Home at last -- with pictures

Well, we made it home! Oddly, the traffic was very light this morning between Coroico and La Paz. We wondered if this was because the waiting traffic had all cleared the area last night when they first opened the blockades, and maybe people are hesitant to travel in between if they don’t have to right now. I know the niece of one of the miners works at a restaurant we have been patronizing all week, and she told us to get home quickly because they will be putting the blockades back up probably Monday. It was a beautiful day today, and the weather was clear all the way through from La Paz to Coroico, so I’ve included a couple of photos we took. The bike tour companies were finally running today, so the first shot here is of a few members of one of those.

Here’s a shot of the road, that’s Coroico way off in the distance.

And finally, no travel in this family is complete without some kind of adventure, so of course, since our trip from La Paz was completely uneventful, we had a flat tire on the way home to the UAC from Coroico. We had taken a cab because we had a bunch of stuff to carry and it was just easier. Silly us! The bus that we could have ridden passed us while we were waiting for the spare tire to come in another cab from Coroico.

But, fortunately, there were some really pretty rocks to look at, and pollywogs in the stream, and a waterfall, so it was a pleasant half-hour break.

Finally, when I downloaded these pictures from the card, I found the picture below. I apparently never posted it, and I apologize! It is of Jeff cooking Shrove Tuesday pancakes – he says he didn’t have an apron, so he wore a t-shirt from home instead.

Thanks again to all of you that have thought of us, prayed for us, and been there for us this week. We really appreciate it, and the ease of today’s journey home, after all the trials of this week, just shows that prayers are answered!

Headed home! (We hope...)

Well, there have been multiple announcements on the TV, plus a couple of reliable sources have confirmed that the blockade is being lifted for the weekend. So, we will get up in the morning, gather up our stuff, and head up to the bus terminal to see if we can get a ride home. It may take us longer than usual to get there, but we will try to post an update when we get home.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and comments, we really appreciate that you have been thinking of us.

Susan and Jeff

Still here!

Hi everyone!

     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

Stuck in La Paz...

Hello friends!

      Well, Jeff and I came into town for yesterday's dentist appointments. The good news: my tooth seems to have been salvageable, although it is the largest filling my US-trained dentist has ever done and he is concerned about stability. Time will tell! I'm just happy that the still-living nerve is now safely buried under a huge filling. The relief was almost instantaneous. The bad news: we are now stuck in La Paz. It probably hasn't made the international news, but a conflict flared up yesterday between the miners' unions and the government. A new law was passed that makes it illegal for mining cooperatives to have any relationship with private interests. Mining is nationalized here, and the idea was to prevent subsidized mining interests from taking advantage of taxpayers by privatizing. (US petroleum companies, are you listening? That is the model they are trying to avoid here.) The problem is, the miners aren't compensated very well, so they are angry that the government intends to exclude a major potential revenue stream. They have responded by storming out of yesterday's meeting, then blockading the routes between the major cities yesterday afternoon. Now, La Paz is completely hemmed in except by air, and they have expanded the blockade today to include pretty much all the paved highways in the country, or at least that is my understanding. They intend to bring economic activity in Bolivia to a standstill, and since most transportation of goods and people happens via surface roads, they are doing a pretty good job of it.

     We intend to make the most of our time here. We will be out getting estimates for the library remodeling project at the UAC that Jeff is designing, plus we will be getting the three estimates Sister Jean needs to buy a new piano keyboard for the chapel on lower campus. Unfortunately, as along as we are in La Paz, we are forced to stay in a hotel and eat out, which can expensive quickly. The hotel where we are currently staying does provide a nice free breakfast, but hopefully we won't be here too much longer, because eating out can get expensive even if you go someplace cheap!

     Please say a prayer that they will resolve this conflict quickly, not just for our sake, but for the sake of the businesses and people of this country, and for the sake of the miners, two of whom were killed in a clash with police at the blockade near Cochabamba last night.

     Peace to all of you,
     Susan

Happy weekend to all

Hello everyone!

     This week has been full of planning for our return home, among other things. Our flight will leave at 6am on June 18^th, arriving in Chicago at nearly 9 in the evening. We will probably stay overnight in Chicago and head home in the morning. We may even hang out for a day or two and rest before making the final leg of the journey home by rental car. We want to give a shout-out and a BIG thank you to the people of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, our faith home, who generously helped us out with our plane tickets home. They turned out to be much more expensive than expected, and while we love it here in Bolivia, we are really looking forward to coming home, too! Thanks again, St. A’s, you have been such a blessing to us.

     This week’s weather report: it has been raining most of the week, but there have been several absolutely beautiful mornings, but the rain has closed in by afternoon. Today, Saturday, however, is just gorgeous. After coming home from the market, we opened all the windows and hung our blankets out in the sun to freshen. It’s a good day for laundry to dry, too, so we will take the chance while it’s not raining!

     Thursday evening, staff from the US Embassy in La Paz came to speak to the students about opportunities to study in the US, and programs to help them pay for it. Since the meeting was during my Education dept. class, we met briefly to check homework and take attendance, then walked over to the presentation. I assumed that it would be partly in English and partly in Spanish, and that this would be good for my students, plus it can take a year or more to get one of these programs set up, so 3^rd-year students like mine are the target group to begin the process, and several of them were really interested. Four students from my Agronomy class also attended, so they got an extra credit point for that. I was so proud of Valeria, one of my Ed. Students – she asked a question in English, and even understood the answer in English. Yay! Bonus points and two thumbs up! She is interested in becoming a Fulbright scholar and studying Education Administration in the US.

     This morning we made our weekly trip to the market. I got up feeling a little icky, so I wore comfy clothes – my peach-orange ombre long broom skirt and a smocked poet shirt over a cami. I didn’t even think about the fact that this somewhat mimics the chola – the traditional outfit that most older Aymara and Quechua women still wear, even in La Paz. It consists of a ¾-length or longer colorful skirt that is layered in tiers from the waist (it is supposed to exaggerate the hips, something that is traditionally considered very attractive), then a pullover type blouse or sweater on top, usually of a solid color (although sequins, sparkles, lace or iridescence are usually present), plus hair tied back in braids. I didn’t braid mine, but I did put it in a simple ponytail tied with a bright orange scarf that I got at the huge market in El Alto. I attracted a range from approving to outright delighted looks from many if not most of the locals in town. One older woman we greet often even commented about how nice my outfit was when we passed her fruit juice stand in the town square! I received nods and smiles from nearly every traditionally dressed woman we passed, and even some of the men. Who knew that positive international relations could be achieved so simply? It was fun! Maybe next time, I’ll do it on purpose… ;)

Peace to you all, and may God bless you with a beautiful sunny day like today sometime this week!

Susan

March 22nd

     For our post this week I thought I would describe land usage around the area. As many of you know, cleared land here is at a premium. That is why for centuries, the citizens of the Yungas region have cleared hillside after hillside to grow coca, which is used to ease symptoms of elevation or altitude sickness, and other maladies as well. Many locals here live in the bottoms of the valleys, but climb thousands of feet every day to cultivate/harvest the vegetables, fruit, and products of nature. At home, it is not uncommon to commute 30 miles. Here the commute is vertical and can cover as much as 5000 feet. This isn’t done by vehicle, it is done on foot. People that are fortunate enough to have their own piece of land generally clear some ground for gardening. This can be used to augment family income, or it can just be for the family. For some of the larger homes, small flocks of sheep can be seen keeping the grounds presentable. These homes generally do not have anyone living on site; these are more often used for weekend retreats from La Paz for the more affluent people. Some of these homes would fit right in in many of the most affluent neighborhoods in the U.S.

     For the homes that have families living in them all of the time, there is a wide variety as well. There are homes that are nice by most standards. Then there are houses that are more lean-to shelters than houses. These can be found attached to mud brick buildings housing sawmill equipment, or homes for other residents. More often now, you find fired hollow brick structures replacing the old mud brick or lean-to structures. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a house might have more amenities; it is just structurally sounder than the mud brick before. Many times, the only electricity is to a single bare bulb hanging over the raw brick opening used as a door, covered by a curtain to give privacy to its residents.

     So, things are improving here for the individual families as far as housing goes. Clearing the cloud forest still presents the same problems it has always caused, but families are able to grow food, and some have very green thumbs. But what do you do when you don’t have any land of your own? This example was my reason for this subject today. There is an older gentleman, (I would estimate around 70 years old) from the village of Carmen Pampa that has four cows, 2 sheep, and 2 goats. Back home in the states, this man would have to have a couple of acres, if not more, to sustain his herd. This gentleman doesn’t even have a yard. What he does instead is simple. Every morning he gets up, and walks to whatever patch of grass he left his livestock tied up on the night before. He unties them and starts herding them up the hill from Carmen Pampa and the lower campus, up past the upper campus. He follows them about 10 kilometers, or about 6 miles toward Coroico, then turns them around and follows them home. He does have help though; he has 2 mutts that help him keep everything in order. His cattle get plenty of grass and water, plenty of exercise for leaner beef, all while providing a free lawn mowing service for grassy areas near the road.

     So, the next time that you think you don’t have enough room for whatever you think you need more room for, think about this example, and go out and find a way to get it done!

Peace!

Jeff

Hello from Bolivia!

Happy Saturday to everyone~

Here’s the news for the week…

     Firstly, Jeff is happily working on his project designing the remodel for the upper campus library. Currently, light fixture proposals are on the table. A creative idea that may fly is one we saw in a restaurant in La Paz a couple of weeks ago, where a square of translucent fabric was suspended below bare light bulbs, both hiding and softening the light source. This seems like an inexpensive and attractive option to replace the dim, clinical lighting in the current space. Do you have some other ideas like this one that you’d like to contribute? Please comment below or send Jeff a Facebook message sometime this week.

      Secondly, I have spent the week in a Vicodin haze. One of my teeth broke off, and inside was a hidden cavity that apparently developed behind a loose filling. The dentist thinks I may need a root canal. Not the greatest impact on our finances, but at least this sort of work is much less expensive here than at home. So, I am waiting until payday (April 1) to go back to La Paz for that. In the meantime, please keep me in your prayers, as the nerve is exposed and quite painful at times.

      Thirdly, this week we said goodbye to our friend Hugh, who is no longer the Director of the UAC, but has taken a position with the Carmen Pampa Fund working with donor relations. He will be based out of Boston, it looks like. We will miss him, but he assured us he will be back here a couple of weeks before we leave, so we will get to see him again then.

      Finally, Delaney is hard at work on her second semester classes. Internet access is a chronic issue for her, and can be quite frustrating at times. She is in the home stretch now, though. If you have a few moments to stop by her Facebook page and offer her some encouragement, I’m sure she would appreciate that. Words from home are always welcome!!

      As our thoughts are beginning to turn towards our return, we have all realized how much we are looking forward to that. We love it here, especially we love the students and families that have become our friends and family here. We will always have them, and we will miss them when we leave, but we also miss our friends and family back in the States. One thing we will be doing this week is making a list of places to go and things to see before we leave – that will be a bit bittersweet!!

      Please know you are all in our prayers.

Love,

Susan