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Published: June 18th 2007
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Tomas, with his winning smile
We are looking at his land to assess it for tree planting To escape Valle Grande, it is necessary to take a 13 hour taxi to Sucre. This is hellish. We say a sad goodbye to the students and Mario, the teacher, and get into our chosen driver´s very comfortable, new, great big van (it has already taken us 2 hours to choose a driver, so we dont actually leave until 5 in the evening. whilst this driver doesnt drink, which is a plus, he also doesnt chew coca...eek). The seats go back, it is clean, the windows are electric, i start thinking this isnt going to be so bad. Lisa is ill, she has an ear infection and is almost crying from pain, but we all think best to just let her curl up and sleep and get her to Sucre as quickly as possible. We start driving, tra la la, have been going for about 30 mins, and the car grunts to a halt. Ideal, we turn around, and have to substitute our new, clean, beautiful van for an old, smelly, flea infested rattling car. On top of this we loose another hour, having to go back to the driver´s house to change cars. So when we finally start we
are all in terrible moods, Lisa is crying, im sulky, but i quickly cheer up when we start eating our leftover snacks...apples, honey and butter. yummy. The drive is just horrible, im in the front, trying to talk to the driver to keep him awake, galen is squished in the boot with the rucksacks, lisa is in pain in the back. The roads are dire, there is an avalanche, so galen has to get out and push, there is a flood, so galen has to get out and wade through the dark water to test its depth, then carry me across when the driver speeds off leaving me behind, we dont see another car in 10 hours of driving through the mountains, there are dark abysses off the side of the road, about a foot from the car, which terrify me, we stop for fried egg sandwiches in a dark and eery town in the midst of the mountains with no electricty. It is very surreal, but finally, at 6 in the morning, we arrive in Sucre. The driver has been a tropper, driving through the night with only one hours rest.
So, sucre again. Yay! We go to joy
ride, we have salads, we have showers, its idyllic. Doesnt last long though, as on the next day we are making our way back to puka puka. Its nice to be back in Puka Puka, and again there is a lot to do. We only have a few days, as Lisa and Galen are heading back to America on the 16th, so its all quite rushed.
When we arrive on the first night, Galen and I head down to Claudio´s (the head honcho) for a meeting. There are only about 10 of them there, because they had their village meeting earlier in the day. It is pretty cool though, they are all in their tradional ponchos, chewing coca, there are women there too which suprises me, and they discuss what is on the agenda for the next few days. Lisa and Galen have arranged to buy 3000 trees, to seperate out and plant on various people´s land, if the people agree not to use any chemicals. It is difficult, the people are very proud, and will only do things at their own pace. It is frustrating not to know whether anything L and G say is being taken to heart,
but it seems to be. Hopefully. One very positive thing is that since the last time we were here, the villagers have invented their own seperating system for the women´s toilet. And it works, wonderfully. The problem before had been that they (especially the younger school children) couldnt get their heads around the idea of the seperating toilet, or they just didnt want one. Which makes sense, why would they want one when their squatting system works just as well, or even better.
Over the next few days we do various things, like scouting out the land prepared for the tree planting (although frustratingly and in typical bolivian style nothing and nobody is where it should be), sorting out the toilets (i do my part by painting little pictures of girls, boys and professors on the walls), teaching the children how to use the toilets, collecting more material organica, putting in filters to clean and transfer waste water into irrigation water, and, most importantly, making cakes! Last time Lisa and Galen sold Juila and Casto a solar oven, and she was angry because it didnt work. So we went on a mission to convince her how great they are, a
mission which culminated in the creation of two carrot and apple cakes. Which were pretty darn good. One of which we took to a town meeting, and presented to the women. Lisa and I wanted to eat it, but selflessness won out, and it was great. They loved it, applauded, and I think it helped win them over. The town meeting in itself was pretty amazing. People coming and going, no clear leader, a mixture of Quechua and Spanish, a mixture of religions, and yet no fighting, nobody talking at once...a strange sense of order. An effective balance of disorder and order.
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