I started the day with a bit of breakfast and some household surveys with Allison, Sophie, and Ana. The first interview we had lasted about 40 minutes, and concerned a community member, his father, and his mother. He explained that although he already had a latrine, it was very uncomfortable, and he didn't like when his dad went to the bathroom because his dad was sick often. It was an interesting circumstance that could be perceived as cruel, but the fact of the matter was that these people had absolutely nothing, and had to negotiate for what little they did have. Ana had a really good way of talking with the community members, as she was very charismatic and had a way to make them laugh. Afterwards, we moved on to a house that we had not previously surveyed or taken a point of, which was interesting considering that we thought we had marked everything. The resident had a nice latrine, but it was unfinished, and although he was in Parque-Colani (the place that we had agreed to do the project), he was the general secretary of a neighboring community. It was an odd circumstance.
They weren’t home at the next survey we attempted. We ended up walking for about 30 minutes before we found a home that was not vacated for the day, as there was a yearly futbol tournament that took place in celebration of the Aymaran new year. The first game featured a team from our community, and took place at 10am. We convinced our project leads to let us take a half day today and go to the game, so that we could better immerse with the community (but also so that we could relax a bit with some soccer).
As we set out for Sorata, we helped a few community members out by carrying their stuff in the van and giving them a ride. I asked them a few questions in Spanish about their building capabilities, and to my surprise they were well equipped to build concrete walls. I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was, because all of their structures were built by themselves without any real outside help, save for probably transporting the materials up from Sorata. When we arrived in Sorata, we were stuck in traffic, as Saturday was not only the day for the futbol tourney but also the day for markets and socializing. Traffic here was a nightmare. There were no real rules of the road except for driving on the right, but often times roads would get blocked off completely and convert into weird one-way lanes. There were systems of passing that were up to the drivers to navigate, but safe to say Jose was probably the best driver for the job. There were several situations that we found ourselves in where no one who I knew back home would be able to navigate out of them, but Jose knew how to push and pull traffic while also talking with us in the van. There were times when he definitely got a bit stressed, but for the most part he knew how to handle is job.
During one of our many traffic jams, Allison and Steven got out and purchased 7 empanadas, which was hilarious because as they got out, traffic started moving again. They had to run back to the car, and I believe we got a video, but ultimately it was a really fun time. The empanadas were delicious. After, we arrived at the futbol match, which was just down a narrow path from the street about 100 feet above. The lack of guard rails and potential for car accidents and slippage never ceases to amaze me, but we're all just kinda rolling with it and trusting our driver and the locals. We sat down next to some of our community members and they were happy to see us there. We chatted a little bit, but just watched the match, which actually wasn't our team; we were stuck in traffic for long enough that by the time we arrived, the game with Parque-Colani was already over. However, they would be playing later that day, so we decided to head into the market and stick around in Sorata for the game.
Me, posing with Soil Samples
They weren’t home at the next survey we attempted. We ended up walking for about 30 minutes before we found a home that was not vacated for the day, as there was a yearly futbol tournament that took place in celebration of the Aymaran new year. The first game featured a team from our community, and took place at 10am. We convinced our project leads to let us take a half day today and go to the game, so that we could better immerse with the community (but also so that we could relax a bit with some soccer).
As we set out for Sorata, we helped a few community members out by carrying their stuff in the van and giving them a ride. I asked them a few questions in Spanish about their building capabilities, and to my surprise they were well equipped to build concrete walls. I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was, because all of their structures were built by themselves without any real outside help, save for probably transporting the materials up from Sorata. When we arrived in Sorata, we were stuck in traffic, as Saturday was not only the day for the futbol tourney but also the day for markets and socializing. Traffic here was a nightmare. There were no real rules of the road except for driving on the right, but often times roads would get blocked off completely and convert into weird one-way lanes. There were systems of passing that were up to the drivers to navigate, but safe to say Jose was probably the best driver for the job. There were several situations that we found ourselves in where no one who I knew back home would be able to navigate out of them, but Jose knew how to push and pull traffic while also talking with us in the van. There were times when he definitely got a bit stressed, but for the most part he knew how to handle is job.
During one of our many traffic jams, Allison and Steven got out and purchased 7 empanadas, which was hilarious because as they got out, traffic started moving again. They had to run back to the car, and I believe we got a video, but ultimately it was a really fun time. The empanadas were delicious. After, we arrived at the futbol match, which was just down a narrow path from the street about 100 feet above. The lack of guard rails and potential for car accidents and slippage never ceases to amaze me, but we're all just kinda rolling with it and trusting our driver and the locals. We sat down next to some of our community members and they were happy to see us there. We chatted a little bit, but just watched the match, which actually wasn't our team; we were stuck in traffic for long enough that by the time we arrived, the game with Parque-Colani was already over. However, they would be playing later that day, so we decided to head into the market and stick around in Sorata for the game.
The market was bustling with people. A few of our team members wanted to take a shower, so they did. I paid 1 boliviano to go to the bathroom while various members split up into different parties. After I was done, we all went to another side street where they were selling skirts and such; Lauren didn't have money to buy one, so I lent her some. She got a pretty skirt, but probably paid wayyy too much for it: 100 bolivianos, which was about $18 USD. After, Sam, she, and I all went to grab some pan-dulce in the market. For only about 5 bolivianos (about 75 cents), it was delicious and filled us up, as we had not had lunch. Afterwards, we regrouped with Jose, Ana, John, Allison, and Sophie near the showers. Ana told us that we could go ahead and watch the futbol game coming up, so Jose and I bolted ahead, not realizing that we had left everyone else behind. We had a decent conversation, and he was impressed that I had learned Spanish this quickly. He thought that I had somewhere that I spoke Spanish normally back home, and when I said no, he was surprised. It felt validating, and made me feel that I had progressed with the language more than I had anticipated. When we realized that we had walked ahead of everyone else, we waited until they caught up. Afterwards, we all grabbed some ice cream and headed down to see the game with our community team.
The game was a blast, but we lost 4-1 pretty badly. Before half time we had a chance, but the opposing team scored 3 goals in the second half. For the duration of the match, five women a few steps below our path (we were sitting on a slope with different paths running perpendicular), were presumably drunk and were heckling our players. It was hilarious, and was the most we had heard the women of our community talk all trip. We started cheering when we scored a goal, and the community members were happy with our enthusiasm. It was a lot of fun, even though we lost, and afterwards we headed home to go grab a late lunch at around 4 in the afternoon.
Traffic home was crazy again, and one lane of the street was totally blocked off by a few tour buses who had decided to park in the middle of the street. After 40 minutes of craziness, we made it home in one piece, and were tired. Afterwards, Lauren, John and I all started latrine design that we could show the community for our closing meeting on Friday. We had four total designs, with variations that considered the wall material consisting of brick or cement, and whether or not the latrine had a shower. Lauren made a beautiful spreadsheet with conversions and material costs that we will later splice together to get a cost estimate for each latrine. I worked on designing the latrines with bricks based on dimensions that John estimated, but didn't finish in time for dinner. Sam came back with soil samples, and the "soil boys" went out to create another test. By the time we were finished, dinner was being served, which were basically hot dogs that had really tasty toppings like papas fritas, salsa, and some lettuce-like stuff. We were originally going to make a bonfire in celebration of St. Juan and the new year, but it was too late and had started to kind of snow a bit. Allison and Stephen worked for about an hour on creating a tippy tap, which was basically a water bottle converted into a handwashing station. They were successful, and we hung it up the following morning. We had a talk later than evening about the progress of our project, and we were all satisfied with our first few days in Sorata.
Futbol match in Sorata
The game was a blast, but we lost 4-1 pretty badly. Before half time we had a chance, but the opposing team scored 3 goals in the second half. For the duration of the match, five women a few steps below our path (we were sitting on a slope with different paths running perpendicular), were presumably drunk and were heckling our players. It was hilarious, and was the most we had heard the women of our community talk all trip. We started cheering when we scored a goal, and the community members were happy with our enthusiasm. It was a lot of fun, even though we lost, and afterwards we headed home to go grab a late lunch at around 4 in the afternoon.
Traffic home was crazy again, and one lane of the street was totally blocked off by a few tour buses who had decided to park in the middle of the street. After 40 minutes of craziness, we made it home in one piece, and were tired. Afterwards, Lauren, John and I all started latrine design that we could show the community for our closing meeting on Friday. We had four total designs, with variations that considered the wall material consisting of brick or cement, and whether or not the latrine had a shower. Lauren made a beautiful spreadsheet with conversions and material costs that we will later splice together to get a cost estimate for each latrine. I worked on designing the latrines with bricks based on dimensions that John estimated, but didn't finish in time for dinner. Sam came back with soil samples, and the "soil boys" went out to create another test. By the time we were finished, dinner was being served, which were basically hot dogs that had really tasty toppings like papas fritas, salsa, and some lettuce-like stuff. We were originally going to make a bonfire in celebration of St. Juan and the new year, but it was too late and had started to kind of snow a bit. Allison and Stephen worked for about an hour on creating a tippy tap, which was basically a water bottle converted into a handwashing station. They were successful, and we hung it up the following morning. We had a talk later than evening about the progress of our project, and we were all satisfied with our first few days in Sorata.
Futbol match in Sorata
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