ALASITAS

Thursday January 24 marked the first day of the 2008 Alasitas festivities, a three-week period leading up to Carnaval in which hundreds (thousands, seemingly!) of vendors sell miniature wares representing everything from dollars and euros (and bolivianos) to cars, kitchens, and even pirated DVDs. The stalls are spread around the city and we were able to soak in the flavor at our local plaza right away, witnessing the mayhem of buyers rushing to get their goods blessed by noon in a special ceremony involving fragrant incense.

Delayed by a Friday night thunderstorm we preferred watching from indoors, we finally made it to the main attraction on Saturday, where we witnessed the transformation of a normally busy (and trafficked!) street into a festive fairground, with sellers of miniatures as well as plants of every imaginable variety, candies, cakes and pastries, ice cream, churros and all sorts of goodies and of course toys and games of all kinds. We bought some long-sought after wooden spoons and a wicker napkin holder and bread basket, and walked for seemingly miles in the noon-day sun to take in all the action. Ferris wheels and other huge attractions for kids were interwoven with the ramshackle stalls, and I couldn’t figure out how it all survived the serious downpour the night before.

I managed to get a serious sunburn on my shoulders (fooled by the cloud cover into thinking I was safe putting 30 on just my face) but overall enjoyed the outing so much it was all I could talk about for the rest of the weekend, which we spent between making blueberry pancakes at home and eating fried buñuelos and empanadas accompanied by my new favorite hot beverage, api, in Achumani. Ah, here’s to more weekends (and weekdays) dedicated to such simple pleasures!!

USAID Translation Projects Loom Ahead

Hi all,
Happy to report my job search is going swimmingly, and that besides landing a volunteer gig at GTZ (http://www.gtz.de/en) where I'll have an office and internet connection of my own three days a week starting tomorrow, I'll be doing translation of USAID documents part-time. I've been applying for teaching positions, too, and continue to hope for a minor miracle and great opportunity at the US Embassy, but for the time being am pleased to be able to work from home and continue learning about the local context. GTZ is a few blocks' walk (uphill) and a super group of people, so besides befriending others in the NGO world here it should be a fun and fulfilling stint til something more lucrative can be identified. I'm meeting with some folks at Save the Children tomorrow afternoon, too, so should know more soon about a potential role assisting a study of iron supplements on children's attention. Hope you're all well and happy and more to come as Carnival approaches (and water fights begin in earnest!!)

Happy New Year! And New Apartment!!

All's well here in the southern hemisphere, where 2008 has been off to a great start! We rang in the new year with a family toast at midnight followed by dancing til dawn, complete with dinner (at 1:00), fricasse (at 4:00) and a special hot drink called api served with a warm cheese-filled empanada called llaucha at 6:00. I had a great time dancing to familiar 80s tunes and learning traditional dances like the cueca, and observing some impressive tango. Yay 2008!


We then had the good fortune of discovering our first apartment in La Paz, a mere block from Fernando's office, with a great view from high atop the 19th floor. We moved in this weekend, and while we still have a long way to go towards furnishing it, are thrilled to have started! Today the job search starts in earnest, so I hope to have news on that front soon!!