Jan 11, 2007 - La llegada y los primeros días

Now I've been in Cochabamba three full days. And very full they have been.

Day One - Arrived in Cocha at 9AM. Andres picked me up from the airport (he was uncharacteristically late, I almost grabbed a taxi with someone I had met on the plane!).

Gretchen (or Graciela), another of Democracy Center cadre, and I had met in DC last summer when she came to visit, and I had arranged with her to stay with the woman who she was living with, Chichi, when I got here. I told her I would stay at Chichi's house for my first month in Bolivia, thinking that I would probably move somewhere else after that. But when I got to the house, I immediately fell in love with it.

#1 Location: It's about a block away from the Prado, the main drag of Cochabamba, and also right near the Plaza Colon, the second most notable plaza only after the Plaza Principal, and also (very important) a few block's walk away from the Democracy Center office. Very key. There's also a tienda right across the street where I can get all my basic necessities.

#2 Beautiful: It's a beautiful old house. Pale yellow facade with white trim. When I first got there, everyone was working in the garden, which I later found out has carrots and herbs and little zucchinis (really cute). When I rang the doorbell, Chichi came out and was very sweet, welcoming me in and asking about my trip. We walked in the house, and I was immediately impressed. The living room had a high ceiling, plants by the door, furniture that looks almost antique but very livable, and a beautiful wooden staircase winding and around to the second floor.

Chichi took me into a room right next to the entrance. Super spacious, again, very high ceilings, with a little plant on an endtable, a desk, an armoire, a little single bed with blue covers, high windows with light green and white curtains that were open, letting in a beautiful breeze, and - get this - a grand piano, just sitting there in the corner. What!?? Chichi said, "So this can be your room" and I was sold. One more thing I didn't notice at the time is that there are plants growing up the wall outside and have started putting out tendrils that are growing into the room through the windows, which I think is the neatest thing ever (especially because it doesn't really get cold at night).

The house is old and very charming. It actually reminds me a little bit of the family house in Maine - in certain parts of the house, it even smells like Maine. Strange, no? It is sort of a funny mix between old elegance and modern practical usage in some ways. For example, the chandelier in my room, which doesn't have a bulb in the middle, but instead, has one bulb on one of the three hanging lights on the outside (don't worry, Dad, Chichi has made me take two other desk lamps, so I get plenty of light even at night).

Chichi herself is un amor de persona. She is so sweet, very kind, and I'm honestly afraid that she's going to stress herself out worrying about me so much! (For example, tonight when I was making a sandwich, she came in 5 or 6 times to offer me things to put on it, show me where other things were in the kitchen, bring me an extra lamp, offer me other extra food, assure me that she was going to cook for me sometime, and try to convince me to have some tea before I went to bed.)

For the rest of my first day, I unpacked, did a lot of resting (it was raining all afternoon), and after supper/tea took a walk around town to reacquaint myself.

Day Two - I saw Ismael and Lupe! JJ and Krishna! Jim and the new office!
I got up super-early (6am) and hurried off to Tai Chi. When I rang the bell at the gate, Lupe came to open it up, and had a huge smile on her face to see me. When I walked inside (they had already started; they've been beginning at 6:15 instead of 6:30 lately), Ismael didn't recognize me for a few seconds with my hair so long, and then broke out into a big grin. Lots of happy hugs. They had had a lot of relatives staying with them leave the day before, so they were still recuperating from that. Lupe (who is a practicing Hare Krishna follower)'s (guru? she uses a different word, but I can't think of what it is) is visiting right now from the US, so after Tai Chi she was off with a start to appear with him on one of the local TV channels.

Their little son, JJ, has grown a lot in the last year and a half, and has more of an air of maturity about him than I've seen before. He's currently counting down the days until he starts colegio, elementary school. Krishna, their daughter, still as fiery as ever, is about to finish her law degree this year (no undergrad before law school in Bolivia), and got engaged to her long-time novio in December.

Afterwards, I met up with Jim and took a walk to the Democracy Center office. Jim had been really excited about it when I saw him in November, even drawing a floor plan of it for me. And I've got to say, it's an office with a lot of soul, as well as a lot of space and a great location. One of the most exciting unforeseen parts of the office (for me) was that the Democracy Center had bought a bicycle for one of the projects that Christina (who I have yet to meet) was working on. Alex, who was most recently using it, has gone, so I have free rein to get the tires pumped, get the bike a tune-up courtesy of the Democracy Center, and start using it full-time!

And thanks to Avi's request -
Spanish word (grouping) of the day: "la maña"

Usage: You need a little maña to open the lock on the gate to get into my house.

maña - destreza (skill); más vale maña que fuerza (brain is better than brawn); astucia (wits, guile); engaño (ruse, trick)
astucia - cunning, astuteness; cunning trick
treta - engaño, trick
picardía - sharpness, craftiness; travesura (naughty trick, mischief); atrevimiento (brazenness); also, randomly (or not so randomly?), negligee
picar - chop, dice, or mince; bite or sting (as a mosquito, snake, or stinging thing); to sting you; to peck like a bird; to pick at (food)
picante - spicy
pecado - sin (n); pecar - to sin (n)
pescar - to fish
las pecas - freckles

maná - manna, cheap and plentiful food
manar (de) - to flow from

So that's my situation. Coming soon: The political situation in Cochabamba