Estoy en Bolivia

As I wrote last time, I've been crazy busy. Right now I'm sitting in Santa Cruz, Bolivia far far away from the office and my responsiblities in Haiti. It's great! I have time to breath and post to my blog. So, over the next week or so, I'll be posting lots of info about the past couple months because I actually have time to do it!!

To the most pressing question---why Bolivia? The real answer is work. I'm here for regional meetings which will take place all of next week, but I came a bit early to visit some programs here that are similar to what we are doing in Haiti.

I was not so excited about coming- mostly because I didn't want to pack and I was not looking forward to the overnight flight smushed into economy class. The forces that be also threw up a few road blocks to make getting here a bit of a challenge.
1. President Preval did not follow the recent time change, so now we are in Haiti Standard Time. My assistant realized this might mess up my flight times, but alas everything there went according to plan.
2. Hugo Chavez (president of Venezuela) decided to visit Haiti. This caused two roadblocks. First, there was a demonstration outside the airport that was on the verge of violence causing a huge traffic jam. Second, Chavez decided to land his plane when my plane was to be leaving causing a significant delay.

But, I'm here now without any major incidents. Tomorrow I'm heading to an area called Moro Moro, which is somewhere out in the country side. I'll be taking the bus; but, this could be a bit of an adventure. Last week someone from the organization attempted twice to take it. There were mudslides and he ended up turning around on the bus the first time, and walking 12 hours the second. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.