Vida en el Pueblo // Life in the Pueblo
This past weekend, Hailey, Charlene, and I stayed with one of the knitters that works for AHA Bolivia. We were there to see what a typical “day in the life of an artisan” was. However, being that it was the weekend of Bolivia’s Independence day (and in the pueblos, this involves a two-day long celebration) — we didn’t quite get to see a typical day at all. Yet I still saw a lot of beauty and strength in this community during our three days there. Here are some of the highlights:
The Adventure to Arani // Friday afternoon
- An hour-long taxi drive that should have taken twenty minutes, guided by a taxi driver who “knew” where Bus #___ was.
- Piling into a crowded microbus, because of course in Bolivia no seats are ever left empty. Luckily a woman was selling fresh carrot and papaya juice outside — best juice of my life!
- Arriving in Arani’s town square without a clue where to go — we were told that everyone would know where Doña Bertha (the knitter we’d be staying with) lived.
- Success! We see Marcia, Bertha’s sister walking towards us after a few attempts to ask residents.
Friday night
- Assisting Bertha in making some fresh passionfruit juice
- Dinner! (I ate so much food this weekend; half because I was afraid of offending Bertha because everything was just so delicious. It was so cute; every time we had a plate of her food in front of us she asked if we had taken a picture of it yet.)
- Festivities for the Bolivian Independence Day Celebration — (spoiler alert: we were in a parade, twice! Once, by mistake as we were mistaken as important government officials…)
Saturday
- Breakfast of fresh cow’s milk, cheese, and bread
- Observing and documenting Bertha’s interactions with the other women in her knitting group. Through the three hours that we sat in the courtyard, we observed three generations of women — washing clothes, peeling vegetables, knitting, listening to them chat in Quechua the whole time. It was beautiful. I really saw the definition of community manifested here.
- Breaking chuño, these freeze-dried potatoes (pictured below), into smaller pieces that would be used in soup. Though this task seems rather simplistic, it was hard work! It took the three of us an hour and a half to get through one bucket alone! All the meanwhile, I watched Bertha deftly chop and slice vegetables without even the need for a cutting board.
- Afterwards, we attended more Bolivian independence festivities in the town plaza. According to Bertha and her sister Marcia, we simply had to try the hand-spun helado con mani, or peanut ice cream. I searched all over for this delicacy, to no avail. I later realized that this was simply ice cream with peanuts on top… However, I didn’t leave without trying some pan de dulce, figs, the best cheese empañada of my life, and fresh coconut juice.
- That night, we watched Melissa (a 15-year old who is living with Bertha while her mom is working in Italy) rehearse a dance for an upcoming festival. Afterwards, she asked me if I knew how to dance. I said no, and then she replied, “you do know!” I laughed and we told her that Charlene knows how to belly dance; she got really excited then and said that we should have an interexchange of dance later that night.
- We played some Enrique Iglesias off of Charlene’s laptop. Gabriela immediately shouted to Jhonn (Melissa’s 11-year old brother), “your music!” He knew all the words.
Sunday
- A trip to a local market. I covertly tried to take pictures of the flower stand, but the woman spotted me and yelled, “take more!”
- A trip to the town of Vacas, where we visited a waterfall. Though it was only an hour away, the artisans had never been there. For me, I loved that they got to take a mini-vacation with us. However, they didn’t fail to bring their knitting with them, working in the car, at the waterfall, and during lunch. See below for some beautiful shots of them knitting in the wilderness.
Bertha | Marcia | Paulina | Gabriela | Melissa | Henry| Jhonn | Danny
Through my time spent in Arani, I really saw what family and community could look like. I was touched by the kindness I was shown, even for three short days. I saw that people really depend on each other here. Life is hard. There are a billion tasks to do each day, all by hand. But sitting in that backyard on wooden stools — watching three generations of women wash clothes, chop vegetables, and knit sweaters, I saw how much better life could be if we worked together hand-in-hand instead of trying to do it all on your own.
Thank you for an incredible weekend, Bertha & Family!
