Living Life

I’ve now finished my fifth(!!!) week in the office, and loving the work I’m doing, but I’ve been told my first real update should give a better picture of what life in La Paz is really like. I promise I have been going to work and getting things done, but this post will cover my experience outside of IJM.

Navigating a City in a Valley

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La Paz is in the mountains, so I’m in love, and it stretches up and through different peaks, housing more than 3 million people throughout the entirety of it. Luckily, the minibuses, taxis, and teleferico (gondola system) help get people through all of it. While I either take a mini bus or walk to and from work, my saving grace during rush hour is the teleferico which speeds me over the traffic. If I’m staying within the city center (where I live), it can get me close to where I need to be in about ten minutes. If I’m going to a far side of La Paz it can take up to 40, but with views like the ones pictured, I don’t complain.

The picture above doesn’t do justice to the hill that I was walking down when I took it, but here you can see a corner stand where an intern bought me a tucumana my first day in the office. My coworkers were livid when they found out he exposed me to street food so early in my stay and continue to blame him for my weak stomach (even though every intern’s body takes a while to adjust). That being said, the empanada-style snack was delicious. Picture a pastry filled with potato, chicken, vegetables and egg. You typically want to eat it near the stand so that you can continue to add different sauces as you eat.

If you look near the red minibus pictured above on the right (the 15-passenger van that you hail like a taxi and hop on and off anywhere on the route), you’ll see two umbrellas sticking up by the graffiti covered building. This is one of the stands where you can buy snacks, drinks, and random necessities (like data plans). I’m not an economics major, but I’m always amazed how they all survive since they are everywhere (there is another one across the street, one right behind me when I took the picture, and about 100 feet down the street from the tucumana stand). The prices are pretty well controlled, but it is not uncommon for owners to try and raise the prices for us foreigners. We often get charged “the gringo tax” (when the owner assumes we won’t notice or care if they raise the price).

Besides power lines everywhere, there have been a few things that remind me I’m living in an underdeveloped area. In some areas, it isn’t uncommon for water to stop running (one of the worst situations was when I was sick and had to wander the city looking for public toilets since the ones at the apartment weren’t flushing). We can’t flush our toilet paper, drink the water from the tap, and I’m just now experimenting with eating different vegetables (even when washed they have a tendency to impact American stomachs), but it’s been fairly easy to adapt to thus far.

Friends and Adventures

There are two other IJM interns who have helped me adjust to life here in La Paz. They arrived in January and will leave in December, so we’ve been filling our time together with the hikes and adventures they haven’t yet done. The expats that we hang out with are a fun mix of people from the States, South America, Africa, and Europe, and we help each other navigate the culture and act as a family when it’s hard to be away from home. We celebrated Mexican Independence day with authentic mole (it took them all day to cook) and when I got my first round of serious sickness they helped me to the pharmacy and replenished my Powerade stock when I couldn’t myself.

I did finally go to frisbee practice which has been a great way to continue to improve my Spanish and build relationships with Bolivians. They are very patient as I continue to adjust to trying to be active at 12,000ft and remind me to take breaks and drink more water as we play. It’s frustrating, but when the views from the sideline are as beautiful as they are, I can’t complain.

Work

While I’m thankful for the communities and extracurricular activities, I do spend most of my waking hours in the office. My coworkers are having a fun time continuing to encourage me to use my Spanish and teaching me more about Bolivian culture (I’ve been called Ron Swanson since I’m so blunt and direct in comparison to their affirming and repetitive communication style).

I found out the other day that sarcasm is considered very rude and frowned upon… so you can pray that I somehow learn how to communicate without it as I improve my second language.

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Thank you for continuing to follow along, I promise the next update will touch on more of what IJM Bolivia is up to. In the meantime, you can follow their Facebook page here and/or sign up to receive prayer updates for them here (a great way for weekly updates on what is happening in the office).