My Holiday is Officially Over!

Where to begin? So much has happened in so little time...

This past Friday, we went to talk to Felipe, who had just gotten back from La Paz. What a conversation. All I can say is that I am soooo grateful we stopped in Cusco to learn some Spanish. Nevertheless, the Bolivian accent is quite different from the Peruvian one, which threw us for a loop. Plus Felipe speaks in very fast Spanish, and so epic levels of concentration are necessary for any comprehension to occur. Basically, Felipe is expecting us to finish building the health centre in the province of Topabamba, plus teach some health education classes for the local women.

Once that mission is accomplished, he also wants us to direct the building of the washrooms for a school in some other tiny village. I know nothing about construction, nor do I speak Quechua, so this should be interesting! While building the washrooms, we are supposed to go door to door talking to the local people (in Quechua...anyone seeing a common problem :D) and share our knowledge about nutrition and sanitation etc. We are also supposed to teach about 50 children to play the guitar/sing.

Then we are supposed to travel to some other tiny village to supervise the construction of a fishery (is that a word?), basically these tanks to raise trout. Um...so, my knowledge of fish is right up there with my knowledge of construction. Good times!

In between all of this, we are also supposed to be teaching Felipe to speak English, translating the website for PAIS into English, and learning to speak Quechua. All this in 2 months!!!! Can anyone hear the slight edge of panic here? Ahaha, oh well, I do thrive on a challenge- time to test my mettle.

So those of you who were worried I was just going to be on holiday for four months, fear not, for the work has arrived!!!

Yesterday, we woke up at six, and met Felipe at his office. The plan was to travel to Topabamba to see the current state of the Health clinic. According to Felipe, the trip there was supposed to be about 5 hours by car. So we got to Felipe´s office at seven and started our journey. Some other guys who work with Felipe also accompanied us so it was a little squishy (by squishy I mean there were three of us in the back seat, three in the front, and 2 standing in back of the truck).
At some point, we stopped for breakfast at a tiny market. Breakfast consisted of deep fried bread and coffee. I felt quite ill after this, especially considering Felipe and the rest of the guys kept pushing me to eat more, because apparently, by Bolivian standards my appetite is quite disgraceful. I fear that by the end of Bolivia, I may have to roll home.
We then continued on our way to Sucre. Once we arrived in Sucre, about four hours into the trip, we went on this wild goose chase for cement, tiles, and other materials needed for the clinic. By this point there was at least 2000 pounds in the truck, probably more- one bag of cement weighs more than I do...craziness, no? Then of course, lunch was necessary, and again Emily and I were not permitted to share a menu, which lead to more unhappiness. Emily managed to get a cramp while sitting and doing nothing- that is how full we were! In retrospect, it was probably good that we ate that much, but I digress.
Around 2:00, we left sucre, with the promise that it was only another 2 hours to "el campo". So we started up the mountain, at which point the pavement turned into cobblestone, followed by sand, followed by gravel, followed by jagged, uncompacted rock! At this point, it is only safe to go about 30km an hour, especially as the road is just barely wide enough for one truck and twists around in these fantastically frightenting ways. There were some points that Felipe would stall going around the corner, causing the truck to start rolling backwards towards the edge, and I must say thoughts of death crossed my mind. Needless to say, it was slow going. I must say, I have now seen a truck do things I did not know they were capable of. We actually drove through several rivers!!! This gave me a mild heart attack, but it all worked out okay
Did I mention that the truck had no radiator fluid (I think, my knowledge of cars is sketchy at best), and so every hour or so we would have to stop the truck, and pour about a litre of water into it, at which point it would hiss and smoke and produce the most nasty of odours.
Anyways, after about 2 hours of driving, we still were nowhere near our clinic, and lo and behold the truck had run out of oil! Felipe then drove all the way back to Sucre to get some more oil, and the drove all the way back to pick us up (we opted to sit by the river and be stared at by some children- it was quite funny, I think strangers are quite the event, let alone strangers from a different coutntry). By the time Felipe got back it was 5:00, and we still had another 2 hours to go.
At this point, the road then became even more unmanageable, at which point we had to get out and walk, so as to relieve the truck of some 900 pounds. Unfortunately, this was not sufficient, and one of the tires blew! I have never seen a tire deflate quite that fast- it was impressive. By this point, it was starting to get dark, and the truck was too heavy to prop up with the jack. So then we had to unload all of the cement, roll the truck back onto flatter ground so that it would not tip over, change the tire, coax the truck up this very steep incline, reload the truck and continue on our journey! What an adventure! We finally arrived at our destination around 8:30- only an extra 8 hours of driving :D
Once there, we unloaded all the stuff, not that they would really let us help. We weren´t allowed to move the cement- too heavy for las chicas. I didn´t really mind. More power to their macho-ness! We then did libations with extremely warm Pepsi- I would not recommend Pepsi as a good beverage for these rituals but whatever. The clinic is quite lovely. Orange walls, beautiful ceilings, a nice tiled floor, lighting- it is quite high tech! I think it will be beautiful when it is done.
Then after about a half an hour, we started back to Potosi! We left around 9:30 and got into Potosi at around 5:00. Unfortunately, the chairs were rather uncomfortable and so I could not sleep. As you can imagine I am super tired!!
Tomorrow, we go back to the clinic to help paint, and set-up things. Then Tuesday, we go to the second village to build the washrooms and all that jazz! Craziness! So yes, I will be out of contact for about 2 weeks. I am sure I will have many wonderful things to talk about when I get back. Until then, have a marvelous time. I think I am missing thanksgiving- so happy Turkey day!