Cultural Immersion Part I

So after I did the tourist thing for a couple of weeks I started doing some work for an organization in Cochabamba Bolivia called the Democracy Center. The "work" that I did was travel around with a photographer and conduct interviews regarding the Constitutional Assembly for a magazine that they are writing. Overall this was an amazing experience and got me to a lot of places that I never would have been able to go and meet people some amazing people. The first place that we went was Lake Titicaca. Of course I arrived to the small town of Copacabana on their independence day and the day Peruvians celebrate the town saint so it was total madness. One thing that I have learned about South American festivals is that they seem to center around the selling of everyday things like CDs and jeans, it was really wild. Towards sunset we walked up this huge hill to a cemetary where the real celebrating was occuring. There were hundreds of people burning candles and performing rituals for the saint of Copacabana. It was really amazing to be a part of that and it was totally sensor overload. There was music, colors, smells and every other emotion that you could think of. The next day we went to Isla del Sol to find Don Ernesto and hopefully stay with his family.
This was an exprience that pushed my comfort level a lot. We were told to go to this island and ask for a guy who hosted a friend of the Center four years ago. So we hoped a little boat to his community and then walked around for a while and finally ran into him. Instantly he was receptive and so welcoming. They invited us into their home and we just started talking. We talked about everything from Aymara spirtual beliefs to Bolivian governtment to cultural tourism. It was really cool to be able to sit down and talk to someone with such different beliefs and life experiences. Another really important element of this trip was that the majority of the people in the town did not speak Spanish but only Aymara. I have never traveled to a place where I did not speak the language so this was a really cool experience. I spent most of an afternoon playing cards and wandering around the beach with a ten year old girl that spoke very limited spanish so we conversed purely through looks and pointing. It was an experience that I needed to have and I think will be really good for me in the end. We were only able to stay with them for a little over a day but I learned more than I have in weeks it was amazing. Little did I know that it was just the beginning of my cultural immersion.