Fiery strikes

Image from Los Tiempos website

Today marks the first day of a 'paro de transporte', or transportation strike, in Cochabamba. The public transit drivers are lobbying for a price change in fares - from Bs.1.50 (US $0.21) to Bs. 2 (US $0.29) - and the general public is resisting. As seems to be custom here in Bolivia, if you want to be heard, a strike of some kind is in order. So, what does a paro entail? It means that none of the transit drivers will be offering service on their routes, and it could even mean that they block the roads and prevent other drivers (with private cars or motorcycles) from using the roads, as seen in the photo. It isn't necessarily violent, but they do mean business. Fares have not gone up for quite a while, and the transit drivers are citing the rising prices on other goods and services as the reason for making this the moment to raise the price of public transportation.

I work with poorer populations in the southern zone of the city, and I wonder how much this change could affect them. I mean, 50 bolivian cents probably doesn't sound like much, but when a person is only earning 25 bolivianos a day and trying to support a family, every cent counts. I can certainly understand why they are resisting the price hike.

It will be interesting to see how this all turns out. The latest report just came out that the strikers in the city's center are getting restless and starting to vandalize private property. I'm glad that I am far away from that action! In the meantime, I will definitely be getting some additional exercise as I'll be walking/biking to and from work until the paro lifts.

Gearing up for the next stretch

Winter!

I am back in Bolivia after a 5-week visit to the States. It was wonderful! I had missed the cold weather, snow, and air so cold that it takes your breath away. (I know, I know - it probably sounds strange to those of you who live in it full time for 6 months out of the year, but it is beautiful to me.) Also great was meeting the newest members of my ever-growing family, hanging out with my family and playing games (even euchre!), catching up with friends, and -though I hate to admit it- shopping. I went back to WI with a pretty clear list of what I would 'need' to get me through the rest of my time in Bolivia. It was comforting to try on clothes and have them fit, or to walk into a store that I knew would carry exactly the item I was looking for. The main market in Cochabamba (la Cancha) is great, but when I am seeking something in particular, I am often told by various vendors that the article I want is "mas alla" (over there), followed by a wave of an arm, gesturing in a random direction. A rather vague description, wouldn't you agree? Compare that to a store in Manty which I will only call "FF" and any clerk in the store can tell you not only in what aisle the item is stored, but also where in the aisle it is located and on what shelf.  I tell you, I really felt very spoiled by such specificity. Anyway, one item that alluded me almost until the end of my stay was a device that I could use on dogs - to get them to stop barking. (Although after having been bit twice by dogs, my parents were really pushing me to buy mace or pepper spray.) My neighborhood is full of dogs that bark for what seems like all day and all night. Although I have adapted to an extent, there have been occasions in which I have dreamed of owning a weapon that would give those dogs an actual reason for barking at night. Since buying a gun was out of the question, I researched online and found some training devices that claim to send out high pitched noises that would cause a dog to stop barking. Well, I thought, why not try it?  Desperate times call for desperate measures, after all. So I went ahead with my experiment and bought an "As Seen On TV" de-barker with hopes of solving the problem. Each night before retiring, I turn the device on.  Happily, I have noticed a difference. My landlords own two dogs that are human friendly but bark at anything else (and set off the dogs of neighboring houses) and they have stopped barking every time a stray dog passes by the house. At least during nighttime hours. There is a short range on the device - only about 30 feet. . . I am tempted to ask my parents to send more so that I can plant de-barkers at specific places in the barrio. But that might change the 'charm' of the general area, so for now I will resist that urge and just be happy that Doggies One and Two have calmed down.
During my visit, many people from the States asked me what my next steps are in regards to my future.  I have less than a year and a half left on my contract and mostly I am trying to take each day as it comes. I am not sure if I will sign up for another 3 year contract, but in the upcoming months I hope to reach a point of clarity on that issue.  Thanks to all who are supporting me in my journey! I will try to be a better blogger and keep you all entertained and up-to-date on the happenings here in Cochabamba.

I'll be home for . . .

Christmas!!  Yes, that's right - I finally got around to buying airline tickets for a visit home to the States.  Although I have been planning to come back to Wisconsin for months, on Tuesday I clicked on the 'purchase' button that instantly charged my credit card and filled me with such happiness that you really would have thought it was Christmas Eve. :) 

December will mark nearly 2 full years of being away from my family and loved ones, of speaking Spanish instead of English, of immersion in a culture I have yet to understand.  So when I am back, I expect to go through a little reverse culture shock, especially during the holiday season.  I am nervous to see what awaits me stateside, but mostly I can't wait to see everyone and hear about what milestones have been marked since I left.  Get ready to fill me in, 'cause I'm coming home! Woohoo!

Pick me ups or pick 'em out

When I have a really bad day - as in my attitude starts to go downhill fast about my experience here - I try to do something to pick up my spirits. And I am not referring to alcoholic kind of spirit (at least not frequently!). More of an 'intervention' that I do to myself. I find someone to go out dancing with. I get my nails done. Arrange a card playing party, etc. I've been quite dedicated to getting my nails done as of late. The other day I was video conferencing with my sister who told me that my nails looked "hideous". Gotta love my family for never holding back. Regardless of her opinion, I loved them - I got a hand painted design on my fingernails and toenails for the equivalent of $5. What do you think? Actually, I don't wanna know if you're just gonna say the same thing as her. The pictures don't give 'em justice anyway.





Also, I try to put my job in perspective because it can be easy to get bogged down in the sheer volume of need that I see on a daily basis. I find that is better to focus on the mini-triumphs. Like being able to give someone medication who cannot afford it or offering a client access to our used clothes so that they have an alternate outfit to wear. I can't help myself; I need to measure some amount of good that happens in our offices.

Speaking of which, today I came back from my lunch break to see the cleaning lady and a volunteer from our tutoring program picking lice out of the kids hair. Not their own kids. The kids from the program. It was just their sense of compassion kicking in. They told me that these girls were in pain and probably didn't have attentive mothers. Who knows. The fact is, they were willing to painstakingly pick out lice/eggs out of the thickest heads of hair in the world. I call that an act of love. And that, I suppose, is something that you would miss if you didn't slow down to gape at it occassionally.

Sometimes, I still forget where I am

I recently took on some additional work responsibilities. Additional meaning an entire program. The woman who was in charge of the disability program left the position, and since I was looking for a new challenge (plus there is no money at the community center to hire someone until next year), I volunteered to help make things run smoothly until 2011. I quickly discovered that there were many things in disarray. Which clients were current? How had they decided to re-stock medications every month? (I found out they 'guess-timeated".) Where did all the clients live? When was the last visit to the client's house? Where were the collaborating special education institutes located? Nothing was written down, the official records on hand were sometimes years behind (not months, years). Enter Lauren.
My first after-college job was at a company that was working on its ISO 9000 certification, and let's just say that that sort of quality management has stuck with me ever since. I have begun to put together a step-by-step guide on how the program generally runs. Which is a daunting task, but I hope worthwhile for whoever is hired to run the program.
I have to lean very, very heavily on the knowledge of Nelly, the woman who has been a part-time volunteer with the disability program for many years. She is amazing. I can ask her about any family in the program and she can list off the disability of the client, where they live, what school the child is in, etc. When she first started collaborating with the community center, she was illiterate. Today she can read and write in both Spanish and Quechua. She attends night school. She is learning how to use the computer. I feel that someday she will be officially running the program, but for now, she is the behind-the-scenes guru. Everyone pretty much knows that if she were not around things would quickly break down. Which scares my little quality management heart to death.
One day this past week, I was making a list of all the institutions that collaborate with our program. I was trying to figure out where some of them were located, and since the Internet is still not as widely utilized by everyone as one would hope, I called on Nelly. Our conversation went something like this:
"Nelly, where is [insert institution name]?"
"It's near the airport. I know where it is."
"Yes, I understand that. I need to know exactly how to get there."
"Why?"
"Because I am creating a document that lists all the institutions that we collaborate with and I want to add the directions on how to get there. " (To this, I got a long stare.)
"You know, in case we all die or something, it will be easier for somebody else to run the program if they have all the information they need at their fingertips."

And with that, I lost her (or completely offended her - I got another really long stare before she decided to give me the information I sought. It may have been too dramatic an example.). In the end, it's a cultural thing. What I am doing is very 'western', I suppose. Plan? What for? I've seen a fair amount of turnover at my job in the last year, and it seems like each new person who comes in invents the wheel all over again. Such a waste of time!! But then again, the concept of time is very different as well. . . and I am reminded once again that I am far, far away from home.