Cochabamba could probably be beautiful, but as I've mentioned before, there just isn't a whole lot of maintenance done in the city. However, it is beautiful to look at the mountains around you and see flowers always in bloom. There's also a river that runs through the city that would be beautiful if it wasn't polluted and there weren't people bathing naked in it during the day. Something like 50% of Bolivians do not have access to any form of sanitation. That means that people bathe in rivers and practice "open defecation"/ poop wherever they can get some privacy; in the case of many poorer people, they bathe in the rivers and fountains (naked) even when people are out. Bolivia and Haiti have the worst sanitation conditions in the Americas. But I digress.
Living in this climate has allowed me to eat some good fruit though! I've fallen in love with a fruit called "chirimoya." You cut it in half and scoop the fruit out with a spoon. It has the consistency of something between a pear and a papaya, but it tastes like it could be some form of healthy sorbet or ice cream. It's one of the more expensive fruits, about a $1.30, but it's worth it. On the other hand, I can buy a banana for the equivalent of 7 cents...so life is good in the fruit department.
This week I have had the opportunity to train a group of Bolivian/Quechua women in qualitative methods. I have learned SO MUCH about Quechua culture; they have maintained many of their old beliefs in things because communities live so far from the cities that they can hold on to their traditions and are not as easily influenced by modern practices and information. Some of those traditions are beautiful, while others are extremely harmful. For instance, one woman told me today that when a woman has her period that she is not supposed to bathe because they believe that the blood will actually stop flowing out and clot in other parts of the body. They also think that if a woman who is menstruating looks at a baby that she can make the baby congested and sick--before some women will let you look at their child, they will ask if you're on your period. I also learned today that after a woman gives birth, the family adorns the placenta, fills it with stuff, and then buries it near their home as a form of protection. Just from what I have learned from these women, I feel like analyzing data from this project will be like analyzing the stories from aliens. Even these women who grew up speaking Quechua and know many of the traditions say that they don't know what to expect from some of the stories of these girls...we cannot predict the myths and beliefs that will emerge. Pretty exciting!
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In my LGBT class, my professor told us about this tribal culture where they believed menstruation was a cleansing, and that women were divine because it came naturally to them. Men, on the other hand, since they didn't naturally have a blood cleansing, had to shove bamboo chutes up their noses once a month. True story.
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