Snarky Behavior

Reader’s Note: My friend Katie is working on a prolonged water sanitation project in Mizque, Bolivia as part of the Peace Corps. She sent me a wonderful birthday care-package and included a really interesting “day in the life” note that I asked to share on my blog, and she obliged. Really worth the read for four important reasons: 1) to get a snapshot of what the Peace Corps is all about, 2) to gain an appreciation for just how suspect the third world is toward United States foreign policy in Latin America, 3) to gain an appreciation for how democracy works in a small, multi-ethnic, underdeveloped country like Bolivia, and 4) to gain a perspective for the challenges of development work. It’s sweethearts like Katie that make me resent my sometimes cold-hearted professors who call us “modern day missionaries” and describe the world through a pessimistic, “realist” lens.  The contents of this Web site are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.

Dear Jon,

Happy Birthday! Hope you’re celebrating al estilo New York City – though maybe in grad school birthday festivities consist of giving yourself a much needed nap? Well, I hope you treat yourself in some way – and I know I’ll be toasting you with chicha from Mizque!

I had a super interesting/hard day today in Mizque – started writing your b-day note while processing the whole experience and then thought it was just too intense for a nice little update. Long story short, I sat through a long afternoon of reuniones at our town Central Campesina where dirigentes from all over the communities in our municipality were gathered to decide whether our alcalde was cumplir‘ing with his mandate, or whether, midway through his term, he should be kicked out and replaced by someone more “effective” from within his MAS (Evo’s) party.

I showed up to support the mayor 1) because a change midterm would delay all the projects I’m trying to finish this spring and 2) if this mayor goes, so does my AMAZING counterpart, the Jefe de Obras Publicas in the alcaldia, a dude who’s widely recognized within PC to know his shit, especially when it comes to sustainability and the social/community development side of projects — a rarity among Bolivian engineers.

Anyway, it turned into a draining afternoon as different groups presented on the state of the nation/department/town etc., and of course TONS oftime was spent praising the donations and coordination from Venezuela/Cuba/Japan (we also have JICA volunteers in Mizque), and then criticizing America repeatedly for having plans within the CIA to kill indios or for our desire to see Evo kicked out of office (of course in order to prove I didn’t feel the same I felt I had NO option but to sign the petition being passed around to give Evo the next Nobel Peace Prize :) )

So, it was just a frustrating few hours of feeling bashed and isolated among people I typically think of as companeros. I kept getting teary-eyed and walking around outside to esacep all the accusations a bit– and of course every friend/dirigente I chat with NEVER saw the connection between the criticisms and me! The just keep coming up to me and chatting about projects or their kiddos — and when I bring up how awkward I felt during the speeches they remind me how much I know they care for me and cuidar me as a Mizquena, but to think of how badly/isolated Bolivians must feel when THEY go abroad to work and are always treated like poor second-class citizens…

Well, I guess that put me in my place, b/c it really is true — PEOPLE in Mizque couldn’t be more humble, generous and supportive of me and my work, so I need to get over the fact taht I don’t get much recognition publicly b/c of the poor US image.

Development work really is thankless most of the time — and I’m used to being so well supported and loved and thanked in life that leaving all that reassurance to live and work amongst people who maintain pretty steely characters and don’t like your country can be really frustrating. Luckily the work itself is usually its own reward — like seeing kids washing their hands with soap for probably the first time in their lives or teaching my women’s organization how to make a meal that has neither papas nor arroz in it and instead uses lots of colorful veggies and fruits, and the actually LIKE it.

I definitely feel pretty lucky to get to do this work in Bolivia — especially in my 20s when I could be stuck doing clerical work in some office 9-5 back home :) And it’s always validating to read someone like Jeffrey Sachs and check out all the different Millenium Goals that PC work gets to work toward. I agree with the importance of providing basic services and infrastructure ESPECIALLY in sanitation in places like Bolivia where people are so poor and dispersed (this country’s geography really does make development SO DIFFICULT!)

And I like all of Sachs’ ideas on debt relief and more aid and economic reforms within developing countries. What still consistently frustrates me (and I’m not sure if he addresses this at all b/c I’m just halfway through) is how you get people working an a developing country like Bolivia on a well-thought out plan that they can actually follow through on to better their economic situation/daily life. Because, to me, it seems like other countries could donate more $ to places like Bolivia to use to develop their basic services, infrastructure, shitty education system, etc. but if there’s no plan from them on what to do with the newly educated/urban populace (here they mostly become taxi drivers or leave the country to work in Spain/US/Argentina, etc.) or how to keep people from leaving their communities once all those basic service projects are finished (it’s super commonplace to finish a bano/water system project here just as all the most active/good leaders of the community leave to make more money in the city or abroad), then I just don’t see how things will get much better any time soon.

And I really don’t see organized leaders with good plans for moving people out of poverty in meaningful or lasting way in Bolivia — though I do think Evo DOES promote a lot of good efforts like the Cuban “Yo Si Puedo” literacy campaign and the attempts to keep private investment in the country while trying to nationalize some aspects of industry — especially the gas — so that Bolivia isn’t just pillaged of its natural resources as it always has been.

But yeah, like you said — other industries need to be developed for when oil/gas is no longer as pricey of a commodity. And I just don’t see many plans being developed that are working toward long term goals of growing Bolivia on competitive footing to deal with the rest of the world? Well, I hope building rainwater catching tanks makes some difference!

Anyway, I guess my 2nd attempt at a letter today once again isn’t very birthday-esque. Just nice to be able to share some of the frustrating/tough bits of life here with someone who actually cares and is probably up way too late most nights reading and thinking about all these development issues.

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XOXO

Katie

P.S.

The majority voted to keep our mayor in office — yay! They were there till 4 am discussing everything, good thing I gave up at dinnertime :)

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Cool, huh? Katie’s the best…