First Week!

I can’t believe it’s been over week since I first arrived in Bolivia. It seems like I just got here, but at the same time it feels like I’ve been here for a month. We have been working hard, attending several meetings with students, doctors, and professors from la Universidad Católica Boliviana, la Universidad Mayor San Andres, SEDES, and la Universidad Público de El Alto. If there is one thing that I have learned this past week, it is that Bolivians are some of the most polite and friendly people that I have ever met. Everyone that we run into, whether in a structured meeting or through a friend of a friend, tells us to call them if we need anything, and I know that it’s genuine.

I have switched from the apartment to a homestay for a few important reasons. First of all, I decided that I wanted the cultural experience of living with a Bolivian family. Secondly, I am now able to listen to and speak Spanish mostly all day, every day. Thirdly, all meals are provided in a homestay; this way, I am able to have a better understanding of traditional and contemporary Bolivian food. I am now living with Kevin (a friend and student on this project) and a wonderfully close family, a mom and a son. They joke with us, direct us to do chores (in a loving way), take us to the market to buy food, and watch movies at night with us. While I definitely gave up some independence by switching from the apartment, I am really enjoying this Bolivian family experience.

On Saturday, our whole group took a tour of La Paz. (I should mention that right now there are five students in La Paz working on this project: Hunter, Funmi, Mel, Kevin, and I. In June, our PI (primary investigator) and the rest of the students are going to join us.) We went to a bunch of interesting sites around the city and a couple of museums. Our tour guide knew everything about everything, from the history of La Paz to traditional dances to types of rock formations.

First we went to a market, which took up a few streets and was full of anything that you could need. There were people selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables, different types of potatoes, things to burn as a sacrifice to the gods, shampoo, blankets, hats, everything. It was full of people, from those living in poverty to the wealthy. Our guide said that all kinds of people come to the market to buy what they need.

At the market, our guide told us some things to know about las cholitas, or the indigenous Aymaran women. Traditionally, these women wear beautifully colored skirts, shawls, bowler hats, and have long braids down their backs. The longer the skirt is, the wealthier the woman is. So if you see a woman with a long skirt, our guide said, be careful when making deals with her, because she has power. In addition, the location of the bowler hat on the head says something about her relationship status. If the hat is cocked to one side, then the woman is single. But if the hat is straight up, then she is married.

After the market, we went to a mirador (lookout point) called Killi Killi. Here we took a lot of cool pictures of the city. It is still so strange to think that we are so high up in the mountains. Everyday I look out my window and am surrounded by mountains, and I can’t believe it. I wonder if the people here realize the beautiful views or if they are so used to them that they don’t notice.

After the museums, we went to la Zona Sur, which is where the more wealthy people in La Paz live. This is at the bottom of the bowl that makes up the city. In the Zona Sur there are huge houses, a tennis club, nice schools, and lots of parks. In the Zona Sur there is also a valley called Valle de la Luna, which has a bunch of cool rock formations. We spent a little while here walking around the paths.

It was a really good experience to tour the city because we pretty much only go to the universities, hospitals, and clinics. It was nice to see where other people live in the city, and how their lives can be so different depending on where they live in the bowl.

Last week we were also able to tour Hospital de Clínicas, which is one of the hospitals where we are going to be administering our survey. This is a public hospital, and it is lacking in many resources. We were able to tour the urgent care room and the women’s division, and I was shocked by how little resources the hospital has. It used to be run by monks, but I don’t remember what happened to turn over the hospital to be a public institution. In the past at this hospital, when someone died, a nurse would ring a bell and there would be two minutes of silence.

We were supposed to visit UPEA and some clinics in El Alto over the past week, but due to the bloqueos (blockades) we haven’t been able to. The bloqueos kind of remind me of the Occupy Movement. There is a bunch of people who are banding together over the problems they have with the government, but a mission statement doesn't exist.

 Some more things that I have learned:

•  Internet here is very slow, and not very many people have it. I don’t have internet in my homestay, but it’s been a very good thing. At night I usually waste too much time on the internet, but now as a homestay family we drink tea, chat, watch movies, and I have time to read.
•  I never see people walking around looking down at their phones, and I hardly see people walking and talking on their phones. It’s a really nice change. It makes me hyper aware of how much I use my phone in the States, and how much I really don’t need to be using it and could be enjoying my surroundings and the people who are with me.
• They keep the parks here nice and clean. I always see people cleaning them and cutting the grass.
• The eating schedule here is similar to Argentina.  In the morning, we eat a small breakfast of tea or coffee and some bread. At lunchtime, around 1 or 2pm we have a big meal of soup and then a second plate of usually some kind of meat and rice.  Around 5 or 6pm we drink tea and have some more bread. Then around 10pm we eat dinner, which is leftovers from lunch. I don’t mind eating the same thing twice in one day, and this way we can finish all the food and eat something different the next day.
• None of the girls at the gym wear shorts. They all wear tight pants or capris. I stick out like a sore thumb at the gym in my running shorts, but I think shorts are way more comfortable than wearing leggings, at least inside.
•  It is COLDDDDD here at night. I feel cold in my bones. I am never warm. Well, that’s not completely true. When there is sun during the day it can get pretty hot; because we are so high up and the air is so dry, when there is sun, it can be very warm but also very dangerous for your skin. But in the shade and when the sun goes down, it is cold cold cold! If I had known how cold it gets here at night, I would have brought a ton more layers with me. I have eight blankets on my bed and I sleep in my gloves and sometimes I am still cold.
•  The people here don’t roll the r’s at the beginning of words or double r’s like they do in most other Spanish-speaking places. Instead, they make a sound that kind of reminds me of the way Argentinians speak their y’s and ll’s.

I have a lot of pictures to upload! I will do so as soon as I find some more internet!

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