Un país libre

Some good news

2009-07-06T06:45:00.000-07:00

Five thousand workers... great news.

SMITHFIELD WORKERS OK CONTRACT: Five thousand workers at the world’s largest pork processing plant have their first-ever union contract, after a majority of workers at the Smithfield plant in Tarheel, NC ratified the agreement over a two-day vote. Members of UFCW Local 1208 join more than 10,000 other Smithfield workers, and more than 240,000 others who work in the meat packing and food processing industry who have a UFCW union contract. “This contract will completely transform our workplace,” said Orlando Williams. “This is the biggest four-year wage increase Smithfield workers have ever had and it will make a real difference for our families and in this community. We could never have gotten that increase without a chance to bargain with the company. We will finally have a sense of security on the job because through our union we can make sure we have a safe place to work, and that everyone’s treated fairly.” The campaign to organize the Smithfield workers included a major focus on DC-area customers, who make up one of Smithfield’s largest markets. "Thanks to all the local leaders and activists who played such a critical role in supporting the Smithfield workers," said UFCW Local 400 President C. James Lowthers.
photo: 2008 DC Smithfield demo; photo by Tiye Kinlow

(From the Union City emails... sign up here: https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/366/personal2.asp?formid=signup)

Getting the message across...

2009-06-30T18:54:00.000-07:00

Photos here:
http://obamarememberus.wordpress.com/

DC STREETS BLOCKED TO PROTEST COLOMBIAN UNION MURDERS:

Labor and human rights activists shut down traffic in front of the White House yesterday to protest the murders of Colombian trade unionists. The noontime action was timed to coincide with President Obama’s first meeting with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. Dressed completely in black, their faces painted a ghostly white to represent murdered union leaders, the activists locked their arms into PVC pipes and laid down in a human chain across the intersection of 16th and H streets, while over a hundred chanting supporters surrounded them and helped block traffic. “I took a bus from New York this morning,” Colombian native Amy Velez told Union City, “My heart is bleeding to see my country with over four million displaced people.” Afro-Colombian activist Marino Cordoba was forced to leave his homeland seven years ago, after his community was bombed and his neighbors killed. “We were fighting for the right of Afro-Colombians to own their own land. Uribe’s government kills most Afro-Colombians who received their own land titles.” Curious tourists mingled with activists and their supporters for well over an hour as the demonstration continued to block the street. Eventually, police carefully cut the pipes and chains from the demonstrators arms and released them into the surrounding crowd, which triumphantly chanted “We are with the resisters, they’re our brothers they’re our sisters!”- Julia Shindel; photos by Adam Wright

Text courtesy of Jobs with Justice

CNN says, "President Barack Obama discussed a free-trade agreement with his Colombian counterpart Monday, while scores of protesters clogged streets near the White House to demonstrate against the pact."
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/29/protesters-block-streets-as-obama-uribe-talk-free-trade/

This from yesterday morning (pre-protest) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/29/AR2009062901496.html "Obama to Pursue Different Path with Colombia's Uribe"

I didn't realize avaaz.com was this good

2009-06-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

Iran is on a knife-edge, with millions of voters taking to the streets in outrage as evidence mounts that the government may have massively rigged and stolen Thursday's election. The regime has cracked down brutally on the protesters and is imposing a blackout on Iranian society -- shutting down domestic and international media, the internet and even text-messaging.

The voice of Iranians may have been silenced at the polling booth, now the regime is attempting to silence them everywhere else. Facing beatings and gunfire, the opposition is organising mass demonstrations and a general strike. We can’t afford to let the regime dismiss the voice of the people -- the truth must be heard.

Avaaz is urgently organising a rigorous “exit poll” of Iranian voters and a media effort to publicise it -- working with an international polling firm to do a telephone survey of Iranian citizens to ask how they voted. We urgently need 10,000 Avaaz members to pitch in a small amount each to raise $119,000 in the next 24 hours and give Iranians a powerful new way to be heard -- follow this link to view video from the streets of Tehran and support this exit poll to find out the truth:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/iran_vote_truth/

Public polling in Iran is heavily restricted, and no-one else is mobilizing fast enough to fund an international exit poll. It's urgent that we pitch in. A telephone poll won't be 100% accurate, but the difference between opposition and government claims is massive -- a rigorous poll can show which claim is remotely near the truth.

Unlike Western organizations, Avaaz's global network has a strong membership in Iran and across the Middle East. Backed by a respected polling firm, our effort will be harder to dismiss by Iranian conservatives. We'll send the poll results to the media and help our members in Iran to rapidly and virally spread the news despite the regime's blackout.

Messages have been flooding in from our Iranian members -- from Fariba: “20.000.000 people have lost their votes for peace and human rights. The government wants to use this votes for every thing but PEACE. Avaaz is a Persian word too and means voice -- hear our ‘avaaz’”. From Mahmoud: “The government has stolen the vote the people. The people in the street are beaten badly by the police. Now now now do not lose the time”. Stand with Iranians now and help their voices be heard:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/iran_vote_truth/

This election matters to us all. Iran is a major regional power, and the international community is seeking diplomatic engagement that holds a key to peace in the Middle East. But hawks and extremists on all sides want war instead: a conservative coup in Iran could destroy all our hopes.

The conservative Guardian Council, headed by a key Ahmadinejad ally, is reviewing the vote over the next 9 days -- our poll can be ready before they give their verdict, to counter any further rigging and the violent purge that could follow.

There is a real possibility that democracy will prevail. Ultimate power in Iran lies with Ayatollah Khamenei, who may have backed the rigging -- but he is hired and fired by the Assembly of Experts, chaired by ex-President Rafsanjani who has condemned vote-fixing. If Rafsanjani and allies can get enough votes on the Assembly this week, they can press to re-open the results, even to remove Khamenei from power. A scientific opinion poll could be a powerful piece of evidence.

In the next 72 hours, the Iranian people will try once again to be heard. Let’s help make sure their voices are not silenced -- follow this link to see their courage and donate now to help fund the exit poll:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/iran_vote_truth/

With hope,
Ricken, Graziela, Paul, Pascal, Alice, Brett, Paula, Milena, Raj, Raluca, Taren and the whole Avaaz team

Sources:
1. The Guardian: "Iran's regime cracks down on opposition and media", 16 June 2009http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/16/iran-protests-election-recount
2. Al-Jazeera: "Supreme Leader Under Pressure", 15 June 2009http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009616184556951795.html
3. "Evidence that the Iranian Presidential Election Was Stolen", Juan Cole, 13 June 2009http://www.juancole.com/2009/06/stealing-iranian-election.html
4. More detailed analysis by a polling expert of "fishy numbers" in the results announced by the interior ministry:http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/iran-does-have-some-fishy-numbers.html
5. One of many active live-blogs:http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/
6. #IranElections - live, unfiltered updates via Twitter from Iran and around the worldhttp://twitter.com/#search?q=%23iranelection
----------
Want to support Avaaz? We're entirely funded by member donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated online team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way -- donate here.

ABOUT AVAAZ Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means "voice" in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Call us at: +1 888 922 8229 or +55 21 2509 0368

Link of the morning - June 9, 2009

2009-06-09T05:47:00.000-07:00

From my inbox this morning, a link to ask the Senate to pass paid parental leave for government employees:

http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=12845061

Paid Parental Leave -- Urge Your Senators to Support This First Step

We did it! Thanks to your calls and emails, the Federal Employee Paid Parental Leave Act passed the House by a wide margin.

Now it's on to the Senate. Ask your senators to support this legislation to guarantee federal workers four weeks of paid parental leave for a new child, as a first step toward universal paid leave.

Action Needed:

As the nation's largest employer, the federal government should serve as a model for family-friendly workplace policies. Passing the Paid Parental Leave Act is a critical benchmark as we work to provide paid sick, family and medical leave for all workers.

Paid parental leave for the 2.7 million federal workers will help millions of working families right now, and can be a model for achieving paid parental and family leave for the rest of our nation's workers, setting the standard for upcoming discussions about policies intended to help families balance work and family life.

Send an email message to your senators using our website. We need your help to increase the number of co-sponsors in the Senate so that this legislation has a better chance of passage.

Background:

Read more about this important piece of legislation.

Diana says...

2009-06-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

10:30 AM Diana: cool sufi poet dude

me: nice

Diana: i have a book of his poems at home with an introduction that might give you more background

me: oh nice!

10:31 AM that would be awesome

I'll try to remember to ask you when I'm at your house next time =)

10:34 AM Diana: one of my favorite lines in a rumi poem is "one man curls up contentedly in the nook of a mosque. Another man walks disappointedly in his elegant gardens"

10:35 AM me: ahh I love it

that's gonna have to be my quote of the day

Diana: sweet

Reason number 382 that Diana is awesome :)

Blog of the late afternoon

2009-05-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

Dear you,
Here's a neat link from an email my dad forwarded to me. It's called the Restorative Justice Project.

http://www.cnvc.org/en/about-us/projects/restorative-justice-project/cnvc-restorative-justice-project

The quote at the top is great:

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there." - Rumi

Who is/was Rumi?

Links of the morning - Wed, May 20

2009-05-20T04:59:00.000-07:00

Links of the morning of Wednesday, May 20. What I'm reading this morning.

1. Let's start with some good news. This from the DC Labor Council:

WASHINGTON WOMEN BUILDING SOLID FOUNDATIONS: Hoping to build a better future, Washington-area women are looking to break out of low-paying jobs by getting hands-on training in the construction trades. A group of 14 women from Washington Area Women in the Trades (WAWIT) completed the hands-on portion of their training last Friday after an eight-week program that provides skill-based training for women who are seeking to enter a trade. “This program enables women who typically find themselves in a cycle of poverty - many in the ‘pink collar’ economy – to have the opportunity to join apprenticeship programs, build careers in the building and construction trades, provide for their families, become empowered by their self-sufficiency and create a stable living environment for themselves and their children,” WAWIT Trades Liaison Sylvia Casaro Dietert told Union City. The 8th WAWIT training cycle included training at Cement Masons Local 891, Laborers Local 657 and Sheet Metal Workers Local 100. WAWIT is a partnership of the YWCA, Wider Opportunities for Women and the Community Services Agency of the Metro Wash ington Council. – photo by Sylvia Casaro Dietert

(DC Union City emails are great - they help keep me connected to local labor issues. Website here.)

2. This on human rights in Burma:

"Dear Friends,

"

Burma's democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been locked up on new trumped up charges, just days before her 13 years of detention was due to expire. She and thousands of fellow monks and students have been imprisoned for bravely challenging the brutal military regime with peaceful calls for democracy.

"Risking danger to speak out for their jailed friends, Burmese activists are demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and calling on the world to help. We have just six days to get a flood of petition signatures to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon calling on him to make their release a top priority -- he can make this a condition of any renewed international engagement. Follow the link to sign the petition, and forward this email on to friends to ensure Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners are freed. Burmese activists will present the global petition to the media on May 26th. "

Learn more and take action through my friend Mike's organization, the U.S. Campaign for Burma: http://uscampaignforburma.org/

3. Keeping it international. Here's some headlines from Just Foreign Policy. Thanks, just foreign policy folks, for making it easy to stay informed about what's going on with what the U.S. does worldwide.

--- Pakistan and Rwanda (wait, what??): UNHCR says the Pakistani exodus from Swat is turning into the world's most dramatic displacement crisis since the Rwandan genocide, the Guardian reports. Almost 1.5 million people have registered for assistance, bringing the total number of war displaced in North West Frontier province to more than 2 million, not including 300,000 the provincial government believes have not registered. Aid workers and political analysts warn that if international aid to ease the crisis is not urgently delivered, the strain on the displaced and those helping them could lead to political destablisation.

--- Panama and Trade Agreements: The Obama administration offered business groups more assurances it intends to move several pending trade agreements as soon as possible, The Hill reports. USTR Kirk expressed optimism to the Chamber of Commerce that the Panama trade deal would be submitted to Congress soon, and that he would try to move the Colombia deal this year.

--- Colombia: The Fellowship of Reconcilation says the US is planning to establish a new military facility in Colombia that will give the U.S. increased capacity for military intervention throughout most of Latin America, based on US planning documents. FOR says the plan should be subjected to vigorous debate.

4. It's an international kind of day. Here's an action alert from Oxfam.

Dear Lily,

Today we can extend a hand to more than 850 million people living on the brink of starvation.

Ask your Senators to support a comprehensive strategy to end the global food crisis.

As you probably know, the global food crisis has added at least 100 million more people to the 850 million people living at the brink of starvation.

But you may not know that there's a law that could help end this crisis by making US food aid to poor countries vastly more efficient and effective.

But without more support in Congress, it's not going anywhere.

Tell your Senators to co-sponsor the Lugar-Casey Global Food Security Act of 2009 and help end the global food crisis.

-----------------------------------------------
A note about why I'm doing this. I participate in a lot of action campaigns. It's part of my desire to be a positive influence on the world - which necessitates speaking out when I think something isn't right.

I don't want to make anyone to feel guilty here. I just want to share some things that I read every day that I care about.

If a friend of mine stops by every month or so and clicks a link or two, I will consider this website worthwhile.

Q: Where does $10 goes a long way? A: Gaza.

2009-05-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

If you donate to one cause this month, make it this one.

Here's the email I got...

My next trip: can I count on you? (from the real Patch Adams)

Patch Adams

Tue, May 19, 2009 at 3:25 PM

Reply-To: codepink@mail.democracyinaction.org

To: lswhitesell@gmail.com

From the Desk of Dr. Patch Adams

May 19, 2009

Dear Lily,

As a "doctor/clown," I have traveled the world over to bring the healing power of laughter to children and adults in virtually every corner of the world -- from Afghanistan, to Bosnia, to Haiti. Right now, there is a group of children who are really in need of healing -- the children of the Gaza Strip. Please help me bring some healing and laughter -- as well as playgrounds, sports equipment and medicines -- to the shattered young lives of this war-torn region.

The 1.5 million people of the Gaza Strip (more than half of them children) have had their homes destroyed, their playgrounds crushed and their schools gutted in the recent Israeli attack on this small, crowded corner of the world. Their borders -- both on the Israeli and Egyptian sides --are closed, making it impossible to rebuild.

For the first time ever, we'll be part of a coordinated effort to push open the borders by land and by sea! On June 5, I will join CODEPINK: Women for Peace, the Coalition of Women for Peace (Israel) and more than 100 American and Israeli peace activists -- Jews, Muslims, Christians and everything in between. We will set up an encampment on the Israeli border calling for a lifting of the siege. We will be joined by over 150 people trying to enter Gaza through Egypt and others coming by sea.

We will bring materials to build playgrounds, sports equipment, children's medicines -- and performances that will get the children to forget their dire circumstances for a little while and laugh.

But we need your help. We need your donations to sustain a presence at both borders to put pressure on the Israeli and Egyptian governments. And we need money to purchase the playground materials, sports equipment and medicines.

Please donate today. While President Obama and the Middle East leaders talk endlessly about talks, we can actually DO SOMETHING to lift the siege and flood Gaza with love and laughter.

Let's show them that the power of laughter can't be extinguished!
Patch Adams

PS:

Join CODEPINK and Global Exchange Reality Tours on our upcoming "Peace, Gender, and the Environment" delegation to Ecuador. Tuesday, July 7th 2009

Donate Today!
Help lift the siege and flood Gaza with love and laughter

Join CODEPINK and Global Exchange "Peace, Gender, and the Environment" delegation to Ecuador

unsubscribe
from this list

Which reminded me of this amazing story from my church:

Hiroshima Children's Drawings
Gifts of Peace and Hope

On Sunday, April 5, All Souls Church commemorated and celebrated an important moment of global solidarity from more than fifty years ago.

"In 1948, inspired by the sermons of the Rev. A. Powell Davies, children at All Souls collected school supplies to send to children in Hiroshima, Japan. In appreciation, the school children in Hiroshima created original works of art in crayon, water color, pen, and calligraphic brush, which they sent back to All Souls as gifts. Sixty years on, the church has had these precious creations restored.

"You are invited to view these drawings (high-quality reproductions) in Pierce Hall, where they will be exhibited through the middle of June.

"Also, inspired by the story, the Intermediate classes (3rd-5th grade) will collect school supplies (washable markers or preschool crayons only) to help support our homeless or hungry neighbors who attend the after-school activities at Martha's Table. Place your donations in the baskets at the 16th Street and Harvard Street entrance. In 1948, they collected over a half ton of supplies. Let's see how much we can collect!"

There is also a longer version of this story. It tells how the art that was made by the survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is considered almost sacred in Japanese society. The artwork that is now displayed in the main hall of All Souls Church now is particularly special because they are such hopeful drawings, a testament to life's ability to continue after such a tragedy, the drawings of children.

I've taken a few Sundays to look at them now; I see something new each time.

- lily

photos from http://all-souls.org/

-------------------------------------

Other links of the day:

- Here's some more info about Lt. Dan Choi getting fired for being truthful about his sexuality. http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/dontfiredan

- A very cool bed and breakfast in Lexington, VA recommended by my friend Jeanie. Lexington sounds like a very cool area. http://www.applewoodbb.com/general.html

- High quality products + American jobs = bailed out bank should do the right thing. Add your voice here. http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/hartmarx/

- This from Just Foreign Policy:

"Can Treasury Sneak IMF Money Through the Supplemental?
Lost in the drama over the war supplemental is a sneaky play by Treasury Department to get $108 billion in U.S. tax dollars for the IMF. If Treasury can get the money through the supplemental, it can avoid any Congressional debate over the policies of the IMF and whether this is a wise and just use of U.S. tax dollars; and whether Congress should insist on meaningful, observable reforms of IMF policy as the price of new U.S. funding.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/can-treasury-sneak-imf-mo_b_204058.html"

and this:

"1) After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Obama said that Israel "is going to have to take some difficult steps," the Washington Post reports. "Settlements have to be stopped," Obama said."

- The Union of Concerned Scientists put out a report, Climate 2030.

"Today, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released the Climate 2030 Blueprint, a peer-reviewed study showing that the United States can dramatically cut global warming pollution while saving households and businesses in every region of the nation billions of dollars in energy costs."

- I'm also outraged that the University of Virginia denied one of the best professors I've ever had, Dr. Wende Marshall, tenure. I feel very fortunate to have been her student. Why am I going to my five year reunion? To hang out with Wende.
http://www.virginia.edu/anthropology/faculty/wende.html

- Finally, the Higher Awareness email quote. "Journey home - 'Everything seeks its source.' -- a universal principle" (it's true that one must always journey home, but it's also true that opposites attract. -lily)

-------------------------------------

Whew! I get enough emails between Monday and Tuesday to keep me busy all week!

Links of the Day - Sunday, May 10, 2009

2009-05-10T03:12:00.000-07:00

Some great quotes for today:

Look for the gifts

"In school you get the lesson and then take the test ... In life you take the test and then get the lesson."

-- Unknown Source

"The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one’s life."

-- Dalai Lama

"Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

-- Albert Einstein

These are all from the Inner Journey / Higher Awareness daily email, which I receive thanks to the recommendation of an awesome singer/songwriter named Erika (thanks Erika!)

Links of the Day - Friday, May 8, 2009

2009-05-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

Thoughts of the Day...

If you watch one thing today, watch this AMAZING Mother's Day "Women for Peace" video: http://www.codepinkalert.org/section.php?id=401

The Union of Concerned Scientists always has such great stuff:
http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/feed/feed-latest.html

I'm thinking of maybe doing the Potomac River Ramble, June 24-28. Anyone want to do it with me?
http://www.potomacriver.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6:09-ramble&catid=25:about-us&Itemid=113

Here are some Watershed Management Documents that I'd like to look through some day:
http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/EnvironmentalServices/epo/EnvironmentalServicesEpoWatershedIntro.aspx#wmp

These are the Happenings and Opportunities from All Souls Church for Mother's Day Weekend:
http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=00193_ii0u9BCIFuN4LchL6zHF7AoTXdhnRgl3X-JdTMJhU97YUoQgJ6eeFCSRh9-MDcEycmNrtvJ_cM5YH76amzmK37SbYmzkNvHiZWxwi-wzDAqNGVltIH3Ok5cfVznWlGJ3C1xQDqrM%3D

Here's the Carolyn Hax live discussion from yesterday:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/05/01/DI2009050102635.html

Everyone's talking about the Star Trek movie... crazy world we live in.

Movies to watch: The Times of Harvey Milk, Soul Food

If you take one action today, do this:
http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/asy_prisions/

And finally, the Inner Journey quote of the day:

"Everything you need you already have. You are complete right now, you are a whole, total person, not an apprentice person on the way to someplace else."

-- Wayne Dyer

Have a Very Merry Christmas

2008-12-28T21:11:00.000-08:00

View Larger Map

Trip to the campo

2008-07-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, I went to countryside with the summer SIT students and some of their friends to a special spot they knew about. It was beautiful and relaxing. Here's the photos.

The Thursday before, we went out for drinks.

Andres, me, Nora, Emily, Andres' friend Berta and her bf Kike, Rachel, and Karlia

The drive out.

A view of the valley below.
Carmen (Nora's host sister), Nora, me, Karlia, Rachel.

Arriving at the waterfall.

check out that rock face!

the waterfall

me, Rachel, Karlia, Nora, Carmen, David (Carmen's boyfriend)
l-r

Nora, Carmen, Karlia, Rachel, me
l-r

Photos June and July

2008-07-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

We moved into the new apartment last month... here are some photos. They're in backwards chronological order.

This week Shaamela (visiting from South Africa) and Leny came to see the view from the roof...

Mt. Tunari overlooks the valley of Cochabamba

As do the northern hills...

Leny and I, the sunset, and Mt. Tunari

Leny and Shaamela

Two weeks ago, Maria and the ever-adorable Andres Sebastian came over. I let the little one play with my camera... culminating in a series I like to call "Self-portraits of a three-year old". Here's a sample or three.

"hooded"

"angry"

"laughing"

Me & Andres in the kitchen

The first weekend we moved in, Andres' family came over to see the place. A major decision had to be made: their new puppy needed a name. It took three tries.

Diego pulls the first name from the hat.

The second name is read. In the end, we chose "Filippo" or "Pipo" for short.

The whole famiglia and me.

The living room without people.

180 degrees - the entrance

That's all folks! Maybe I'll take pictures of the rest of the apt later...

And the seasons change...

2008-05-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

I can imagine what May looks like there now - daffodils, azaleas, tigerlilies, roses; the light, delicate green of early buds giving way to the deep green of a robust summer.

A couple of weeks ago the deep green hills that surround the Cochabamba valley began to brown, and the trees started to drop their leaves. This week it's gotten colder; I leave my house in the morning with a jacket or a warm fleece. And the seasons change...

I miss you all, and would love to hear from you (send me photos)! My brother Craig is coming to visit, arriving tomorrow, which I'm very excited about. We have a busy month planned, and I promise to put up more images after he leaves. For now, here's my installment on the last few months.

The most exciting news is that I am now officially a published author, in translation. Our book "Desafiando la globalizacion: historias de la experiencia boliviana" came out in April. Again, I wrote one of the chapters - on Bolivian emigration - and the English version will be out in the UK in September and in the US next January. If you can read Spanish, it's up on the web for free at: www.democracyctr.org/libro . Unfortunately, our US publisher is not as open to letting us publish the book for free on the internet as our Bolivian publisher is, but I'll let everyone know when it comes out.

My housemate Alex
made headlines
in February
when he publicly
called out a
US Embassy official
for asking him
(a Fulbright scholar)
to spy on Venezuelans
and Cubans in Bolivia.

At a staff retreat in March...

Leny, Aldo, and Elliot

a photo from
Ismael (co-director
of my 2003 study
abroad program)'s
birthday - March 8,
dia internacional
de la mujer -
an event as unique
and wonderful
as he is.

From late March to April... vibrant summer to fall. I took these pictures when hiking to "the Cristo," the 33-meter-tall statue of Jesus Christ that stands on a tall hill overlooking Cochabamba.

late March

late April

Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine, was in Bolivia last week. We presented the Spanish version of our book in a joint book launch with her in La Paz. Here I am with this amazing author and Ana Maria from Fundacion Solon, who helped us coordinate the event.

From La Paz, I went to chilly Potosi for the weekend to visit Andres, who has a month-long translating/interpreting gig there with a Japanese company. Here we found a bit of sun in the afternoon...

Speaking English Guides in Potosi. I love it.

02.29.08 - Happy Leap Day!

2008-02-29T03:16:00.000-08:00

Happy leap day!

It's been a busy month...

Work - Retreat at Jim's new house out in the campo (see photo); distributing our magazine, Jallalla, to the four corners of the globe; giving my first-ever presentation in Spanish; a new project to bring voices from Latin America into the debate over US foreign policy; helping out with grant proposals (know anyone who wants to give us money?); finishing up the Spanish version of the book; writing and more writing...

Outside of work - I'm finally learning Quechua, the language of the Incas! Millions of speakers, mostly in the Andean countries, though I've heard it spoken in the Target near Seven Corners too... An hour and a half daily, Monday thru Friday. Imaynalla kachkanki?

Summer - Spent an entire morning harvesting pacay fruit at my house, then shared with friends. (See photos below of the pacay - and my house, long overdue, I know). It's raining once every 3-4 days now that the rainy season is winding down, as opposed to going entire weeks without seeing the sun. The flooding in the eastern lowlands is still awful, leaving people without houses, without crops, and in some cases, losing their lives or their loved ones.

Comadres - Ladies' night out with Eva and her many friends. Dice games and dancing, dancing, and more dancing! No photos, sorry.

Carnaval - Noon to midnight on a Sunday out in the country with a group of Andres' friends from forever. Water fights, yummy food, a band AND a DJ, and my first ever "Carnaval toda la vida" shirt. With any luck, I'll snag some photos from other folks that were there.

Ch'allando - Streamers, balloons, confetti, sugar candy confites in every corner of the house. People don't just do spring cleaning here, they do a midsummer harvest blessing too for the year to come. (See photos below.)

El Corso - Parade-viewing from the office balcony. Lots of guests, Jim out of town, and the neverending parade of traditional Bolivian dancers. Photos coming...

Party at my house - Alex (gringo roommate) and Luis (Bolivian roommate) organized a get-together at our house and were kind enough to invite me. I've never seen that many people at the house before. But fun. When I went inside to go to sleep (well after midnight), the drum circle didn't even keep me up. (Photos below)

Quechua words of the day!

Yachakuq - Student
Yachachiq - Teacher
Misi - Cat
Allqu (pronounced algo with the g way at the back of your throat) - Dog
Wasi - House
Wasiy - My house
Ayllu - Family
Masikuna - Friends
Raymi - Party
Warmi - Woman
Tusuy - To dance
Llamk'ay - To work
Qhillqay - To write
Asiy - To laugh

Pacay on the trees

Pacay I harvested
...and ate

My house from the entrance
(Notice the hammock)

My room.
It's all decorated for the Ch'alla

The main patio area and door to the living room, decorated for Carnaval!

L-R
Alex (roommate)
Raul (friend)
Luis (roommate)

Me & Andres

The drum circle I had to walk around to get into my room!

1.24.08 La vuelta

2008-01-24T15:08:00.000-08:00

I put up some more photos from my visit in the US, and also a picture from when Andres and I went out to the campo (countryside) my first weekend back as a reintroduction to being here. moooooooo.

Being back... the things I notice. Some you've heard about, some you haven't.

Speaking Spanish all the time. How quickly you forget, how quickly you remember.

The rainy season. How brimming with life my neighborhood is. How hills that look down on Cochabamba have transformed from a dusty green-brown to a vibrant mix of the tender green of fresh growth and a deep happy forest green. How even though it's summer, the moment the sun is covered with clouds, it gets chilly. How the pacay fruit on the tree in my yard is all ripe. How good it tastes fresh off the tree. The fact that I have a tree in my yard that I can pick fruit off. How it's fig season again, and my co-worker brings in figs for us all to eat, just like last year.

Marketplaces lined with many different vendors all selling the same thing. Five hardware stores on one block. How crazy it is. How logical it is.

How easy it is to catch a bus... anywhere. How I can look out the window on public transportation instead of concentrating on the road driving. How I look forward to the moment when I cross the bridge into the center of town because I can see everything at once - the highest peak you can see from Cochabamba, Tunari, in the west; the hill up to the Cristo statue (a few centimeters taller than the far more famous one in Rio de Janeiro) to the east; the green hills in the north; and the skyline of the sweet city that I'm about to enter in the south.

How quickly Carnaval has snuck up upon us. How I'm never sure if it will be rain or a water balloon that will soak me on any given day. How amazing it is to see the diversity of dances and dancers.

How polarized politics are here. How little the different groups talk to each other. How strong racial/ethnic/class barriers are. How entrenched racism (intertwined with classism) is. How every group claims that *they* are the ones moving the country forward. How it makes the civil rights struggle in the United States ever more real, and me ever more curious to learn about it. The challenge of speaking out against racist attitudes while not treating with any less humanity those who are racist. How troubled it all makes me.

How Cochabamba is a city that most people in the world have never even heard of. How, in global social justice circles, this city is famous (for rejecting the privatization of its water system). How my other home, Washington, DC - the capital of the United States - is a city that just about everyone in the world knows exists.

Just a few Spanish words:
pacay: http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/pacay.htm
higo: fig
ferreteria: hardware store
justicia y paz: peace and justice

More home photos

2008-01-24T12:58:00.000-08:00

Connecticut!

2008-01-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

01.08.08 Back from the US

2008-01-08T11:59:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone for a whirlwind of a trip to the US. Even though there were some of you I didn't get to see, I got to see so many of you individually, that I really feel very lucky and quite blessed. The first few days in DC, a week in San Francisco, a couple of days in DC again, the family trip to Connecticut (all four of us piled in a car), a day in DC, a trip to Asheville, back through Charlottesville, a very sadly missed trip up to NY, DC for New Year's, and then getting to NY finally, then a few days in DC again before heading out yesterday from National Airport, through Miami, to La Paz, and later tonight, to Cochabamba. In a month.

I'm going to put up a few photos from San Francisco, Connecticut, Asheville, and NY in the previous and the coming posts.

In celebration of getting back to Bolivia, I give you the following words of the day:
(With pronunciation guides, as requested by Melissa. Though they might make it more confusing.)

Feliz Navidad! (feh-lees nah-vee-dahd) - Merry Christmas!
Feliz Año Nuevo! (feh-lees ah-nyo nwe-vo) - Happy New Year!
Felices Fiestas! (feh-lee-ses fyeh-stahs) - Happy Holidays! (lit. happy parties)

Buen viaje! (bwen vee-ah-hay) - Bon voyage!
Bienvenidos! (bee-yen-ven-ee-dos) - Welcome!
Cuando vuelves? (cwan-do vwel-vehs) - When do you come back?
Cuidate or Te cuidas (cwee-dah-te or te cwee-das) - Take care
Te extraño! (teh ex-trahn-yo) - I miss you!

Thanks again to everyone for making time for me, and for understanding when things got crazy.
abrazos,
Lily

Fotos San Francisco

2008-01-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

12.07.07 Coming Home - Tomorrow!

2008-01-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Right now I'm sitting in the La Paz airport, waiting to get on the plane that will take me home. I get into DC tomorrow morning, and I'll be in the US for a month. That month will be divided between the DC area, Charlottesville, San Francisco, and New York. There's a lot of travelling going on in the next month for me, and I really hope I get to see as many of you as possible.

As the holidays approach, I want to thank all of you for all your support and love - emails, chatting, phone calls, visits. It really makes my day when I get an email out of the blue from someone I haven't heard from in a while, and for all you who have been in closer touch throughout my time here, it's been wonderful to be able to continue being a part of your lives there, and for you to be part of my life here.

Much love,
Lily

11.27.07 Happy Late Thanksgiving

2008-01-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Hi all! Happy Thanksgiving. This email has a lot of news, and contains a lot of ups and downs, so hang on.

First. Bolivians are questioning the US Presidential candidates... can't get much better than that. We've submitted a question from Bolivia for the presidential debate this week. And why not? Arguably, U.S. policy affects Bolivians' lives just as much as it does Americans'.

It's only 30 seconds...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wvDv4JP9_o&eurl=http://www.democracyctr.org/bl og/2007/11/bringing-coca-to-youtube-republican.html

And we'll see if it gets picked soon enough. (Wouldn't that be fabulous?)

Second. I hope you all had a wonderful, relaxing, loving thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for each and every one of you. Here, we made turkey (four hours in the oven!), I made stuffing (mmm bread crumbs and butter), a friend of mine brought out the mashed potatoes, and someone else brought apple pie. Yum. Oh, and don't forget the Bolivian pique a lo macho (huge pile of meat, potato wedges, tomatoes, and hot peppers). All this in Cochabamba with a mix of Norwegians, Germans, Argentineans, and, of course, Bolivians and Americans. You gotta love it. (Forgot to take pictures. Sorry!)

Third. I am in good spirits after a good number of stressful weeks at work seem to finally be coming to a close. We're going to publish a magazine! It is called j'allalla (Quechua & Aymara for "que viva!"), and it's the democracy center annual magazine. Here's last year's version: http://www.democracyctr.org/publications/magazine/ . Oh, and I'm the co-editor this year (hence the stress, and the recent relief).

Fourth. I have been not only stressed in recent weeks, but also distressed and depressed because of the political situation in Bolivia right now and other events. Sucre (10-12 hours away) is exploding in protests... on Sunday, protesters threw molotov cocktails and four people have been killed over the last days. Cochabamba is calm, so yes, I'm safe, and I promise to be careful. But here's an analysis that Jim published tonight on the recent events for those who want to know more: http://democracyctr.org/blog/ . There is also a tribute to a journalist who lost her life here in the last week. Although I didn't know her, I am friends with people here who were extremely close to her, so that has shaken me a good deal.

Whew. Lots of news. I'm looking forward to seeing you all soon. Much love.

Lily

PS "que viva" means "may it live"

PPS Diana's visit was great! More about that later.

October 31 - Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T17:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Friday here is Todos Santos (All Saints Day). For the occasion, one of my very good friends here, Leny, and our new (rock-star) volunteer, Elliot, will be writing an article about Bolivia's Halloween and publishing it on our blog on Friday: www.democracyctr.org/blog .

What are Tanta'wawas? How is Halloween encroaching on more traditional Latin American celebrations? How is the Day of the Dead celebrated in Bolivia, anyway? It's a really neat day, so definitely check the blog on Friday!

In a follow-up from last week, here's also a picture of me and my veggie casera and another of me and my yogurt casera. My veggie casera is holding an eggplant. Don't ask.

The other big news this week is that Diana is coming on Friday to spend two weeks with me! We are very excited, and don't worry, I'm going to make her write a guest email or two (But she doesn't know that yet. Surprise Diana, and buen viaje!).

Last but not least, I'll be home in December! Here's my schedule:
Arrive in DC December 8.
Charlottesville December 9-11
San Francisco December 12-18
DC December 19 - January 7
Maybe a short trip to NY/Boston after New Year's?
So lots of moving around, but hopefully I'll get to see everyone! Email me if you want to coordinate a time to meet up!

Spanish Words of the Day, Halloween style!
Duende - Goblin
Demonio - Demon
Diablo - Devil
Diablito - Imp, little devil
Brujo/a - Witch
Hechizo - Spell
Encanto - Enchantment
Brujería - Witchcraft, sorcery
Skeleton - Esqueleto
Haunted House - Casa Embrujada, Casa Encantada
Ghost - Fantasma, Espiritu
Todos Santos - All Saints

October 25 - Caseras y Viajes

2007-10-25T08:16:00.001-07:00

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.

Sunday, Sept 23 - Cumpleaños y Lluvia

2007-09-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

Today my friend Maria's little kid Sebastian (Sebas for short) had his third birthday party. He's just what a three-year-old should be - mischievous, loves Spiderman, and terrified of clowns. A few months ago, Maria asked me to be his madrina for the party, a Bolivian tradition. (She also asked me to be his godmother in general, but that involves a longer story.) I was delighted that she had asked me, and so I set to work - asking her what that would involve. In Bolivia, especially in small towns, each religious festival or fiesta each year has a different padrino or madrina, or godparent in charge of the celebration. It's a great honor for someone to be the padrino/madrina, and often requires significant economic inversion. Lucky for me, what was expected of me was far less than providing for an entire town's three-day party. I got to be in charge of getting Sebas some new clothes to wear on the big day.

[A side note: These days, many padrinos are folks that live or have citizenship abroad (are more economically well-off) and that can take some time off and come back to celebrate with their town. For example, my friend Vanesa's cousin-in-law came to Cochabamba from Arlington (with his Puerto Rican girlfriend) to visit and be the padrino of a religious celebration in a small pueblo outside the city in late August.]

So last weekend, Maria, Sebas, and I went tromping down to the Cancha, the huge open-air market just south of the center of the city. It was a hot day, and we made several stops on the way for drinks, snacks, and ice cream to keep our spirits up. Sebas, like any good three-year-old, had three-minute desires. For the first three minutes, he was dying of thirst. For the second three minutes, he was dying of hunger. For the third three minutes, he was an uncontrollable ball of energy. For the fourth three minutes, he was exhausted and needed to be carried. And then it began all over again. I thought it was amusing, but then, I see Sebas once a week at most. Maria assured me it wasn't the sugar in the ice cream, it's just what being two-almost-three was all about.

So we found some suitable clothes (a crisp new white Spiderman t-shirt with the superhero on the front and a spider with its web on the back; new brown shoes with just enough room to grow into, and some comfortable khaki-colored pants he can play in), and set off back home with Sebas asking if he could put the clothes on as soon as we got there. Maria had asked Andres to be the padrino in charge of contracting a clown to come and play with the kids that were invited (apparently fairly common here). And she asked me for help with the cake, but since Andres' grandmother is extremely capaz at anything baking- or cooking-related, we decided that Andres and I would also contribute by baking the cake, which we did yesterday. Tres leches (condensed milk, evaporated milk, and regular milk) - it was delicious.

So today, at first, all went according to plan. Even Sebas, who's normally terrified of clowns, kept giggling and turning to me and saying "Que chistoso!" in spite of himself. Attendance was a bit on the lighter side (Maria's family was prepared for the biggest-case-scenario), but we all had a great time. The clown had everyone laughing, the cake was delicious, as were the salteñas (stew in a hot-pocket - the Bolivian mid-morning snack). I saved Sebas from dripping the salteña juice all over his clothes, which stayed remarkably clean all day. But then - just as the kids were done playing with their new balloon animals and were about to have at the piñata - it started to rain. It wasn't just the drizzles we've been getting from the clouds that have come up over the mountains. This was a DOWNPOUR. Hail and everything. Fortunately, Maria's family had put up a tarp to provide shade over one area. Everyone crowded under it for protection from the rain as we quickly rushed through the piñata. Then we all got herded inside for presents. We watched it go from pouring to lightening up to pouring over and over again. As I sat inside waiting for a break in the storm long enough to walk home, the clown left, as did many of the guests (the party was wrapping up anyway), while Sebas and a few of the kids who remained played with his new toys. But it was quite a way to experience one of the first real rains of spring!

[Attached is a picture of the clown, me, Maria and Sebas, and Andres.]

The other news: I moved, to a sweet new house (you'll have to wait til next email for a picture) further away from the city. That means more peace, a quiet neighborhood, and more using the office bicycle, which I really couldn't justify for my 5-block walk from Chichi's house. It also means I'm closer to Tai Chi (Ismael's house), my friend Maria's house, the bike path that circles the city, the northern hills that look down on Cochabamba, and the trufis and micros that go up to the small community in Tiquipaya I went to for my Independent Study Project back in the day. Speaking of which, I went back to the community last weekend and took the path up through the northern hills to a nearby river where an old water-run mill used to be located. Brambles aside, it was a beautiful hike and reminded me that yes, I am right smack in the middle of the Andes (and they call these foothills).

Cochabamba Day was September 14th. Happy Cochabamba Day! Also, the first day of Spring (Friday) was celebrated by the shutdown of the main artery in the city, the Prado, so that plant vendors could set up along the sides. Made me think we should petition to DC authorities to shut down Constitution Avenue in DC on the first day of spring. Forget the government, we need to buy plants!

Spanish words of the day:
Birthday - Cumpleaños
Happy Birthday! - Feliz Cumpleaños!
Spiderman - Hombre Araña "Ohm-breh Ah-ran-ya"
Spiderman as said by Sebas - "Oh-meh eye-on-ya"
pueblo - between town and village
capaz - good at something, like capable
tres leches - literally, three milks
"Que chistoso!" - How funny!
lluvia torrencial - torrential rain
Madrina - godmother or a sponsor-of-sorts
Padrino - godfather or a sponsor-of-sorts
Cake - torta
"Que muerda!" - "Bite it [the cake]!" (Another Bolivian tradition, after you blow out the candle, you bite the cake, and someone pushes your head so you come up with a face full of frosting. Sebas did not humor us in that request.)

La Primavera Ya Viene!

2007-09-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

Dear all,

A couple of Fridays ago, I came home to find rose petals strewn across my front steps. I was puzzled to say the least. I cocked my head to one side, furrowed my brow, and leaned a little closer, when another petal landed on the step directly above the other. When I tilted my head back, I couldn't help but laugh at what I saw.

After months of Cochabamba's dry season, the earth has begun to warm up. I no longer need my jacket after the sun goes down. We have been planting new seedlings and sprouting plants in the windowboxes on the balcony at work. And the tall rose bush that stands guard outside the front door to my house has begun to sprout buds and bloom.

Within three days, the thorny, thick-stemmed bush that I had never paid much attention to went from green and pink buds - to dropping velvety rose petals onto the steps leading to my front door. When I looked up on that Friday night, what I saw was the bright red and almost orangey pink rose flowers, illuminated by streetlamps and silouetted against the deep blue sky of dusk. Absolutely beautiful.

The next stage of spring comes with the rains. In the last week, clouds have begun appearing, entering the Cochabamba valley over the highest nearby peak, Mt. Tunari, which sits northeast of the city. I can't wait for a true, good rain, but we did get a few drops this evening. I can't believe the entire month of August went by without a single thunderstorm. Where am I!?

The temperature difference between winter and summer here is not nearly as bad as in DC (in Cochabamba, mid-day temperatures in the sun get up to t-shirt weather - even in the middle of winter). Still though, I've gotten into it. In the spirit of "spring cleaning", I got my hair cut (see photo) and decided to move to a sunnier, more peaceful spot further away from the center of the city. (Though Jose Miguel is back from Chile, so I'm no longer the only one in the house.) I move in to the new place next week, and I'll send another update once I do.

In the meantime, to all of you who are still suffering from the end of a hot, muggy summer - cheer up - the sun's coming this way these days.

Spanish words of the day
la primavera - spring
el verano - summer
epoca de lluvia - rainy season
húmedo - humid
las plantas - plants
las flores - flowers
la rosa - rose
el pétalo - petal
trasladarse - to move (from one house to another) - also mudarse
moverse - (more general) to move, to make an effort (to do something), also - to move it/dance "muévete muévete"

labor day - dia del trabajador - which we have on May 1 in Bolivia
in labor - de parto
birth - el parto (delivery), el nacimiento (birth)
to give birth - dar a luz (literally, give to light)
to be born - nacer
It's a boy - Es hombrecito/Es varoncito!
Congratulations! - Felicidades!
(these are in honor of both labor day and Cheryl and Eric's upcoming big day... when it comes)

August 21, 2007 - Festival de Urkupiña

2007-08-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
Had a great time at the Festival of Urkupiña last week. I'm gonna send you to an article/blog that I translated & helped write with my fabulous co-worker Leny by way of telling you what the festival is all about ( http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/ ). In terms of my experience of Urkipiña this year, I went to a party of some of the autoctonous music groups (Leny helped found one of the only women's autoctonous music groups in Bolivia), in addition to watching the parade. I went on Tuesday - lots of fun - but was back at work the next day.

Other updates: Still the only person in my house. My friend Vanesa gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Her mom came home from Barcelona to be with her. I didn't dance cueca chapaca for Urkupiña because I was in Peru then was sick then went to Sucre then came back and only knew two of the dances, had three days to practice, and my dance partner (Andres) hurt his foot indefinitely. Maybe for Carnaval (February). Am back to teaching English lessons this week. Jammed my ring finger playing basketball last weekend, made myself a really funny-looking splint with half a plastic spoon and some duct tape. Glad to not be travelling anymore. Happy at work.

Spanish Words of the day - Guide to Bolivian Beverages (Craig, this section is for you - wait 'til August 31 though =) )
Chicha - a common Cochabambino alcoholic drink made with fermented corn. Best chicha is found in the campo (country). This is Bolivia's take on good country moonshine. Definitely not as strong as liquor, but stronger than the light beer you generally get here. Served with a...
Tutuma - a half-gourd used to serve chicha. Deceptively large. Before you drink from a tutuma, you have to say "salud" to someone else and they have to acknowledge it (meaning they will be the next to drink). Otherwise, you have to drink again (party foul). A tutuma is not to be confused with a ...
Tullma - hair tie? nicely ornamented ribbon or yarn to be braided into your hair and used to tie off the braid(s). What I've been using to pull my hair back since my last liga broke.
Ligas - rubber band-ish hair ties, also
Uva - Grape. Not University of Virginia.
Durazno - Peach.
Guarapo - sweet alcoholic beverage made from uva or durazno. Not to be confused with garapiña.
Helado - ice cream (also sorbet)
Canela - cinnamon
Helado de canela - sorbet made with cinnamon and sugar. Deep pink color. Delicious.
Garapiña - chicha mixed with helado de canela
Singani - like brandy I've heard? Alcohol made from grape skins. Only found in Bolivia. Good for mixing for..
Chuflay - Singani + Sprite + lime
Pisco - A town in Peru that was one of the hardest hit by the earthquake. Scroll down for an update from Oxfam... and to help the relief effort! Pisco is also an alcoholic beverage similar to Singani, but Peruvian. Famous for Pisco sours.

I'm all out of Spanish Words of the Day. Email me if there's anything you want to know how to say.

Abrazos
Lily

PS
First, if you haven't seen this yet, check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY&eurl=

Second, just days after I sent out the last email, my very talented father had a letter to the editor published in the Washington Post. I think he got jealous that my mom was getting all the attention in my last email =) Seriously, though - he's been doing heavy duty research on the climate since he retired from his economist life last year, and he will have a paper published in the coming year on a proposal for what he's writing on here. Whoever said old dogs can't learn new tricks hasn't met my dad. (Happy birthday Dad!)

THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE

The proposal by Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.) to establish a Federal Reserve-style climate board ["2 Senators to Unveil Climate Bill," Business, Aug. 2] falls short of the major step needed. Prominent leaders would not serve on such a board if its purpose were only to "loosen rules for companies" when CO2 prices spike.
The Federal Reserve determines overnight interest rates using "open market" auctions. A meaningful climate board, under a cap-and-trade system, should set annual ranges for carbon dioxide prices and achieve them with allowance auctions. A nonpartisan, expert climate board and associated staff would be less political and more responsive than the legislative process to new research and technological developments as it adjusted the path of carbon dioxide prices, year by year, and coordinated with overseas climate agencies.
WILLIAM WHITESELL
The writer was a deputy associate director of the Federal Reserve Board from 2001 to 2006.

PPS Here's the update from Oxfam on the devastating impacts of the earthquake on towns like Pisco. Please take a look.

Dear friend,

I'm writing to pass along some reports I've received from our staff members in Peru. I hope these will give you a sense of the scale of the devastation and the importance of relief efforts in the wake of last week's 7.9-magnitude earthquake.

The death toll has now climbed to 560, with 1,500 people injured and more 250,000 whose homes are destroyed or unsafe. Water and food are scarce.

Oxfam's supporters have sprung into action, donating over $200,000 and enabling us to begin providing clean water, sanitation services, and shelter to thousands of families in remote regions.

To help right now, donate to Oxfam's Peru Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund.

Oxfam's humanitarian officer in Peru, Sergio Alvarez, traveled to the worst hit zone immediately after the quake – including rural areas which he could only reach on foot, which he described as "virtually stranded by the outside world."

"The urban areas are being better attended but the rural areas and the city's outskirts have received very little attention so far," said Sergio. Only 120,000 of a total 665,000 inhabitants of the affected region live in Pisco.

That's why Oxfam is concentrating its efforts on rural areas that are less visible and face difficulties in reaching out to the media and authorities. These include Independencia and Humay, where 40% of the inhabitants have had their homes severely damaged. We are also providing aid in the city of Pisco, where all the adobe houses were destroyed – that's 70% of the buildings – leaving only the modern structures standing.

Many communities are cut off completely by collapsed bridges or landslides that have made roads impassable. People are living on the streets in terrible conditions; if their homes aren't destroyed, they fear the constant aftershocks – over 450 of them so far.

Access to food and water are major issues. Sergio reports: "Only a few communities have water wells, which means they will not have water even when electricity comes back. The other main concern is that these villages are running out of food, and as of now, they are receiving very little or no aid at all."

You can help us respond more effectively by donating today.

We anticipate the recovery from this disaster will take months, not weeks. So Oxfam is in it for the long haul, not just providing immediate aid but planning for long-term recovery and building local capacity to respond to the ongoing needs of affected families.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Raymond C. Offenheiser
President
Oxfam America

P.S. The destruction caused by Hurricane Dean in the Caribbean this week is also of paramount concern to Oxfam America. We are closely monitoring the situation, and we will keep you updated on Oxfam's response as events progress.

August 11, 2007 - Saga Sudamericana

2007-08-12T22:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been back in Cochabamba since Wednesday, after some amazing interviews, experiences, and a wrestling match between my stomach and a hamburger (thankfully, my stomach won). This coming week is the celebration of the Virgin of Urkupiña, one of Cochabamba's biggest festivals all year. So I'll have a lot to report a week from now. In the meantime, my talented mother drafted up a very well-written account of my parents' trip to visit me which I'd like to share with you below. Enjoy!

South America Saga - July 2007

Marshalling our limited Spanish, ATM cards and courage to be "ugly Americans" abroad, Bill and I flew to South America to visit our daughter and tour planner, Lily. Contrary to recommendations by seasoned travelers, our vacation started with the highest altitudes, trekked the peaks and valleys of Bolivia and Peru then slowly descended the Andes Mountains. We arrived in South America on Saturday, 07/07/07 in La Paz, Bolivia, the highest city we visited (3660m). Bill's brother (and anesthesiologist) Bob recommended some altitude medicine for us. However, we were still periodically dizzy & queasy so Lily allowed us (and told us!) to take it slow at first.

Her plane arrived after ours so she had a friend meet us & usher us around, so gracious for our first night and relative clue-lessness. Lily found us a lovely hotel. All of our accommodations seemed to be built around courtyards with bedding & décor made from local crafts, very comfortable and pleasing to the eye. We benefited from the "American-style" hearty breakfasts, which often took us through to mid-afternoon meals. We were surprised that, despite temperatures that sometimes dropped below freezing at night, most hotels and homes had no heat.

Sunday, we took a bus to Lake Titicaca (elevation 3820m) of Aymara & Inca fame, nestled between Bolivia and Peru. The bus traveled from the populated, high altitude valley city of La Paz up to Al Alto, rimmed with amazing views of La Paz and the Andes. La Paz is a bowl-shaped valley chock full of adobe and brick "pueblo" houses. It has some beautiful churches and open air markets, as well as the government and business buildings of a capital city. Sidewalk vendors and shop stalls abound, although there are a few larger stores housed in buildings. Everybody seems to be selling something.

We crossed the altiplano, a sparsely populated area of indigenous people who farm and graze llamas, sheep, cows and pigs. We stayed in Copacabana (not the same one as the song, which is in Brazil). We wandered around to see, buy and eat the local specialties including hand-made textiles, indigenous popcorn of enormous size and trout. The sun sets quickly, so we found a restaurant warmed with a clay oven for a bowl of soup before returning to our hotel. While there, amazingly, it started to snow and the electricity went out, sure evidence of the weather and season. That also meant no hot water.

The weather in the Andes region of Bolivia & Peru is winter in July. I do not know the exact temperatures as we did not obsess on the Weather Channel, (nor did we really watch much TV, a Real Vacation). My best guess is that it went down into the 20s (F) at night and our daytime highs were 40s-60s in the mountains. Our hotel rooms were not heated, which means we wore "all our warm clothes", a hat and socks to bed, under multiple, heavy, llama or alpaca woven blankets. Daytime attire was definitely layered. The Bolivian and Peruvian women wear their beautifully decorated, pleated skirts, woven shawls and bowler hats, adding layers of shawls as the temperature dips.

On Monday, 07/09/07, we had arranged to take a boat to the Isla del Sol, but the gusty winds, white caps and breakers on the town beaches kept all boats from launching. Like true tourists, we proceeded to shop, as the beautiful handcrafts were very low cost in this remote location. We also wanted to beef up our clothing wardrobes for warmth. It was invaluable to have my daughter with us for the whole trip, as her friendliness, knowledge of living conditions and multi-lingual (Spanish, Quetchua & English) abilities allowed us to communicate and bargain each step of the way, usually to our benefit.

We returned to La Paz by bus later in the day. The Bolivian roads are something of a "last frontier". They seem to fit in as much traffic as there is. With a few trucks and cars, everything goes smoothly. With many big tour coaches, medium-sized public buses, vans, station wagons and the little boxes on wheels that constitute the private vehicles, there is a jumble of positioning for place and direction. In La Paz, everybody seems to get where they are going and, despite the aggressiveness, I saw no accidents or even unfriendly gestures.

Although we returned to Bolivia later in our trip, we flew next to Peru, first Lima and then on to Cuzco. Situated in the Andes, Cuzco and Macchu Picchu were the centers of the Inca Empire and are full of museums and shops that celebrate this distinction. There is also a strong Catholic influence in the colonial architecture, which was often built on top of the Inca foundations. Although the colonial additions have often suffered the ravages of time and nature (earthquakes), the massive, mortar-less Incan stones have endured. Incan cosmology centered on the sun god, Inti, for which we also developed a healthy respect, as the sunny days were true warmth for our shivering bodies.

Like La Paz, Cuzco (3326m elevation) is a valley set in the towering terrain of the Andes Mountains. We never imagined how extensively this chain of mountains covers the continent. From the air, the mountains form a textured topography of peaks and valleys. From land, they soar overhead, often decorated with terraced fields.

In Cuzco, we attended a cultural program of song and dance with regional ethnic dress and musical instruments. There were several museums and churches to witness the blending of the native and Spanish influences. The museums referred to the pre-ceramic period, in contrast to our term "prehistory". Our guided tour of the Inca temple at Koricancha infected us with the reverence for nature that infused the Inca religion. The Sun God, "Inti" and Earth "Pachamama" are still revered today by an indigenous people who have fused their native beliefs with Roman Catholic practices.

After touring Cuzco, we spent three days touring the Sacred Valley along which one can travel the Inca Trail. One day was on horseback; one day we toured Moray and Maras and the third day was spent in the Inca ruins of Pisac, Urubamba and Ollantaytambo. We went horseback riding in the region of Saqsaywaman and visited the Inca ruins at Moray, which was an "agricultural laboratory". Four amphitheater-like craters in the mountains were terraced in 1-3 meter intervals, resulting in one degree Centigrade increments in temperature for each step from top to bottom. Each terrace was planted with different agricultural crops (wheat, corn, lima beans, and potatoes) to test the best growing conditions.

We also visited a salinera or salt "mine". A geothermal aquifer spouted a constant flow of salt water from deep inside one of the Andes Mountains. It spilled into a sloping plateau divided into about 200 sections where the salt water was exposed to the heat of the sun. The salinera continues to be communally owned by a nearby town, so that each family can harvest their "field" of salt as it reaches its crystalline form.

Peaceful coexistence among the indigenous groups was promoted by geographic separation of the mountainous terrain, until, starting in the 1300s, the Inca and other groups fought for control. The Incan Empire extended from Colombia in the north to Chile in the south. All subjects of the empire paid taxes by obligatory labor, which helps to explain the extensive religious centers, organized cities and roads of the Incans. The empire lasted for less than a century before its defeat by germs introduced by Europeans, internal conflicts fed by resentments of conquered groups and, ultimately, the Spanish conquistadors led by Pizarro.

The Spanish New World exploration goals of "gold, glory and God" were prevalent in the museum exhibits we visited. The Cuzco School of painting flourished starting in the 1600s, with strong Catholic influences in subject matter and techniques. Portraiture was meant to teach the lives of biblical and saintly personages embellished with the rewards and punishments promised and threatened by the Church of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. It featured interpretations of the Bible Scriptures and saints in the New World setting. Surely, the canvasses were a teaching tool for the indigenous converts to Christianity.

Although the gold in South America was extracted mainly from the Incas, the discovery of silver at Potosi in south central Bolivia today, uncovered an enormous source of continuing wealth for Spain. For over 200 years, the Cerro Rico was mined by an estimated eight million indigenous workers and African slaves under inhuman conditions to fill the coffers of the Spanish monarchy.

The Spanish controlled Peru and Bolivia politically as a colony, the mixed blood mestizos were local functionaries, and the indigenous peoples formed the exploited, laboring bottom of the social ladder. These are social divisions that resonate within the democracies of South America even today; between those in and out of power; between the haves and have nots.

Peru witnessed some political turmoil while we were there, initiated by a teacher strike. The government wants to institute a requirement for teachers to pass a test or be fired. The situation blossomed into a general strike and mass demonstrations against the government policies and an unpopular president. Despite our sympathies, we hoped there would be no glitches in our plans to visit Macchu Picchu. As the transportation workers and other groups joined the teachers, we had to alter our travel plans to avoid roadblocks and other potential conflicts.

We took a train and bus for the leg of our trip to Machu Picchu. The river valley leading to Machu Picchu dropped in altitude and increased in temperature, humidity and vegetation. We visited several Inca ruins and Spanish colonial churches in the Sacred Valley en route. We stayed in Aguas Calientes while visiting the recently dubbed "wonder of the world" and soaked in the hot springs for which the town is named. We took the early morning bus to spend the day at the Inca holy site.

Most of the Inca ruins dominate the Sacred Valley by being built on promontories. People could look up to these political and religious centers as their rulers looked down upon and controlled their empire. Because Machu Picchu was hidden from Spanish eyes and untouched until its "discovery" by Yale professor, Hiram Bingham in 1911, it did not suffer the destruction or "conversion" to Catholic uses by the Spanish conquistadors. We explored the breathtaking site, its astronomical stone sundial and compass, and climbed to the top of Waynapicchu, the sentinel peak that overshadows this most famous Incan treasure.

We next visited Lima, Peru before our return to Bolivia. We had a few hours before our flight, so we dined in Miraflores overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We were amazed that the Andes Mountains plummet into the sea on the west coast of South America, with just a thin strip of desert on which to build cities and ports. The Andes Mountains are the vast, defining geographic feature of western South America, and its valleys are home to its indigenous (mostly Quechua & Aymara) populations.

We went to Cochabamba, Bolivia (2558 elevation) located southeast of La Paz in the valley region, at a slightly lower altitude. It spreads over a wide flat plain fringed with hills. It is called the city of "eternal springtime", justified by its temperate climate. Winter is the dry season in Bolivia; they do not see rain until November. Although the night temperatures dipped into the low 40s (F), afternoons warmed into the 60s and 70s. The city has many parks tucked among its bustling streets, graced with palm trees, flowers and fountains.

Lily, our daughter, has been working off and on for the past three years with a non-governmental organization (NGO) called the Democracy Center. They recently finished a book about the political situation during the last 10 years in Bolivia. It is a country whose political control alternated almost yearly between democratically elected leaders and military coups until the 1980s. The current president is Evo Morales, the first indigenous person to hold that office. The next project the Democracy Center is working on involves surveying human rights organizations in South American countries for ways to improve relations between Latin America and the United States. The resulting policy recommendations will be used to inform the 2008 US presidential candidates.

Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in South America, with a wide gap between rich and poor and a small middle class. About 10 years ago, there was a water crisis caused by the attempted privatization of water in Cochabamba, shifting control to an international company, which raised prices steeply for this essential commodity. The policy served to politicize the indigenous population and to encourage strikes and mass demonstrations to voice political opinions publicly. There were mass demonstrations in Bolivia while we were there. Issues include exerting more control over natural resources like natural gas. Morales also wants to empower the indigenous farmers of the countryside by legalizing the coca plant for export for non-harmful usages, including the soothing mate de coca tea we drank everywhere for altitude sickness. Talk of moving the government center from La Paz to Sucre brought out millions of protesters during our visit.

The streets of Cochabamba bustle with stalls, open-air markets and sidewalk vendors selling everything from fresh-squeezed orange juice and international phone calls to pirated DVDs. Although the tourist literature warned of theft dangers, we had no problems and found the shopkeepers to be friendly and flexible enough to satisfy Bill's negotiation skills. Artisan handicrafts and taxis alike had somewhat bendable pricing if we ventured to bargain. We took a double-decker bus tour to get our bearings. The streets are narrow but one-way, dotted with parks and plazas ringed by roundabouts to redirect the colorful buses, taxi trufis (group taxis) and other cars on the roads. The tour previewed the neighborhoods and museums we were to visit in the days ahead.

Cochabamba is known for its scrumptious food in restaurants, open-air markets and street stalls. Breakfasts of fresh bread are followed by mid-morning salteñas (stewed meats & vegetables in pastry). We often had dinner menus at midday, which included soup or starter, entree and dessert for a fixed price. Trout, beef and chicken on the menu were supplemented by rabbit and llama. Rice, potatoes and rolls were served with everything. Familiar fruits in beverages and desserts were joined by the more exotic papaya, maracuya, tumbo and moconchinchi (dried peach drink).

Bolivia, like Peru, was controlled by the Incas, but not until the 1400s. Other pre-Columbian groups left remains of civilized lives and burial rituals. Sadly, many of these artifacts were destroyed by the invading Spanish from the 16th century onward. The Spanish left a legacy of colonial architecture that echoes the red tile roofs, stucco walls and wrought iron balconies of the mother country. This was true in the outlying districts we visited as well. Most Bolivians, however, lived in pueblo-style homes, sometimes centered on courtyards, often encircled by walls. Many homes, especially in the countryside, are made from mud and straw bricks. Roofs might be corrugated iron, straw or tile.

During our travels, we saw typical and extraordinary views of Bolivia. We visited the town of Cliza with its Sunday festival of food and music, including flamenco-style Chacarera dancers. We had dinner at Eden, an amusement park next to a hydroelectric dam, with paddle boats and zipwire. We drove through Punata, the birthplace of many Bolivians who emigrate to northern Virginia. New construction sites are evident there, fueled by the remittances of relatives in the USA.

Lily introduced us to her co-workers and friends, which gave us a personal connection to life in Cochabamba. The tradition of dinner at mid-day was shared with a gracious family with whom Lily lived as an exchange student. We joined an early morning Tai Chi session followed by breakfast with the director of international study programs in Bolivia. We also attended a "Q'owa" ceremony honoring Pacchamama to express our wishes for health and safe travels.

The two weeks in South America were a true immersion experience for us, not so much in Spanish language than in the cultures of historic and current Bolivia and Peru. The Andes Mountains tower in our memories sprinkled with the luminous array of valley homes alight at night, warmed by the sun in daylight. Artistry in textiles, wood and ceramics has endured time and historical adversity, as has the power of nature. The iconic Incas and vibrant voices of current political debate guarantee these countries a place of respect and recognition on the world stage. Our travels tossed out any stereotypes of ethnocentricity to be supplanted by admiration.

August 2, 2007 - Saludos Desde Sucre

2007-08-12T22:42:00.001-07:00

Well, here I am in Sucre. It's been a busy last month, and it's only going to get better. My parents came and left (My mother has been writing up a summary, which I will send along as soon as she's done). After their trip, I got quickly sucked into planning our trip to Sucre for work. What's happening in Sucre? Well, a Constituent Assembly has been meeting here for the last year to rewrite Bolivia's Constitution. The idea is, Bolivia, being majority indigenous, should respect various ways of life and various ways of decision-making, not just the Western-style ways of decision-making. The original Constitution-writers included no representation from Bolivia's indigenous groups, so they're rewriting it to be more inclusive. It's a really incredible process. The representatives (asambleistas) hail from all over the country, and from many of the 36 "pueblos originarios", as the indigenous ethnicities often call themselves. So it's not just old white men in suits, though there's a couple of them in there too. Of course, there is conflict, what with the range of perspectives. But one of the neatest things about what's going on here is something that a representative from the Chiquitano people in the Amazon lowlands told me this morning, "Here you have business owners sitting down next to domestic workers, writing a constitution together," referring to her own life - how she left her community for several years and worked as a maid in Santa Cruz in order to put herself through school. She is now a leader among her people in working to secure and protect their right to practice internal community decision-making.

Words of the day
Asamblea Constituyente - Constituent Assembly, the congress elected to rewrite Bolivia's Constitution
asambleista - representative to the Assembly
Cuidad Blanca - White City, Sucre's nickname - the walls and buildings are painted white to preserve Sucre's colonial history (originally the capital of Bolivia, now only the sede judicial - the Congress and President are in La Paz.) Also the name of our hostel.
sede - headquarters, seat (governmental)
sede judicial (seh-deh who-dih-cee-ahl) - Judicial Seat?
Teatro Gran Mariscal - literally, Great Marshall Theater, where the full congress of the Assembly meets
mariscal - marshall (as a military term)
mariscos - seafood
mordisco - bite, like a bite of a sandwich (I think).
mordida - bite, like a dog bite (I think). apparently also 'bribe'
soborno - bribe
chantajear - to blackmail. Not to be confused with...
charlar - to chat

July 1, 2007 - Feliz Año Nuevo

2007-08-12T22:39:00.000-07:00

Harlem Globetrotters come to Cochabamba, Sausage Festival in Tarata (don't laugh! don't!), Chicharron* Festival in Sacaba, Andean New Year in the countryside, Festival de San Juan - when everyone in the city sets off fireworks and has bonfires in their backyards, Giving English classes to a small group of intermediate-level Bolivian students, Getting ready to take Quechua classes, joining a dance group to dance in the August Virgen de Urkupiña parades, Vanesa's Baby Shower, Planning my parents' trip to Bolivia and Peru.

It's been a busy two weeks! (It's always been a busy two weeks, hasn't it?) As fun as all of the above is, the news that has determined the flow of my everyday life has to do with something else entirely. My house has gone from hosting the original cast of characters that you may remember from previous emails to a nearly all-new set of people to a very empty house!

Original cast of characters: a Canadian couple (Leah and Jeff), two estadounidense non-profit type women (Graciela/Gretchen and Sarah), a head-in-the-clouds Swiss guy (Alex), the Bolivian owner Chichi, her son Jose Miguel, and me.

Before I left for the States, the Canadian couple left for more adventures and a long trek home to Toronto. When I got back, their room had been turned into an office for Chichi's son Jose Miguel (who some of you will remember, defended his thesis successfully to graduate from law school with flying colors not so long ago).

Also when I got back, Amanda, another former SIT (School for International Training) study abroad student, was staying in the dining room-turned-bedroom, across the hall from me. My friend Josh had gotten to Cochabamba the day before and was staying in the garden room in the back. When Graciela left a day or so after I got back, suddenly, Sarah, Alex, and myself were the longest-standing residents in the house. A few days after Graciela left, Chichi's other son and daughter-in-law arrived from Switzerland for a visit, and we were up at full capacity once again!

New cast of characters: Amanda (fabulous former SIT student), Josh (my friend from DC who has turned half Argentinean after spending some time there =) ), Sarah (from Houston area, has been living in DC, going to school in Atlanta in the fall), Alex (Swiss guy, no relation to Fernando or Priska), Chichi (owner), Jose Miguel (lawyer son), Fernando (dentist son who lives in Switzerland), Priska (the Swiss daughter in law, a former room-renter), and me.

Here comes the denouemont (get ready):
Josh and Amanda leave for the Andean New Year in Tiwanaku (Bolivia's Stonehenge) and to continue on in their travels to Peru. Chichi, Fernando, and Priska go to Santa Cruz to visit relatives who live there (they left last weekend) and will continue on together to Switzerland, where Chichi will spend three months (hopefully relaxing!). Churka (or Maria Evangelina), a woman who worked as a maid for Chichi's family for many years in the past, moved in to take care of the house in Chichi's absence. Jose Miguel left last Wednesday to join the family in Santa Cruz and will be back this Sunday (later today). Alex left for Switzerland on Thursday after five-six months in Bolivia. Sarah left for Santa Cruz en route to the US on Friday after four-five months in Bolivia. Maria Evangelina (Churka) left on Friday to spend the weekend with her family and will be back today. And then there was one - me!

Spanish words of the day

Actualmente - Currently, nowadays
Realmente - A not very commonly used way of saying 'actually' but a common gringo mistake. More a way of emphasizing the veracity of something, as in "estaba realmente mal" - "He was really doing badly"
En realidad - the commonly used expression for 'actually'. As in, 'En realidad, no fue asi' - 'Actually, it wasn't like that'

Salchicha - Hot dog, commonly eaten at the big bonfires of San Juan. Sarah and I cooked ours on the stove =)
Chorizo - Sausage, as in sausage festival (Festival de chorizo)
*Chicharron - Pork cooked in gigantic woks with secret ingredients. (I can't tell you, it's a secret!) Not to be confused with...
Chicha - a common Cochabambino alcoholic drink made with fermented corn. Best chicha is found in the campo (see below). This is Bolivia's take on good country moonshine. Definitely not as strong as straight liquor, but stronger than beer.

El campo - the country, countryside, as in "Voy a ir al campo para ver el amanecer del año nuevo andino" - "I'm going to go to the countryside to watch the sun come up for the Andean New Year" (also known as the winter solstice over here in the South).

Cueca - traditional Bolivian musical genre and dance, most easily recognized by the clever song lyrics and handkerchief-waving dance
Cueca chapaca - Cueca from the gaucho (cowboy-like) southeastern part of Bolivia, also, the dance I am going to perform in August and learn starting Monday!

Bei-bi chau-er - baby shower, like the one we'll have for my friend Vanesa at my house later today! A North American import (the tradition of having a baby shower and the word for it, not Vanesa's baby!).

June 16 - En la llajta de nuevo

2007-06-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Among the whirlwind of activities since I got back, this is the first time I've had a chance to take a deep breath, sit in front of my computer, and compose an email. But I did get here safely, as did all of my belongings. It began on Friday, when my flight was supposed to leave at 7:15PM. It was delayed five times. I got to the airport at 4:30PM to find that my flight had been delayed one hour to 8:15PM. Then it took three hours to get through check-in - and I'm not even talking about going through security - I'm talking about getting my ticket and checking my bags. It was ridiculous. There was one person checking people in for international flights and between three and five checking people in for domestic flights - and the passengers for domestic flights could do self-check-in! American Airlines was not winning any points, especially when as I was leaving the line (finally), ticket in hand, seeing the AA manager walk out with a colleague, talking and laughing without so much a glance at the 3-hr line behind him that I had just waited in, going home early on a Friday leaving a sole staff member that was already working overtime and had to be at work the next morning at 4:30AM. I was furious.

By that time, I knew that my flight was going to be delayed until 8:35PM. Then when I got to the gate, it had been delayed again to 8:55PM. We waited and waited but the plane that was supposed to take us to Miami got in late, and we started boarding after 9:00. By this time, I was starting to get worried about catching my 11:20PM flight from Miami to La Paz. The guy at the desk said they were going to hold the flight to Bolivia for us, though, so I relaxed. Then we got on the plane, it started taxiing to the runway for takeoff, and all of a sudden, there was a violent thunderstorm right over DC and we couldn't leave until it passed. An hour and a half we sat in the plane on the tarmac, waiting to be cleared for takeoff. Finally, between 10:30 and 11, the storm passed and we left for Miami. The flight was beautiful, we took off to the north and then circled around DC and Maryland to turn back around to go south. So I got to see the whole city from the air at night. Then, as we flew down towards Miami, we passed the storm's center (right out my window). It was amazing to see the lightning fill up the whole sky - and I had never seen a storm from a plane before. It made me think that my atmosphere and weather class was taught all wrong. We definitely should have taken a field trip to fly around a storm!

I got to Miami to find out that because of the extra hour and a half wait, those of us flying to Bolivia had been transferred to the next day's flight.

From there, the experience got better. I contacted a friend of mine who was speaking at a conference in Miami and he offered to let me crash in the hotel room he was staying in, and the hotel turned out to be right on the beach! So the following morning I spent a half an hour on the beach in Miami (see pic!). Then I found out my ticket had been upgraded to first class, so I had about the most luxurious plane ride ever (Dinner came complete with a fancy menu, a warm washcloth, a glass of wine, and warmed mixed nuts). I arrived in La Paz in the evening and was able to crash at my friend Holly's old place, due to the wonderful hospitality of her roommates. I finally got to Cochabamba on Sunday morning, and my luggage, which hadn't made it onto the plane to La Paz, came Sunday afternoon to Cochabamba and it was not a problem at all to pick it up.

That was story of how it took me three days instead of 12 hours to get to Bolivia. Since I've been back, it's been great to see everyone. Unfortunately because of the travel debacle, I only got to spend a day and a half with Graciela, my fabulous (now former) housemate who left on Monday evening to go back to the States. Cochabamba is a little chillier now that it's winter, still warm during the day, but much cooler at nights. Right after Graciela left, Chichi's son and his Swiss wife came to visit, so it's been neat to meet them. Also, my friend Josh has been in town, which is great. The office is pretty chill, most people aren't back from traveling until next week, so I've been able to take care of some work things con calma.

That's the update! I'll send some more next week.

Abrazos,
Lily

PS One of the most fun things about being home last month was that we went out dancing a lot! So in honor of that, here's some dancing words of the day:
Bailar - To dance
Quiero aprender a bailar - I want to learn to dance
Te conoci bailando - "I met you dancing" also lyrics to a popular reggaeton song
Mira como baila! - Look at (him/her) dance!
Bailemos! - Let's dance!
Noche de salsa en Pancho's - Salsa Night at Pancho's (a locale in Cbba - where they play three salsa songs and the rest cumbia =( )
Vuelta - Turn/spin
Dar una vuelta - Do a turn
A la derecha - To the right
A la izquierda - To the left
La mano - hand
Cintura - Waist
Cinturon - Belt
Cadera - Hips
Pie - foot
Pie equivocado! - Wrong foot!
Menealo! - Shake it!
Muevelo! - Move it!

Dance steps of the day
uno dos tres - cinco seis siete - the counts for salsa (though I think it's easier to think of it as 'one-to-gether, two-to-gether')
uno-dos-uno-dos - the counts for merengue
uno-dos-tres-up! - the counts for bachata (it's like the electric slide!)

El fin de una historia

2007-04-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

I've been on vacation since Tuesday and it's starting to show. My room is cleaner than it's been for months, I've been sleeping 10 hours every night, and I'm now sending you all two emails in one week...

This is the end of a story I started a couple of months ago with my email about the Carnaval water wars. But I never actually wrote about Cochabamba's Carnaval parade, called "El corso de los corsos" around here (or El Corso for short). The Saturday before Lent begins is Oruro's Carnaval parade, the most famous of all Bolivian Carnaval celebrations (which I went to last time I was here in 2005), and Cochabamba's turn to celebrate comes one week later (We wouldn't want to take away from the Cochabamba party by having it the same day as the Oruro party, after all).

Now, as you may have guess from the water balloon email, the lead-up to Carnaval is quite busy. The streets are full of water balloon throwers and groups practicing their dance steps along the parade route. Two Thursdays before Carnaval is Compadres, the night when men go out and celebrate together, and one Thursday before is Comadres, when the women go out and celebrate (see attached picture). So all told, it's nearly a month of celebration.

This year, the Democracy Center had a party to watch El Corso. We have a beautiful third-story balcony at the office that looks right out onto one of Cochabamba's main streets, Calle San Martin - which happens to be both the street that marching protesters use and the street that parade routes take. Needless to say, we were perfectly set up to host a Corso celebration, and we decided to take advantage of that.

Leny (one of my co-workers, a spectacular Bolivian woman, very multi-talented - she's got her fingers in everything) and I got there early on that Saturday morning, around 10AM. Several groups of our guests were already arriving, and we set to work decorating the office. The parade started shortly after 10. The first group to come through was the military (CITE). Now, I had been to Carnaval in Oruro two years before, but it was nothing like seeing the military groups in a parade. I had been imagining crisp uniforms and one group after another marching in step, but no - not even close. Apparently, El Corso is where the military tries to shed their stern image and really lets loose. There was group after group of young men - in ant costumes (army ants), with giant paper-mache heads, in drag and armed with rifles, and dressed up as monkeys, cavemen, limes (making fun of a new coke/pepsi product), cows, condoms, Roman soldiers, guerrillas, mummies, aliens, puppets of the US (particularly interesting political commentary), vampires, Storm Troopers (yes, I'm talking Star Wars), and the best was - mimicking a popular comedy show about a man whose wife is dominating and practically abusive - a whole troop wearing aprons and handkerchiefs and carrying rags, brooms, and mops, headed by a giant float of a woman sitting on a man's back while he struggled to hold up an ashtray for her cigarette. Utterly fabulous. There were also several (troops? squadrons?) of women - one group parodying Bolivia's top model group, the "Magnificas," dressed in giant plastic trash bags, with the following banner: "Chicas Magnificas del CITE: Ni Magnificas Ni Chicas Premier, Patriotas de Corazon" - roughly translated - "Magnificent Women of CITE (the army): Neither Magnificas nor Premier Models, but Patriots at Heart." Many of the other groups of women had really well-designed costumes - crabs with giant claws, cats with capes, etc.

Needless to say, the army was one of my favorite parts, and watching them pass took pretty much all morning (Dre and Austin, you would have loved it). The traditional folklore groups started about mid-day. Tinkus, caporales, diabladas, morenadas, saya, cueca chapaca, chacarera, and the various smaller indigenous dances and groups were very very impressive as well. We had a lot of fun at the office, cheering on our favorites and even getting dressed up ourselves. Jim got out an old Halloween costume, a nun outfit, and a few friends showed up with Evo (Morales) and (Hugo) Chavez masks. I got my picture with them (see attached).

We also used the opportunity to ch'allar (bless) the office by making an offering to Pachamama, Mother Earth, so that our whole next year would go well, which will be the topic of my next post...

Un dia emocionante

2007-04-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

For a Tuesday, yesterday was a pretty exciting.

First, it was Andres' best friend's birthday. She is a mother of a little girl and is pregnant with her second baby, and is a pretty awesome person in general. The first excitement! Feliz cumpleaños to Andrea!

Secondly. Some of you may remember from previous emails that I live in a beautiful old house owned by a lovely woman named Chichi. Those of you with even better memories may remember that she has a 23-year-old son named Jose Miguel. He studied law in college (if you want to be a doctor or lawyer here, you start immediately after high school), finished writing his thesis right after I got here, and yesterday successfully defended his thesis - getting *very* high marks (95 out of 100 - this in a country where grade inflation is definitely NOT the norm). Chichi was very proud, with good reason. The second excitement! Congratulations to Jose Miguel!

Third. Now you should all know at least something about the following, but I'm going to retell it anyway. When I was here in Bolivia the last time (Jan-May 2005), I volunteered/interned for the Democracy Center (yes, the same place I work now) when it had just two staff people - and me. The two staff people were Jim (Shultz), the founder of the organization (which is now 15 years old), and Marcela Olivera, a well-respected researcher, writer, and activist that has worked extensively with Bolivian social movements. When I started working with them, Jim had just finished writing a report on the (unintended) deadly effects of an IMF-imposed budget deficit reduction. I copy-edited the report, finalized the endnotes, and worked with the publisher to make sure the formatting came out right. (I also condensed the report for an article for the Multinational Monitor and got a byline out of it: http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2005/052005/schultz.html.) That and a couple of other projects took me through to the end of my month of working with Jim and Marcela. As y'all know, in May 2005 I was drawn back to the U.S. by Progressive Maryland to direct their canvass office. Before I left, though, Jim asked me to come back to work for the Democracy Center as soon as I could.

Two years later in January 2007, I boarded a plane for Bolivia. Carefully packed away in my luggage were seven tapes, a miniature tape recorder, and a computer that I would spend hundreds of hours with in the next four months. The report on the IMF had actually been the first step in the process of writing the Democracy Center's latest book - Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia's Challenge to Globalization. After we published the IMF report in 2005, it had been slightly rewritten and would be the sixth chapter of that book. I got off the plane in Cochabamba ready to get started on my own chapter on Bolivian emigration. The tapes I carried held six interviews with Bolivian emigrants who live in Arlington, Virginia. Two other Democracy Center folks also did interviews in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Barcelona, Spain.

When I arrived in Bolivia, I joined the other book authors - Jim, who was writing a new chapter on Cochabamba's now-famous Water Revolt; Gretchen and Aaron, who had taken on the formidable task of explaining Bolivia's complex oil and gas policies (it's been said that there are only 2 or 3 people in all of Bolivia who really understand them); Christina, who had conveyed the incredibly stark beauty of Bolivia's altiplano (high plains) in her chapter on an oil spill by Enron & Shell in the most important river of the Bolivian highlands; Nick, who was combining his previous experience of working for Jubilee, the international debt relief advocacy group, with up-to-date research on Bolivia's debt history; and Melissa, the second-in-charge in the office, who compiled and edited the seven-author chapter on the Bolivian coca leaf on top of writing a chapter on womens' experiences with globalization.

Most of the other authors had been working on their chapters for nearly a year at that point, and I rushed to catch up. We all pushed hard over the next four months - many late nights and long editing sessions. We put off all other projects - including a proposal to do an international advocacy training, a website update, and campaign strategy advising. We ignored our friends and families (that's you guys) and promised to make it up to them after the book was done (I'll tell you how in a sec). Yesterday at 6:34PM, after several push-backs to our self-imposed deadline (but well before the publishers' deadline of May 1), we finally hit the button (send, not auto-destruct). Our final product is now in the publishers' hands, and the Liberacion del Centro para la Democracia (until the next big project push) is complete. THAT'S THE THIRD EXCITING THING! (PS for those who are part of the cultura chupistica, yes, we did go out last night and did a toast for every piece of the book we sent - beginning with the title page and ending with the bios of the editors, authors, and contributors.)

Now, the answer to the question hanging in y'all's mind since midway through the last paragraph. How am I going to make it up to you!? It has been nearly a month and a half since I wrote anything, after all. So I decided to come back and visit y'all. That's right, May 10 I leave Cochabamba and arrive in Washington, DC the next morning. I will be staying nearly a month in the States, so make plans to see me! Right now! We're gonna go on a camping trip, I'll probably get folks together to see pictures, I'm going to Jeanie's wedding in Charlottesville, and I will be taking LOTS of walks through the woods to enjoy spring in Virginia. Ain't nothing better in this whole wide world. But my time is already starting to fill up, so if you want to do anything specific with me, email me RIGHT NOW and let's make plans.

PS If you're not in the loop round those parts, Maryland finally did it!! They passed the nation's first statewide living wage bill!!! THAT'S RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Feb 21, 2007 - Water Balloon Wars

2007-02-21T09:03:00.000-08:00

One of the most unique wonderful things about Cochabamba and Carnaval in February (and there are many) is that the whole city decides, at the same time every year, to have a giant water fight. That's right, all you mischievous kids-at-heart (you know who you are), a giant water fight. At the time of year when the sun beats down the hardest, and when all Bolivia is preparing for the huge parties of Carnaval (Marti Gras), old women pump water guns, little kids throw water balloons out of third story windows, and young men and women go out on the backs of trucks or motorcycles for drive-by-water-balloonings or line up on opposite sides of one of the major thoroughfares to hurl the balloons across the street at each other for hours.

I've been walking around with water balloons stuffed in my purse, ready to strike upon finding the perfect victim or, more often, upon being attacked myself. I've ducked behind candy stands, hid behind old ladies (well, sort of - it's a long story!), and used other water-ballooners as shields. I've learned the techniques for making the ballooons (small so that they're easier to throw and don't use up as much water), tying them (tie them tight so that they burst on contact with your target instead of just bouncing off), for maximizing impact (if you have a group you want to get, throw a balloon at the tree above their heads, it will break there and soak them all), and for throwing them out of the window of a moving vehicle (don't forget to take into account the motion of the car in your aim). In short, I've been enjoying myself thoroughly.

Now, as with everything else in this fine world of ours, there are some negative aspects to what would seem to be a purely fun, temporary break in the norms of society. For example, I haven't been able to wear a white shirt for about three weeks. If it's after 10AM or before 7:30PM, I don't dare carry my laptop or digital camera around town with me for fear of the water-fight equivalent of a land mine: the bucket from the balcony. And some days you don't want to walk around with a wet spot on your butt or you just don't feel like dodging the balloons.

But mostly, it's just about enjoying it or, for those that are less fond of the Bolivian tradition, finding your peace or understanding it. This is not only the warmest time of year; it's also the rainy season, which means that it can be 90 degrees outside at 1PM and then rain four hours later without any kind of internal inconsistency. Cochabamba is situated in the middle of a valley (it's like a gigantic bowl or stadium), and the clouds can come over the hills/mountains (Cochabambinos call them hills, I call them mountains) to transform the skies at surprising speeds. It's part of the sponteneity of this season that I think helps inspire the water wars. You never know whether you will come home wet or dry when you go out anyway; San Pedro is playing with water, why can't we?

Now, for the well-informed Cochabamba aficionados out there, many of you will say, "Hey, isn't this the city that had protests over the privatization of their water system just a few years ago? Isn't this the city where people still only get water to their houses three or four days a week?" The answer is yes, and Cochabambino water balloons are notoriously small for that reason. But this is also the city where people know how to celebrate, how to give thanks, when there is an abundance. And in the one time of the year when there is water aplenty, Cochabamba knows how to celebrate that abundance.

Words of the day:
Jugar con agua - Play with water
Globear - To go out with water balloons (often bringing up to 100 and a group of friends with the intent of using them all within an hour or two)
Lanzar/tirar globos - to throw water balloons
Lanzar - to throw, to hurl, to fling, to fire (a weapon), to drop (a bomb), to launch (a rocket, a product), to release (an album)
Lanzarse (a hacer algo) - to get started doing something
Chisguetes - Water guns! (Sounds like Cheese-get-tehs)
Impending doom - Perdicion inminente (Not the best translation; sadly, it seems there's no direct translation for 'doom') - the feeling you get when you turn the corner onto a deserted street and 15 yards away is a group of four Bolivians with plastic shopping bags bulging with different colored water balloons
Auuuuuuu!!!! - The noise you make when a water balloon bursts unexpectedly on your back

Coming soon: Carnaval, Ch'alla

Jan 27, 2007 - Bolivian Event in DC

2007-01-26T12:18:00.000-08:00

Bolivian Event in DC this weekend at Cecilia's Restaurant, a well-known Bolivian boliche in Arlington!! It may be in Spanish, but will prove to be interesting, esp if you want to improve your español and see what Bolivians in the US have to say about what's going on down here. I'd be interested to hear what gets said... let me know if you go!

Saturday, January 27, 2007. 2-5PM
Cecilia's Restaurant, 2619 Columbia Pike, Arlington, VA 22204 (703.250.1082)
Organizado por La Camara de Comercio Boliviana Americana de Washington, DC
Jacha Uru - Organizacion Indigena
Video & Panel de Presentadores

Jan 25, 2007 - El salario mínimo

2007-01-26T12:16:00.000-08:00

For those that are politically inclined in the socioeconomics arena that may not have heard, the Senate Republicans filibustered the clean minimum wage bill. They have put forward proposals to exempt immigrant farmworkers from the bill and put in place more business subsidies. #1 If you want to create incentives for American employers to use immigrant labor, to create the demand that is fueling the emigration of millions of people from their homes to the United States, that's a really good way to do it. #2 Business subsidies on a minimum wage increase bill?? Really??? Do I really have to pay for more business subsidies with my tax dollars if I want to see a decently fair minimum wage in this country??? Y'all have found a way to make CEO salaries skyrocket, can't we find a way to pay people the same thing (adjusted for inflation) that we used to? (If minimum wage had kept pace with what it was in the 60's, it would be at ~$9 today.) I was, to say the least, upset.

My letter to Senator Warner (1/22/07) - who ended up being one of the five Republicans who voted against the filibuster:

Dear Senator Warner,
It is absolutely essential that no wrongful amendments get attached to the minimum wage bill.

Senator Warner, this is Virginia. You saw Senator Jim Webb win on working families strategy. Don't stand in the way of real progress on one of the most important economic issues of our times. There is a very real growing wage gap in this country, and Senators from Virginia need to be very clear on where they stand on this issue.

The Republican estate tax amendment to the minimum wage bill was one of the most despicable actions I have seen the Republican Congress take. And I'm sure you read the Washington Post article this morning, "Confidence in Bush Leadership at All-Time Low," which included the following:

"Nearly nine in 10 Americans in this poll support raising the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour (half of supporters would like it higher still), eight in 10 think Medicare should be able to negotiate prescription prices with drug companies, and a majority (55 percent) supports a loosening of restrictions of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research."

Now is not the time to block a minimum wage increase. Support for it is at an all-time high. If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation, it would be over $9/hour today. If it had kept pace with productivity, it would be well over $12/hour. No one can live on $5.15/hour, just over $10,000 per year. The citizens of Virginia, who pay your salary, don't expect you to live on that. Please don't expect any of us to.

States that have put in force strong minimum wage legislation like Washington and California have seen none of the devastating economic effects certain conservative economists swear by, and, in fact, have seen much economic growth (http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20070122/cm_huffpost/039255).

I strongly urge and expect you not only to vote for the minimum wage increase and the rest of the 100-hours package, but also to lobby your colleagues in favor of these absolutely crucial bills. None is a hot-button issue. They are absolutely essential to the progress of our country and the quality of life we hold dear.

I anxiously await your vote and your reply.

Jan 25, 2007 - La vida diaria

2007-01-26T12:13:00.000-08:00

It's that time again. Another Thursday in Cochabamba.

A few questions to be answered from my last email re: the book thanks to Craig
Name: Dignity and Defiance is the name everyone finally settled on.
Published by: Published in the US by University of California Press, Rutgers University Press, or Kumarian Press
Language: in English.
When will it come out: To be finished this "spring" (North American) and to come out soon after that.

Daily things about my life here that are totally different
1. Little tienda right across the street from my house. Need cooking oil? No problem. Out of tissues, toilet paper? Run across the street. Super convenient. All the basics, close to home.
2. No cell phone (I've caught some flak about that from friends here who wonder where I am, but I'm usually at home, at the office, or at tai chi)
3. No car (totally unneccessary - there's public transportation EVERYWHERE)
Micro, truffi, or taxi truffi (fixed route transportes - micros are minibuses, truffis are white vans with sliding doors turned buses (I've heard they're similar to transportes in Asia), and taxi truffis are taxis on fixed routes: 1.50Bs.
Average taxi ride: 5 Bs.
4. There's a damn good bakery (pasteleria) right next to the office, so all afternoon we smell the breads and pastries baking and a certain individual may be totally addicted to a certain pastry or two
5. Throwing toilet paper in the trash - their sewage system (alcantarrillado) can't handle it. It always makes me think about how much TP has to be taken out of the system at sewage plants in the US. That's a lot of toilet paper!
6. All my friends' friends are married with kids. Some having their second. Scary.
7. Sticking out like a sore thumb - getting whistled at all the time - this bothered me a lot at first, but now I'm mostly over it. It's not going to change anything I do, so at this point, I just have to put up with it.
8. Phone calls - From my house, I call to local landline phones. For cell phones - you can go anywhere in Cochabamba and there are women (occasionally men) at puestos on the corners selling snacks, gum, cigarrettes, water & soda, and phonelines out - with different prices for landlines and cell phones, all terribly convenient and none very expensive (Also at the tienda across the street). From my computer I call to the US! (If you have skype, I'm lswhitesell)
9. Here, I have the option of going to a grocery store (which I'm going to have to break down and do if I want to buy tahini for my hummus addiction) or shopping at one of the many marketplaces, where you can walk down the aisles and compare one vendor (casera)'s produce to another, they're all right next to each other. If the woman you usually buy from is out, her friend sitting right next to her, ready to sell.
10. Politics is like the weather - it affects whether you go out, whether you travel from one city to another, etc. I think Bolivia (at least partially) has the blockading tactic to thank for a fairly well-informed population. Now if we could just get some dialogue going...
11. Speaking of the weather, how about that sun? Oh man is it strong - higher altitudes make for redder sunburns. I've been good though, sunburn free since I bought sunblock on Day 2.
12. Tai Chi - 6:15AM every morning - really does an incredible job at keeping me sane and non-stressed. Wonderful people, mindful exercise that pushes you to your limit, good times. If I could only manage to go to bed by 10pm every night, I would go every day...
13. Everything is really inexpensive. A sampling of recent purchases: My rent in the center of the city in a beautiful house - $100. Delicious pastry next door: 1 Bs/13 cents. A liter and a quarter of strawberry yogurt: 9Bs/$1.13 Shampoo that I would buy in the States for much more (probably one of my most expensive recent purchases): 22Bs/$2.75.
14. The constant fear of the runs. So far, I've been lucky, but I fear that my super-salad this afternoon may have done me in. More bread and crackers, please!
15. Jazz every Thursday! My housemate and co-worker Gretchen/Graciela is a fabulous sax player. She invited me out to see her play last Thursday, and her jazz group is a lot of fun and really good. Last week there were four guitarists (one bass, one really good older electric player, one younger show-offy type electric player, and one visiting acoustic electric), one baterista (percussionist), one trumpet, and Graciela on the sax. Really really good stuff, and totally informal feeling.
16. La comida cochabambina - the eating schedule is brutal! I don't eat this many times a day, but if the Bolivian women could, they'd make me!:
Desayuno - breakfast
Midmorning snack - 10AM - salteñas
Lunch - the meal of the day - Soup, Main Dish, Dessert (Yes, everything shuts down between 1 and 3)
Tea - every afternoon somewhere between 3 and 5ish
Dinner - between 5 and 7ish
Snack - en la calle - anticuchos or sandwich
I think my next email will have to be about Bolivian food so I can explain saltenas and anticuchos.
17!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pre-carnaval parades!!! About half an hour ago, I started to hear bands and thought - oh, a few groups of pre-carnaval bands got together to play in the plaza, that's pretty cool. The music started getting louder and louder and was accompanied by whistle-blowing (played in time with the music by various leaders of each mini-group), until I *had* to come out of hiding in the back of the office and go onto the balcony to see what was happening. Sure enough, one of the dance groups (which means a few groups of 10-20 littler kids who go out in front, to warm up the audience, a couple of lines of older guys - 40s or 50s - here and there, and six or so larger blocks of fifty young women and young men, respectively) had gotten together for a little pre-carnaval rehearsal, coming up Calle San Martin, all in matching t-shirts and jeans, accompanied by two bands, and followed by blocks full of cars upset at the holdup and momentary traffic jam! But for all of us who crowded out on balconies and sidewalks to see the preview of coming attractions, it was a moment of alegria - joy to see the dancing begin. I have a feeling the food email will have to wait --- Carnaval is coming!!!

More Daily Life Differences (Added February 21):
18. Texting for free (if you have an internet connection, you can send free text messages)
19. Non air-conditioned spaces (which also means that I am an ice-water addict, but I see nothing wrong with this)
20. Laundry - Up until today, I've been washing my own clothes by hand. More about this later.

Spanish words of the day
bocado - mouthful, bite
mordisco, mordedura - bite (dog, person)
picadura - mosquito bite
morder, picar - bite
mañoso/a - picky (eater) (used mostly in Sta Cruz) - for those that remember the maña work grouping

Jan 18, 2007 - Una semana después

2007-01-26T12:10:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a week since I last wrote, and the situation here is a lot different.

As usual, political analysis can be found at the Democracy Center's blog. On the streets, there were a few protests early this week from the campesino side, mostly in the Plaza Principal calling for Manfred's resignation. However, if you're more than 2 blocks away from the central plaza, you don't really see anything. I was walking past the correo (Post Office) the other day to buy some postcards, and passed some of the protesters chatting amongst themselves, eating lunch. A much more domestic scene than the ones I recounted in my last email.

For those that have not yet gotten a good description of what I'm doing:

As a lot of you know, up until the end of November I was working for a very awesome advocacy group called Progressive Maryland doing community outreach and campaign work, and I'm in Bolivia working with a great group called The Democracy Center doing a combination of research, writing, advocacy, and international solidarity work. My official job title is Campaigns Coordinator. First, though, I'm going to be writing a chapter on Bolivian emigration for a book that the Democracy Center's putting out. I'm excited to be published

So right now, that means going through the interviews, identifying main themes, highlighting parts that I am most likely to use, etc. This weekend and next week I'm going to read through studies, get some facts and figures, etc. And then I'm going to do the bulk of my writing, analysis, etc.

Send me letters or postcards! (A lot of you have asked for my address)
Lily Whitesell
Chuquisaca 501
Cochabamba, Bolivia
Telefono: 425-7003

Since there aren't mailboxes here, the phone number is just in case no one is home.

Give me your address if you want a postcard!

Jan 14, 2007 - La situación política

2007-01-26T12:07:00.000-08:00

I started writing this Friday morning, and didn't finish until Saturday morning, and here I am, sending it on Sunday. The political situation in Cochabamba, constantly changing, but for the last couple of days, calm, recovering.

Friday, 01.12.07
It's been raining in Cochabamba this morning. Ayer ha sido muy grave.

Usually when there are blockades or protests, I tell people, "Look, there are blockades or protests every other day. It's not a big deal. There are ways of dealing with these kinds of things. People still go to work and come home safely. If it's a big one, you walk (or bike) to wherever you're going (because all the transportes are also on strike) and stay out of the center of the city, or you stay at home.

The worst it's ever been in Bolivia when I was here was October 2003, when ex-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (Goni) sent out tanks and sharpshooters against people protesting a gas deal to export Bolivia's natural gas through Chile to the United States. The terms of the deal were very beneficial for Chile and the US, not as great for Bolivia. In the light of the most recent contract re-negotiations, Goni was basically trying to give away Bolivia's natural gas. To paraphrase Jim (Schultz), the revenue from the recent deals has fixed Bolivia's decifit problems in ways that the IMF and Goni never even dreamed of.

But I digress. In October 2003, over 50 men, women, and children were killed. Most of the killing, though, was in La Paz-El Alto and the blockading altiplano areas on the road between La Paz and Cochabamba. I was safely tucked away at my calm and peaceful host family's house far away from the center of town.

Well, yesterday was pretty bad, and while I was never in danger, I got to see a lot more than I had seen before.

*Political Background*

Excerpts from Conversation with Jen. Tuesday, Jan 9.
usuario: Cochabamba is where it's at. Especially right now, if you're talking about blockades
Jennifer: That makes sense. What's with the blockades?
usuario: Manfred Reyes Villa (governor of the department of cbba) tried to put forth a referendum for autonomy for Cochabamba. Autonomy is widely seen as a Santa Cruz issue, and while Cochabamba has swung a little to the right over the 2/3 voting issue in the Consituent Assembly (for the constitution), it certainly is nowhere near that far to the right.
Jennifer: interesting
usuario: Evo (still) has a lot of support. Today there were ~15-20,000 people marching in cocha, just flooding the streets. A lot of them had bandanas and vinegar (apparently the best way to protect yourself from tear gas). They held a vigil in the plaza principal.
Jennifer: wow
usuario:a pretty intense first two days, I'll say
Jennifer: no joke. so what's this about the constitution thing? are they currently writing their constitution?
usuario: correct. re-writing
Jennifer: gotcha. why re?
usuario: in Bolivia, there has of course been discrimination against indigenas & campesinos, not just on an individual racism basis but also in the legal system. the idea is to rewrite the constitution to "right the wrongs" so to speak. and to allow for ways of representation that also fit with traditional community structures.
Jennifer: dude! how come no one talks about this stuff? this is history in the making
usuario: right!? now of course to those that have been in power, that seems like an upset of the "natural way of doing things"
Jennifer: duh! it's kind of a big deal. i can't believe you're in the middle of all that. how exciting
usuario: it definitely is. and Jim (the guy I'm working for) is the guy calling the AP press guy based in La Paz and feeding him information, which is really cool.

More analysis:
http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/

*The Events of Thursday, January 11th*
I had been exhausted on Wednesday - tired from waking up at 6AM for Tai Chi, probably mentally exhausted from getting used to being here, and certainly physically strained: sore hamstrings from the Tai Chi workout, recuperating from a slight sunburn (I have since stocked up on sunblock) and a North American cold trying desperately to adapt to a Bolivian climate. After taking a four hour nap and then being equally tired at the end of the day, I let myself sleep in on Thursday and not go to Tai Chi.

I ended up waking up around 8AM, did some stretching, took a shower, ate breakfast, grabbed my laptop and bag and went down to the Democracy Center office, walking a couple blocks down the Prado, through the Plaza Colon, and down a few blocks to the office.

While in the office, we saw the various groups of campesinos marching along our street (it's a pretty major street). Most of these groups are sindicato-based, with each group of obreros (workers) having their own sign, parade-style. Over the course of the day, I would hear them called "el pueblo," "movimientos sociales," "cocaleros," "los anti-Manfred," and "campesinos." The most accurate is probably the "anti-Manfred" folks, but for simplicity's sake, I'm going to use "campesinos." The campesinos are fairly well-organized. As march and manifestation veterans, they walk in rows and columns that a marching band could be proud of. (There were also smaller groups of less-organized, more trouble-making protesters among them, mostly younger men. These are likely the people that had started the burning of the prefectura the other day, and apparently often get chewed out by the more mature, organized obreros.) The anti-Manfred chanting was a lot more charged than in previous days. Some of the other Democracy Center folks commented, "They know that there's going to be some kind of confrontation today."

I stayed in the office until about 2PM, then walked home. The group of chicos that was with the campesinos was in the Prado, so I took a side street up to the house just to be safe, since the other day I had been accused of being an "Espia de Bush!" (though I passed Gretchen on the way, who said the worst that she suffered while passing by was getting whistled at a few times). Got to the house without problems, saying hello to Chichi on my way in. You could tell she was already upset, her nerves on edge, but we sat down for some tea and she and I began chatting about this and that, which made her visibly calmer.

She explained to me that her son, Jose Miguel had gone out to march with the people that had gathered at the Recoleta, a plaza on the northern side of the city, against her wishes. She was worried sick that he hadn't called yet, which he had promised to do. Later on, these people would call themselves the "Juventud Democratica" and I would hear others call them "the white shirts," "the Manfredistas," or "the ricos." I'll call them the "Juventud," although there were plenty of jovenes with the anti-Manfredistas, and there were definitely a good number of older people with the juventud. Chichi was very quick to say that that same son had voted for Evo a year ago, which I thought was particularly interesting.

At about 3:30 or so, we started to hear more chanting and fireworks, and Chichi began to get nervous again. Trying desperately to calm herself down, she got out old photo albums and started to show me old pictures of her sisters and her parents, from her wedding and from when her sons were little. The latter, of course, didn't help at all with her worrying about Jose Miguel, so I offered to show her my pictures.

As we talked, we were hearing more and more noise coming from the direction of the bridge on the northern side of the Prado, and later we heard that at about 4:15, the juventud group armed with palos (long wooden sticks about as big around as my wrist) that had been amassing in the North had broken through the police lines and had started running across the bridge towards the Prado, where a group of campesinos was stationed with thier own palos. According to Jose Miguel, when the juventud advanced, the campesinos started setting off tons of fireworks, scaring some of the juventud back, but when it was clear that they were in no way turning back, the police launched tear gases on both groups, producing even more confusion.

When Jose Miguel and his cousin got to the Prado, they, with a group of about 20 other people, split off to the side streets to "run out" the campesinos from the first and second blocks parallel to the Prado. They were successful in a few cases, and then when they got to the corner of Chuquisaca (perpendicular to the Prado) and Valdivieso (parallel), they saw a larger group of campesinos coming up Valdivieso towards them. Of the 20, only two were left and they figured now would be a good time to run down the street to their uncle's house, which they promptly did.

They got in the door at around 5:00 and Jose Miguel called Chichi, who by this time was pacing from her little altar in the corner of the kitchen to the windows to see what was happening, shaking uncontrollably and unable to calm herself, calling out "Why hasn't he called yet!??" and "Madre mia, Dios mio, protegenos!! Protect us!!" and calling everyone she knew to try to locate her missing son, hoping he had gone to a relative's house. I was doing my best to keep her as calm as possible, assuring her that it would be very hard for him to call, but that I was sure he was all right, that he would be okay. In addition to everything, Chichi had just lost her father, and had gotten back from the funeral in Santa Cruz only days before I arrived. So when he called and she heard that he was right next door, she was understandably relieved. However, her nerves did not calm until much later in the evening, when everything had calmed down. In the meantime, we continued looking out the second floor windows from behind curtains to watch what was going on, and Chichi continued praying that nothing would happen to us. I tried to tell her, "Chichi, there are worse things than a broken window, no?" She agreed but continued praying.

Groups of young men alternately ran each other out from the side streets of the Prado by our house. At one point, the police or military took the Prado and guarded the entrance on Chuquisaca. Next to our house they're doing construction, and there was a pile of rocks on the road outside, which served as ammunition thrown and fuel for slingshots. About 6 or 6:30, when the day was just starting to turn into evening (remember - it's summer here), the confrontation had moved away from us and closer to the Plaza Principal, and there was no one around, Jose Miguel came over from next door, gave Chichi a hug, and recounted his version of the events of the day and the motivations behind it.

Who were they? Problematizing both groups and misconceptions on either side.

Not all the juventud were pro-Manfred. Nor were they all for autonomy. And they were not all upper-class nor were they all light-skinned. Nor were they a bunch of cruceños (from Santa Cruz) come to stir up trouble in Cochabamba, by several accounts, they were definitely cochabambinos. Nor were they all racist, though there were definitely some racial epithets and slurs shouted from that side. Some were angry about the prefectura being burned. Some were upset and afraid of the campesino group's days-long occupation with the city. Some were tired of marches and blockades. Some were angry at what they saw as a power grab by "the people already controlling the presidency."

When the juventud said, though, that they were "defending the law," I got this awful feeling. When people start saying that they are defending the law, or even taking the law into their own hands, through violence, too often it means defending their own historical privilege: the Minutemen in the US right now, and (do I even have to say it?) the Ku Klux Klan.

Not all the campesinos were from MAS. Nor were they mostly cocaleros. Nor were they all from the campo (countryside, ie outside the city). As one joven from the campesino side said, most (or many?) had been living in the city of Cochabamba just as long as the juventud's families. Nor were they in any way unclear about why they were there: to them, Manfred's wish to have another referendum for Cochabamba on the autonomy isse was outrageous and out-of-line and was reason enough for his resignation, saying that he no longer represented the wishes of the people. Even though everyone had known Manfred was more likely to side with Santa Cruz than La Paz, he had been fairly quiet about it as governor up until comments he made about a week ago.

Personally, I'm not sure that taking to the streets is the right tactic to make this point. Couldn't they make themselves heard through other means? Maybe not, often the press here can be pretty biased (not like this is a problem anywhere else in the world). Then there's also the question of whether or not they are being heard now. But perhaps a group of people emboldened by the (fairly recent) success of throwing out a president (Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, though at a much larger cost of lives) see from their experience that the easiest way to make change is by throwing out an elected official. Roads being blocked and the prefectura having been burned (rumors are flying that the prefect-burners were Manfred people infiltrators, though I think it's more likely that it's the trouble-making chicos that the campesinos have been trying to keep in line since the beginning) isn't winning their side any points from an outside perspective.

And my judgement?

Look, both sides had palos. Lots of palos. Both sides threw stones (though the campesinos with their slingshots were apparently much more effective). Some people had put knives on the ends of their palos. There were a good number of pistols on the juventud's side. There were machetes on the campesinos' side. There were injured on both sides, over 200 total. Andres told me that in sheer numbers, there were more campesinos injured at the hospital, and that the injuries that he saw sustained by the juventud were worse. Each side had someone killed, a campesino killed by a bullet, and a juventud strangled and killed by machete. There was a lot of pointing out of the victims on one side or the other. The fact that one side had victims, however, does not relieve it of its guilt. As Gretchen said to me: It seemed like a bunch of fraternity guys got out of hand, like a contest of testosterone gone horribly horribly wrong.

Watching the footage later, there were two images that struck me. At one point, you had the juventud one one side and the campesinos on the other, with police holding each side back. Both sides have palos. The campesinos, brown faces, felt hats, and older-style pants, are standing, chanting, and holding their palos. The juventud, lighter faces, many wearing white, wearing more American-style clothes, are chanting and yelling and jumping up and down with palos, looking like they belong at a football game more than a political march. The two groups could not be more different, could not be more alike.

The other image is from when the two groups meet. All I could see was a mass of people and sea of palos coming up, coming down, over and over. Why such hatred? Why such rage? Why such violence?

After Thursday: Life goes on

Friday was very quiet. The number of dead has remained at two, and the official count of wounded went from 68 Thursday night to over 200 by Friday. There was an assembly of the campesinos in the Plaza Principal in the morning to discuss the previous day's events (Gretchen made the point that when the juventud was not there, there was no violence. Coincidence?). Gretchen and I went to the hospital to donate blood. It was Gretchen's birthday, and we celebrated with vegetarian lasagna for lunch and chocolate cake at teatime (Much to my chagrin, Chichi insisted on making me something as well, and ended up deciding on pancakes.) At Chichi's request, we did not go to any of the sites of conflict the day before and, other than donating blood, did not leave the house until the majority of the day was over to make phone calls to our families.

Manfred and Quintana, one of the Ministers, have been blaming each other. Evo made a speech calling for peace. The blockades have been lifted (perhaps at Evo's request? I think I heard that somewhere). Manfred came on TV last night saying that apparently a governor can't call a department-wide referendum, which of course he didn't know until yesterday, so "Sorry guys, forget about that autonomy referendum thing, Oops!" (dramatic license taken). Perhaps that will calm things down for good. A truce has been called for this weekend. Perhaps we have reached the eye of the storm and the conflict will resume next week. No one I've talked to has a really good read on the situation. I think we have seen the worst of it. I don't think anyone wants any more deaths or injuries.

Regardless of what happens, don't worry, I will stay safe and be careful. I am very aware of what is happening at any given moment, and generally staying wherever you are is the best action.

Word (Grouping) of the Day:
fuegos artificiales - fireworks
petardo - firecracker; bore; persona fea
cohete - rocket, firecracker
desesperar - despair, to be desperate

Jan 11, 2007 - La llegada y los primeros días

2007-01-26T11:57:00.000-08:00

Now I've been in Cochabamba three full days. And very full they have been.

Day One - Arrived in Cocha at 9AM. Andres picked me up from the airport (he was uncharacteristically late, I almost grabbed a taxi with someone I had met on the plane!).

Gretchen (or Graciela), another of Democracy Center cadre, and I had met in DC last summer when she came to visit, and I had arranged with her to stay with the woman who she was living with, Chichi, when I got here. I told her I would stay at Chichi's house for my first month in Bolivia, thinking that I would probably move somewhere else after that. But when I got to the house, I immediately fell in love with it.

#1 Location: It's about a block away from the Prado, the main drag of Cochabamba, and also right near the Plaza Colon, the second most notable plaza only after the Plaza Principal, and also (very important) a few block's walk away from the Democracy Center office. Very key. There's also a tienda right across the street where I can get all my basic necessities.

#2 Beautiful: It's a beautiful old house. Pale yellow facade with white trim. When I first got there, everyone was working in the garden, which I later found out has carrots and herbs and little zucchinis (really cute). When I rang the doorbell, Chichi came out and was very sweet, welcoming me in and asking about my trip. We walked in the house, and I was immediately impressed. The living room had a high ceiling, plants by the door, furniture that looks almost antique but very livable, and a beautiful wooden staircase winding and around to the second floor.

Chichi took me into a room right next to the entrance. Super spacious, again, very high ceilings, with a little plant on an endtable, a desk, an armoire, a little single bed with blue covers, high windows with light green and white curtains that were open, letting in a beautiful breeze, and - get this - a grand piano, just sitting there in the corner. What!?? Chichi said, "So this can be your room" and I was sold. One more thing I didn't notice at the time is that there are plants growing up the wall outside and have started putting out tendrils that are growing into the room through the windows, which I think is the neatest thing ever (especially because it doesn't really get cold at night).

The house is old and very charming. It actually reminds me a little bit of the family house in Maine - in certain parts of the house, it even smells like Maine. Strange, no? It is sort of a funny mix between old elegance and modern practical usage in some ways. For example, the chandelier in my room, which doesn't have a bulb in the middle, but instead, has one bulb on one of the three hanging lights on the outside (don't worry, Dad, Chichi has made me take two other desk lamps, so I get plenty of light even at night).

Chichi herself is un amor de persona. She is so sweet, very kind, and I'm honestly afraid that she's going to stress herself out worrying about me so much! (For example, tonight when I was making a sandwich, she came in 5 or 6 times to offer me things to put on it, show me where other things were in the kitchen, bring me an extra lamp, offer me other extra food, assure me that she was going to cook for me sometime, and try to convince me to have some tea before I went to bed.)

For the rest of my first day, I unpacked, did a lot of resting (it was raining all afternoon), and after supper/tea took a walk around town to reacquaint myself.

Day Two - I saw Ismael and Lupe! JJ and Krishna! Jim and the new office!
I got up super-early (6am) and hurried off to Tai Chi. When I rang the bell at the gate, Lupe came to open it up, and had a huge smile on her face to see me. When I walked inside (they had already started; they've been beginning at 6:15 instead of 6:30 lately), Ismael didn't recognize me for a few seconds with my hair so long, and then broke out into a big grin. Lots of happy hugs. They had had a lot of relatives staying with them leave the day before, so they were still recuperating from that. Lupe (who is a practicing Hare Krishna follower)'s (guru? she uses a different word, but I can't think of what it is) is visiting right now from the US, so after Tai Chi she was off with a start to appear with him on one of the local TV channels.

Their little son, JJ, has grown a lot in the last year and a half, and has more of an air of maturity about him than I've seen before. He's currently counting down the days until he starts colegio, elementary school. Krishna, their daughter, still as fiery as ever, is about to finish her law degree this year (no undergrad before law school in Bolivia), and got engaged to her long-time novio in December.

Afterwards, I met up with Jim and took a walk to the Democracy Center office. Jim had been really excited about it when I saw him in November, even drawing a floor plan of it for me. And I've got to say, it's an office with a lot of soul, as well as a lot of space and a great location. One of the most exciting unforeseen parts of the office (for me) was that the Democracy Center had bought a bicycle for one of the projects that Christina (who I have yet to meet) was working on. Alex, who was most recently using it, has gone, so I have free rein to get the tires pumped, get the bike a tune-up courtesy of the Democracy Center, and start using it full-time!

And thanks to Avi's request -
Spanish word (grouping) of the day: "la maña"

Usage: You need a little maña to open the lock on the gate to get into my house.

maña - destreza (skill); más vale maña que fuerza (brain is better than brawn); astucia (wits, guile); engaño (ruse, trick)
astucia - cunning, astuteness; cunning trick
treta - engaño, trick
picardía - sharpness, craftiness; travesura (naughty trick, mischief); atrevimiento (brazenness); also, randomly (or not so randomly?), negligee
picar - chop, dice, or mince; bite or sting (as a mosquito, snake, or stinging thing); to sting you; to peck like a bird; to pick at (food)
picante - spicy
pecado - sin (n); pecar - to sin (n)
pescar - to fish
las pecas - freckles

maná - manna, cheap and plentiful food
manar (de) - to flow from

So that's my situation. Coming soon: The political situation in Cochabamba

Jan 9, 2007 - Llegué sana y salva

2007-01-26T11:55:00.000-08:00

Hello there all!
This is just an email to let you know that I have arrived, safe and sound, to the lovely lands of bolivia, where it is summer, and California-like, and beautiful. The trip was overall fine, I got a little dizzy when I landed in La Paz, but after drinking some water and sitting down and getting back to Cochabamaba, I was just fine. It's the rainy season, so everything is green. I'm taking a few days to get used to being here before I throw myself headfirst into my work, but I met up with Jim this morning and got keys to the office, which is where I am right now, taking advantage of the free internet. The last 3 days have been pretty crazy, but I'm going to have to tell more about them a bit later - time to go home & get to bed before tai chi tomorrow morning!

Buenas noches, que duerman bien!
Lily