The Death Road

Today our adventures took us from La Cumbre to Coroico where we took on the challenge of mountain biking the death road. It just so happens that the one day we decided to do the ride was also the only day it’s decided to rain in La Paz since we’ve been here (which meant it was snowing at La Cumbre). Even so we had a great time and are still alive to tell about the death road experience. Sadly enough, the death road receives its name and is famous all over the world due to the great number of people who have died while traveling on it (most of them in buses). One time a bus with 100 people fell off the road and everyone was killed. The road is really only wide enough for one car and was supposed to have traffic going in one direction one part of the day and another direction another part of the day, but this was rarely followed and with straight drops up to two thousand feet on either side of the road; many deaths occurred yearly. People here often describe how in the attempts of the buses to get around one another part of a wheel would be hanging off the edge of a cliff. Fortunately, Bolivia made a new paved road three years ago and the death road is used far less frequently for daily travel.

11,000 feet of vertical descent!

A Cleft-Palate Party and The Health Department Shrine

On Wednesday the hospital had a cleft-lip party with a Father from Austria who has provided a lot of the monetary means for the children to have these surgeries at the San Gabriel hospital. There were probably 30 families that came with their children who had cleft-lip/palate and balloons and dancing were the main event. We were able to survey a lot of the patients parents while we were there at the hospital and also interview the Father. The presence of the Catholic Church here in Bolivia is quite unbelievable. Jayson and I have talked to a lot of “Fathers” as a part of our research project. Although we had always planned on interviewing community leaders as a part of our project we didn’t know that so many of the civic leaders would end up being Catholic priests. We were also amused by the presence of the Catholic church when we went to the public health department office that afternoon and found this unusually large shrine to the Virgin Mary in their room for vaccinations. I am not sure how receiving vaccinations and worshiping the Virgin relate but even so it is quite common to find their public buildings and hospitals adorned with these types of things. Additionally many of the hospital directors are Catholic nuns.

The Daily Mishap

I have become quite famous in the Calvet family for having some daily mishap of sorts. It just so happens today’s mishap was a little more extreme. In an effort to more effectively dry off my leg after showering this morning I placed my leg on the sink. Next thing I new the whole top of the sink tipped over and shattered in a thousand pieces. Luckily, the sink didn’t fall on my foot but you can only imagine the look on my face when it happened. Do you think home owner’s insurance would cover this in the states?

The re-enactment. Step 1: I tried to dry my leg off...

Step 2: The sink falls off its base and breaks into a million pieces.

Gelatinas encapsulada

So Zulma (our cook) and Sandra (her daughter that we live with) have been anxiously awaiting the opportunity to teach me how to make flower designs inside of jello. It is the new, hip, crafty thing to do here in Bolivia and all it requires is good skills with a needle. When Jayson saw that medical equipment was involved he quickly became interested in the project too. Needless to say all the ladies were a little caught off guard. Men and women have very distinct roles here in Bolivia and rarely do their roles overlap. For instance men solely drive, work, and watch futbol. Women on the other hand do dishes, cook, make crafts, and watch after the children.

I could tell the ladies were a little nervous when Jayson curiously asked if he could be part of the fun, but there reluctance quickly went away when they saw Jayson’s beautiful rose. After that Jayson was referred to as master teacher and we were all vying to have him give us lessons.

The Bolivian Perspective

A group of mothers with their babies that have had cleft-lip/palate surgery.

While Jayson and I have come to enjoy the different simplicities of the Bolivian way of life; it seems that the most rewarding part of our experience here in Bolivia and has been the work we’ve for our research project. In the past four days we’ve had the opportunity to interview 12 doctors, a catholic priest, the director of health, and visit various cleft-lip patients and their families. Our most interesting interviews have been with the plastic surgeons here. One of the surgeons has done 2,300 cleft-palate surgeries and is known internationally for his work. He offered some interesting insights on the best way for NGOs to offer support. He mentioned that when foreign doctors come into Bolivia and do surgeries that Bolivian doctors can and should be doing on their own it takes away their dignity. He feels that it is fine for an organization to offer financial support for a time but that should not be the final solution. He proposed an alternate solution to providing free surgeries for children. Instead of NGOs paying for local doctors to do the surgeries (as Smile Train does) or having American doctors unfamiliar with cleft palate surgeries come in (like Operation Smile) he suggested setting up a rotation. Because of the experience these Bolivian doctors have had and the techniques they have developed, the results from their surgeries are superior to the vast majority of the surgeries done by foreign doctors. If doctors wanting to specialize in cleft lip and palate surgery they could pay these specialist to teach them for a period of 3 or 4 months their techniques that have not been written in the textbooks yet. In turn, they could provide free surgeries for the patients who have no money because the doctor wanting to learn finances them. If the NGOs still wanted to help, they could provide a scholarship for the doctors wanting to learn. Just as a side note, each plastic surgeon we have met with has a photo album with pictures of patients that have had bad operations, many of which were performed by Operation Smile medical missions. It is sad because once the child has had a bad operation it is very difficult to fix and make it look good. The child only gets one chance to have a good operation.

We have also been touched by many of the families that have lived though the trial of having a child born with cleft lip. Nobody knows until the baby comes out of the womb that it has cleft lip; if you have ever seen a baby with a bilateral cleft lip, it is quite a startling sight. There are many false beliefs about the origin of the deformity and it causes many parents to leave their children with the malformation at the hospital and never come back. One lady we met with had adopted one of these children and helped her receive reconstructive surgery. This program in Tarija is quite impressive. They have helped hundreds of children receive high quality reconstructive surgery. Many of these families have absolutely nothing in US standards, yet with the help of this organization they are able to help these children live a normal life.

A mother with two daughters that were born with cleft-lip.

The great team that has helped us an incredible amount with our research. Guadalupe, the one in the green, treated us like a son and daughter. (This is quite normal to tower over everyone. We will have a reality check when we get back to the states and we are short again.)

Arrival in Tarija

June 24 – Yesterday we arrived in Tarija to continue our research project. After we picked up our bags at the baggage claim, we received a nice welcome from our contact Guadalupe and her chauffeur who came to pick us up. This is a little town without many North American visitors. I don’t know if it is standard for all Americans to be interviewed by the local news when they arrive or not, but some how they got tipped by someone that we were coming and were anxiously waiting for us to share a few words. Unfortunately, I have a sore throat and my voice has mostly escaped me; so I gave him the watered down version. The newsman seemed a bit disappointed for not receiving a longer explanation for why we are here, but that’s life. Too bad we have to come all the way to Bolivia to become regulars on the 6 o’clock news.

Afterwards we went looking for a hostal to stay in while we are here in Tarija. Having stayed in a wonderful hostal in Rurre for $10 were thought we could find something decent for under $5. We were sorely disappointed to find out that the nastiest places in town were more than $10 a night. Apparently people love the wine and the small town feel of this place and drive-up the real estate prices. Since we spent our wad on the nicest suit in Bolivia a couple of weeks ago, we decided to go with one of the “economic” rooms. Lonely planet describes the one we chose as being rather ramshackle, which I think is a bit generous. Think of your “favorite” missionary apartment and you might have an idea of our jail cell. To make the rooms cheaper they make you share a bathroom with the other tenants in the complex. Showering provides two options. This morning Stephanie chose the larger shower/toilet room with mold caked on the walls, while I chose the smaller cleaner shower despite the fact that I had to literally straddle the toilet as I showered; at least the trickle of water was warm. I don’t know if not having plugs in a room also makes it cheaper of if they just plain forgot, but no power outlets in the room also complicate things. Steph found an outlet in the lobby and tried blowing drying her hair but something went haywire with the current and sparks came flying out of the dryer instead of hot air. Needless to say singed hair is also part of the experience. I guess we will appreciate our mansion at 320 North much more when we return to live in Provo once more.

2 weeks prior: enjoying a gourmet peach pork chop...

at the Ritz and...

...now we are living in the jail cell

It's a little harder to share these half-sized twin beds so we opted to sleep separate!

Don't worry Steph's happier than she looks!

Bolivia just celebrated their second holiday within two days of each other. San Juan is a holiday dedicated to eating “salchichas” or hot dogs with your family and blowing up fireworks at midnight. Walking downtown in the evening was difficult because the place was packed with people buying hot dogs and fireworks. We joined in on the fun and bought our own 100 shot roman candle that was taller than Stephanie.

As far as our research goes we are making progress with our surveys and interviews. It is fun to listen to the doctors and hear their opinion about the help that is given to their country. Our friend Guadalupe has been amazing and planned out our time here down to the minute; it is like having our very own personal secretary.

A Taijan countryside full of vineyards

10 K Race & The Aymara New Year

Monday was the Aymara New Year holiday, so as is typical on a holiday no one goes to work and you enjoy the day sitting around, passing time in typical Bolivian style. However this day required a little more exertion than the other holidays we’ve celebrated. Dr. Moya caught wind that Jayson and I enjoy running a thought that we would enjoy the opportunity to do a 10K run. Somehow in Dr. Moya’s invitiation to do the run and Jayson’s explanation I misunderstood the Spanish and thought we were doing a 10K race with lots of runners and it was some big event. I woke up a little nervous and anxious (the usual race day feelings), and then Dr. Moya arrived and told us we could start running. I gave Jayson a confused but figured we were probably doing a warm-up run to the race start. As it turns out what Dr. Moya really had in mind was for Sandra, Gabriel, Jayson and I to run from the house to a swimming pool seven miles away. Maricello was our support car during the run, and we enjoyed making frequent stops to refuel on tangerines and water. Unfortunately the swimming pool was closed for the holiday (no big surprise), so to “pass the time” we went to a little place to sit, drink frescos, and have a little small talk. I don’t know what it is about Bolivians or the Latin American culture but they love to go to a place, away from home, and sit, chat, and drink frescos especially on holidays. Then after you have had a chat at one place, you go to another place and do the same thing.

This is where the Bolivian Army trains. I am very grateful to live in America!

Halfway through our race.

This is the family we are staying with and Dr. Moya, the opthamologist.