coming home

Hello all! My time has come to leave Bolivia once again and make the long journey home. I have to say, the last week has been a bit tough, because for the most part I’ve been sick! As I mentioned in my previous post, I started getting sick last Wednesday with a headache, body aches, and general fatigue, which continued on Thursday, and on Friday, morphed into a stomach malady of infected proportions. Oh yes, ye olde traveler’s diarrhea. Saturday I thought I was better, but no, Sunday I was back at it, and boy, did I feel like it would be better to just die. But instead, a woman who grew up here in the Home and is now a doctor came and tapped on my stomach, listened to my symptoms, and told me to take the Cipro I brought with me and keep drinking Gatorade. Monday came, and I began to feel better. I was on a diet of “only white food,” but since now the food colors that I’m allowed to eat are back to normal, I’m trying to enjoy the last few days (now hours) here, and thank the people who have been so helpful during my time here.

Preparation for travel … oooo packing

Giant ant home in my kitchen. Yes, in the kitchen cabinet. No, I didn’t know until I opened it up.

one more week

Here is another set of images for all my eager blog-watchers – which, I must say, there seem to be many of you. Which I can’t quite understand, since I tend to put minimal effort into the writing on this thing, and usually just focus on uploading the photos before my internet karma runs out. But here is a brief rundown of my week (in spite of what may follow, it has been a non-catastrophic week): on the weekend I went to the grocery store, and was delighted by the absolute courtesy of the young man at the register who whistled at me as I walked by. What flattery. JK. For a point of reference, that’s like getting whistled at in Wegmans. On Monday, I literally stopped traffic while waiting for a micro and not one, but two cars slowed to a near stop so that the people inside could, yes, whistle and point. Lovely. Yesterday, I was laid flat with a fever and a pounding headache, possibly a migraine, after getting up before 6 (not habitual for me) and photographing the cows being milked. Today I am still a little headachy and achy, but better, but today I discovered a HUGE ant nest under the kitchen cabinet on the outside wall of the house. Enterprising little bastards. An entire wheelbarrow was filled with the mound of dirt that was found under there. And I haven’t found a good photo yet, but this particular kind of ant is like, huge, and they don’t sting, they actually bite, like a chunk of skin cause their heads are so big and their pincers are so menacing. Also wonderful. But now, poison has been pumped into their hole, and we are watching them stumble out of there lookin a little punch drunk. Also, all week my audio recorder has decided that it does not want to function normally, and I have been fighting with it daily to figure out what exactly is bothering it. In the end, maybe it hasn’t been a great week. But at the very least, I’m in relatively good spirits! Here’s the photos!

Sad day for pigs …

Ok! Here is my latest selection of images from the last few days. I warn you, they slaughtered and butchered a pig here the other day, a process which I photographed in detail – surprisingly with no nausea whatsoever! In any case, if you’re squeamish, careful with this set of images. I didn’t really censor it. Enjoy!

Halfway-ish?

If I’m not mistaken, this is right about my halfway point for my time here … and if it’s not exact, it’s certainly close. I have been here in Santa Cruz for 3 weeks, and will be here another 2 and a bit. Let’s hope that means that half to work for this phase of the project is done too! Here is a very large set of images … oops, haven’t posted in a little while … that spans the last several days! Enjoy.

more photos

the internet has been pretty frustrating recently, so I will keep this brief and focus on getting the photos uploaded before my karma runs out!

vaaamos, pues

Hello everyone! I hope you have enjoyed the selection of images above – we had a birthday party this past weekend here, so it was pretty much like a huge family gathering! ok – computer battery and internet running out! Time to post!

A little explanation

For those of you who don’t know a whole lot about what I’m doing way down here in Bolivia for six weeks this summer, I thought I’d give a little explanation. This is my third visit here to Santa Cruz, but this time I’m here to do something a little different. For my undergrad at SU, I am working on a Capstone thesis project, which I will present in April before I graduate. The project is supposed to be a culmination of my studies at SU and combine my two majors: Latino/Latin American Studies and Photojournalism. So my project, in a nutshell, is a documentary of the children’s home where I volunteered. The focus of the project is on the family-like structure of the Home, as well as some of the challenges of both growing up here and being an adult ‘parent’ figure here. There are about 30 kids who currently live here, and then about 6 who are older (18-25?) and live in independent housing on the Home’s compound: more apartment/dormitory style. The younger kids live in three houses on the back part of the property with host families; so they live with what would resemble a pseudo-family structure. Some of the very young kids even call the parents of their home Mom and Dad. The way I have been approaching the project is by examining each House individually, and spending time with each family. So far, I am photographing in 2 of the 3 houses. The contrasts are very interesting, as are the differences in the kids’ ages and diverse needs. So – I hope that makes it a little more clear exactly what I’m doing, though I will say that to some extent, I have also been keeping myself open to other interesting aspects of the theme, photographically and topically. The gallery below gives you an idea of what exactly I’ve been shooting as well! Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

Por eso Dios nos dio dos días…

…uno pa’ lavar la ropa, y otro pa’ que seque

That’s what my taxi driver said on Tuesday about the weather. (“That’s why God gave us two days: one to wash clothes, and the other so they’ll dry”) It’s been on and off cold, and then windy and warm, and then calm, and then windy, and then cold. Very changeable. But those two days were supposed to be between Surs (the cold, wet winds that come up from Argentina), and we’re still waiting for the next one. Today it is very windy here, which that same taxi driver usually means a Sur is coming. I’m not convinced though. I plan to wash my clothes today, but since we have a machine here, I don’t expect it to take all day. BUT. It may take all of tomorrow to dry. I also plan to make myself some beans today, for a week of dinners: I bought black beans, rice, onion, garlic, tomato, and cumin. We will see how this experiment goes.

I have also been processing the photos that I’ve taken over the course of the last few days. My current projects are Houses 1 & 2, where some of the kids live (the others live either in House #3 or in the dorms for older kids). There are somewhere between 8 and 11 kids in each house, and then the host parents and their children. It has been very interesting to spend time in the houses with the kids, and also talking to the host parents. I will post some of my photos here today and I look forward to your comments. It has been actually really exciting to be back here, but also a little more difficult this time because I have more autonomy and independence than I’ve had before. I have to buy my own food and all of that, and all though I can usually find lunch in one of the casitas, I have to work out my own dinner and breakfast plans. It is an adjustment from other times that I’ve been here. But, it also means that I have more freedom to eat what I want to, which a lot of the times is more vegetables than are generally provided.

Ok! So, here is my gallery – they are small! And might be repetitive! But there you go!

Away we go!

Hello all! I hope this blog post finds you all well. I arrived in Santa Cruz at about 3am this morning, after a delay in Miami, a frantic attempt to communicate that delay to my ride in Santa Cruz, and a far too long (it seemed) plane ride through La Paz, to Santa Cruz. By the time I fell into bed at Alex & Julie’s house at 4am I had been up for about 23 hours, I calculate. Still better than last year’s 26 hour voyage. In any case, I have arrived here to a very very cold climate, to a current temperature of 46 degrees. Wowzas. And remember: no indoor heat. So we are all bundled up here, and I have just moved into my little house where I will be staying with another volunteer, called the Casa Esperanza. I have even done a little bit of grocery shopping for basics, and settled my things into their places. *sigh* It is good to feel settled. I was also able to catch up with friends who work here in the Home and Daycare center, learn about how things have changed since last year, and catch up on the gossip. oooooooo. Tomorrow I will sleep in again (I woke up at a shocking 12:47 pm this morning) and start to get ready for shooting and getting my project rolling in a positive direction. Luckily, all of my equipment has arrived safely, and is now safely stowed bajo llave.

The slideshow above is a little preview of Mark Neufeld’s lovely photos of my sister and brother-in-law’s wedding, which was just over a week ago! Wow again. It was a great time, and a wonderful day, and apparently very tiring, because I went to the doctor with a fever the Monday after. Congrats to Jillian and Kevin, and I hope you like their pictures!

Ok! More to come!

Hello world!

Yay for new blog! [Please refer to my previous musings at bridgetteinbolivia.blogspot.com] I will be posting here on my upcoming trip back to Bolivia in July, so keep looking back!