Nov 2006

Hold onto your horses! This is a long one!

¨12.14pm - Wed. 22 Nov. 2006

¨Yesterday we had a late start cuz the 11am micro didn`t show up and we couldn`t leave till 2pm. The bus failed to stop at San Pablito though, so we ended up going to San Pedro again, though an hour and a half early for our 5pm appointment. We were able to take a few photos during this time, but mostly we just waited around for a while, talking to the children and the few adults who crowded around us again.

¨My favourite boy wasn`t there, but my favourite girl, Lurdes, was. She`s about 11, very beautiful and lovely, helping us out with the kids and asking many questions. All of the children still act like children and love games and swimming and silliness, but all of them, out of necessity, grow up early. The older ones always look out for the younger ones. Everyone looks after each other.

¨How they all live and interact is quite incredible. A few of the men had a lot of questions before we started the first day, wanting to make sure they understood what we were doing so they could give their permissions. ... Other people, mostly women, just accepted without question whatever was going on. It wouldn`t cross their minds to ask questions.

¨I recall in the assembly the other day the gender roles were laid out physically: all the men had seats on a bench around the perimetre; if there was more room the women could sit as well, but the majority sat on tarps on the ground with the kids.

¨Anyway after sharing soda (Jauma`s gift - not my choice for their rotting teeth) and conversation with the kids and taking a few photos, we came across one family whoe kids (3 of 5) were sick. I didn`t know you could get so sick from cucarachas (cockroaches), but both girls and the youngest boy all had bad sores covering their faces and down their shoulders and back. Jauma asked how long they`d been sick, whythey didn`t have medicine. I caught the general meaning of everythign that was said, and understood that the family couldn`t afford the medicine. The adults seemed to think it was about 12bs, one dose, and all could be well. They also said there was a doctor who lived in the community who had the right medicine.

¨Once Jauma and I heard this we simultaneously jumped to our feet and asked where the doctor`s office was. Lurdes and a couple other children followed us while Jauma and I expressed our disbelief. We stepped into the doctor`s office and took a seat.

¨From the start I didn`t like his manner. His speech was slow and calculating, his eyes blasé as he spoke to Jauma...but he did answer all our questions. He explained that the Bolivian government only provides free health care for children 5 years and younger, so he couldn`t give them any medicine (he didn`t even ask for their ages). And the medicine he does have in store in his small, 2-room shack, is very little...

¨The way he spoke made it seem like he wouldn`t give the children medicine because of these regulations. At that point I asked `is it not possible to give the children medicine if we (Jauma and I) pay for it?´ Instead of saying yes right away, he started with another negative, making me think he didn`t care at all about his own community. He said he needed to examine the children before anything could be done.

¨As we waited for Lurdes to fetch the sick family for an examination...

¨It was a struggle to get the young boy into the office - he was screaming, afraid, embarrassed, and was forever covering his face. The other were either too young or too old to make a fuss...After a quick look the doctor wrote out the prescription, we paid the 23bs ($3.22CAD) for each child, and our good deed was put into effect.

¨It was quite the scene with crowds of kids spilling into the office for a look, all the ill children hiding their faces, Jauma and I trying to help as best we could, and the doctor just doing his job, sans empathy. It was nothing for us to pay for the medicine, but everything for the family who received it.

¨What bothers me more than the doctor the obvious lack of care in the Bolivian Ministry of Health, was that the mother didn`t even KNOW she could visit the doctor for her youngest child (less than 5 years old). Why didn`t she know? She could barely answer the simple questions we asked her about the kids´ illness. Though she was simple and completely uneducated, she hadn`t even been given the opportunity until then to seek help. There is no communication between the government and its poorest people, not even between the local permanent doctor and his patients.

¨We finished up the photos after the whole ordeal with the doctor and left shortly thereafter. All the kids followed us down the road, I had Lurdes´s hand in mine, and I felt a pang in me, not wanting to leave her (or the others) behind with such a hard life. The one big comfort for me was that, with the exception of the boy who was mortified because of his face sores, all the children were happy and laughing.

¨As we reached the river where they wash and swim, Lurdes ran ahead and asked me to take one last photo of her jumping into the water from the dirt road above. She called, waving, form the water ¨¡Gracias, amiga!¨ and I went on my way.¨

So that was the good part of the day... later on when Jauma and I were back in Guarayos I got all irritable with him, then I got those horrible pains again and had to go back to the house to lie down, and more bad things went down that I don`t feel like talking about.

This morning I woke up feeling well, no more pain, and we first went to the internet place to deal with some of the photos. As it turns out though, there isn`t more work today behond the computer stuff: government politics have interferred in our efforts. Jauma can`t get permission from the very right-wing head of this county, so we can`t (at the moment anyway) take photos at the other little villages we`d planned to go to.

Tomorrow I`m going to accompany Jauma to his talks with the mayor dude again, just to listen and see how they interact. I still can`t speak a whole lot of Spanish, but I can understand quite a lot so it should be interesting.

P.S. I`m getting sad that Christmas is so close around the corner and I won`t be in Canada, with my friends and family, for it.

Ok it turns out I have less free time than I`d hoped as Jauma`s photographer. Yesterday he asked if I could stay past Saturday which just made me angry and stressed out - the original deal was to stay no more than 5 days. Once I realized I wasn`t obligated though, I told him I will leave on Friday; I don`t have time for more than that. Anyway I don`t want to talk about the stresses of the job because it`s not interesting. I will copy only bits of what I wrote yesterday:

¨7.08pm - Mon. 20 Nov. 2006

¨Today was interesting. I got up early and washed myself outside - Teresa`s house doesn`t have a shower so instead there is a well from which I filled a bucket with water. I took said bucket to a small shack in the backyard designated for washing, adn used a small bowl to scoop water all over me. I found it difficult to get my hair wet enough to wash properly, but otherwise it`s not a bad way of getting clean.

¨When we arrived in Guarayos yesterday Jauma asked if I`d like to stay with a family for a better price than an alojamiento...Anyway the house is quite good...The family has some money (they have electricity, a fridge, a TV, and a small cd player), but it is still Bolivia and is very simple and crude by Canadian standards. The ¨shower¨ is interesting of course, they have an outhouse further back, wooden seat and all, the floor is conrete, and furniture is very basic. It`s quite comfortable though, and my bed is decent as well.

¨This morning Jauma and I took a taxi first to a couple houses in the outskirts, inquiring about his work, then to San Pedro, a tiny little pueblo (village) near Santa Maria.

...

¨10.45pm

¨... In San Pedro we spent the day trying to organize this photo session. There was an assembly going on, which gave Jauma an opportunity to speak in front of the majority of adults and tell them why we were here. It seems his foundation is more organized than I suspected - for each community he documents there will be a certain amount of money for the children in that town. It seems a bit like a World Vision sponsorship thing, except sans much overhead expense.

¨I was tired and had to cope with having little kids around me the entire time, but overall I enjoyed the experience. We used a system whereby Jauma took the name of each child and his or her parents´ names, and I took the photo, sometimes with the parents, but always one child or family at a time so the order wouldn`t get mixed up.

¨Living in a small rural town, all these children are very poor and look it: their clothes are all worn and dirty, none wear shoes, their teeth are starting to rot...They were all so sweet, so curious about who we were, and all ready for the camera. After each photo I would have a rush of children at me, wanting to see the image.

¨We took a break at lunch and Jauma went swimming with some kids in the river, cloudy from so much dusty dry dirt. I stayed out above my ankles and tood a few more photos. Later we also walked around a bit to see the community. All the houses are crude, built with sticks, dirt floors, palm-leaf roofs. The house of the mayor is slightly more well-made.

¨A couple of the older boys are quite charming, or maybe just intruguing. They all look older and are more mature than their age might imply (12-15). They have to grow up quickly living there, and though they`ve got the same rascally, tough nature, they also really look out for the younger ones. When I took the photo of one very good looking young guy, Gerano, he took off his shirt and stood tall and tough, but later when I snapped a surprise photo of him, he broke into the biggest sweetest smile. He`s probably about 12. The kind of boy that makes me think kids aren`t so bad.¨

It feels good to be caught up. We start work a little later today cuz the micro (bus) doesn`t leave until 11am. (The times that show up on these entries are always wrong - it`s 9.40am right now.)

Until next time...

A continuation from the entry on

¨Sun. 19 Nov. 2006 (this one`s a bit scattered)

¨The next day, on Friday, Hyojung, Sabina, and I started trekking to El Churo at 7am. Also known as Vado del Yeso (sp?), this is where Che and company were ambushed and captured (or killed). This trip was without the intense emotion I felt at the school and was instead really fascinating.

¨It took us about 1.5 hours to reach the gorge, the view on the way spectacular and the trail only slightly challenging. Sabina was telling us a few things about Che the day before - basically the same information we`d been getting from other people: the news on the radio, the helicopter landing in town, the soldiers passing through - and we discovered the reason she has these stories is from talking to the farmer who owned the land by the gorge. This farmer, who still owns and farms the land today, is the father of her husband. We met him there by the gorge, digging at a field of potatoes.

¨...Just above one particularly dark and rocky part of the gorge is a small potato field where the dense forest suddenly opens up...To one side was an old Bolivian with wrinkled skin and a worn-out cowboy hat.

¨He is quite the character - we spoke to him for a while about Che mostly, and about his life now. The guerrillas hid out at this place, behind the rocks that still stand there, and ate the potatoes from the field. I think Lorenzio (the farmer) had it rented to someone else at the time, someone who apparently reported to the police the guerrilla presence. There are bullet marks on one stone by the water, probably more elsewhere. The other stones in the field have things painted on them, one with ¨Che Vive,¨ another with some comment on Fidel Castro.

¨Anyway it was a rather pleasant visit. Oh, and made more interesting because Lorenzio darted into the bush for a few minutes and brought back with him a used bullet cartridge which came from one of the guerrillas´ guns during battle.

¨After the potato field and area, Sabina took us up a bit further to a small crude house where Che et al slep for a few nights, and afterward to another abandoned house where they asked an old woman for food.

¨At this point I started to feel quite sick - we started walking back a different route but I had terrible pains in my lower intestine area and lower back (for no particular reason - the food I had was fine and it`s not that time of month; this is just something I get once or twice a year). It got worse the further I walked so I lay down a fe times in agony until it subsided, only to have it get bad again after walking for another 10 minutes.

¨We made it to the house of Lorenzio at which I lay down on a bench and his wife made me manzanilla (like cammomile) tea. We stayed for lunch as well...I felt better when we left...¨

So on the same day on the walk back from El Churo, Jauma (Jaime is his Spanish name, Jauma is Catelan) happened to drive by in a taxi. He knew I was in the area cuz I`d written him earlier, asking for the email address of an ex-soldier who was involved in Che`s capture. It was a surprise to see him that`s for sure! A very good one though cuz I was getting rather irrited with Hyojung by that point so it was nice to have someone else there.

Anyway ¨Jauma has a foundation to do with kids and social problems in poor countries like India and Bolivia. He has a few people working in England and Spain, where he`s from. I`m not sure how well set-up or in what stage of organization his foundation is, but part of the work right now is to take photos of the children in poverty-stricken areas, collect their names and the names of their parents, and eventually load them onto his website. He asked me if, since I have a camera and he doesn`t, I would go with him back to Guarayos and Santa Maria to document the children. He pays for food and shelter and it shouldn`t take more than 6 days...

...

¨One thing I realize now after actually travelling with people - Hyojung and now Jauma - is that you can only travel with certain people, and if you have to travel with them you have to make compromises and get used to a different routine (something I`m not good at)... I don`t take well to being looked after - I like to preserve my independence while travelling and not owe anybody anything...

¨For now though I`m looking forward to Guarayos...Maybe I can visit Wayra if there`s time!¨

End of Che stuff, onto Guarayos itself!

Ok I am now in Guarayos after 2 days of travelling and while I`m waiting for my photos to transfer onto the computer so I can then transfer them to CD (and probably send a copy home just in case they get wrecked), I am taking this opportunity to catch up on the blogging! Sorry for the huge run-on-sentence.

Before today it had been 3 days since I`d written anything in my journal, too. That`s what I get for actually travelling with other people instead of just hanging out with them in single places.

Because I have so much to say, I will write partly from my journal, and partly in brief.

¨La Higuera, 8.49pm - Thurs. 16 Nov. 2006

¨To reach La Higuera today we travelled on a cargo/passenger truck for half the price of a microbus. We packed our bags early this morning and arrived at the delegated street corner at about 7.30am, where there was a truck set to leave for this tiny village in the mountains. The driver said they planned to leave between 8.30-9 so we lifted our bags into the back and took turns going to the mercado (market) for a breakfast juice and tea.

¨I went first and enjoyed my time alone, sipping my tea and savouring my ´jugo de frutilla con leche´(banana juice made with milk). The market is always bustling, full of indistinguishable fruit and vegetable stands in the middle, and small juice/tea/snack bars along on side.

¨When it was my turn to wait by the truck, I enjoyed watching the bustle on the street as well. There were 3 cargo trucks by that point, all heading to different places, all surrounded by a floating population of people coming and going, adding things to the trucks or just looking after their kids or dogs or chickens.

¨We finally took off at about 9.45am, good for Bolivian time, with a full truck load. I counted 22 people (toddlers and babies included), 2 dogs, 1 chick, and loads of cargo that we tried to pile up in some reasonable manner so as to have seats. The ride was slow, bumpy, sometimes extremely uncomfortable, but the views were incredible and most people were in good spirits.

¨This is the way campesinos (rural people, farmers) travel regularly, so it was a good way to see a bit of the real, non-touristy Bolivia. When I stood up to enjoy the view - spectacular mountains and the grande valley of the town we just left - I hit my head on a metal bar; a woman in heels stepped on my leg; a little boy projectile vomited on some bags and the boy across from him; but overall I enjoyed the journey.

¨La Higuera is a village of only 20 families in one of the most rural areas of Bolivia. It`s one claim to fame is Che`s death and this makes it only slightly touristy. It is so small though, and so remote, that despite Che`s image on every single building it is an authentic old place, has character, and is incredibly beautiful and unspoiled.

¨We are staying in a small alojamiento on the current school`s property; it is very basic, morese because it is under construction, but is all all we need. I like not having electricity and I quite enjoyed my cold shower (from some other source) as well. Life here is quiet, simple, with little to bother about.

¨The woman Sabina, who runs the place, is very nice. She lives in a small house across the road and invited us for tea. The house is just one room with a dirt floor, walls of mud brick, 2 beds in one corner, a small stove/burner and some bags in another, and a bench along one wall with some more food. I they go outside somewhere for the bathroom and to wash.¨

...

¨Santa Cruz, 10.43am - Sun. 19 Nov. 2006

¨I made sure 3 days ago (Thursday) that I would go into the school where Che was killed by myself. Sabina let Hyujung into the school first and I sat on the step until she was finished. When I entered I wasn`t in the room for 10 seconds before tears ran down my cheeks. Again I felt the weight of everything that had happened there and how important it still is today.

¨The school-turned-museum is nothing but a room, a room with new walls, standard Che pictures and history, and various paraphenalia for sale. The floor and some furniture are original, though, including the chair on which Che sat when he was shot (in the legs the day before so he couldn`t walk, and in the chest later). The floor is some kind of hard stone, tiled but smooth like polished concrete. Except bullet holes litter the floor, spatter over one end of the schoolroom, some bigger than others. There are also stains...

¨This time I had no problem imagining what happened in this place. It was all there, I could feel it, all the ghosts of horrific acts, and the blood on the ground, and the pain swallowed me for a few minutes. I spent a long time in there, first reading the bits of history I`ve read before, then touching each piece of furniture in turn because I feel physical touch it`s necessary to have a connection with what I see. I spent a few minutes crouching on the floor, touching each bullet hole; I can`t say which one was Che`s fatal shot.

¨In the face of the others, when I stepped outside again, I was composed, fine. I just needed to be in there alone.

¨The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Hyojung and I had dinner at la Tienda de Estrella`s (store of the stars - there are no restaurants in La Higuera). The woman who works there had some interesting things to say about her encounter with Che. It`s hard to say if everything she said was true, or if her 70-year-old mind is as good as it was then, but it was an interesting conversation nonetheless.¨

To write about my conversations with people who actually saw or spoke to Che before or after his death would take too long...

I think there will have to be a Part 2 to this entry as it is getting dark and I haven`t yet had supper.

Just as quick entry to say I had no internet in La Higuera so I couldn`t write. Now I am in Vallegrande again with Jaime, a friend from the park, and we are in transit to Santa Cruz and then Guarayos for a few days. I will be working for him and when that is all done I will then move on to Sucre and Potosí. Another week in Bolivia it will be! I will write again either in Santa Cruz or Guarayos. All is well. Chao!