There is something wonderful about familiarity that not many people don’t talk about because it seems so obvious, it is familiar and therefore it is secure. When you find yourself in a new setting surrounded by unfamiliar things it is easy to sink in to a cave within yourself to make your own bubble of security, one that is free from the unfamiliar. Bolivia is a new country that none of us have been to with a new culture that slightly baffles us and makes us question everything that we know.We have found ourselves questioning the most basic daily things; how to do laundry, how to shower, where to throw the toilet paper, where we can get coffee that isn’t Nescafé, and why everything we plan to do crumbles in the light of a protest or poor lack of planning. That is just Bolivia though, it is both wonderful and confusing in this way, but the sooner we learn to accept its strange perks the sooner we will find ourselves completely immersed in an otherwise mysterious culture.

From where I sit and write to you fellow readers is a very tranquil and lovely spot. I (Pascale) have not been feeling the best, so I decided to take a day to rest and recoop before a very busy weekend ahead with CECAM. After our weekend in Sucre, Bolivia with other Sustainable Bolivia volunteers we have all had weird sleep patterns and have felt slightly achy all over. The trip, however, was completely worth it. It was shocking to see a city in Bolivia with so many tourists. Cochabamba does not have many foreigners and the people are much more quiet. In Sucre, the people are much more open to tourists because they are used to them. Sucre is also much smaller and much more historic. The while colonial buildings and museums that line the streets are kept in the time that they were made swallowing us whole with their beauty against the blue sky. I sometimes wonder why more Americans don’t come to Bolivia, it has so many different things to offer and the people are absolutely lovely. The part of the trip that was not the most preferred for our team was the overnight bus rides that we took there and back. Since we wanted to have a “true Bolivian transportation experience” we went with the cheapest bus. The first one was alright because the seats were fairly large, but there was a miscommunication of the amount of people were coming and that left Andrea, Keara, and I trying to sleep for a good couple of hours in one row together. I think we can all say that we truly bonded after that experience. There was also the ever-present aroma of pee in the air that for some reason we could not get used too. Overnight buses are said to be fairly safe, but the way we were taking those turns on the edge of mountain cliffs still made me feel slightly uneasy. On the way back we took another overnight bus on Sunday night, which meant that I would be celebrating turning twenty-one on a bus in the middle of Bolivia. The only thing was that this bus was slightly worse then the first. The seats were smaller, the cockroaches more apparent, and the smells more potent. There were also many men sleeping in the tiny middle aisle because there weren’t enough seats. One of the men seemed very uncomfortable because he would not stop groaning the entire ride. We started to think of what we would do if he had a heart attack realizing that we had no idea what we would do. When the clock eventually did strike midnight, I turned on “Budapest” by George Ezra and looked up at the South American stars above me taking in the moment completely. After all the trials and tribulations that had befallen our states, that moment in time was completely beautiful.

This week working with CECAM has been productive, but confusing. I may have mentioned this before, but sometimes in Bolivia when you plan to do something, something else gets in the way. On Monday, Andrea and I were supposed to go to the local school to teach the kids about the usefulness of making your own soap and the overall concept of the bicimaquina, but when we went to the school it was the day that they celebrated their teachers, which meant that there was not time for us to teach the kids. The next day Keara and Carrie were supposed to go to school to teach the kids about the effects of pollution and different things about the environment, but the transportation in Bolivia went on strike at 1, which meant that if we all didn’t leave work early or we would have no way home. It sort of isn’t surprising when things don’t go as planned because you can never really plan in Bolivia. However, there were some milestones of the week; we made soap again (and failed, but still we tried), the ice cream bicimaquina is looking fantastic, this Friday Andrea and I are going back to the school again, and this weekend we are going to be a part of this large “feria” (festival) that is in Tiquipaya (where we work) to show off the bicimaquina and try to sell assorted foods to raise money for CECAM. In the long run there were a couple of challenges that we had to get over for the week, but the weekend is looking much brighter. CECAM is starting to feel more like a home for Keara, Andrea, Carrie, and I. We really want to leave our mark on this organization so that our work can be carried on to future volunteers from Nourish as well as all over. We hope that time will be on our side and we can accomplish as much as possible. As the Cochabamba Pedal Project motto goes, we will always keep #pedalingforward.

There are so many more wondrous things to come.

Stay tuned,

The BU/BC Nourish International Bolivia team xxxx (Keara, Andrea, Pascale, and Carrie)