I HAVE NOT QUIT WRITING-

CHECK BACK AFTER THE 10th of January, I'll be with famiy and traveling until then.

BUT I PROMISE TO COMEBACK AND POST MORE THAN EVER

LOVE

andy

It's finals week, the semester is basically done and I want to reflect on what I think about the school.

I'm done teaching, the semester wasen't easy for me but I made it through and will start summer classes very soon. I have learned a lot from the expirience, I speak better in front of groups (thank god), and I can now empathasize with the teachersI took forgranted my entire education. I continue however to write ilegibly on the blackboard and when I don't break the chalk I make a lot of squeks.



A couple weeks ago I helped interview a student named Monica. She comes from a pretty large campesino family and is the first to attend college, even though she has brothers. Remember this is still a pretty male dominated place. She is studying “rural tourism” which focuses on bringing both national and international tourists away from the big cities and traditional attractions so they can see the campo. They focus on how people live away from metropolitan areas, and on natural beauty that might have been ignored by all but the most adventurous travellers in the past.



THIS IS WHERE HER PHOTO WILL GO ONCE I GET ONE...

Another friend, Fatima who has crept into my posts before before was raised mostly by her brother who is only 2 years her senior. He mother had left the family and her father worked away from home in the mines. Her most prominent adult influences were nuns and missionaries. Today her family has reunited but she hasn’t received any financial support from them to attend college. In a country where the federal govt doesn't asist in student loans this could be a serious problem. She receives scholarships directly from the UAC which cover 100% of her education. She is currently ranked the #1 student here.

I don’t know how many people grasp what these girls really stand for. They are an example of a lot of the fundamental changes taking place in the country today, economic, social, and political ones. Before the 1960’s the campesinos here lived like slaves, in a few months these women will have college degrees and opportunities that were unthinkable in the very recent past. Also they both rose through substantial obstacles to get where they are, hundreds more students here have very similar stories. The UAC-CP isn’t the only place things like this are happening but as far as campesinos are concerned it is a leader. Even though everyone may not see it now I’m sure things like this will be looked back on with great pride by coming generations.

Before I came here I knew the UAC was a place that focused on giving opportunities to those who had been passed up. But after being here this first semester I'm really grasping just how great of an opportunity it is for those Americans who are involved. I have seen a fair number of short term volunteers come and go, and I have spent a lot of time with long term ones. Lives have been changed. Spending time with locals or students is often a profound experience if you eyes are open to it. And it goes way beyond appreciating what you have or feeling guilty about it and wanting to change things - though this is really important too. I don't have anything ground breaking to say, because so many of the beautiful things I have experienced are stereotypes of poor countries. But really, everyone is more personable and inviting and welcoming and usually understanding. The pace of life is slow, often refreshingly, sometimes it goes too far. But no one ever hurts my feelings by saying something harsh (their passiveness might be a big flaw too).

I don't know a lot about development theory but this school obviously creates a lot of good.

A few weeks ago I posted about a clock I bought. I paid 30 B´s or a little under a days wage picking in the fields. I worte about how the cost of some things I would consider necisities is incredible while the value of human labor is low beyond belief. Today I have to recant. My friend was looking at my pics on my blog (she doesn't read English well) and got really excited when the saw HER CLOCK! She asked why it was online and I said I was writing about how I couldn't believe something so important could cost so much. After I told her what I paid she said hers was about 10 B'S. Lately I have been seeing that same clock everywhere like in peoples homes ad street vendors kiosks. Always MUCH cheaper than I paid.

I call it the Gringo Discount. Although it doesn't happen all the time I'm positive it exists. They say wearing a missionaries cross helps. Instead I wear blond hair, a fleece jacket, and a tourist's backback.

When Sam and I went with tourisim students to the nature preserve where they had internships. I found the darndest little card in the kitchen. It was a list of prices for commonly purchased suppliments to the lunch menu, things like designer beer, sodas, and coffee. Every item had three numbers written next to it. Prices for employees, Bolivians, and EXTRANJEROS. The increase wasen't quite geometric, but I have since rethought my wardrobe. Is it really suprising that this practice is so institutionalized? no but I had always just hoped I was imagining things like that.

LOVE

andy