Primera Semana

So this time last week I would have just arrived in Cochabamba.

View from La Paz airport

I remember flying in last week, it was just mountains, then suddenly you see Cochabamba spread out over a huge valley and overflowing either side over the hills. There's the huge Laguna Alalay, and the bare mountain in the middle with the Cristo de la Concordia which I am yet to climb.

Since I got here I have just been taking so much in every time I go anywhere, there is something different on every corner. I live in the north, and Proyecto Horizonte is 10km out of the city on the south side so I have to commute every day which takes about 45 minutes, unless I get lost. The transport here is crazy; there are micros, big bumpy buses, trufibuses which are like minibuses, and taxitrufis which are basically people carriers. To get to work I have to get 2 trufis and change halfway. The first time my friend came with me, the second time this guy happened to be going the same way as me so I was fine, and since then I am proud to say I can do it all by myself. You always have to check where they are going, like this morning I didn't, and he took an alternative route I didn't even know about and ended up somewhere peculiar and stressed out a little bit. But because I am a strong, independent and most certainly capable woman I managed to get back on the right way. Ahaha.

But on the way to work my eyes are just glued to the window as there is so much to see. A different dog on each street, ladies sat under huge sheets with huge piles of all kinds of different fruit and vegetables, a lot of construction work, corner shops with grilles in front, andone of my favourite places is la Cancha. It's a huge open market, I think it's the 2nd largest in the world, on my way home and it just goes on for ages and has stalls selling everything you could possibly need. It spreads out over streets and streets and has little alleyways inside buildings, there are different sections for everything; electicals, shoes, tyres, booze, etc etc and an alleyway entirely for beautifully decorated cakes. I've only been round lunchtime where all of the ladies bring their gas stoves and cook tasty food whilst they're selling. I have no photos because if I did I don't think I would have a camera any more.

The food here is delicious, my ma Chuly is indeed a great cook. Every morning I have mango, papaya, watermelon and sweet small bananas and tea. Lunch is the main meal, always with meat, I've had Pique Macho, lots of meat with fried taters and vegetables, aubegine lasagne with fried bananas, steak with something tasty on top, chicken ahhh it's all so tasty. And it's so hot! Around 25 degrees all day, and it always rains in the evening, really hard. So if you're caught out you get absolutely soaked.

And this is Proyecto Horizonte where I am working...

The main bit photographed above is where they have all of the offices, the health clinic, and also la guarderia for children up to 6. They also have a school up the road for children up to 17, as well as hosting night classes, and a football pitch down the hill where they have a football club, as well as various other things like a panaderia and crafts shop. It's a lot bigger than I expected, and seems to be run really well.

Work at Proyecto Horizonte started on Monday for me. As the children are not back from the holidays yet we have mainly been attacking the garden, which turned into a bit of a forest over the holidays as it's the rainy season. Managed to get sunburned in 2 different places!

At the moment it's really laid back as there is just the garden to do really, so days are quite short, but nextweek all the children come back to school/kindergarten so there will be a lot more work. I think I am going to be working with pre-school children aged up to 5 or 6... and I'll also be involved in marketing type activities; making a sample presentation about Proyecto Horizonte, and writing letters to donors.

And here is a photo of a moth that surprised me whilst pulling off some vines: