Weekends in Cochabamba

Today marks the beginning of my second weekend here in Cochabamba...I spent my first two traveling. Last weekend was such a success, I´ve decided to stick around for another. Well that plus my diminishing bank account.
In any case, I´m having fun...
Last Friday, I stuck around mARTadero and helped Miriam in the cafe. They had a bigger crowd than usual because of a movie event that night. After I met some mARTadero people at a bar to watch Jill (who I originally contacted about the volunteer opp) sing. She is currently recording with another woman and they performed with a small band...guitar, drums, and some regional instruments. It was incredible...I´ll be keeping an eye out for their CD when it´s finished.

Saturday I went with Carmen (one of our first mARTadero friends) to help judge a soccer juggling competition. The kind where they bounce the ball on their feet, knees, shoulders, heads, backs, and almost every other imaginable body part without it hitting the ground...sometimes standing, sometimes sitting or even doing a handstand. Even though there were only two competitors, it was impressive. They had it set up in a plaza in the city...complete with huuuge speakers blaring dance music, a big red bull tent (sponsor), and some well known Bolivian faces: The lead singer of a group called Mamut and a former Bolivian futbolista and current coach. The mARTadero apparently was one of the supporting orgs of this event, so they wanted to send "representatives" to be judges. Carmen didn´t even know what the deal was...so she dragged me there for moral support. Another guy (Im horrible and dont remember his name...but it started with an F...not Fernando..Frederico, maybe? who knows) was told about it by mARTadero staff, so we sat on a bench and chatted with him until I had to leave. We ended up doing nothing..but it was cool anyways. Not to mention the fact that boy-whos-name-starts-with-an-F is participating the OLYMPICS. He´s now currently in Beijing, preparing to represent Bolivia in the 800m race. What?? I had no idea until after we left and Carmen said something about good luck and Beijing. So cool...I need to find out when or if his race will be televised! You should keep an eye out...and I´ll try to find his name.
So we left at 5...so I could get to the house in time to meet the family and go to Ruben´s (host dad) mother´s birthday party right outside the city. There were lots of people, great food (rabbit, tounge, and chicken...honestly all really good), and adorable old people finishing every dance by draining a small glass of beer. I ended up going with Ruben´s nephew, Brian, his girlfriend, and his cousin Derrick to the Enanitos Verdes concert later that night. They are an Argentinian popular rock group and Id listened to a couple of their songs while I was down there. We danced around at the concert...and then decided to go out dancing...then left the club and then stood around talking until late...I think I got back to the house around 5 or 530.
On Sunday I checked my email, walked back through deserted streets (I saw 2 people all morning) and watched tv...all day. In the afternoon Patty and Ruben joined me for a movie...some more tv...and then we ordered dinner...and watched another movie. It was a successful day.

Laura left last night to return to New York...we got to the airport only to find out that her flight had been delayed until 1am...from here she was flying to La Paz, then to Lima, then to Guayaquil, and THEN to NYC. She has a long few days ahead of her...AND we woke up this morning to find her cell phone sitting on the table. Oops. Good thing Im headed back to the states in a few weeks.
Because it was her last night, and according to house rules, we cooked dinner on Thursday. Breakfast for dinner actually. We made pancakes, french toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, and mimosas....for 15 people. Owing to the almost nonexistant counter space and room on the stove for three small pans, we prepped and cooked for almost 3 hours! It was fun though, and successful...everything turned out tasting as it should, and we had maple syrup and peanut butter! There were zero leftovers, and I even gave away the rest of my peanut butter.
After dinner we went out dancing again with Brian and his girlfriend (who also joined us for dinner) and Brians friend Israel. We were supposed to call other friends from the mARTadero, but the phone system is a pain here and you cant call cell phones from land lines. By the time we left it was took late to go to an internet place to call and no one with us had cell phone credit (another communication annoyance down here)...so it was just the 5 of us. Although we ended up running into our parapente guide...random coincidence because he was one of the people on our to call list.
Oh right...parapente. Going back to that morning...one of the Canadian girls who works at mARTadero dates a Bolivian parapente (paragliding) guide. So she set us up with reservations and we went Thursday morning! Id already done it in Argentina and love it!! It was super fun and we had a great view of the city and surrounding valley...and the dusty smog cloud that hovers above it. If I find the time and money, I would love to take a course to learn how to fly solo...too bad I´m not here for another month or so.

So today I´m just hanging out...might go watch another pirated movie that we purchased last week. A friend mentioned Chacarera (the folklore dance I performed for a final cultural project in Argentina!) lessons/dance that are held a few days a week. He usually goes Saturday afternoons, so if I can get in touch with him (really wish I had a cell phone...) that may happen today. There is also a play tonight at mARTadero and we may go out dancing again...

What can I say, its a rough life