Not quite home, but close...

I'm not quite home, but arrived back in the US on Friday afternoon. Now I'm in Miami. I met my new god-daughter yesterday. Isn't she cute? Okay, she's only 2 months old so she doesn't do much yet, but she's still pretty cute.

It's late and I'm still exahusted from traveling yesterday, even though I slept 12 hours last night. I'm a little sick, and a little stressed about how much work I have to do, but tomorrow I'll be home (DC) and start getting caught up.

I totally just got hit on by a Bolivian Rock Star...

...Okay, that might be a minor exaggeration. According to some colleagues, he was indeed directing his attention towards me - that part's not so much an exagerration. However, I think it would be exaggerating to call him a Bolivian Rock Star. He is the singer of a Bolivian cover band that plays all the hits of the 70s and 80s and makes regular appearances at Fulvio's Piano Bar. They were fresh off a whirlwind tour of Peru and other parts of Bolivia, like Potosi. Their set list included the works of Pat Benetar, Kool and the Gang, and Boney M.

The flirting part was probably partially my fault. They played Gloria Gaynor. I guess I was singing along to "I Will Survive" a little too heart-felt-ly, and he noticed.

I did buy their CD though. Just for the memories.

Now it's 2:30am. I'm getting a wake up call in about 2 and a half hours and then I'm off to the airport. Now, the lyrics to "I Will Survive" take on new meaning. I'm exhausted and not looking forward to sitting in an airport again for a few hours. Though it was worth it. I'm telling you, going to Fulvio's and rocking out to Antologia... there's no better place to spend your last night in La Paz...

Holy crap! I'm almost done!!!

It's about 10:15 on Wednesday night. I finished most of my packing and I have to be up bright and early for my debriefing at USAID. I think I'll probably be up late tonight trying to prep for it. Tomorrow will be a full day too, but it also sounds like one of my colleagues here wants to have a little get-together after work. Then I'm going out dancing (finally) with Denisse. Then Friday morning I leave Bolivia. I'm feeling pretty exhausted and I miss my bed, but part of me sort of wishes I had a little more time here. I mean, I've gotten a fair amount of work done, and I have seen a heck of a lot of the country, but there's still a lot leftover that I didn't have time for. For example, I understand that the city of Sucre is beautiful. I didn't get to any of the national parks. I didn't get to the Salar de Uyuni. Though I hear that this time of year isn't very good for that because it's rainy.

I'm in the process of putting up week four pictures. If you are confused about the password that kodak gallery asks for, it's my last name.

I heart llamas

So Vicky and I got back this afternoon from Lake Titicaca, where we hiked, saw some Incan ruins, and contributed greatly to the growth of the local economy (in the form of me shopping for Christmas presents). We took a bus yesterday morning to Copacabana, a main town on the lake. The drive is pretty incredible. It takes you through the altiplano, with the Andes mountain range lining the way. Once we got to Copacabana, we took an hour long boat ride on the lake to get to Isla del Sol. From there, we saw some Incan ruins (Pilko Kaina), and then hiked to our hotel. It made me feel incredibly out of shape, but I have to remember, we were actually higher in altitude than La Paz, so I shouldn't be too upset that I was winded by the walk! The views of the lake from the ridge are incredible. And the island itself is interesting. There's lots of agriculture, and because it's hilly, everywhere you look, there is terrace after terrace after terrace of potatoes, or beans, or corn, or other edibles. The terraces almost make the island look like a pyramid.

We spent the night in Yumani, at a very nice little hotel called Ecolodge La Estancia. It's an ecolodge because they use solar panels to heat everything, recycle water for more than one use (not for drinking or bathing, obviously), and have constructed cabanas that are very much environmentally sound. They also have a close partnership with the local community, hiring locals for full time, part time and seasonal jobs, and sell artesania crafted locally. It's a very relaxing place.

This morning we hiked down to a different place, to see ruins called the Inca Staircase, and the "Fountain of Youth," and Inca-era spring fountain that the Spaniards thought was magical.

We stopped for lunch in Copacabana, saw the cathedral there (really pretty "moorish"-Spanish style), and did some shopping.

I just got back (only 8:30) from having dessert at the Kuchen Stube (um...I'm guessing some German influence here) where we went for tea and dessert. She lives pretty close by, which is nice. :-) You always need someone in a far away place to have dessert with from time to time!

Tomorrow morning I leave for Cochabamba. I really am looking forward to having my feet on the ground for a while after this week. I've been really lucky to have gotten the chance to see so many places, but travel really gets exhausting after a while!

Week 3 photos up...

The plane from Tarija got delayed so I had some time. Not enough time to do headings, but I'll do that later...

It's a small world after all...

So, we just arrived about a half hour ago at the airport in Tarija, and the have free wireless internet. How cool is that? Suddenly the world is so small!

It's weird though thinking that I can check in with friends all over the world, but just a few hours ago, we were at a clinic where the director was telling us that, for the communities in their network that are the furthest away, it can take a half a day to get to the hospital if they needed to. So maybe the world isn't so small.

We've covered pretty much the entire department of Tarija this week, at least it looks that way on a map. But it's amazing how remote some of these communities are. Despite that, or maybe because of that, I will continue to say that people in these remote places in the world are the NICEST people. We have been lucky enough to stumble upon a few annual health festivals in two of the comunities we visited and ended up being treated to lunch, and wine (boy was THAT an experience.), and conversation. In one community, they tried to get us to stay for the party that followed, with dancing and music into the night.

We met some incredibly dedicated community health workers too, which has boosted my spirits, at least, in thinking about how we are going to be able to do this program, which is very much volunteer based. My favorite was a woman in a town called Sama. Her name is Anastasia, and she has been a health volunteer for 10 years. She has 7 kids and 4 grandchildren. She gave birth to 12 kids, but 5 died. Since part of the integrated health program she works with has to do with reproductive health and family planning, she joked that family planning came late to where she is, but as we found in most of the communities, the women were very actively using family planning methods.

Anastasia took a break from tending her sheep to talk to us. She is also the owner of what may be the most content dog in Tarija, if not Bolivia in general. She had a very sweet young herding dog who watched the sheep with one eye, while getting petted by his owner. I asked Anastasia if the dog has a name. "Yes," she said. "He has a name." The dog's name is Bin Laden.

There's no way I could make that up. Somehow I think it's hysterical, in a weird, warped sort of way. And I had to share...

I'm trying to post some pictures, but it may not work out tonight. I even have pictures of Anastasia and Bin Laden.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

From the Forgotten Corners of the World...

That´s the expression that my colleague Cristina used when we were in a community this week. We are based in Tarija, but have covered quite a bit of mileage, and it does indeed seem like not too many people know about these places teh way they know about other places in Bolivia. And I mean that no one from the outside NGO world is really working here the same way they are in the Altiplano. The population is much more dispersed here, which is part of why. You don´t get as much bang for your buck I guess if you are working in these areas. It´s the same problem I had when I was in the Peten in Guatemala. The aid went to where the most people were.

So, it´s Thursday and so far we have visited 5 communities in Tarija department. The rest of my team is visiting one now while I´m stuck in an internet cafe. Tomorrow we will visit one more in the morning, maybe stop by a vineyard to visit, and then head back to La Paz.

It´s exhausting but energizing at the same time. I´m sure many of you have felt this way about work. If you have, you know how lucky you are.

I´m also totally loving the weather here. It´s hot and sunny. Just teh way I like it. All the other women are complaining about the heat, because they are used to the coolness of La Paz. Not me!

I´m trying to finish work to head back to the hotel. I´ll try to write more over the weekend. I´ll post pictures by next wednesday. I have taken so many this week, that I´m trying to edit back. I managed to become the official team photographer so I have managed to document probably far too much.

I´ll work on having something more pithy and profound to say next time I write. For now, I´m tired. I hope everyone is having a great week.

Not quite Che - quality adventure, but close?

The Plan…. To travel all over Tarija Department
The Goal… To visit in four days 5 or 6 different communities who will be implementing the basic health package that we are working on.
The Method…Improvisation

Okay, so we aren’t quite the adventurers that Guevara and Granados were, but I do feel like we are headed on an adventure, and since it’s South America, I couldn’t help thinking about the opening to The Motorcycle Diaries. (A good movie to rent, by the way. And I swear that has nothing to do with my mild obsession with Gael Garcia Bernal…) Besides, the connections are many: They started their journey in Argentina, who’s border we will be a stone’s throw from at least for a day, and Ché’s life ended in Bolivia. And the two of them did pass some time as health workers. Como yo…

So here’s the plan: In about 2 hours, I leave La Paz by air and land an hour later in Tarija. Monday we will travel to a few communities around Tarija. Tuesday we drive to Bermejo, which is close to the Argentine border. Wednesday we drive to Entre Rios, Thursday back to Tarija. Back to La Paz on Friday.

At least I think that's the plan.

I might be missing part of that, but whatever the plan ends up being, we are going to cover a fair amount of territory in just a few days. The main goal is to familiarize ourselves with the communities where we are going to be supporting health programs that local NGOs will be implementing.

It’s going to be a big change from La Paz. My lungs are psyched. Tarija’s altitude is just under 2,000 meters, significantly lower than La Paz. Bermejo is a mere 415 meters. It’s also hot down there. Not that La Paz is cold right now, but down south it’s going to be swampy-feeling I think. Tarija and surrounding area is wine country for Bolivia, boasting the world’s highest vineyards. Bermejo is petroleum country.

That’s about all I know. It seems that there might be spotty internet access, but I’m not counting on it, nor am I counting on the time to do it. But hopefully next weekend (Yikes! That’ll be my last weekend here) I will have some good pictures and stories of my little adventure down south.

Have a great week, everyone!

All sorts of goings on in La Paz

First stop this morning was to visit our project's Chief of Party. He lives in the Zona Sur in an apartment, but he is building a house in the neighborhood where it seems all of the diplomats live. The American Ambassador is a few streets over. Then we went out to lunch in San Miguel.

Everyone wants to show me around San Miguel, yet it barely seems to be mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide. I think I need to write to them.

After that, I took a nap and then went to the fourth annual Feria de Chocolate. Wow. I can't believe THAT's not in the Lonely Planet guide either. What's wrong with these people??? I think there were something like 30 different producers of chocolate with exhibits. Many of them were Bolivian companies, but then there was a Brazilian company there, along with Lindt (Swiss) and a booth with M&Ms. They even had a stage where someone was creating a chocolate sculpture.

And yes, of course I purchased. Duh.

I was going to go off to experience La Paz nightlife tonight with Denisse but she just called - a child care problem has come up and we have to put off our night out until next Friday. So I think I'll try to get some shopping in tomorrow before leaving for the field.

Rockin out for World AIDS Day

December 1 was World AIDS Day. It's a day where organizations all over the world take the opportunity to educate people about AIDS and HIV: what it is, what causes it, what doesn't cause it, and how to avoid it. Latin America doesn't have as big a problem as other developing countries, which puts it in a reasonable position to hopefully keep it that way.

In La Paz, there is an outdoor ampitheather fairly close to where I'm staying. Advertisements in the newspaper showed that a bunch of bands were playing, so I decided to go check it out. It's always intersting to see if these events really do much to raise awareness or if they are just an excuse for a free concert.

By the time the show started, the ampitheather was about halfway full, which, considering the fact that it started raining before the first band took the stage, was pretty impressive. Volunteers were handing out condoms and educational literature on the way in. It was a fairly diverse crowd - probably the majority were teenagers, but I did see some older women bringing their kids, which I thought was pretty cool.

Most of the people around me were part of a couple, which meant I had to deal with far too much kissing and couples draping themselves all over each other. Not to sound like an 8 year old on the playground (eewww cooties!), but it's something about the culture that I really do not like much. But since it was raining, my umbrella made a very nice gringa-soltera protective bubble around me, so I could block it out. ;-)

By the time the first band - Veneno - started playing, the crowd was restless and most of the distributed condoms has been blown up into balloons and launched into other areas of the audience. The first band was very popular, a combination of cumbia, reggaeton, and maybe some ska. They were definitely fun to watch. It did get a little tiresome, when in between each song, there was a recording of that deep, radio advertisement announcer voice saying "Veneno...." Every time.

In between bands, there were two screens on either side of the stage that played clips of testimonials from people living with HIV, and educational information about how it is transmitted, or not transmitted. For example, "It is 0% possible to transmit HIV by shaking someone's hand..." Then the organizers introduced the Bolivian Army, whose members were going to perform an educational skit - or sociodrama. There were big boos from the crowd for that, but some people sort of seemed to pay attention once they started. I just got a kick out of seeing army guys dressed up as white blood cells, viruses, condoms, and syringes acting out the whole HIV process.

I left about halfway through the second band - Calle 4 - even though I really liked them. But it was pouring down rain at that point, and I had a long day at work and needed to get home. When I left, it was around 9:30, and despite the rain, people were still coming in. I'm told that the other two bands - Azul Azul and Dezaire - are both pretty good. I'll have to catch them another time.