News And Thoughts from Bolivia
This past month, sudden seismic activity caused a landslide in nearby Kupini that destroyed more than 500 homes. There are now campaigns all over the city to help these families, who suddenly find themselves without a home. Sad but true: when you look at all those beautiful mountains and cliffs, you know not all of them can go completely unscathed, in particular those with homes on them.
On a brighter note, I watched a couple of youth groups perform some public dances at a public park near Callacoto last Saturday. There are dozens of these kids, simply armed with an old fashioned boom box and a dance instructor. What was really funny, though, was that there was a llama sitting in the middle of their group, as if he belonged there. Here are dozens of kids jumping up and down and dancing their hearts out while a llama sits among them, cool as a cucumber, not batting an eyelash.
A few weeks ago, the former anti-drug czar of Bolivia, meaning the man in charge of curbing drug trafficking, was arrested in Panama…by the Drug Enforcement Agency of the United States. The Bolivian government requested he be released so that he can stand trial in Bolivia. This is one of the few times I wish I could have been invisible so that I could have eavesdropped on that conversation. I just wish I could have heard the Americans laugh their heads off before telling the Bolivian delegation to take a hike. That said, the so-called War on Drugs is beginning to make Sesame Street look serious, that’s how ridiculous it’s become.
Just like we were the favorite address for the poor cholitas here during Christmas, now we are the favorite address for the all male dogs of the neighborhood. Our dog, Auntie Laverne, hasn’t been scheduled to be spayed until today. Whenever you opened the front door when she was in heat, you could find a half a dozen dogs of all sizes eagerly wagging their tails, hoping for some action. No dice, pooches.
Coming to La Paz soon…Shakira! No, wait a minute, she’s only going to Santa Cruz. Most musicians need to save their lungs for sea level.
Following the most recent mudslides, entire neighborhoods have been without water. Incidentally the Spanish word for pump is bomba, which also means bomb. Nowadays it is not uncommon to have people call up mechanics, stating that they would like to have their bombs fixed.
It still blows my mind to watch people, grown people at that, enter a street without looking either way. La Paz must have hundreds of thousands of vehicles, but people still walk into the street here as if they had superpowers preventing automotive steel from making contact with human flesh. I wonder if it’s ever dawned on them that a one ton vehicle can and will flatten them like welcome mats. The same goes for people driving their cars into intersections, again without looking. A lot of people in La Paz are certainly vying for honorary Darwin Awards.
On a brighter note, I watched a couple of youth groups perform some public dances at a public park near Callacoto last Saturday. There are dozens of these kids, simply armed with an old fashioned boom box and a dance instructor. What was really funny, though, was that there was a llama sitting in the middle of their group, as if he belonged there. Here are dozens of kids jumping up and down and dancing their hearts out while a llama sits among them, cool as a cucumber, not batting an eyelash.
A few weeks ago, the former anti-drug czar of Bolivia, meaning the man in charge of curbing drug trafficking, was arrested in Panama…by the Drug Enforcement Agency of the United States. The Bolivian government requested he be released so that he can stand trial in Bolivia. This is one of the few times I wish I could have been invisible so that I could have eavesdropped on that conversation. I just wish I could have heard the Americans laugh their heads off before telling the Bolivian delegation to take a hike. That said, the so-called War on Drugs is beginning to make Sesame Street look serious, that’s how ridiculous it’s become.
Just like we were the favorite address for the poor cholitas here during Christmas, now we are the favorite address for the all male dogs of the neighborhood. Our dog, Auntie Laverne, hasn’t been scheduled to be spayed until today. Whenever you opened the front door when she was in heat, you could find a half a dozen dogs of all sizes eagerly wagging their tails, hoping for some action. No dice, pooches.
Coming to La Paz soon…Shakira! No, wait a minute, she’s only going to Santa Cruz. Most musicians need to save their lungs for sea level.
Following the most recent mudslides, entire neighborhoods have been without water. Incidentally the Spanish word for pump is bomba, which also means bomb. Nowadays it is not uncommon to have people call up mechanics, stating that they would like to have their bombs fixed.
It still blows my mind to watch people, grown people at that, enter a street without looking either way. La Paz must have hundreds of thousands of vehicles, but people still walk into the street here as if they had superpowers preventing automotive steel from making contact with human flesh. I wonder if it’s ever dawned on them that a one ton vehicle can and will flatten them like welcome mats. The same goes for people driving their cars into intersections, again without looking. A lot of people in La Paz are certainly vying for honorary Darwin Awards.
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