!! When we took the picture of the peppers above the ladies running the stall were killing themselves laughing and wanted to see the pictures. We took a couple of the stalls next to each other and they were comparing saying whose peppers were better!! The people are so friendly.


Spanish

We arrived on a Sunday and we pretty much started Spanish lessons the next day. We´re doing 2 hours a day and we´re having lessons together - which is "fun" for Cam!! The teacher kind of picks on Cam... she´s trying to make him speak Spanish!!! Her theory is that his mind is too full of love for me! I don´t think it could be that!

She´s a really enthustiastic teacher and loves to tell her stories. We had a long dicussion about Machismo - very alive here... I think shes a bit cynical after her experiences with men... but according to her all Bolivian men have several girlfriends. It definitely is a sexist society though and the men and women very openly eye up the other sex (maybe the same sex... but I don´t think homosexuality is very open here. Lots of cupboards).

I don´t know if our Spanish has improved because Bolivia seems to have lots of Bolivianisms - and the accent can be weird! Ah well... we can communciate and that´s the best thing!!


Volunteering

We also started volunteering at an Orphanage here in Sucre. It´s an orphanage for 0-5 year olds run by nuns. We help in the babies and kiddies section (0-3 yr olds). The first day we went in they all just stopped and stared at us... then after a few seconds one of them comes waddling over arms outstretched saying "Mama". They all call us Mama - even Cam is Mama. They are the lovliest little things.

There are about 15 of them - 11 are toddlers and 4 are babies (4months - 11 months) and there are 2 tiny tiny babies - one is 2.5 months and the other arrived yesterday and he´s only 6 days old (his mother died in childbirth... very sad).

It took a while to learn all the names but you quickly learn who are the naughty little buggers.

- Margarita - an adorable little girl who´s quick to smile and likes to help push the babies around the room.

- Nicol - she´s a sweet little thing but she´s been sick for a few days and has returned as a little monster... probably due to all the attention she had when she was sick and now she´s back with everyone else.

- The Twins - Juan Jose and Juan Carlos - whingy and are desperate to walk... at 13 months they still struggle to crawl. It´s difficult because the kids don´t get enough attention to be able to learn how to crawl and walk.

- Benito - a serious little boy whos been really sick constantly so he´s usually with the doctor.

- Daniel - he´s 11 months old and is strangely small for his age... he can barely sit up unassisted and frequently falls flat on his face... or sideways. A nice kid.

- Christian - 7 months old and a nice baby. Never fusses too much and laughs quite easily. A dream to feed and change

- Ilene - 8 months and adorable.... I want to take her home... she is a cute little thing and usually very smiley. She´s fallen asleep in my arms a couple of times

- Karen - 8 months as well and I also want to take her home. I think she is the smilest baby/child there. She smiles at everything. I think she is at the orphanage because of abuse. Such a happy child you would never know.

- Fernando... a chubby little bully who is quite sweet and like all of them craves attention... but oooh he can be a pest!

- Jose Luis - ahhh Luis Luis... he cries nearly all day. Hes about 18 months and he should be walking but won´t and walks on his knees. The nurse put splints on his legs to force him... oh he cried that day!!!! He really wants attention and can be really sweet when you play games with him.

- Wendy - a sweet and tempormental girl... she seems the oldest in attitude and occasional can be very thoughtful. A lovely little girl.

- Zumela - a shy little thing with a constant runny nose. Very happy girl.

- Adoracion, a little 3 year old, I think has some condition - she´s small for her age and she doesn´t take in everything and sometimes just lies on the ground rocking... not sure what it is.

- Tinies... they´re just tiny and really really sweet... they eat... sleep...

The day consists of playing with them from 8.30am until lunch time which can be a bit of an ordeal. I have to admit I usually try to bags a baby for feeding. Students from the local university come to help just for feeding time so if we´re lucky there´s one per kid.

Then we have to change the nappies. No pampers here... just the delightful piece of cloth in a "plastico" and pee-soaked clothes. We´re only allowed to change them after lunch... not mid-morning. Rules are rules and who´s to argue with a nun!! I had no idea how to fold a square of material to fit around a babies bum... but I´ve got it off to a tee now. Cam was a fast learner - although for 4 days he didn´t get a single poo! Every single one of mine had done their business all over... He made up for it though... one day the students all decided they didn´t want to change nappies so they left after the feeding and there was Cam, me and the nurse to change all the nappies... oh that was fun!!!! And Cam got 3 out of 4 as poos and I had none!!!! Small things please!

The work is amazing and so rewarding.


Fox Institute - Teaching English and Wallyball

We also started helping teach English classes. We do 1 hour in the evening. My class is 17-27yr olds and Cam´s is 13-24yr olds. Cam has been left a couple of times to teach the whole class alone. Lucky old him - and its really straining his knowledge of Spanish as they are at quite a basic level. My teacher usually stays with me. It´s fun and the school offers different price levels according to wealth - it´s free for the poorest. The most expensive price is US$5 per month for an hour monday - friday.

We also got roped into taking part in a Wallyball competition - yes Wallyball not Volleyball. It´s really similar to volleyball but the court is indoors (very similar to a squash court). Basically you can do anything (hit, head, kick) to get the ball over the net. There are only a few rules - you can´t hit the walls on a serve; you can´t hit the ceiling on the oppositions side of the court; you can´t hit the back wall; only 3 people can hit the ball before going over. Well they were the rules we were using!! We played for about 2.5 hours and we didn´t win!!! Great fun though!


Dinosaurs!!

Sucre is a little obsessed with dinosaurs. It has the largest (?) paeleontological (???) site containing over 5000 dinosaur footprints of over 332 species!! You take this converted truck to the cement quarry where you are given hard hats. We were then taken down to the wall - it used to be a lake bed but due to earth movements it is now a vertical wall. You can see the footprints criscrossing all over the rock face. It´s quite amazing. They´ve only positively identified 5 of the dinosaur tracks but they´re working on more. Also the cement company is working there!!! The site isn´t UNESCO protected so the cement people can work (ie explosions!) right up to the wall´s edge. A number of sections of the wall have been destroyed (and prints) due to this! They´re hoping for protected status next year!

Then you get to go into Parque Cretaceous - a small park full of life-size dinosaur models! It´s quite good! The park has only been open for 3 weeks so it´s pretty new and shiny for Bolivia. "New and Shiny" really isn´t a phrase you can normally use here.


Walk to the 7 Waterfalls - or should I say 2 Dribbles

For "Dia del Estudiante/Dia del Amor" (Student Day/Day of Love) the Fox Institue organised a weekend walk for the English students. So we went on a long hike to the 7 waterfalls... there hasn´t been much rain (its the dry season) so it was more like 2 tiny dribbles. Some of the guys swam in the "waterfall" pool. We also went to this resort in the middle of nowhere to use the facilities. We swam, played outdoors wallyball and relaxed in the sunshine. The pool was freezing!!!!


Time to move on.....

Sucre is a great place and we loved the orphanage, the spanish and english classes and the whole atmosphere here that we extended our stay... and we´re skipping the Salt Plains. We´ve seen so many amazing things while we´ve been in South America but the things we enjoy the most are the experiences with the people and the kids especially!!!

On Friday (29th Sept) we´re heading off to Argentina... hopefully we leave at 1.30pm and we should arrive at 2pm on Sunday if all goes well... but you know buses here!!!!

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Photos

Peppers!!
We love the campesino market!