Sweet Sucre

Hello all ... here we are in the beautiful city of Sucre, city of amorous young couples, city of whilewashed colonial palacios, chocolate capital of the upper Andes, home of the best tapas in South America, and place where Simon Bolivar, libertador of libertadores, told to Spanish where to get off. It´s also the city in which we lost or cheap but long serving little card reader (we didn´t lose any photos, just the reader) so for now, I will have to supply a canned photo of this superlative Bolivian capital.

For indeed, though La Paz may have unjustly stolen the title of ¨capital¨ in some absurd civil war or other, any sureño will quickly tell you that Sucre is indeed the seat of all legitimate authority in Bolivia, as evidenced by the fact that the supreme court still sits here. Lately, Sucre has made headlines by being the city in which Bolivia´s new constitution is being negotiated. This political drama has in recent months intensified into somewhat of a war between president Evo Morales and his shrinking cadre of supporters, and the rest of the country who live outside of La Paz. So ours is not the only nation with an unpopular president. The main issues surround autonomy for Bolivia´s regions, such as the one containing this fairest of cities.

Today Matt and I were in the town of Tarabuco (about 60 km and somewhat higher than apline Sucre.) On Sunday, the little town explodes into activity with a market, at which you can buy very distinctive hand woven shawls, blankets and ponchos that are only found in this little region. Matt and I now own some. We also saw many fellows who looked kind of like this gentleman (in fact this gentleman may have tried to sell us artisania several times, he looks rather familiar.) The market wasn´t exactly tranquil, as tourists are generally attacked by vendors like sharks to bloody fishmeal, but it was an exciting day.

We are getting more and more toward the end of this awesome journey, but we still have some hilights left. In particular, we are looking forward to seeing the city fo Potosì (we will be the Wednesday and Thursday of this week) and then to heading to this place:

The great Salar de Uyuni, the world´s largest salt desert and home of many dead buses, aparently. Hopefully our mode of transport will not end up like this. The Salar is on the Bolivia/Chile border, at over 11,500 feet. It´s home to some of the strangest landscapes on earth, inlcuding lakes that are bright green and bright red and huge flocks of flamingos. Wish us luck. Much love.

MP

Down the Road

Well late last week we left our temporary home in Montero, saying goodbye to kids and housemates, and headed for the hills. Our first stop was the cool (in every sense of the word) town of Samaipata, where we spent Holy week. Samaipata is up in the mountains a ways, and is consequently free of the horrible heat and many, if not all, of the mosquitoes, that we had been fighting in recent weeks.

We were in Samaipata for Holy Week, which was very cool indeed. On good friday a procession of several thousand people took Jesus out of his chapel in the town church (which, incidentally had an amazing gold sanctum) and took him on a funeral procession around the town, stopping at each of 13 houses which had been prepared as stations of the cross. At each, the priest said a prayer over the loud speaker and there was singing as the walk continued. There must have been an army base near Samaipata, beacuase there were always young soldiers lolling around the plaza with nothing to do. On good friday, however, they were pressed into action as Jesus´ body guards.

We left Samaipata on an overnight bus that traversed a mostly dirt road for about 12 hours up into the mountains, finally arriving at Bolivia´s judicial capital, the lovely city of Sucre. Somewhere in there I (MattP) started feeling kind of sick, a condition from which I am still recovering. Matt L has started some spanish lessions, and I will too when I get my voice back. Until then, I will rest and enjoy the inexpensive fresh juice which friendly women sell all over this city. More on Sucre soon. It really is a cool place.

MP

Grandma

Dear friends, family and loved ones who read this blog:
I just learned a few hours ago about the death of my Grandma Liechty. From what little I've gathered up to now, she died peacefully Wednesday evening. Her viewing is happening even as I write this. I wish I could be there.

This is not unexpected. I spoke with my mom and dad this past weekend and knew that she was not doing well. She was 96 and had been in declining health for a quite awhile. I'm grateful for the end of her suffering. And I'm grateful for her long and, until the last few years, very healthy life. She drove until she was 90 and lived independently until 5 years ago. And I'm grateful that she lived a life full of love, both given and received. And I'm grateful to have had a grandma that I (and the rest of my family) at times got such a kick out of!!!

It is a good, good life.
ML

Super Photographers

This week the kids of the Comedors demonstrated their super photography skills. Many were given a disposable camera and 24 hours to take up to 13 photos. It's part of a program run by Kurt, one of the engineers who was recently here, though his non profit group, kidsview. Here are just a few of the great photos taken:

Kids getting ready to go to the circus:



Enrique's little cousin:



A horse on the corner:



Happy mom:



MP ML

Pampa de la Madre

One of the two comedors supported and administered by Etta Projects is located on the outskirts of Montero, in an area know as the Pampa de la Madre. The full grand name of the place is the `Mother Theresa Kid`s Dining Room in the pampa of the Mother of God` ... here is one of the main roads in that area:

The area is very troubled. The roads are poor, sanitation worse. During the rainy season the place is a fragrant swamp. During the summer it becomes very dusty due to the poor sandy soil. It is home to many large families, mostly immigrants from the altiplano. The most needy ones qualify for the comedor´s plan, kids coming in each day for lunch and before/after school programs (school is only 1/2 day in Bolivia) and the mothers learning some kind of trade.

The area is plagued by serious health problems. During this, the wet season, Dengue fever is common, sometimes knocking out a good portion of the students all at once. There are also many problems with parasites, worms and skin problems. Drinking water, which comes from wells, is also usually contaminated, so that 2/3 of the kids at the comedor report problems with diarria. One of the enigineers working on the water problem told me that some of the wells have the highest e coli count he´s ever seen in a water source. Dank pools like this one are everywhere ... as a result of playing in and around them, kids come in all the time with foot and skin problems, including fungi and worms.

Matt L spent some time yesterday treating kids feet who had bad fungus problems. Here`s a photo:

The problem is that there`s almost no point in doing anything about this particular problem, because kids go right back home and play in the wet and mud, and are likely to come back the next week with the same problem. There are other problems here too ... sort of too many to mention. One is that there is not really much in the way of infrastructure, although the city did extend water mains to the area, they did not connect them to anyone´s house, and since most people here squat or rent, they don`t have running water even though there may be a pipe 20 yards away. The other is the seeming lack of grabage collection. Garbage is burned, or it ends up on the side of the road like this:

The most pressing issue, and the most shocking one to me, is the unsustainable large size of the families. A good example: there is a young woman facing her first (and unwanted) pregnancy. She is 22. This woman`s mother, which whom she lives, has just had her 9th child. We also met a woman, who, due to deaths in her family, has almost 20 children living with her. The level of burden on these women is completely unimaginable to me ... and it´s probably the biggest contributor to continued poverty and misery in this neighborhood ... too many unwanted pregnancies.

I know I´m painting a pretty bleak picture of life in this particular area, but I`m not really sure what else to say about it. Kids are kids everywhere of course. And these kids just want people to play with them, pay attention to them, and stuff like that. To be honest, both Matt and I have found it hard at times to be at the Pampa. The level of need is very great, greater than any person or community itself could hope to satisfy. I think that there is this myth of the `happy poor person` who has nothing, but is really happy anyway, and in some sort of sanctified state. But the kind of lack we´ve seen here at the pampa has not only been a material poverty ... what`s struck me most has been the intense emotional need of these kids, many of whom will come up to random friendly people and throw themselves into their arms or onto their backs and have to be removed somewhat forcibly. These are kids who are not getting their very basic emotional needs met, and while we and people like us can swoop in for a week or four and fill tiny holes of need, the greater change in this time will be in us. It's a different world.

MP

Photo Day

Some of the kids took photos today, and here are some of the results:

Here´s one of the girls jumping rope in the park across from the comedor:

Here´s Matt L with Manuel and Samuel, two twins. That makes 3 twins in all!

And finally, here´s a great photo that one of the girls took in the kitchen with la Señora Ramona dishing out the soup for lunch:

Camera Project ... Futbol Weekend

This weekend we were joined by several engineering students and a professor from Michigan Tech who are here to do a project on clean water. Their goal is to build a device or process that will allow people who live on well water to purify their supply. It is not an easy challenge in purely technical terms, but it is even more difficult socially ... they have to design something that people will actually use ... eg something culturally appropriate. In any case, the sutdents are very nice, as is their professor Kurt. Kurt, it turns out, is also the founder of an organization that gives cameras to kids in developing countries, and uses the resulting photographs to raise money necessary to improve their lives. Matt and I were planning to do a week of digital photography with the kids at the comedor de niños, so we decided to team up with Kurt and do a larger camera project this week. We have 10 disposable cameras, and tomorrow we will begin by destributing them to 10 kids, who will then taken them home and take 12 photographs each. We will repeat this process on wednesday at the pampa location, so that in all 20 kids get the chance to do this. On friday, all of the film will be developed digitally and the kids will get the chance to pick one or two of their favorites which will then become part of an art gallery that we all will put up on the comedor wall. There is even talk of an art openning for the kids and their moms. We shall see.

On sunday, we were able to go to a futból match at Montero´s small stadium. It was packed to the rafters with fans of the local team, Guabirá. The team´s colors were red and blue, as was the smoke issuing from the less expensive, more wild sections of the stands. Before the game began, a person dressed as the devil and carying a small cauldron belching purple smoke made a quick lap of the stadium. As in the other game we´ve been to, there were numerous rockets and other explosives detonated during the game. But this game was more controversial than the last one. To begin with, the pitch was in a sorry state .. after some recent rains it resembled a swamp more than anything else, which meant that the players were covered in mud within the first few minutes. There was a considerable amount of misconduct by the players as well, resulting in several yellow and then a red card. There was also a missed call by the referee which cuased the Montero public to pelt the field with shopping bags full of water and plastic bottles. The displeasure continued and increased so that by the second half otherwise proper looking women in aprons were standing up and screaming oaths at the referee, calling him a ´cabron´ and saying his eyesight could be profitably compared to that of a pile of shit. At the end, the refs had to be escorted off of the field by a phalanx of riot police, under a hail of plastic bottles (glass was not sold at the stadium, thank god) ... But in the end, the fans of Guabirá had nothing to complain about ... they had just been out classed by a superior team (one curiously called The Strongest, from La Paz) ... but it is always more fun to complain, no?

Here are some players from Guabirá in happier days:

Stripping Things Away

Today while we were eating a chicken sandwitch, Matt said something about how things here in Montero and in the community we are entering are sort of "stripped away." I mean, in many ways, Montero is sort of a barebones place. There really isn't anything to really do ... the greatest entertainments come from walking around the Plaza at night with all of the teenagers or buying a delicious popsicle made out of chocolate and coconut or eating a platefull of fries and salted fried chicken strips (a local delicacy)

And what really do we do here during the day even? We are really in someone else's show here, just trying to fit in wherever we can. Today we were out at the pampa de la Madre comedor (one of the two) to help with dishes and cleanup. Later I "taught" a few computer classes to some kids who didn't want to stop when it was time to go. (I have only very very basic spanish, so there was much sign language.) Both episodes were pleasurable and humbling for their own reasons. They were humbling because in each case it was clear that we are just here to be with to be in solidarity, to accompany ... our talents/gifts whatever are not what will really benefit people here. It is just our simple presence that will make a very very modest difference to a few people. The problems are so huge and the solutions so elusive that to hope for anything more than that out of a few weeks would be foolish. The pleasures of the day came once again from the people. Playing with kids on the playground at the pampa. Laughing while the twins Samuel and Manuel clung to me, each one on an arm. Lauhing with Pura, the woman in charge of the kitchen at the Pampa. Such graciousness all around.

So, no ... I would never say that Montero is much "fun" ... not much of a destination really. But for my part, I am looking at these three or so weeks as a chance to let most things just fall away amid all of the randomness, frustration and joy of this place.

MP

Comedor de Niños ´Etta Turner´

Greetings from Montero, Boilivia, where we have now been for four days. We've been lucky to be the guests of six wonderful women, the director and staff of Etta Projects. Etta Projects is a nonprofit that helps to operate two Comedors (literally, dining rooms) for kids at risk for malnutrition and their families. During the week, kids come in either before or after school for a nutritious meal. Meanwile their mothers can receive vocational training and a chance to start a home business. There is also school assistance and health programs for the kids. Here's Jenny, one of the wonderful kitchen staff, preparing the noon meal today:



There is fun and energy everywhere. Today as lunch was being made, it was time for baseball class. Fabi, the teacher, asked me if I could tell them the rules "mas o menos". I don't think my elementary spanish was up to the task, but it was fun. Here's the baseball class in the park across the road from the Comedor.



After a while, when lunch is ready, everyone lines up to go into the dining room. (It's kind of like Holden Village in the olden days!) Fabi (in pink) is stationed at the front door checking off names (kids have to apply to enrol in the program) and handing out the daily vitamins, making sure that each one takes the pill.



Finally when everyone is seated, there are a series of prayers and spirit-raising chants, and then the eating begins. Both of us feel really honored to be even a small part of this program for the few weeks we will be here. Today Matt L did the rounds in the neighborhood in an effort to try to screen peoples' houses for lead contamination. Matt P helped with some computer stuff around the Comedor. But we have surely received much much more than the little we've given, in fact, being here for these days the one thing we've probably already learned is that we will leave this place very much the way we found it. But it's us that will be changed -- we've already received the hospitality of our housemates, the trust of so many in the community and the overwhelming warmth and love of over 100 kids, who like to ride on our backs, call our names, play soccer with us and generally just be alive. We will try to add more regularly here during the next 3 weeks or so .... until next time peace!



-MP ML