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.