We thought to post an update here for those of you who are not on Facebook. We've been in touch this week mostly that way, and we know not everyone uses it. It has been a VERY full week, so, here goes!
MINERS' BLOCKADE Tuesday morning the government stopped all further action on the new law as a first step toward addressing the miners' concerns. This did get the miners to come to the table to talk, but nothing came of that meeting. There have been talks with a mediator, several meetings the miners have walked out on, and much appealing to the "court of public opinion" by both sides. Meanwhile, thousands of passenger buses, commercial trucks and private vehicles have been stranded in long lines of traffic on both sides of each barrier. People are trapped in bus terminals with nowhere to go and no money to care for themselves. Wednesday night the miners opened a few of the blockades for a few hours as a humanitarian gesture, but it was not long enough, and some of the worst ones did not open, including ours. We thank God that the timing was such for us that we have had the financial resources to stay in a hotel (and to eat!), rather than being stuck for days on end at our (completely outdoor) bus terminal. A man died overnight trapped by the blockade near Cochabamba. There are no details right now, but it sounds like maybe exposure? I can certainly understand it. At 12,000 feet here in La Paz (and Parotani is above 8,000), it might be 70 and sunny during the day, but it still gets down close to freezing at night. Please pray for those still trapped in vehicles, for the fourth day now, with no heat, water, food, or bathrooms, especially the ones in and near La Cumbre, the 15,000+-foot pass between La Paz and our home in the Yungas region. There are rumors that maybe they will lift the blockade for the weekend. The last time there was one like this, about 18 months ago, they did lift it on Saturdays and Sundays. We are hoping that we will be able to get seats home tomorrow. It would also be good for them to let some trucks thru, as there has been a beef shortage here in La Paz since yesterday, and now the chicken supply is beginning to dwindle and prices are rising accordingly. Of course it is possible for food to be flown into the airport from other places, but that costs substantially more.
EARTHQUAKES As most of you probably know, there have been two major earthquakes in Chile this week, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Iquique is about 250 miles to our west, and on the other side of one of the highest mountain ranges in the world. However, one of the types of seismic waves that these earthquakes produced goes over pretty long distances under the right conditions. What that means is that both earthquakes were felt in high-rise buildings in La Paz and two other large cities here in Bolivia. We are staying on the 6th floor of an 8-story hotel. As with most other buildings older than 5 years in Bolivia, it is an unreinforced masonry construction, which is a big no-no in an earthquake, as it this type of building tends to just crumble into dust and collapse during strong shaking. Fortunately, the distance attenuated the waves so that by the time they reached here, they were too weak to do any real damage. However, the shaking was certainly scary! Earthquakes are pretty rare here, and people panicked in the areas where the bigger quake on Tuesday night was felt at ground level. The stadium and a covered market were evacuated, along with numerous high-rise (over 10 stories) buildings all over the central part of the city. Tuesday night's quake lasted most of a minute and was an 8.2 magnitude in Iquique. Here it was felt at about a magnitude of 4.5, enough to sway a tall building pretty effectively. The furniture and draperies in our hotel room were doing quite the dance, and it lasted a VERY long time. Several of the aftershocks have been strong enough to shake us again here, the biggest one being the 7.6 on Wednesday night. One thing Jeff and I were concerned about is where we would run to if a bigger quake came and the building started to come down. The only exit out of this building is the main doorway onto the street in front, which is narrow and bound by more multistory masonry buildings that might fall into the street, or at least present a falling debris hazard. We took the opportunity to go up to the roof and figure out an escape route that gets us away from that hazard, so we now have a plan just in case. Over the last 24 hours the aftershocks have seemed to slow, so maybe the danger has passed, but who knows? One thing we don't need to worry about in La Paz is tsunamis -- if one reaches us here, most of the land on the planet would be underwater like in the movie 2012!!
DELANEY Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, Delaney stayed home Sunday night when we came to town. She and the cat are muddling along on eggs for the girl and dried sardines for the cat (his favorite treat!), as the people food is all stuff that needs to be prepared from scratch and preparation for much of it is beyond D's comfort level, and the cat's food was nearly empty when we left. I have a nice bag of cat food in my backpack, bought it Monday morning to take home to him... Unfortunately, the emergency money we left for Delaney ended up paying for the egg delivery Tuesday morning, so now she is insolvent. But, she does have plenty of eggs to eat! Our friends and neighbors are watching out for her, and are there to help if she has an emergency. God bless Ina, my department head and a fellow American volunteer. She has been covering my classes and checking up on Delaney every day. Thanks, Ina! We are also at the other end of a text or phone call if Delaney needs us, and we have been checking in with each other a couple of times a day. For a 15-year-old girl home alone on the other side of a 20,000-foot mountain range with no cash and minimal food, she is holding up remarkably well and we are very proud of her. We asked her this morning if she was ever going to stay home by herself again, and she said that the cat would have been frantic without her! Trust Delaney to think of the pet before herself. :)
This is all we know for now, other than we are both ill from going a 2nd day without our usual medications and not sleeping well because of stress. Jeff was able to find a couple of blood pressure pills for me at a pharmacy nearby this morning, that being the most important one to not miss! We will let you all know if we are able to get home tomorrow or not, but in the meantime, it is a beautiful, warm, partly cloudy day here in La Paz, so we have the window open in our room and plan to just try to rest and feel better today. Thank you for all of your concern and prayers, please know that they are not just needed, but also greatly appreciated AND effective!
Love,
Susan and Jeff
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