Parks and Futbol

Today we traveled with all 13 interns to Parque Paysumarya in the north west of Cochabamba. We frolicked on the playgrounds and talked as a group about our host organizations. Tomorrow we move in with our host family! In the evening we went to a soccer game at the big stadium- La Paz vs. Santa Cruz. Sports are lost on me... But the energy was fun! Short post tonight because I'm only using my iPhone for Internet! Some pictures below:

Map of the Park!

Manuela and I on the playground!

View while we ate sandwich lunches!

Cynthia and Annie on the swings!

Host Families, Debit Cards, and Identity

Today we arrived in Bolivia! After sleeping in the Santa Cruz Airport on a nice tile floor with 90's pop music playing for several hours, we got to our final destination. Right now we are staying at a hostel until Thursday, when we move in with our host families! I made possibly the worst mistake ever (#exaggeration) by losing my debit card within 30 minutes of being in Cochabamba. But luckily I was able to call the parental units to get the card cancelled. The things that can happen when you are sleep-deprived, flustered, and rushing to get Bolivianos in order to purchase nescafe... There were, however, a few frustrated tears shed.

Santa Cruz, BO Airport

My host family is incredibly nice. They consist of a married couple in their early thirties and their very adorable 2-year old son. The husband is an economist (that's what I got out of the Spanish explanation of his job) and the wife studied economics but is now staying at home to take care of their son and she makes art. Before meeting the family, the organization I work for (FSD) pulled me aside to discuss my gender identity and whether or not I should introduce myself as Laura or Lucas. I feel really really uncomfortable being perceived as Laura, but because all of my official documents say "Laura" the host family was expecting someone female... They were in for a pretty rude awakening when I walked out in a trucker hat and button up shirt with almost no semblance of femininity. FSD advised that I don't come out to the family until after I am established in living with them, and although I am not at all ok with pretending to be fully female, I am waiting to introduce my semi-complicated identity until I know them a bit better. They probably will just think my Spanish is really bad when I use "o" adjectives instead of "a" adjectives to describe myself (i.e. estoy consado).

I'm pretty nervous about getting settled with the host family mostly because of the gender identity issues and also because my Spanish is not as great as it could be... but I definitely got by at dinner tonight with the family so I think it will turn out alright.

I'm most stoked to start work at SIDAcción. I think I want to propose a few different social media projects to help the organization improve their internet presence... we shall see if it goes over well!

My host family lives west of downtown, I think it's in walking distance of my organization, but several buses from the FSD office where we meet every Friday. I haven't figured out any of the bus system yet, but allegedly it's easy enough to figure out! No official stops, so you just hail buses on the street and hope for the best!

Una mapa pequena de mi barrio:

Guadalajara

Greetings from Guadalajara! The last 24 hours have been eventful:

Our passports in the La Paz airport. 

We stayed at Hotel Marina in La Paz last night. The five of us pushed together two double beds to make one giant snuggle sack and, after sleeping for a solid 10 hours, we explored the La Paz marina. It was beautiful! We ate shrimps and watched the boats sail out into the gulf:

The best part was when one of the coordinators of our program back in the States told us she assumed that we would be drinking tequila on the beach... when we were actually in our snuggle sack at 10pm watching a Friends DVD and preparing to be asleep by 10:15.

One thing that is really astonishing about Mexico is the HUGE amount of inflation. The dollar transfers to the peso at about $12.50. But unlike a lot of the countries in South America where $4 or $5 might buy you a huge meal (or more), the Mexican Peso is so inflated that meals cost 150 - 200 (pesos). So, what you buy in Mexico is actually not cheaper, even though the exchange rate is so high. Now I wanted to do serious research on the Mexican economy so I can sort out how the country is going to deal with it's currency essentially being obsolete...

We flew to Cualican, MX at 6pm tonight and then on to Guadalajara. We landed at 10pm and went to our hotel. The check-in process was hellacious because the hotel wouldn't let us pay for the room through a credit card number that USF admins provided for us... But after lots of deliberation and texting the States we got it cleared. Now it's 12:15pm, our room service dinner will be delivered soon, and we have to be on our flight to Panama City at 6am... Limited sleep!

Layover in Panama from 10:45am - 6:00pm tomorrow!

#winning #strandedinmexico #DOPE

Lucas in... Baja?

What an exciting day! 24 hours ago I was sitting at Little Chihuahua with Matthew Cline and Katherine Bliss telling San Francisco adios for 2.5 months. 20 hours ago I was at the airport, checking my over-stuffed bag of clothing, and odd summer supplies (alarm clock, flashlight, batteries!). 15 hours ago I was landing in Mexico City. And 8 hours ago I landed in... La Paz, Baja California, Mexico!

We were aiming, of course, for La Paz, Bolivia, but it didn't quite work out that way! Some warning signs that maybe we should have noticed before actually landing and deplaning in the completely wrong country:

1. We boarded our flight to La Paz (note, they always only said "La Paz" without the conditional "Bolivia" after) and noticed that we were flying on a TINY plane. The type of plane that maybe wouldn't quite make it all the way to Bolivia... But the seats were comfy and we had just flown a Red Eye to Mexico City, so nobody was questioning it. 
2. The flight attendant (in Spanish) said that our flight would be 1 hour and 15 minutes... but I figured I had heard her wrong since my Spanish isn't amazing and thought nothing of our tiny plane and tiny flight time.
3. As we were descending into La Paz, I noticed A LOT of water surrounding us. Like significantly more water than the only large body of water near Bolivia, Lake Titicaca, could ever produce. Hmmmmmm... Bolivia is land locked and yet we are landing in an airport surrounded by water...
4. We land. There are... cacti everywhere? And desert? This looks like Texas? 
5. Manuela goes to put on her boots (which she has taken off during the flight) and the man next to her jokes that she won't need her boots at the beach... 

Well, shit. We most certainly landed in La Paz, Baja California, Mexico. Not La Paz, Bolivia. Once we realized this, we all proceeded to look around in astonishment as we entered the tiniest airport in the entire world. After about six hours of trying to contact people in both the States and Bolivia via my American iPhone in a wi-fi less airport we got it figured out! The amazing coordinator of our program at USF Andrea pulled everything together for us and we are now flying out of La Paz tomorrow night on a 5-part journey to Bolivia that will take us a solid 29 hours. BUT we are not dead, have not been decapitated in the drug war, and no one has had to start popping their amodium yet... so I consider this a success.

Welcome!

Hello All,

I am departing for Cochabamba, Bolivia in two days for the entirety of the summer. While I am there, I will be living with a host family, working at an AIDS/HIV prevention organization, and doing my own research project on transgender visibility. I will be taking pictures daily and hopefully posting them every few days. I am hoping to post new blogs several times a week about my experiences.

I will not be regularly emailing, facebooking, or tweeting so please be aware that the best way to see what I am doing is through this blog.

Stoked to get started!

Luc