Chocolate Economics & A Breath of Fresh Air

I have had another good week here in Cochabamba, made even better by the fact that my foot is now healed! After having looked at my foot 2 weeks ago, the physiotherapist at CAT had suggested a drug that I could use that would help. I however, sort of failed to actually pick it up right away, and did not do so until last Monday. Not suprisingly though, once I did get it and actually start taking it, my foot was fully healed in only 4 days! Needless to say, I am quite happy to be able to play sports with the boys again. It is also quite nice being able to walk at my normally fast pace, as opposed to the slow pace I was stuck with while my foot was injured. That being said, it means I will once again be getting annoyed when stuck behind Bolivians, many of whom walk as if they're on a Sunday afternoon stroll, without anywhere to go and all the time in the world to get there. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, we in the "Western World" should perhaps take a cue from the Bolivians and learn to slow down a little bit. However, I walk fast even when I'm not in a hurry, and so slowing down to what seems like an ant's crawl drives me nuts!

This past Thursday was a public holiday holiday here in Bolivia, and so John and I took the opportunity to take a few more boys from Nasareth on a trip out of the city. Since we were taking the younger boys this time, we decided that it would be better to not go up the mountain, since it would be a little more difficult for them. Instead, we went to a river that leads out of the mountains and is still quite far out of the city, and spent the day there. We got a ride to the Taquiña factory, which is about as far North as the city goes, and walked about 40mins up the river from there. We then spent the day cooking sausages, making pita pizzas in the coals of the fire, making smores, playing in the river (which was freezing cold) and then warming up in the sun, and having a fort-building competition. It was a really fun day, and the time just flew right by. The boys had an excellent time, and I enjoyed getting out of the city and breathing in some fresher air. It was also a little more relaxing, since we spent the day in basically one spot. There are a few weeks of school vacation in June or July I think, and so John and I are hoping to be able to do a few more of these trips.

From top to bottom: (1) Playing in the river, (2) Making smores, (3) & (4) Eating smores, (5) Everyone

Everyone who went on our original trip up the mountain on May 1, taken before leaving.

Two weeks ago on a Thursday, I had been talking with one of the boys at Nasareth, named Angel, who proposed a chocolate trade for me. John awards the boys chocolates for various things thougout week (playing well/improving in soccer, doing extra math excercises, doing homework problems perfectly without help, etc.) and hands out the chocolates on Friday evenings. Angel had earned 2 chocolates this week, and wanted to know if I would be willing to trade. The chocolates that he wanted from me, not on offer from John, were the small Ben 10 chocolates based on some cartoon and complete with a sticker that I had been buying for the boys able to beat me at chess. Since the boys get to choose from a small variety of chocolates, Angel originally offered me a Nikolo (a terrible chocolate bar that the kids love) for 2 Ben 10 chocolates, since the Ben 10's are quite small. I then said that I didn't want Nikolo, but would be more than happy to trade for a Sublime (a smaller but delicious chocolate bar loaded with peanuts—I generally consume about 1-2 per day). My conscience getting the better of me, and setting aside my desire for an economic experiment in trading with imperfect information—yes, I know, I'm a nerd—I informed Angel the following day, Friday, that Ben 10's are actually quite cheap, only 50 Bolivian cents a piece, which resulted in him increasing his demand to 3 Ben 10's for 1 Sublime. I agreed to the terms of trade, and we struck a deal.

However, there was a slight problem: word of the trade got around. Another boy agreed to the trade with me, and by mid-afternoon snack time I had several boys offering me the same. At this point, John decided that he would not allow chocolate trading to occur. "Why?" you ask. Well, Nikolo is (or was) by far the most popular chocolate bar choice among the kids, with Sublime coming in quite far behind. Nikolo also cost almost 1B less per unit. However, I had changed Sublime from an ordinary (and not very desireable) chocolate good into a good that was desireable because it could be traded for Ben 10. In so doing, I was noticeably increasing the demand among the boys for Sublime, a demand that had not existed until trading Sublime for something not on offer was possible. John, foreseeing his chocolate costs increasing, decided to declare that there would be no trading in chocolates. I offered to pay him for the extra he was spending by giving out more Sublimes, but he replied that if the kids really wanted Ben 10's, then he should just offer them Ben 10's along with the other chocolates, giving them what they wanted directly. So on Friday evenings, the boys are now offered Ben 10's along with the other chocolates. And from the number of stickers I've seen floating around this week, I'm assuming that they must be in pretty high demand.

This Saturday, I also had another chance to get out of the city and enjoy nature. Along with a bunch of friends, we made our way to and up the mountain that John and I took the boys back on the May 1st holiday. We also had a good time, and found a nice shaded spot with a view over the city where Ludwe and I made a cooking fire. We enjoyed burgers and sausages for lunch, as well as some smores, and basically just sat around hanging out. We left a tad late though, and I was temporarily a little worried about making it down the mountain before it got dark. Nevertheless, we made it down in time, and as we walked along the "road" out of the mountains and towards the Taquiña factory where we would find a trufi, we were treated to a beautiful view of the skies over Cochabamba reddening in the sunset.

Ludwe and I standing on a tree branch (that's Cochabamba in the distance behind us).

From left to right: Heather, Katie, me, Lois, Philippa, Emma, Ludwe, Hannah, and Hannah

Red skies over Cochabamba.

UPDATE MAY 30, 2008: Photos from my various trips up the mountain and river are now uploaded on my Picasa. Clicking on the slideshow (now showing these photos) or the link to my Picasa, both now on the right side of the page, will take you there.

Dichotomy

It has been another good week here in Cochabamba, although a little more uneventful than usual (that's not necessarily a bad thing). I have been enjoying my time at both CAT and Nasareth, except for the fact that I have been unable to play sports with the boys in the afternoons due to my foot. My foot is slowly getting better, but way too slow for my taste, and I am getting a little impatient waiting to be able to play football and frisbee again. On the bright side, being in Nasareth from 4-5:15 each day has at least given me the chance to play a little more chess with the boys, some of whom have been improving significantly over the past two months.

At CAT, we have already begun scheming up some plans for Mother's Day, which is May 29th here in Bolivia. We really don't have that much planned, except that I will bake a cake and bring it, but the kids are already getting very excited at the prospect. They also want to make some cards, but I'm not exactly sure when we'll be doing those. On Tuesday morning, I arrived bright and early at 7am in order to make the kids pancakes for breakfast. Ever since making them back in March, the cook has been bugging me to make them again so that she can learn (and so that she can have them again), and I finally did. She is now happy that she knows how to make them, and I wrote out the recipe for her too.

Tuesday night I joined English Dave and Ludwe for dinner at a restaurant called Bufalo's in order to celebrate Ludwe's birthday. Bufalo's is an all-you-can-eat restaurant, with tons of amazing meat options. The waiters actually come around to the tables with skewers of the different types of meat, and if you want some they cut off a piece (or two) for you. By far, my favourite of the options (Ludwe's too) were these chunks of meat semi-coated with garlic, yum! (Don't worry, I brushed my teeth as soon as I got home). Also, since Bufalo's is trustworthy, I was able to eat some rare meat, something I have far too sporadically been able to enjoy here. It being Ludwe's birthday, they not only brought him a free drink, but they also dropped the price of his meal by about 30Bs, which was pretty cool!

On Friday afternoon, I had another sad reminder of the backgrounds that many of our kids come from. While helping one of the Grade 6's I do homework with at Nasareth, I noticed that he hadn't put much effort into that day's homework. While I would not normally accept this, I decided to let it slide a little when I noticed what the homework was. The assignment was to write a letter to your parents, thanking them for everything they do. This particular boy's mother is dead, a result of living on the streets, and I have been told that his glue-addicted father, currently living on the streets, doesn't look like he'll be alive much longer either. This same father also, I believe, forced him to steal things as soon as he was old enough to. So what is this boy supposed to write? Well, he wrote that Nasareth is a nice house, that the home he'll be moving on to next year is big but also nice, that Grade 6 is difficult but that he's doing well, and that Grade 7 will be harder because he'll be learning more important things. That was basically it. Nothing much, but what could I tell him to add?

This, I think, summarizes the seeming contradictions I see working here. This boy has a very sad past, yet he is most of the time smiling and happy, joking and laughing, and I thank God so much for Amanacer and Casa Nasareth that make this possible. I thank Him as well that I have been the reason for one or two of those smiles. It is this dichotomy, these opposite and yet co-existing worlds, that I have begun to see here. It was the same three weeks ago. I was incredibly honoured to be Danielle's "dad" for her Quinceañero, but also sad that her own father was not present to do it himself. These happy and sad worlds co-exist inside each smiling child I work with, perhaps always present even when I only notice the one or the other. God willing, the happy world, the world of love, will turn out to be the greater. Obviously these kids' pasts cannot be changed, but their futures can be made brighter, happier. And thank God for that.

Movies, Movies, and More Movies

This has been another good week here in Cochabamba, except that this past Thursday I managed to re-injure my foot. This happened, once again, while playing football (soccer) with the boys from Nasareth. On Friday, as I hobbled around CAT, one of the physiotherapists, Elva, insisted on looking at my foot. She first of all asked me why I had been playing football in the first place when my foot had not gotten fully better from my first injury. When I respond that my foot had improved and that football was fun, and when the other physiotherapist agreed with me that it was, she responded with a simple "men" in what I would not describe as a very complimentary tone. She explained to me that I have apparently bruised the bone, and told me that I couldn't play any sports for a whole week. I certainly hope though that it's only a week before I can get back to playing.

This past weekend was a lot of fun, and I spent a lot of time watching movies. The reason for this was that, Saturday afternoon/night, I had a movie marathon at my house. The cool thing was that Tyson came by early in the afternoon and hooked up the dvd player to the projector for me, so we ended up with a nice big screen for the movies. We (originally 3, but by the 3rd movie 14 including myself) started around 3:30, with a movie called Sherry Baby, which was then followed by Thank You For Smoking, Starter for 10, and finally Shawshank Redemption, which finished at about 12:50. For dinner, we ordered the Interminable (the "Unfinishable") from a place called Eli's. Despite the fact that the pizza was absoluntely huge (we had to tilt the box to fit it through the doorway), we were all pretty hungry by the time it arrived and made quick work of it, finishing it in only 5 mins. We also had some cake to celebrate Ludwe's upcoming birthday this Tuesday, and as a despedida for Madeline who leaves Cochabamba to go first to Santa Cruz and then back to the States today (Monday). And of course, what movie marathon wouldn't be complete without some popcorn?

Sunday after church, a bunch of us went out for Chinese food, which turned out to be a rather interesting endeavor. While some of us had been to this place before, and the food and service had been pretty good, this Sunday was another story. While the food was good, I think I'll choose to describe the service as "interesting". Interesting in that what we had actually ordered sometimes bared little resemblance to the food delivered to our table, and that when it arrived was also another matter. The food arrived in little batches over the course of an hour, and it was sometimes a surprise as to what we got. Some things never arrived at all, like the beef dishes we ordered, and others, like rice, where delivered in quantities over double what we had asked for. The food however was at least quite good, and so most of us were able to eat happily. As for why we didn't just insist on getting exactly what we had ordered, well... this is Bolivia. We did, however, have a bit of a discussion with the waitress when the bill arrived. Foreseeing potential for issues here, English Dave wrote down exactly what we had received and in what quantities, and used a menu to calculate the total. When the bill arrived, however, it's total was 200Bs ($30) higher than what Dave had estimated! Nevertheless, with the help of Ludwe, he managed to get the bill down and pay for what we had actually received, as opposed to a combination of what we had ordered and eaten.

After lunch, we made our way to the movies to catch Iron Man. I very much enjoyed the film, and it was definitely worth going to the theatre to see it on the big screen. I don't usually go to the movies very often here, since you can buy a movie for 10Bs, and it costs 12Bs (on half-price night, 20-25Bs any other time) to see them in the theatre. While Iron Man did make for my 5th movie over the course of 2 days, I didn't mind—I barely watch movies here, so seeing a bunch in one weekend, and cramming in a lot of friends with them, was okay with me.

Reminders from a Happier World

It has been another good week here in Cochabamba, and I am doing well. Despite my foot not being entirely better, I have at least been able to play soccer and frisbee with the boys from Nasareth again!

This past Wednesday afternoon we celebrated a quinceañeros (a girl's 15th birthday) for three of the girls (although I should now say "young ladies") at CAT. A quinceañeros is incredibly important here, and a HUGE deal. It means that a girl has ceased to be a niña (girl), and is now a señorita (young lady). Originally, this also meant that she was available for marriage. So Wednesday afternoon we had a big party to celebrate the 15th birthdays of Danielle, Susana, and Elísabet. Danielle and Susana turned 15 earlier in April, and although Elísabeth doesn't turn 15 until November, it was decided to celebrate it now since we don't know if there would be enough money for 2 big parties. Everyone dressed up for the occasion, staff, kids, and guests. All of Danielle's class (she is the only one of the three to go to school), including her teachers, were even invited to the party. I assume this was a double treat for them since Danielle has class in the afternoon, and so they all got to attend a party instead of classes. In addition to Danielle's class, some people from Sayde Hayes, the organization that oversees all children's homes in Cochabamba, also came. We even had three people from the regional government of Cochabamba attend, fairly "higher-ups" too, I believe.

As the party starts, the señorita is lead out and "presented" to everyone in attendance. She wears a beautiful white dress not too different from a wedding dress, and would usually be led out on the arm of her father. In this case, I led out Danielle, Freddy (the professor) led out Susana, and the doctor led out Elísabet. Once the señorita has been presented, a waltz is danced with her father. It didn't matter that I don't know how to waltz very well, since Danielle doesn't have good enough movement for the coordination necessary. Nevertheless, we danced around in front of those present, blowing out the candles held by the women and collecting the flowers held by the men. After the first dance, everyone was invited to join in and dance a waltz. After this, the music was changed and everyone danced to more modern music—reggaeton, sadly. At some point, before dinner, we paused and a toast was given for the three quince añeras (birthday girls). Danielle, the only one of the girls able to speak (in Spanish at least—Elísabet speaks Quechua but not that often) said a few tearful words of thanks to everyone who attended. After some more dancing, dinner was served, and then dancing resumed, with people slowly trickling out after dinner. All in all it was a very fun afternoon, especially, I think, for Danielle and Susana (I'm not sure Elísabeth was really able to understand what was going on).

On Thursday, it was a public holiday (Labour Day) and so there was no school. John and I took advantage of this and took 6 boys from Nasareth for a hike up one of the mountains surrounding Cochabamba. We arrived early with supplies for the hike, and everyone took a little bit in their own backpack. Each armed with 2 liters of water, 2 juice bags, an apple, a banana, a chocolate bar, and a portion of the food that was for everybody, we set out. We got a ride to the bottom of the mountain we were planing on hiking up, arrived around 9:45, and began climbing. Some of the kids climbed faster than others, so I stuck with the slower kids and John went ahead with the faster ones. Either way, it was not a very steep climb, and in 2.5 hours we had all made it to our desired campsite—not quite the top, although only about 20 minutes down from it. There, we made a campfire and everyone got to cook their own sausages. Their was also bread, tomatoes, and sliced ham to make sandwiches, as well as potato chips. The boys had a great time making their own lunches, and since John had bought pre-cooked sausages, we didn't need to worry about any of them eating raw pork. After lunch, we hung out up top for about an hour or so, and then started making our way down.

While we had climbed up the east side of the mountain, we decided to make our way down the west side of it. This was mainly because at the bottom of the mountain on the west side was a river of mountain water that we were hoping the kids could swin in. We did make it down, although there were a few steepish spots that made John a little nervous (he doesn't like climbing down all that much), and the kids managed it just fine. I actually had to call ahead a few times to tell the ones in front to wait up. When we got to the river, we first had the boys gather up some firewood, and then they prepared to go for a swin. I got a fire going, and we filled a kettle we had taken with us with river water in order to make coca tea. Because the water was so cold, the boys actually didn't want to get in. Until, of course, John asked them if there were any men in the group who were going to go for a swim. One by one, they all got into the freezing river water, and then ran over to warm up by the fire. They actually seemed to enjoy it, and by this time I had a good fire going so they were able to warm up pretty quickly. Once all the boys were around the fire, I pulled out the marshmellows, chocolate, and almost-graham-crackers we had brought with us, and I showed the boys how to make a smore. Once they had been shown, they were allowed to do whatever they wanted with their marshmellows. Many of them decided to make smores, and absolutely loved them. They all had a great time just cooking—sometimes burning—their marshmellows over the fire, and all were laughing and smiling.

After smores and coca tea, we packed up everything again and made our way down from the river towards the city. We eventually got to a spot from where we could take a trufi, and arrived back at Nasareth only 1 hour late for dinner. All the boys had a wonderful time, and were very excited to have gone. Many of them said the smores were their personal highlight. I also had a great time. It was nice to get out of the city and into nature a bit, and to see the boys having such a wonderful time. John said that he enjoyed almost everything except the climb down. All in all, it was a wonderful day.

Saturday, I spent most of the day at home, resting my foot (which is now almost fully better). In the late afternoon though, I made my way downtown where I met my Bolivian friend Ludwe, and the two of us went to the Feria Internacional de Cochabamba (Cochabamba International Fair). It's fairly similar to the Ex in Toronto, only everything is cheaper once you get inside instead of more expensive. We walked around the grounds and in the buildings, seeing the displays and enjoying many, many free samples. The funny thing was that, although there were different buildings and some degree of organization (there was an artisan section and an eco-market), for the most part there didn't seem to be much organization in the layout within the buildings. And so, in one building, there was a Christian bookstore flanked on one side by an industrial products company, and on the other by a brand of rum. In another building, a company selling chicken products was right across from a telecommunications provider. Make-up and laptops side-by-side in another location... you get the idea. I not saying that this was a bad thing, but it certainly made walking around more interesting.

The other cool thing about the Feria was that it quite literally had everything. There were car dealers, heating products, industrial cake mixers, cafes, toys, and food of all types. In the evening, their were even free concerts at a few places in the grounds. I was very happy to discover that not all of the bands playing were not hiphop, or, worse yet, reggaeton. I was actually able to listen to some Bolivian rock bands, and was quite pleased with what I heard. The first band, Mamut, were quite good. After a few songs, they even had a saxaphone and a trumpet player join them, which was very cool. The second group, A Pie—which means "Stand Up," not "A Pie"—had a electrical violin used in all their songs, and it sounded amazing. The third group we heard, a Mexican rock band call Elefante, were pretty good except that most of their songs were quite slow. And given that it was at that point approaching midnight, their music was soothing me to sleep more than anything else, so Ludwe and I decided to head home.

Sunday, I spent most of the afternoon sitting in my room reading and enjoying the afternoon sun. Though it was very quiet in my area of town thoughout most of the day, the downtown was quite full of different groups marching, either in support or protest of the referendum in Santa Cruz. Despite these different groups being so close together, as far as I know nothing actually happened between them. In Santa Cruz, there was apparently some violence. In one of the areas of the town supporters of MAS were actually preventing voting at the voting station, by breaking windows and doors of the school the station was located in, setting stuff outside the school on fire, and being generally violent. There were around 20 injuries in Santa Cruz on Sunday, and I'm assuming they had to do with this (though I don't know who was injured). Although I haven't really had too much of a chance, it appears that this was the only incident related to the referendum.

The outcome of the referendum was an strong "Yes" vote for autonomy, about 85%. Strangely enough though, a full-page ad in the Cochabamba paper managed to cobble together a 50% "No" vote to autonomy, supposedly giving MAS supporters the victory. They did this by adding up the votes against autonomy, as well as the number (quite high, around 38%) of people registered to vote but who abstained. While I did hear that there were several idigenous groups boycotting the vote, and so this odd math might not be ridiculously far-fetched, my analytical mind just isn't quite buying it, but who knows? I'm not entirely sure why all these people didn't just vote "no" to begin with, but then I'm not going to pretend that I really understand Bolivian politics. Since the Electoral Courts had declared the vote illegal (it wasn't able to guarantee the required standards) a while ago, and there is now debate as to whether the results of a referendum with a near 40% abstention rate can be accepted, it is unsure what the actual outcome of this referendum will be. The reaction to the results has, at least here in Cochabamba, been quite peaceful. In fact, I don't think there have even been any blockades here since Sunday, which is quite nice. In this case, it would appear that my stocking up was a little silly. However, I really don't mind, since I won't really need to do any shopping this month, and my meal preparation will also be very easy.

I think Cochabamba's own autonomy referendum is supposedly scheduled for some time in June, so I guess we'll just have to see what happens then...

Have a good week everyone.