Feliz Año Nuevo - June 22nd, 5516

Hey all.

That´s right, you may have noticed the year is 5516, at least, since yesterday was the winter soltice, it was also the first day of the new year on the Aymara calendar. The Aymara make up a great deal of Bolivia´s population, and are one of the reasons for the incredible indigenous vitality and cultural power of the country. They live mainly around Lago Titicaca and La Paz, and south into the Altiplano. The classic bowler hats and giant dresses also come from the Aymara. I´m trying to learn Aymara right now, but it´s a bit different, as you can guess.

Anyways, I should really take some time to talk a lot about the Aymara people, but for now, here is a pretty bad video of my work place.

Please ignore the greasy filthy hair. I know, I know, but there are very few showers in El Alto, and veeery few with water above freezing, and that just does not make your whites whiter and your brights brighter.

I´m not in El Alto actually, but a pueblito forty minutes south. The view is great, but I think the shot from this video makes the town seem much more developed than it is. The house is going up really quickly, I wish I had a photo from the first day to compare already, but the progress is remarkable. I have certainly had my reservations about Habitat, mainly because they´re Christian, but also standard questions about ngo efficiency and utility.

This has been a very good example of what a ngo is, and isn´t. Habitat is barely a drop in the bucket with so much poverty, but no one thinks they´re saving the world. There are 5 guys at the site with me, all very Bolivian, and no other volunteers or administration. The main office in El Alto is suitably dumpy, and yet the program is building ten houses in El Alto right now, and dozens more across the country. That is very impressive. Plus, God hasn´t been seen so far.

Anyone out there who is giving to Habitat, don´t worry about your money, it´s being used very well.

Okay, I found a new hostal in the Ceja of El Alto where people don´t try to break into my room in the middle of the night and I don´t sleep with a knife and the bathrooms aren´t filled with blood, so that´s nice. However, still incredibly poor, so no phone calls for a while. Or postcards. Or meals. No, no, kidding.

Chala, tengo que ir,

Ñick.

p.s. It took a little less time to upload the video than I thought, so I´ll upload some of the actually cool videos I have. This also just proves again that the internet in Australia is being beaten by Rural Mexico and The Slums of Bolivia. No worries.