Beautiful Sucre!

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Untitled Up until mid june

Feliz dia del Papa!! Happy Father´s Day!!

I am now back in Peru, and just about caught up on my blog...

Sucre was beautiful, another unesco world heritage sight. I took the short 3 hour bus ride here with Ben and David. Upon arrival, a friday, we immediately checked out the market and ben stocked up for the sabbath which he strictly observes - no cooking, commerce, electricity, moving vehicles, etc. David and I then got some dinner and ran into James (remember from the bar during the salt flats, who had his bag stolen after the tour?). Between David, james, his gf, and the two bottles of wine the 4 of us consumed, we decided it was tiem for a night on the town. We went back to the hotel room ben, david and i shared to collect ben and get changed. Here i faced the question I always do when I´m going out and i´m traveling, which stumps me more than the stanford admission question ¨what matters most to you and why¨ - the question of hiking boots, tevas, or old navy flip flops? Meanwhile, adding to the dilemna are these little voices building in my head that I can´t quite place. Suddenly, as I’m velcroing the final strap on my tevas, I realize…it’s the collective sound of Ju-Hyun and Bahar, echoing in my college dorm room, “Jaime, you aren’t wearing that out.” And then the image of Jocelyn flashes - or rather, just the disgusted look on her face when I’m wearing one of her handme downs she used to wear in high school until finally I am forced to ask, “what?? Is this not cool anymore?”

When you´re out for a night on the town wearing socks AND tevas, and a long john top UNDER a polo shirt (juhyun, bahar, no this is not a joke! it was COLD out!) the only thing you can really do is just drink more until you forget what you´re wearing. We had met some very nice Bolivians and impaired judgement led me to accept a drink from one of them - something local is all i remember, and i hadn´t heard of the kind of liquor. This is bad, Jaime! Never accept drinks in foreign countries unless you´ve seen the bartender pour it! I think the problem was actually that it had sugar in it (see earlier entry re: pisco sours in peru).

The next day, sick in bed, i thought it was a hangover until it just got worse and worse and by the evening i was pretty miserable. Well one can´t really ever tell the cause of those little parasite bugs but it had me sick for 4 days or so. I was totally miserable and did little else than sleep and lie in bed and think about how i was not hungry. I was quite upset to miss the nearby indigenous market i had planned to attend on sunday...david told me it wasn´t that special but i think he was just being nice.

Partially because i was miserable in sucre, partially because I felt i didn´t have time to stay there forever, and partially because they have better doctors in santa cruz, and finally partially becuase i had already bought a bus ticket thinking i´d feel better, i traveled to santa cruz on the overnight bus. david came with me, he´s headed to brazil, and we left ben behind in sucre - mostly because he was hanging out with the bolivian girl he met at the bar every day and i think he was going to stay a while! So, it was a 14 hour trip overnight, i was a little worried about it but i booked a ¨cama¨ (bed) bus which means that the seats recline really far back. I am slightly crazy and-or unkind to my body, but i was so thankful that the bus ride was uneventful, my stomach was uncomfortable the whole time but that was nothing new. We foudn a cute place to stay (with toucans in the courtyard, see pic!) sharing a room with david and two girls we met at the bus station who probably thought i was a terrible person because i was being very anti-social.

I took another 3 hour nap on arrival - all i´d been doing was sleep! and then decided i needed some antiobiotics. i went to this totally ghetto hospital because it was supposed to be ïnexpensive and efficient¨. clearly i am a student now! i asked for a clinic once i got there, thinking the ER would be expensive, plus I felt bad that my tiny little parasites and me might take up space in the ER when other people needed it much more. But, I had no option so that´s where they brought me. It costs $3 to be seen in the ER. SHould that have been a sign? Right in i go, no waiting times like in the us! there are 6 doctors chilling in there, two bed things next to each other separated by a curtain. So, i´m sitting on one, the 6 doctors, all of whom look younger than me are starting at me. Noone speaks english. i ask the doctor who is talking to me if they are students, observing i thought perhaps? No, he tells me and rattles of surgeon, etc., pointing to each of them. ok, surgeon was the only spanish one i knew. it´s a bit unnerving, talking about your digestive problems, etc. in broken spanish to 6 pairs of curious eyes, so i focus on a young woman doctor peeling an orange over a sink. i´m quickly deducing gringas aren´t often seen here. The doctor (was he really certified? what does it mean to be certified in bolivia?) completes his consultation by asking me some questions, listening to my heart and stomach, and asking if i have a fever? i said i don´t think so, feeling my forehead. he says, ok. where is the nurse with a thermometer???

Satisfied that he has thoroughly examined me, he moves me to a chair about 2 feet from the bed which is promptly filled with another patient who is bleeding profusely from the stomach and one finger. I must say, I was glad that I sat there before him because they have no sheets or sanitary paper, nor do they even wipe the bed thing down. The doctor is asking me questions (although he seems to be stuck mostly on the question äm i alone here - in both the hospital AND bolivia?¨ and while part of me is wondering how this is relevant to my stomach bacteria, i´m even more distracted by the bleeding man, and the fact that someone is now sewing him up in front of my eyes. I ask my doctor ¨sti¨tches?¨and he says yes, there is a factory near here we have a lot of accidents. Right. I look at the wall to the other side. Dried blood. At this point i´m wanting to pay my $3 and get back to visit the toucans. He prescribes me some sketchy antiobiotic that costs me $0.75 for the series. He´s written his phone number on the back of the perscription. (yeah, right). I catch the public transport back to my hostel for a rest.

The next morning, no better, i decide to go for another, embassy-recommended doctor and get real meds. It was amazing compared to the day before, they did lab tests, the whole deal! They didn´t speak english here either but i actually felt comfortable and trusted them and the bolivians walking around that place were definitely in social classes well above mine. Most important, i got some cipro and was feelign better already by that evening. I realized in retrospect that the first hospital visit was a case of falling for my own expectations. I´ve been to hospitals in 2 foreign countries: japan and uganda, and therefore my bar of comparison for developing countries was Uganda. Granted, it was a while ago but still this first bolivian hospital i visited was pretty advanced relative to anything in kampala (and i´ve had hte unfortunate chance to visit just about all medical services in kampala!). Yet things are so much more developed here, even in bolivia, that i wasn´t expecting anything better....

After santa cruz, back to peru for me. Reflections on bolivia? I´ve really enjoyed my time here, and i´m sad to go. It is so unspoiled, so untouched and authentic relative to even peru, yet with all the same attractions! It has the historic ruins, the lake, even better mountains, the jungle, plus the salt flats and culture, less machu picchu and the coast. i think it´s just a matter of time for bolivia, which i find sad in some ways, but also good in others...in peru, i always ask locals if it´s good or bad that tourism has come (mostly in their lifetimes so they´ve seen the changes) and they invariably say yes. So, i hope for bolivia´s sake and hte ppl there, this might be a good thing. As for foreigners seeking authentic life and culture...bolivia is a great place to go especially before too many people find out that this country is a gem...

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Photos

Ben stocks up for the Sabbath
He's negotiating a price for the chirimoya ("apple custard") fruit. This woman wanted 12Bs/kilo ($1.50), he got it for 10Bs elsewhere.

Potatoes!
Lots of potatoes for sale, and girls playing chinese jump rope in front!

Resident Toucan
My Santa Cruz hostel had 2 beautiful resident toucans in the courtyard, they would bite you if you weren't careful (can they carry rabies?)

Comments

[Justin]

A tale of love found and lost with a young doctor, a daring overnight escape on a bus, the desperate fight for life in a foreign hospital - you have all the makings of a Lifetime original movie. Can I play the part of the injured factory man?