September 2008 Archives

Late breaking news from Yoli in Bolivia:

Apparently the campesinos are lifting their blockades until Oct. 15 to give the government and the opposition leaders time to negotiate. All the festivities for tomorrow's Dia de Santa Cruz (24 de Septiembre) are back on.

You can read a bit more in this news brief from El Deber (but the translation isn't great)

Anyway, upon hearing this news, she called the airport to see if her flight was still canceled. They told her that as far as they had heard, the flight was still on.

Then she called me. And then I called American Airlines. The person there insisted the flight was still canceled.

So I called Yoli back. We agreed that it was still worth it for her to drive to the airport tomorrow with the luggage and the girls on the chance that the flight would still leave.

After that I continued calling American. It took several calls before they finally told me that, yes, the flight was scheduled after all. Then we got Yoli and the girls switched back onto tomorrow's flight (and there were some hand-wringing moments during that process).

Long story short: Yoli is returning home tomorrow after all. Hooray!

Things are heating up in Santa Cruz. So American Airlines has again canceled flights, right on the eve of Yoli's departure. Obviously she is very disappointed about that. She had everything packed and had given away her extra food and everything in preparation for leaving.

Her flight has been rebooked for next Wednesday, so that means they'll stay in Bolivia another week. Please pray that things will cool down and that they will be able to fly out of there on Wednesday as scheduled.

Yoli is scheduled to leave Santa Cruz tomorrow morning and arrive in St. Louis around 10 p.m. As far as we know, everything is on track for this flight to take off.

We are concerned by the "siege" that is taking place around Santa Cruz. Basically various groups of supporters of the government have come down from Cochabamba and other places and are marching on the city. They have established blockades at the major roads out of Santa Cruz. Yoli says that some of them are miners with dynamite.

You can read more at MABB and Pronto

This is disappointing to Yoli, because Santa Cruz has generally been a more laid-back place than the western highland cities in Bolivia. These sort of city-strangling tactics are common there ... but now it is happening to Santa Cruz, too.

Our hope is that American continues to fly out of Bolivia, so Yoli, Jadzia, and Ludi can get home. But also we hope that peace can come to Bolivia without these tactics and confrontations that lead to bloodshed.

Yoli sent even MORE photos for your viewing pleasure.

Jadzia dancing "B-I-N-G-O" in Spanish.

I had a nice chat with Yoli tonight. Here are some excerpts from that conversation:

The Alasitas Fair is opening tomorrow. I would like to go. Maybe I can get some crafts or aguayos, or something to decorate our home. But I'm not sure ... the artisans from other parts of Bolivia haven't come because of the blockades on the roads to Santa Cruz.

I hope I can find some puzzles or brain teasers at the fair, like the ones at the Science Center. But I'm not sure if I'll find what I want. It is usually busy on weekends, so I might try going on Monday.

This morning, Ludi used the potty. So, Jadzia said she was old and big and didn't need the little potty. She climbed up onto the toilet seat (without the adaptor) and was like that almost all day. But eventually, she told me she was going to use the adaptor. I was afraid she would fall inside.

The ironic thing is, Jadzia says she is big, but often she still wants us to help spoon-feed her.

Marco has been very nice to Jadzia. She likes to see him working and when he says "hi", she comes back to report to me that he said "hi" to her. Everything he says, she comes back to me to report it.

The other day, he told her in a scary voice "Jadzia, soy un loboooooooooo" (Jadzia, I am a wolf).

Jadzia laughed loud and came to tell me, "Marco dice que está un lobo, está chistoso." (Marco said that he is a wolf. He's funny.)

Now when she sees him, she asks, "Marco está un lobo?" (she's not using the correct verb, but you get the point)

Jadzia also gets excited when she sees Corina and keeps asking her what she's doing.

She speaks Spanish almost all the time and even asks me to sing some songs in their Spanish version.

Jadzia and Ludi have really had their share of birthdays in Bolivia. Here's a couple of photos from Yoli showing the girls at a birthday party they attended about a week and a half ago, the same Saturday that I left Bolivia. (That's Jadzia greeting the birthday girl in the photo above)

A quick update on Yoli's situation: not too much has changed for her. Things remain relatively quiet in Santa Cruz. On the national and international level, there are some signs that the Bolivia crisis is cooling off.

With more time to spend in Bolivia, Yoli has begun teaching cross-stitch to some students at El Jordán.

She tells me that Ludi has been speaking some things rather clearly in Spanish: "No quiero" (I don't want); "Dame" (Give me); "No toque mama" (don't touch, mama); "Coma" (eat! (as a command)).

Because Jadzia has accumulated a couple of goody bags from various birthday parties, she is constantly asking for candy or cookies. In terms of real food, she seems to crave cornflakes and tacos.

Yoli says that Jadzia seems a bit bored and maybe ready to go home. Of course it doesn't help that Yoli was telling her they would be going home in advance of Sunday's flight ... and then it was cancelled. So she had to explain that to Jadzia, who probably doesn't really understand.

Yoli has interviewed her mom on tape for our family history project. She says that her mom surprised her, talking in great detail and sharing many memories from when she was young. There were stories that Yoli had not heard before.

Yoli called American Airlines and got bad news this morning: her flight had been cancelled. She rescheduled for a flight that will leave Sept. 24. Basically, she's going to be there 10 more days.

The rhetoric in Bolivia is not ratcheting down. It's getting worse and worse, with president Evo Morales now calling the violence in the country a fascist coup attempt.

He has imposed martial law on the province of Pando, flown in troops to restore order, and declared Pando's governor a wanted man, blaming him for the violence there. The death toll in Pando now has reached 28.

There's a good story on how this is playing out for everyday people in Santa Cruz, which is where Yoli is staying.

I will try to provide more information as I get it. Please pray that Yoli and the girls and our friends and family will continue to be safe ... and that flights will resume as soon as possible.

Yoli sent me the following update, which I am posting for her:

Well, I'm at Eliza's today. Boris wanted to learn how to make a lemon pie. But it seemed to me he wasn't that interested. I don't know, maybe it's just I'm so tired here. I can't wait to go back home.

My mom cooked "Sabalo" fish, which was good. I made the lemon pie, with little help from Boris, but we haven't eaten it yet. Jadzia and Ludi are napping, but Jadzia has a fever. I brought the video camera, so I hope I can film my mom later.

Things here in Santa Cruz, well in Bolivia don't look good. I saw in the news today that all international flights are cancelled, at least till this weekend. But we'll see what happens. I hope everything goes back to normal. What worries me is that one of Jadzia's medicine might run out if we stay here longer.

Tonight my friend Dora should have her baby delivered by c-section. I'm going to call her home tomorrow and find out how she is and I'll try to visit her.

Despite the events roiling parts of Bolivia, Yoli and the girls are doing just fine. Yoli taught three days of cake decorating classes for girls at El Jordán, and she also spent some time teaching quilling techniques.

She's been spending a lot of time with family, too, including showing some of her sisters how to bake American treats like chocolate chip cookies. She said the batch she did down there was better than any she has made up here! That's a real reversal, because usually her American recipes don't turn out so well down there -- ingredients like baking powder aren't formulated the same, and the heating in ovens is inconsistent.

Jadzia is speaking Spanish almost exclusively, but there are a few English speakers around who engage her (plus Marco has been trying to practice some English on her). I talked with her for a bit on the phone yesterday and she sounded pretty good.

Just a quick update on the Bolivia situation:

• Eight people were killed yesterday in fighting in Bolivia's Pando province. The protests and violence led American Airlines to cancel all flights through Saturday. Flights should resume Sunday, just in time for Yoli. But we'll have to keep an eye on that.

• Evo's decision to boot the American ambassador led the U.S. to (obviously) do the same to the Bolivian ambassador. Then Chavez joined the fun and deported the American ambassador in Venezuela. As Jim Shultz points out, this diplomatic tit-for-tat comes at a time when Bolivia sorely needs diplomatic intervention from the outside.

• There's little hope for peace. In fact, Miguel at Pronto passed along this bit of news from La Razon: A pro-Evo civilian group called the "Poncho Rojos" are mobilizing to recapture the government installations captured two days ago by the "civicos."

The news out of Bolivia, specifically the eastern provinces of the country, is bad. Civic groups in Santa Cruz have taken over almost all public institutions, including the headquarters for the phone company Entel. You can get a very good summary of the events at the weblog Pronto.

Bolivia's president has responded by accusing the U.S. ambassador of fomenting the breakup of Bolivia and ordered his expulsion from the country. As Miguel points out in the Pronto weblog entry I cited above, if the U.S. ambassador is indeed expelled, it will be the only time a Latin American nation has ever done so.

The Bolivian newspaper La Razon says that American Airlines has suspended flights to the country. I am trying to get in touch with AA to confirm if this is true. Yoli and the girls were set to fly home Sunday night. I'm not sure what our options will be if AA is no longer flying to and from Bolivia.

I spoke yesterday with Yoli for about an hour on the phone. She had been aware of the Entel takeover, but beyond that didn't know much of the news. It hadn't affected her much, beyond a big delay in the arrival of the buses she needed to get from place to place. Most of this seems to have taken place downtown. El Jordán is between the third and fourth rings, while Yoli's family live mostly on the eastern side of the city near the river Piraí, all relatively distant from the city center.

Anyway, please pray for this situation.

First, that there would be peace. It appears that much worse violence could be at hand in various parts of the country, and I hope that can be averted.

Second, that Yoli and the girls, our family, and our friends in Bolivia would be protected. And that Yoli and the girls could return home safely and in a timely fashion.

UPDATE: American tells me that they cancelled some morning flights, but that the evening flights from tonight through the weekend are still scheduled. I'll just have to keep checking and make sure that doesn't change.

My journey home Saturday was pretty uneventful. The flight from Bolivia was packed.

When I left Santa Cruz, it was still in the midst of a surazo, or a cold front caused by winds from the south. The last day and half or so were somewhat chilly, but I got by with two layers of short-sleeved shirts and a pair of blue jeans.

These are the last few photos we took in Bolivia before I returned home. Yoli will be taking more photos during this next week, but may not be able to post them until she is back in St. Louis. in the meantime, here you go:

Ludi has been using a bucket as a hat the last few days.

Today is my final day in Bolivia. Early tomorrow I'll head to the airport and get home Saturday night. But Yoli and the girls will remain here for another week. During that time Yoli will be posting some entries about what they experience (but probably not photos).

This afternoon we'll be visiting Don Hector again to do more video interviewing, plus I'll scan some more family photos. After that we'll visit Eliza and Boris to say goodbye to them and Dona Lucila. Also, they have some family photos I'll try to scan as well.

Then it's packing time. Nothing like packing the night before the flight... that's the only way to travel!

Thursday morning we decided to take the girls to visit Santa Cruz's Plaza.

A couple years ago they sort of revamped the plaza. They removed many trees and made other changes. At the time it didn't look so good, but now that the trees have grown back it looks much better. There are also city guards all over the place who keep away street vendors and vagrants. This is somewhat controversial, but I suppose it does make the Plaza more inviting for tourists.

Mmmm, milk in a bag ...

Thought you might get a kick out of this. First time I've seen this particular seating arrangement in Bolivia.

We spent all day Monday at the BioCentro Guembe, a new tourist destination in a suburban area near Santa Cruz called Urubó.

Some tidbits about Leya's two quinceaneras this weekend.

Went to see Tio Adonai to record some of his stories and memories. Unfortunately we only got through 2 questions before we ran out of tape, and I had forgotten to bring the new tape along with us. So we'll have to go back and tape him again sometime later. We are also planning to do this for Yoli's dad, and possibly her mom. I think it will be very valuable to us, our children, and indeed the rest of the family to have these sorts of stories on video, told in first person by the people who lived them out.

We made it to Cotoca. It only took us a few years.

Cotoca is a little town outside of Santa Cruz that is known for its arts and crafts market on Sundays. It is also home to the Virgen de Cotoca, which draws religious pilgrims from the surrounding area to come and receive blessings.

Yoli and I had been meaning to visit pretty much every time we've been in Bolivia (I think this is my 7th trip). But something always comes up, either with our schedule or with regional politics. The last few years there had been fights going on that deterred us from visiting.

But this year, everything was pretty much peaceful, so we finally made it out.