TravelStream™ news feed for member ngenaday on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/ngenaday en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:06:52 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ngenaday/1/1227836280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ngenaday/1/1227836280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ngenaday/1/1227836280/tpod.html Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:06:52 -0500 To Bolivia- learning Spanish and a slower pace of life.

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Cochabamba, Bolivia

so the day has passed, thanksgiving day. which doesnt actually exist here in bolivia. halloween has only existed for three years and thats only because the clubs realized they could use it as a good excuse to get the people to come out and drink. My roommate goes to an english speaking church and I went with her and had a traditional thanksgiving meal last sunday. I dont want anyone to think I am suffering here!
I went on tuesday I went out about 30 min from the center of the city to meet a nurse that is working out in a rural area. the president has put a little money into building rural clinics but hasnt yet put the money into paying a doctor to be there. Instead the university has sent two interns out there, to practice medicine (literally practice). They were smoking in the entrance when we got there so i guess they didnt leave a great impression, not that many interns do. The nurse on the other hand, is doing a lot. Seeing patients, handling emergencies and transfering them to larger hospitals, traveling house to house vacinating kids. etc. Very impressed by her drive and compassion. We went to visit a woman with cancer to see if our social worker could help discount her hospital costs she is accruing with the chemo, which is obviously very expensive. She is living in a mud room with her husband and five kids. The piece of chicken for dinner, which was mostly skin and fat was hanging on the clothsline to dry. She is cooking outside on the ground, and the kids are malnurished. The nurse there said one of the major problems in the community is malnutrition, for example a 4 year old that came in weighing 9 kilos. This whole time I have been in bolivia I have been thinking "bolivia is poor but its not like africa, there is plenty of food and the people can afford it". That is so stupid. I forgot that because I am in the city all the time, where it seems relatively modern, that Bolivia is the poorest country in south america, and 60% of the population are living in poverty. I was shocked to barely leave the city and be with 10000 recently migrated people where a major problem is hunger. It was a good experience the week of thanksgiving, where my typical routine is to eat as much as possible and lay on a couch and watch movies. I didnt do that today, not because I felt guilty but because it was too much work and money to prepare a typical thanksgiving dinner. Instead I ate beans and rice with two close friends.
Missing my family as I am here very far away, but grateful for friends, and experiences, and that I can breathe and walk and laugh.
happy thanksgiving!
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Cochabamba, Bolivia

I went on a pap smear campaign. I know that sounds really exciting for all of you that arent medically minded. I was quite pleased at the invitation to go along with two gynocologists and a microbiologist to a part of the city that is maybe more rural than city for a day of pap smears. An education meeting had been given at this community center for the local women on the importance of having regular checkups, the risks of cancer etc. and with information, the women responded and came back to the community center for the test. A beautiful testament to the simplicity of giving people information followed by the option to make better health choices. We did over 50 smears this morning, and it was a really good experience for me. I was responsible for doing the mini gyn interview part, which was great practice for my spanish and quite embaressing at the same time. Try repeating menstration several times and receiving a blank face in return. From the interviews I can tell you that most of the women have more than 6 children. And most of them had lost at least one child. I wish I had more time and space to ask why the kids are dying. One mother had given birth to 12 children and only 6 are still living. It was quite grave. I did get to do one of the pap smears which wasnt nearly as complicated or exciting as one might think, and I am certain I wont go to school and pursue a career in this particular field. We were offered lunch by this community center and of course accepted. I always want to be culturally appropriate of course so I ate it all, even though i didnt really know what the meat was and swallowed the large parts of fat whole, as the taste of that makes me vomit. The food didnt sit well and I am not sure if it was that meal or my carelessness this past week in eating the peeling of varios fruits and not boiling the water like you are suppose to. I wasnt obviously thinking very much, but the few thoughts I had revolved around wanting to build my immunity therefore introducing more risk. Now that my stomach hurts I spent some time reading, I understand better that amoebas arent really something to play around with. For all that are interested there is a great website called "understanding diarrhea in travelers" from a group in nepal that I found quite informative. of course, I will let you know how this goes....
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Cochabamba, Bolivia

When I signed on I noticed its been a month since I have written. In my mind, it feels like life is continuing as normal. In reality there are many differences between what I previously considered normal, but I am readjusting my idea of normalicy, its a good thing. I am suppose to be traveling the country right now with my friend Faith, but with the recent pissing match between bolivia and the US, all flights into bolivia have been canceled. I got information second hand from people that there were riots and demonstrations, people being killed, and gas lines being damaged. From what I understand the east side of the country wants autonomy and doesnt want to share their wealth with the rest of bolivia, they have many of the natural resources and there are quite a few other departments that are quite poor. Anyway, the president thinks the US is behind the demonstrations and is trying to support a coup, which is why he was thrown out. The city I live in here cochabamba, the majority like the president, and thats why it has been much more peaceful here than in santa cruz. There were marches and demonstrations over the weekend but nothing like in some of the other parts where things were quite out of control. We were without gasoline for 2 days, and there was very little transportation. But this morning it appears the lines have been repared because the streets are full and black smoke rising from the city like ususal. The other thing that I would like to write about is the project I have found here to volunteer. I dont want to write any identifing details cause we are trying to keep a low profile but its a project for kids with HIV/AIDS. I just finished a week of training including subjects of nutrition, ARVs, traditions, universal precautions, sessions with psycologists regarding talking with kids about HIV, and other extremely applicable subjects. So while the country in some regards appears very chaotic, my expericence this week has been radically different. Daily trainings included people from numerous organziations coming together to share information and prepare to fight the prejudice and stigma with truth and compassion. A very beautiful week in many regards.
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Cochabamba, Bolivia

Most of the time I feel like I have nothing to write. But there have been a couple things this week that I have seen that I want to share, things that maybe are becoming normal but are not normal.
-The other night I was walking home with my friend here, on the street where my apartment lies. This street serves numerous important functions. The corner has the bread ladies, where we buy our bread fresh every morning and night (bread is both breakfast and dinner here). At midday there is more than 20 women standing there that all want to do your laundry or clean your house. They all offer as you walk by, and I witnessed a man be mobbed by these women because he actually wanted one of there services, a little scarey. There are also men set up to sell dvds and music (one of the great things about bolivia is you can buy just about any movie or cd for about one dollar, copyright doesnt function here). Typically there is a tv with some movie playing to attract people. This particular night when I passed by there was a group of street kids watching Iron Man. The curb was their seats, and small containers of glue-their popcorn. I dont know why it stood out this particular night. Maybe it was because there was a group of them, maybe it was because the street was deserted, but I realized seeing 12 year old kids sniffing glue on the streets is becoming normal. And that scares me. The reality is that it is very common with the street kids, and there is no attempt to hide it.
-This morning while I was on the bus, we passed a woman with her kids begging. This also sadly has become part of a normal day. The majority of women on the street begging have numerous small children with them, that appear to be as close in age as physically possible. This woman was using scotch tape to fix a small wooden guitar. Often the kids are put out there to play something and collect money, three and four years old. From my western point of view, this is horrible, to me it looks like they are sacrificing their child for money. I never give money to the kids, I dont want to support the cycle of begging. But I realized as I was thinking about what a bad mother she is, that maybe her kids are hungry, and she doesnt know what else to do. I am here, but a world away from being able to understand her reality.
-Yesterday I was in trufi (taxi that has a route and takes whoever hails) and sat next to a woman with a child in her arms, the typical multicolored cloth tied on her back (which serves a variety of functions) and her bag at my feet. I was a little crowded but that didnt really bother me. Her bag on her back surprised me a bit when it started crying. My first thought was that it was a little dangerous to be in a car with a baby on your back, but since I havent actually seen a carseat here yet, its not that out of the box. So she moved the child in her lap to her side, so she could take the child off her back to nurse. I noticed her other child was moaning a little but I couldnt really see him from the other side. It wasnt until she got out of the trufi that I realized the child in her lap was actually a severely mentally retarded 5 year old, and appeared nearly catatonic. So I turned around to wave goodbye, and she is standing there smiling with the baby on her back, the five year old in one arm, and her bag of purchases in the other. It really struck me as love. I think if I was with two kids, trying to do everything that a mother does, while carrying two children, taking public transport, I very likely would be totally pissed off. Maybe I caught her on a good day, or maybe she really is able to do that every day with joy. Either way, I was impressed.

A short update on my job. We are moving into the building this week, cleaning and fixing things. I saw it for the first time today, its going to be a really beautiful place. I am really excited about it. Tomorrow I am meeting with one of the physicans to put together the first aid kit and talk about policies a little bit. Everything is a little disorganized, but its coming together, and its going to be great. Love to all.
Katie
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Cochabamba, Bolivia

I have decided bolivia is a great country for all gringas (blonde hair is an extra plus) that have ever thought they are not pretty enough. So I wanted to put this information out there for all that may need a little boost in self esteem. You can come here and will leave feeling much better about yourself. In addition to the people looking at you all the time (which drives me a little crazy), the whistles you will get on the street average from 3-10 per day (based on samples of women from the US and europe) , depending how much you are walking on the streets, how heavily populated they are, and how well you are paying attention! In addition to the whistles of course are the comments which range from innocent "que gringa mas bonita", (what a beautiful white girl), to moderate "buenisimos pechos" (nice rack), to foul "cinquinta pesitos para tirarte" (50 bolivianos for sex). For most of this harrassment I would like to blame Hollywood. As has been explained to me by my bolivian friends, in the movies that everyone is watching the world over, the guy meets a girl (who most of the time is white) and the next morning they wake up together in his bed. The conclusion that I am afraid is being made is that gringas are easy. The sample I have taken are not supporting this conclusion with their actions here. I consider it a personal sucess in the war against this assumption to wake up in my own bed in the morning alone. Im not saying Im perfect, but a word to all my fellow gringas: take the whistles as a compliment, believe that you are beautiful, that you have value, and together we can change our reputation on the streets of bolivia.
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Cochabamba, Bolivia

This week was the big start. The new daycare project that I am involved in here opened on Monday with 8 kids under 5. We had lots of help and it was still crazy. I had given up on having everything the way we wanted, but things looked pretty good. The first morning I am learning that kids that are sick dont stop crying, wont let you take their temperture and scream when you try and give them medicine to make them feel better. What a change from my previous employment with mostly unconcious adults. I am a rookie all over again. I made it to the third day in the week and realized I was feeling miserable. I consulted the pediatrician that is working with our daycare project, since I dont have a doctor here and didnt have the energy to find one I trusted. With swollen pusy tonsils, swollen gums and ulcers on my soft palate, I got sent home with the diagnosis of a kid virus, and spent the next couple days sleeping and miserable taking large amounts of ibprofen, tylenol and not being able to eat. Turns out the nurse isnt very good at taking care of herself, I was crying for my mom at several points, quite pathetic actually. Some good time to think in my bed while I was doing nothing. One is that they did survive the rest of the week without me. I am not indispensible. One thing I am wondering is if I am really needed in this job. My boss thinks a nurse is absolutely essential and there has not been any interest from anyone else. He says he is going to blockade the airport and not let me leave if I havent bought my return ticket to come back in january. I think everyone wants to be indispensible but maybe very few are. Which brings me to my point. What am I doing here? I used to think my job was to fight suffering. But as a nurse, if thats how I am measuring myself, my sucess, I am always going to be a failure. Cause people are going to suffer and die, regardless of what I do. So I am trying to figure out what my job is for. To be life, to protect life, to be part of a team that provides life. I really like that. I want to do that for a long time.
I will try to write more, I want to feel more connected to home.
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Cochabamba, Bolivia

So I dont always want to write about the bad things, I hope this isnt a blog of depressing stories. But I do want to share the things that impress me. I was thinking about what love is the other night. There is that famous verse that says real love is the one that lays down his life for his friend. That sounds great, but how many people really have the chance to show real love. Even if they wanted (and had the courage to do it) to throw themselves in front of a car to save their friend, the opportunity just doesnt present itself very often.
I was standing on my street corner with my friend after a night of dancing (has become pretty typical) and it was about 3am. I have written that there are groups of kids that live on the streets here, and there is a group that sleep in a corner about 200 yards from my building. This particular night there were a couple of kids across the street from us on the other corner, two boys and a girl, probably about 12-15 years old. The kids are just standing around, when a white ¨taxi¨ pulls up and two men jump out. One of the guys has something in his hand, some type of weapon and they start yelling at the kids. While one of the guys opens the trunk, the other one with the weapon chases down the girl who is screaming and trying to get away, picks her up throws her in the trunk, and they take off. So I know what your thinking, katie what did to do to save her? The answer is nothing. I was completely scared, trying to open the lock on my building to get inside when I saw the guy with the weapon start at them. So the answer is, trying to protect myself. At the time I didnt know there was any law enforcement groups that cared about this kind of stuff, and by the time we found out it does exist, we couldnt remember the number on the taxi. So really, a girl was abducted from the street and there is no one looking for her. How horrible is that. The reality is that the human trafficing is alive and well, and all the time there are kids suffering as a result. The difference this time was that it happened right in front of my face.
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Cochabamba, Bolivia

This week, things seem to be settling down. There were dialogues between all the prefectors of departments and the president, here in Cochabamba. Meanwhile the road to santa cruz has continued with the famous roadblocks and beef is more and more scarce, but gas has returned, transportation in the city is normal, and the people are calm as always on the streets. I went to meeting on friday to discuss the situation here and how dangerous it really is- the important points I came away with, (in case any of you are afraid for my safety) are as follows.
-the embassy is still open, its just not functioning as normal
-the embassy´s relationship with bolivia is not a good indicator of my actual safety day to day.
-the most important way to stay safe is be connected with the bolivian people, they are the ones that will know if things really are dangerous or not, the news of bolivia, and the US is not to be trusted (they both have ulterior motives)
-it seems the US would like to make things seem more out of control here (without their ambassador present) than things really are, the evacuation flights and american airlines canceling may be more hype than anything else.
-as always, be prepared for things to get bad, but dont expect it
Here I am living with a bolivian family, keeping in touch with my family and not feeling at all unsafe. I feel quite sure after reading the phoenix statistics for violent crime, that bolivia is the safer place to live´:-)
Enough about that stuff, last night I went to the miss transvestite bolivia competition. While this is not a community that I have had much contact with in the past, I went with some friends that are volunteering in one of the great HIV prevention groups here in Cochabamba. It was interesting and entertaining to say the least.
Lots to learn here as always. love to all.-
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Quillaqollo, Bolivia

The day of the entrada, another parade of a completely different type. It started at 9 in the morning, with over a hundred different dance groups representing all the different parts of bolivia. All the groups had different costumbes, elaborate with sequeins, bells, wooden platform shoes, crazy masks of old men with long white hair, hairdresses made from huge feathers, some 10 feet high in the air. Absoluetly incredible. We didnt get there until 3:30 and they were going strong till 11 in the night. The huge crowds of people and insane amounts of beer being sold. I abstained because of the toilet consequence. The day before at a similar parade I had used the public bathroom and sworn I would avoid it at all costs. Of course you would have a line in a womens bathroom, but maybe cultural factors impede this because it comes down to who can push harder to the front. One lady pushed by me so that she could stand next to the stalls and urinate sqatting on the floor, afterwards using the flush water to splash it around. So after this fun experience, I went the next day not drinking anything for 9 hours. I had just as much fun without the alcohol, and cleaner shoes than the others.
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Villa Tunari, Bolivia

After another couple weeks of language classes, its time to take off again. This weekend was the big vote in bolivia, voting to keep the president and the local prefectors. The previous week has been full of parades and road blocks. Tuesday was the parade for the younger schools, wednesday was for the older students, thursday was for the civilians, friday the military parade, something like that anyway. There is only so long I can sit and watch people march down the street, but we did spend some hours passing the time this way. Friday after class 7 of us from different countries took a trufi to a town in chapare (jungle) called villa tunari. After finding the hotel that had been recommended, we were told there were no rooms, but then we were taken to the boss of the hotel, and it turned out there was plenty of space for us. Since its not the busy season, we had the place to ourselves, nice outdoor pool, nearby natural pools in the river. The hotel sat on a hill overlooking the river, the mountains, absolutely gorgeous, a complete paradise minus the small biting flies. The restaurant served us feasts of fish and steak, the saying of the weekend was ¨todo es posible¨, because we had everything we could possibly need. On saturday we went to the park machia where they have a animal rehabilitation project. The monkeys were climbing all over us, it was so cool to see them so close. Their hands and ears are so much like ours, really fun pictures that will have to wait. On sunday we conducted a very serious round of olympics, since there was no TV and we couldnt watch. The three countries represented were bolivia, bhutan, and japon and the events numbering 12 inclueded a 400 meter relay, blind spanish slolom, shotput, etc. I am happy to say that my team won by one point, the first golds in history for Bolivia. Without seeing a check until the end, I was sure we were racking up a huge bill, and the last competion was guessing the damage. In the end we walked away paying 47$ per person for the entire weekend, everything included. It felt like cheating, but the owner was so happy, we all made out well.
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