Another adventure on the roads of Bolivia

Well, it seems of late my travels in Bolivia are anything but routine. Monday, the pastor asked me to accompany him to Santa Cruz to help with a presentation on the flooding to a church there that was collecting food and clothing for the victims. So, Monday night, I left with him and another worker from the project who drove us in the project's "camiona" or cargo truck.

I should have known the trip was going to be an ordeal after it started pouring down rain before we even left Trinidad. A big tarp was put over the entire cargo area of the truck (where I was riding), it looked like an army vehicle, but for the most part we were dry inside. The trip was going smoothly enough until we arrived at the town of Pailon at about 5am on Tuesday morning, just under an hour outside of Santa Cruz and there was a blockade preventing vehicles from crossing the one mile bridge there. So, we waited there with other trucks and buses wanting to cross. . .

After about five hours, the pastor and I left the truck and walked across the length of the bridge (with our stuff too) and then we caught a microbus to Santa Cruz and arrived about noon. As it turned out the blockade wasn't resolved until 4pm, so it was a good thing we left. Fortunately though, it did life and the truck was able to make it so we could bring back the donations.

Then yesterday as we were preparing to leave, it began to pour down rain in Santa Cruz. Because of this we had to take extra time to cover everything with tarps and again covered the truck. We had planned to leave at the latest by 9am, but we didn't leave until noon.

On the way back, about halfway into our trip, we stopped for something and then when the guy driving tried to start up the truck, it wouldn't go. The entire electrical system was out. So, the three of us started pushing the truck to get it onto the road and make it start manually (with cargo and everything), but that didn't work. So, we were forced to ask for help from a passing truck driver, who found a bad connection to the battery. Over an hour had passed before we were on our way again. As a result, we didn't arrive back in Trinidad until 1am.

Drying out and giving blood

So here's an update on the latest in my life. The flooding situation in Trinidad is better, with the water levels having dropped a little bit in the last week. There was a 25 mile long by 20 mile wide by 30 feet deep swell of water that passed through the Beni over the last week and is causing problems all over the region. The worst of it hit us last Tuesday and now it has moved on. We don't expect any more such swells, probably in 2-3 weeks the water level will drop significantly.

Friday I had an interesting experience as I went to give blood for a lady that cleans for Lucho and Lorna and also does laundry for us volunteers (Justa, for those of you who have been here). She is getting ready to have an operation and needed blood donations. I was a bit nervous having never given blood before, much less in Bolivia. I had visions of walking into the blood bank, and there being a Bolivian guy sitting there with a needle and putting blood into Coke bottles. But, to be honest, I was very impressed with the conditions, it was very clean and might even pass health code in the US! And they did use clean needles too. However, I am A- in blood type, so they didn't end up taking my blood because they already have enough negative blood. Because the negative blood types are rarer they don't give them out except for special needs. Right now I guess there isn't much demand, so they just took a small 10ml sample to their lab for testing. Another volunteer who went with me did give blood though, so at least one of us could help Justa.

There have also been some developments politically and the opposition to Evo has now formally given themselves the name CONALDE, which is an acronym for National Democratic Council. It seems like we're in for another year of blockades and civil strikes especially in the next few months until the referendum elections are held.

Anyone got an ark?

This morning, I went around the city looking at the flooding situation which is worsening every day. The 12km road between the airport and the nearby village of Loma Suarez is now cut with part of the road completely destroyed by the water. Water has filled both sides and there are ranches underwater. We passed a few cows in the street who were obviously fleeing the water and just trying to find food wherever. Here are a couple of photos from where the road cut is.

The situation in the city isn't much better. The south end of town is completely flooded and there is only about a foot difference between the "ring road" and the water level. The entire southern side is flooded and the neighborhoods have been forced to evacuate and are now living in tents along the side of the road. Transit police are everywhere monitoring the situation. The water has been rising at a rate of about 3 inches a day, but the last couple of days has slowed to 1 inch a day. This slowdown is most likely due to a few days of sunshine we've had lately with no rain. Here are also a couple pictures showing the submerged neighborhood and the tents along the "ring" road.

The local river, the Mamoré, is jokingly called the "Marmoré" this time of the year since it becomes like a sea instead of a river (mar means sea in Spanish). I guess this is the local way of coping with all the distress and problems and keeping a good attitude. Anyway, please keep us in your prayers, the next weeks will be key in stemming the growing water level. Military personnel are already sandbagging areas of the "ring" road in anticipation of higher water.

All of this flooding is a result of massive rains that have hit Santa Cruz and Cochabamba and the water caused big problems in the Santa Cruz areas and has just moved downstream to us. People are saying it's worse than this time last year, and that was the worst flooding Bolivia had seen in 25 years!! I'll be sure to keep you all posted. . .

Amazon rain and floods

Well, I'm now seeing firsthand the sheer force of rain that they get here in the Amazon basin. It's pretty impressive. I'm looking outside at a complete downpour, it's been like this now for four hours straight. I ventured out on my moto with the other volunteers, we went to have lunch at La Estancia, the steakhouse in town. My moto nearly quit on me several times and did cut out twice coming home. Our street has about 2" of water on it and it's rising. The road between Trinidad and Santa Cruz is so fragile, it is like a solid lake on one side for most of the last 1/4 of the road near Santa Cruz. The road has been closed all week due to a couple of breaks in the road from the rain, which are being repaired, but it's hard to say how long the repairs will last or if another break will occur. Trinidad is without chicken, milk, and other supplies it depends on from Santa Cruz as the trucks still cannot get through.

As for the other happenings . . .school will be starting Feb. 11. We had our first parents' meeting last night to explain all of the new rules, schedule, etc. and also did some team building activities to help the parents get to know each other (if they didn't already). The lab is coming along, and should be fully ready by the start of school, along with the completed network. The health center as well is nearly finished (just first floor) and also should be ready by Feb. 11, if not before. Construction will continue, but the bottom level will be operational.

Yesterday, a plane also crashed near Trinidad, it was a 727 plane belonging to LAB (yes that same old infamous LAB), an airline with a rocky history over the last few years. Apparently the pilots were going to Cobija, in the northern tip of Bolivia, but had to turn back due to storms and the nearest runway with asphalt was Trinidad (several others just have grass runways), but in the process they ran out of fuel and crashed into the jungle just outside of town. Fortunately, nobody was killed, most people just had bumps and bruises and many people were understandably emotionally shaken. Apparently it will be some time before the plane is recovered to scrap, so we're talking about going out to see the wreckage sometime.

Anyway, that's about all to report for now!