La familia Almusquivar

Lets just say I lucked out with my Bolivian family. They are amazing and I feel very much at home with them! The Almusquivars are a predominately female family with four daughters in total. 

  

Ruti, the eldest, is married to Hernan with two children, Laura (9) and Ignacio (7). They have a beautiful house close by and own two resturaunts in town, The Wok (a somewhat japanese resturaunt) and Napoli, a pizzeria.

  

Then comes Paola who is married to Vlady with one child, Maria Jose (6). They live further outside of town and I have never seen their house. Paola is a business woman and Vlady, I believe an engineer.

  

Zulema, my 28 year old hermana has become a really good friend. Even though she is a lawyer she does not practice and never will. She spends her days making jewelry and dried flower pictures to sell. A lot of her work is hanging in various resturants around Sucre. As a freelance artist, she does decently well for herself becuase one, she is very talanted and two, she has a lot of contacts around Sucre. Still it is not steady enough work to rely on so she also works at her aunt´s fine dining resturaunt. Zule lives at home so I have gotten to know her really well. She is very independent and very much a modern woman which is not at all common in Bolivia.

Alejandra (22), also lives at home but will not for long. She is due to marry Julio, 31, at the beginning of March. Alejandra has a 2 year old daughter who also lives with me, Sofia, who is of another father. I am so happy for Ale because Julio is truely a great guy and will be a great father for Sofia since her own father is very absent from her life.

Needless to say, Sofia is the happiest child I have ever met and is absolutely a joy to live with! Ale works very hard to provide for her. She is still in school for financing and holds down a full time job at a local bank as well.  In the past, she was the number one female tennis player in all of Bolivia. Julio is an engineer.

   

My house mom, Zulema, is a retired school teacher who is now known throughout Sucre for her famous cakes. During the months of December and January she was busy every day making hundreds of cakes for various weddings and birthdays. Rodolfo, my host father, is an engineer and helps Zulema with her cakes during the busy season (almost unheard of for a Bolivian male)! Both Zulema and Rodolfo are very sweet and have welcomed me into their family. Sucre would not be the same without them.

 

We have two more living with us, Mary Luz (16) and Digna (23). They both work in the house cooking, cleaning, helping with the cakes, and taking care of Sofia. It is common here to have live in help although sometimes it makes me a little uncomfortable. Mary Luz and Digna are very much part of the family and are treated as such. Both their families live far away from the city so it is to their advantage to take a job in the city so that they can go to school at night.

There are also two others living with me. Heike (33) is a German nurse who is helping me at Ñanta. Phew! She will be staying until the end of April as well. Tessa (24) is from Australia and is studying film. She leaves in a couple of weeks for La Paz where she will do volunteering. I am careful not to speak english with either of them cause after all we are all here to learn spanish.

The Do(s) and Don´t(s) of Bolivia

Do(s)

1. Do use the word Che in conversation with other Bolivians from Sucre. Che as in Che Guevara is used here in place of amigo.

2. Do expect to see small children peeing in the streets at all times of the day.

3. Do try llama meat here. ¡Que rica!

4. Do expect cars to have the right of way in the streets. Like New York, cars don´t stop for pedestrians (especially in Sucre).

5. Do expect cars never to signal.

6. Do expect a lot of beeping at intersections to warn other cars that the car that was there first is passing.

7. Do expect a lot of water balloons, water guns, and sometimes eggs to be thrown at you during carnival.

8. Do expect many Bolivians to be bitter about losing their sea to Chile. Some even believe they will one day get it back.

9. Do expect to hear a lot of Quechua in Sucre. Imaynalla= como estas?, Cayacama= hasta luego.

10. Do expect to pay an average of 3-5 dollars for dinner in Sucre. $5 being on the expensive side.

11. Do receive coca leaves with both hands, never refuse. And always give a little to Pacha Mama (mother earth).

12. Do expect to drink chicha (an alcoholic beverage made from corn).

13. Do expect to start your night out at the discotecas at 2pm and do expect to hear Shania Twain’s, “I feel like a woman,” quite frequently.

14. Do expect to drink lots of chuflys, a typical bar drink made with sangani- Bolivian liquor.

15. Do expect to eat a lot of quinoa (an amazing grain grown in the Andes mts).

16. Do expect the fruits in Bolivia to be among the most delicious in the world.

17. Do expect a lot of stray dogs to be roaming the streets of Bolivia. If they have green collars on, they have been vaccinated.

18. Do expect Sucre to fight to remain La Capital Plena!

19. Do expect to dance quite a bit of salsa.

20. Do expect as of Dec. 1 if you are a U.S citizen to pay $100 for a visa to Bolivia.

Don´t(s)

1. Don´t swallow the coca leaves, bad things can happen.

2. Don´t throw toilet paper down the toilet. Bolivian plumbing is very sensitive. Use the trash basket.

3. Don´t go to Oruro for carnival with anything of value.

4. Don´t expect to have really amazing showers in Bolivia. The water system is a little old fashioned.

5. Don´t expect anyone ever to be on time. The hora latina takes its sweet time!

6. Don´t wear white during carnival.

7. Don´t expect to find bathrooms on buses. You do get bathroom breaks but there are no bathrooms per say.

8. Don´t ever settle for the original price of a product. There is always room for bargaining!

9. Don´t eat at the Sucre local market without some imodiom or cipro close by.

10. Don´t forget to take your malaria pills if you go to the jungle.

11. Don´t forget to kiss everyone on the right side of the cheek when you enter a room even if you don’t know all of them (Men do not kiss men, they shake hands then briefly hug).

12. Don´t forget to bring toilet paper with you everywhere. Most Bolivian bathrooms do not supply. Forget about paper towels!