Thursday, March 8th, was International Women’s Day, a holiday celebrated both officially and unofficially in countries across the globe – although, oddly enough, I’ve noticed that it doesn’t seem to be particularly popular in the United States. Here in Colombia, it’s celebrated as a sort o[...]
Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
A “Representative” Democracy
Last week, I was accompanying a delegation of high school boys from Boston, Massachusetts. I don’t have any brothers, so it was a very educational experience for me. Apparently, the life of a high school boy involves a lot of hacky sack, guitar picking, references to adult cartoons, and, if he[...]
Tags: Laurel Marshall 1 Comment
Inequality and Inspiration Between the Clouds
About two weeks ago, I took a field trip with a few other volunteers working in my school system. There are endless sites across the country that are deserving of a day’s attention (or more), but our field trip wasn’t for a photo safari. The administrators in charge of our (private) schools wer[...]
To Chocolatada or not to Chocolatada: How NGO’s Should Handle Local Traditions
Chocolatadas are a very popular tradition here in Peru. They are essentially Christmas parties, which range in extravagance: from a simple end-of-term school prize giving ceremony where chocolatadas (hot chocolate) and panetón (a traditional Christmas fruitcake) is provided, to full-on parties f[...]
Tags: children, Chocolatada, Christmas, Fran Talavera, NGO, tradition No Comments
Exposé: Living Gay in Bolivia, Part 4
This is the final post in a series from Eric Rindal on the life of a homosexual in La Paz and Bolivia on a whole. For the rest of the series, click for the first,second, or third posts. How common are Carlos and Diego’s stories for a homosexual man in Bolivia? In the book Sociolegal Control of Ho[...]
Tags: Bolivia, gay, gay community, homosexuality, investigation, La Paz 1 Comment
Exposé: Living Gay in Bolivia, Part 3
This is the third post in a series from Eric Rindal on the life of a homosexual in La Paz and Bolivia on a whole. For the first two posts in the series, click here and here. Diego’s secret was revealed in a flash during his late teens. His older sister found a photo of him simply [...][...]
Tags: Bolivia, gay, gay community, homosexuality, investigation, La Paz 1 Comment
Exposé: Living Gay in Bolivia, Part 2
This is the second post in a series from Eric Rindal on the life of a homosexual in La Paz and Bolivia on a whole. For the first post in the series, click here. Day two of my foray into investigative journalism and uncovering the homosexual community in La Paz. I turned again to the internet [...][...]
Tags: Bolivia, gay, gay community, homosexuality, investigation, La Paz 3 Comments
Exposé: Living Gay in Bolivia, Part 1
Excerpt of an email to my editor 11/12/2011: Kate- Guess what I did today… Tried to be an investigative journalist. Yeah, fun, but turned out to be pretty dangerous. I needed some more real life information for that post on gay culture in Bolivia. But do you KNOW how hard it is to find a gay bar [...]
Tags: Bolivia, gay, gay community, homosexuality, investigation, La Paz 3 Comments
Being a Fairy Godmother
When a colleague-turned-friend of mine asked me whether I would like to be the madrina of his one and half year-old daughter, a ball of nerves formed in my stomach. It is (and was) a true honour to be asked, but I am also aware that many foreigners (who may even only be here in [...][...]
Tags: ahijada, ahijado, Fran Talavera, madrina, padrino No Comments
Relentless Positivity
In Panama, the month of November has only fifteen working days. November 1st is Children’s Day, and the second is All Soul’s Day, a national day of mourning on which both loud music and alcohol are prohibited. As soon as the clock strikes midnight, however, three trumpet-calls (“las dianas”)[...]
Tags: holidays, living abroad, Nereida Heller, travel 3 Comments
