No Solo Para Gringos

Mis dos amores

2008-11-24T20:40:00.003Z

It is fair to say that since we returned to live in the UK that my blogging has come to a halt. However, I am keen to provide an update since our big day back in 2006, namely that I have not one but two amores. Sofia Michele, who shares the same initials and middle name as my mum, was born on 7th June 2008. Enjoy!

Mum and Sofia (1)

Mum and Sofia (2) - Look carefully!

Exclusivo: La Pareja Feliz

2006-08-29T15:14:00.000Z

Hola from Cochabamba. It´s official, a Jacobs has finally got married. Marioly and I had a wonderful day, combining the best of Bolivian, Catholic, English and Jewish traditions including lots of folk dancing, a reading from Corinthians, a best man, wedding speeches, Israeli music and the breaking of the glass, and we even make the Society pages of Cochabamba´s Los Tiempos newspaper!

There are photos courtesy of my friend Nick, who also has his own inimitable account of our wedding which you can see by clicking on the link, and my wedding speech below...

"I want to start by saying a few thanks. First of all to everyone for coming, we have guests who have travelled a long way to be here – from England, Spain, Israel, Morocco, Peru, France, Belgium, United States, from all over Bolivia and of course from Cochabamba. it really makes us so happy to see you here.

Thank you very much to my best man Andy for your kind words. We have known each other since we lived together in France 12 years ago & it means so much to me that I have got you to return to Bolivia and share this occasion with us. However I must point out that Andy has not always given me the best of advice, I remember clearly the day when I was planning my first trip to Bolivia and Andy said to do not bother going to Cochabamba, there is nothing there! I forgive you, you had no way of knowing about Marioly…

Marioly and I also want to use this very public occasion to say how much the love and support of our families mean to us. While today may be about our sacred union, it is much more than that, it is bringing together two families who share all that is best in common. One of the things that Marioly and I share is just how important family is to us. While some English boys might find the whole Latin culture a bit overwhelming, it is impossible not to feel at home in the Lopez family even if my brother-in-laws idea of play leaves me with bruises. Also, while London is very far, Marioly has a new family who think the world of her and with Skype we forget the distances.

We are also so lucky to have not one wonderful celebration but two, we would like to thank Tony & Flora for the lovely party in London and Jose Luis and Maria Christina for all their hard work that has made today possible.

I want to use this opportunity to tell you a bit about my ‘amor’ who I met just over 12 months ago. A special mention must go to Dieter, who I met a couple of days after arriving in Bolivia and so generously invited me to his wedding to Claudia the following week: it was there that I first met Marioly. So it was not quite love at first sight at the wedding… more like second or third. Pretty much from then onwards, we have been inseparable and in January, on the way back from our holiday in Chile, I proposed to Marioly in a most romantic setting, in a taxi in La Paz on the way to her uncle and aunt´s house. I am not allowed to say that Marioly is perfect, her mum has told me on theological grounds that no human being is completely free of sin… but she is most definitely perfect for me.

Also I can strongly recommend that getting a Spanish speaking girlfriend is by far and away the best way to learn a new language. In the early days it was great too as I could pretend I did not understand what Marioly was telling me. I am also very proud of my large but often completely useless vocabulary that I have picked up however it can be really difficult to engineer opportunities to make use of it:

Es un muchacho sin oficio ni beneficio - he´s a good for nothing layabout
Esas ninos me van a llevar a la tumba – these kids will be the death of me
Las polillas me han dejado el jersey como un colador – the moths have eaten great holes in my jumper…………… actually that one has come in handy.

As for the future, after the wedding and our honeymoon in Brazil, Marioly and I will be studying next year in London and plan to stay around there for a few more years but our long-term aim is to come back and live in Bolivia. This is such a wonderful country and I think that people concentrate only on its problems, which are real, and Evo´s jumpers, which are terrible, but when I think of Bolivia I think of its incredible beauty and variety, its natural resources, there the endless festivals and parades; salteñas; that everyone knows how to dance and endless family parties; and the eternal sunshine in Cochabamba which makes it a challenge for anyone to wake up in a bad mood. I could go on, but I think you get the point, the country has so much going for it and I for one will be proud to live here.

Thank you once again for sharing this most special occasion with us and we look forward to seeing you all in London!"

Un beso muy fuerte

Julian & Marioly

Full Circle

2006-04-13T15:44:00.000Z

Two weeks into my Bolivian adventure I was invited to a wedding by a friend of a work colleague of my friend Andrea where I chatted to a pretty architect called Marioly (as well as quite a few other pretty girls!). Little did I know where it would lead.

Anyway, it feels like I have come full circle as with a little more than two weeks to go until I return to the UK I was attending another wedding, this time with Marioly and the entire Lopez clan for her cousin Patti’s wedding in La Paz.

While I have not quite got used to drinking rum and whisky with my meal (there will definitely be wine at OUR wedding), I realised how much has changed in the 10 months since I left England. While not quite indistinguishable from the locals, I have an excellent grasp of Spanish though sometimes it is still useful to say I do not understand. I have also discovered a bit of rhythm which I really did not think possible and danced the night away along with the other 250 guests.

There is so much I love about Bolivia, though one should be careful not to over romanticize the place as it is not without its faults or problems.

What I love: Marioly, the sunshine, La Paz, dancing, biogas projects, Wilstermann football club, cable tv which means I can watch Arsenal matches, the ease with which one can meet people, the regular national holidays and religious festivals (which coupled with the strikes makes it a miracle to actually do a day's work) & the sprawling Cancha market where you can buy anything from clothes and fruit to computers and second hand cars.

What I dislike: the lack of vegetables in the Bolivian diet, drinking rum or whisky with a meal, the difficulty to really get to know people beyond the superficial, the Bolivian work mentality (or lack of it), the incredible amounts of pointless paperwork and the corruption which while I have not witnessed directly is a constant theme and one that does so much damage to the country.

I cannot quite make up my mind if I like the fact that you can never plan with confidence in Bolivia. On the one hand it is quite refreshing to not have everything mapped out, yet it is also a bit tedious if you do not know whether the buses or planes are going to leave (the former are regularly on strike as they do not want to pay taxes, the latter national airline is on the verge of bankruptcy due to a mixture of corruption and mismanagement) or whether you can get to work (when Bolivians protest, they blockade the roads).

Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous President took the reigns of power in January 2006. He refuses to follow the US and World Bank’s prescriptions for economic reform which have served the country so badly for the last 20 years. There is therefore a chance that things may change for the better. I for one am willing to give him a chance, but it is still too early to say whether he will change the tide of history.

Broken noses and sinking ships

2006-03-26T21:57:00.000Z

The title is not meant to put off potential visitors to this part of the world and neither is it a fair reflection of my family's trip to South America... but I can hardly not mention these episodes.

A few weeks ago, my parents, uncle and aunt were fast asleep one night on their Gallapagos ship cruising between the islands when they were shaken from their slumber by a huge crash. The ship hit a massive rock and the captain's voice could be heard over the loudspeaker trying to reassure the passengers... though sounding terrified. My uncle claimed he was really rather relaxed about the whole thing, my aunt begs to differ. The good news was that they did not need to abandon ship and after some checks and minor repairs continued on their merry way.

At this point, Marioly and I all hooked up with the family, taking in Cuzco where we celebrated Marioly's birthday, Machu Pichu (or Pichy as my dad invariably calls it, though this is something quite rude in Spanish!), a Champions League game involving Cuzco versus Caracas of Venezuela, Lake Titicaca, La Paz and finally to Cochabamba where incident number two happened... It was like an episode from the film "Meet the Fockers" with Robert De Niro et al. We were driving back from a day trip to Tarata, a lovely little colonial town, about 40 minutes from Cochabamba. Marioly's father, Jose Luis, was in front in the jeep with my parents and uncle and aunt. We were following behind in the VW Beetle with Marioly´s mum. Suddenly she slammed on the brakes as we hit a huge speed bump (more akin to a small wall), but the jeep had not been so lucky as Jose Luis had not spotted it in time and passed over it at about 30km/hr sending his passengers flying. While the others had a bump to the head, my dad suffered a thwack to his nose and bleeding. While it did not look so serious, he was in a bit of pain and Jose Luis headed straight to one of the local private hospitals. Two hours later my dad left the hospital complete with three stitches and bandages for a broken nose. Actually it was Marioly's dad who looked worse, racked with worrry and guilt. And just to make matters worse, we had organised a family reunion of the Lopez clan that very night. My dad being a good sport did not shirk his duties and made his rounds of the two dozen or so family members. I of course was keen to tell anyone who would listen that there had been a punch up but we were all friends now!

The Lopez family hospitality was wonderful and I know that my parents and uncle and aunt have had a wonderful introduction to South America despite a couple of incidents. Anyway it gives us something to recount on web blogs and postcards.

Bombs, buckets and hosepipes

2006-03-02T14:32:00.000Z

The title just about sums up Carnival, which after four days of celebration, ended on tuesday (well, not quite for us, it was Marioly's mum's birthday yesterday and about 50 guests popped over during the evening).

While most people know about Carnival in Brazil, the next biggest Carnival on the continent is probably in Oruro, about 4 hours from Cochabamba. Marioly was not keen to go as it is as famous for its wonderful costumes and dancing as for the number of extremely drunk people in the streets.

Also Carnival is famous for getting soaked. There is little point trying to avoid it, one way or another you will get wet as people throw water bombs and buckets of water over you, or if you are in a private party, the chances are that someone will get hold of the hosepipe and soak all the guests. The worst was a journey that we took in a taxi, his windows were broken so we were unable to close them, making us a very enviable target. Two buckets of water later we arrived at our destination.

Carnival is not just getting wet. There are lots of BBQs, visiting family and friends, dancing and to my delight playing football. We found ourselves at a bit of a posh do on monday where I was making goal assists for the Bolivian Vice President's brother (and getting a black eye in the process, though not his fault). May be next year in Rio?!

No more paperwork please!

2006-02-23T23:34:00.000Z

I cannot take any more, please not another "tramite" or document... such is the never ending Bolivian bureaucracy (and with which I believe the British Embassy is in connivance.)

So just how complicated can it be to get married in Bolivia and for my betrothed to get a visa to come to live in the UK? Well, not only do I need my birth certificate, passport, a declaration that I am single (issued by my Embassy after 21 days of notice), title deeds of my property, proof of savings but we also have to get documents translated into Spanish (by an offical language translation service, I cannot do it), certified by the British Embassy and then further certified by the equivalent of the Home Office in Bolivia.

I nearly lost my rag yesterday in La Paz, not only were the documents not ready in the British Embassy (a two and a half hour wait), then we headed off to the Cancilleria, the Bolivian Government Department that deals with certifying documents. There were a mere 100 people in front of us in the queue, hence another wait, this time of 4 hours. When it finally came to our turn, the official refused to certify the British Embassy certified copies of my birth certificate and would only certify the translation. There is no logic and they will certify the photocopy of my passport, but it is not worth arguing with these officials. I thought the day's tramites were over, but no, we had to pay. $43 of stamps that they attach to the document we purchased in another office in the aforementioned building, but inexplicably the fee for processing their services had to be paid into a bank (it was 3.42pm, the banks shut at 4pm), before they return the documentation to you. Of course while there are dozens of banks in this district, the one where we had to pay the fee was nowhere near the Cancilleria, it is the other side of town. When we got there, there was no bank machine and we were out of money so while I was queuing Marioly went in search of money. We then had to rush back to the Cancilleria, which itself was officially closed (though they let you in a side entrance) and queue a bit more to hand over the bank receipt in return for our documentation.

I really hate to say it but I think the bureaucracy contributes to the country being underdeveloped. Firstly, if the Bolivian administration can make the most simple thing so complicated, how is it ever going to cope with the complicated? Secondly, there is no doubt that the pointless bureaucracy invites corruption, and we are talking about the continent's second most corrupt country. I would have been tempted to pay a bribe to circumvent some of the aforementioned!

Oh, and the Catholic Church has taken the lead from the Bolivian adminstration, have their own bureaucracy. They have interviewed me, Marioly and our witnesses , I have signed various declarations and now we must attend 4 days of evening classes - compulsory for marrying over here.

I am not sure if I want to get Bolivian nationality, imagine how much paperwork that will involve!

I have to confess....

2006-02-23T23:06:00.000Z

....that I do not like milk. How does one admit that when working with the Association of Dairy Producers in Achacachi, near Lake Titicaca?

I had a tough and simultaneously very rewarding week of work in this north western part of Bolivia. Achacachi is at 3,800 metres, the sun is really strong and the scenery of lake, river and snow capped mountains captivating... though also misleading, as the altiplano is one of the country´s poorest zones.

For 6 days our team of 4 worked ten hours a day first to build 27 biogas systems and then install them. In terms of getting around, since our boss sold his 4 x 4 car and went to study in Spain, we had to make do with local transport. And make do we did - during the week we travelled between the nine communities that make up Achacachi by taxi, by lorry, by boat, on the back of a motor bike and of course on foot. Those who know me well will no doubt find it hard to believe that I was getting up at 6.30am and tucked up in bed by 10pm. Evenings were very quiet, the town goes to sleep by 10pm and my craving for pizza could not be sated. We did push the boat out one night to treat ourself to the local brew and karaoke in the town´s one (half decent) drinking establishment.

The community is primarily Aymara speaking though most understand Spanish. Amusingly, one of my colleagues though born in Bolivia has lived nearly all his life in Argentina and has a gaucho accent to go with it... half the locals could not understand him and looked to me to translate into Spanish!

In all, there are over 200 families that could benefit from biogas, eco toilets and showers. We have funds to install 27 systems as demonstration projects with the long-term aim of continuing the project if there is demand form the community. One of the funders is the British Embassy in La Paz, and on Friday 16th a representative from the Embassy came to visit. She was very impressed by the tour, meeting and food (see right!) we organised, and while making no promises until she sees everything fully operational, has suggested that the Embassy´s support will not be a one-off.

This was my third and final project with the NGO, overall I have really enjoyed it, have no doubt about the quality and benefits of the projects and my only wish is that I would have liked to have done more. Now I have to get down to lots of report writing as I am not sure that the funders accept web blog entries as an official reporting mechanism....

This is why I came to Bolivia....

2006-02-11T23:55:00.000Z

I had one of my most rewarding days in my working life today. The story began about 5 months ago with an offer from an ex-colleague of the Camden Green Fair, who suggested that his charitable trust would be open to receiving an application for a project benefiting young people in Bolivia. After identifying the community and working out the details of the project together, I submitted an application and within a month we received the wonderful news that ₤4,000 was on its way.

So what have we done with the money? Well the most important aspect was that young people from the community played a major role - both in terms of physical manpower and also in terms of educational benefit - in creating what we believe is Bolivia´s first renewable energy powered primary school. The school has been transformed, replacing holes in the floor with flushing toilets, ice cold showers that now have solar heating, biogas for cooking, electricity powered by a bicyle, solar panel and mini windmill, a solar oven for cooking outside, a new building for the kitchen so that the teacher no longer has to share his bedroom with the cooking facilities, a library of educational books, software and DVDs and a new colour printer. While the project was initially meant to involve the young people and benefit the children who attend the primary school, the truth is that the whole community will benefit and make use of the new facilities.

The official inauguration was a wonderful day, and a great way to acknowledge all the hard work by the community as well as their appreciation for our input. About 70 people attended of the community's 170 residents, the rest were working. The local mayor was invited, though by the time we left - 4 hours after the official starting time - he was still not to be seen, though given Bolivian timekeeping, it is quite likely he arrived later. I gave a 10 minute speech in Spanish, which hopefully they understood (like me, the majority's first language is not in fact Spanish, but Quechua), we unveiled and exchanged various plaques and we were covered in confetti, garlands of flowers and toasted the completion of the project with the local brew, chichi (not recommended in large quantities).

A special thank you to Stefano Casalotti and Greenboard who funded this project. The process as well as the end product really have made a difference to this community's quality of life.

A pressing engagement in Chile

2006-01-21T04:25:00.000Z

I am now back in Cochabamba after a most wonderful three week break in Chile and La Paz. The best thing was not actually the holidays, which were wonderful, but the fact that four friends and my girlfriend who had never met before all got on like a house on fire. With Mangal (Kenya), Jo (UK), Elna (Spain) and Katuscia (Italy) we went rafting, mountain biking, visited vineyards, relaxed in the hot springs, ate delicious seafood, saw Latin America's biggest fireworks display on new year's eve in Valparaiso and much, much more. Honourable mention also to Marioly's family who looked after us in Arica and Pedro and Pamela, my Chilean friends, who showed us the hidden corners of Santiago.

Oh, and Marioly and I got engaged. Actually the title of this blog entry is misleading, we did not get engaged in Chile, but in La Paz. A wonderful holiday with a most wonderful ending.

Historic victory for Evo

2005-12-19T15:04:00.000Z

Yesterday was election day in Bolivia. As always, the polls were completely wrong, predicting a small majority for Evo Morales, the left-wing leader of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) over his neo-liberal US educated rival Tuto Quiroga, which would have meant Congress having to choose a President. It is almost certain that Evo has obtained 51%, meaning for the first time in the country´s history, they will have directly elected their leader. It is doubly historic, because he is also Bolivia´s first indigenous leader, of Aymara ascent.

It was very exciting watching the election results come in yesterday evening on TV. The tension had been building up all week what with the alcohol ban for 3 and a half days, lorry loads of soldiers driving around the city and from midnight on saturday no private or public transport permitted for 24 hours. On the plus side, it meant we had the opportunity to cycle unhindered around the city and play football in the street.

The US Administration and many other observers around the world have been watching closely: Evo´s left wing brand of politics is more Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro than Tony Blair and there are some who suggest he will end the coca eradication programme, nationalise gas and oil industries and seize land from the rich. Conspiracy theorists are even predicting a US invasion (see earlier posting about American base on Paraguay-Bolivia border). On the other hand, he make take the more moderate approach of Lula in Brazil (hopefully minus the corruption).

Personally I was very happy with the result: Bolivia has followed US and IMF policies for 20 years with little benefit to the majority of the population, in fact poverty has got worse and therefore I think that a radical change in policy may provide an opportunity to try something else that may improve the lot for the majority. There are however a large minority, mainly from the middle classes, who genuinely fear what Evo´s victory will mean for the country. It was very revealing watching events unfold with my girlfriend´s family as they all voted for his main rival and are very worried. The truth is no one knows what will happen... vamos a ver.

A Christmas message

2005-12-17T14:44:00.000Z

As of yesterday, my girlfriend is an aunt!
Depuis hier, ma copine est une tante!
¡Desde ayer, mi novia es una tia!

Just a quick message to wish everyone a merry christmas, happy chanukah and best wishes for 2006. We are celebrating a new addition to the Lopez family, Marioly's sister in law gave birth to a baby girl yesterday afternoon. Christmas in this household will not be a quiet affair.

It's a big week, and it is nothing to do with Christmas. On sunday, we have the long awaited presidential elections (see previous postings for more information). It seems really quiet but you would not believe it reading the papers or listening to the warnings issued by the US Embassy. This could be a very historic occasion as Bolivia may have its first indigenous President, Evo Morales, who is the ex-leader of coca movement and winning according to all the polls. However it is much more complicated as he is unlikely to gain 51% required to become president and it is questionable whether Congress will appoint him. The US Embassy has kept unusually quiet about the election possibly learning from last time, when they told people NOT to vote for Evo (lesson for developing nations: democracy is very good.. as long as you do what the American Administration wants), which had the opposite effect and significantly boosted his support. They have still managed to enrage the Bolivian Government by telling their citizens to stock up on food and water and warned of violence.

Elections in Latin America are pretty different from back home. As of midnight on thursday, alcohol was banned for THREE AND A HALF DAYS! As of midnight on saturday, there is essentially a ban on driving for 24 hours so apart from voting, there is very little to do on election day. I will make use of the time to do a bit of cycling, normally it is far to dangerous to venture out on a bike in Cochabamba.

As for 2006, I have a holiday in Chile and will then share my time between Tecnologias en Desarrollo (the Achacachi project by Lake Titicaca), working for another NGO, studying a course in water management and preparing for some visitors. I plan to be home in May which means I will not be back in time to see Arsenal v Real Madrid!

Feliz navidad y bueno año a todos

un beso

Julian

Three out of three

2005-12-12T02:48:00.000Z

For reasons that I am not going to get into here, I have not been able to do as much fundraising as I originally hoped. However, the good news is that of the three applications that I submitted, I am delighted to say they were all successful. The combined total adding personal sponsorship and sale of DVDs takes the amount raised to a little over ₤11,000. This may not sound that substantial, especially compared to the hundreds of thousands I was able to bring in at Groundwork and Addaction, but it nearly doubles the annual turnover of the charity.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our three funders:

the Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Union Council, and indirectly my old boss Eamon, who helped secure the donation who are supporting a biogas project with the Milk Producers Association in Punata (see below for more information)
Greenboard, and in particular Stefano Casalotti, who are supporting a project where young people from La Cumbre community will create what we are pretty sure is Bolivia's first renewable energy powered primary school including biogas, wind power, pedal power, solar power and a solar heating system as well as building a new kitchen
the British Embassy in La Paz who are supporting a biogas and eco-latrine project in Achacachi by Lake Titicaca. This grant was aided thanks to a chance meeting with a DFID representative in a bar during a visit to La Paz.

Last week I spent two days in Punata where we are working with the Milk Producers Association, which is a kind of Bolivian equivalent to a trade union or co-operative, to demonstrate the benefits of biogas technology to its 1,100 members. Four families were selected from different geographical districts of its membership where we are installing biogas systems which will act as pilot or demonstration projects.

Each family provides manpower in the form of digging the whole where we will install the biodigestor as well as signing an agreement that they will look after the system once installed as well as host visits from the community and external visitors.

There are four stages:

meet the beneficiaries, assess their suitability and designate the area to install the biogas system, for which they must dig a 10 metre by 1 metre hole
install the biodigestor and fill it up with manure and 3,000 litres of water to start the biodigestion process. It takes between 5 - 15 days before gas is produced. I never realised I was coming to Bolivia to quite literally shovel shit, but it is worth it when we return and see especially the women's and children's reaction when there is gas
once there is gas, a reservoir, pipes and stoves are installed, and the system is ready for use
monitoring visit and maintenance workshop

Here are some pictures from stages one and two, which took place last week in Punata. There was nearly a diplomatic incident here, as this gentleman has a Man United cap.

And my personal favourite is this one, the burnt out cabin of a truck that has been converted into the family's kitchen. It even has an electric lightbulb.

It's better to travel at night

2005-12-12T02:16:00.000Z

If it is not the road blockades due to some protest, then you get held up because of road accidents which sadly given the way most Bolivians drive, is a relatively frequent occurance, hence my view that it is better to travel by bus at night, when at least you cannot see what is happening!

This particular road may look like some country lane but it is actually the new main road linking Bolivia's second and third largest cities, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba (approximately 10 hours by bus).

In this particular case, it seems that a lorry went over the side and they were hauling it back up. I am pleased to report that in this instance the driver did not seem to be seriously hurt.

I also spotted a novel way to transport your sheep by taxi, on the roof rack.

A Bolivian joke

2005-11-27T21:24:00.000Z

This blog normally avoids any kind of humour, reflecting my deadly serious personality and the fact that I do not normally ‘get’ Bolivian jokes. However, I am making an exception.

In Japan, where they eat little fatty food, the heart attack rate is lower than in the United Kingdom and United States
On the other hand, in France, where they consume lots of fatty food, the heart attack rate is lower than in the United Kingdom and United States
In India, where hardly anyone drinks red wine, the heart attack rate is lower than in the United Kingdom and United States
In Spain, where they drink lots of red wine and eat far too much chorizo, the heart attack rate is lower than in the United Kingdom and United States
In Algeria, where few people make love, the heart attack rate is lower than in the United Kingdom and United States
In Brazil, where everyone is making love all the time, the heart attack rate is lower than in the United Kingdom and United States

Conclusion: don't worry about what you drink, what you eat, having lots of sex and generally being happy.... what kills is speaking English.

Back to school

2005-11-27T20:46:00.000Z

As I sometimes have quite a lot of time on my hands due to the infrequent nature of the work with Tecnologias en Desarollo, I have been looking around for other things to keep me busy. I was introduced to a Belgium, Robert Crespin, who founded K’anchay (it’s Quechua and means to give light), an NGO that works in the northern part of Potosi, just about the poorest part of Bolivia. Robert like so many of the foreigners here only planned to stay in Bolivia for a short time - 2 years in his case – and is soon to complete his 16th year. Maybe a tale there for someone.

Anyway, I agreed that I would spend some time in one of their projects though clearly something was lost in translation as when we arrived last wednesday I was slightly surprised to find myself being left in a boarding school. The school in question is located in Vila Vila, I think they named it twice in the hope it might make it on to a map, it didn’t. While I am tempted to say is in the middle of nowhere, I learnt that some of the 80 pupils who attend (age range 4 to 22) actually have to walk or cycle up to 8 hours to get there. They live in the middle of nowhere.

To give you an idea of Vila Vila, it has 400 residents, one telephone (solar powered), one shop (sells what looks like out of date biscuits), kind of has electricity and virtually no money economy - people lead a subsistence way of life and barter or swap things. I say ‘kind of electricity’ as a power line was installed in the village this year but no one can actually afford the connection fee (about $90). Some of the adults will go to work in one of the cities in order to earn enough money to pay for connection, hopefully in time for the World Cup. I did not want to point out they will then have to pay the monthly electricity bills.

The buildings and layout resemble some kind of army camp. While the school awaits the mains electricity connection, solar power provides electricity for three hours every time – the rest of the village sleep at 7pm when it gets dark. Lights out at 10pm and showers once a week also accentuate the military feel. However the care, positive values and affection with which Santiago and his team run the school is anything but military. In terms of the curriculum, the pupils are taught traditional things like reading and writing as well as harvesting, growing fruit and vegetables and even cooking skills.

During my four days, I played football and basketball with the kids, helped plant pine trees, gave an English lesson to a class of forty, made bread and emptied the store room in search of two mice that had been spotted roaming about. It was a really good experience, it was really my first experience of spending any prolonged time with indigenous Bolivians. Sad but true, life in the city is very sheltered, or at least in the part I live. If it sounds like I was very busy, this was not the case. Over half the time there were no tasks for me to do and I had to fight the odd bout of boredom. I am truly a city boy used to radio, tv, internet, bars etc.

As for teaching English, I really had to question the value of doing this. So they did not know the capital of England is London, nobody had even heard of Scotland or Wales, as well as lacking other general knowledge we would consider quite basic. So they may not do very well in Trivial Pursuit. On the other hand, I would not know the first thing about how to build a wall, grow tomatoes or bake bread. These are practical skills, which they need to live. On the other hand they seemed to enjoy the class, and they know who Harry Potter is.

Then there was my journey back to Cochabamba… While I arrived in relative comfort via a 6 hour journey in a 4x4, my return commenced on saturday evening on the back of a motorbike (backpack and all) to Sacaca, 8 miles away. In Europe, people would call my ride a cross country obstacle course though out here it is a typical Bolivian carriageway. I would like to describe the experience as hair raising but as it started raining half way through to add to the ‘fun’, my hair was in fact firmly pasted to my forehead. I was quickly sent to bed – about 8pm – as I was due to get up at 3.30am to catch a truck to Cochabamba. In fact I could have had an hour extra beauty sleep, the truck had no space, and I had to wait an hour for the coach which was heading to Oruro. The coach seated 40 though we stopped what seemed like every 10 minutes to pick up another passenger until I counted about 70. I swear that we took one particularly sharp bend on two wheels. We were dropped off on the outskirts rather than at the bus station in Oruro and my fellow passenger, who looked like she was about 10, decided she would be my guide. I felt like telling her she should not talk to strangers, even nice ones, but instead let myself be led to the main bus terminal and bought her breakfast before heading off on my second four hour bus journey. This one was pretty uneventful, apart from a half an hour delay when we all had to dismount due to a flat tyre. Home sweet home!

Meetings, meetings and more meetings

2005-11-20T21:45:00.000Z

I will not spend much time in Cochabamba in November. I was in La Paz for five days and am then heading to Potosi region for various projects.

My series of meetings kicked off with a visit to Achacachi, near Lake Titicaca, to meet the Milk Producers Association. My boss and I were slightly nervous as we had been warned on numerous occasions about the fiery Aymaran indigenous community who inhabit this zone. There was even a case of cannabilism reported two years ago. Like so often, the warnings were wide of the mark and we were welcomed warmly, there was considerable excitement about the project and we hope to begin installing 27 biogas systems in early December (rainy season permitting).

Monday and supposedly tuesday were to be spent at a Government organised workshop on the theme of desertification. It was so boring I decided to leave my boss to it after half a day and do a bit of sightseeing. They were going to spend two days discussing how to set up a network across the country rather than actually get around to discussing the problem. Tedious.

Our third meeting was much more productive: it only lasted three hours, was interesting and to the point (about how to promote renewable energy amongst small-scale farmers and other small businesses. I do not like stereotyping but perhaps I should not have been surprised, the workshop was after all organised by the German development agency GTZ.

While I was "enjoying" 10 hours in the coach back to Cochabamba – extended by three hours due to the need to take a detour to miss some localised protest - my boss had to endure a 40 minute flight. Alright for some!

eBay Style Fundraising Drive

2005-11-10T18:26:00.000Z

Many of you sponsored me for the London to Brighton bike ride and I am on another fundraising drive. A Spanish film company called Mirador del Sur has made a 20 minute DVD (in Spanish with English subtitles) about our work and we are looking to sell copies to raise funds for a project to create Bolivia`s first energy powered primary school.

The DVD makes a wonderful Christmas present! Let me know if you would like a copy. Cost: £10/14 Euros (+£3/4 Euros postage and package). The best thing is that I am NOT featured in the film.

The school in question is in Waqanqui, La Cumbre, a very poor rural community located about 40 minutes from Cochabamba. It has one teacher and 27 pupils (6-9 years) and some of the key issues that need to be tackled include toilets discharging directly into the river causing pollution and creating an environmental health hazard for the children who play in the environs; no hot water for the showers so not surprisingly the kids are reluctant to shower more than once every 3-4 weeks; cooking takes place in a room that also doubles up as the teacher`s bedroom; and while the school has a library fitted out with two computers, television and video recorder thanks to a foreign donation, ironically the school was not given any resources to purchase books, software and audiovisual materials.

Our plan is to install renewable energy in the form of biogas, wind energy, solar power and a cyclemotor (pedal power), improve the toilet/shower block and build a separate annexe which will act as a kitchen. Young people from the local community will help prepare materials, dig, build and learn on the job about the technology. Once completed, it is also intended for the project to become an integral part of the curriculum for the children, with a fully equipped "technology" library and welcoming educational visits from the area.

There is widespread support (actually excitement) from the whole community for the project. More than 40 people attended an open meeting recently to discuss the project in more detail. Interestingly I was not the only one for whom Spanish was not their first language; many of the residents are Quechua speakers first and foremost. We have agreed that I will teach them English in return for some Quechua lessons. It has been suggested by some wags that I need to master Spanish first however.

PS We have decided to spend money raised from the bike ride towards installing 25 combined biogas systems and toilets/showers in Achacachi around Lake Titicaca. The area may look idyllic with its location next to the lake and surrounded by snow capped mountains but the poverty is extreme and climate unfriendly. I head off there this weekend and more news will appear soon on the blog.

Octavia....remember the name

2005-11-07T22:33:00.000Z

Friday night was a late one. I went to see Octavia, Bolivia’s most famous alternative rock band, in concert. It’s the second time I have seen them live and I think they are great so I am keen to spread the word - http://www.octavia-bo.com/. I’ve got 3 CDs so expect to here a lot of them when I get home.

Holy Times

2005-11-06T21:11:00.000Z

The 2nd November was yet another Bank Holiday, though I was a bit confused. It was called "All Saints Day" (a universal Christian Feast that honors and remembers all Christian saints, known and unknown), though in reality this is on the 1st November, and what was celebrated was "All Souls Day" otherwise known as "The Day of the Dead".

It is a Roman Catholic day of remembrance for friends and loved ones who have passed away. This comes from the ancient Pagan Festival of the Dead, which celebrated the Pagan belief that the souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family.

The day purposely follows All Saint's Day in order to shift the focus from those in heaven to those in "purgatory" (not a word I use very often.) While the culture in the UK and US is to shy away from discussions of death, Latins embrace it. The day is an opportunity to celebrate the death and the life of loved ones and friends they knew in this world and visiting the cemetery is a popular tradition. At the cemetery, the tomb or burial plot is decorated. The cemetery visit is spent in a picnic environment and Pan de Muertos or "Bread of the Dead" is a traditional bread which is baked and eaten during this celebration. The air is filled with music from bands while the scent of a wide variety of foods wafts through the air.

There is also a Jewish cemetary in Cochabamba which I wanted to visit. There is no equivalent of which I am aware to the Day of the Dead so the cemetary was not surprisingly closed, however a nice caretaker let me in. There are about 400 or so graves, the oldest dates back about 100 years and most of the names were of German origin. According to the caretaker, the community numbers about 80 now in the city and he gave me details of the synagogue.

It was also a busy day for some friends of ours, Carine (from France) and Vincent (from Belgium, see link http://www.vincetmanu.com/), who work for a charity called AVE that supports the children who work in the cemetary. There are about 400 children who help supplement their families' income by carrying out tasks like cleaning graves, selling flowers and running errands in the cemetary. While some of them work full-time, the majority are there in their spare time, at evenings and weekends. They can earn anything from 50p up to £1.50 on a very good day. There are two views: that "child labour" is inhuman and one should do everything possible to ensure it is outlawed, or the latter view that AVE takes, that it can fight for rights for the children and improve and promote their working conditions. The charity also organises positive activities for the children, so that they get to have some fun as well as broadening their experiences and interests. They publish a regular magazine (sold for 7p) and have also produced 3 CDs which contain songs, stories and interviews.

My religious theme week continued the following day. Recently I met Julie in a street near my house, she is a 57 year old English lady from Brentwood in Essex who runs a day centre for children in a poor neighbourhood. She is a bundle of energy and before I knew it I was persuaded to come and visit the centre as well as attend her thursday "Bible Group".

The centre is very impressive, it runs on a shoe string (about £200-£300 per month) and provides games and activities, classes (including religious instruction), clothes, dental checks and other basic medical care for the children who attend. It`s run by a mixture of foreign volunteers and Bolivians and on a quiet day the centre welcomes about 60, at the weekends and holidays it is overrun with about 150 children.

Quite how I managed to be persuaded to attend a "Bible Group" I am not quite sure. Julie was very convincing that her regulars would welcome the opportunity to learn more about the Jewish faith and it seemed something different to me I suppose. I was the only boy (what does this say?) out of the 9 attendees, we were a mixture of Americans, Australians, Germans, English and a Scot. All the girls worked for some kind of social or charitable project in Cochabamba and while I do not share their strong faith, the thing that struck me is that it is very positive if it spurs them on to this kind of work. It was an interesting evening, they were pleasant company and did not seem offended that I did not join in the group praying session. The one thing that puzzled me as a simple Jewish boy was how they distinguished so strongly between themselves as "Christians" and the majority of the local population who are "Catholics" as if it is a different religion.

Did the earth move for you too?

2005-10-26T23:11:00.000Z

I am not about to lower the tone of my blog however much some may desire, but the earth really did move for me on Monday night. To be exact, two earth tremors hit Arica in Chile at just after 5 a.m. I can`t say I was too scared (or excited) at the time. Supposedly dogs are meant to be extra sensitive and pick up the vibrations before us humans feel anything, though the ones in Chile must have been very sound sleepers as the main inconvenience was that every dog in the neighbourhood spent the next, rather than the proceeding, 20 minutes howling.

Crossing the border between Chile and Bolivia

While some may ask what I was doing on holiday in Chile, I had little choice as I have actually been in Bolivia 90 days and with my visa about to expire my choices included paying $500 for a residency permit, marrying a Bolivian or leaving the country for a short period. Option one would be very expensive in the short run, option two in the long term, so I opted for a holiday in Arica and Iquique in Northern Chile.

Cousin Elisa, Marioly & aunt Sylvia - same family, respectively Chilean, Bolivian & Peruvian

In truth, the north unlike the rest of the country is nothing to write home about. I got to meet more of Marioly`s family of course, who put us up in their wonderful house in Arica complete with swimming pool, banana plants, outdoors bar and four dogs. Some of you may be aware that I wanted to be a vet for many years in my childhood and I was in doggy wonderland as the St Bernard, Pyreneen mountain dog, Basset hound and black labrador kept me (or I kept them) amused. There was also wonderful seafood which you cannot get in Bolivia (it is landlocked after losing wars to Chile and Peru), an afternoon on the beach though I dare anyone to swim in the freezing water, interesting wooden structures in Iquique and to Marioly`s particular delight lots of shops. Having spent three months in Bolivia, I was not used to the fact that people wear seat belts, stop at traffic lights, throw rubbish in dustbins and buses actually leave on time. In this way Chile is not a country but a world apart from its Andean neighbours and much more like being in a Southern European country in terms of appearance, customs... and cost.

Entertaining

2005-10-14T18:25:00.000Z

Last night I had my first dinner party. I even splashed out on Italian pasta (as opposed to the Bolivian or Chilean varieties). My guests included my girlfriend, a tv producer, his Belgium girlfriend who is studying here and Elena from Sheffield, who was nearing the end of her travels when she met a nice local boy and decided with little reason to rush home that Cochabamba is as good as anywhere to hang out.

My landlady, who lives in an adjacent building, kept a close eye on proceedings. It seems I am allowed dinner guests, though according to my contract, parties are explicitly ruled out.

I love my flat. I am about 20 minutes walk from the centre, within a stone´s throw of the football stadium and have recently hooked up to my downstairs neighbours´ cable tv so I can watch Arsenal from the comfort of my bed. There is also a spare room, so friends and family are most welcome as previously mentioned!

My house and my street.

Just like watching Brazil!

2005-10-14T17:26:00.000Z

In fact I did watch Brazil last sunday in La Paz. But the better team was not made up of Robinho, Adriano and Gilberto (yes, I got to see an Arsenal player!) but Bolivia. It may have been the altitude that helped or hindered, or perhaps that the fixture was meaningless, but the Samba stars were lucky to escape with a 1-1 draw. It was all a bit too little, too late for Bolivia though as they finished bottom of the South American World Cup qualification group.

I forgot how much I love La Paz. It is a crazy city with its maze of little streets, steep slopes, ramshackle buildings, modern sky scrapers, picturesque squares, squalor, haute cuisine restaurants and even a disco next door to the infamous San Pedro prison. Cochabamba definitely has the climate going for it, but the capital wins any day for architecture, buzz and variety. I will just have to make do with regular visits (via a seven hour bus ride).

Apart from the football, I met more of Marioly´s family (of course), went to a rock concert, walked around a lot and gatecrashed an ex-pat get together in a bar, thanks to my friend Nick, where I got to meet DFID´s Bolivian director. It seems Britain´s development programme in Bolivia is more strategic rather than project orientated, whatever that means!

Me and Tim Henman

2005-09-29T15:20:00.000Z

Okay, not Tim Henman, but I have been hanging out with his equivalent, Mauricio Estívariz, who is Bolivia's No.1 tennis player (ranked 1,071 in the world) and who also happens to be my girlfriend's brother-in-law.

It´s not quite Wimbledon but this week the Cochabamba Tennis Club hosts the Campeonato Internacional de Tenis Profesional Future featuring some of the continent´s up and coming stars.

Yesterday night I was biting my nails as Mauricio finally overcame the Argentinian Roberto Palacios 6-3, 7-6 and 7-6 in what the local paper Los Tiempos described as "a dramatic game which could have gone either way". Now I understand what it is like for Henman's family as they sit there frustrated and powerless as their offspring test their nerves to the limit. The relief was tangible in the stands as the local boy made good.

Footnote: Mauricio lost in straight sets today.

Silpancho, Chirac & British cuisine

2005-09-27T11:00:00.000Z

Cochabamba is Bolivia's most famous region for food and there seems to be a culinary festival of one kind or another every week around the country. While I can suggest dozens of reasons for visiting Bolivia, cuisine is in truth not one of the country´s major selling points.

The food is not bad, but for me it is very plain, consists in large portions of meat, the rather unusual combination of rice AND chips (carbohydrate crazy!) and there is a serious lack of vegetables. Some of the most famous dishes include silpancho (my girlfriend's favourite, opposite) which consists of fried, breaded meat with eggs, rice and fried bananas. The pique a lo macho is a delicious, huge dish of roast meet, sausage, chips, onion and pepper. I have also eaten such delicacies as aji de lengua (ox tongue) and roasted cow´s udders. The salteña is borrowed from Salta in Argentina and is the local equivalent of a meat or chicken pastry. In the Altiplano grains and potatoes dominate, while around Lake Titicaca and in the Chapare region, there are some wonderful fish which with the exception of trout I do not think exist at home. My dad would also be very happy, whatever the temperature, they love their soup out here - peanut soup being one of the more interesting varieties.

I am constantly asked about British cuisine. I reel off a few dishes like the sunday roast, shepherd´s pie, cumberland suasage, English breakfast, bread and butter pudding, scones and cream teas and then I tend to get a bit stuck, though I try to explain one of the best things about my country is the sheer variety of cuisine on offer - Thai, Italian, French, Turkish, Spanish tapas etc.

According to the BBC, I am a bit out of touch though. Food tourism is booming in the UK with a smorgasbord of food festivals and did you know that it is now officially "British Food Fortnight"? Jacques Chirac, who complained that only the Finns have worse cuisine, would choke on his tete de veau to learn that Britain produces 700 regional cheeses (more than France), has 600 varieties of apple and 125 species of fish and shellfish in its waters. Food tourism has become big business, worth nearly £4bn a year. In a recent survey of tourist perceptions of the UK food industry, two-thirds of Britons said that food and drink influenced their holiday choice. The West Country, Wales and Scotland occupied the top three destinations. New additions include a wine trail around the South-East and a Lake District afternoon tea trail.

Food also holds a key place in the "think globally, act locally" debate. An article in The Guardian about two years ago made me think how ridiculous it was that the produce in my trolley had travelled approximately 12,000 air miles. Buying British (where possible) supports local businesses and protects the environment by avoiding foods which have been transported long distances. In Bolivia, one sees the "Hecho en Bolivia" label everywhere so in many ways they are more advanced than us as well as being very proud of what their country offers (but please, chips or rice, not both together!).

Buen provecho.

Only three more months to elections!

2005-09-22T14:01:00.000Z

I am living through interesting times as there are elections in December following the enforced resignation of Carlos Mesa in June 2005 and his replacement by an interim President. It must be said though that a six month election campaign is long by any standards and I am not sure too many people in the UK could cope with listening to Blair and Howard slug it out for that long - it would probably provoke mass emigration.

There are two clear front runners in the forthcoming presidential elections:

Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, a former Texas-based IBM executive, who rose to prominence as the Vice President to the nation’s former dictator (later turned politician), Hugo Banzer. The fact that Quiroga willingly served as number two to the man who was Bolivia’s version of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s does not seem to be of much interest to most people.

Evo Morales, who rose to prominence as leader of the coca growers and is the sworn enemy of the current US regime. Analysts on the left cast him as a charismatic leader who represents rising indigenous power and new wave Latin American socialism all in one. Critics on the right demonize him as a stooge of the leftist governments in Venezuala and Cuba who who is pushing Bolivian democracy to the brink.

The elections are further spiced up by (the inevitable) US intervention. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on a recent tour of Paraguay joined in the Bush administration’s recent pattern of blaming Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez for Bolivia's political turmoil: "There is certainly evidence both Cuba and Venezuela have been involved in the situation in Bolivia in unhelpful ways." The BBC report went on to note that Rumsfeld offered up no actual evidence to support his claim.

Information on the internet which has recently been substantiated in the Bolivian press also reports that the U.S. is constructing a 16,000 troop military base in Paraguay, 200 kilometers from the Bolivian border, with an airforce capacity greater than Buenos Aires airport. Bearing in mind that Paraguay’s airforce in this region only numbers about a dozen planes (well, something like that), what does this say about US intentions and what does this mean for Bolivia?

Bolivia’s political instability is, in good part, a product of foreign influence, but it has little to do with Venezuala and Cuba, and much more to do with other outside influence: namely the Bechtel Corporation, World Bank, IMF, the US Government´s war on drugs (that´s me pictured right with the infamous coca plant in Chapare) and foreign energy companies like our very own British Gas and British Petroleum.

Links with more in-depth information courtesy of the excellent Democracy Centre, based here in Cochabamba.

Latin democracy in statistics

2005-09-22T13:41:00.000Z

A recent BBC World poll highlighted a problem which is prevalent in all parts of the world, but even more so here in Latin America: only 4% of the electorate trust their leaders (compared with the hardly inspiring average of 13% in other parts of the world) and only a third of voters think that elections in their country are free and fair.

More worringly, 9% of Latinos show more faith in military or police run states, which helps to explain the continent's colourful (sic) history. In Bolivia, Panama and the Dominican Republic, the majority trust religious leaders though interestingly this statistic is even higher in the States, which goes a long way to explaining Bush II's strangehold on power.

Mexico and my adopted country also exhibit the strongest nationalism (though most Bolivians openly admit that their football team is rubbish), which is probably not that surprising as they are also the two countries that have been subjected most to foreign domination on the continent.

Cochabamba Day and the Mambos

2005-09-14T21:24:00.000Z

Yet another Bank Holiday! This time it is Cochabamba Day and we are celebrating the founding of the city. School children, government workers and the military were all out parading for approximately five hours, there was a mamouth concert in the stadium (still going on at 3 a.m. as I was going to bed) and my friends´ group (called “The Mambos”, some of whom are in the photo) are inaugurating new members.

In fact, it should be my turn, it is an honour to be invited to join the group, but I have switched my mobile phone off as I do not want to be located: as I am unable to participate in the large scale consumption of alcohol normally involved in the inauguration ceremony due to the strict ban imposed by my doctor as part of my various treatments, they were planning to cut my hair instead (and I suspect none of them are professional hairdressers). I have got quite attached to my long(ish) locks and I am not ready for the sacrifice.

Mi trabajo

2005-09-14T21:18:00.000Z

It has been suggested that I am either not doing any work, or that I fail to mention it on my blog. The former is definitely not the case, though there are rather a lot of Bank Holidays out here, and combined with the odd medical problem, it is true that I have rarely put in a full week.

Tecnologias en Desarrollo´s main work focuses on the installation of biogas systems and bathrooms in rural communities in the Cochabamba region (more information in previous postings for April and August). We are also experimenting with other technology such as wind power, simple reed technology to reduce water contamination and linking bicycles up to car batteries to generate enough electricity to power lights, a radio or black and white television.

While conditions and quality of life in the city is relatively good (i.e. there is access to basic services and if you have money, life is not so different from what we know), the contrast with the countryside is more than substantial (as they say here “no tiene nada que ver”): families´ income rarely exceeds £30 a month, only 15% have electricity, there is no access to mains gas, toilets are holes in the ground and the impact of human and animal waste on the environment is very evident. Almost without exception, the families are indigeneous Quechua speakers (Spanish being their second language, though not everyone speaks it) and it is a bit of a challenge for me to get to know people, they consider my boss an outsider, no matter a strange foreign chap with a big sombrero, water bottle and Factor 50 sun block.

The projects are very good and really address a need. I have no doubt that the work of the charity, while small-scale, has a significant impact on a social, economic and environmental level, the work we do, while small scale can have a substantial impact. I am therefore sufficiently impressed and happy to commit myself to staying here at least until February as I believe in the work, it is a productive use of my time and good learning experience.

My time is meant to be split evenly between our office and working in the countryside. My recent medical problems have meant that I have been doing much more of the former, which is good for research and preparing fundraising applications, though it is less interesting than the hands on work in the countryside. I love the physical work and am learning a whole new vocabularly (wire, pliers, nuts and bolts, saw etc.), it is quite a change for an office boy, and I might even get a few more muscles!

The work is not without its challenges. The hardest thing is that we are so small in terms of personal (four including me and Pedro in photo), and really everything revolves around one person, Oliver, the director. He is not surprisingly cautious about telling me everything which does not surprise me - different culture, ways of working, local issues not encountered back home – and combined with Oliver´s reluctance to commit anything to paper, it makes fundrasing much harder as I am not yet in a position to answer all the questions of a potential funder. I am optimistic with time that we will resolve these teething problems and for once (!) I am being extremely patient.

Married with 2.4 kids

2005-09-14T20:13:00.000Z

....and a golden retriever! Well, this is at least what my girlfriend Marioly suspects due to my reticence in not mentioning anything about her on my blog. I have tried to explain that I considered the world wide web a bit too public a space for me to publish such information but now it is in print for friends, family, net surfers, the wife and 2.4 kids alike to read. Literacy and web surfing are not the golden retriever´s strong point.

Nochevieja en Chile

2005-09-07T21:43:00.000Z

I am proud to announce that the ex-Grenoble students`tradition of celebrating New Year together will continue in some form as Elna, and her equally lovely friend Katiuscia, are due to arrive in Santiago on 29th December.

I know it is a very long way and a bit (!) pricey to get to this part of the world (though relatively very cheap once here), but I promise that Valparaiso, the seafood, lakes, mountains, vineyards, whitewater rafting and of course the company make it worth it!

Bikefest Bolivia Style

2005-09-06T21:33:00.000Z

Sunday was officially "The Day of the Pedestrian", though it should be more accurately called cyclists`s day. Cochabamba was closed off to all fuel powered vehicles and the normally sleepy Sunday atmosphere was banished as the city came alive with hundreds of people out on their bikes (and the occasional horse). There were also lots of stalls and a stage with music, it is Cochabamba`s equivalent of a Green Fair.

In general I do not recommend cycling as a mode of transport here. I do not have the courage to venture out on a bike in the city, it is not so much that drivers do not obey traffic rules, more that there aren`t any rules. I have already witnessed the aftermath of three accidents in 6 weeks. Maybe we can copy Bolivia`s example and close off the streets of central London for a day, though I can`t see it happening. Bolivia is more advanced in some things.

Medical bulletin: 2 for the price of 1

2005-09-04T21:22:00.000Z

About ten days ago I was not feeling well and having already been laid low for several days in my second week, I sought advice. Various tests revealed that I have typhoid and amoebic parasites, two for the price of one. I was not sure whether to panic, it did not sound very good, but I was not feeling that bad. My friends` reaction reassured me, most of them found it really funny and said everyone gets typhoid, in fact someone proudly told me their friend has had it 8 times! And yes, I was innoculated.

Luckily I am in expert medical hands. My boss has not one but two doctors in the family and I am taking antibiotics (first to treat tyhphoid, and when the course is completed we can treat the parasites). Hopefully I will not need to call on their respective specialisms, anaestha and neurology. Apart from not having much of an appetite, there is nothing much wrong with me. The worst is that I am banned from drinking alcohol for 25 days, my organism is suffering wihtout its regular dose of vino tinto.

Wilstermann Destroy Opposition

2005-09-02T14:42:00.000Z

My first experience of Bolivian football left me feeling a bit deflated. A boring 0-0 draw against The "allegedly" Strongest from La Paz. It was not quite like watching Brazil (or Arsenal). Luckily my second visit a week later was much more enjoyable. My boss`s and hence my team Wilstermann beat the Destroyers (not) from Santa Cruz 5-2. A certain M.Henry would even have been proud of the 5th goal. I am not going to compare the atmosphere to Highbury, the stadium was only about a quarter full and when Wilstermann scored the first, I was the only one to jump to my feet with joy. I quickly learnt to restrain myself for the next four goals. And the English are meant to be reserved! The ticket pricing was more to my liking, it costs approximately 50 times LESS than a matchday ticket for the Gunners.

My company for the match included the brother of an ex-colleague from Groundwork. Nick lives in La Paz and volunteers for the Fundacion Solon. He is a Wolves fan, and while I count the number of Arsenal shirts I see in Cochabamba, he just wants to find someone who has heard of his team. His excellent blog is linked to this site.

La Virgen de Urkupina

2005-08-19T22:46:00.000Z

Last sunday, after watching Arsenal beat Newcastle, I headed off to Quillacollo for day one of the three day festival of the Virgin of Urkupina. It´s Cochabamba´s equivalent of the Notting Hill Carnival and it is a spectacle of colour, costumes, dancing and ceremony. There were thousands of people, if not quite the hundreds of thousands that the locals were telling me come from all over the world. Police crowd control was interesting, basically they take no prisoners, and I had one or two lucky escapes. The secret is not to argue, they have battons and they look like they want to use them.

As it gets dark, large amounts of beer and chicha (the local brew) are consumed and the atmosphere allegedly degenerates and it becomes like closing time in provincial towns like Swindon. Bolivians, when they get the chance, drink to an excess that I think some Brits would be proud of. I promised my boss I would not stay to witness this, though I was tempted.

The festival culminates with a mini pilgrimage on tuesday, when literally thousands head off from about midnight until 5am to a hill next to Quillacollo to pay homage to the Virgin. I was seriously tempted, especially as two friends were going, but as many of you may be aware, I am not an early riser. Next up on the festival calendar is Cochabamba Day in mid-September.

Dieter and Claudia´s wedding

2005-08-12T01:52:00.000Z

Less than two weeks in Bolivia and what better way to learn the customs and meet people than attend a Bolivian wedding.

I am extremely grateful to Dieter for inviting me - he had only met me once the week before and our connection is extremely tenuous: he is a friend of a work colleague of my Italian friend Andrea. Dieter is half Belgium, half Bolivian so I had plenty of opportunities to mix up my Spanish, English and French with the guests.

Nor did they do things by half, the wedding took place in the grounds of a 5-star hotel in the countryside. I had to buy shirt, tie, trousers and shoes to look the part as I had not packed appropriately.

It was not in reality a traditional Bolivian wedding as it was a civil ceremony accompanied by what can only be described as an obra de teatro (theatre). Dieter`s wife is an actress and this was reflected in the ceremony, with depictions of their family life and games. The good quality red wine also aided my recovery! Girls very pretty too...

Second week perdito

2005-08-11T21:27:00.000Z

I lost most of the second week to stomach problems, which was really frustrating. Luckily there are two doctors in Oliver´s family which is always helpful (though I did not require the services of the neurologist).

This means that I am really only getting down to work this week. I have seen a number of projects and attended a meeting of a milk co-operative in Punata. I am not sure who was more fascinated by whom. I did not say anything!

I am very impressed with the biogas technology that Tecnologias en Desarrollo has been pioneering in Bolivia. The project focuses on installing biogenerators and toilets/showers in rural and urban fringe communities. The biogenerators provide biogas for cooking, heating and light, and just as importantly get rid of problem of animal and human waste as the gas, if you were not aware, is generated from these products. Other benefits apart from gas, include the production of a high quality biofertiliser as a by-product of the biodigestive process that can be used on crops and importantly women and children do not have to search for wood to burn for cooking or spend the little money they have on alternative energy. Also burning wood in enclosed spaces causes lots of respiratory problems.

Interestingly, Oliver always seeks out the women if he wants to get anything done. The male attitude is very laid back and they are somewhat reluctant to commit themselves to anything - even if it is for their benefit. It seems that if we can get the wife/mother on board, things will happen. Just like England really.

My week is split between the office (3 days) and countryside (2 days). Officially I am an engineer. The concept of fundraising is not quite as well established here and it is probably better that I do not tell everyone I am here to find money.

The charity´s website should also be available in English and French very soon!

Touch down

2005-08-09T20:52:00.000Z

I arrived in Santa Cruz just over two weeks ago and got to Cochambamba via a 10 hour bus ride through the notorious - well, according to the US Government at least - Chapare coca growing region on a tuesday night. My arrival was slightly complicated as there was a public transport strike and the workers had blocked the main roads with their colectivos and micros so we could not get to the main bus terminal and were dropped off on a side street in a quiet residencial district.

Well, it would have been quiet if it were not for about 10 coach loads of confused travellers. As a Bolivia veteran (!) I remained calm, found a phone to get hold of Oliver, the director of the charity, and helped a group of distraught non-Spanish speakers.

My first week was not surprisingly spent mainly with my boss and mentor Oliver, his family (his mother has adopted me) and colleague Pedro (that´s Oliver and Pedro in the photo).

So far only other people I know are as a result of the tenuous contact through an Italian friend (thanks Andrea!).
I have a two bedroom flat for 60 pounds a month, a balcony from where you can see Christ (it´s Cochabamba´s clame to fame, he is bigger than the one in Rio) and in walking distance of the footie stadium, obviously the major selling point from my point of view. Guests most welcome!

Also, if this is winter, I am not sure how I will cope with summer. According to the newspaper, the temperature fluctuates between out 25-30 degrees but it feels much hotter to me when I am out working in the countryside. At night goes down to about 5 degrees, almost a relief. Still I could be in La Paz, it really is winter there, so I promise I am not complaining.

Enjoying Spain - Disfrutame en España

2005-07-25T21:35:00.000Z

A big thank you to Juanan, Elna, Manolo, John, Leo, Carlos, Pieded and Javi who have kindly put up with me for nearly five weeks in Spain. On the other hand, it is their fault that my Spanish is not yet fluent as they were constantly distracting me from studying.

Since arriving in Spain, I have officially spent a week as an astrophysics researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics in Tenerife - it´s where John, the professor who helped develop the biogas technology, works - and he had to tell them that to get me a pass as well as my own office. I also got a private tour of the yet unopened film studios in Alicante thanks to a contact of Juanan´s, continued the film theme by sitting next to Spain´s most famous film director Pedro Almodovar in a bar, partied for three days during the Hogueras in Alicante and went to a Catholic mass in Manolo's village where he is 'presidente' (there are only about 15 inhabitants).

It´s not all been easy though, four hours of Spanish school a day was tough. The more I learn, the more errors I seem to make, and I keep getting into trouble for not doing my homework.

It was hot!

2005-06-30T11:58:00.000Z

Greetings from Spain, I completed the 55 mile bike ride on Sunday 19th June, two days after leaving my job at Groundwork. It was officially the hottest day in London since 1976 so our team did not rush. While we may not have broken any records with 7 and a half hours to get to Brighton, I am proud to say I was one of a tiny minority of 27,000 plus who managed the big hill at the end.

I have raised $2,106 (actually it is pounds, but there is no sign on my Spanish keyboard), and a big thank you once again to friends, family and complete strangers for your very generous sponsorship. I will be arriving in Bolivia in late July and more details will appear here on how the money is being spent.

If anyone wants to add to this sponsorship total (I am tasked with raising approximately 50K more for the charity), I will not complain!! Contact me and I will let you know how to tranfer funds, a small amount of money goes a very long way in Bolivia.

Tecnologias En Desarrollo

2005-04-17T09:55:00.000Z

Tecnologias En Desarrollo (the name literally means "Technologies in Development") promotes the development of appropriate technology in rural and urban fringe communities in Bolivia. Created in 2000 and based in Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third city, the NGO* also has close links to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Tenerife from where much of the original research has been undertaken. It is currently working in 7 rural communities in the Cochabamba region as well as one in Pando, and there are plans to expand its work to the Mesothermic Valleys in Santa Cruz and Andean communities near La Paz and Oruro.

Tecnologias En Desarrollo undertakes the research, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of projects that have the following common characteristics:

small-scale
constructed using local materials
promote use of renewable and local sources of energy
easy to maintain and repair
low cost

In other words, Tecnologias En Desarrollo promotes technology that is environmentally friendly, socially equitable, economically viable and culturally acceptable to local people and will contribute to improving their quality of life.

The principal objective was originally to generate biogas to produce energy for cooking and heating, thereby reducing the consumption of scarce and/or expensive resources like firewood or electricity. The technology has also had a number of other knock-on benefits, playing a pivotal role in creating a system for treating human and livestock waste, improving the quality of water and producing an organic fertiliser that can be used on crops.

Two years of testing and piloting the use of biogenerators has proved a great success, demonstrating that the technology works and meets the needs of the local population. The next stage is to:

install approximately 50 combined energy and latrine systems as a flagship project
spread the word about the technology, promoting its use and benefits to rural communities
lobbying, supporting the development of coherent and effective energy plans and sustainable environmental management practices among the relevant authorities
create a team of technical experts capable of managing the new technology
train the beneficiaries of the technology in how it works, where to acquire new parts, its maintenance and repair

The major benefits of the project are:

cheap energy production
gas for cooking and heating
improved system of crop cultivation
reduction in amount of physical work, especially for women and children (e.g. searching for firewood)
reduction in the pressure on natural resources (such as firewood and charcoal)
reduction in the amount of harmful waste products that cause contamination
wide scale uptake of the technology in the long-term

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The total costs of this stage of the project are £26,500. The major expenditure will include the construction of 50 biogenerators (£188 for each family, £9,412 in total), construction of 25 latrines (£176 each, £4,411), salaries for two technical staff (£470 per month, £2,353 over 5 months) and taxes and administrative costs (£1,176). It is hoped that this money will be raised from a mixture of institutional funders and through sponsorship. Progress on the project will initially feature on this site and you can visit the NGO's website at www.tecnologiadesarrollo.org (in Spanish).

A considerable body of literature about the organisation and its work is also available in Spanish. The above are translated extracts from the following documents: "Documento para publicacion Biogas CNER", "Informe Tecnico Biogigestores" and "Implementación de Biodigestores y Letrinas en el área rural de Cochabamba". If they are not translated very well, that’s my fault and mine alone.

I am participating in the London to Brighton Bike Ride (55 miles) on Sunday 19th June to help raise funds for the project. As it is a local charity based in Bolivia and does not have English charitable status, it is not possible to gift aid the donation. Please email me with a pledge if you would like to donate and I can explain how we can arrange transfer of funds.

* NGO or Non-Government Organisation is the international term for what we generally refer to as a registered charity in the UK

Bolivia

2005-04-14T23:27:00.000Z

For the visitor

Bolivia is weird and wonderful. Everything about this land-locked country in the heart of South America is out of the ordinary, the kind of place where you start taking the strangest things for granted. Like sitting next to a goat on a bus or purchasing a dried llama foetus in the market (they are meant to rid houses of evil spirits).

La Paz

Even arriving in La Paz is no ordinary experience. The airport, at 4,000m above sea level, is the highest in the world, so high in fact that incoming flights almost have to ascend to land. The capital is one giant street market, where indigenous women in bowler hats and voluminous skirts will sell you everything you could possibly need. Only a few hours north of La Paz is Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. In the southwest of the country, is the Salar de Uyuni, the world’s highest and largest salt lake – 8,000 sq miles of blinding white nothingness. South of the salt lake is a Salvador Dali landscape of deserts, volcanoes, bizarre rock formations, bubbling geysers, peculiar green plants and a blood-red lake filled with flamingoes. To the north and east, come face to face with a sloth or anaconda in the lush Amazon Basin. Or how about cycling down Coroico, officially the world’s most dangerous road, visiting the hollow silver mountain in Potosi, dinosaur footprints near Sucre, the vineyards of Tarija or Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid country around Tupiza.

Llamas

So finally, what of Cochabamba, my base for the foreseeable future? The department is known as the "breadbasket of Bolivia" and the city itself, the fourth largest in the country, is dubbed the City of Eternal Spring (which obviously means it's good for all year round visitors!). The exact translation of its name is the slightly less appealing "swampy plain".

Set in a bowl of rolling hills at a comfortable altitude, its inhabitants enjoy a wonderfully warm, dry and sunny climate, with an average temperature of 18oC. Economically, this region is of vital important, the Cochabamba Valley is the agricultural heart of the country and the tropical lowlands of Chapare to the east produces the raw material for cocaine (though I am advised that this is about 3 hours away from me, so I will not be affected directly). In tourist terms, the area is of limited importance to the economy. It is overlooked by most visitors (including myself on my travels in Bolivia in 2003).

Laguna Verde

Yet precisely because of this, it offers many effortless, off the beaten track opportunities. There are crumbling, old colonial villages, ancient ruins, beautiful national parks and some of Bolivia’s very best markets and festivals. This is also where you’ll find some of the country’s best chicha (and bearing in mind the tale below, be complimentary about it). The city itself has much new building, especially in the north, but the centre retains much of its colonial character. There are many fine churches and streets lined with old colonial houses with overhanging eaves, balconies wrought iron, windows and cool patios behind huge carved wooden doors. To the south of the main plaza are a wide range of colourful markets, which only add to the feeling that Cochabamba is more of an overgrown village than a modern urban centre.

A tiny bit of history, politics and economics

Just over a century ago a diplomatic crisis was literally brewing in La Paz over a glass of chicha, a fermented wheat bear. The new British ambassador to Bolivia had made the mistake of showing his contempt for the local brew and the incensed incumbent dictator had him led through the streets of the capital strapped naked to a donkey as punishment! When news reached Queen Victoria, Her Majesty was not amused. She demanded a map of South America, drew a cross through the country and declared "Bolivia does not exist!"

Though relations between Bolivia and the outside world have improved since then, on a global economic level, the country may as well not exist. It remains the second poorest country in Latin America (after Haiti). In 2001 a Government report highlighted the acute hardship faced by many of the population, stating that 5 out of 8 Bolivians live in poverty with inadequate basic food supplies, high illiteracy, and no access to transportation, irrigation or means of financial betterment. In the Altiplano, that’s the Andean highlands to you and me, family income averages £8 a month. A former World Health Organisation representative in Africa has stated that poverty in Bolivia is worse than in Ethiopia.

The country’s economic situation is only exacerbated by the fact that Bolivia’s main export earner gets right up the noses of the Western world. Literally. Once the world’s 3rd largest grower of coca (from which cocaine is derived), Bolivia has been forced to destroy 90% of the plant without the US sponsored campaign putting any realistic alternative means of subsistence in its place, leading to increased unemployment, even higher levels of poverty and frequent violent clashes between campesinos and the military.

Yet gas is an even bigger issue than coca even if it does not get headlines in the West: stocks of natural gas are estimated to be worth £41 billion (that’s 3½ times the country’s GDP). Not only an economic issue, it’s an emotive one. Many look back at Bolivian history, at what happened to the 62,000 tonnes of silver mined from Potosi’s now hollow mountain and fear a parallel – their worry is that the country’s natural resources will disappear overseas and the ordinary Bolivian people will see nada.

Some interesting facts:

Bolivia’s GDP £12 billion (2003) places its economy between that of Afganistan and Mozambique
The average wage is around £530
Population 8 million
Size approximately equal to France and Spain – combined. Its low density is explained by the high altitude and aridity in the west and south, and the remoteness of the wetter, forested areas of the northeast
Transparency International rates the country as one of the world’s most corrupt
It costs around £2,950 to produce a kilo of cocaine and the return on this investment can be as much as £29,500
By 1935, just over 100 years after its proud independence, Bolivia had lost more than half its original territory. Land lost in wars with Peru, Chile, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. To lose land to one neighbour may be considered unfortunate; it’s unprintable here to explain losing to all five….
Aymara women can be seen wearing their ‘JR Dallas’, a Stetson hat named after JR Ewing, the character from the hit 80s TV series Dallas
Bolivians can roughly be divided up in to three distinct ethnic groups: about 60% are of pure indigenous stock; about a third are mestizos (people of mixed European and Indian ancestry); and the remainder are of European origin
Bolivia is one of the world’s greatest regions of biological diversity, with 9 distinct ecosystems

If you fancy learning more, there are a couple of great links, including the Democracy Centre based in Cochabamba, BBC News from the Americas, British Government travel advice on visiting Bolivia, Oxfam's work in the country, Nick Buxton's weblog (bizarrely he is the brother of a work colleague of mine, it's a small world!) and the website of a Belgium couple who live in Cochabamba and work for NGOs (only in French and Spanish).

With thanks to my Footprint Bolivia for help in compiling the above, the No.1 guide book in my opinion!

Camden Green Fair & Bikefest

2005-04-13T23:00:00.000Z

Sunday 5th June - World Environment Day - from 12pm to 8pm

I am once again involved in this excellent event, except this year it is going to be by far the best yet. We have Regent's Park and we have so much going on. More than 10,000 people are expected to attend!

Come and enjoy:

two stages with live music
health village
comedy marquee
international cuisine
kids zone
climate change zone
campaigns and charities
arts and crafts
green technology
recycling
bike trials and workshops

Click here to see our flyer, designed by my friend Eva - thanks!

Also, if you fancy helping out, we need 80 stewards over the day (and only have 20 so far!), and will bribe you with vouchers for food from our wonderful food village. Drop an email to bridie.gunn@camden.gov.uk to sign up.