Preview of Santiago de Chiquitos

Two weekends ago, the SALTers (Bridgette, Stephen, and I) along with the Connecting Peoples Coordinators Wendy and Chris, their children Jack and Frances, and two other MCC workers traveled the long trek to Santiago de Chiquitos to visit the small pueblo where I will living.

Bridgette, Dovana and I on a hike to the cliffs

The journey was long -- 12 hours each way in train or in bus (over dusty, sandy, pothole-laden terrain) -- but the small town was a delight to visit, and I feel a bit more at ease knowing the layout of the place I will be spend the year.

The town is small enough that no one really owns a vehicle; one can walk from the center plaza to my house on the outskirts of town in no more than 20 minutes. (Bear in mind that the streets are all sand, so the walking is slow.)

But the folks I encountered were very welcoming and friendly -- the teachers even hosted a tea in my honor and I was able to meet several of my soon-to-be students. Clearly, they are excited to have a music teacher in town. In the past, teachers have come for only a week or two to prep the kids for a concert (which, you can imagine, doesn´t work so well when you´re trying to train young kids and youth to perform classical music).


We stayed at the place I´ll be living, called the ¨Escuelita¨ as it was once a school. Now it serves as a small hostel for travelers. My host family (mom and 5? kids) are caretakers of the place, and they live in the adjoining house.

L: The Escuelita, where I will live R: View from my room


I plan on moving from the city to Santiago in just one week. Before then, the SALTers are traveling to Cochabamba this weekend, and I´ll have just a few days to get last-minute details taken care of before I leave Santa Cruz. Its been a great month, learning the city and becoming comfortable (mas o menos) with the language and the music school here in the city. I expect it will be difficult at first to adjust again to a new way of living and a new set of responsibilities.

But I am excited, nonetheless. Journey on!

All in a Day´s Work

Now that I been here in Bolivia for a few weeks, my schedule has generally solidified (subject to change, however, at any moment). Here is ¨que pasa¨ (más o menos) each day in the City of the Cross.

La bandera cruceña (Flag of Santa Cruz)
You see this everywhere.

Each morning I wake up around 7:30-8:00 in the room I share with my eldest host sister Paola (19). By this point, my other siblings (Bernabes, 15, and Rebeca, 17) have already left the house. My host mother Charo already has put hot water for tea on the stove and on the table a display of fruit, cereal, yogurt, teas, and usually some sort of cake or cookies that we made the night before. Quite the treatment, no?

L to R: Rosi (friend), me, Paula (sister), Charo (mom), Rebeca

(rotate head counter-clockwise for full effect) Brother Bernabes, Dog León, and our house

After a relatively relaxing and chatty breakfast, I leave for MCC (CCM we say) for language study.

Where I catch the micro from my house (left). The man on the right is stamping the micro driver´s time card--this happens at two different stops on my way to CCM.

Esther, our teacher.

The two hours I have each day with Esther pass rapidly, and before I know it, I´m back on a micro to return home for lunch. Here, almost everyone eats at home and takes a nap before returning to work around 2:00. Its great.

Lunch is a big deal around here, typically including both ¨sopa¨(soup) and ¨segundo¨(meat). I lucked out and got a host family who loves veggies, so we eat a lot of them, too.

Locro, a famous sopa in Santa Cruz. Mmmm.

After lunch, I hop on the micro for yet another 25 minute ride back CCM. The afternoon is filled with catching up with the other SALTers and getting aquainted with the city with our tutors.

My tutor Patricia

Just last week, my tutor helped me know what micros to take to find the church/music school where I will be teaching lessons, playing in a youth orchestra, and observing ¨how things work¨in the SICOR music program here in Santa Cruz. Beginning next week, I will create a schedule to work at the program almost daily.

So, with rehearsals running until 8:30 p.m., my day concludes well after dark and I return home to mi casa and mi familia tired but excited to be here. Yep, I´m still in the honeymoon stage, and I love it.

This weekend I will travel to Santiago de Chiquitos with the other SALTers. Finally, I will see where I will be working. More stories to come...

How often do Mennos make it into grafitti?