Crazy is Loco

I can’t say that I’ve experienced a time in my life when I’ve deserved to be mad…. or at time that I’ve deserved to fault situations when I know they are much grander than I. I can be sad, annoyed, frustrated, challenged, confused…but mad doesn’t figure. Picture traffic/road blockade/accident build-up that extends for more than a mile—your trip becomes tardy (great Spanish word “tardar”) 1.30 hr on top of your already 2 hour excursion (temp 90 plus). Picture your one day off, your prepping to leave for holiday, and the phone call you receive from a crying family, who lost their son to a life-long disease and a life-long of surgeries that didn’t work. Your asked to respond, go, pay, resolve NOW. Picture all of this, on top of everything else, and ask yourself where your feelings would be left to reside?

For me, I stay cool and collect and be thankful for each moment, no matter how long it takes, eventually passes calmly. The police, the road blocks, the phone calls, the tasks that never end, are a bother. And yeah I react within… and sometimes I worry there isn’t a crevice profound enough to handle my deep breathing. But instead of being mad, I do my best to assess and humor each situation as it comes. The road mess was the fault of a scary collision on this very scary road between jungle home and city home. I wasn’t a part of this collision and very could have easily been. I exited my car like everyone else, a sunkissed gringita with shades being the only contrasting similarity, surveyed the situation (like I love to do) and then joked with the guy next to me in regards to his comment “Hay que pedimos Autonomia, no mas.” Thousands of people, no way out… why, it’s the perfect time to star the political revolutionJ. Ps. The intense heat in the tropics leaves the Crucenos (people that live here) bien tranquilo.. it’s too hot to be violent, so they smile, joke and throw huge parties instead. They also do this on the highway and convert 2 lanes of two way traffic into four lanes of one way traffic, just because.

The phone call was the fault of some really down on luck people, who don’t have any money and who now don’t have the son they thought they’d always have. Yeah I could be mad at this Foundation for not prepping me on anything, but giving me authorization and responsibility to deal with all situations and deal with them in the correct way without ever knowing how—and knowing no one ever established “the correct” way in the first place. Yeah I could be mad that the Dr. Douglas boss man is in the countryside somewhere unable to be contacted. I could waste time with those energies. Or I could be thankful that I am part of a group that can and does help people, and that even if I don’t know what I’m doing I can say yes to the secretary that wishes to come with me to give $100 dollars to the family of the diseased, in the name of the foundation, by the name of me doing but now knowing what exactly I’m doing. I was about to go relax and pack but instead I hopped in a cab, found this family, paid my condolences and paid the family with as much help as I could. Of course it was a hard visit. His body was there in a white casket surrounded by these pedestals of purple neon lighting leading to a crucifix statue in the center. A teary eyed family sat in buggy room, with nothing but a really sweet casket. They thought their son was getting better. They thought he’d be leaving the hospital, not that they’d be leaving the hospital with his corpse not knowing how, and not having the resources, to take the next step.

I received from my parents and from a few good friends, the advice to not let this job overtake me. And to not let this said craziness envelope whatever saneness I have left. When I stop, I feel really sad. When I stop, I feel a little scared and a little too overwhelmed but too overworked to realize. This stopping doesn’t really happen too much. And yeah if I stop too much I’ll break down. I am going to take this advice to heart… and I think I’ll learn to experience, process and reflect at the same time.

In English, surmised from our phrasing, we are sane to start and driven crazy by the
situations that surround us. In Spanish, it’s the opposite way around. “Me vulve loca”… It returns me crazy.” We are born into a crazy world, sane only when we understand it, and returned crazy again we realize there are some things we’ll never understand.

I say it’s crazy, to all of you it seems cryptic. I try to tell my mom.. yeah mom I know, it’s crazy…but man how lucky am I that when I come home or when clinic ends I have like 3 hours to straight up chill (if in jungle where no one can call me and I’m too far to jump up and give the help that someone needs) and to write, gchat, drink filtered water, joke with Nico and the two girls from Palacios that live here (if in city where unfortunately people can call and I can jump to help at any moment). I thought this was a super reasoned theory. She reminded me- yah Rae, that’s great, but a 21 hour work day (my dreams aren’t quite my own yet)… does sound a lil insane. My favorite part of the week is sitting down to write… I remind myself what I learned, what I saw, and take the time to ask myself how I felt.

We’ll see kids. I’m calm, I’m good, I’m humbled. I'm also frustrated enough that I may demand some changes. I’ll get better at separating work from life and being able to help while still reserving energy for the days to come. Bearing that all passes calmy, I leave tonight for Cocha and will vacae until Jan 2. When I come back I am gonna force Dr. Douglas boss man to sit down with me and figure this out… and figure out how we can make all of this more efficient and less taxing and enable me and others to help without feeling unrecognized and lost in the process. I’ve talked with a lot of people involved with the clinic and pretty much on all ends people are devoted, and willing and able, but ultimately tired and in need of new ways… if I can, I’ll make this my “special project.” The help would be better as a result.

Oh yeah and Golpe de Estado (Coup d teat, ie. Poitical craziness pending) could be scheduled for first of the year… so y’all know I’m on my toesies and I’ll keep u updated in the process. Love and happy season of no work, no school, fam and good eats, and some festive bailando.

En Serio? Eso es asi.

hola chicos.

trabajo carajo! damn the man.. looks like life finally caught up to me and for the first blog experience i am feeling lost for words. before i was thinking about how incredible it is that my processing thus far has been displaced over space and time. i thought it was pretty cool to continue blindly and without fear in life, and reflect and realize in post- script ONLY.

today... the space and time collided. it had to happen at some point. of course as always i am fine, happy, still joking, and well grounded (helped along by the weight of lots of AWE). we can leave it at... i had an interesting, long day. i'm not really sure that i learned any lessons, but let's hope in the 12 hr period i grew my first thick skin (of the many i will need) .

long short nut cracker of it: this morn and then again this delightful eve, i was formally introduced to my Gringita presence and its grand implications. yes i am white. yes that means that most likely means i have money. or that one could suppose i have no idea what's going on and will give people money if they ask for it. yes that shouldn't mean that a person should purposefully bumper my car with his, causing quiet the crushing sound and causing a small dent a plastic thing to be ripped from my car. the guy eyed me, and then rammed my SUV. it was pretty great. luckily it was a small collision. there was lots of honking and a bit of me feeling kind crappy and like a stupid foreigner in a silly foreign country. anyways... he asked for lots of money, i gave him a fake number instead. so 1 bad thing happened.. but it was a small fix and the secretaries at the clinic were nice and helped me along. i will spare u the details of the rest of my day... but imagine the passing of 11 hours (without returning home, without eating) and being really stoked that i was almost home and that my day (the formal working part--i come home and attend to gringos so "work" never really ends) was almost half over.

so yeah me and suv stoked to be driving home. listening to some sweet music. had to stop at this Auto Body Car shop real quick to pick up my fixed plastic car part. it was about 6:30 pm. I parked the car... went to get the piece and pay the chico... and the sweet end to the day... back at the car a cop awaited me. he was also pretty into me being a gringa and also had pretty high hopes for how much money i'd be willing to give him. i showed him my int drivers permit ... he took it and began to walk away.... i made lots of fun phone calls. followed the crazy cop. chilled in his office with lots of fun male cops. asked them what i did, why they were locking me in their office and closing the Police quarter doors.. u know all the basics. 1 hour passed. the great thing: FINALLY, i didn't need no BLOG writing to realize what the hell was going on in my life. Oh yeah and the best part of the story... yes, The Colonel saved me. Who woulda thunk it:).

it was kind of a crappy day. kind of a lot. kind of a lot of emotions to hold in. but there were great parts of the day too that at the moment i'm a little too tired to explain. and a dog keeps running into me. love and felicidades for lives well lived.

ps.

the "ambulence" = our SUV

and

Yes. emergency. i learned how drive stick.

Bueno, lo que pasa es...

let´s start with the description of an unimaginable life, that for you to read makes no sense and for me to live experiences sense only. The last time I wrote I said i´d be in Los Palacios jungle clinic from wed to sat.. it´s Friday now and i´ve returned to santa cruz twice. Once as an ambulance,minus lights and sirens. And the second time as an intended airport taxi, minus airport as sole destination (Early this morn we learned of political blockades beginning at 3pm in Portachuello a tiny town between Palacios and Scruz. So instead of transporting half my Docs.. I took them all for fear that I wouldn´t be able to get back to the clinic to pick them up late Sat. Tomorrow is a big day for SCruz autonomy. There is a referendum meeting close to our Scruz mansion. There will prob be lots of action in the streets.. but luckily we will be safe and sound inside the casa.

Second day at clinic: So we´re chilling at the clinic struggling to attend to 60 plus patients from two very rural very poor communities and I learn (thru lots of medical babble) one of our older patients is experiencing a heart attack and must be seen by a hospital immediately. There was a window of 3 hours ending in treatment or fatality. Our docs were slammed and left with only 1 spanish translator. Butttt, this is the job and as the Coordinator I quickly learned I am, well, everything. I either do it, make sure it gets done, or nothing happens. So mike and I jumped in the car with a med resident, the heart attackee, and 1 tag along ulcered patient with a possible absess and off we bumped. Palacios is 2 hrs (the first 20 pure bumpy dirt road) from santa cruz. As we made our way slowly to santa cruz we ate some meat soy patties with rice that our cook had packed us to go, listened to the beatles. Chatted in english… all the while the woman next to me was HAVING a heart attack. And The ulcer absess lady next to her was in a lot pain. Mike dropped me and doc and heart attack off at hospital… I scrambled to figure out the joke that is “emergency” on chill jungle time, checked the woman into the hospital, paid her admittance fee, connected with our doc connection, saw the woman off with lots of attached nodes, and from there our job was done. Our doc´s diagnosis and Mike and I´s in between responsibilities, saved a life… atleast I think that´s what happened. Oh yeah and then we spent the rest of the day dealing with the ulcered lady. At 8 pm on our way back to Palacios we dropped her off at the gate of her pueblo Santa Rosa. Her house was 70 km past that point. We left her there with a friendly villager whom I befriended and in the meantime conviced to find her transport and wait with her to receive it. The day started for me at 7am.

Already I can tell that this is how I will be sensing here. Things will happen. I will respond. I will do without knowing and know without doing. Already what i´ve seen (and not processed) is amazing. On Monday and tues my job is to reunite with patients referred from the jungle communities to the city to see them through, process and pay for every step of their care. This week I connected with a heart patient with complications of chagas, an Elfantitis patient with symptoms never previous seen by the ameri nor boli docs, a woman with infected ulcers needing hospitalization, several urgent uteran patients, a dude with something giant stuck in his ear… I have a notebook. I write down their names and problems and I get lucky when they have phone numbers. And then slowly, one by one, during my 2 days in Santa Cruz, I make sure they are taken care of

Last Monday mike and I made our rounds at my first bolivian hospital experience. The atmosphere was how I can only imagine prison would be. The faces, the diseases, the realities, the results (met and not) are breath taking. Half my time at the clinic I repeat the words of the docs to the patients. In the cases that need further care, I take the Docs words, repeat ´them again to Douglas (our City doc) and then somewhere down the road I transport and assemble those words again in the city setting…with the patient by my side. Oh yea and also these people look-feel-and are treated like complete foreigners when in the city. They have no idea what is going on and half the time don´t realize (and aren´t told) of their medical state and care. Already I see these city docs are talking through me and Mike… looking and touching the patient only to examen them. The patients can´t afford aspirin or a taxi… and then suddenly they experience a ride to the big city (listening to Beatles and English on the way) and treatment for things they didn´t know they had and, if they survive, might never know could have caused their death.

And when all that is over, I waltz back into the clinic residence to dodge bugs, share food, watch movies, smile and listen to boring medicine stories. Here in Santa Cruz I return to a mansion, to gmail, to filtered water (I don´t use the word Mansion lightly), eat the really great food of our housekeep Nico who prepares Cochabamba specialities just for me, chat with her about the princess americans (her words not mine), play with her daughter, go on runs with long-legged med-students, read the Boliv news. All in a days work I suppose.

Oh yes Politics… very bad right now, very iffy knowledge of what will happen in the future. You may have heard the US announced to halt unneccess. Travel to Bolivia.. good until Jan 11. They asked for extreme caution for foreigners already here. I´ll try to explain more tomorrow. Meanwhile, worry not… I´ll be holding out in the mansion, eating great food and chillin, while Santa Cruz will be reigning in their autonomy in a near-by park. Blockades and violence (celebratory and contrary) pending…

Mike leaves tomorrow 10 am. That means after this.. all my stories… well, will actually be… first hand. I have this second hand too. So i think i´m ready.

Love and appreciate you all.

Chalinga "As good as "New"

Hi happy bloggin followers,

With this update please prepare to receive the overwhelming babble of a super overwhelmed me. Since we’ve last webtronically touched base, I feel like my life has changed dramata/stically. One little pea was the Cocha I am sad to have left behind. Two little pea is the Santa Cruz I arrived in Thurs eve. Three little pea is where I stand now: I know and love Bolivs and now I have been introduced to a totally different Bolivia and totally different me. The Jungle and The Coordinator, both were nooooo joke.

It’s only a been a few days (my new existence=time warp) and ohhh my what a few days!? I’ve met lots of gringos. I’ve spoken lots of English. I’ve spoken lots of Spanish and kissed lots of Bolivians and in the meantime surprised a bunch of disconnected gringos and Bolivians with my previous knowledge and love for Bolivian culture and politics. I half live in a gigantic mansion in the city. I have live in a jungle clinic in the middle of nowhere. I have this title: Non-medical Coordinator. I have this really sweet SUV (akin to a new Pathfinder of sorts) … that I am to care for, learn to drive by Sat (it’s a stick), transport med students and residents and patients in emergency situations to and from City and Clinic (which one way is more than a two hour rainforest/rain affected happy yet rough ride). I have this cell phone and from the sound of Mike’s (the current Coordinator’s) it will soon ring off the hook.

I have these things that I am in charge of 1.People (volunteers from the states; doctors, residents, med students and non-med kin---- these people come (usually knowing no Spanish and of nothing that is or will go on) and go (having helped a lot of people and maybe having had time to pick up a cute Bolivian souvenir). I too guide the lives of the People’s stay here (food, accommodations and logistics for their stay, what their purpose is and how they will execute purposefully). 2. Patients and Treatment: help everyone, bolivian and n.american alike, get from point A to point B. I will do this by translating and micromanaging efficiency and feasibility of operation. The docs treat patients but they usually need the Coordinator’s help (to translate and to learn what the capabilities of the clinic are). If the docs prescribe anything bigger than “take these pink pills and come back if you don’t feel better” I have to get involved. I noticed Mike was used for such simple things as: Where are the scissors? The clinic only has so much money and resources so my job is to communicate with Dr. Douglas (Bolivian founder) to figure out what how and when we can “do”. We have a surgery book. I help plan the two surgeries we do a month and balance that how much money we are spending in taking and tracking patients we have referred to hospitals (I also have to figure out which disease is to be referred to which hospital). 3. Communication. I have to keep everyone in the loop and make sure everyone within the loop (while maintaining the coming and going) is tied tightly. 4. Money. There will be lots of it and lots needed and lots to be asked for… and for some odd reason, that all has something to do with me too. 5. Blood, Biopsies: chart their path from clinic to me to fridge to lab.

So basically I will be really charged. In an ideal world I would not be necessary. But when you have really successfully, really philanthropic NAmerican docs who are in cohorts with a really busy really overextended (equally successful and philanthropic) Bolivian doc (who has his own private practice in addition) you delegate all to really cute Middle me. Oh yeah and then your clinic runs by the hands of 2 boliv nurses (so far I have heard that no boliv docs have a permanent presence) Middle me and rotating nmerican med heads. Phew! Confused? Overwhelmed? Wide eyed with a glimmer of sparkle? Somewhere between that, with a pinch of scared shitless and a sprinkle of crazy excited (and eager to put my insane organization and efficiency to work) is maybe how I think I might be feeling.

I know nothing yet. I will continue to know nothing and swim aimlessly for the next few months. I will be left on my own on Sat.. .too figure (or not figure) this out. Mike the current Middle was overwhelmed by the job and is def. ready to call it quits. He had a great time and I’m sure will remain connected to the clinic, but his personality wasn’t the sort AND the job is F-in hard, for everyone and anyone. And two of the Heads are his parents, which makes it harder.

My mom already told me.. “Rae stop thinking. You’ll be great. See how it goes but don’t kill yourself over it.” Obviously I haven’t stopped thinking. I’m gonna try. Working every minute of my next year of life, doesn’t sound ideal… buuttt I have my hopes up for a happy balance.

Ps. Notes on a jungle, Chapter 1: Ants that lance fire upon human feet burn like no other. The same Bombero Ants have equally amazing powers of carrying parts of mother earth bigger than I (scale not accurate, but fascination of exaggeration, right on). When driving in the jungle in the middle of the night, and an cute little owl befriends your SUV…. Let it guide your path, good things will come. White cows I really like, their sense of style is impeccable. Lizards that are giant, iridescent green and with yellow stripes: do they bite? If not, then I say they make good running partners. Moths the size of bats when in your shower, can be caught with a giant pot and lid and released (man power can be done by a friendly doctor).

Ps. Ps. Your health concerns for me… are more or less over. N American med yougins really like problems. Hearing about them and then giving out lots of medications to solve them.

Ps. Ps. Ps. Political situation. Medicine people don’t care about this. They don’t even know some of their flights are scheduled for the date of the vote of the new Constitution (Dec 14) and the following day of the rumored “Golpe de Estado” =overthrow of the government. Again worry not. I have registered with the US Embassy. I really like to read the papers. And nnoooo one in Boliv, whether times be tough or not, wastes time worrying any more than usual.

Snow, Cat, Fried Dough, and Imperalist Good?

Hello friends once evolved from really cute monkeys,

I have some buenas noticias (good news-es) for you: (oh yes and they all involve language so for those really into interesting things (or actual updates) precede no further)

1. I promise to stop (or at least enact a use reduction of) the snow idioms. I received the best email today in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS about what a joy it is to own the keys to a car in snow emergent in MN. As the Cocha sun simueltaneously heated itself to full force, I realized that for you people Stateside, snow is no euphemism. My friends, be well in your snow climates, and remain in hibernation when necessary. As for my environment of snow-like political unrest, I promise to commit to the same. Except for snow days…when I encourage all of us to enter the streets for popsicles and futbol games. Ya.

2. Last night I operated on a cat. That´s right. My sister turned to me seriously with the phrase “Raquelita, ahora vas a aprender. Eso es como nos operaremos un gato.” One of my favorite things about living in a new country and speaking a new language (or rather returning to a country half known), is learning the words of paths well plotted (ie. Everything involved in daily expression that one would have to experience first hand to begin to understand). This is rather ironic, for as my mother Lucy well knows, I´m always been terrible with N.American expressions. I guess it´s because I understand them too well and my mind changes things like ´blush on a rose´ and ´till the cows come home´ to non-traditioanl phrasing that better fits my unique creative craziness Anyways back to cat surgery. My sis is in her fourth year of architecture school. This means that she is constantly constructing cool models and plotting these models by paper. Last night was a marathon moment for a project due this morn. Although I´m not sure how much help I was, I was able to scrub in and help complete some minor blue-print details.Friends, the cat surgery was a success.

3. This morning I learned the world, made up of people we like and some we don´t, is akin to a donut shaped piece of fried bread. My mama and I were discussing someone we really didn´t like (que no nos caye muy bien). She preceeded to share with me how Cochabambinos explain such people. The expression goes: “El mundo es un panuelo.” I guess no matter where u are, the donut shaped pieces of bread will be readily available. This is a good one, because I don´t understand it all. But thinking of people I don´t like sort of like pastries… may lead to very brillaint writings.

4. My BEST note of the day. I didn´t think i´d ever say it, but THANK gawwdd that the black water of imperialism (COCA COLA) is here to save me. I´m not sure if this one is a bolivian expression or pure brilliance of my cocha mother but she said it best “El agua negro de imperialimso me ha salvado.” Last time I was here silly amoeba (which now I can say were prob donut shaped) nutjobs inside made me a semi-sick kid. Last time I was told by doctor friend of the family to a) stop drinking water in the shower and b) drink Coca Cola. This is all to say that again my belly in the past few days has been unleashing a new onset of minor attacks. Fear not, I have decided counter attack time it is. My steady diet of nothing but weird cornstarch and cinnamon concoction and water crackers was not working and tiring to me at best. Today I decided to say a strong BASTA (enough!) to the tummy. Want to know my magic? A saltena famous to Cocha gastronomy (really yummy dough stuffed with chicken, vegetables and juice spices of both) washed down by the one an only, Bolvian Coca Cola. Silly imperialist tactics…how can you say no, when it´s the only thing that keeps stomach harrasement (of a WHOLE country) at bay?

5. Andd…no real updates to share. I´m good. I´m exited for Santa Cruz. I´m happy about joining the blog world and super word happy as a result.

Nice try silly Ducha

La Ducha=Shower

Noticia del día: Don´t worry kids, this morning I didn´t die in the shower. It could have happened, it almost did, but Gracias a Dios my time is not yet up. There were no flashes of light, no grand revelations… just a bit of friction, a shower head that turned from it´s normal coloring to bright bright bright burning orangeish-red, a moment of shock for me, a small fire, and with a puff of smoke the chance on my life subsided sans success. In Bolivia a line of electricity is attached to the line of water that provides your shower, that may be hot and may not… and may shock-release fire upon you, and may not.

Thus, good times continue in the Bolivs. You may be wondering by this point how I´m able to keep such constant updates and indulge in the Gchat pretty much whenever I choose (my ultimate indulgence so far). I´m not sure if I´ve made this clear but I´ve been with my family in Cochabamba for one week, vacationing no mas. I´m here until Thursday night when I will fly to Santa Cruz and await my real new life to begin (this is the jungle, clinic stuff I´ve referred to). For now I´m a master grand chiller, Cochabambina style. My days consist of vamosing wherever my family pleases (to the Cancha (the open market), to stand in lines and get papers signed and stamped, to Baby Showers (which for some reason they say very cutely in English and laugh when I literally translate what it means), to watch the news and make silly half understanding comments, and the rest. Seeing that my fam have their lives to attend to, my hours are pretty free and fun, open and unpredictable… I bop from one diversion to the next and play with each member of the family (including the 3 dogs and the 1 brand new puppy) and all is well. Although I feel a bit more than lost at times, it´s been good to have this down time to transition. Practicing Spanish, practicing Charango (my sweet Andean stringed instrument for which I attended my first class yesterday), practicing my joke telling (and in these when I have they success in spansih, I feel most at home), practing the lyrics of my favorite Reggaeton songs, practicing my stair stepping (by conquering the three thousand steps that lead to the largest Christ statue in the world—which triumphantly overlooks Cocha), oh yes and practicing my really really really horribly intermediate sewing and craft skills with my mama.

Hmm what else? Oh yes! What is red and green and with snow all over? Cochabamba in the middle of summer! Yes Dec. 1st has arrived and for some selfish northamericancentric reason I always thought we Statesians were most super annoying about the whole reigning in of Xmas (of course many too many days before it actually arrives). Sun, watermelons , palm trees and all do not stand as obstacles for the universal obsession with snow figures, and red and green Christmas/winter fun. My mama and her friends are really into creating every winter xmas figurine possible with which to fill literally every inch of their houses (and each with a fake pine xmastree too boot). Yesterday I showed my mama my real skills (she already had the pleasure of seeing my sporty leanings) when she of course assumed I knew how to sew and left me the reindeer head door thing to create on my own. Once I figured out how to untwine the twine and then enter the twine through the needle, and then how to proceed with both… suffice to say the Reindeer head is probably the coolest Bolivia has ever seen. It received quite the laughs from the family but I know well that in the face of such brilliance, one is reduced to the humility of pure smiles.

So I suppose the snow euphamisms continue…. Snow days without snow, Paro Civico or not. Oh yes and the weather here is pretty kickin summer full force. When the sun is out, which is pretty much every day, it gets pretty hot during the day and usually storms peacefully a bit at night until the process starts all over. It´s only been a week and I haven´t really adjusted to sun all the time just yet. I think I may still be in hibernate mode but I´m sure as soon as I step into the jungle, I will be so overwhelmed by the heat and humidity that I will have no choice but to acclimatize without resistance. (oh yes and for those of u in real winter… I send u all my extra warmth

Although I am still feeling maybe I am in the wrong place (in life, in choices, in feelings of displacement and confusion),if this be my wrong… it is a mighty cool place to be. Even as I write this letter quietly at the computer, my fam passes by me saying cute things like ¨Raych, raych rych ” and from my silly sis “Raquelita Despierta! (Rachel wake up!)… “…. Basically they do a very grand job of making sure I never feel lonely or missing- not too say I don´t still find the minutes to think of such things.

As always love to all. Keep in check with this Chavez news that will unfold tomorrow with a vote on Crazy Heads latest constitution. throughout Latin America it will have quite the impact. Oh yes and continuing the vacation activities, I believe we are going to national symphonic orchestra tonight (ohh continue the contradictionsJ) and hopefully to my second Wilster soccer game tomorrow night--- where they will be more police than fans and really cute kisses from father to son upon each goal that favors Wilster).. love it!

Oh yes and the well-informed have requested a - potential of repeat amoeba- update. My stomach continues to dislike a bit the whole Bolivia idea… but I fear not for I have this Mafioso gaggle of people who´ve got my back (with a promise to beat up any parasite that attempts to get me), eso! A village it takes...