Bribing Bolivia

So, my dear friend Maria says it is time for a new post, and she is most certaintly right, for there is much to tell about the adventure that is my life here in Peru. Catherine and I needed to renew our visas in order to stay in Peru. When we arrived in Peru, we got tourist visas that were good for 90 days. We are in the process of applying for a resident visa that is good for one year, but while were waiting for that, we needed to get another 90 days or face serious financial penalties. Since we realized this only about a week before our visas expired, we had to quickly plan a trip to Bolivia, the closest country where we could cross the border. What we really only had to do was cross the border into Bolivia, get our passport stamped, and then reurn to Peru to get a new 90 day visa. Sounds like a process that should only take about 30 minutes.....WRONG! What we thought would only be a day long trip turned out to be the worst three days of our lives. First we figured out that the shortest amount of time possible that wecould do this in was in 3 days. We left Cusco around 10 p.m. Friday night (after I realized I had forgot my passport and had to frantically take a cab back to our apartment to get it before the bus left us). After driving around Cusco for about 2 hours (for reasons we still don´t know), we were on are way to Bolivia. With only a few short stops to drop off other passengers, we arrived at the Peru-Bolivia border around 9 a.m. the next morning. There were lots of long lines and a bunch of waiting in Peru but we had no problems and soon enough we were in Bolivia waiting in line to get our visas. To make what could be a very long story short, we get into the office and see lots of sign with a list of seven requirements for American citizens to enter Bolivia, none of which we actually had brought with us. We weren´t sure what was going to happen to us, but we hoped for the best. What actually happened was the worst. We were taken into a back room where immigration officials explained to us that there really wasn´t a whole lot we could do because we had already left Peru and we couldn´t enter Bolivia without a credit card, a copy of a roundtrip ticket, a copy of our hotel reservation, $100, a copy of our yellow fever vaccination, etc. We explained that we were only coming for the day so we could get back to Peru and renew our visa, and that we weren´t touring the country, so we would never have a round trip ticket and a bunch of the other things, but didn´t seem to matter much. We were stuck, without a country to accept us. So when we asked what we could do, you can imagine what the resonse was...MONEY, they told us. How much were we willing to pay to be able to enter Bolivia for less than 24 hours. Well, we paid, and it cost us more than just money. We now have a visa to enter Bolivia that is good for 5 years, but at the cost of many of the values that we hold in high regard. I have spent a lot of time working for fairness and equality, trying to make people see that corruption and abuse of power is what is wrong with the world and is what causes the poverty and wars in so many countries and I have now become a part of that system. It was an experience I would like to forget, but it has also reminded me that there is still a lot of work to be done. We survived our trip and have sucessfully renewed our Peruvian visas, but we do have to return to Bolivia to pick up our resident visas around the end of March, that is if they don´t find out that we are actually criminals and obtained our Bolivian visas illegally. I trust this information to all of you and ask you to remember that I am actually trying to do a good thing here, so please think twice before turning me in.

Newsletter Article

Here is an article I recently wrote for the Good Shepherd Newsletter.

“Excuse me, do you know where I can buy masking tape?”
My whole volunteer experience here in Cusco, Peru can be summed up in the implications of this simple question. My time in Cusco has brought on many feelings of insecurity, unfamiliarity with my surroundings and a general feeling of being lost that can be represented by this question.

My community member Catherine and I wanted tape to hang things on the wall. Now at home, all I would have to do is go to my kitchen and get some. If it wasn’t there, I knew probably at least 10 places where I could go and buy some, very easily. Here in Cusco, however, things are a little different. We had no clue where we could go to find it. So, first we tried to call people to see if they could tell us where to buy tape, but no one answered. Then our landlady said that she would show us to a place where we could get some. However, we got there and they didn’t sell it. So we were left standing in the rain, with no idea where to go to find tape.

This is a common feeling, having no idea where to find the simplest things, no idea where to go. Not even a clue if I should turn left or right because nothing is familiar. Frozen in the street, trying to remember the reasons why I wanted to come here.

When I am fed up with not being able to find a store that sells the tape, or hangers, or a cooking pot, when I am asking myself why I am here if all I do is continue to make mistakes and not understand what is being said to me, when I feel like all I want to do is hop on the next flight home to my mom, I remember the reasons I don’t just throw in the towel and return to my easy, privileged life in United States where there is a store that sells tape on every corner.

They are Florencia, Lourdes, Wilfredo, Manuela, Urbana, Tina, Magdalena, Ana, Oswaldo, Maruja, Laura, Lucila, Sergio, Madeleyne, Yanet, Eliza, Efrain, Isabel, Fredy, and Cintia.

These are the people I am privileged to work with everyday. They have opened their lives to me. They are patient with my constant questioning, always help me to correct the mistakes I make in Spanish and have made me their friend. If all they need me to do is sit and talk with them, to joke around, to offer advice, or to just listen, ok. I can do that.

I know that Maruja always waits to the last minute to do her homework, so I know that Sunday nights, she will need help. Urbana doesn’t like cucumbers, so when Sister Janet isn’t looking, I put hers on my plate at lunch. If I’m ever bored, I know that Florencia will always have something to talk about and she’ll make me my favorite juice, a banana smoothie.

We have only known each other for about three months, but we have created strong relationships. They trust me with their pasts, their troubles, their secrets. I am honored to have been given that kind of trust and I know that I can trust them in the same way.

I still haven’t figured out where to buy tape, but I have a lot more people in my life now that I can ask, and I know that they will always point me in the right direction.