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Published: December 3rd 2006
To say that we got off to less than an auspicious start in Santa Cruz would be putting it mildly! After surviving an erupting volcano, an earthquake, an avalanche, the world's most dangerous road, the world's most dangerous plane and the jungle's most dangerous snake, Joe broke his arm playing football on our second day here. He said he did it during an "ambitious, overhead swivel chest flick". I called it a (luckily) "non displaced fracture of his left distal radius" (medi-geek strikes again).
We had suspicions with regards to our home stay from the start. The family lived in seven bedded mansion, with six cars parked on the driveway. The twenty year old son drove a sports car. He also happened to be the "executive director" of the charity who was arranging our voluntary work. We arrived to find that Joe's project didn't exist and they only fed us dry bread for breakfast and for dinner. The final nail in the coffin of the relationship however was the broken arm. He fell at 10 pm but was not brought home (by aforementioned "executive director" of the charity) until 1.15 am, as they had carried on playing football, with Joe
Queen of Shebah syndrome
Well recognised side effect of broken bonessat in agony at the side of the pitch (sound familiar??). I could not believe the state of him and woke the host mother up to tell her we needed to take him to hospital as his arm looked broken. She was horrid and seemed really annoyed to have been disturbed. She said that there was nowhere to get an X-ray at night and he'd have to wait until morning. I should point out at this juncture that Santa Cruz is a very rich city by Bolivian standards and there are about 15 clinics where you can be seen all day long. I was both insistent and furious and took him off in a taxi to get an X ray and a cast. It was a private clinic and the consultant came in personally at 3 am to put the cast on, which seemed a tad unnecessary, but no doubt added to the cost. The next day the hideous woman who we lived with didn´t even ask how Joe was. To cut a long story short, we could no longer stand staying in that house and moved out, losing a lot of money in the process.
In fairness, I
cannot complain about my volunteer position. I am working in an emergency room at a charity hospital. Apart from me (and I'm not sure if I'm more of a hindrance than a help) it is staffed by one doctor and two nurses. It's excellent. Although we do see some trauma (very vicious dogs here) the majority of cases are medical - with lots of TB, syphilis (!), leishmania as well as neglected late presentations of more run of the mill stuff like diabetes. Today a girl came in having electrocuted herself whilst ironing (apparently commonplace after it rains due to dodgy wiring).
As you would expect for a place where resources are more scarce, most people aren´t investigated to the extent that we do at home but surprisingly, those who need an ultrasound get it the same day. I have seen some terrible things though, especially in patients from the poorest area of the city who present late and obviously have very little access to good health care. Three mornings a week, there is a drop in TB medication clinic. Thankfully this medication is free and non branded. Patients get 4 days medication at a time which improves control
and compliance. I will not start to rant about the pharmaceutical industry, other than to say that the ER is over run by a daily average of 5 representatives at the busiest time of the morning.
As I said, we arrived to find that Joe's position did not exist. He had been promised a job fixing and teaching computers to children. The reality of this was working in an office putting power point presentations onto DVDs with not a child in sight. Whilst we have not been naive enough to think that we were going to change the world with our volunteering, this was not the kind of thing we learned Spanish to do. Luckily we met a great bloke called Andreas, a Bolivian, who runs the Jodanga Backpackers in Santa Cruz. He put us in touch with an amazing organisation, called Luz del Mundo and Joe has started volunteering, teaching computers to kids in an area called Plan 3000, the most deprived area of the city.
Plan 3000 offers a stark contrast to the modern, roads, cars, resturants and shops of central Santa Cruz. As you travel out to it you really do begin to wonder if
you are in the same century let alone the same city. It’s the kind of place where it is run of the mill to see Toyota 4x4 cars overtaking horse drawn carts. Off the main road the streets are just muddy tracks with open sewers in many places. People here work 16 hours a day for 7 days a week and receive 30 pounds a month for it. Considering it's cost over 150 pounds to get my arm sorted so far it kinda puts into perspective the quality of life people expect here.
The project of Luz del Mundo is basically a place kids can go rather than hanging about on the streets. It attempts to offer them basic education, nutrition and medicine where they can. It was started up by a lady called Gabrielle and her mum who are really, really lovely people. They started with absolutely nothing and although the place is still very modest in terms of buildings and resources it is a really important place for the kids. It is essentially an open space with an area that has a corrugated iron roof with 3 other small, drafty buildings cobbled together from old bits of
Pro democracy protesters at the central plaza
The protesters stayed in these coffins all week in the run up to the General Strike. corrugated iron and plywood, that act as a kitchen and a storeroom for what things they have.
The kids are really lovely and mostly come from backgrounds where both (or just the single) parent has to work extremely long hours. Some of them live in houses that still have no electricity and rely on candles after dark. They are generally pretty clean but their clothes are often ill-fitting or grubby. As Nosi will testify from what she has seen in the hospital malnourishment is a big problem in this area so the kids are given free milk everyday here and the parents are able to send in jugs with the kids so they can take milk home as well. The precariousness of this was highlighted on my 2nd day when a deluge or rain flooded the centre, forcing it to close and churned up the 'road' so that the milk van over turned, cutting the milk supplies for the next 2 days. The kids also get food from time to time and when I was given a big plate of pasta and meat to eat my heart sank. Picking out the pasta and palming off the meat to other
kids I think I just about got away with it before finally admitting I was vegetarian.
As I said the kids are lovely and make it a real pleasure to go in every day. I have found it a bit daunting to be suddenly standing in front on 30-40 kids, expected to teach Computers and English. The kids are really willing to learn though and the few games and worksheets I have taken in have been greeted with great enthusiasm. Some of them are really bright and pick everything up really quickly while I have to improvise my Spanish pretty heavily to communicate with others. They LOVE singing and I must admit to not being at my most comfortable trying to lead choruses of the ´hockey pockey' but I am getting better. At first they loved writing on my plastercast but it has now become more of a plaything for them, which can be a tad painful.
Santa Cruz is currently in the midst of political upheaval. The city and province basically wants more autonomy from the central Communist-esque Evo Morales government. All week there have been peaceful protests in the main square, with protesters taking part in
a lie-in, in a row of coffins. On Friday they called a General Strike. This affected all transport - buses, trains, taxis and private cars. All the roads were blocked off and as a result, all the shops and amenities were closed. There was no way of me getting to the hospital and the other ER staff said they had no intention of trying to get to work as these things have a habit of turning violent if you try and break the strike. Most people seemed to consider it an extra public holiday than a protest, though.
The Jodanga Hostel in Santa Cruz is an oasis and since moving in last week we´ve become good friends with Andreas and Lauren, who run it. Determined to cheer us up after Joe´s broken arm and the homestay disaster, they took us off for the weekend to a friend´s cabana, in Samaipata. This beautiful town is set in the foothills of the Cordillera Oriental, about 2 hours from Santa Cruz. We had a lovely time visiting the waterfalls at Cuevas, swimming in the lagoons and visiting the World Heritage Site of El Fuerte, a religious site, dating from 1500 BC. There
Cass´ bump
Also known as Naboo is a huge 100 meter carved rock here and it was no surprise to discover that some have suggested it acted as a landing pad for ancient spaceships!!
Finally, we have had some fantastic news from home! Cass and Andy are expecting a baby. We are soooooo excited and thought we´d share the scan piccies with travel blog readers for all to see! Congratulations guys!!
Adios, love Joe and Nos X
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Dem bones....
non-member comment
Ha ha ha!
Only Joe........