Friday, September 20th

Friday, September 20^th

Good news! I am feeling GREAT today.  Yesterday was an awesome day; Lydia and I walked to work around 2:00 and arrived at about 2:30. We were greeted by some sort of road construction directly in front of the entrance to our building; I like to call it a “moat”. Luckily we leaped across and made it safe and sound.

 

 

We were given a tour by our supervisor Klaartje. The office has a kitchen, with lots of teas which excited Lydia and I as we are both tea fanatics. It’s seriously all we drink here. Klaartje showed us to our desks, which are situated in a room with other employees as well, who all speak Spanish and no English, so I feel as though this will be a great way to pick up on some conversational Spanish. I looked over and work plan and decided to get right to it. We have to create a presentation that gives our co-workers some insight to how things work in Canada, so I think I have finally found my niche and means to feel as though I may finally be of some use with CENDA, the NGO we are working with. The first presentation we decided to research is Indigenous Rights & Agriculture in Canada. I immediately thought of the issues surrounding the Bear River First Nations in Nova Scotia, and the problems the privatization of the fishery industry have caused for our indigenous people. We worked from 2:30 until about 6:15 and then started our trek home.

 

Here I am at my desk !

 

Klara was nice enough to accompany us on our walk home, and brought us to Avenuda De America. On the way we passed a swimming pool that is open to the public everyday of the week, from about 9 A.M until 1 P.M. As a child of the water, this was awesome news. Once we hit the Avenue America, there were tons of shops and little restaurants for us to chose from. We decided to eat a place called “Frankffurt”, where they had tons of different style burgers, steak, ribs, chicken, basically anything you could imagine. Lydia and I both ordered the same thing, pictured below. It was a giant piece of steak, cooked perfectly, some salad with vinegar and oil for dressing, and the most amazing root vegetable thing I have ever tasted. It’s called a “Yuca” which is found all over South America, and it was superb. It was deep fried of course, so what isn’t good deep fried right? Lydia told me that it’s just as good boiled with salt and pepper, and that they sell it in the produce sections in Halifax, so I will definitely be cooking it when I get home and treat my friends to some Latin America cuisine.

 

 

 

 

After dinner we were on our way home, and came across an act from the “Cochabamba Jazz Fest”, and stopped in to see what it was like for a few minutes. It was so cool seeing some extremely talented musicians from this part of the world.

 

Overall I am feeling much more optimistic about my journey here in Cochabamba, and I am excited to see what the rest of the 87 days will bring, (yes still counting!). Off to work soon and then our first weekend off here! We are going to check out the main market called “La Cancha” and hopefully find some awesome Bolivian goodies. Can’t wait to fill you all in tomorrow! Chow