so here it is, the beginning of the la paz chronicles. at this point, i can't quite guarantee that these emails will be anything more than my own self-involved ramblings, but i'll do my best to make the trivial amusing, at the very least :) that being said, the current events make for an absolutely fascinating political scene, so that part shouldn't disappoint.
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la paz
i'll start by saying that i'm living in la paz, bolivia's administrative capital (sucre is the judicial/legislative), at a healthy altitude of about 12,500 ft., making it the world's highest capital city. i honestly don't know where that measurement comes from, though, seeing as there's an elevation change of at least a 1,000 ft going from the north of the city down to the south. suffice it to say, we're high up. we're so high up, in fact, that there is hardly enough oxygen in the air to make any fires, and moreover nearly impossible for anything to catch fire. as such, la paz doesn't have a fire department. go figure. (a lot of the bottled water has extra oxygen added to it, too.) it's also winter here, and temperatures have been around 50 F. no snow, but not a whole lot of heat in any building, though either, so it's a bit chilly. if any of you have had enough of your heat wave up there, feel free to come on down and visit.
i'll start by saying that i'm living in la paz, bolivia's administrative capital (sucre is the judicial/legislative), at a healthy altitude of about 12,500 ft., making it the world's highest capital city. i honestly don't know where that measurement comes from, though, seeing as there's an elevation change of at least a 1,000 ft going from the north of the city down to the south. suffice it to say, we're high up. we're so high up, in fact, that there is hardly enough oxygen in the air to make any fires, and moreover nearly impossible for anything to catch fire. as such, la paz doesn't have a fire department. go figure. (a lot of the bottled water has extra oxygen added to it, too.) it's also winter here, and temperatures have been around 50 F. no snow, but not a whole lot of heat in any building, though either, so it's a bit chilly. if any of you have had enough of your heat wave up there, feel free to come on down and visit.
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living situation
i'm renting one of seven rooms in a house in the northern part of the city. from my window, i have a lovely view of the (left side) of the huge mountain, illimani, which overlooks la paz. and the "huge" descriptor is no hyperbole as the summit sits at 6439 m, or 21,125 ft.
a lot of people have asked what type of access i have to tv and internet. actually, tv is big in the cities in bolivia; most houses have a tv in every bedroom, and our house is no exception. i have about 80 channels on my tv of which five are national bolivian networks that are broadcast on two different channels each, so the other 70 channels are usually music, sports, american movie, and random tlc/home&garden-like channels. in regards to internet, internet cafes are about as ubiquitous as starbucks in seattle, and usually cost 3 bolivianos ($1 us = 8 bs) per hour, so one is hardly lacking available internet.
i'm renting one of seven rooms in a house in the northern part of the city. from my window, i have a lovely view of the (left side) of the huge mountain, illimani, which overlooks la paz. and the "huge" descriptor is no hyperbole as the summit sits at 6439 m, or 21,125 ft.
a lot of people have asked what type of access i have to tv and internet. actually, tv is big in the cities in bolivia; most houses have a tv in every bedroom, and our house is no exception. i have about 80 channels on my tv of which five are national bolivian networks that are broadcast on two different channels each, so the other 70 channels are usually music, sports, american movie, and random tlc/home&garden-like channels. in regards to internet, internet cafes are about as ubiquitous as starbucks in seattle, and usually cost 3 bolivianos ($1 us = 8 bs) per hour, so one is hardly lacking available internet.
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work
work is lovely. i'm working for the la paz chapter of a d.c.-based ngo, partners of the americas, which is contracted by usaid to carry out various projects. initially, our office worked primarily with justice issues, i.e. helping publicize ways for citizens to access the justice system (how to file a complaint, e.g.), following up with the d.a. on prioritizing cases and various time lines, etc. last fall, however, usaid asked our office to be in charge of monitoring the presidential elections in december 2005, and then later for the national elections on july 2 of this year to elect members of the constituent assembly, charged with the task of rewriting bolivia's constitution. so, in addition to our other justice work, our office started huge election monitoring campaigns, voter education programs, etc. we also created a network of about 150 civil society organizations from across the country, and we usually implement a lot of our program activities through these network organizations. (there is a lot to explain here, and it's taken me a bit to understand the whole set-up, but i promise, it's a lot more than bureaucracy :)
so, i'm in charge of putting together all our publications that go out in english, which means translating, editing, organizing, and coordinating, usually. tomorrow, we turn in our quarterly report to usaid. the report details everything our office did, oversaw, organized, published, etc, for the second quarter. it's about 60 pages. thankfully, because i'm transitioning with the guy i'm coming in for, we both worked on this one so it wasn't too much work for either one of us, but the next report will be all me. all in all, though, i've loved the work thus far. everything's right up my alley, and i would not be surprised if i stayed in this sector for a while.
work is lovely. i'm working for the la paz chapter of a d.c.-based ngo, partners of the americas, which is contracted by usaid to carry out various projects. initially, our office worked primarily with justice issues, i.e. helping publicize ways for citizens to access the justice system (how to file a complaint, e.g.), following up with the d.a. on prioritizing cases and various time lines, etc. last fall, however, usaid asked our office to be in charge of monitoring the presidential elections in december 2005, and then later for the national elections on july 2 of this year to elect members of the constituent assembly, charged with the task of rewriting bolivia's constitution. so, in addition to our other justice work, our office started huge election monitoring campaigns, voter education programs, etc. we also created a network of about 150 civil society organizations from across the country, and we usually implement a lot of our program activities through these network organizations. (there is a lot to explain here, and it's taken me a bit to understand the whole set-up, but i promise, it's a lot more than bureaucracy :)
so, i'm in charge of putting together all our publications that go out in english, which means translating, editing, organizing, and coordinating, usually. tomorrow, we turn in our quarterly report to usaid. the report details everything our office did, oversaw, organized, published, etc, for the second quarter. it's about 60 pages. thankfully, because i'm transitioning with the guy i'm coming in for, we both worked on this one so it wasn't too much work for either one of us, but the next report will be all me. all in all, though, i've loved the work thus far. everything's right up my alley, and i would not be surprised if i stayed in this sector for a while.
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bolivia
ok, well i feel like i could put everything and anything in this part. for those of you who haven't had the joy of hearing me go on about it all (ha), the last 5-8 years in bolivia have been huge politically and historically. bolivia is one of two countries in latin america where the majority of the population is of indigenous descent. from colonization until a few years ago, the government was effectively an oligarchy, which amounted to a small, usually whiter, group of elites ruling the country, and the aforementioned majority of the population not involved. over the last few years, though, one party, mas, in particular has done a massive politically mobilization of almost this entire sector of indigenous people (easily hundreds of thousands of people) and other citizens, and the political scene has been completely turned on its head. some of the changes are good, some are troublesome, but things are definitely different.
ok, well i feel like i could put everything and anything in this part. for those of you who haven't had the joy of hearing me go on about it all (ha), the last 5-8 years in bolivia have been huge politically and historically. bolivia is one of two countries in latin america where the majority of the population is of indigenous descent. from colonization until a few years ago, the government was effectively an oligarchy, which amounted to a small, usually whiter, group of elites ruling the country, and the aforementioned majority of the population not involved. over the last few years, though, one party, mas, in particular has done a massive politically mobilization of almost this entire sector of indigenous people (easily hundreds of thousands of people) and other citizens, and the political scene has been completely turned on its head. some of the changes are good, some are troublesome, but things are definitely different.
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the president gonzalo sánchez de lozada, known as goni, was the last president to represent the old elite. he was forced out of office when i was here last in 2003. his vice president, carlos mesa, a former historian and journalist, assumed the presidency, and was pretty ineffectual until he was forced out of office in june of last year. (he's also tried to resign in march, but congress rejected his resignation.) bolivia's supreme court head was provisional president until special presidential elections were able to be held in december.
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in those elections, evo morales, the head of mas, who finished second to goni in 2002, won an absolute majority in the general election, the first person to do that in bolivia's history. (according to bolivian law, if no one candidate gets over 50% of the popular vote, as usually happens, the president is elected by congress who votes between the top two vote-getters.) this has been pretty much the us's worst nightmare, as they consider him complicit with the drug trade, as a lot of his and mas' support derives itself from coca farmers and unions. (the situation's definitely more complicated than that, though, and involves a lot of bolivian history, but i'll leave it at this for now.)
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besides these presidential elections, protesters other two key demands in june of last year, were a vote for a constituent assembly, which would meet, debate, and vote to change bolivia's constitution, and for departmental autonomy. bolivia is divided into nine departments, and the four eastern ones, where almost all of bolivia's huge natural gas reserves are, want less centralized authority, and threaten breaking off entirely from the rest of the country if more regional control isn't granted.
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in july, they voted on the constituent assembly and departmental autonomy. mas gained a majority of the seats in the assembly, but not the 2/3 majority needed to make constitutional changes. the general sentiment is that this is an optimal outcome, since it means that cooperation will be pretty much requisite if anyone wants to get any constitutional changes passed, hopefully toning down some of the strong tensions along party lines in recent months. (also, parties won seats in proportions almost identical to percentages they won in the december 2005 elections.) the vote for departmental autonomy passed in all four of the eastern departments, but failed nationally, but these departments are still adamantly calling for more regional control, so balancing relations with representatives from those departments will be a delicate task.
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and all of this starts when the constituent assembly, essentially bolivia's version of our constitutional convention, meets in sucre next week. again, big stuff.
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whew, i know that was a lot of history, but i hope you're all getting some picture of how significant this all is. (of course, if you're not that rapt in it all, i totally understand as i've gotten used to trying to get people excited about things seemingly irrelevant :) and the good thing is that, now that (most of the) history is out of the way, i can give you guys more interesting detailed stories and snippets in future emails.
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holly
well, i've pretty much just been trucking around, deliberately getting myself lost in the streets in an attempt to get to know the city better. i've estimated, though, that only about 15% of la paz's streets are flat, so i probably do more trekking than trucking. yesterday, all there was this huge parade, called an entrada, where all the university students dress up and do different bolivian folkloric dances (each major dances one dance), and i watched that with a friend for about six hours yesterday (there's a lot of culture to see). we are also going to see if we can't be part of the entrada that adults put on in september. so ... keep your eyes out for some fun pictures.
well, i've pretty much just been trucking around, deliberately getting myself lost in the streets in an attempt to get to know the city better. i've estimated, though, that only about 15% of la paz's streets are flat, so i probably do more trekking than trucking. yesterday, all there was this huge parade, called an entrada, where all the university students dress up and do different bolivian folkloric dances (each major dances one dance), and i watched that with a friend for about six hours yesterday (there's a lot of culture to see). we are also going to see if we can't be part of the entrada that adults put on in september. so ... keep your eyes out for some fun pictures.
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i also found tango classes after seeing a poster somewhere in the city. so, this little gringa went to her argentinian tango class in la paz, bolivia, with the shoes she bought in zürich, no less. of course, i inadvertently went to the advanced class, but it was fun nonetheless.
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oh, and mangoes are not in season yet (the horror!), but chirimoyas are, and oh they're good. (if you've never had one, i have seen them a couple of times in the states. they're usually about $4 each, but well worth it, in my opinion.)
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and with that, i'm cutting myself off before this gets any longer!
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you're all wonderful, holly
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p.s. my new address is below. xyz are always welcome :) (xyz can include, but are not limited to: letters, packages, postcards, newspaper clippings from granddad, small plants, inflatable pool animals, toy dart guns, etc.)
