5.02.2005
Oh, Bolivia
So I've been in Bolivia for 5 days now and I can hardly catch my breath. (Yes, literally. Not much oxygen here in the highest capital city in the world, La Paz, at some 12,000 feet.) My first trip to this country has been a whirlwind and it is a staggering thought to even begin to make sense of it all in one post. For a student of politics, history, and economics, Bolivia has been through it all: civil strife, hyperinflation, coup d'etats (count 'em, nearly 200), political revolutions, ethnic tensions, and some of the worst poverty in the Western Hemisphere, to name just a few. Add to all of this a varied and beautiful geography and some of the friendliest people I have ever met and I wish I had another few weeks to take it all in.
In Santa Cruz, where I spent my first four days, I was propositioned by a cab driver who wanted me to write him a notarized letter inviting him to my house in the US for "wedding." He has been trying to get a visa to get to the land of opportunity for several months, and he thought that if I "sponsored" him than he would be able to speed up the bureaucracy at the US embassy. He told me that he hoped to leave his wife and two children behind for two years so that he could save up $15,000 which he hoped to bring back to Bolivia to start up his own business: a gas station. In a country where the average salary is $900, he is in good shape economically: he owns a cab which nets him $200 a month, his wife makes $100 a month as a schoolteacher, and he owns two houses, one of which he rents for $100 a month. Yet with an income of $400 a month, he admitted that he is barely "sliding by" with his two children in college. His eyes lit up as I told him what kind of salary he would be receiving at a minimum wage job in the states.
I spent much of my time in Santa Cruz in an urban slum located in the periphery of the city called Plan 3000. Here, 40% of the population lives in poverty and 60% live in misery. 13 years ago, a Spanish bishop decended upon Plan 3000 to do missionary work, and today he runs a foundation called Hombres Nuevos (www.hombresnuevos.org). Since Padre Nicolas has been in the Plan, Hombres Nuevos has built a hospital, a clinic for malnourished children, several schools and cafeterias, and an athletic facility, all with the support of Spanish donors.
The problems for those living in the Plan are many. With scant economic opportunities available nearby, mothers and fathers leave their children behind at 5:30 in the morning to hawk trinkets or panhandle in Santa Cruz, sometimes not returning until midnight. Thus family structures break down and the children often end up wandering the dusty dirt roads sniffing glue. Mothers often feed their newborns coffee or Coke, leading to grave malnutrition problems. I visited the clinic for malnourished children and saw the progress that the infants were making after having been neglected. The programs that Hombres Nuevos administers seek to make the Bolivians themselves responsible for their own future. The children's mothers come in one day a week to cook and clean at the clinic, and they must participate in nutritional education programs. There are no hand-outs either: every service and program the foundation offers comes at a nominal cost.
A Spanish doctor, who lives in the Plan full-time and administers the program's hospital in Santa Cruz, told me, "the politicians of Santa Cruz have neglected these people. They come into the slums once a year prior to elections and try to buy their votes by handing out t-shirts. It is only through the Church that we can make an impact forming a new Bolivia."
In Santa Cruz, where I spent my first four days, I was propositioned by a cab driver who wanted me to write him a notarized letter inviting him to my house in the US for "wedding." He has been trying to get a visa to get to the land of opportunity for several months, and he thought that if I "sponsored" him than he would be able to speed up the bureaucracy at the US embassy. He told me that he hoped to leave his wife and two children behind for two years so that he could save up $15,000 which he hoped to bring back to Bolivia to start up his own business: a gas station. In a country where the average salary is $900, he is in good shape economically: he owns a cab which nets him $200 a month, his wife makes $100 a month as a schoolteacher, and he owns two houses, one of which he rents for $100 a month. Yet with an income of $400 a month, he admitted that he is barely "sliding by" with his two children in college. His eyes lit up as I told him what kind of salary he would be receiving at a minimum wage job in the states.
I spent much of my time in Santa Cruz in an urban slum located in the periphery of the city called Plan 3000. Here, 40% of the population lives in poverty and 60% live in misery. 13 years ago, a Spanish bishop decended upon Plan 3000 to do missionary work, and today he runs a foundation called Hombres Nuevos (www.hombresnuevos.org). Since Padre Nicolas has been in the Plan, Hombres Nuevos has built a hospital, a clinic for malnourished children, several schools and cafeterias, and an athletic facility, all with the support of Spanish donors.
The problems for those living in the Plan are many. With scant economic opportunities available nearby, mothers and fathers leave their children behind at 5:30 in the morning to hawk trinkets or panhandle in Santa Cruz, sometimes not returning until midnight. Thus family structures break down and the children often end up wandering the dusty dirt roads sniffing glue. Mothers often feed their newborns coffee or Coke, leading to grave malnutrition problems. I visited the clinic for malnourished children and saw the progress that the infants were making after having been neglected. The programs that Hombres Nuevos administers seek to make the Bolivians themselves responsible for their own future. The children's mothers come in one day a week to cook and clean at the clinic, and they must participate in nutritional education programs. There are no hand-outs either: every service and program the foundation offers comes at a nominal cost.
A Spanish doctor, who lives in the Plan full-time and administers the program's hospital in Santa Cruz, told me, "the politicians of Santa Cruz have neglected these people. They come into the slums once a year prior to elections and try to buy their votes by handing out t-shirts. It is only through the Church that we can make an impact forming a new Bolivia."
# posted by Juanson : 7:17 PM
