back in cochabamba for a couple of days

February 24th, 2008

this post won´t be very long, i think, because the keyboard that i use in the hotel sucks… yet i have so much to say.

susan, donee, jeff and myself left to cochabamba (cbb) last monday, despite the threat of transportation stops. we looked on the tv for news, and they had canceled them that day. we were lucky…. we later found out that they held the transportation stops on thursday and friday. we could see the remants of the blockages as we drove into cbb this saturday the 23.

so, anyway, the drive to yanayo was super long. we woke up early, around 6am, and we did not arrive in yanayo until 2am. we had taken the first half of the day to buy some food and equipment. we traveled on the main highway between cbb and potosi. but this main highway is a sketchy dirt road, far from the paved freeways of the US. we were able to make most of the way to yanayo, but about 2 km from the village, the road became impassable. we parked the car on the road, and carried our bags with essential things into the village. we later found out that the road from acacio (another village) to yanayo was passable, so we left our bags in the village and walked back to the car. we back tracked our route, and by the time we got to acacio it was 10pm. we went to german´s house (the mayor of yanayo, who was at the time staying in a little room in acacio). we picked him up, along with another fellow from yanayo called guido. both guido and german are fluent in quecha and spanish, which is very useful to us when we communicate to the rest of the mainly quechua speaking villagers. so we picked up german and guido, and drove to again to yanayo on a different route. we also picked up a woman and her two kids along the roadside. they ended up sitting in the back of the car, on top of all our food and equiment, squishing the bananas, tomatoes, and other things…

we drove in the dark. i had a headache. i was dehydrated. i was tired. the road was bumpy as hell. it was narrow in places. huge holes and rockfalls. we couldn´t really tell how bad the road was because it was dark, but in the daylight the really bad condition of the road was evident. i was feeling sick. it was rough on all of us. susan did a really good job driving on the road despite the exhaustion.

we slept in german´s house that night because we were too tired to set up our tents. that night i got a flea, and ever since then i´ve had a massive number of bites all over me. they itch like crazy… and i can´t tell if i´m getting new bites, or if they are the same old ones. i´m keeping on eye out on them incase they are anything weird, because i don´t want to get biten by the vinchuca (the kissing bug) and get chagas disease and then die at the age of 40 of intestinal problems.

then i don´t remember to clearly what happened the next day… time has been one continuum (if that´s a word) since then.

i don´t have time to write more. but i will write again when i can. tomorrow brian and i will leave to yanayo again. hopefully it won´t rain and the road will hold up. the way coming here was pretty bad… it took us 8 hours to drive 150 km, and there were rock falls and mudslides. they also say that there will be a transpòrtation stop tomorrow…

hopè all is well with everone…

andrea

the last two days...

February 16th, 2008

yesterday i was still in la paz. i didn’t really do much traveling. in fact, i pretty much just stayed in the hotel, trying to research and read as much as i could about bolivia on the internet. i spent several hours surfing the web, trying to see if i could find an organization i could volunteer with in the departments of el beni, el pando, santa cruz, or cochabamba… the places that have been hit by the flooding. but i couldn’t find anything that said “come join us! we need your help”. i just found websites where you could donate your money to help out. and i also found out about what specific organizations are doing - donating food, etc - but nothing about recruiting volunteers. i was frusterated i couldn’t find anything…. so anyway, later in the evening my dad an i went out to dinner, and in the restaurant we ran into one of my dad’s co-workers in usaid. we chated a bit, and i told her what i was doing with engineers without boarders (ewb). she then mentioned something about how she had talked to someone earlier that week who was looking volunteer work in bolivia. and that she can hook them up with opportunities in the flood emergency areas of bolivia. hummm. i kept thinking about how i couldn’t find anything on the internet, wasting like 7 hours, and now this woman knows everything that i want to know. she even invited my dad and me to dinner to talk about career opportunities for me… ha!

today i traveled to cochabamba (cbb) by bus. orginally, the ewb group was supposed to arrive in la paz bolivia at 6.30am today. so i went (with my dad, who has been very helpful in coordinating some ewb logistics) to the airport to see if i could greet them, and travel by bus with them to cbb. but, we learned that the plane was to arrive at 8.30pm because the plane had engine problems…. after one hour into the flight, the plane had to turn back to miami. throughout this whole week american airlines to la paz bolivia has been arriving late for one reason or another. there was also an engine problem sometime last week as well.

so i took a bus to cbb at 7.30am by myself. the trip took 7 hours, and it was not bad at all. i very much enjoyed looking at the scenery, seeing the people, thinking deep thoughts about poverty, socialism, evo morales, natural gas, water shortages in the country and flooding in other part of the country, the fulbright scholar fiasco and spying on venezuelan and cuban doctors, and che (and about you nicole, after you metioned the motorcyle diaries :-P). i keep seeing the murals painted with socialistic ideals - strength in unity, military service, a muscular arm painted on the wall carrying a torch symbolizing power and progress by working together. like in many countries, it is required that the males go through 1 year of military service.

i think it would be great if both men and women were required to do one year of service, but not necesarily military. it would be a way for people to really feel a part of the greater social network. get rid of individualism and selfishness for a while - realize that you live in a country, and you are part of that greater organism. make real change as an organized force. i’m not sure if i’m expressing myself well, but what i’m trying to get at is how much power there is in an organized group of people working together, with the same heart and mindset. watch the documentary “un poquito de tanta verdad”. watch how people mobilize themselves, watch how they work together for a cause. i think i am socialist at heart… a moderate socialist perhaps?

and now i am in cbb at my great aunt’s (tia vigi) house. i think that is what she is in relation to me…. she is my grandmother’s (from my mom’s side) first cousin. i can never get the geneology straight. i got a call from my dad and he said that the airplane with the ewb group is now due to arrive at 10.30pm. ok. so that means that the group will get here in cbb tomorrow, sunday. we better hurry… we need to buy supplies and food for 2 weeks. tia vigi said that on monday there will be a “paro”or a strike of public transportation (buses, taxis, trufis, minibuses, car rentals), so the roads will be blocked, and we probably won’t be able to get out of ccb. the ewb plan was to rent a car and drive 6 hours, or 100km as the crow flies, to yanayo. so we better rent the car and leave tomorrow, sunday. but the again, susan, the ewb coordinator says that part of the road is impassable to cars (from the rains maybe?). so we will have to get out in a town before yanayo and walk 13km. but that would be a very difficult job when carrying 2 weeks worth of food, so we will probably hire porters to help us carry the food. ha! now talk about a breathful of issues…. this is going to be interesting…

Second day in La Paz

February 14th, 2008

today was my second day here in la paz.

the altitude does keep my walking pace slow, and i am careful not to push myself. i can feel my heart beat heavily while going up stairs…. i did take a long walk today, nonetheless, walking through the city district of calacoto, through obrajes, all the way to the center, to a street known as “el prado”. it was about a 2 hour walk, going up hill… perhaps 5 or 6 miles.

at the end of the walk i sat on the steps the san francisco church, and talked to some shoe shine boys for about 30 mins or so. or maybe even an hour? i wasn’t really keeping track of time. one boy was about 9 and the other two about 17 and 20. of course they approached me with the intent of shining my shoes, but in the end they shined them for free, as i chatted with them about anything. they were curious about life as a white person in the US, or a white person in general. when they learned that my mother is/was bolivian, they labeled me as a white mestiza. they told me about their life… how one guy doesn’t know who his parents are. no brothers. no sisters. what life is like in poverty. we talked about politics, and i asked them about what they thought of the current president. they were surprisingly knowledgeable about life… about world events, about US politics… we got along well. it’s nice to see how human we all are… how we can enjoy each other’s company despite being of completely different backgrounds. i wondered what the other people around us thought as i, a rich white american, socialized with three boys with stained and unwashed hands who smelled of turpentine (from the shoe shine polish) and who hadn’t yet eaten that day. i thought of princess diana… how people liked her for seeing how human we all are. though i can’t say i can compare to her in the way of leadership and heroic deeds….

after a while i gave hints that i would leave, and they began to give hints if i could help them out… it’s only expected… a little food, a little something. i didn’t quite want to give them money, nor invite them out to lunch or something, haha. but i did want to give them something… i had made friends with them, and i couldn’t leave just like that… so i gave them a ring that i was wearing…. a silver and gold one. it wasn’t something very expensive in my eyes, but they could do as they wished with it… sell it for money, or keep it as a keepsake. money would have probably been more useful to them… but whatever. the guy joked that this was a token of my marriage to him, and he would find me in the US to stop my wedding.. and he gave me a multicolored bracelet that he made… his “wedding” gift to me. i very much like the act of gift-giving, regardless of the gift itself… there is “gestalt” in it, if i can use “gestalt” in this way.

Arrived in Bolivia

The next few posts are copied from my other blog.


February 14th, 2008

hi folks,

just to say i made it safely to la paz, bolivia. skies are blue. it’s sunny and warm… far from the torrential rains that are/were making the new the last couple of months. i believe that there is still rain in the north of bolivia, in the department of beni… that’s where the floods caused most of the damage.

it’s so nice to be back in la paz… really quite scenic with the multicolored hills surrounding the city and houses. though it’s poor, the conditions seem to be a lot better than what i saw in bosnia…. at least so it seems. i suppose i can tell you more after a spend a week traveling around

that’s all for now… i won’t bore you with the details of my long and boring flight