Salt Pirates and Land Scallywags

Cactus finger to the sky - Isla Incahuasi, Salar de Uyuni

Man has it been a miserable week. I finally succumbed and am at the (I hope) tail-end of my first real illness down here. I think I went to the bathroom 17 times Tuesday. That’s absolutely a new personal record. Not that it’s something anyone would want to hear but since I’m dealing with it, you have to too. Today’s better but I’m still very weak after several days of combined GI/URI (cough/cold) and high fevers. The main reason I mention all of this is that I started this Wednesday after high fevers Tuesday and it´s now Friday but I was fevering again yesterday. With all of that, I am pretty sure I fried a good deal of brain cells. I’m still a little loopy today - it´s my first real day out of the house. So if in reading this there are things that don’t make a good deal of sense, now you’ll know why. 

So before we get started, here’s the big news. I don’t know if it’ll actually work but I’ve found a way for more than just ten people to get emailed when the blog comes out. If you scroll down to the very bottom of this page, there should be a link where you can subscribe to have the blog emailed to you. Now I don’t love the idea. I would much prefer the option to just have an email that says there’s something new on the site rather than sending the whole thing (I have no illusions, it’s big and I wouldn’t want that clogging up my mailbox). My suggestion would be to subscribe but use it just as a notifier so you know to come to the blog site and then you can delete it immediately. That way I don’t feel bad for not keeping up regularly and you don’t feel horrified by the vast stretches of text before you when you realize that you’ve missed an episode or two. Sound reasonable? Also, Mothers, you are now off the hook for forwarding. Please dear lord just tell people to sign up. It’s one less thing to worry about.

I guess this is a little better than the three week mark (with was ready earlier in the week but we´ve had internet problems at the house and I was too sick to leave) but I’ve decided every week will probably never be doable with the amount I type. And no, scaling back is not an option. Don’t ask, just accept. It’ll work out better that way.

Here’s the recap (as always, cover your eyes if you think you can make it through):

• Initiating Spanish lessons in Cochabamba
• Three day guided trip into the Salar de Uyuni (world’s largest salt flats and our first time taking a real multiday tour) and the overnight buses on the world’s bumpiest road
• Getting research up and running – we have our first patients enrolled!
• More problems at the clinic due to government interference and infrastructure
• The boy/girl weekend – boys in Sucre to work on the house, girls at home being wild (but mostly getting a lot of work done) – prepping for 3rd Annual Acute Care Conference and translation
• Sara getting really sick
• Very, very bad voodoo at the clinic

Where we left off - flowers in a water bottle and coca liquor

We left off on Día del Amor/Primavera I believe. Well spring has definitely kicked in. It has gotten a good bit warmer during the day. The interesting part is the extreme difference between the sun and shade here. It’s quite impressive. Chris has been desperate for clouds, rain, something different. Unfortunately, it came yesterday while he was out of town. Only a little sprinkling but fairly overcast which made it a good day for getting work done. Turns out they got poured on in Sucre and it’s the beginning of the so-called rainy season (though that only means one day of rain per week for the next few months).

That night I finished the last entry, Blanca (the former tutor coordinator for the Peace Corps) came over to do entry interviews for Chris and I. We both felt a little nervous about it I think. There was no reason for it since it’s our time and money but being interviewed for anything is always a little stressful I guess. She classified me as Intermediate Advanced or Beginning Advanced. It’s weird that I think hearing that from a professional actually made a difference for me. I felt a little more confident and spoke a little bit more after that. Sometimes a little reenforcement or encouragement really goes a long way.

That same night, someone had been calling Andrew over and over from Potolo (the village Ubaldina is from, where he used to work). This was apparently his godson’s aunt or cousin and she was insisting on seeing him, not in a terribly polite way. But he was used to what he called the lack of phone manners in Bolivia and invited her over. We were all thinking, oh great, here’s another person trying to take advantage and find some personal gain through any possible connection. In a way, yeah, that was it. But not in a bad way. She’d heard Andrew had done work with helping artisans with marketing and wanted his help with her products. She makes beautiful little round jewelry boxes with fake flowers on the top, all made of (and smelling like) dry orange peels. Chris had the great idea of trying to contact Ten Thousand Villages but apparently they aren’t taking any new products. They’re really cute though. I even bought one for the gift exchange, and subsequently broken the flower petals from jostling in trufi’s.

We went out that night with friends of Andrew and Jaime’s (the cousin of the guys we were hanging out with in Sucre who put Jaime and Andrew up when they first got here). We went out to a pizza place and I got gnocchi (my favorite food in the world, thus far). It wasn’t too much better than some of the homemade stuff I’ve done but still quite satisfying. We had the most frantic, scattered waiter I’ve ever seen. The poor guy was going nuts and when he finally calmed a little and tried to make a joke with me (You want yours with lots of meat, right?), I had to do a doubletake. The company was great. They have two little girls though one slept through the entire evening. The father apparently used to be some sort of a semi-pro soccer player and they’re going to try to set up a weekly game together, which I know Chris would really love.

The next day we showed up at clinic and found things not running. The water was not working and the clinic director was terribly distraught. She’s had to go through so much with no one listening to requests for help – repairs, supplies, staff, etc. We had already started screening when she was having signs put up that they would not be attending patients for the day due to lack of water. We don’t normally use water for screening since we clean fingers with alcohol and use gel hand sanitizer, so we were trying to finish up quickly. Already having patients set up for us (including a man, which is actually a relatively unusual patient at the clinic), we wanted to get everyone done before they were set away. We did all except for one woman who showed up a few minutes later. Andrew had to turn her away even though she’d showed up specifically for screening. I wasn’t happy about this. I was even more unhappy later when I realized that the reason we had not been allowed to see patients was as an act of protest to the government. I absolutely understand and empathize with the doctor’s terrible position and understand that this is how things must get done here but to turn away a patient actively seeking screening or treatment is a crime that’s very hard for me to stomach. Patients are routinely lost to follow up here. Few people have time or inclination to return to clinic. So to refuse someone who has come of their own accord makes so little sense. I just hope she came back in the next few days.

I think it was later that day that without anything else to do, Jaime and I were working to finish up the EKGs for people at the clinic (offered for free to test out the machine). We did an EKG on one lady and I told Jaime afterward, since I didn’t want to sound the alarm in front of her, that I recognized an S1Q3T3 – that’s a pattern of right heart strain that can be associated with a pulmonary embolus. I probably wouldn’t have noticed but she mentioned pleuritic chest pain (sharp pain when she breathes in) when we were talking earlier. So a little later, when she was free, I called her back into a private space and tried to talk to her a few minutes to make sure everything was okay. Medically, I’m convinced there wasn’t anything wrong acutely (she’d had two heart attacks in the past) but somehow we were talking about stress and she let loose. She told me about her three sons who never call her after she and their father divorces, how she doesn’t even know where they are. And about a malnourished child she brought back to health in her home for three years who the child services then replaced with her mother and whom she hasn’t heard from since. So she’s crying and telling me all of this and I can barely keep up in Spanish, and she’s one of my favorite people in the clinic. It was just awful. I felt so bad for her and so bad that I didn’t know what I could do or say. Usually I have words in situations like that, but usually those situations are in English. Hopefully it was just good for her to vent a little and of course, I told her over and over that I was always around if she needed to talk again.

That night was my first time to make the big dinner for the whole apartment. It took a while but it was relatively successful. The only problem was that I had to prep (and beg a little help from Chris) during a conference call to LA with the project’s mentor. Then, after the talk, Andrew felt he had too much to do so he didn’t eat with us (which I would fake being a little butt-hurt to him about it later). I feel like oatmeal is a big part of life out here so I made an oatmeal encrusted chicken. Chris said he’d never heard of such a thing but it turned out quite nice with a garlic white wine sauce and a couple sides.

Jaime and Andrew left in the wee hours Thursday morning for the MMB clean up project in the Uyuni area. We refrained from joining the group as it was put to us that this work (going out and cleaning clinics for two days for their inaugurations to be able to go to the salt flats for one day) was seen as a special perk and that we would be seen as in greater debt to the program by going. This idea (owing someone for helping with clean up) didn’t sit well with either Chris or I (there’s a lot about their program that hasn’t sat well with us lately). So we decided to take the opportunity to go on our own.

We had intended to leave Wednesday night but when we went to the terminal, we were misinformed as to the bus times and didn’t think that we would make it. So we stayed Wednesday night with the intention of leaving Thursday.

Thursday morning we tried to get a few things done before leaving. There was a program in the main plaza for Chagas awareness and unity put on by many of the programs we’ve been involved with. Chris, Ubaldina, and I walked down to show support from our contingent. The Chagas community is relatively small and there was someone we knew at each of the boothes – from the MSF people (who of course were asking where Andrew and Jaime were) to the nurse from the University clinic to the fulmigator from our clinic area (he’s the one who ratted us out to the health department, we call him the weasel). We only stayed a little while but it seemed they were getting a good bit of screening done so that was good.

After, we tried to go set up a cell phone for us – especially since we were trying to plan on meeting with Jaime in the Salar (salt flats) and would need a way to connect. We were using an extra phone Jaime is lending us that she had from her time in Thailand. We waited a good long time for our turn before we finally realized neither of us had our passports and we had to go back home. I was pissed. I took a few extra minutes to pack and then went to meet Chris again at the same place. So we now have a phone but neither of us has much idea of how it works.

We went to the other big vegetarian buffet (the first one was better – Gopal) before we went back to gather our things and head to the bus terminal. We hopped on a bus immediately and made the three(?) hour ride to Oruro with a crazy driver who was trying too hard to make up for being late. It was also the first time in Bolivia that we had salespitches (2!!!) on the bus. The break from all that was nice while it lasted.

We got to Oruro and realized that, like I said before, we’d been fibbed to and most of the buses left late. Having had the experience of arriving early and having to pay the full amount for half a night in a hostel, we elected to take the latest bus possible. So we had from 5pm to 11pm to kill time.

Deciding previously that there didn’t appear to be much to do in Oruro, we went walking to see the big market. Nothing too different from anywhere else we’ve been. Pretty similar to the one in Puno, Peru in fact. We had juice from amongst a row of stands. I picked the one we went to because it was the only one with a little girl. Worked in our favor too. It was a hilarious experience since she thought we were quite curious and was talking us up the whole time.

We tried looking for more yarn for Chris and of course found none. We did find plenty of drunk people though, who spent a little too long eyeing us up. And we walked around with our bags in front because it was way too crowded. How Chris does that when he’s got his big orange pack with him I’ll never quite understand.

We ate at an oriental chicken place – just means I got noodles with my chicken instead of rice. Due to poor reception in the Salar and Uyuni, all our attempts to contact Jaime and Andrew were frustrating and in vain.

As it got colder, we went back to the terminal to spend a couple hours reading, watching two little boys chase each other around, and dogs coming in and out while trying to ignore the very loud video jukebox several yards away. The puppies in the terminales had such sad eyes too. The bus came in late of course and the ride lived up to its reputation of being the bumpiest, roughest road for buses in Bolivia. The only problem was they didn’t put the heat on like had been promised. Luckily Chris brought the sleeping bag and other things, so we padded ourselves and did relatively well for sleep. Of course I also got new bruises from rolling my head around. At least there is some consistency to my bus riding experiences.

Welcome to Uyuni

We got into Uyuni around 6am and realized there was no actual bus station to go into – and it was freakin cold outside. Luckily the bus did have a bathroom though so at least that was one less thing to deal with. We waited like everyone else on the bus until we were kicked off. Then we were bombarded, continually and for the rest of the morning, by people trying to sell us tour packages. A big part of the draw in all of this for Chris was to ride the train back from Uyuni to Oruro, so we headed to the train station to check out times. Unfortunately, nothing was going to work with doing a three day tour and we accepted that we’d have to take the bus back – not a pleasant prospect at the time. Then, we stood around in the train station courtyard trying to warm up in the tiny amount of sun that had come up since we’d arrived.

Eventually, we went to eat a quick and very bready breakfast. Then we checked out a few tour agencies after we realized the agency originally set up to help travellers choose (having testimonials and rating environmental friendliness) had been shut down. Supposedly this was because it was only sending people to three places and receiving some form of kick-back. Disappointing. We eventually settled on a smaller company whose owner seemed very nice. But despite my continual insistence that she put a few things in writing for us (like refunding if we lost a day due to car trouble), she never did.

We were told we’d be in a group of six total. That was a lie because they knew few people would elect to go in a car with a four year old. Oh well. Our companions were a couple from Prague (Carolina and Hanza, which I never got right), slightly older than us, and a German woman who is a teacher working here with her two kids – an eight or nine year old girl and four year old boy. She looked very similar to our friend Jean but everything else about her was very different. She was a very firm mannered person. Her daughter was very perky and her son was very shy. All the adults spoke English, though Hanza not as well as the rest. Then there was our tour guide Jedi (pronounced heh-dee – but yes I made a star wars joke when he said it both ways). We thought we were going to have a cook too but there was no room due to the extra kid, so that was Jedi’s job too.

Our first stop was the so-called train graveyard, which was a load of fun for Chris. It was really just a bunch of old trains from when they used to haul out the salt that way. We got a lot of the back story and then we went wandering around. Chris really loves trains.

A boy who loves trains

We loaded back into the land cruiser or range rover or whatever it was and headed out for the Salar. It was a vast expanse of white. And once you got out far enough, it really was all white except for the mountains and “islands” in the distance. The salt flats are self-renewing and continually expanding with the rain. It’s also badly flooded and hard to get to during the rainy season so we lucked out that we came before the rainy season but also at low tide for tourism. This meant the unintentional caravan of land cruisers was only ten or so instead of twenty or thirty (and half of those were one day treks so they weren’t with us for the rest of the time).

We stopped in a little town to have things sold to us made out of salt. It was sad because we would have loved to support the community but it was just so touristy in the same way everything else was. I was a little headachey and kept having to pee a lot – probably an altitude thing though I still don’t understand how that should be an issue after so many months at altitude in our travels – so I appreciated any pee stop. We also stopped at the first salt hotel – really made all out of salt, which is an impressive upkeep. However, it’s not in use anymore because it’s been forbidden to run hotels on the Salar due to human pollution – things like car oil, trash, and then, the obvious.

Salt industry



Taste Testing

We went to the Isla del Pescado (misnomer  actually Incahuasi) to stop for lunch and explore. This is a so-called island of normal land in the middle of the Salar. A volcanic formation that is also covered in real (petrified) coral from when the area was submerged thousands of years ago (it was pointed out to us later that you could see the line in the mountains that marked where the water had reached). 

We climbed all over the island – trying to stay on the trails as we watched other people (mostly locals) trampling the foliage and old coral. There were people all over from the other cars. I couldn’t help but notice that all the European girls, including Carolina, were gorgeous and that they were all smoking. It’s just such a waste. Chris noted that Carolina is about the most considerate smoker we’ve ever encountered though. She’d probably have to be since Hanza doesn’t smoke but it was still very nice that she always tried to move a distance away.

On the flats

Lunch was the only meal on our trip that was red meat, despite having requested otherwise. However, it was the beginning of our surprise at how much fresh fruit and veggies we’d be given with each meal – always a pleasant surprise.

While Jedi was cleaning up (he didn’t and never would eat with us but was instead hobnobbing with the other drivers), we took advantage of (aprovechar) the opportunity to take the goofy pictures we’d heard about on the flats. Not all of them turned out perfectly but there are some fun ones. We, the couples, took turns helping each other out with the pictures, but the salt was really hard and I cut up my hands and elbows laying flat for the right angles.



Chris` favorite - just use a little imagination



Tasty?



Show-off



Our group alone stopped one last time on the salt flats. Chris had been hoping to stop to see the salt where it hadn’t been tread on too much by tires because it naturally formed pentagons and hexagons. We didn’t realize when Jedi told us there were three types that not all of them formed geometrical designs. But we did appreciate the landscape once more and take some more goofy pictures with the toy dinosaurs he brought for that purpose.



Riding my dino namesake



Long on the flats



We had a long debate on who should be stepped on - this seemed the most fitting

 We arrived at a hotel at the base of a small mountain range, so technically not on the Salar, also made of salt. Even our bed frames were just big blocks of salt, which was pretty cool. Jedi disappeared, with the car too so we thought he’d just left. Chris and I went out to chase the sunset occurring right behind us and try to reach the salt flats, but the shade came too fast and it started getting cold. We were all sitting around in the main room when Jedi reappeared with tea and cookies. Then another very large group showed up at the hotel. Our group stayed to itself and we were all out talking for a while waiting for dinner. Dinner was very, very late, so unfortunately the kids had already gone to bed. But dinner was hot, which was all that mattered to me. There was a mama puppy that kept peeking her head in and it just broke my heart I wanted to feed her so bad but people from the other group kept pushing her out and closing the door on her. I don’t need meat and mama doggies definitely do. I just wish I could feed them all.

We slept relatively well. Chris was overly warm. We woke and left to set out first for a viewpoint of a “semi-active” volcano. En route, Chris saw the two cruisers that had been at the hotel with us stopped and the people waving, probably for help. They were from the same company and so Jedi said that they could help each other and we weren’t necessary.

Salt hotel - everything not colorful is salt

We were still slightly on the Salar I suppose and the mountains we were coming up to were so beautifully colored (they looked like they were molded out of clay), so we asked to stop and take some pictures. Another car stopped next to us and all piled out. It was cold but good to get out and walk around (the whole trip was way too much car time for me, especially with 11 hours of bussing at the beginning and end). Suddenly, without saying anything (at least not to our group), Jedi and the other driver got into the other car and left to go back to where a bunch of other cars were behind us in the distance. We lazied around and waited – nearly an hour. Eventually, the other group started walking back to where the other cars were since they’d been left without shelter. Chris and I walked around a bit. The salt was different there as well. Stepping on some parts felt like the first crack of crème brulee and sounded like cornflakes falling into a bowl. Some of the formations of salt looked like cauliflower. Eventually Chris stepped away to, as he put it, “add more salt to the lake.”

Our driver finally came back and explained he’d gone back to talk to the other drivers but found one of the cars was stuck in the mud so they had to help get it out (admirable enough, but I could see even from the distance that there were already more than enough people there to help). I was the one to tell him Hey, next time you really need to tell us before you just take off somewhere. He didn’t get it. As we’ve described in the past, he just kept making excuses over and over. Chris told me later he was peeved that he didn’t apologize but all I wanted was an acknowledgement he wouldn’t do it again.

We drove a ways and stopped at the lookout for the mountain, which was putting out puffs of smoke from the side – nothing too terribly scary or impressive though, just pretty. This began my adventures in outdoor peeing. Let me just say that finding a private spot as a female when it’s really windy is an impressive feat. I was a pro by the end of the trip.


First view of the lake

Chris said later that he was expecting the salt flats to be an amazing, breath-taking site and was a little disappointed that they weren’t quite that (they were exactly what I expected – big, white, and flat), but the next part was better than he expected. We arrived at the first of the five lakes in the nearby mountains and the pink spots in the water immediately popped out. The whole lake was covered in flamingoes. It was beautiful. We immediately started moving out in all directions along with the other four or five carloads of people to snap pictures. The land around the lake was like a marsh. Stay in one place too long and you’d sink through. They were certainly aware of our presence but not scared. They’d just slowly move away. It was amazing to just watch as they ate or flew across the lake. It’s an animal that I feel must be fairly rare to see in its natural habitat.

We ate lunch next to the lake and unfortunately saw some of the drivers leaving huge bags of trash right next to the lake. If I thought it would have done anything, I would have yelled at them. I asked Jedi if he did the same thing. He of course told me no but I’m not really sure I believed him. We headed off to the next lake where we stopped and again took more pictures. The scenery was just beautiful – a little colder though. We passed by the rest of the lakes without stopping.

Undoubtedly the best picture I took on the trip without digital zoom, Oooooh aaaaaaah

We stopped to pay an entrance fee to get into the rest of the park/reserve and were told if we couldn’t show the ticket when we felt in the morning, we’d have to pay again. Not the best deal for us if you ask me. We made a couple quick stops – having to apparently hotwire the engine to restard each time. We stopped at an area known for viscachas (kind of bunnies with long tails). The rest of the cars were there too and we were really upset by the way the jerk tourists were chasing after the bunnies to take pictures and then even feeding them – which is probably why the area is known for them. We rushed up to see the Laguna Colorada where there are more flamingoes and pink algae that make the lake pink and red when the wind sweeps them up to the surface. Unfortunately, we got there right as the sun was starting to set and the lake was mostly in shade – something we resented after the hour wait in the car. We stepped out to take a couple pictures but the wind was so strong and cold, it was almost hard to breathe. At this point, apparently the little boy needed to pee but for some reason couldn’t do it himself. So when I turned around all I saw was his bare buns and dangling bits peeing into the air as mom propped his back on her legs and held his legs up in the air. It was a rather startling site.

We went to another hotel with a different loud group. We couldn’t guess whether or not they’d come together to begin with but they acted like old friends. They drank like they were old friends too. Chris went outside to try to knit in the cold while waiting for a big bottle of quinoa beer he bought at a stop earlier in the day to chill a bit. A couple on their honeymoon from La Paz engaged him about both the beer and his knitted before I came and begged him to come back inside so he wouldn’t freeze.

This time we had one big room with seven beds for all of us instead of our own private rooms. We had spaghetti and were given a bottle of red wine – again too late for the kids. The alcohol was surprising but unfortunate since Chris had his beer already. The beer was finished of course – very nice, tasted like a wheat beer – but the wine (good for a generic label bottle) went unfinished. Chris kept the quinoa beer bottle so we can maybe have it melted when we get home. Chris and I crawled into a small bed together to share body heat. I tried to broach the subject with mom first to make sure it wouldn’t be a problem for the kids but everyone just laughed at me and Carolina said Well, it better not be a problem because we’re doing the same. I slept all right. Chris didn’t of course.

In flight

Our last day was set to be the longest and the most driving. Jedi had come to us at dinner the night before and asked if we wanted to go to the lakes we were set to see or skip those for a couple smaller things. He presented it as that the lake was supposed to be another color spectacle but probably there wouldn’t be wind to do the trick. There definitely was enough wind. He just wanted to shave off some time from the long trip back. He could have just put it that way because it was fine with us. We were woken up at 5:30. Not because we were going to see the sunrise but because that was just the schedule.

We rushed to get ready and by the time we were ready and had gotten to the car, Jedi wasn’t. He’d disappeared the night before again and when we got to the car, we saw the signs of where he’d been. There was a broken beer bottle on the foot ledge and stains on the floor where we put our things that must have been alcohol. When he got into the car, he was alert and talkative, much more so than usual.

We drove up to what were supposed to be geysers. They were geothermal formations venting lots of steam and a small man-made geyser. We stepped out to take pictures for a few minutes. He told us he had ways of estimating and that it was probably five degrees below zero (and that’s in centigrade!). The cold air made my eyes water but it immediately started freezing to my face. It was intensely cold and we were ready to move on quickly because our next stop was the hot springs.

Man-made geyser

Going to the hot springs, he was driving fast, and downhill a good bit of the way (by the way, rollercoaster in Spanish is montaña rusa). Carolina in the front seat apparently looked nervous. Any time someone has to tell you not to be afraid, it’s typically not a good thing. Especially when no one in the car but driver and passenger have seatbelts (that’s typical of anywhere in the country). He looked wild and I kept looking at his eyes in the rearview mirror but wasn’t sure exactly what I was seeing. All I knew was that he made me feel angry, but I couldn’t put my finger on why.

We arrived at the hot springs, a small bath on the edge of another lake, and quickly disrobed and climbed in as quickly as possible to avoid freezing. It was a little more crowded than we were expecting but it was really refreshing. The same honeymooning couple yelled out a warning before we both slipped on the slimey rocks getting in. Mom and the kids took the longest getting in and the little guy came in naked. At first, he was really unhappy about it and they couldn’t do much to coerce him in but once he got in, his face just lit up like Oooooh this is nice.

When we got out, breakfast was ready. Real pancakes! And yogurt with iffy granola (puffy cereal). It was quite nice except for the lack of plates and utensils. Jedi had disappeared so we ate everything by hand. Then, Chris and I talked and he put into words what I had subconsciously realized – Jedi had taken some kind of stimulant. Chris had been looking at his eyes too but was doing so purposefully for the dilated pupils he knew he’d had. We weighed the situation and the risks of a drugged driver who probably did it to avoid the hangover he would have otherwise had. In the end, we decided we had to just continue but watch him carefully. We decided to tell Carolina and Hanza but didn’t want to scare mom with her kids on board. Four sets of eyes would be better than two.

Jedi took forever coming out and we were the last group to leave. Chris kept him talking the whole time. I unfortunately fell asleep. I figure what happens happens.

Having had such a lousy experience of Laguna Colorada the day before, we stopped again on our way back. The color was incredible with the presence of the flamingoes and the mountains in the background. It looked like someone poured out the world’s largest bottle of pepto-bismol in the mountains and the pink birds were just swimming in it. This time, he honked the horn to scare them as we passed away. I have to be honest, it is beautiful to watch them fly, but that was one of the things I specifically asked the operators about – that they wouldn’t molest the animals for our benefit. Better than littering but not by much. It all made me wonder how bad an influence our presence has on the animals.

Laguna Colorada

We stopped again for lunch. It was really windy. I think I’ve said that enough but it was something we hadn’t heard. Everyone told us it would be cold but no one said windy. Windy is a different beast. And it made the weekend miserable. After eating, we went to the first of the three promised “extra” stops. This first was called the lost italian city. Don’t ask – I can’t explain. Anyway, it was a lot of great rock formations and we climbed up the easiest one altogether – except for mom and the youngest. The little girl I kept a super close eye on and eventually took her hat as it kept blowing off and I was afraid she’s chase it over the edge. It was a lovely little playground for Chris, though the rocks were volcanic and crumbled away quite easily. We were alone for this stop, which was great, but the rest of the caravan caught up with us for the second – a rock forest where we were told to “use our imaginations.” You’ll see the picture of the only one I cared for, which I spotted immediately when we pulled up.

Look close before you read the answer!

It's a space shuttle! I'm a trekkie and damn proud of it.

Knitting on lunch break with a little watcher behind him

The last stop was a canyon – a real one surprisingly since most of the rest of the landscape was just hilly – with a serpentine river running through it. We scrambled up to a good vantage point to peer down. Again the wind was strong enough that it made me a little nervous to stand up. Then, we made the long, tiresome drive back to Uyuni. The little guy had proven to be about as whiney as they come. I know he’s little but Chris agreed that we’d never seen a little kid cry so easily or throw so many fits. Mom did a great job of just letting him go and not feeding into it at all. There was one point at which he started screaming and after a few minutes without stopping she finally felt the need to explain to us that she’d only wiped his face clean.

We had talked about tipping with the group before but given the circumstances with no not proven but very highly suspected drug use while working and all of the abandoning, we didn’t feel it was right to encourage. Also, given the experiences we’d had we got the feeling that this was standard practice and not something that would be truly punished if we complained, and we didn’t want to get anyone fired anyway. It was a difficult situation overall. We said our goodbyes to the family and swapped emails with Carolina and Hanza in case they pass through Cochabamba and in case we pass through Prague.

Hanging off the rocks in a climber's paradise

Again at the climbing place, I had a red lollipop

We went and found some dinner. The main corridor, though the town is very small, is so very touristy that it was almost exclusively pizza. So we were excited when we found a place that had a larger menu. But then it turned out that nothing was available – anything but pizza would take too long, no chicken, no this, no that. We’d order and then they’d come back and say no, would we like something else? The pizza, which was supposedly the easiest, took more than an hour. Fortunately it was really good but we were going to catch our bus and both really tired. I got a little exasperated when I was told for the fourth or fifth time that what I wanted wouldn’t work. When I went to the bathroom, the kid came back and apologized to Chris because he could tell I was mad and explained that it was low tourism season and so they didn’t have as much and were usually lucky to get a few people a night. I felt bad for him but they could at least tell you that when you walk in.

We went to get on our bus and found the one we booked hadn’t returned from Oruro. So we got a refund and went looking for another. We lucked out that we found one leaving at nearly the same time but it was a cheaper bus, with even less space then all of our previous small seats. We were both getting tired and grumpy by this point and Chris decided that all he wanted was a Snickers. After spending a while looking, I’d given up but while waiting for the bus, he went again and found his Snickers. At last, success! Once the bus got there, we still had a half an hour to wait on the bus but Chris was nervous about a couple guys walking up and down the street eyeing the luggage, so he stayed out to watch a while. Small bags always stay on laps but Chris’ big one had to go down below. Nothing happened but it was still better that he watched it.

The bus ride was miserable. This time nothing could keep us warm or comfortable. The seat indicator light was broken and so when the bus bounced, the light bobbed and shown in my face over and over like a little broken spotlight. We got into Oruro around 4am I think. The terminal itself was closed and we had to wade through the people on the street to find the right bus. This one was much more comfortable and we slept well, or better at least. However, it took nearly an extra hour to get home through the city because of traffic, and I had to pee like mad by the time we got there.

Feeding Mama Llama

We got home and I went out to get us salteñas for breakfast. I went to our favorite place, Homero’s (with the picture of Homer J out front), and this time I asked the woman why she chose the name. She said he reminds her of her husband – bald and fat.

Chris somehow felt awake after the whole ordeal and went in to help at work. I needed a nap and then woke up early to try to make it in for the gift exchange (I mentioned it last time for Día de la Amistad). However, they didn’t have the exchange then. They still haven’t that I’m aware of.

The next day, Tuesday, we had our first Spanish lessons. Blanca is Chris’ tutor and mine is a guy in his 30s named Alex who laughs at odd moments and sits a little too close. I always have guy tutors and they’re always a little weird. It went okay but we went to the university Blanca works at and had to find our own corners in very full courtyards. Alex and I sat near guys practicing bartending tricks. I think it was all a little too distracting for him. Chris really liked it. Apparently, he and Blanca played games for lessons. Sounded like fun.

We were having some trouble with relaying information among members of the house so we got a whiteboard (actually it was for screening that I’d bought but Andrew commandeered it with my permission) to make a calendar and keep notes. I was working Wednesday night when Andrew was being very OCD about using a ruler to measure out the lines and draw a two week calendar exactly. Then, he started staring at me really hard to the point where I had to laugh and tell him he was creeping me out. He drew pictures of each of us as some sort of bizarre key on the calendar but only Chris and I were caracatures. Jaime was a cow (last name queue there), Ubaldina a rabbit, and Andrew a “perro de la calle” as he likes to call himself.

Another flamingo - just breaking up text

The rest of the week was significant for starting to enroll our first patients for the survey. The clinic was quiet, practically non-functioning. We had seen when we got home on Monday that something big was going on at the stadium. Turned out to be a high school sport convocation something or other. Other than making our morning commute a little more painful, it was only significant because the MAS higher ups wrote our clinic director and told her she would have to make her ambulance, driver, a nurse, and a doctor available and present at the event every day for the whole week. This was an unacceptable request because it would in reality shut down clinic operations for the entire week. So our doctor called them up to speak out against this and was reemed for it. She was told that she was a nobody and how dare she question the MAS party. In protest, she put up signs that the clinic would not be running for the week and whose fault it was. The secretary/coordinator Paul (who, along with the only other doc at the clinic, is a MASista) told her she really shouldn’t do that, but she didn’t listen. Up the signs went and we’ll get to why this is so significant in a bit.


Yeah, I eat salad. This is for Leanne who lovingly suggested we avoid it,
but when you are travelling for a year, there are some things you just can´t avoid.
(And yes that´s a donut box next to my healthy food, but pretend you don´t see it.
It was a gift for the house.) Lovely face, don't you think?



Wednesday Jaime and I went to a big MMB meeting about organizing the conference – mostly nothing pertinent to me. Though I did get to meet the program director’s nephew who was already a doc here but just got done with Step2 and is applying for residency in the US (living in Florida). Poor guy was really stressed out about the whole thing. Thursday the nutritionistas made gnocchi for lunch (that’s twice in a couple of

Thursday night, the boys went to Sucre to get some work done on the house. That night, I stayed up late doing the first of the four translations Jaime and I would have to do of powerpoint presentations for the MMB Acute Care Conference this week.

The next morning, Ubaldina, Jaime, and I went in to the clinic. Nearly first thing, I was faced with two patients coming in for their ELISA results. Of course, we didn’t have them. So I had to ask the secretary Paul to call the lab for me. Hers was positive and her husband’s had to be repeated by order of MSF for reasons I couldn’t understand. I called her in to talk about the results and how we could get an EKG done for her that day to determine whether she could be treated (if heart pathology is too advanced, treatment won’t be affected). She was understandably upset but seemed to understand. I went to get Jaime for the EKG and she went to get her husband. We all came together and quickly realized that she thought her husband was positive and not her. But the scariest part for her seemed to be the EKG study. I had already explained everything but Jaime had to do it all again to reassure her that the EKG wouldn’t harm her. They went off together and I went to draw her husband’s blood (always a shaky experience but good practice).

I was spending most of the morning cataloging/databasing patients who’d been lost to follow up (something Chris and I decided could and should be our most important contribution aside from the study – to find the people who need treatment and haven’t gotten it). I had to put this on hold to take the blood sample to the lab. A pain to have to stop but also good because it was the second time I was going to the lab that week and Chris and I were on the hunt to figure out what was going on with the lab results (missing and lost or just really late, people were returning in two weeks like we said and we’d have nothing for them). I explained the situation to the lab tech/doc again and questioned what might be happening. He was indignant and didn’t give me any real answers (just like the nurse who’s job it is to keep track of these things at the clinic) but did hand me a stack of results to take back.

They're all so beautiful they don't even look real sometimes

I walked out tired and confused. I had to walk by a partially outdoor market to get back to the main road and take a Trufi back to the clinic. I tried to take the sidewalk around the market but found my way blocked by a man with a woman in a wheelchair sitting in the shade. So I stepped off the path to move around them. Now it’s a very, very common occurrence to turn out your ankles here, especially in dress shoes, but up until this point, I’d always been able to catch myself. This time, as I stepped off the path, I turned my ankle out but as I did it, I stepped on a small, loose branch such that when I tried to catch myself with my other foot it got caught on this branch and down I went like a ton of rocks. The whole thing played in slow motion for me since I’m so used to catching myself it was startling, obviously, to have tripped so completely. I caught myself hands, knees, and right hip. And then I slowly tried to get myself up. The two people just staring at me the whole time and now a group of kids a bit away are laughing and saying Haha her pants are dirty! Now I don’t normally think ill of children but under the circumstances, my thoughts were probably a little exaggerated given the reaction. I look at the people and say What a bit of good luck that was. They nod. I walk off and take account of my dirty pants and bleeding knees. Getting into (and out of) the trufi, I slam my head on the door frame, not intended for someone my height (as ironic as that may sound for the shortest person in the family). I’m tired and ready to go home.

Ubaldina and Jaime went out but I came home to try to nap off all my bad luck – sleeping was hard for the rest of the weekend with all my sore spots. I finished the database work that night and then joined Jaime and Ubaldina to go out for the birthday celebration for one of the nutritionistas. I hadn’t wanted to go but convinced myself it would be the best thing to do since I was feeling so crappy. It was. The group of us met up in the park and then went to have a few drinks (several of which out of a very phallic mug, which luckily someone else has pictures of so I can’t even be tempted to show them here). We went out to eat briefly after in a street food area – kind of like an outdoor food court. I got a huge chicken taco that was smothered in this green sauce that turned out to be cilantro-based. There was an old man begging there so I bought him one too. It obviously made him really happy and he was very grateful. It feels overall like such a selfish thing to do because I end up feeling so good because of it but either way, he got to eat and I was self-gratified for only about a buck fifty. Only problem was that we touched hands as I handed his off to him (thinking about what might have made me sick – if not just the food itself). Then, we went out dancing. But the club mostly played cumbia (I think it’s boring for the most part – especially without a partner) and there were bugs crawling behind our seats, though the rest of the place looked a lot nicer than expected. I was not as entertained as I’d hoped, Ubaldina was fading, and I was creeped out by the large, slightly neanderthal-ish man standing in the corner eyeing us dancing over his beer. So we took off around 1:30.

Chris gawking at the flamingoes at the second lake

Ubaldina took off the next morning for her family’s house and Jaime and I woke up and immediately started our last set of translations. Mine took a few hours. Hers took five or six. And poor Jaime was a little hungover. After all that, she took a nap and I went for a long walk. There were horses out on the main street and many cars decorated for Saturday weddings. It was nice to get out of the house. I went and picked up a couple of movies too: Aliens, because neither Jaime or Andrew have seen it which I find unacceptable as it’s one of my favorites, and Herby the Love Bug, because Andrew’s been going nuts jumping through hoops trying to buy a car (it was between a beetle, “peta” here, and a 60s land cruiser, Chris’ dream car, now it’s neither). Jaime and I went out for dinner to the Mexican place Chris and I liked so much. I had a salad (though I did have one or two earlier in the week that didn’t affect me!). I stayed up late with the Simpsons movie in Spanish on (I have to say I love puerco araña, that´s spider pig in English) starting this and making pancake batter for the next morning.

The boys got home at 6 or 7 Sunday morning. I can’t say for sure since I just rolled over, gave a big hug, and went back to sleep. When we all woke up, I made papaya juice and oatmeal banana pancakes and Jaime made frittata. It was a lovely little brunch. We did errands for the rest of the day and Jaime and Andrew dealt with another dead-end car attempt (the land cruiser this time). We were supposed to have a little meeting over the databasing stuff I’d been doing but Andrew was so distraught about car stuff that he invited the doorman (Ruben, a very good guy who’s been around with us before) up for a drink instead. It was Sunday night when my stomach started to get a little gurgly and I had a very sore throat.

The enemy - vinchucas in a bag brought from a teacher,
these bad boys live in the school a block away

I woke up Monday starting to feel even worse, just my throat really. There were several study interviews scheduled and Monday is also our day to cook lunch. So the plan had been for me to go run screening, Chris to go buy the necessaries for lunch, and the rest of the crew to handle project work. But since I felt terrible, Chris offered to switch me so I could nap a while longer. Then, I went and braved the market and got what we needed for eggplant parm (with noodles of course). Chris and I cooked and it was a relative success. Chris also had a great day since he said working by himself meant his Spanish improved immensely (or just that he had to be more confident about it).

This week the MMB Acute Care Conference with docs from Minnesota is Tuesday through Thursday. Monday we were supposed to have a meeting but I decided to stay home and nap instead so I might feel better for the next day. Chris and I went out to grab empanadas from a nearby place we like. The owner is incredibly nice to us and her little girl was playing and crawling all over the tables. While we were waiting, the little girl crawled down and started to walk with her foot and ankle each turned inward. It was apparent she had a clubfoot that was never repaired. Chris, who had his orthopedics rotation at Childrens, explained that it’s an incredible shame because it’s so easy to fix. Chris wants to frequent their restaurant more often now.

Then came Tuesday. All it took was my first bite of oatmeal and away we went. I still went with Jaime and Andrew to the program. I thought I’d be able to tough it out. Andrew and Jaime had volunteered to do the actual translation during the lectures. I was firm in saying that my Spanish would not be sufficient to do a live translation but I would do the small group sessions in the afternoon. Jaime and Andrew’s friend Sergio and one of the company’s drivers picked us up but Sergio immediately made a snyde comment about how Chris was probably still asleep (Chris had elected to go to the clinic instead because our time is limited and someone should be getting work done). It wasn’t a great tone to set for the morning but at least Andrew spoke up for him.

Sunset behind Laguna Colorada

We got to the campus where the conference was being held and started to help unload and set up things. The head doctor for the program from Minnesota was there and immediately interested in meeting Andrew because MMB people had been talking him up. I tried to introduce myself as well but it felt like I walked into a black tie affair wearing a tutu. I shook his hand and he went silent. So I just said nice to meet you, and walked away. It was just a shame to see that pervasive all male attitude coming from someone from the states too.

There were three sections – dental, nursing, and medical. Jaime was translating with a very nice Dutch doctor for dental and Andrew and the director’s nephew translated in medical. But really the nephew did all of it because one of the OBGYNs had turned in a 44 slide powerpoint that morning and Andrew had to translate it in a few hours for the presentation. At first, I just felt a little yucky but then I started shivering and getting really cold – despite the fact that I’m sure there was no AC. The lectures were interesting, even a useful little review. So I took advantage of the first break and tried to go warm up in the sun. The other doc from our clinic was there. I noticed after a few minutes while I was kneeling miserable on the ground that he was only fifteen or so feet away and hadn’t even come to say hi or make sure I was all right. What can you do? At this point, Andrew was asked to switch to dental to speed things up. I told him I’d probably be leaving. I stayed through half the next lecture and then was shaking and shivering too much to stay. I went and found Sergio and told him I was sick and needed to leave. He finally stopped what he was doing and gave me a look that said The hell you are. So I told him, I’ve gone to the bathroom five times and I have a fever. He said Wow and that I could leave. Thanks so much for the permission. As I left, I had to ask the guard at the gate for help figuring out which Trufi or micro would get me home most directly. He went out with me and flagged down the bus. The only person who’d been helpful when I’d been so miserable and bless him for it.

I got home and lay in bed shaking under the sleeping bag (I think rated for -20?) for a few hours. Then I finally took a tylenol (that’s paracetamol 500mg in the rest of the world) and when Chris got home a little later he made me take a real dose. Chris and Ubaldina had a terrible day in clinic. They’d gone in with the intention of doing the screening and then tracking down patients from a list we’d made of those who needed treatment – as in actually going out and scouring the neighborhood to find these people. Instead, Chris got chewed out multiple times over screening receipts (dear god there is so much paperwork to do for everything down here) both that the nursing students did (after I taught them the correct way the day before!!!) and the things no one ever taught us. But he did also finally get the chance to sit down with the head doctor (who’s had a long and occupied couple of weeks) and talk to her about finding patients lost to follow up.

Chris transferred me to the couch so I could watch some TV – dog whisperer was on and then a program about the scientific wonders of dogs, my kind of afternoon. Blanca came over and did Chris’ lesson.

Flamingos in flight

 
When Andrew and Jaime got home, we got a slew of news all at once. The head doctor had come to the program later in the afternoon. She told them that she would have to meet with the MAS people and the health department the next day and that they would likely fire her or force her to resign based on her having spoken out. She said that she had gone to Paul and to the other doctor (again, both MASistas) and asked if they would support her, if they would help her to fight for the clinic. And they said no. She told Andrew and Jaime it would be better if she stay out of harm’s way and not come into clinic at least until things settle down – maybe never. She started crying and said that we had been a gift to her, that before we came she thought she was the only one who cared. And she used Chris cornering her that same morning to talk about needing to help patients as an example of how we’ve helped her to see that there are other people who care. I started crying while Andrew was telling us. I know I was sick and already ready to cry at the drop of a hat. She’s gone through so much and she was still thinking of us and our best interests. Hopefully we will hear that things go well for her, but I really don’t think that’s likely. Now we need to talk about what we think we should do – if we’ll even stay here or if we might be leaving to go stay in Sucre soon.

I fevered for most of the rest of the night. We watched WALL-E in Spanish (not that there’s much dialogue) for Ubaldina who’d never seen it, but she went to bed a half an hour in. I tried to eat some leftover soup (think of it as Oral Rehydration Solution with a little flour added – didn’t taste much better than that) and a little soda.

Chris and I were home Wednesday and Thursday while the rest went to the conference. Chris went to the cancha (that huge outdoor market) and finally found his yarn Wednesday. I finished Always Looking Up, the Michael J Fox autobiography (a very good, easy read). Now I’ve been laying around watching movies, in English and Spanish. We watched Demolition Man (caught a lot of Brave New World references I couldn´t pick up on as a kid) and George of the Jungle (a very underrated classic) in English yesterday. I´ve also started reading What is the What - a quasi-autobiography about the Sudanese Lost Boys. It´s incredibly powerful and I´m moving through it at a good pace (for my snail sort of reading speed). I ate a bit and finally got around to some actual solid food. We made my first trip out of the apartment last night to go to the grocery store because I felt like some Ramen. Chris got me Mac N Cheese earlier in the day. It´s nice that the American comfort foods are still available when you really need them. Overall, I’m feeling a lot better though still not fully functional. So today I slept in, which I really needed, while the rest of the clan went to a different clinic to do some study work there.

Things went well at the other clinic today. They got seven more patients for the study and Chris got to help some with the screening too. I think it's good that they've had the opportunity to make some forward progress. I know earlier this week or even last week Chris and I were feeling like a lot of what we were trying to do was a lost cause. Screening felt like an unattainable battle. How can you help people who don't seem to want to be helped? The reaction to results, the openness to screening, it's all been so variable from person to person, but thank goodness we are still seeing those few people who are looking for help. There are still people who you can tell have a family member with Chagas or a neighbor and the relieved look on their face when you tell them that their test is negative is invaluable in making you want to wake up and do it again the next morning. Now if only they'd let us come in to do it, but I guess that's a different battle.

A lot of this is politics in Bolivia. Andrew has talked about this being a crucial time for the healthcare system in Bolivia but I don't think any of us is feeling very optimistic about how that will turn out for international agencies, volunteers, students, etc. Chris and Andrew went to the Peace Corps office again for some advice/help/assistance and Chris relayed to me the story they heard of the Bolivian government fining an NGO (non-government organization - like MSF, MMB, Peace Corps) upwards of 70 million in back-taxes. And that's in dollars! The government is trying to make their country as unfriendly as possible to anyone in anyway affiliated with the US or who could be construed as serving their own purposes rather than those of the MAS party.

Chris had a follower getting a soda on a hot day

Other big news, we heard back from the OBGYN doctor Chris worked with and he’s going to Bangladesh in late April. So this changes things a bit as that’ll now be the end of our trip and Africa/France will be next up after Thailand. We’ll see how things pan out but we’re both really excited to get to go work with him. Very good news.

Other news came in that Chris' buddy Bart is going to head down here to meet us either when we go to the jungle Madidi or for Machu Picchu. His friend Stephane is hoping to meet us in Southeast Asia and is also offering to host us for a while in France. I'm really excited we'll be having people coming out to join us and we'll be seeing familiar faces. But I'm a little jealous it's looking like it'll all be Chris' friends.

So you´ve made it this far, which means you start to get the randomness. In no specific order, here´s the jibberish.

Chris is knitting like a mad man at this point. He finished his first hat with ear flaps while I was on Skype with my mom. So we got a nice little fashion show. Sorry, I´ll have to take a picture later for the rest of you. Chris is making himself a knitting bag right now (kind of like a man purse but not for carrying manly things, depending on how you look at it). It's dark and light green. It's adorable how excited he is about it.

As has already been reviewed in some detail, things went crazy in the clinic. But before that, or even with all that, there was still plenty else going on. Starting the study meant doing EKGs as well (which is also now under review and scrutiny and has been put on hold by MSF, though now feels relatively irrelevant with everything else going on). It´s very sweet but also a little strange to me how shy and modest the women are about undressing for their EKGs. I understand that it´s a strange and foreign thing in general, but given how freely they reveal themselves for breastfeeding, I didn´t think the problem with undressing would be so pervasive. I always feel so bad for them. Of course they´re always scared of what we´ll find and the problem is that technically we aren´t (weren´t - given the new changes) allowed to tell them our informal read and we had to tell them to come back in two weeks to have their PCP go over it with them - our best carrot to get them to come back and get re-introduced to care in the clinic.

I guess the other excitement in the clinic had been how many people were bringing in their vinchucas to get free fumigation. It´s a great thing and wonderful to see so many people taken advantage of it. The big bags of bugs (like the picture) are disturbing though, as is the fact that we think we may have seen one in the exam room we were using for surveys. Not good.

I feel like a democratic failure and I´m absolutely ashamed to admit it. As important as this year is going to be for voting, none of us will be a part of it. I had even done my research before we left on how to register to vote abroad but with all the moving around I had to wait until we were settled in one place. Once we were settled here, I figured the system out as best as I could and told Andrew we should all register. Of course he was really excited about it (Andrew´s an excitable guy, which is a great thing, he just needs someone to keep him on task with all his excitement) but we never followed through with all the crap that´s been going on. I realized a couple days ago my mistake and that it would certainly now be too late to have anything sent to us in Bolivia. I´m seriously distraught. I only say this as a way to push the rest of you to make sure to go do it for me. No excuses, if you`re in the states, you better make it to the polls. Unless we have differing political opinions of course, and then I really don´t care if you go. No really, I´m only joking. Everyone should vote, even the people whose votes make me angry. Just please don´t tell me about it afterwards is all.

I found myself auto-flipping on the boob tube (the remote doesn't work so you kind of just sit on the floor in front of it and push the buttons mindlessly, over and over) and Jaime commented Looks like someone is glad we didn't move the TV into Ubaldina's room. Yeah, I'm ashamed of it but I became a TV addict this week. I suppose it's acceptable in illness but I just need to make sure it doesn't continue past this.

Viscacha with the cute little whiskers

So as I think I've mentioned, Andrew has been trying desperately to get a car down here. It hasn't worked out so well, but I just found out today that one of the ladies at MMB is loaning him a peta (VW beetle). Like I said, his childhood dream car. He's excited. We're going to have a little movie night tonight (like I need to watch anymore TV) with the original Herbie the Love Bug (not the one with the crack fiend) and Aliens and pipoca (Jaime's favorite spanish word - popcorn).

The computer at the internet cafe where I was this afternoon suddenly stopped recognizing my camera and my re-sizing program doesn't work on Andrew's Mac. So putting up all these pictures is taking forever but I figure that's the main part people care about.

When they were going to this new clinic today, Chris was telling Ubaldina how all the cows and the smell of cow poop (probably not in exactly those words) reminded him of home. Her response was along the lines of "as if." She really didn't believe that there were cows in the US. Every TV show she's ever seen has been in the city so she's never heard of agriculture in the states. This reminded me of being in a micro with the clinic Villa Israel's head doctor last week. We were talking about driving and I said I would be much too scared to drive here. She said she thought American drivers were much more aggressive - like they are in the movies. I had to explain to her that no, that's definitely not the way we drive. It's really interesting to hear the misconceptions people have about us and where we come from.

Well I guess that´s about all I´ve got. It was well under 20 pages, though I'm sure it'll be longer with pictures. Hopefully not the 40 pages I heard the last one was when Margie printed out the last one.
Hopefully breaking up the pictures as I did wasn't too disjointed seeming. Sorry for all the typos by the way.

Wishing smooth transitions and much sleep to all the beautifully big pregnant ladies and new parents in our lives,

Love and big Bolivian hugs,

Sara