Sucre...in the City

 Our walk on they way to school every morning....the walk there was always nice; however the walk home was slightly uphill to put it lightly.

 The Main Plaza

Woman selling fresh orange juice

 The Main Plaza

There were always pigeons around and always people selling bird seed. The birds were afraid of nothing!

 The Main Plaza

Many times during the day and in the evening it was packed with people.

In the Main Plaza

The Main Plaza

A stand selling fruits, candy, drinks, etc. These were all over the streets and the parks in Sucre.

 "The Basketball Court"

The school we were at was pretty good about taking to do different things in the evening. Twice they took us to play walleyball. However, we told them we liked basketball and they took us to this court! Literally a raquetball court that they bring two portable wooden hoops into. It was awesome.

 "The Basket"

Me in Front of one of the many Churches

There were tons of churches here; all of them painted white; more than 99% of Bolivians are Catholic I think.

The Mirador

A short walk from the house at the top of the hill was an area called "The Mirador." This is the view from there during the day.

The Mirador

This is in the same area as the view from the previous picture; if you turn the other way there was a large plaza area. During the day it was fairly empty. In the evening and at night (in this picture) it was turned into what I think of as a "fair." There were probably at least 100 foosball tables set up, there were fair games along the wall, merry-go-rounds and children's rides, and even gambling games. We played some foosball....needless to say I was no good.

 The Mirador

As it got darker they set up strings of lights above all of the foosball tables.

The Mirador

In the evening; you can see a jumper set up with Bugs Bunny, a trampoline, and to the left an airplane ride set up for the kids.

 At Dinner one night

Next to the Mirador was a nice restaurant/hotel that we treated ourselves to one night....and by treated ourselves we both got dinners and drinks for both of us for under $20. There was a great view of the city behind us.

 The main plaza at night

 Dave with our host Mom

At the Airport in Sucre

This is where the drama began. We had a flight for 1:30 Friday afternoon. When we got to the airport we founds out that our flight, along with the other four flights for the day (the airport was very small, in total they only had four flights the whole day) was delayed. They didn't know how long but they continued to state that it would be delayed. Finally, they told everyone that the plane would definitely be leaving at 5:30! However, at 5:25 they come on to make a new announcement; the flight has been canceled for the day and is rescheduled for morning due to "problems getting the flight in" (no other details were given). Now, normally in the US if this happened they would have a representative from the company come and speak to the people, possible provide other options, maybe food and a place to stay; people would be grumpy, complain, and then do what they were told. Here, however, no representative came, people were given no other options, and told to leave. People were clearly not happy with this and within minutes a full out mob had developed, people stormed the desk, jumping over and around it and screaming at the workers. They workers shut down the computers, fled to the back office, and locked the door. Eventually the police came, we stayed around for another half our to see if the people would get what they demanded (a flight that night) and when it was clear this wouldn't happen we returned to Sucre for the evening. Definitely and adventure.

Okay last blog about Sucre....now we are officially up to date on the blogging!

Sucre: Sunday Trip to Tarabuco

Look close...."Welcome to Tarabuco"

Tarabuco is a town about two hours driving from Sucre. It is home to many indigenous people and one of their main industries is textiles. Many of their goods are sent to Sucre and other towns in Bolivia. Every Sunday they have a very large market; two markets where people from Tarabuco mainly trade goods with each other and very little money is used. There is also a section for tourists that contains mostly textiles.

 

Our first sight in Sucre

At one point there was a large battle for independence against Spain (Sucre was the first city in all of Bolivia  to declare and fight for it's independence). A monument to the indigenous people who fought (somewhat scary though....notice he is holding the man's heart in his hand...)

 The main square in Tarabuco

 Walking to the market

 

The set up of the streets in Tarabuco is very similar to those in Sucre; however the houses in Tarabuco are mostly brown while those in Sucre are white.

In the Market

Dave is so much taller than everyone here...notice how he towers above everyone! College friends, also notice the backpack he is wearing....some things never change.

You can also see the hair style of many of the indigenous women; two braids down the back and a hat. 

 Outdoor Market

 Indoor Market

 More Outdoor Market

Lots of small "cubicles," each one had a small stove and had someone selling food. See the colorful bags on the backs of the women on the left hand side? They were used to carry everything, from produce to babies and were actually large blankets like the orange one below.

More Outdoor Market

Bulls 

 Yes, bulls walking down the middle of the street, not an uncommon sight in Tarabuco. Also common, young boys, maybe age 10 or 11 leading the bulls and throwing rocks at them when they veered off path.

Found a playground during our walk, the city is behind us.

I know, so cute....

Sucre Part II (Saturday Trip)

 On our walk to the castle

 So on our Saturday in Sucre I went on a hike outside of the city to a castle with another student and the director of our Spanish school and his niece and nephew. David was unfortunately home....ughh...on the toilet....

 Also on the walk to the castle

Apparently there are two capitals in Bolivia. The people of Sucre will tell you that Sucre is the true capital.  It has always held the judicial branch of government; however, the other two branches are in La Paz (apparently there people will tell you La Paz is the true capital). Several years ago there was a movement to bring all of the branches of government to Sucre; many students marched in the streets during this movement. At this spot the national police where brought in to stop the students and many students died during the march. This is a monument built at that point along the road.

 

 The Castle!

Notice the tallest tower in the background that is partially cut off...

 The view from the top of the tower in the previous picture

The blue and orange-ish building in the background used to be an orphanage. Apparently there was only one family to ever live in the castle, a wealthy husband and wife.  They used their money to perform many good deeds in and around Sucre, including building the orphanage. Apparently because the people of Sucre loved them so much (and because they were quite wealthy) they were given the title of king and queen. 

 The staircase up to the top of the tower

....Mom I thought you would enjoy this

 The only cemetery in Sucre....near the front of the cemetery

After the castle we took a bus back to Sucre and were given a tour of the cemetery. It is the only cemetery in Sucre and it immediately reminded me of cemeteries in New Orleans. Everything is above ground; the wealthier families are in the front and poorer families are in the back.

 Near the front...tomb of one of the wealthiest men ever in Sucre

The back of the cemetery

1st Week at Centro Medico Humberto Para--11th Year Aniversary

Our First Week at Palacios

           We made the first journey of many to Centro Medico in Palacios, Bolivia, on August 5th.  We arrived in time for the 11th year anniversary celebration at Centro Medico Humberto Para.  This clinic provides substantial primary care services for members of 20 + communities in rural Bolivia.  The clinic has 2 rooms for general physicians, a room for womens health where an OB-GYN physician comes once a week, a room for an ophthalmologist, a room for dental care, a laboratory, a pharmacy, as well as a large room for providing health education classes.  The clinic functions with two full-time Bolivian nurses, two Bolivian physicians who switch off days, as well as other visiting physicians (OBGYN, optho, others...).  Don Pepe looks after the clinic during the week and his esposa Mumi provides lunch for all the clinic trabajaores (workers).  We will be working to facilitate the volunteer trips here at the clinic as well as providing Physical Therapy services (less we and more Kara).  Next to the clinic is a house with a kitchen and dormitories for the volunteers and coordinators.  It is very cozy and we will have some limited access to email via satellite internet.  

 Centro Medico Celebrates 11 Years!

 Clinic Founders: Dr. Mark Molitch and Dr. Susan Hou

After the founders gave speeches, community members honored them with gifts and traditional Bolivian dances.  We enjoyed the show. 

 The Celebration ended with Mark and Susan and the Bolivian staff blowing out 11 candles on a cake for the Medical Center. 

Mark and Susan holding the cake.  

Left to Right: Maria (head nurse and clinic coordinator), Dr. Douglas (Bolivan program director) and Dr. Vargas (clinic physician)

This last week we started work at the clinic.  During the first week  we encountered patients with uncontrolled diabetes, a case of malaria, as well as a case of complete heart block from Chagas disease.  Kara even went on a house-call where she evaluated a young women who had broken her hip while pregnant.  Despite receiving surgery in December, recent X-rays show that the fracture continues to be displaced without signs of healing.  She has now been bedridden for five months.  Thankfully she is a very strong woman with a supporting family.  The surgeon that most recently evaluated her determined that she needs a hip replacement at this point.  We are beginning our search for the hardware needed for her hip replacement as the cost ($4000) is far beyond the means of this family.  If any one has any contacts or leads...

Kara's first home visit: trying to assist and educate the patient

Kara's patient with her newborn and older son

More to come, don't you dare touch that dial

Sucre...part one...the house and school

Sucre...part one

On our flight into Sucre....flew over lots of mountains.

We had originally planned to take a bus but when we went to the station on the morning we planned to leave there were no tickets left and people everywhere were asking for tickets to Sucre.  Apparently there had been no buses for three days traveling from Santa Cruz to Sucre and now everyone was trying to get there. We think there must have been a road blockade. So we then tried to call the two airports to get tickets; however they told us we had to go to the airport to try to buy tickets...we ended up having to go two days later than planned because there were also no flights!

Arrival at the airport in Sucre...cheerios in hand

We flew into Sucre's airport, as you can see it is literally just a big lot with a small building. No more than one airplane can land at a time (although the airplane itself was very large; larger than the ones I normally take home to Mobile). The cheerios would prove to come in very handy as David got sick several days later....

Our room

We stayed with a family; Anna, Jaime, and Berta. They were great. We had breakfast and lunch with them daily and the lunches they made were amazing. We got to try many of the typical dishes of Sucre including soup to start every lunch followed by Pollo Picante, pique macho, and others. Everything was delicious.

look dad two beds :) 

The inside courtyard of the house we stayed at. From the streets most families had a door that they entered through which led to a courtyard with a fountain and an area to park you car if you had one. Then several family members would have seperate apartments within the door. Ours is the downstairs one straight ahead in this picture. It reminded me of small towns in Europe (not that I really know.)

 Our street

Our door is on the left hand side right past the jeep. Most all of the streets look like this.

Kara's Classroom

This is the classroom Kara used most days. She worked with one teacher in the morning and one in the afternoon....lots of work learning new verbs and the proper use of "estar" vs "ser."

 David's classroom

This is what the inside of most of the classrooms looked like. We all worked one on one with a teacher and each room had it's own whiteboard.





Kara with some of the other students

Every friday night the school hosted either a meal or a salsa class at the school. The Friday we were there they had dinner...David unfortunately was home sick...