First days...

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After all that waiting and excitment of coming to Bolivia I am here! This is my first blog entry, I have been here for a week already which is strange. I am staying with a lovely family called Claure Ovieda in La Paz. The mother is called Ana Maria, the daughter is called Maria or Alejandra (24), the brother Jose (25), the other brother Lionel is in Swizerland for a year so we won´t meet him and the father is called Lionel jose. The family are very friendly and always have breakfast lunch and dinner together. I live in a small apartment behind the families apartment which is two ensuiets so I am living with another girl called Stefanie who is from Switzerland.
We are welcome upstairs anytime and of course share all the meals with the family. Even the early morning breakfast...7.30am. The food here is very homley, breakfast is bread and marmalade, cheese or pate and tea. On arrival we were given cocoa tea to drink becasue of the altitude, tastes a bit like green tea and is used as a herbal remedy and can alo be chewed in balls-apparantly not so nice. I can´t bring any of the leaves back with me for obvious reasons although apparantly you need a lot more than one small bag you can buy on the street to make into any kind of drug. Oh well, will bring some teabags back!

So since I´ve been here I have been adjusting to the altitude. I have not had any headaches or felt sick but I do feel out of breath when walking up stairs or up the hills. Also, there was a massive thunderstorm here the other night and I got so panicy (like I would becasue I´m lame) that I felt like I couldn´t breath, slightly scary! I was in La Paz for one day and night befire taking an 11 hour coach ride overnight (totally normal length of time here) to Sucre-Bolivian capital. We went with all the other volunteers here in La Paz and the organizers of ICYE. The bus stopped twice, once for a short loo break on the side of the road and another for a late night snack on the side of the road. We arrived at around 7 am and saw the georgous scenery as the sun rose.

With only about 5-6 million inhabitants in the whole of the country you can imagine that Bolivia is very sparse and the landscapes are totally incredible. The weekend was spent in a camp (not camping)! with all the volunteers from Bolivia so about 35 people. We had talks about culture, what to expect, the projects and family life. Everyone had already been here since august so it was just me and Stefanie and another Swiss girl who were new so was a bit hard as everyone knew eachother.

On saturday night we had a small ´fiesta´in the camp and hired out traditional costumes, drank like the bolivians and had a bit of a boogy! Was fun and I´m glad I have found out loads from the experts! Another night coach later and we were back in La Paz. Also after the scare of me life. Just as Stefanie had ventured into a back street to take a little pee wee we were walking back to the coach...which was MOVING-NO ACTUAL JOKES!! scariest moment of my life, I have never run so fast as it pulled away in the dark in the middle of...well I had no idea where we were!!!! Anyway, after the mad dash, the coach was merly moving NOT leaving-thank goodness, literally ran onto the bus! Phew!

We are now back in La Paz making our way around mainly in cheap taxis, will hopefull get to know the bus system soon. La Paz is an amazing city, totally different, it has everything you could want but in such a different context to other cities. Stray dogs hang about the streets, wires hang above your heads everywhere and women with bowler hats and colourful skirts walk arund with people wearing ´western´style clothes. It´s a very interesting place. The city is split into many different parts, I don´t know them all yet but the south side is the richer part. If you have heard much about La Paz it is in a valley and the people that live up at the top of the valley live in a place called Él Alto´which is the very poverty stricken area.

Right I think I have exhausted my fingers! Stefanie is ill so not sure what our plans are for today.

Missing you all, sending my love!!
Adios Chickos!!!!!!
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