Peace is such a rare and vulnerable state of being. It is the end, the goal of a challenging path that needs constant care.
I arrived more than three weeks in La Paz as a Crossroader; this is how the Canadian organization I am working for, Crossroads International calls us, the Cooperants. We are six Crossroaders here in Bolivia, each working with a different local partner organization:
Vladimir Ilich Lopez Flores as a Climate Change Officer and Caza Saleck as a Financial Innovation Officer for Prorural a Financial Development Institute.
Marie Anne Miron as a Alternative Education Advisor is developing a capacity building programme for the clients of ANED, groups of women that manage their small businesses through microcredits all over Bolivia, mainly in rural areas.
Manuel Jose Salas and Victor work for AOPEB and AGRECOL, organizations that unite organic producers and supports them holistically during production, transformation, certification, comercialization and consumption.
And I am here as a Baseline Study Advisor, collaborating with Crossroads and with the four local partners at the same time, analyzing selecting their most strategic impact indicators and helping to refine and/or create their impact baselines of monitoring and evaluation.
And Now,
La Paz and its enchantments. It has just been voted the nicest city.
In my opinion it is not a marvellous city at first sight.
You fall in love with it slowly, with time
The altitude of course. The first day, the lack of oxygen had a strange effect on me. I had to walk down and up the steep streets in slow motion, as if the gravity of the earth was pulling me stronger…
…As if I was being grounded without my consent.
Looking at the cholitas always in motion.
Mostly older Pacenas, women from la Paz, dressed in big colorful skirts, long braided hair separated in two braids, and a black magician type of hat.
Maybe the have a dove hidden inside…
In this picture they are de fiesta. Dressed in their formal “gowns” they danced in the rhythms of their land and drunk beer.
Lots of Beer…
Picture
They sell clothes, veggies, fruits, towels, socks, cellphones, squizzing orange juices, gossiping, taking care of their grandchildren and on the meantime knitting a scarf or a cloth with their eyes closed. Entrepreneurs, Artists, Mothers, Grandmothers. Women.
My stereotypical lenses were present the first days. I thought that all cholitas come from the same social class for instance, but soon I am starting to realize that it is not the case. I am starting now to distinguish who is more well off than other, by the hat or skirt they wear, even an earring can be a symbol of a higher status. All of them try to show bigger/ fatter than they are, as a sign of wellbeing I guess.
It is interesting to see them next to younger Bolivian women, dressed in tight jeans, skinny and with hair loose and free. Commercial signs and maniquees of blonde stereotypical western type of beauty.
Modernization of looks and styles, I also guess.
And then my big question about Bolivia. Is it truly social?
Big posters of Evo Morales all over, dressed in traditional clothes, as a worker etc. He has been using his indigenous image to reach to the majority of the population that is comprised 62% of indigenous people, mainly Aymara and Quechua coming from Inca ancestry.
His government also campaigns for women’s rights hanging huge posters on main streets and organizes free concerts for gender equality.
Cheap policies but effective.
….
Inequality in la Paz is obvious. Up on the hills, at the El Alto, the poorest live. It is the coldest part of the city, some parts of it with no paved roads. Some of el Alto population, comes from the mainland. The common story, farmers immigrating to the city for a better future.
The lower and warmer the bigger the pockets. What Evo has achieved, many have coincided is that racial discrimination has been diminished, but I will argue that yet the social and economic discrimination is present.
The poorest have no free access at the so called public hospitals, that charge for a visit. Spiritual healers and the botanical herbs of the Pachamama are their doctors. I guess nature holds many healing secrets but it is not enough to cure diabetes or cancer.
I dream of a world where spiritual healers work next to doctors and share their knowledge and treat everyone indiscriminately. We need the wisdom of both to stay mentally, physically and spiritually sane and healthy.
To be fair and say something positive about the Evo government, is that it created a regulatory body for all financial institutions, from banks to microfinance organizations called ASFI. I wish each country had one.
ASFI comes as an answer to the high level of debt of the Bolivian population. Now each financial institution that wants to lend to the poor and fall under the category of IFD, Financial Institution of Development, has to offer at least fair rates, financial education workshops and capacity building courses to their clients.
The financial institutions have to go through structural changes and incur losses in order to comply to the new regulation. Of course, they are complaining that ASFI’s employees’ know-how is limited and that the regulatory process inefficient, but I do not know yet if this statement is true. Perhaps the process of change is new and intimitades everyone, the regulators and the regulates.
But it is a first step.
And to be even more fair I have to mention the teleferic, that connects the city on three lines, green, red, yellow, the colours of the Bolivian flag. Another point for Evo Morales, but just enjoyed from the citizens of La Paz.
The experience is breathtaking, especially if you are a bit afraid of heights.
I think I have to stop here…
Till next time..
Peace to all
X.
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