Bolivia Update: Felicidades!

Leta writes us from Bolivia with an update about last month's volunteers, the holidays, and life in Bolivia.

I traveled back to the States for a quick visit to family and friends in November. I came back [to Bolivia] three days before a group of PA students arrived. They wanted to get out of the city and do a bit more rural work, so we took them to the town of Entre Rios, in the Chapare (the jungle region of Cochabamba, where mosquitoes swarm and coca grows). Our driver forgot to tell me before leaving that his bus was in bad repair, so our 4-5 hour trip ended up taking 12 hours, but we got there. We treated around 50 patients in one morning but had to cancel our clinic for the second day, since we knew the return trip would probably take just as long. On the way back, at least, we got to stop at Parque Machia, a refuge for monkeys that had been taken from the forest and raised as pets.

We celebrated Christmas in half-Bolivian, half-American style. We went to my church on Christmas Eve (Noche Buena), where we got roped into taking part in the youth Christmas play. I got to play the part of a girl gathering firewood. Then we stayed up till midnight, like good Bolivians, and ate Christmas Eve dinner with the firemen who live on the hospital compound. We would have shot off fireworks, if it hadn’t been pouring. Christmas morning, we opened the alpaca stockings I bought at la Cancha and filled with various Bolivian foods (passion fruits and quinoa granola bars!), plus a couple of things I brought back from the States that you can’t get here (Hershey’s kisses and apple cider mix!). We all skyped home in the afternoon and relaxed. [Pictured is Leta when she came back for a visit in November and got to meet Isabella Wawrzewski]

In between celebrations, I’ve been filling in for Rudy, the hospital administrator, as he takes his first vacation in 3 years. He can’t ever really go on vacation, so he’s come in about 50% of the days, but at least he’s not at the hospital all the time. So far, I’ve mostly dealt with financial and personnel issues. I will be VERY glad when he’s back for good and I can turn over his key. (Update: Rudy is back from his vacation and Leta is happy to be back to her regular duties)

I got to go to Rudy’s twin daughters’ 2nd birthday party on Friday night, and, on Saturday, his mother-in-law, who also goes to my church, invited me over to learn to cook a Bolivian almuerzo (lunch). We made Sopa de Mani (peanut soup), which I actually already know how to make, but her version was different enough that it was basically a different dish. She has plans to teach me to make Picante de Pollo (spicy chicken), aji de fideo (noodles with chili pepper), and a number of other things. It was fun getting to go over and hang out with their family, which has kind of adopted me in the last few months.

We had a pretty laid-back New Year’s Eve. We had dinner with the paramedics and a former intern (Juan), and then we tried to keep our eyes open till midnight, when we shot off the fireworks that we didn’t get to set off at Christmas. A couple of the volunteers went with the paramedics, in case of accidents, since there are often a lot on New Year’s. They just went out on one call, but it was a bad one. A car went over a cliff in the mountains west of the city and fell about 90 feet. Surprisingly, only one of the passengers died. Two of the others had minor cuts and bruises, and the other had to be carefully lifted out of the car and then pulled up the cliff on a stretcher. She’s in our hospital now and will probably have surgery in the morning, but she should be okay. [Pictured is Leta, far right, with some volunteers from this month]

If you all were here right now, I would air-kiss all of your cheeks and tell you “Felicidades!” in honor of the new year, but, since you’re not, I will content myself with just sending “felicidades” (happiness) in your direction. Prospero año nuevo y muchas bendiciones a todos! (Prosperous new year and many blessings to all!)