George Saves the Day

After a quick shower at our hostel, we met up with several of Ben’s Peace Corps cronies at a one of the classiest restaurants in town ¨Latina¨. A classically trained guitarist entertained us during our Bolivian meal. Both George and Joe had traditional Bolivian dishes and more importantly Bolivian beer. George’s meal consisted of rice, boiled potatoes, and chunks of beef in a red wine sauce (very tasty). Joe had a classic Bolivian dish that resembled chicken parmesan, but without the parmesan. For those of you keeping track, the meals cost about 30 Bolivianos a piece and the beers which came in 24 ounce bottles cost 15 Bolivianos. The exchange rate is about 8 Bolivianos to 1 dollar, so needless to say we had a very cheap meal considering it was the nicest place in town.

Samaipata is favorite meeting place for many of the Peace Corps volunteers in the area, and due to the Easter celebrations in the central plaza, about a dozen PC volunteers were in the city over the weekend. George being a fan of carnival games and secretly wanting to run away to become a carnie, was transfixed by what at first appeared in the style of a classic American carnival game, i.e. the basketball that barely fits into the hoop and the rings that barely fit over the bottles. This game consisted of knocking over a set of cans by kicking a soccer ball. A PC volunteer explained that this game wasn´t quite like the games back home because he said it wasn´t just hard to win but it was actually physically impossible.

The most amusing part of the night however was meeting Tammy, a Peace Corp volunteer originally from Indiana, who works promoting tourism in Samaipata. Like many female volunteers in Bolivia, she had been having problems with the men and the machismo culture in her site. This ranged from catcalls on the street to unsolicited phone calls. In a particular instance, a random guy saw her at a dance club one night and after just seeing her claimed that he had fallen in love with her. Although Tammy wanted nothing to do with him, many women in the town began to think of her as a husband stealer and one even insisted that she apologize to this crazy guy’s wife. Consequently, she has started to lose credibility with some of the women in town. This was causing considerable angst in Tammy’s life.

Enter George Wang.

Did we mention that Tammy is Asian? That very night she had been discussing this issue with a fellow volunteer when they entered our restaurant and saw George. The solution to Tammy’s dilemma became immediately apparent. For the rest of the night Tammy and George sat next to each other and she introduced him to all of her would be male suitors as her long distance Asian boyfriend. The Bolivians accepted ruse without question: of course the two Asians must be dating! As always, George was glad to help out a fellow Asian in need.