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Published: April 15th 2007
Well, well, what an interesting 24 hours I´ve had. I am picking up from the second of the two English lessons on my last day of the 5 week stay in Cochabamba. The lesson went really well, and we too managed to complete to the end of unit 3 of their book. We wanted to finish the 4 units that comprise the book, but I don´t feel too bad that we didn´t because we´ve missed about 5 lessons through lateness or non-attendance, so what more could I have done!
After the lesson, I was in a bit of a rush as we had started very late and it was already 7.30pm, and I was meeting Kirsten and some others to go a Sin Bandera concert at 8.30pm, needing first to go back home and drop my rucksack and most crucially get my door key for coming back home late.
These being the circumstances, I was reluctant to go back into the ward where the children were watching tv, in case it took a long time to say goodbye. I could also hear their happy chatter and didn´t want to make them sad with goodbyes, they´d been a bit sad about me going and very clingy all day. On the other hand, not to say goodbye to Nelly of all people just seemed plain wrong. I saw her break away from the TV seats to go to the loo, so I called softly to her, so as not to attract the attention of them all. I figured Nelly had been so brave with all her little pals one by one being discharged, and because she has been in hospital so long and is so used to all the comings and goings, it was the right thing to do.
Nelly came out, I explained I had to go, and to my great shock and utter misery, she started crying and that started me crying too. It was extremely upsetting and to make it worse, I couldn´t say anything to make it better and I also needed to get going because of the concert. I held her for a bit longer, told her I´d be back soon (which is true) and had to go. I was really upset and spent the journey home asking myself if I´d done the wrong thing. I still don´t know. The problem is Nelly is the sort of child who would stop to think ´we didn´t say goodbye´, whereas most of the children wouldn´t think like that.
I took a very crowded micro up to the house, dropped my rucksack and collected my key. I couldn´t be bothered to change or anything, I was just feeling a bit sad still. Maritza called me a taxi and before I knew it the taxi was there. I was a bit early and expected a wait until 830 when Kirsten would surely come, as she is definitely a punctual person, but in fact she was there before me and also Carmen and a friend turned up soon after. Gladys was there before 830, (mostly because she´d been told 8.15pm!) and we just had to wait for Hernán.
But as we were waiting for him, I started to feel really odd, short of breath and a bit dizzy. I debated finding somewhere to sit but didn´t want to seem rude and like I was making a big scene about him being late. By the time Hernán was able to get there, I was feeling really awful, but couldn´t figure out why. I have had isolated moments of breathlessness here (we´re 2500m up), but no real problems apart from when we climbed the Cristo. The dizziness was a new thing. As we started to make our way towards the end of the queue to get into the concert, things got worse, and I was really struggling for breath and ended up coming close to fainting. Fortunately Kirsten noticed I´d gone pale and didn´t look well and they put a seat under me before I fainted.
They revived me with water on my face and to drink and a military dude who was supposedly a paramedic took my pulse and put alchohol on my hands (!), and declared I was probably ok but should take it easy. I think he thought I´d either been drinking (not at all) or was just being foreign! Kirsten and I ruled out altitude sickness, given I´d been here nearly 5 weeks. I had a very tingly sensation in the tips of my fingers and couldn´t feel them. My German friends would detect a circulation problem, I thought. Strange. Anyway, I felt better for drinking some water and on we went, trying to find the end of the queue. It was one of those queues which you think is not too bad but then snakes around all sorts of bends and turns out to be huge. We found the end, and stood in line, which was moving forward quite fast.
Then I felt odd again. And I went from feeling odd very quickly to throwing up - 3 times! What? I´d not eaten since lunch time, and had drunk only water, it made no sense at all. The group of friends were really lovely and very concerned about me. Gladys rushed off to get a doctor and came back with a horde of more military people. By that time, though, I´d said to Kirsten I should go home and she and Hernán had called a taxi for me. We said sorry and thank you to the paramedic military guys and went to get the taxi. I was so completely embarrassed about it all, especially throwing up in the street, and simply didn´t know what was up. I also hoped I´d get home ok without being sick again. Luckily I did. I hoped I hadn´t spoiled everybody else´s evening, what must they have thought of me?!
I got through the night with some breathlessness and tingly fingers, didn´t sleep much at all and felt still quite odd this morning. I´d wanted to go and buy some altitude tablets for Iain and me and by now I felt that last night pointed to a lack of oxygen, strange as it was for it to get me only yesterday. Maritza offered to get them for me as she was worried I´d faint again and be collapsed in the street not knowing where I was. I´m not normally quick to accept help but in this case I did, and thanked her for it! It meant I could finish off packing and relax a bit, which was good as I was still feeling a bit dizzy. At least I´d kept my breakfast bread down though!
We had my favourite for lunch, no coincedence, a goodbye treat: chicken, mash potato and salad. Yum. Even though I´d told the family I´d to be at the airport for 1.15 (really it was 1.30), I still got a little worried at 1.12pm when we hadn´t left and the family still seemed to be casually eating and/or doing other stuff! These Bolivians! I´m hopelessly paranoid about being late for flights, I hate it! Anyway, in fact we got there for just about 1.30pm, Lucho, Maritza, Estrella and Andrés came to see me off and the queue to check in was not big. While waiting to check in, who should turn up at the airport but Dr. Romero, Magda, Gladys (nurse), and Kirsten?! What a lovely surprise it was. The doctor had said they´d come but I thought he meant just Magda and him, and I didn´t know if they´d make it in time to see me or be able to come.
I was so pleased to see them all, especially as I felt still quite dizzy and unwell. The doctor seemed very concerned about me and asked me lots of questions about my ´condition´. He said it may have had to do with having a busy Friday and the emotion of saying goodbye to the children (he´d seen me after my tearful goodbye with Nelly). I don´t feel convinced about this, as I tend to take things in my stride, but I don´t have any better explanations either! He said to take it easy and drink plenty of water, which were both my plan anyway for today. They´d bought me some gifts, a really nice bracelet of wooden beads that I´m wearing now, some beautiful wooden wall ornaments of a man and woman dancing the Cueca (apparently to remind me of the nights we´d been dancing!) and a Chaly lady with a traditional fabric dress which I think holds loo rolls. Will brighten up our home in Godalming no end, such lovely presents!
They all waited with me until the flight was called. I didn´t know quite how to split my time with them all, and felt a bit overwhelmed. It was lovely having such a sending off party though, I felt really special. The excitement in the airport was the full Aurora team being there. They are Cocha´s other ´premier league´team, and the team that Andrés supports. It´s nothing like seeing football teams at home, they just sit around playing with their mobiles and chatting and are among everybody else waiting. Andrés announced they were playing Bolívar tomorrow, which are a LP team, so I figured they´d be on my flight. How exciting.
Maritza, who will talk to anyone, no holds barred, went up to two Aurora team players and wished them luck for the game and told them that she was sending me to La Paz to represent the family and support them in their game. They turned to me and asked me where I was from and what I thought of Bolivia. It was a slightly unreal moment, chatting to footballers like that about how I liked Bolivia. Lucho pulled his best "unimpressed" face, a firm Wilstermann fan! The doctor threatened to tell them I was also a Wilsterista, but he didn´t, of course!
Then I had to board, hugs and kisses all round and I felt really sad. Maritza was really sweet, as were all the family each in their way. I had two hugs with Magda too, of whom I had grown very fond. The doctor and gang went up to the viewing gallery so that when I walked across the tarmac to our aircraft, they were all waving like crazy from the roof of the terminal building. I waved to them until I had to get into the plane, it was so nice!
Once seated on my least favourite seat (a middle, over the wing!), my aisle neighbour came and sat with me. I said to him in Spanish "I was hoping to be seated next to a footballer" and he just grinned at me. The seat belt I had was pants and I couldn´t adjust it down to fit so he helped me. I felt a bit mean for my footballer comment. We got chatting with where I am from, what I thought of Bolivia, etc. He expressed a few thoughts on Bolivia´s woes and what needed to improve, but surprised me by saying things had got better in the last two years and would get better still as Bolivia took more control of her own destiny vs foreign interference.
Whilst I´d read this view before coming, I´d not heard anyone utter it. I asked him if he was from La Paz and he told me from Cocha, but working in La Paz. He smiled a bit at my shock when he then told me he was the Minister of Education! I felt so silly for my footballer comment! But he took it well and we talked about the problem of the high illiteracy in Bolivia. I told him all about the hospital, about the children, about their educational needs neglected and in case that didn´t stir him, I pulled out the photo album Marie Anne had made me to show him what the little burns children looked like. I told him they needed a new building and some thought to some education for those who are confined to hospital for the longer term. To be fair to him, he listened attentively and made all the right noises. However, his project is to eradicate illiteracy by the end of this year in adults of 15+, so I don´t think I was hitting his hot button in terms of demographics!
The flight went really quickly, with some amazing scenery that I could only partially see from my middle-over-the-wing seat! As we stood up to leave, the Min of Ed was chatting in a really pally way with the Aurora guys and I realised that one of the two that Maritza and I had talked to in the airport had been in the seat behind me. He grabbed my hand as I stood up to leave the plane and said he was looking forward to seeing me in the stadium tomorrow. I told him he could count on my support, and that of my husband too! I don´t know if Iain will feel up to the 4pm match tomorrow after his journey, but if he does, I´d sure like to go!
As arranged, there was a driver from the hotel waiting for me at La Paz. I was glad I´d arranged this, even if it meant paying more than the going taxi rate, given my still frail condition and the altitude. The views coming into La Paz were stunning! The airport is much higher up than the city of La Paz, being situated at the higher settlement of El Alto. There were also gorgeous mountain views, some snow-capped. The driver, another Hernán, was delighted I spoke Spanish and we chatted all the way here. He´ll also be my driver tomorrow morning when we go to pick up Iain (getting really excited about this now I am here and it all seems real!).
I have to admit I´ve not left the hotel since getting here about 5pm. I´ve had a lovely hot shower, the best in ages, checked out their cultural centre and spent a goodly few hours catching up at long last with the blog (this is the third entry I´ve completed!). I´ve not felt hungry so just had a cheese toastie while typing, and will go to bed now (9pm) as it´ll be a 5am start to fetch Iain. Night! x
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Heart moving last blogs in Cochabamba
I loved your last two blogs, they made me cry too! What a lovely send off and how thoughtful they all were. Maybe the Education Minister can help to move things in another department