Under the Mango Tree

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  It is my day off and I´m spending the day in downtown Cochabamba relaning and enjoying some great food.  As you know, I had my first holiday in Bolivia last week and celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday the 19 with around 20 other Salesian volunteers in Montero, Bolivia.  I wanted to share some of my experiences with you because it was such an amazing trip.  It started last Thursday, very early in the morning,  when Angela and I took the a taxi  to the main bus terminal.  Initially, it was our intention to fly, as I had heard horror stories about Bolivian roads, but the flight was $145 and the bus ticket was $14 round trip, so...Even though saving money was important, I was really so excited to see more of Bolivia.  Just so you know, if any of you come for a visit, the touring buses are very modern, clean and spacious.  I thoroughly enjoyed everything about it...the live infocommercials for various products, the steady stream of vendors who get on the bus and sell all sorts of drinks, snacks and even banana, mango ice cream cones (yum),  the beauty of the country side, the glimpes into lives of extreme poverty, the packs of burros on the sides of the road, the very cute families of pigs roaming around, the huge and beautiful roosters,the chaos of the stations where you stop to go the bathroom and walk around a bit, and then there was my absolute moment of panic when I thought the bus was taking off, while Angela was in the bathroom...only to find out, to my huge relief, that the driver was only pulling forward a bit, so we could access the open air market.  I´m such a gringa and still have so much to learn.

Our first destination was Yakipani, Bolivia, which is in a tropical area.  We were met by Marcos, a fellow Salisian volunteer who had invited us to stay the night in one of the rooms where he lives with the parish priest.   The plan was that he would then accompany us to Montero, where all the volunteers were meeting.  One of my first questions for Marcos was how many creepy crawler things were roaming around and what did I need to watch out for.  He assured me that if we kept our door shut to our room we wouldn´t have any problems.   He lied!   After taking us on a wonderful motorcycle ride to show as the barrios he serves and a little of the deeper jungle, we headed off to a dance perfromance at one of the schools where he teaching.  We were sitting on the upper stand, when all of the sudden I see this thing land on the court where the children were dancing.  At first I thought one of the young kids had thrown a toy on the ground.  My poor brain just couldn´t quite take it in, but within a few seconds I realizied it was in fact, some sort of flying insect.  I later learned it was, in fact, a water beetle.  Oh boy!  I´m not kidding you, I about had heart failure.  Within minutes, several small flying beetles landed near my back, where upon I almost jumped about ten feet off the back of the stands, until a kind Bolivian gentlemen calmly brushed them away.  This continued throughout our stay and let´s just say, we had several visitors in our bathroom whenever we needed to use it during the night.  Life in the jungle is not for the faint hearted and truly, I can´t imagine ever getting used to it.  Other than that, we had such a wonderful time.  We ended up staying two nights and were joined by two other volunteers, Monica and Amber who also work in an Hogar in Cochabamba, but on the other side of town and about an hour and a half by bus from where we live.

Marcos is a fantastic cook and made us enchiladas one night for dinner, totally from scratch, even the sauce.  I watched him carefully and asked lots of questions because enchilada sauce has always been somewhat of a mystery to me and now I´m ancious to give it a try.  He also made us a wonderful Mexican breakfast and we spend the rest of the day shopping for produce in the opend air market and preparing food for our Thanksgiving dinner the following day.   Marcos was a great host, lots of fun and we will definatly be visting him again when the hundreds of mangas ripen that are hanging on numerous manga trees in his yard.  My plan is to sit under the mango trees and eat mangos until I pop!

Saturday morning we headed out for Montero, where we met up with the other volunteers and shared an amazing Thankgiving meal with around 18 Salesian volunteers, Sr. Anna, and a visiting priest.  We ate,  drank and played game until late in the evening and it was so wonderful to see the four other volunteers who I went through orientation with back in New York.    Everyone shared stories and I leaned so many useful things about working with girls, travel and safety in Bolivia and how to protect your health.   We also took turns going around the table and everyone shared what they were grateful for.  It was very emotional, and, of course, I cried when I talked about how grateful I was for family and friends back home who love me and miss me, when so many of the girls have no family.  I also shared how grateful I was to be having all these amazing experiences in Bolivia.

When the evening came to an end, ee stayed in comfortable and beautiful rooms at the sisters´convent and, thank you Lord, there were no roaches or beetles.  Angela and I went to mass the following morning with all the girls in their hogar and the sisters and were all ready to head back when Mother Superior asked us if we´d like to stay another day.  I was so happy, I almost started crying again because we were having such a great time, and I really wasn´t quite ready to go back.   She made all the arrangements for us and even called the head sister at our Hogar to let her know we would be staying another day.  We spend the rest of the day going out into the surrounding countryside to visit a honey festival, which so great, and I even discovered that I really do like honey.  I have never tasted honey straight out the honeycomb and it´s unlike any honey I had ever taked before.  We also sampled all sorts of baked goods make with honey and they were all really good.  We were having trouble finding a taxi for our ride back into town, when some workers offered us a ride in the back of their pickup.  Honestly, it felt like something straight out of a movie.  I hopped in and sat on the edge of the truck bed just like the men were doing, when the driver tapped the window, shook his head and motioned for me to sit on the truck bed.  I guess he thought I´d go flying right out the back of the truck.  Little does he know how many times I did this sort of thing when I was kid, but I complied, even if my pride was a little wounded.  Our next stop was a cheese factory, but that turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, so we decided to have a cup of coffee somewhere.  In the process, we found a little jewel of a town, Buena Vista, that reminded me somewhat of pictures I´ve seen of Costa Rica.  We spend the evening just relaxing in the beautiful little plaza before heading home.

The next morning, we were again all set to go home, when I sisters told us we would need to stay another day because of  road blockage being staged for politcal reasons.  Oh darn!  Sister Anna let us go with her to spend a few hours in Santa Cruz.  We all had lunch together and then Angela and I took a taxi so we could spend one more afternoon in Buena Vista.  We met a very nice young man from South Africa and shared dinner, beer and great conversation.  We did have a little stress in trying to get home.  We had to wait two hours for a taxi because we learned that the blockage was effecting taxis getting through as well. 

The following morning, we were finally able to go home and I was ready...really missing the girls and Anna our German volunteer.  Sister Anna accompanied us as far as Yakipani, where the blockade was still going on, to make sure we got across safley.  It was all very peaceful and there was no violence, but I was glad she was with us, all the same, as this was all so new and strange for us.  On the journey home, the big storm hit and I was very cold until a rather large indigenous woman kind of snuggled with me and it really helped.  We chatted a bit and then she reached into her apron and pulled out a pice of bubble gum to share with me.   I was very touched and will always remember her sweet gesture.

Oh, before I forget, when I was in Montero and Yakipani, I also rode on moto taxis, which are something unique to the area.  It´s basically a taxi ride on a motorcyle,  You have to side saddle, as it´s considered too forward for a woman to sit up against the driver.  Talk about scary.  They zip in and out of traffic and I was so afraid my tangling feet were going to hit the sides of the cars we were passing.  I came home feeling so good, very tired, and like I´d really lived life to the full for those six days.    The girls were so, so happy to see me.  I was very touched and could very honestly tell them that I had missed then a lot too. 

So that was my Thankgiving.  I will never forget it and will have so many beautiful memories to draw on when I´m having a rough day.  I hope all of you have a wonderful and memorable Thanksgiving too.  I miss all of you and hope everyone is healthy and happy.   To my son Daniel, all my family and dear friends, I love you!  Take good care.  Judy

PS:  Our German Shepard had nine beautiful, healthy little pups while we were gone.  Pics to follow!