Blogs from La Paz, La Paz Department, Bolivia, South America

A low, slow, eery murmur fills the air. A weird, wakening, growling whisper that intrudes out of nowhere. Prompting part-parched eyelids to eke apart as the first flirtations of early morning pink filter through a canopy of Amazon trees. See the dozen fat mosquitoes, content, inside the peak of the mosquito net, having earlier snuck entrance, and supped. Instinctively move limbs away from the dropped sides of the mesh protection, away from the five dozen, and more, ravenous insects sitting outside eagerly waiting to take their own sip from a misplaced forearm or calf. Touch the screen, and lose a drop. Again, the strange moan from beyond rises, like the lowest low of a cow driven by the sound of a breeze through a forest of leaves. Sounds are generally processes of orientation. They let you ... read more

(Day 267 on the road)If you read the following blog entry and think "wow, Ben's writing skills have certainly improved", I am afraid I have to disappoint you. Most of this entry was written by my good friend Suzanne, who came to visit me in Bolivia for ten amazing days of travelling together. But before I hand over, a quick recap of the days leading up to Suzanne's arrival in La Paz: My entry into Bolivia from Peru was as easy as possible: A minibus from the travel agency picked up all the passengers at 4am in Puno, the boat from Puno (Peru) to Kasani (Bolivia) took about 5 hours (straight across the beautiful Lago Titicaca), the immigration formalities in Kasani took less than 3 minutes, and a minibus took me to the lakeside town of ... read more

In my morning class I have students that are older and more experienced in business. I have been able to learn a lot from them including some background on the economy of Bolivia. They said, as others have also said to me, that Bolivia doesn't have inflation. One of the men told me you could buy a loaf of bread for approximately the same price 10 years ago as you can today. I wondered about this and decided to do some research. It isn't quite that sample, but when is it ever. In the 1980's citizens did not trust the Bolivian money so the country had a major issue with dollarization: when foreign currency (usually the US dollar) replaces the domestic currency because it is more reliable. When this happens the central banks do not have ... read more

Today was a busy day. I had my morning class where we focused on Cash Flow managed based on the questions they asked me at the previous class. I was glad to see all the men returned a few new ones joined them. We had some good discussions about the cash flow status of their businesses and what we might be able to do to improve it. The afternoon class focused on goal setting. Each of the woman was asked to share with the group their S.M.A.R.T. goal with the class so they could help keep each other accountable. We had a good mix of personal goals for their families as well as professional endeavors. After class, Betty took me on a tour of the Cholets of El Alto. The best possible way to see these ... read more

Today was the second meeting with the women from the area, but the first class. We are still formulating options for the skills training aspect, but since the financial planning applies to all we decided to get started. Daniel the intern helped me adjust my lesson plan to make it more relevant to the women and their culture. I had the translator on video and then Daniel in person. The three of us worked well together. Daniel started off a bit nervous but he got in the groove and seemed to enjoy it. Majority of the women from the first meeting came back and they brought friends. We had about 15 - 20 people. I have to say "people" because I had my first man attend a class! We tried for this in Uganda, but the ... read more