October 25 - Caseras y Viajes

I realize I haven't written in a while. It's not for a lack of activity; I've been travelling the last few weekends - to the Chapare (tropical area) and Copacabana (home of the most beautiful blue skies, the highest navigable lake, and the best hats in the world). See pictures.


For this installment on life here, I have a story for you all about one of my favorite things about Bolivia.

When you walk down the aisles of Cochabamba's marketplaces, you are greeted by women selling produce and other goods calling out to you, "Casera, que vas a comprar?" or "Casera, que vas a llevar?" (Casera, what will you buy, what are you going to take with you?) "Casera" is a word that refers to both the buyer and the seller, as well as to the relationship between them - a relationship that goes beyond a one-time purchase.

I have a casera for my vegetables, one I buy fruit from, one for fresh-squeezed orange juice, one in the marketplace that I buy lunch from every once in a while. I have a casera for natural yogurt, a casera for artisan crafts, for changing dollars to bolivianos, and I even have a casera for buying envelopes outside the post office.

Above all, I have the closest relationship with two caseras - my veggie casera and the one I buy lunch from in the marketplace occasionally. When I don't come for a couple of weeks, they ask where I've been in a scolding tone. When I do come more frequently, their faces light up with recognition (well, okay, it's easy to spot a gringa). They treat me with special care and concern. They give me yapita (sometimes spelled ñapa) - a little something extra - an extra couple of hot peppers (locoto), parsley or celery for the soups I don't cook, or a couple of extra onions or tomatoes.

My yogurt casera is in a class of her own. Never have I met a woman so naturally overwhelmingly friendly. And she sells a mean maracuyá-flavored yogurt.

What I love about all this is the personal connection that it gives me with my food and also with the purchases that I make. My caseras have total control over their products, their prices, and, correspondingly, how much they make. They can tell me where their products come from, what's in season, if the prices are going to go up or down, and other miscellaneous tidbits of information. They ask me how my parents are, if I've been keeping healthy, and where I've been. We can have an exchange over the food, "No, nice tomatoes, not that one, yes that one!" And I can negotiate the prices, "Hey, weren't cucumbers three for 1 boliviano??" A far cry from even the most friendly, knowledgeable, and long-term supermarket cashier.

But most important of all, I stick to the most important rule - loyalty - because going to someone else for my fruits, veggies, orange juice, or maracuyá yogurt would be nothing short of a complete betrayal of the casera relationship.