American Airlines and Bolivia

My sunday flight out of La Paz was cancelled due to what American Airlines says, ¨is a unstable situation in Santa Cruz.¨ My only question is, why are Bolivian airlines such as Aerosur flying in and out of Santa Cruz. My friend yesterday had no problem getting out of Santa Cruz to Sucre yesterday with Aerosur. When I visited Aerosur today, they told me all flights were on and there were no problems…¨todo normal.¨  When I told the people from AA that flights with Bolivian airlines were flying as normal, they were surprised- even their own representatives are in the dark.

Obviously, there is something else going on. Could it have to do with Evo Morales´s publicly asking the U.S embassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, to leave the country on Wednesday? My best guess is that the tense political relations between Bolivia and the United States have something do to with my two cancelled flights.

Now the only way to get home before my classes is to spend a lot of money with Aerosur and fly to Argentina. From there, AA will get me home.  I do not foresee any problems with this plan and will be home sunday morning.

You never know with Bolivia

My flight was cancelled out of La Paz today due to civil unrest and rioting in Santa Cruz. American Airlines always makes a stop from La Paz to Santa Cruz to pick up more passangers before heading to Miami, and now Santa Cruz´s airport has been blocked off by the protests. My flight is now set for sunday. I´m keeping my fingers crossed I make it home then!

This time around Bolivia has been even more of a political hot bed as blockades, riots, and stirkes have been almost twice as frequent in my short visit now than compared to the six months I was here before. 

And since probably not many of Bolivia´s problems have made the news in the States, I´ll update for those who are interested.  According to the news here, rioters for autonomy in Santa Cruz have now:

 ¨Sacked and torched the local headquarters of Entel, the phone company. [The theft of all those Entel pre-pay phone cards was a particular contribution to democracy.]

Invaded and taken over the local offices of the national authorities dealing with taxes and land issues.

Engaged in a six-hour battle with soldiers.

Stole some guns…¨

But that is not all! Due to the uprisings in Santa Cruz as well as in Tarija and Trinadad, Evo Morales has now publicly asked the U.S embassador to Bolivia to leave, saying, ¨I ask the foreign minister to find the legal and diplomatic framework to return him urgently to his country. We do not want separatists, divisionists, people who conspire against the unity. We do not want people who work against democracy.” As you can see Evo in part blames the U.S government for the uprisings.  If you thought the United States could not get any more more unpopular internationally, guess again. Hopefully we can start working toward change in November.

The day´s ins and outs

 So I have been in Sucre now for almost two weeks. I go to Nanta almost everyday and the medicine I brought from the states with me were greatly appreciated. It´s incredible how quickly the kids go through the multivitimins. Since there are more than enough people helping out in the infirmary, I have been spending the majority of my time at Nanta playing sports with the kids and taking notes on what the kids are eating.  There is not too much information on Bolivian diets, especially the lower class diets, in the states so I figured while I am down here I could start a food diary and interview the kids on what they are eating.

It has really been so much fun to see all the kids again and I have had such a good time playing in soccer games with them and watching their baseball games. Thanks to everyone who donated sports equiptment. The kids could not be happier with all the new gear available! Above and below I have posted some pictures.

 

 

I will not have much time to write in the next week. Tomorrow (Friday) I will be traveling to the countryside and on Tuesday I will be heading to the southern Bolivian town of Tupiza for five days. Then, the following weekend, I will head to Potosi and with luck will have the opportunity to dance in one of the city´s biggest festivals.

To be continued….

My second impression of Sucre, Bolivia

This trip has been really eye opening in a lot of ways. Having a pause in the States before revisiting Sucre has made me see the city in a new, more realistic light the second time around. I still love Sucre but I think all the initial magic along with my adventure high have worn off. Now, I feel more like a Sucrena just really living in Bolivia and less so of a volunteer visiting the country for the first time. I now find myself bargaining a lot more on cab prices when I take them although now I usually take micros -local buses- everywhere. I no longer settle for the “gringo” price or treatment, I expect to be treated as any Bolivian.

Right now, things are extremely tough on the people. The poorer you are, the worse. Everything has risen in price, from cabs to food to internet service. The price of bread has nearly doubled since I left and meat is a luxary that not everyone can afford. When the dollar dropped it did not just affect North Americans it hit hard on a International level and the people hit the hardest were those in the poorest countries. Nanta is now spending almost twice as much on food a week for the kids and now more than before, the organization is struggling to get funding.

 Rising prices are not the only obstacle that many must face here, the political climate also seems to be getting worse. Boliva seems to be an even more divided country than before and outbreaks of violence against the government seem to be more frequent in its many citys. Yesterday, on the news, I watched several Bolivians from Santa Cruz beat up a police officer and a week ago I saw a man from Sucre openly insult two cops as he passed by with his two small children.

Taken Dec. 2007

There have also been far more strikes since I got here. When I first arrived all the public school teachers in Sucre were striking for higher wages and the kids did not have classes for a whole week. It is hard enough for the kids at Nanta to study, go to school, and hold a job starting at such young ages. On top of that, if you keep having your studies interupted by strikes, it is really hard to get ahead. This past tuesday, the campesinos put up blockades around the city, thus preventing transportation within and out of the city. Once again, the kids did not go to school. Yesterday, in some parts of Sucre the water was shut off from what I believe was a result of the bockades, but sometimes it is hard to tell.

Jampi Huasi, Nanta

Since I got back in late April I have been eagerly awaiting and preparing for my visit back to Sucre and Nanta. The plan right now is to work in the infirmary for 2-3 weeks and then travel for 1-2 weeks. Heike, my friend who is a nurse from Germany will be working there too! I have been keeping in touch with a number of the kids at Nanta through facebook (which they started using this summer) and email and I can not wait to see them! While working, I got to know a number of the kids very well. Not just the sick or wounded would come into the infirmary. In fact, most often the kids would just stop in to chat, ask me questions or even help out. Eusevia, 9yrs, was my little enfermerita and would help cut gauze, sanitize tables, and make cotton balls for the future wounded.

Even though the kids are upbeat and happy most of the time, the lives they lead are extremely hard. Most of them worry about making money, getting food, going to school, and caring for their numerous siblings all at the young age of 8 or 9 yrs. Nanta really helps restore some of their childhood to them through numerous activities. The center also serves as a much needed escape, a place to wind down and get away from life’s many hardships. The kids refer to it as “casa Nanta” and i think for many of them, it is home. My description of Nanta does not do it justice so if you are interested in learning more, the website is really well done:

Centro Nanta

In the Jampi Huasi or infirmary, I found that what a lot of the kids wanted most was to be loved and be taken care of, especially the younger ones. Coming from families with 8 -12 siblings a lot of them were starved for attention so they would often come in with a “cut” that was not visible to the naked eye or a “dolor horrible de la barriga” after I had just seen them on the soccer court running around all day. This was their way of getting undivided attention without saying it directly.

However, some of the health issues of the children are very real. Most of them are malnourished, missing amounts of vitamin A, zinc, and calcium from their diets. Also, a lot of them have parasites from food being improperly prepared or foul water. Their hygiene is something to be reckoned with and makes them more prone to skin infection and warts. Giving the kids multivitamins can help but treating them with anti-parasitic medicine only goes so far as it is likely the kids will get them again. I’m afraid, water and food issues need to be addressed at a public health level before the parasite problem can really go away. As for improved hygiene which I focused on a lot the first time at Nanta, I found it was getting better among some kids. They were keeping their nails shorter and coming in to ask for soap to wash their hands. Not to mention, using the hand sanitizer all the time which they could not get enough of! Although I talked to them repeatedly on why it is important to have clean hands, it will take a long time for mindsets to change and new routines to develop. On top of that, most of them do not live in clean living conditions and do not have showers in their houses. If the kids are good about it, they use the showers at Nanta to wash once a week but how many kids as young as 7 year olds do you know that voluntarily take showers (let alone cold ones)?

The first thing the kids will probably ask me when I arrive is what I have brought for them? “Tienes regalos para mi,” they will say, and probably will not stop until I prove that I have in fact brought something. Luckily, the pharmacy where I used to work donated a lot of medicine to Nanta so I will be able to say “si, ya tengo algo para tu salud!” Now, nanta will be pretty well stocked with vitamins, calcium pills, antibiotic skin creams for impetigo, wart medicine, condoms, acne wash, hand sanitizer, etc. Not to mention my personal favorite, Dora, Batman, Scooby doo, and Hello kitty bandaides!

Back to Bolivia

Well, I am going back to Sucre, Bolivia Aug 9th- the day before Evo’s reelection/ or whatever it is.  I always seem to step into the middle of some huge, heated political event every time I go. First it was Noviembre Negro, now its the national elections.  This visit will only be for a month but who knows what can happen while I’m there. It is Bolivia! Although this visit will be short-lived, something tells me I am going to have a life long relationship with el corozon del Sur America. Yes folks, I think we have a keeper. I also decided not to give up on my blogging about this wonderful, sometimes frustrating, sometimes crazy, sometimes magical country. Why continue holabolivia? When trying to figure out what exactly will be happening there on Aug 10th, I came up pretty empty handed. Let’s just say the smog in Beijing is getting a lot more coverage than Bolivia has gotten all year. I have come across one good source for the latest news in Boliva and I highly recommend it:

Jim Shultz’s Blog from Bolivia

I guess I am just a huge fan of Bolivia and like all countries I know it has its problems but I have fallen in love with its good and its bad and I hope that others can learn a little more about it or at least put it on their map. I remember when I first told my friends I was going to Bolivia, a good number of them had no idea where in the world it was. To many here in the States it is an unknown country and with reason; it barely gets any news coverage, and it is never the setting for movies or well known books.  However, once you find it is very hard to let go! Nos vemos alla!!

Back in the States

So, it has been a week and I am now back in the states. I miss Sucre and Ñanta a lot! Bolivia really became like a second home to me and I can not wait to get back there and see the kids!

Sidenote: As you might have picked up, I stopped my job at the hospital; there was not much to do there and it was not stimulating enough. In Ñanta I got a lot of great medical experience and I was always very busy so I chose to work there full time in the end.

If you are interested in learning more about the kids I worked with, what there lives were like, and what Ñanta did for them, I encourage you to check out this video. It is really great. Enjoy!

http://www.guzzigalore.nl/log/archives/archive_2008-m02.php

Ñanta

So I have a month left. Wow, time has flown by! I have been working at Ñanta since January and am really enjoying myself. The clean hand contest is over but I am still trying to encourage cleanliness among the kids. A lot of them have taken to cleaning their hands and coming into the infermery to cut nails. Right now I am working on several different things. Next week, Heike (the german nurse) and I will be giving a presentation on sexually transmitted diseases to the boys in Ñanta´s dormitory. Should be interesting since they range in age from 14-18 and most of them are not what you would call mature. Last week we gave a brief talk on parasites since most of the kids have them. We taught them about what they were, how you get them, how to prevent them, and how to take the medicine. I am also putting together a list of kids who need to see the optometrist. On top of that I have been talking a lot one on one with some of the older girls who have boyfriends on safe sex and how to prevent pregnancy. I think we will give some group sex ed talks in the beginning of April to all the older kids in Ñanta. Besides all the new projects, I am still in charge of bringing the kids to the dentist and still doing all the minor medicine in the infermery (cleaning minor wounds, wart care, and treating colds).

La familia Almusquivar

Lets just say I lucked out with my Bolivian family. They are amazing and I feel very much at home with them! The Almusquivars are a predominately female family with four daughters in total. 

  

Ruti, the eldest, is married to Hernan with two children, Laura (9) and Ignacio (7). They have a beautiful house close by and own two resturaunts in town, The Wok (a somewhat japanese resturaunt) and Napoli, a pizzeria.

  

Then comes Paola who is married to Vlady with one child, Maria Jose (6). They live further outside of town and I have never seen their house. Paola is a business woman and Vlady, I believe an engineer.

  

Zulema, my 28 year old hermana has become a really good friend. Even though she is a lawyer she does not practice and never will. She spends her days making jewelry and dried flower pictures to sell. A lot of her work is hanging in various resturants around Sucre. As a freelance artist, she does decently well for herself becuase one, she is very talanted and two, she has a lot of contacts around Sucre. Still it is not steady enough work to rely on so she also works at her aunt´s fine dining resturaunt. Zule lives at home so I have gotten to know her really well. She is very independent and very much a modern woman which is not at all common in Bolivia.

Alejandra (22), also lives at home but will not for long. She is due to marry Julio, 31, at the beginning of March. Alejandra has a 2 year old daughter who also lives with me, Sofia, who is of another father. I am so happy for Ale because Julio is truely a great guy and will be a great father for Sofia since her own father is very absent from her life.

Needless to say, Sofia is the happiest child I have ever met and is absolutely a joy to live with! Ale works very hard to provide for her. She is still in school for financing and holds down a full time job at a local bank as well.  In the past, she was the number one female tennis player in all of Bolivia. Julio is an engineer.

   

My house mom, Zulema, is a retired school teacher who is now known throughout Sucre for her famous cakes. During the months of December and January she was busy every day making hundreds of cakes for various weddings and birthdays. Rodolfo, my host father, is an engineer and helps Zulema with her cakes during the busy season (almost unheard of for a Bolivian male)! Both Zulema and Rodolfo are very sweet and have welcomed me into their family. Sucre would not be the same without them.

 

We have two more living with us, Mary Luz (16) and Digna (23). They both work in the house cooking, cleaning, helping with the cakes, and taking care of Sofia. It is common here to have live in help although sometimes it makes me a little uncomfortable. Mary Luz and Digna are very much part of the family and are treated as such. Both their families live far away from the city so it is to their advantage to take a job in the city so that they can go to school at night.

There are also two others living with me. Heike (33) is a German nurse who is helping me at Ñanta. Phew! She will be staying until the end of April as well. Tessa (24) is from Australia and is studying film. She leaves in a couple of weeks for La Paz where she will do volunteering. I am careful not to speak english with either of them cause after all we are all here to learn spanish.

The Do(s) and Don´t(s) of Bolivia

Do(s)

1. Do use the word Che in conversation with other Bolivians from Sucre. Che as in Che Guevara is used here in place of amigo.

2. Do expect to see small children peeing in the streets at all times of the day.

3. Do try llama meat here. ¡Que rica!

4. Do expect cars to have the right of way in the streets. Like New York, cars don´t stop for pedestrians (especially in Sucre).

5. Do expect cars never to signal.

6. Do expect a lot of beeping at intersections to warn other cars that the car that was there first is passing.

7. Do expect a lot of water balloons, water guns, and sometimes eggs to be thrown at you during carnival.

8. Do expect many Bolivians to be bitter about losing their sea to Chile. Some even believe they will one day get it back.

9. Do expect to hear a lot of Quechua in Sucre. Imaynalla= como estas?, Cayacama= hasta luego.

10. Do expect to pay an average of 3-5 dollars for dinner in Sucre. $5 being on the expensive side.

11. Do receive coca leaves with both hands, never refuse. And always give a little to Pacha Mama (mother earth).

12. Do expect to drink chicha (an alcoholic beverage made from corn).

13. Do expect to start your night out at the discotecas at 2pm and do expect to hear Shania Twain’s, “I feel like a woman,” quite frequently.

14. Do expect to drink lots of chuflys, a typical bar drink made with sangani- Bolivian liquor.

15. Do expect to eat a lot of quinoa (an amazing grain grown in the Andes mts).

16. Do expect the fruits in Bolivia to be among the most delicious in the world.

17. Do expect a lot of stray dogs to be roaming the streets of Bolivia. If they have green collars on, they have been vaccinated.

18. Do expect Sucre to fight to remain La Capital Plena!

19. Do expect to dance quite a bit of salsa.

20. Do expect as of Dec. 1 if you are a U.S citizen to pay $100 for a visa to Bolivia.

Don´t(s)

1. Don´t swallow the coca leaves, bad things can happen.

2. Don´t throw toilet paper down the toilet. Bolivian plumbing is very sensitive. Use the trash basket.

3. Don´t go to Oruro for carnival with anything of value.

4. Don´t expect to have really amazing showers in Bolivia. The water system is a little old fashioned.

5. Don´t expect anyone ever to be on time. The hora latina takes its sweet time!

6. Don´t wear white during carnival.

7. Don´t expect to find bathrooms on buses. You do get bathroom breaks but there are no bathrooms per say.

8. Don´t ever settle for the original price of a product. There is always room for bargaining!

9. Don´t tell Bolivians Bush is a good president although I do not know who would at this point.

10. Don´t eat at the Sucre local market without some imodiom or cipro close by.

11. Don´t forget to take your malaria pills if you go to the jungle.

12. Don´t forget to kiss everyone on the right side of the cheek when you enter a room even if you don’t know all of them (Men do not kiss men, they shake hands then briefly hug).

13. Don´t forget to bring toilet paper with you everywhere. Most Bolivian bathrooms do not supply. Forget about paper towels!