Mission Accomplished!

This morning was an early start as Vito, the man who makes the uniforms for the children, was coming to pick me up and we would go up to the High Valleys together. On the way I could see that Cochabamba is growing tremendously. Vito told me that one of his workers had bought a plot 15 years ago for US$800 and he had just sold it for US$40,000! This has to be money from the drug trafficking circuit because in terms of normal salaries this simply does not make sense.

In recent years there has been a lot of building in the communities on the road up to San Benito because many people emigrated to Spain and other parts of Europe and started building veritable mansions with their savings. However, most of the migrants have now returned due to the economic crisis in Europe so most of these fantasies are unfinished shells.

When we arrived in San Benito, many families were already at the school, but we could not start until the people from the puna and other outlying districts arrived so there was quite a wait. The president of the the “Social Vigilance Committee” was there. Despite the threatening-sounding title, she was actually quite a nice lady.

No gathering in Bolivia can get started without the inevitable speeches. First of all the school coordinator said a few words, then the “Social Vigilance” lady, then Primo and then me. The new headmistress then out in an appearance and also made her speech. Significantly she as well as all the other educational authorities are now Aymaras, so the trend continues.

With 76 beneficiaries this year, distributing everything takes quite a lot longer than it did when we first started. However, Primo has got it down to a fine art by now: first of all school materials; then uniforms and schoolbags; next shoes; then socks – boys under 11, boys over 11, girls under 11, girls over 11; lastly toiletries.

As we were finishing, the mayor and two lady councillors arrived, so more speeches had to be made. The mayor also gave me a plaque in recognition of the 10 years that La Esperanza has been operating in San Benito. To keep the children entertained during this second round of speech-making we distributed some lunch.

Several mothers had brought along bags of peaches for me but, of course, as I am travelling tomorrow I had to leave behind about 10kg. of peaches! San Benito is the peach-growing “capital”, although it seems that this year due to lack of rain they are having problems with the crop.

It was well after 4 by the time I got back down to Cochabamba, but at least the mission has been accomplished.

Plus Ça Change ...

I was beginning to think something was missing as I had not seen a single demonstration since I arrived, but I should not have worried. This morning the traffic was cut in the main square. The reason was to  protest against discrimination in the Teacher Training College of Paracaya. I had already heard about this. It seems that in the altiplano where there is an Aymara majority students from other ethnic groups are not being allowed to register and in the rest of the country a percentage of places is being reserved for Aymara students.

This would seem to follow the same vein as what is happening in the political field. When a mayor is elected who does notbelong to the president's party, they are making all kinds of allegations to remove them from power and even sending people to prison. Several mayors have taken refuge in Paraguay and Argentina. Since many of these people are educated, they have devised the strategy of giving up their position so that new elections can be held and to date they have all won again.  So far the results of these second elections are being respected.

Then there is the future of the president, Evo Morales.  All indications seem to be that he is preparing the ground to be declared president for life.

Yesterday in the main square of La Paz he decorated 6 soldiers.  Why? Because they were arrested by the Chilean police. They were pursuing some people involved in bringing contraband vehicles into Bolivia from Chile but they crossed the border and weredetaiend by the Chilean carabineros. As a result Evo has decorated them and raised them to the rank of marshall!

Manaco Shoe Factory

Yesterday we picked up the shoes from the Manaco factory in Quillacollo. When we had paid and went to the storeroom to collect the merchandise, first of all we had a long wait and then they came to say that there was a problem because some prices had gone up. However, as we had a quotation which is valid for 15 days, the head of the storeroom tried to sort it out so that the prices we had would be respected. This is a long process as he had to go to the management to have it approved. In the end, it was sorted out and we were able to leave just as the workers were leaving for lunch.

Getting into the factory is like a military operation and you have to leave your ID at the entrance both to the office block and the storerooms. At least this year there were no disturbances and uprisings like there were last year when the factory was attacked and all the windows broken!

After waiting around outside for a while a taxi came by and we managed to persuade him to take us to Cochabamba. He was not keen to do this as he did not know the area where my little hotel is or the bus station where Primo would have to catch the transport to take the boxes up to San Benito. Mission accomplished.

Bugs

Feeling absolutely lousy! Must have picked something up either on the plane or at the market yesterday. Hope I can shake it off before tomorrow.

La Cancha Market

The girl in the centre is demonstrating an amazing manual egg beater. She has the most amazing froth of egg whites in that bowl!

Saturday morning in La Cancha market is a madhouse. It is market day so the huge market, covered and open, is an anthill with people milling around in every direction carrying huge bundles of every description. It is still the domain of the “cholita”, indigenous women wearing the traditional pollera (skirt), and hat (in Cochabamba made of straw these days), but now the variety of clothing is much greater ranging from the pollera to “hot pants” and every imaginable combination in between. A fairly common syncretic garb among younger women is leggings and teeshirts but topped by a straw hat. The awayu, the multicoloured cloth traditionally used to carry everything from babies to vegetables, has not outlined its usefulness so it is still very much in evidence.

We managed to buy 6 and a half dozen pairs of socks, towels and soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes and then carted them back. Primo will take them up to San Benito this afternoon.

Tomorrow they have a meeting in the village because the government has purchased land and allocated it to 720 Aymara families which means that the Quechua people who have traditionally lived in the High Valleys will find themselves outnumbered in this locality. They are searching for ways to prevent this happening and all the villagers will meet to discuss events.

First Impressions

First impressions when I arrived at the hotel were of surprise. They have done up the entrance so it is now looking bright and airy. They have also rearranged the reception desk and seating area and it seems that there is more room somehow.

Along the way to the coffee shop to have a drink of fresh fruit juice, I noticed that there are several new businesses – pharmaceutical businesses – and new restaurants, so in this part of town at least things are not looking so bad. Another novelty was that I saw a few people out walking little dogs. Now that certainly is a new development!

Sitting beside me on the plane from Santa Cruz was a teenage girl. Her parents are from Quillacollo, a district outside Cochabamba where the shoe factory that I buy the children's shoes is located. When she was five, her father emigrated to Spain and found work in Seville. Two years later she and her mother moved there to join him so she has spent the last seven years of her life there. Now 16, her parents have sent her back to Bolivia for a year to finish her secondary education and get her “bachillerato”. She was in a turmoil: she did not want to come; she felt like she was being uprooted; she would miss her friends … but, on the other hand, she realised that her parents were doing what they thought was right for her because she did not want to stay at school in Seville and they had told her that in the long run it was in her best interests to get a qualification. She was going to spend the next eight months at her aunt and uncle's house in Quillacollo. Another reason her parents wanted her to spend some time here is so that she would realise just how fortunate she is to have everything she needs and more when so many have no choices.

She opened her heart and we had a long chat. She seems determined to really do her best to complete her studies so she can return to Seville before Christmas. Sometimes setting goals concentrates the mind and it certainly seems to have done so in her case.

Outward Journey

Finally arrived! I left home on Thursday February 28^th. and after 33 hours of travelling at midnight Spanish time I made it.

The first leg of the journey was novel in its own way. The flight from Málaga to Lisbon was in a Beechcraft 1009D, a small propeller plane with a seating capacity for 18 passengers, plus the pilot, a young woman, and the co-pilot – no air hostesses. It was very nice to travel in a plane of human dimensions and not the usual over-sized sardine tins. I think these planes were originally designed as executive planes. We left our hand luggage, except handbags, at the foot of the stairs and it was all stowed in the hold to be picked up again as we came down in Lisbon. There were 15 passengers on the flight, mostly headed towards Brazil, but a few were going to Cabo Verde or the Azores.

The overnight flight to Sao Paulo was smooth but full so no chance of finding a space to stretch your legs. I had not flown with TAP, the Portuguese airline, before and I must say the experience was positive. We left Lisbon a little late and arrived late mostly because there were strong head winds of around 200km/hour most of the way. Fortunately transit passengers were met at the gate and taken through without having to go through more security controls so that was a good piece of news, particularly after a long flight.

The flight to Sta. Cruz was also full and I was wondering what all these people from Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, Israel and who know where else were coming to do in Bolivia. Arrival in Santa Cruz as port of entry always means the same things: filling in forms repeating the same information and long queues for immigration and then customs. However, the dour faces of the officials are quickly dispelled by the friendliness of the people working in the airport. So far that has not changed, and the girls I the coffee shop are just as helpful and smiling as the Cruceños have always been and the fruit juices are just as delicious too.

The short hop from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba was uneventful.