Article for the National Energy Technology Laboratory Newsletter and General Update

Hello All! It's been awhile, but I'm a busy bee down here, and it's quite hard to find the time to write in my blog. This post will be largely an article I wrote for my mom's company's newsletter, but I'll tell you a little about what's been going on down here first.

Two weeks ago we had the chance to do a rural homestay in a nearby town called Mallcho Rancho, where we joined another group called Youth International that was here for about 2 weeks working on a school in the neighboring town of Viloma. As in Cochabamba, we stayed with local families (along with two other YI students, who were mainly just out of high school), but there is a very stark contrast between city and country living; although, there was certainly a wide variety of conditions in terms of host houses, from no shower and an outdoor bathroom to houses bigger and fancier than mine at home. My host family's house was somewhere in the middle. They were poultry farmers, and the host dad was a laborer for local projects. My host mom had been working at a toilet paper factory, but quit right around when we came to stay because she was tired of working the night shift. I had quite a nice shower, actually, and the chicken I ate from their farm was deeelicious.

The actual work was pretty strenuous and left me sore, but definitely in a good way. We were working mainly on laying sidewalks and stuco-ing walls, so I did a mixture of shoveling, rock, dirt, and water hauling, cement mixing, and stucco-ing. It was a little discouraging at the same time, though, because the classrooms we were working on were the last two to be done of an 8 classroom project, but the community couldn't afford to buy the materials for the roofs, which cost about $1,500 each. So, eventhough we got a lot done, the rooms still won't be in use for another few months.

Here at "home" I've been doing classes, kick-your-butt-yoga, and service as usual. This week was my first working at CEOLI, which is a center for kids with disabilities, where they go to learn in a classroom setting, as well as basic life skills. I worked in the craft shop with the older group, who range from teens up to 25yrs old. There they work on making craft items that they sell in a shop downtown to make money for the center. The things they make are actually really neat, and it was a nice break from Millennium, as there is considerably more life, laughte, and overall good spirit among the kids at CEOLI.

My last excciting story is that there was a socialist presidential summit here last weekend, called the ALBA-TCP (Alianza Bolivariana para los pueblos de Nuestra América, or The Bolivarian Alliance for the towns of our America), which included nine countries, the most important of which are Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia. The main issues they made judgements on were denouncing the new government of Honduras, which took over in a coup this summer and creating a new currency called the Sucre that all of the member states will start using in international trade in 2010 (to me this seems a lofty goal, but we'll see how it goes). This was the seventh meeting of the group, which is growing, but will probably never include major Latin American nations like Brazil and Argentina, because the summit is not shy to speak out against the United States and Europe's Western imperialism. The other major players in Latin America are major precisely because they are highly involved in the "Western" economies, so they couldn't take that stance.

Anyway, the presidents were staying at the Hotel Cochabamba, which my friend Bridget and I walk by each day to go to Spanish class, so we got to walk by all the mounting police and pres everyday, etc, which was kinda neat. Last Saturday, though, I called a Bolivian friend because we were supposed to go on a motorcycle ride (which we did later, and it was also awesome), and he was there at the hotel. He said Evo had already left, but he was waiting to see Chavez. Sooo, we hurried down there, and there were only about 50 people, so we could get right up against the rope, and, low and behold, here comes Hugo Chavez strutting out to romance the crowd before going to the stadium for a rally that was taking place (which was too dangerous for us to go to, unfortunately; we stand out, and people seem to die just about every year in political protesting here).

So, we're getting pics, etc, and he starts talking to this woman from overtop his car door, and invites her to the stadium with him. There were, of course, a bunch of "ohs" and "ahs" following that, but then he looks over in our direction and sees Bridget. He looked at her and said (in Spanish, of course), "you, white woman, where are you from", and we were both totally stunned, and actually scared to tell him we were from the US because, as you probably know, Chavez is about the most outspoken USA-hating president around. She told him, though, and he asked what part she was from, then he said "Viva los Estados Unidos!" and told her in Spanish, then in English "you are our sister!" Of course I'd been filming, but the minute he started talking to her I freaked out and turned my camera off, then turned it back on a few second later, so I missed a few seconds of the conversation, including the "Viva" part, but got the majority. I really wish now I'd talked to him because considering the circumstances I'm sure he would've answered, but I was just in total shock. Still, it was a pretty surreal experience.

Anyway, I'll get off here and start on some homework. I hope everyone's having a lovely fall, and I wish you a Happy Halloween!

Sincerely yours, fellow white woman,
Alanna

P.S. photos are being uploaded onto my Flickr as we speak, as well as the Chavez videos :-) The link is to the left under "Related Links"

Article:

Cochabamba, Bolivia, is a city with a rich and sometimes troubling political history, and, now, as President Evo Morales approaches his first chance for re-election December sixth, the city is a political science student’s paradise. In the little over a month that I have been studying and volunteering here, there has been at least one blockade, two protests, one of which involving the use of tear gas and water hoses for crowd control, and a Latin American presidential summit that included such figures as Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro. I’ve also had numerous political dialogues with city and country residents alike, seen the endless political propaganda that is spattered across the city’s walls, been beside a friend who was directly addressed by Hugo Chavez himself (who finished by telling her, “you are our sister”, then proceeded to call North Americans gor
illas who couldn’t think later that afternoon, ah Chavez), stepped out of my house to encounter the other major presidential candidate parading down the street, and gotten to know too well the heart-rending effects of government policies concerning adoption and orphanage maintenance.

Although it seems relatively certain that Evo will once again claim the presidency, I am very fortunate to have been here during an election and have learned more about Bolivian and Latin American politics already than I had imagined. It is a fact that in 2005 Evo was elected by a landslide as Bolivia’s first “indigenous president”, less than a year after violent protesting over oil and gas reform forced the former president to resign his post. It is also true that he has instituted some significant policy changes, such as re-nationalizing the oil and gas industries, and, just this weekend, making an accord with eight other leftist Latin American states to create a universal currency to be used in international trade, called the Sucre. However, the fine details of exactly has occurred in the subsequent years under the administration of Evo and his MAS (Movement toward Socialism) party tends to coincide at least somewhat with whom you are talking and what their views toward the president and his politics are.

Living Bolivia’s third largest city, I tend to get opinions that are staunchly anti-Evo, and was actually quite surprised to find that a few rural Bolivians I spoke with feel the same enmity towards him that most city-dwellers do, even if they voted for him four years ago. I’ve heard many opinions about el presidente, some of which I believe to be true and some exaggeration, including that he receives direct funding from Venezuela (although his policies do appear to be somewhat more moderate than one would expect from a president with the word “socialism” in his party’s title), that he has no more than a high school education, that he encourages animosity between urban and rural Bolivians, and that he has undermined the middle class while fostering a growth of narco-trafficking in rural Bolivia, including in the mountains surrounding Cochabamba. Whether or not his policies have been beneficial or destructive to the country in the long term is yet to be seen, but there is no denying that the sheer emotion invoked by his name attest to how historically significant his regime will always be to the nation. And despite his many criticisms, Evo is a beacon of hope for much of rural Bolivia, and has the ability to inspire in them a sense of unity and empowerment that has been robbed of their people for centuries.

My most direct experience with Evo’s policies, though, as a volunteer in a local orphanage, have left a bad taste in my mouth, and make me question the validity of his views. The orphanage where I volunteer at is called Millennium, and is a semi-private, semi-state funded facility currently housing twenty-two children between the ages of six months and six years, who are cared for by two nurses at a time and intermittent volunteers. The center receives a government payment of $.42 per day, per child, and is in serious threat of closure due to a recent drop in its main source of funding from the United States. The orphanage apparently used to have a relatively significant adoption rate to Europe (Bolivia has never had an agreement with the Untied States), but Evo has failed to renew agreements with all European nations apart from The Netherlands, whose license has yet to expire. The president’s view is that Bolivia’s children are not for “export”, an interesting notion in a nation where the GDP/capita is under $3,000. I suppose in his mind they are better of on their $.42 daily bread than in the hands of Western imperialists.

Despite the director’s best intentions, the kids at Millennium are given a level of care that may be defined in the United States as negligent. With only two nurses to care for twenty-two children and a budget that only allows for two diapers per baby per day, one can certainly note the health, developmental, and social problems that the children may never be able to overcome. After the children reach six years of age they are moved to various state-run facilities, as the licensing requirements vary. I have never personally visited one of these facilities, but our local coordinator said they are in poor enough conditions that it is not uncommon

for the children to run away rather than stay there; I have personally seen kids not much older than six asleep on the sidewalks on a semi-regular basis. As of 2006 there were 40 million homeless children in Latin America, and I think it is safe to assume the numbers have only been growing since. Still, the government seems more interested in good public relations and bashing the United States than facing these dire issues.

Still, as an aid worker it is at least heartening to encounter individuals like the director of Millennium who give all their time and energy to providing the children with a roof over their heads and enough meals to keep them satisfied. Although we are sometimes upset by the conditions at the orphanage, we’ve been told that it is one of the best in the city, and that the sudden lack of funding due to the financial crisis was a major blow. The board of directors are now struggling to keep it open, and if it closes the kids will be transferred to state-run orphanages, where they will almost certainly face a more difficult living situation than they already have, with thanks to the government’s spending on things like increasing a needless military and launching the first Bolivian satellite.

If you or any individual or organization you know is interested in making a donation to Millennium, or if you or anyone you know may be interested in doing a volunteer to Bolivia or one of Amizade’s many other global volunteer sites, please contact Amizade, and they will be able to give you further guidance: amizade.org. Any donation to Millennium through Amizade would go directly for the improvement of the children’s living situation, and would really make a difference in their lives. Hopefully through the generosity of others in Bolivia and abroad we can keep this facility running and get it back to top condition.

P.P.S. Amizade is having a donation day this coming Wednesday the 29th at 10:00AM where if you donate any amount between $50 and I believe $2,500 the donation will be matched 50% by another organization in Pittsburgh, and if you specify the funds can go to Millennium or any other project Amizade is working on. Just something to think about ;-) Check out Eric's blog under "Related Links" for more info!