Volunteer Abroad Blog

Author: Fei An Tjan

First of all I’d like to share my happiness with all of you of you that read this: ‘I FOUND BACK MY DIARY!!!’ After a million phone calls to the cinema, where they provided me with another non-existing number every time again, my book was just waiting for me to pick it up at the dance school. Indescribable feeling!!! I can go on about this for a while, but I’m guessing you all get the point now…

About my week then: after working in the museum in the morning, I spent my Monday afternoon quiet talking to my friend in Nicaragua and was shocked to hear that she lost one of her Dutch friends in the Guatemala bus hijack. Not that the fact that he’s Dutch makes it worse, but it sure makes things look so much closer to you. You get pulled back to earth again, realise where you stand and that neither you, nor your friends are inconvincible and sad but true, mortal. So strange, but luckily I had too little time to think myself into a depression and spent the rest of the day in the dance school, which was a welcome distraction.

Tuesday was a very interesting volunteer day. This was the day that all the artists were supposed to pick up all their work from the Biennale exposition. It was surprising to see how all the artists just fit their art. A young gothic-looking-guy came by to pick up his gothic-looking artwork. Black hair, black make up, dark painting with skulls and a lot of furry material. And then there was also the perfectly groomed gentleman Argentinean who came to pick up his abstract painting. Just to give some examples. To me it sure gave the paintings an extra dimension.

Later that day I got a surprise-visit from my new dance partner in the dance school where I wasn’t particularly happy with. After giving away a big show on the dance floor, I had to tell the girls we weren’t even close of learning all those moves. And of course I couldn’t convince them ‘not to try any of that at home’. The class finally ended with me running around and trying to get everybody back to his or her senses and believe me, twenty hyperactive giggling teenagers are not so easy to calm down. So fingers crossed that no one will break their pretty little neck and a big thank you (not) to my partner.

This week’s Einstein moment came when I finally solved the mystery of the big money! I never understood why it was always such a pain to get rid of your big notes, but it seems that a lot of coins disappear to Peru! Why? For the ridiculous reason that the material of the coin is actually worth more than the value of the coin itself! Believe me, I could never make that one up myself…

The rest of the week passed really fast. In the mornings I worked at the museum and in the afternoons and evening I was dancing most of the time, training for the show that has to be finished around New Years. Up to now, I had no idea how addictive that could be. Salsa is in my head almost day and night and the fact that you hear that music on every corner of the street or passing car doesn’t help much to think about other things. Sometimes even, it’s so bad that I can’t sleep from it and get up in the middle of the night to try out a new figure.

But the most important thing is that I absolutely love it and that I have the feeling that my life is really getting some form here. I love the people (most of the time), the food, the weather and the lifestyle and I’m starting to understand why so many foreigners come to this city.

Not a true Camba girl yet, but poco a poco, I’m getting there…

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Author: Fei An Tjan

Although in my last blog I must have seemed a pretty frustrated volunteer, this week’s blog mostly makes up for that. But as always, there’s good news and there’s bad news…

My week started pretty sweet! I left the Holy Cross for the first time to spend an amazing time in El Parque Amboro where we had the best lunch ever (sandwiches with cheese, oh Holland sweet Holland!). And of course we also saw some true and untouched wildlife, including a little turtle crossing our path. Though the most memorable part of the trip was crossing the river to get into the park. The line of ‘rivercrossers’ existed out of mothers and babies, grannies, tough Bolivians with motorbikes, people with bicycles, horses, carts and us. And all of that (except for the horses) had to fit in one single little canoe-ish boat, pushed forward by a bunch of swimming people. Amazing, but miraculously effective.

That night we had our grand premiere in the local karaoke bar, which strangely seemed to be quite a lot emptier after we sang, but it was good fun anyway! After the usual Salsa and Merengue we even got treated with some English spoken hits and went crazy on Abba, Grease and the Doors. And suddenly it was the gringo’s who were showing the Latino’s some serious dancing!

Back in Santa Cruz, my human knowledge got tested severely again. I should probably know better by now as I was dealing with money issues again, but I guess I like to learn it the hard way. A good advice to any traveler in Bolivia, don’t accept the 200 notes unless you really know what the money looks/feels like. One, almost nobody can change these big amounts of money; two, fat chance it’s fake. So yes, I exchanged my precious Euros for a lousy peace of paper. This time though I decided not to be the victim again and help inflation go up a bit. So after three attempts, I finally managed to get rid of my 200 and bad but true, it felt really good!

Bolivians - Fei An 1-1

And things only got better that week after my volunteer career switch. I’m now working mornings in the museum instead of El Deber and that sure made me smile a lot more during the week. But as I said before, there always is good news and bad news. The bad news this week is that I haven’t been able to get rid of my bad habits yet. I thought that loosing 3 mobiles in one month was a record, but I’m starting to catch up as I already lost my keys and my diary in one week! Very frustrating and unfortunately no one else to blame but me. I guess it’s just bad genes…

Ultimately I’d like to comment on the Bolivian situation for all of you that are worried of coming. All the time I’ve been here the ambiance in the city was, and still is, really very calm. So nothing to be scared of! For some impression take a ride to the cinema and see James Bond’s Quantum of Solace (Just don’t take it too serious).

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Author: Fei An Tjan

My blog is one day too late. But actually it depends from which cultural background you judge. My western part feels guilty, as I set the deadline on Monday. My Bolivian part, on the other hand, for as far as I’m integrated now, feels that I blogged perfectly on time! Just a little example of how things go here. Waiting, waiting and more waiting…

Tuesday 09:45 - The only place where things go as they’re supposed to go are between the four walls of El Deber. Georgina, my supervisor trusted me with a photo camera and a recorder to - all by myself- interview mr. Osman Arandic for a Christmas special of El Debercito. The appointment was set at 10:00 and at 09.45 sharp, I stepped into the car that would take me to Acri Color, the place where my interviewee owned his art studio. During the ride I was imagining all sorts of doom scenarios that could happen. What if the camera broke down, or the recorder didn’t work, or, in the worst case what if the guy turns out to be a total freak and kidnap me??

But WHAT, if one of those things actually come true?!!

Luckily, it wasn’t the latter but I still couldn’t believe this was happening! The camera really wasn’t functioning at all. We both tried for at least 20 minutes to make the little thing work again, but without any success…

Though in the taxi on my way back to El Deber, without an interview and without photos, the camera suddenly worked again!! The little b*stard! Luckily Georgina wasn’t mad at all, although I think she didn’t really understand my explanation about the camera, and she rescheduled the appointment to the next day. Everything went fine then! 

20:00 - I’m waiting for Teresa to pick me up for the dance school… already one hour…

She hasn’t called yet, I can’t reach her either and I’m starting to doubt if we really had an appointment or if I had totally misunderstood her in Spanish. I decided not to wait any longer and went to the city with girls. Half an hour later, Teresa called to apologise and if it was possible to reschedule to tomorrow. Sure… I didn’t have anything better to do anyway (I mean that).

Wednesday 15.00 – At the dance school we agreed on free classes in exchange for lessons. This would be my first day as a salsa teacher and also my first day as an Argentinean tango student. But I waited one hour, two hours.. To eventually hear that there wouldn’t be any classes today. It’s really amazing how bad people can plan here! But then I also realised I wasn’t in Holland and that I should try to take things more relaxed and accept that things aren’t as strict here.

Thursday 13:30 - Teresa, bank, waiting, not gonna happen… 

16:00 – Again I’m at the dance school. And again I get to hear there won’t be any salsa classes today. Instead there was a birthday of one of the kids from the school. It’s quite a relief because I was being pretty nervous of having to explain everything in Spanish, on the other hand it’s starting to annoy me a bit as well. They could’ve known yesterday that there wouldn’t be any classes. I spent the day with Nina, the owner, talking and strolling around in the city, waiting (again) until the 19:00 classes would start. At 18:30 Dorien joined me to take tango classes, but again, we went home with just another experience of waiting. The birthday went on for too long and the classes were rescheduled to the next day.

Conclusion: patience really is the magic word here and without it, it’s impossible to survive! That’s definitely the most important lesson I learnt this week!

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