donderdag 26 september 2013

Pictures online

Just a short message before going to San Miguel del Bala. We are getting our foto's online. It took a little work to find a proper Internet connection, but using my cellphone as a modem and wifi access point, and using the 3G Internet connection, Internet is at least working reasonably (for those interested, only 800kbps downstream and 250kbps upstream).
You can find our pictures on
Google plus/Picasa Web.

zaterdag 21 september 2013

Another trip that didn’t happen

But not as serious this time :). We were planning to go to San Miguel del Bala again, to have a proper talk with the guides and teachers there. But when we showed up for the boat about 20 minutes before the first one would normally be leaving (we were told), we just saw one pulling away. But no worries, in an hour and a half another one would go, a captain ensured us. But after waiting an hour or 2.5, the captain told us nobody wanted to go anymore, and therefore now boat would go. Ok, sure, change of plans….
We decided to spend time going to the different directors of the different schools in Rurrenabaque. And that was a good choice. They are all very accessible, and enthousiastic about the project. Schools here often contain both primary and secondary schools in one. Schools last from 7:30 to 12:30, but some schools share the building with another school, which uses the building in the afternoon and early evening, or they have double shifts, where for each grade there is a morning class, and a second (parallel) afternoon class. So they have double classes for each grade, and kids are either always in the morning shift  or always in the afternoon shift. Only one school of the four has proper books (which we are looking at to get an idea of their level), which are Bolivian, and they were able to buy them through some aid program. On the rest of the schools, the teacher dictates everything and the kids write it down. One school has an impressive collection of educational dvd’s of varying quality, and to our pleasant surprise, there were quite a lot of bbc/david attenborough movies in there, dubbed in spanish, and some other nice movies as well.
We are probably going to develop the course for the fith grade of secondary school (the class before graduation class, about the same age as 5VWO in NL). They will go on a field trip to the lodge at San Miguel del Bala, just outside the Madidi national park, where there is quite a lot of secondary (disturbed/previously cut) forest, a bit of older forest, nice trails to a cañon and a trail for medicinal plants. We hope they can also go to the second lodge (Caquiwara) which is inside the national park and surrounded by primary rainforest (undisturbed, with the giant trees, you get the picture). The trip will be preceded by a class (or two) to give them more ecological knowledge of the rainforest, and they will probably have to do an assignment in the field, which they will finish afterwards at school, like creating a poster or such, which they can present in an exhibition to their parents.
Our work will be mostly training the teachers and the guides so they themselves can teach the course, also in the future. The talks with the schools are now at the point where we need to discuss the amount of students that can go, given the amount of money available for the excursion.
Because of the talks, our spaninsh (especially Annelies’) is improving nicely. Next week we’ll sit at the back of some classes to observe their teaching system, and we will probably have a meating with the teachers of one school to introduce the project and ask them for input.
Health wise things are still a bit shaky. I am fine again for the last two days, but now Annelies is ill. Yesterday she had a high fever and a heavy cold. Today the fever seems to be gone though, although she still doesn’t feel well. Lot’s of rest, water, steaming a bit, and when she had a fever, paracetamol and a cold shower, seem to have worked.








dinsdag 17 september 2013

Op visite in San Miguel/ Visiting San Miguel

We add a summary in English and continue this part in Dutch.
After a few days we are back in Rurre again. Unfortunately with a nice collection of mosquito and ant bites and Dolf fell ill a bit (diarrhea and stomach cramps).We have visited San Miguel del Bala the las few days, a small indigenous village in the rainforest where the Tacana live. We have been introduced to the people of the village. We hoped to speak to the teachers and guides as well but it was weekend, which meant they were off. So we enjoyed our free time with some nice walks and encountered squirrels, butterflies and a lot of insects (including a big cockroach in our sleeping room). Unfortunately no monkeys, because people have hunted them too much. We also had time to lay in a hammock with view of the river while reading our book. We have probably planned way too much in the short time we have, but we’ll see. San Miguel is a small village with wooden houses and palm leave roofs. 36 families of Tacana live here and they have a small school with 50 children. The secondary school consists only of 10 kids and they have 3 teachers in total. They have to be able to give all the courses which was why they immediately askes us if we could help them out with English classes.
For now we have designed a plan which consists of an introduction lesson, followed by an excursion in the rain forest by the guides, followed by the children designing a poster and give a presentation (at 4 different schools). But first we need to talk with teachers, which will hopefully be this week.

Zo, we zijn weer in Rurre. Niet geheel zonder ongemakken. Dolf is een beetje ziek (spierpijn, diarree, buikkrampen) en Annelies zit onder de muggen/ mieren/ bedwants beten op de meest vreemde plekken (ik ben er nog niet uit welk beest het was). De muggen hebben op Dolf z’n enkel boter, kaas en eieren gespeeld want hij heeft een stuk of 10 bulten daar. Maar verder gaat het prima. De gewone ongemakken als je net bent aangekomen in een tropenland. Net als de 4 kilo was die we in 5 dagen al bij elkaar gezweet hebben.
Inmiddels hebben we de belangrijkste mensen in San Miguel del Bala ontmoet en zijn we officieel voorgesteld aan de community. Dat gaat altijd anders dan je denkt. Wij hadden een heel verhaal voorbereid voor de dorpsvergadering, maar het bleek dat het districtshoofd langs was gekomen voor een noodveragadering. Helaas, wij werden weggestuurd en mochten in het klaslokaal wachten. Daarna werd nog wel uitgelegd wat we kwamen doen, maar eigenlijk was het nationale schoonmaakdag ter voorbereiding voor het feest ter ere van San Miguel op 29 september.
Het complete voetbalveld en het gras er omheen moest gemaaid worden met machetes en bosmaaiers. Dolf heeft zich lekker uitgeleefd met de bosmaaier en Annelies heeft het voetbalveld van snoeppapiertjes ontdaan. Dat is best warm in de volle zon bij zo’n 30 graden. Daarna waren we nog onderdeel van de (zeer interessante) onofficiele dorpsvergadering waar nog flink wat mensen vermanend werden toegesproken en een tweede schoonmaakdg werd afgesproken, want de helft was niet op komen dagen eerder die dag. De beloning was een mooi boottochtje bij zonsondergang terug naar Rurre.

San Miguel is een dorp waar 36 families van de Tacana stam leven. Ze wonen in houten huisjes met palmen daken en leven o.a van het toerisme. Niet iedereen is daar even blij mee, want door het toerisme hebben ze hun eigen landbouw verwaarloosd en kopen ze nu de meeste groenten in Rurre. Ze hebben een lodge voor toeristen: een aantal mooie maar simpele bamboe/ stenen huisjes en twee gemeenschappelijke ruimtes die uitkijken op de rivier. Wij kunen slapen in een grote hut die gemaakt is voor vrijilligers. Er hangen ook een aantal hangmatten, dus het is fijn een boekje lezen in de hangmat met uitzicht (de gemeenschappelijke ruimtes hebben bijna geen muren maar alleen horrengaas). De afgelopen vier dagen hebben we daar gewandeld, gerelaxed en het dorp bezocht. De community zelf ligt op 15 minuten lopen van de lodge.
Tijdens onze wandeling hebben we al een paar leuke vogels gezien, veel vlinders en andere insecten (waaronder een grote kakkerlak in onze slaapkamer) en grote eekhoorns. De apen zijn er helaas niet, daar is te zwaar op bejaagd…

De school is vrij klein: drie leraren en 50 kinderen, waarvan er 10 op de middelbare school zitten. Na de 3e klas moeten de leerlingen naar school in Rurre. De docenten geven dan ook alle vakken, een leuke uitdaging! We werden gelijk gestrikt voor de Engelse les, die we wel kunnen geven als we er toch zijn voor ons project.

Ons schema liep niet helemaal gelijk aan dat van hun. Wij dachten in deze 4 dagen de leraren te kunnen spreken, een bijeenkomst met de gidsen te kunnen beleggen en eventueel nog met een aantal gidsen een wandeling te maken om hun kennisniveau te peilen. Maar in het weekend zijn alle gidsen vrij, vrijdag was daar geen tijd voor en maandag was de schoonmaakdag al ingekort door de extra dorpsvergadering. Helaas, morgen gaan we terug voor een gesprek met de leraren (die zijn er alleen ‘s ochtends) en met de gidsen (zij hebben alleen ‘s avonds tijd).
Wel hebben we inmiddels aardig op de rails staan wat we gaan doen de komende tijd. Of dat allemaal gaat passen binnen hun tijdsschema is natuurlijk nog maar de vraag.

Het voorlopige plan is om een introductieles te verzorgen op de vier deelnemende scholen, de leerlingen mee te nemen op excursie naar het regenwoud olv de gidsen en  in de afsluitende lessen de leerlingen aan een poster te laten werken die ze (hopelijk) voor elkaar en eventueel ouders kunnen presenteren. De docenten trainen we zodat ze de introductieles de volgende keer zelf kunnen verzorgen en de gidsen trainen we in het lesgeven aan kinderen. Binnenkort voegen we ook weer wat foto’s toe, zodat jullie een idee krijgen hoe San Miguel en Rurre eruit zien.

donderdag 12 september 2013

First day in Rurre

Today is our first working day in Rurrenabaque. The Bolivian organisation who is working with the primary schools for Amazon Fund is in Rurre this week and today we joined them for classes. Three classes worked in their school garden and learned how to make compost and how to protect their vegetables from insects and fungi with simple measures including spraying plants with a mixture of soap and water and another mixture of water, onions and garlic. The younger children brought a plastic bottle, which was cut in half, filled with earth and a few seeds. Part of the school square has holes now because the earth was used to fill the bottles but each child can grow his own pepper or onion plant at home now. We had some nice chats, helped them out a bit and made some nice pictures which we can hopefully upload on this page as well, but the internet connection is very very slow.
Tomorrow we will have a chat with Constantino, the contactperson for San Miguel del Bala. The Tacana indians who will guide the school children in the rainforest live there and it is also the location of one of the 4 participating secondary schools in our program. Although we arrived a bit later than planned, we can immediately start working, which is of course a good start of our project.
The view from our hotel

Little girl happy with her kind of twisted radish

Kids working the vegetable garden

woensdag 11 september 2013

Waiting in La Paz

Hurray, we are in Bolivia! The Bolivian airline company (Amaszonas) even took us on the morning flight from Santa Cruz to La Paz (with a stop in Cochabamba) instead of in the afternoon, so all the luggage would fit in the plane. We can even take the life vests with us to Rurre. For the people who have not seen them: we bring 15 live vests with us in a gigantic cardboard box (which is rapidly deteriorating with every flight, especially after waiting to be put in the plain in the pouring rain in Amsterdam), so we can make an excursion through the jungle with the school kids by boat. We had some worries because the last plane is a propeller plane with only 20 seats and a limited storage space for luggage, but for 50 dollars we could take our box and an extra suitcase. Air Europa, you can learn something from the service of Amaszonas!

So, we’re sitting here with blue lips because of the lack of oxygen and feel a bit dizzy. La Paz lies at an altitude of 3000 meters, which explains the slight discomfort (and limits our thinking abilities, judging by the amount of spelling corrections that needed to be made to this text). We have to wait a couple o f hours before we can continue our flight but we are sitting in a cafe with internet, so it’s time to blog and mail.
We had a reasonably good night of sleep. Unfortunately we were at the back of the plane next to the toilet, so each time somebody went to the toilet the light was shining in our eyes, but after our second dinner at 02.00 h at night, head phones with music on and a blanket over our head we managed to get some sleep in between the noises of a flushing toilet. We took some nice pictures of the Andes in the plane to La Paz. You can see them below. Click on (some of) the pictures for a larger version.
The AndesOur plane to La Paz Our pilots Some houses around Cochabamba

maandag 9 september 2013

Vliegen naar Bolivia?

Rond deze tijd zouden we inmiddels in Bolivia moeten zijn. De vliegtuigmaatschappij dacht daar helaas anders over…
Dinsdag (morgen) volgt poging 2 om naar Bolivia te vliegen. Ergens is iets fout gegaan met de betaling en is onze vlucht geannuleerd. Helaas zijn wij daar nooit van op de hoogte gesteld en ontvingen vrolijk mailtjes van Air Europe over onze vluchten. Dus stonden we gistermiddag met ouders en tante op Schiphol enthousiast in te checken. Dat enthousiasme werd aardig getemperd na een aantal telefoontjes met Air Europe. Zelfs de KLM wilde op hoog niveau met ons meedenken en belde met het hoofdkantoor van Air Europe. De stewardess grapte nog dat onze ouders ervoor gezorgd hadden dat we nog wat langer in Nederland zouden blijven.
Dat haalde allemaal niks uit, zodat ons niets anders restte dan een nieuw ticket boeken. Dolf is nu fanatiek aan het mailen en bellen om te zien of we de extra gemaakte meerkosten terug kunnen krijgen. Afwachten maar. Dus zitten we nu in druilerig Nederland in plaats van in het regenwoud met 35 graden. Het ticket hebben we nu voor de zekerheid maar gelijk geboekt bij de balie op Schiphol, zodat we zeker weten dat het betaald is. Één keer je reis uitstellen is wel genoeg dachten wij zo. Morgen gaan we weer vol goede moed naar Schiphol. Het uitgeleidingscomité is wat uitgedund, maar als we in het vliegtuig zitten is het allang best.
Op naar Bolivia! Ons volgende bericht is hopelijk wel vanuit Rurrenabaque…

For our English readers:


Flight to Bolivia?
Due to mistakes of the airline company we had to book a different flight for tomorrow. The flight of Sunday was already full and we were no part of it… Unfortunately the airline company had not informed us that something was wrong and we were happily checking in on Schiphol with our parents. We went home a lot less happy. We hope our next message will be from Rurrenabaque, Bolivia.

zaterdag 7 september 2013

Preparations almost done

So, this will be our last night in The Netherlands. After a very busy two weeks of moving our stuff into storage, emptying our house, changing addresses, arranging the last introduction letters, free shipping for life vests (for the school kids on boat rides),  domestic flights, and saying goodbye to a lot of people, we are finally almost ready to go.

Tomorrow at about 18:15 we will fly to Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia through Madrid, and from there on to La Paz and Rurrenabaque. In La Paz we will leave a big box of life vests  behind because it will never fit in the tiny plane to Rurre (if they will accept it on the plane from Santa Cruz in the first place). We'll see.

In Rurrenabaque we will develop educational material for a nature and environmental education project together with four secondary schools and the Tacana indigenous people from San Miguel del Bala and the municipal and district governments. The whole project is funded by Amazon Fund, who asked us to develop the educational material.

We will stay here in September and October, after which the school year ends (and the rainy season starts)  and we will return there in april and may to finish the project.  The plans in between are still not final.

For now only some sleep, finishing packing and arranging  some final things remain. We really look forward to leaving!