HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Dear family and friends,
We would like to wish everyone the very best for 2008! At 4 pm Bolivian time I am not quite sure yet what will happen here tonight at 12. Many are planning to visit the main square for fireworks and partying, if it is not raining. More will be revealed tomorrow...
This picture shows us before entering a mine in Potosi; we looked quite different by the time we got out!

Bonno´s Christmas present

Since last November Bonno has been playing with the Andean Music group Los Masis. They practice at least once a day and during the last week they have also done a daily performance. They played in hospitals, retirement homes, churches and made an appearance on local television. Bonno has loved the whole experience and is so involved with the group that his Christmas wish was a Tarabuco poncho. This is a hand-woven woolen poncho which men in small towns and villages wear and is worn in some of the Masis performances. The first photo shows Bonno trying on a poncho in Tarabuco, the second is of Bonno with his own poncho and very long hair!

Happy Christmas!!

Hope everyone has enjoyed a great Christmas! We had a fantastic time! We bought a large branch of a pine tree, which we decorated with home made biscuits and sparkling lights, and a nativity scene, which includes many fluffy lamas. In the morning we went to the Cathedral for mass, which was incredibly lively as well as moving. The congregation was busy answering mobiles, catching up with old friends and receiving blessings for cribs, toys and themselves. The message of peace seemed particularly poignant after all that happened in Sucre a month ago. There was lots of energetic Andean Christmas music performed by the group Los Masis, which included Harriet and Bonno. I was very proud! Afterwards the band paraded through the streets to return to their headquarters for a party. Henry contributed by saluting the Christ child on his bagpipes. Harriet´s (Henry´s student who is here as the boys´ personal tutor) parents were visiting Sucre and we had a lovely meal together which slightly resembled an English Christmas lunch with chicken, sprouts and bread sauce. We didn´t manage a Christmas pudding but Harriet and her father cooked a delicious chocolate torte.

Festive Times

Christmas decorations have now gone up around Sucre (one week beforehand) and we are getting in the festive mood! Sinterklaas brought us a great box of goodies for the Fifth of December when Dutch children receive their presents from the Saint. These included pepernoten (tiny spicy biscuits), marzipan, chocolate coins and cigarettes. We had great fun when two of Henry´s cumpadres from Kalinkera, Paulino and Ascenzio, came to Sucre and stayed for a couple of days. They had never seen anything like it, but loved them. Moreover Paulino had never been to town before with all its mod-cons such as cars, showers, tables, chairs and cutlery and it was a pretty nerve wrecking experience to him! The idea of chocolate cigarettes must have been quite absurd to them, but made for a nice cultural exchange. I imagine they had many stories to tell when they got back to the village!

Paulino was badly injured in a fight two years ago leaving the left side of his body paralysed. Fortunately he is now able to walk again, but moving his left arm and leg remains difficult. Henry took him to several specialists to see if anything could be done. As doctors don´t speak Quechua, the only language in places like Kalinkera, and charge for all their services, as a national health service does not exist, Paulino and Asenzio very much depended on Henry´s help. The consultants at the hospital did not think that there was much they could do at this stage and he ended up with acupuncture treatments. We hope this will make a difference!

Salar of Uyuni

As life was unsettled in Sucre, schools were closed and it was difficult to get on with work, we decided to undertake one of our planned trips. We started in Potosi and visited one of the colonial mines which is still operating today. We were all impressed by the physical duress the workers are under. For ten hours a day, or more, miners crawl through minute, unprotected, passages carrying weights of over 50kg. During this time they have no food and only coca leaves keep them going. Separating minerals is done chemically in large open bubbling containers, which are manned by completely unprotected workers. After just an hour in the mines we came out dripping with sweat and barely able to breath from the dust! To perk us up we were allowed to hold a burning dynamite stick before it went off five minutes later into a massive explosion!

We went on to the Salar of Uyuni, a massive salt lake in the south of Bolivia; a tremendous experience standing on this vast white plain, which looks like ice, in the heat of the midday sun! One part of the Salar was covered in rain creating the appearance of a giant mirror or flying through the clouds. Close to the Salar, at altitudes of about 4km, are several lakes in which flamingos live. The chemical composition of one, the Laguna Colorado, gives it a red appearance, whereas the Laguna Verde turns a beautiful turquoise green when stirred by the wind. At about 4700 are steaming geysers and endless deserts, in which it has not rained for 30 years. A magical environment, which to me was also slightly menacing, as I would wake up in the middle of the night feeling suffocated from altitude and to attend to a vomiting Laurence.

Sucre Riots

Last year the first indigenous president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, started the process of creating a new constitution, which is to recognise the rights of the indigenous population. The consequences are tremendous and the opposition is fierce. Many fear that Morales is about to turn Bolivia into a communist state, in which the Bolivian flag will be replaced by the indigenous flag and people will lose all private property to the state. In Sucre the opposition concentrated on the right to reopen the issue of capital status, which is at the moment shared between La Paz and Sucre. For many weeks the inhabitants of Sucre participated in vigils and marches to bring the issue to the fore. The University played a key role and declared that students who did not take part would lose their right to sit exams, whereas members of staff were at peril of losing a months´ salary or even their job. Two weeks ago (23.11.07) the crisis escalated. The campesinos (the rural population) marched on Sucre to demand that constitutional reforms were no longer delayed by the discussions on capital status. It was said that the campesinos were about to block all routes into Sucre and that water supplies would also be cut off. The police who were placed in charge of protecting the members of the constitutional reform committee and campesinos came under attack. Three people died in the riots that followed, the police station was burned and looted, and eventually all police officers were forced to retreat to Potosi. Prisoners were set free and for a week the city was without police. For three days living in Sucre was a frightening experience. For much of the time we were locked in our house, while the streets were filled with teargas. Angry mobs went around day and night chanting, shouting and blocking the roads with flaming car tyres. After the retreat of the police the town calmed down and things went back to normal. New talks on the constitution have now been opened. The photo above was taken from our balcony during the riots.