This Country Has Altitude

The past couple weekends, I found myself in rather high territory here in Bolivia.  Two weekends ago, I was in La Paz, the administrative capital of Bolivia, and this past weekend I climbed Mt. Tunari, the tallest mountain in the department of Cochabamba.  Both are at around 4000 meters (2.25 miles).

Some people found themselves feeling the height of being in the altitude of La Paz quite a bit.  I didn't so much on that one, but definitely felt ti when climbing Tunari.  I guess that's the difference between being brought up to a higher altitude by an overnight bus and bringing oneself up to a higher altitude by climbing by foot.  :-)  But it was completely worth it.  The landscape both in La Paz and from Tunari is absolutely beautiful.

Finally, as some of you may have already heard or read in the media, there is some unrest here in Bolivia between folks on the extreme right and folks on the extreme left here.  (Political moderates are often a bit hard to find in Bolivia.)  Some of that has broken out into violence in some parts of the country, in the region known as the "Media Luna."  I am not in that part of the country.  Actually, Cochabamba is quite insulated from everything that is happening there, except for the fact that the blockades that various people have set up in the Media Luna have constricted commerce in such a way that there's a shortage of beef and fuel here.  So, I may be eating vegetables and taking cold showers soon...not sure.  But otherwise, life is pretty tranquil here, and somewhat ironically, we're celebrating a long weekend in honor of Cochabamba's 198th birthday.  But please pray for Bolivia, that the conflicts that are at hand are resolved quickly and peacefully.

The Virgin of Urkupiña

The feast of the Virgin of Urkupiña has now gone by here. It's a rather long festival, spanning three days for the main part, and then another week or so afterward. The legend of the Virgin of Urkupiña is a little bit sketchy in terms of its origins and in terms of the story itself. Basically, as the legend goes, a young shepherd girl was up near the mountain at Quillacollo (pronounced key-ya-COY-yo), Bolivia, and a lady (the Virgin Mary) appeared. She then went to tell the others, who came with her, and she said that the lady was "Orqopiña," which is Quechua (indigenous language still widely spoken in Bolivia) for "she's up on the mountain top."

The other origin for the feast is that long before the arrival of the Spaniards (dating back over two millennia), there was a religious festival which took place at the mountain in Quillacollo. In this festival, which took place in the time of year we call the middle of August, people would come to pray to the Pachamamma (aka Mother Earth) for their necessities for the coming year. For an agrarian society, August was a particularly important time of the year, since the winter (June and July) is very dry here, and the spring rains come beginning in September. So, the pilgrims in this pre-Christian festival would have been praying for a bountiful harvest for the coming year.

The modern feast of Urkupiña officially takes place on August 15. (The Solemnity of the Assumption is transferred to the nearest Sunday here.) But the celebration begins a day earlier with a festival known as La Entrada. On that day, numerous groups of dancers form a parade approximately 5 km long, performing folkloric dances as people watch them go by. This folkloric dance parade is considered the beginning of the pilgrimage for the feast.

The feast day itself is not celebrated with much, although there continues to be some folkloric dance in Quillacollo the 15th and there are a couple lesser-attended religious services. The big day is the day after, the 16th. Beginning in the wee hours of the morning, people walk to Quillacollo from wherever they are. An official procession led by the archbishop of Cochabamba left from Cochabamba at 12:15 am, and arrived at Quillacollo at around 5:00 am. At 5:00 there was a Mass in the principal plaza of Quillacollo. (There's no way you'd get everyone into the church itself.)

Then people walk another 3 km up the hill known as El Calvario. Up there, they participate in a number of activities comprising a rather complex set of rituals. Using a large hammer, people will break off a piece of rock from the mountain and bring it to the statue of the Virgin of Urkupiña. They bring the rock back home with them with the intention of returning with it the next year, whether it be big or small. The idea is that the rock is a loan from the Virgin of Urkupiña in exchange for the things which the pilgrims ask from the Virgin for the coming year.

...which brings me to the next part. In asking for their needs, the pilgrims buy the things which they desire in miniature. There are vendors selling miniatures all around town...and you can pretty much buy everything in miniature--houses, cars, stoves, computers, babies, food, money in three currencies (bolivianos, dollars, and euros), passports, plane tickets, luggage, college diplomas, plots of land upon which a new house could be built--everything. After buying miniatures representing what they desire, the pilgrims bring their miniatures to a spot where they are blessed with holy water. After that, they then go to a yatiri, which basically is an Amayra (indigenous) priest. There, another ritual is performed, involving sprinkling more water, sprinkling beer, incense, and prayers asking the Virgin of Urkupiña/the Pachamamma (for all practical purposes, the pilgrims really make no distinction between the two) for the things that are represented in miniature.

Incidentally, although you have to walk to Quillacollo and El Calvario, you get to take a minibus or microbus back to Cochabamba.

The following Sunday (this year the 24th) and throughout the week following, people return to Quillacollo, this time in minibuses and microbuses, to buy baskets of actual food in miniature (little pieces of meat, vegetables, and fruits, small rolls, small cakes, even eggs from birds significantly smaller than chickens). Some also buy the paper and plastic miniatures that are sold the previous week as well, and some go up to the mount again as before, but the main part of this part of the pilgrimage is to buy the food in miniature, have it blessed at the church, and bring it back home to be prepared for supper (yes, a rather small supper). In this part of the ritual, the focus is around asking to receive an abundance of food for the year to come. (Remember, August in the end of winter here in the summer hemisphere.)

It's really quite the interesting set of rituals, and as far as I understand it, there isn't much of an equivalent in any other part of the world. And I could understand how the people's sense of faith within their cultural context fit in with this set of rituals, but I couldn't find a way to join in on the ritual myself...it was just a bit too foreign for me. But the crowds of people coming to ask God for the things they need after walking a total of around 20 km is quite an impressive show of faith...

So, instead of flooding people's inboxes with information about how things are going for me in Bolivia, I figured I'd follow the lead of a number of friends of mine who went outside the country in the past year and start a weblog.  So, here it is...

I've been in Bolivia for less than three weeks, and it's been a well, packed block of time.  So, this will come first in a couple installments.  I arrived in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which is in the eastern part of the country, late the night of July 30.  Since we have a Capuchin friary just outside of Santa Cruz, the brothers there picked me up and put me up for the night.  Then they gave me a mini-tour of the city the next day, and sent me on my way the evening of the 31st on a "bus cama."

Since the ride on a bus from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba (where I am now) is about nine hours, several bus lines here run a "bus cama" service each night.  Literally, "bus cama" means "bed bus."  It's not quite exactly a bed, but the seat reclines back almost completely, and then there's a little footrest that folds out to form what kind of feels like one of those adjustable beds, only there aren't as many adjustments.  It's a ton more room than I've ever had on any other form of public transportation, so it was pretty cool.  And at $10US as compared to $65US to fly from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba, it was well worth the adventure...  :-)

After arriving in Cochabamba the morning of August 1, I got settled in with the family with which I am staying right now.  So far, things have gone well in living with them.  Living in the house are the mother, two of her sons who are both grown, and a woman from England who is working for a company here in Cochabamba.  Then on Sundays, the rest of the family often comes over, meaning her other two sons with their respective families, which gives me some good additional practice with speaking and hearing Spanish in a more cocophanous scenario.  :-)

Classes have gone well so far.  Every two weeks, each student has four instructors, fourty-five minutes with each one each day.  Then at the end of each two week cycle, we change instructors.  So, I'm now on my second cycle, whic is good, since tha tmeans that I am getting some good practice with a number of different teachers and a number of different perspectives and styles.  The student community here has been very good as well, and we quickly form a sort of community amongst ourselves, which is very helpful in being in a different cultural setting.

August is really an exciting time to be here in Bolivia.  There's  a lot going on.  For us Franciscans, there's the feasts of the Portiuncula and of St. Care (8/2 and 8/11).  Then August 6 is Bolivia's Independence Day.  Actually, it's kind of celebrated in three days, with parades the night before, the day of, and the day after.  Then on the 10th there was a major recall vote for the president and all the prefects (sort of like governors) in the country.  Voting days are quite the trip here, because the entire world shuts down except for the elections...no stores are allowed to be open, no cars or buses are allowed to be on the roads except for those with a special permit from the electoral court.  It's a rather tranquil day.  The kids here really liked it, since it meant that they could ride their bikes anywhere they wanted.  :-)  Unfortunately, I haven't yet gotten myself a two-wheeler...

Then on the 15th, there's the Feast of the Virgin of Urkupiña, a big patronal feast here in Bolivia.  That is a story in and of itself, so I'll put that one in my next post.

I hope everyone is doing well, and please E-mail me if you like (jimdon77@gmail.com)...I don't get to check my E-mail every day, but close to it, so I should be able to respond reasonably well.

Hasta luego...