Weird to think that the last time I was in this city, I was only here for two weeks. Now I've been here for almost two weeks and it feels like I haven't done anything tangible at all. Time flies. I admit that having to adjust to a completely new routine again has been kind of tiring, and I can actually feel myself slowing down after all this traveling and figuring stuff out and learning. BUT I only have to power through this for nine more weeks and then I'll be back home at Harvard, sitting in Cabot Café daydreaming about the lives I led in 2017 and completely content with what I'll have accomplished. (Well, doing that and slaving over the thesis, of course.)
I've been thinking a lot about the people I have in my life. I've always loved meeting new people and making friends all over the world, but I suppose even that has a limit for me. I'm glad to have two really good friends from this city with whom I can spend time, and I've been meeting even more people through them, but I can't help but think of the friendships I made in Rwanda and how strange it is that my network of friends has changed so quickly. This is my reality now, and I've loved getting to know Cochabamba on a deeper level and will continue to love getting to know it, but I'm just the kind of person to get caught up on things that I've lived and people I've met and thus can say that I can never be fully present in my current reality. And that's okay. After all, all our past experiences make our present one richer and fuller, in some way.
As for my actual project, I'm slowly getting a sense of what it is and how I'm going to go about things. I had asked the woman that Refresh Bolivia (student organization with whom I first went to Bolivia with) worked with, Maria Eugenia, if I could help out with her work in the communities while doing my own research this summer, and she told me of course. There's lots to do and I've been assigned tasks to complete, which is good, since these tasks will also help inform me of the issues that the community is dealing with. One of the main tasks is to write a sort of informational document of initiation for all the volunteers from outside that come to this community to work, because from Ma. Eugenia's experience there have been many people who have come to do volunteer work and didn't make any real impact on the community at all. She said something about them coming for their own personal interests, for themselves to feel good or something, without really thinking about the people they were working with (or rather, working for). Therefore, it's very important for people to understand this particular situation in Bolivia and to get a sense of the lives that the people in the community lead, rather than coming in blindly. That is one of the most anthropologically relevant things I've ever been assigned to do, and I'm quite excited, and know that I can integrate my own research into this document quite easily and both will have many crossovers. Since I have four weeks of working, a week-long break, and then another four weeks, an advisor of mine gave me some good advice. The first four weeks, I should just focus on taking as much in as I can to see what different things interest me and what comes up, and the second four weeks once I have things figured out I can really focus in on something. I look forward to developing all of this more and can't wait to get to know a side of Cochabamba that my friends probably never will, a side completely divided from the rest of my non-research related life.
All in all, I'm glad that for this summer I chose to return to a place that was already familiar to me rather than go to a completely new one, because to have to do this whole adjusting to a new routine thing in a place that was completely foreign to me would really have been too much. I can't wait to see what I discover from my research, about this country, and about myself, and I am also excited as to deepen my friendships here and my understanding of what I want my life moving forward to be like. Can't think of a better place to be right now than in Cochabamba, city of eternal spring.
I've been thinking a lot about the people I have in my life. I've always loved meeting new people and making friends all over the world, but I suppose even that has a limit for me. I'm glad to have two really good friends from this city with whom I can spend time, and I've been meeting even more people through them, but I can't help but think of the friendships I made in Rwanda and how strange it is that my network of friends has changed so quickly. This is my reality now, and I've loved getting to know Cochabamba on a deeper level and will continue to love getting to know it, but I'm just the kind of person to get caught up on things that I've lived and people I've met and thus can say that I can never be fully present in my current reality. And that's okay. After all, all our past experiences make our present one richer and fuller, in some way.
As for my actual project, I'm slowly getting a sense of what it is and how I'm going to go about things. I had asked the woman that Refresh Bolivia (student organization with whom I first went to Bolivia with) worked with, Maria Eugenia, if I could help out with her work in the communities while doing my own research this summer, and she told me of course. There's lots to do and I've been assigned tasks to complete, which is good, since these tasks will also help inform me of the issues that the community is dealing with. One of the main tasks is to write a sort of informational document of initiation for all the volunteers from outside that come to this community to work, because from Ma. Eugenia's experience there have been many people who have come to do volunteer work and didn't make any real impact on the community at all. She said something about them coming for their own personal interests, for themselves to feel good or something, without really thinking about the people they were working with (or rather, working for). Therefore, it's very important for people to understand this particular situation in Bolivia and to get a sense of the lives that the people in the community lead, rather than coming in blindly. That is one of the most anthropologically relevant things I've ever been assigned to do, and I'm quite excited, and know that I can integrate my own research into this document quite easily and both will have many crossovers. Since I have four weeks of working, a week-long break, and then another four weeks, an advisor of mine gave me some good advice. The first four weeks, I should just focus on taking as much in as I can to see what different things interest me and what comes up, and the second four weeks once I have things figured out I can really focus in on something. I look forward to developing all of this more and can't wait to get to know a side of Cochabamba that my friends probably never will, a side completely divided from the rest of my non-research related life.
All in all, I'm glad that for this summer I chose to return to a place that was already familiar to me rather than go to a completely new one, because to have to do this whole adjusting to a new routine thing in a place that was completely foreign to me would really have been too much. I can't wait to see what I discover from my research, about this country, and about myself, and I am also excited as to deepen my friendships here and my understanding of what I want my life moving forward to be like. Can't think of a better place to be right now than in Cochabamba, city of eternal spring.
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