The next Chapter

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So here I am again, I´don´t really have a time when I write my blog so you´re just going to get it whenever I´m feeling in a writing mood!!
There´s a lot to tell since I last wrote so I´m going to split this blog into sections-how organised!

ALASITAS
Where to begin?! Alasitas is a festival which is going on at the moment and has been for about 2 weeks so it has one more week to go. There is a huge market in the city which sells many things including lots of things in miniature. These include mini money, mini cars, mini houses, shops, food, fake certificates for marraige, divorce, university degress, tools for building houses and so on. The point of these things is that the people buy them and get them blessed by an aymaran priest. They are then meant to wait for these things to become a reality throughout the year. For example, buying fake, miniature money you are hoping to get rich, by buying a miniature car you hope to get a car and so on. There is also the cockrel which signifies getting a partner or even married in the next year. A couple of weeks ago Alasitas began and on the first day all the ´placas´=the squares had stalls set up selling all these things, even the food being sold was miniature-mini saltenas and burgers and bread! On this day at 10 to 12 noon all the people came from work to buy all the things they wanted and to get them blessed from the Aymaran priests who were sitting in between the chaos of the market stalls with fires burning and particular incenses burning in order to bless the objects.

CARNIVAL IN ORURO
This was our next adventure. Basically carnival started on Saturday 2nd feb-tuesday 5th feb. We had been told that the best place to see the carnival was a place called Oruro, a city higher than La Paz, just to the south about a 4 hour bus ride away. However, we weren´t sure whether we could go until the last minute because of the roads leading to Oruro and the bad weather that we had been having. Eventually it was decided the day before on friday that we would go!
At 3am on Saturday moring we hauled ourselves out of bed and Stefanie, Alejandra and I took a taxi to the crowded bus terminal 15 mins away where crowds of people were doing he same as us! We got on our coach at 4.30am after queing for a ticket and made our way sleepily, to Oruro.

We arrived on a dusty road, with the sun coming out which signalled amazing weather for the whole four days of carnival. Oruro is a fairly poor town, but the carnival definitly did not reflect this as the costumes were all hand made and clearly had cost a lot to make. The carnival stretches right the way around the whole city and it takes the dancers about 6 hours to reach their final destination which is the church which overlooks the city. The carnival is done for the Virgin Mary and there were a few effigys which went by of the Virgin in cases on top of cars decorated with silver plates which were offerings to her.

There were so many different costumes and dancers all meaning different things. There were the kings and the king of kings, their wives, the Chollitas (women who wear the bowler hats and big skirts), the slaves who had heavy costumes to represent the weight of their work. There were bears which is the common animal of Boliva, the Condor-the bird that flies in the mountains. For me the most spectacular were the ´Diabolos´who were the devils being led by the angel. Their costumes and masks were fantastic, so colourful and intricate. All the dancers wore masks and only some of the female dancers didn´t have them. The carnival started at about 7am and went on till 3am. The onlookers sit on tiered seats that are set up at the side of the main road and barriers separate them from the dancers. So we sat for about 12 hours!!

Carnival is also a huge excuse for massive water and foam fights so we had to wear massive plastic ponchos or else we would have been soaked-especially being foreigners!! Water ballons and foam in cans are constantly being sold to you from below the seats and we had many a fight! Each time we were waiting for the next procession a fight would break out and water ballons were lobbed from the seats on the other side of the road and foam was sprayed everywhere-especially in the face! Not so fun!

We were sitting with Alejandra´s friend from Uni, Cindy who was explaining all the meanings of the dancers, there was her cousin Jovana, her husband Sergio and his lovely Mum and Dad who had bought along food for us all and gave us a bed to stay at night. We tried a speciality of Oruro (twice)! which is dried llama meat-seriously AMAZING! With a boiled egg, maize and potatos and of course the spicey sauce.
That night we stayed at the house of the parents, after such an early morning, drinking beer from 11am all day, all of us were too tired to stay till 3am so 12 surficed!

We left for La Paz the next afternoon after visiting the church where all the dancers end up. The carnival was on sunday too just in a different order. We returned to La Paz and on Monday went to the carnival in La Paz which is nothing compared to Oruro. All that happened is that we got unbelievbly soaked as we no longer had our ponchos so literally we looked like we had had a shower on the street by the time we got home.


Inbetween all these things I have been visiting projects and having spanish lessons. I am hoping to start at a project tomorrow called Hogar Mixto which is a charity which houses about 80 girls and boys who come from violent backrounds and are going through a process in order to put them back into the community. I am meeting with the co=ordinator of ICYE later to speak more about the project.

La Paz still continues to keep me very interested. It is a colorful city full of many different people and the culture is very varied. On tuesday our family carried out an Aymaran tradition of blessing their house and the fathers office. The photos might be a better explaniation than words. Basically a fire is made and sweets in the shape of houses or offices are burned for the Pachamama. Then seeds and sweets a sprinkled in the corners of the house to bless the contruction of the house and also on the roofs. Streamers and balloons also decorate the houses. We went to the fathers work in El Alto and carried out the same ceremony inside his office=I mean the fire, my keys have all got mixed up so I cannot work the exclamation button but I meant to put a lot after that sentence.

Alejandra left for the USA yesterday where she is working in Ohio for 9 months, that was sad as she has been such a good guide.

Wow this is long, but there has been a lot going on. I hope it makes sense.
Will end now, I think you have enough reading for a few days now.
Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Just a quick message for Anna and Al=on friday night the family took us to an incredible Argentinian style bbq restaurant, I ate the best steak of my life called Vasio=pronounced Basio=absolutly INCREDIBLE.

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