Here is a synopsis of my Carnaval experience in Bolivia.

The Friday before Carnaval, I was working on Pro Mujer’s borrower verification (an entrepreneur audit we do for all Kiva partners) and it was obligatory to dress up in costume. Here I am in one of the Pro Mujer classrooms with the group Qantati, dressed as a pepina, a sort of clown, the character with the most spirit at Carnaval in La Paz.

On Saturday of Carnaval, I went with another Kiva Fellow, Adam Kemmis Betty (KF10, ProMujer), and a couple other friends to Oruro, which is renowned for the biggest carnaval in Bolivia. It was unbelievable. The costumes of the dancers in the parade were phenomenal. We got hit with water balloons and water guns and fired back with foam. We ate the typical dish from Oruro, charquekan, which is deep fried dried llama, for lunch in the parade stands in the main plaza of Oruro.  It was a blast!

Carnaval in Oruro

On Sunday, we returned from Oruro in the afternoon. Adam and I decided to see what Carnaval was like in La Paz. I dressed up in my pepino costume and we headed off. Two boys attacked me with water balloons down the back of my costume on the way over to the parade on the Prado (the main avenue in La Paz) and I got drenched. Other Paceños dressed like pepinos carried sausages (beads covered by material shaped like a sausage) with which they hit random people as they walk through the streets.  Ouch!   I met Adam in the center of the action and we bought a beer at one of the make-shift anticucho and beverage stands that were set up on both sides of the Prado. Even though I was dressed up and Adam wasn’t, Adam the Gringo (see Dan Malin’s “G-word” post) got attacked by Paceños sitting in the bleachers on both sides of the Prado. His face was completely covered by foam that he could barely see.

We had Monday and Tuesday off from work so we decided to go for a two-day hike near La Paz. As we walked though small towns such as Huni and Palca, the locals we passed—who were hanging out outside their homes after their cha’lla, an annual Carnaval-time blessing done to honor Pachamama mother earth that involves spraying beer, serpientes (streamers) and confetti—invited us to share their cerveza (beer).  We were also ambushed by a boy wearing a Scream character costume blocking the middle of the road and pummeled with water balloons. I should have brought my can of foam.

Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and Carnaval should technically be over. BUT, the next Sunday, Carnaval in La Paz continues. At the end of the festivities, there will be a ceremony to bury the pepino to signal the end of carnaval. A mourning parade brings the pepino to the La Paz cementary in Tejar while the party continues. Pepinos, chutas and cholitas continue to dance down the streets. During next year’s carnaval, the pepino is exhumed and the festivities begin again.

Although Oruro is the biggest Carnaval in Bolivia, there are also wonderful authentic carnaval celebrations in Tarija and Cochabamba (Corso de Corsos). I asked other La Vida Idealist bloggers for their Carnaval stories.

• If you haven’t read Rob Packer’s Carnaval entry, check it out here.
• Dan Malin just sent me an incredible video that he shot of himself with a bunch of kids throwing water balloons at a bus. Carneval in Ecuador just seems to be an extended version of Cabbage Night.

Please feel free to share your Carnaval stories in the comments below!

Back in September-October of 2009, I was living in Brooklyn and working part-time while I hunted for jobs. I did have a few small successes, but for the most part my resumes were met with deafening silence. Feeling frustrated and anxious that I wasn’t using my degree, I completely changed strategies and re-focused on moving abroad. I applied to the Peace Corps in September and I received a nomination within a few short weeks. While a nomination is far from a guaranteed invitation and placement, I took it as an encouraging sign that I was on the right track.

I then made the decision to return to the country where I studied abroad two years ago. I booked a plane ticket to Quito, without a plan, without a job, but with the conviction that I would find something that would allow me to grow both professionally and intellectually, all while getting the chance to do a little good in the world. As an aside, I hope to one day make a career out of spreading cross-cultural understanding and goodwill through service learning, so I figured I’d find something that would help me on my way. A month later, however, I felt waves of doubt flood over me as my departure date drew near. What was I thinking? How could I have been so reckless as to gamble so much time and money on nothing more than a vague notion that I would “figure it out” along the way?

I was about to give up and continue my fruitless job search in New York, when finally my strategy paid off. After pouring over what must have been hundreds of websites for organizations in Ecuador, I eventually found one that felt like a good fit. While my current position as an Intercultural Coordinator is unpaid, it at least gives me the chance to test out what it’s like to be the broker between two cultures, and to learn the ins and outs of coordinating a volunteer-based project abroad.

I am very excited to contribute to La Vida Idealist, a blog which I have read with great interest since its earliest days. I hope to shed some light on what us college grads are up to during these tough economic times, and how serving abroad can and will pay off in the long run. I also hope that I don’t get any parasites. Some things, however, are simply out of your control.