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In Action... in ripped jeans
Me interviewing a group of returned Peace Corps Bolivia volunteers at the 40th anniversary press conference at the PC HQ. Bon dÃa chicas, chicos, mi perras bellezas, amigos, amigas....
Last week I stated in my diary that my aims for that week were to have some more stories published in LT, and to get invited to lunch by Luz Marina. Well, somehow, by luck, fate, blood, sweat, tears, and a bit of crappy spanish, I kind of outdid myself. I was published in both Saturday´s and Sunday´s Los Tiempos. And Luz Marina offered me a job and asked my to stay in her house while I worked at LT.
Last Thursday I came to work as usual but my immediate boss, the economics editor Maria Julia, wasn´t here. I had no stories to do for her so I was sort of twiddling my thumbs and doing my spanish homework to pass the time. The day before Ximena had told me she had been chatting to Luz Marina and LuzMi had said she thought I was a bit shy. Admittedly I might sometimes be, but the reason I had not spoken much to her was due to my crappy spanish, I didnt want to interrupt a busy woman just to confuse and piss her off by trying to chat
and getting nowhere with my spanish. So I kept it to the usual ´bon dÃa, como estas, que haces hoy´ (good day, how are you, what are you up to today?) type conversations. But on Thursday morning I decided, fuck that, I´m going in there (her office) to say hi and to ask if I can attend some of the editorial meetings (Ximena had told me that previous volunteers were not permitted to do that so my expectations were low). So I went in and sat down, and we chatted. But in english...I didn´t realise that LuzMi speaks good english, whereas no one else in the office speaks any. So thats was lucky really and meant we could chat properly. She asked me how I was enjoying my time, and we talked about how I came to be here. (It was about four or five years between first discovering the volunteer agency who places people in this work, and actually coming here - between not being financially or personally in a position to come here back then and creating the real possibility of doing it, by getting the cash together and being freed up from personal committments like jobs and
boys) I told her the story and she was surprised about how long I had been planning to work for her family´s company. Then she asked me why I didn´t stay longer and I told her - because one month on this project through the volunteer agency cost me nearly two thousand of my hard earned (and hard borrowed from the bank at ridiculous rates) english pounds and that was a huge chunk of my budget for the whole trip. I couldnt afford to extend which was why I am working my cojones off right now to make the most of it and have something to show for it portfolio-wise. Then she looked me in the eyes and very plainly said that I should stay - that she liked the way I work and that Los Tiempos wanted me stop keep working for them, and that I should live at her place to solve the money problem after the month was up. It would be fun for her to practise her English too, she said. We also talked about my continuing to write for LT from London, an idea that seemed to be received well.
For a few seconds I could only stare back blankly: at this second one of my biggest dreams ever was happening live, in real time, in front of me, without my having done anything much to encourage it. Someone I had just met two weeks before was handing me my dream on a plate.
I was not prepared for this and therefore the next few seconds kind of passed silently as my brain tried to regain control. Then the guy who delivers the empanadas came in with with the delivery and I snapped out of it.
We spoke about how it would work because my concern is that, since I rely so much on the help of my bolivian friends at the volunteer office to translate my work into Spanish, and to translate interviews, how would this get done when the time I have paid for with LT was up and I could not rely any longer on the charity of my friends? (They have very full time jobs but they always make time to help me with my translation - they don´t have to) Who would help me at LT? Would I be able to ask them to help at whatever time I needed it, to reach my deadlines? Would I not be more of a burden in that regard? But Luz Marina didn´t seem to think this problematic (maybe because in reality it´s only my problem, not hers). Then she said that she wanted to send me to Chile to do an investigation on la ropa usada (after my piece on that subject, which was my first and the most enjoyable to write and research). Which is crazy talk but thoroughly amazing and of course I am up for it! If it actually happens.
After chatting some more about it, I decided I had to leave as my editor still wasn´t around, and I had a lot of editing to do for the Cocha-Banner - plus I was glad to escape the office so I could go to a ´safe place´ (the Travel & Projects Abroad office) where I could think and talk it over with Ximena, and calm down. I left the office after showing my work to one of the cleaning dudes here who is always very nice to me, walked out onto the busy Plaza Quintanilla in my state of flux and promptly jumped on the wrong trufi (bus), a short while later finding myself lost on the other side of town near the Universidad Católica.
After finding my way back to town and the TPA office I spoke with Ximena who was also stunned - apparently LuzMi would not have said something like that lightly, and has not offered any volunteers before - but straight away said that TPA wanted me to stay and that everyone there would carry on suporting me as they had done. Which was really the best and goes to show how great the TPA girls are. Later on I emailed my dad, one of my best friends Chris and my ex boyfriend (the three people in my life with the most balanced and wise opinions, and knowledge of me, I needed their advice) and all three of course told me to go for it. So I am. I just need to figure out how I can still meet my friends Jesús in Cuzco and Caroline in Brazil, and see everything I planned to see in my perfectly scheduled week by week plan. As per usual, I want everything, but I lack time and cash. Fpr now I have to focus on the work.
Aside from work, I have begun to have a little fun with new friends here in CBBA. The first week I was too ill and tired: the following two weekends were really fun though. Last Friday I went to a birthday party at Alicia´s house, with Dan and some new friends. Partying Bolivian style is diferent to at home. It started off very civilised with some nibbles and chatting. Then we moved onto playing Cacha (I think that is the name), a very traditional Bolivian game with five dice, and then we cracked open the wine and the game became ´house, bed, lover´ - a variation on cacha that is strictly for over 18´s with a supply of red wine. Then suddenly we were dancing in the living room to bolivian rock, folkloricá, other latin sounds and (for Dan) a bit of cheese, Robbie Williams. Would you believe that pug-faced kylie minogue-bothering rehab monkey is massive in Bolivia?
On Saturday I watched a lot of crap cable telly with Maria-José, my host mum´s niece who speaks excellent English and has an opinion on absolutely everything - and later met with my friend Carmen, for cheap dinner with two Dutch friends of hers, and later for a lot of sexy latin dancing at La Tiraña until the wee hours. I drank a whole lot of Taquiña (local beer) and had loads of fun.
On Sunday I slept like a lazy perra until 1pm and woke up to lunch, then watched even more telly with my host sisters Andreá and Maria-Reneé (M-R is my other host sister who lives in La Paz and coincidentally, is also a journalist, covering politics and current affairs for La Prensa - a daily newspaper also owned by the same company as Los Tiempos) and read my stuff in the paper.
So far, so good. But I miss everyone back home a lot and getting offered this chance to stay made me realise it even more. I´m torn between two lives, two continents. But as I said I always want everything at the same time and will work to have both.
x
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anonymous
non-member comment
go ahead and do you, mel! -do you!
respect due. you are a fucking hero.