We spent five tranquilo days in El Puente. We cooked some good food, took mom on some short hikes, and she met our friends and work partners in town. She had a wonderful time in our site and fell right into sync with the slow campo lifestyle. We headed back into Tarija for Turkey Day and so that she could meet the rest of the Tarija volunteers. Here we are waiting for the bus in El Puente.
We enjoyed a nice traditional US Thanksgiving meal and had a rare opportunity to be with all 20 or so Tarija volunteers. After Thanksgiving we went on a hike just outside of Tarija to a set of twin waterfalls. The same place that Erica and I would later spend Christmas day. We took a lunch and spent the day at the river enjoying the water.
After almost two weeks in Bolivia it was time for my mom to return to California. We do not have an international airport in Tarija so she was flying out of the city of Santa Cruz on an early morning flight. Because the flight was so early she had to leave Tarija one day prior and spend the night in Santa Cruz. Mom did not want to go alone, so I bought a ticket with the plan to accompany her for the night and then get back to Tarija. Well things did not work out so smoothly.
First of all, Bolivia is a very passionate country and is currently going through a sort of political identity crisis. Just before we arrived last January the country voted on an "Autonomia" referendum. A choice was put to the people whether to grant greater power to the departments (states) and therefor take power away from the federal government. Well 4 of the 9 departments voted in favor of Autonomia and one was 51%-49% against. Offically the referendum did not receive a majority of the total votes and lost, but the four departments that voted in favor believed they had a mandate from their people and moved forward on the path toward Autonomia. The federal government disagreed with the local governments and there has been tension ever since.
Tarija is one of the departments which voted in favor of Autonomia and we have seen countless marches, work stoppages, hunger strikes, and massive roadblocks (known as bloqueos.) Whenever things start to get a little crazy Peace Coprs activates their Emergency Action Plan. (EAP) In the year plus that we have been here we´ve experienced at least 6 EAPs. During an EAP we are not allowed to travel and have to call into the central office every day. The central office then reports to Washington DC on each volunteer´s whereabouts and status. We were told during training that one of the easiest ways to be kicked out of Peace Corps was to be non-compliant during an EAP. Follow? OK, back to the mom story...
So in the days around Thanksgiving things were again heating up in the political spectrum. There was talk of huge marches and department-wide work stoppages. The morning my mom and I were to fly to Santa Cruz, Peace Corps initated an EAP. To make my situation more complicated, I had not applied for vacation leave and just hoped to travel to Santa Cruz and back under the offical PC radar. So with an EAP in effect, and traveling without permission, I flew with my mom to Santa Cruz. We checked into a hotel and went out to a movie. When we came back I noticed that some of my things had been gone through. Upon closer inspection it was clear that I had been robbed. My iPod, GPS, and a decent amount of cash was gone. We found evidence that someone had climbed through the window and helped themselves to my things. My mom was quite angry and we tried handling the situation ourselves but were really getting the run around. I made the decision, knowing I was in violation of PC policy, to call the central office in Cochabamba and essentially turn myself in and ask for their help. We had purchased PC insurance for our stuff but needed an offical police report and a PC report in order to make a claim.
In regards to the robbery, PC was wonderful. There was a US Embassy police unit there within 30 minutes and they walked me through the whole process. They brought out their own investigative unit and dusted for and found a good set of prints on the window and in the room. Eventually we got back cash value for everything lost. On the administrative front, I was worried. The next morning, as half the country was honoring a two-day work stoppage, I had to call the head administrators and hear what my fate would be. I was told not to return to Tarija, as they were considering begining Administrative Separation procedures. I had to write a letter pleading my case and had to submit copies of my flight to prove that I had not been traveling illegally for an extended period of time. After two days of sweating it out, they allowed me to return to Tarija and El Puente and to continue my service. Erica and I both received memos that we were on notice and any further violation of PC policy would earn us a ticket home. Officially, I was busted for "Non-compliance during an EAP" and Erica for "lying about the whereabouts of her husband."
I felt pretty shitty and was really down for awhile after. We were both embarrassed for a number of reasons and of course did not want to have to explain why we were kicked out of Peace Corps. The incident also made me realize even more how blessed we are to be here in Bolivia and how fragile the situation can be. Even though we`d been here almost a year and had some rough times, we were no where ready to go back home.
So after I got back to Tarija we went back to El Puente and immersed ourselves even more in our small town life. We spent a solid month in site before returning to the city for Christmas, when we were robbed again. Blah!! Peace Corps security was wonderful again and helped us through the process. We went back to EL Puente for 5 weeks this time and didn`t return to Tarija until Carnival in Feburary. Again, the extended time in site was great as we attended several b-day parties and other various fiestas. Without a doubt the robberies have helped us integrate even more into our small town culture.
We are enjoying cooking and learing new recipes and improving our chopping techniques. Some of our favorite meals are: spaghetti, beef & broccoli, tacos/burritos, Thai peanut chicken & vegies, and various soups and breads. We´ve also established a mini-routine of cooking with neighbors and have learned a few bolivian dishes that we look forward to bringing back home with us. Here I am rolling out tortillas with our wine-bottle rolling pin.
We have also been enjoying getting to know better our fellow volunteers. It has been great to meet good people from all over the country. We visited our friend Emilia in her site a few hours south of Tarija. Emila is from Virgina and is in the same project we are, but a year ahead of us. She has been a great source of info and help for us.
We´ve also grown close to a couple who met down here, Dan and Julia. Dan is from Minnesota and is a Micro-Enterprise volunteer and Julia is from Florida and is an Environmental Ed volunteer. Both of them are city volunteers so they enjoy getting out to the countryside (campo). They came out to El Puente for a few nights and we had a great time. One day I took Dan on one of my favorite hikes to the top of a 10,000ft. peak a few miles from our house. Here we are relaxing after our outing.
So overall things are good, we are happy and healthy and continue to marvel at this amazing country. We´ve learned to better appreciate the good and the bad and can hardly belive we´ve been here well over a year now. We´ve become pretty good at washing clothes by hand, have totally adapted to only 1/2 days of running water and electricity, and are still surprised that we´ve lived without a refrigerator for a year and eaten as well as we have.
One thing that is still a little difficult for us is the amount and frequency of drinking in the campo. We´ve seen things pass as normal here that would be scandals in the US. Here is a shot of a restaurant that was right across the street from our house. Can you spot the man who maybe has had a little too much vino?
Finally, we´ve loved our cat and being friendly to all the animals in town who look like they could use a good scratch behind the ear. They all most definitely help keep us sane and remind us of home.
Hasta luego,
Marcos
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