Carnival

We just celebrated a 4-day festival here in Bolivia called Carnaval (as it is spelled here). The biggest party takes place in Oruro, but many of the other cities ‘fiesta’ as well. The event kicked off in La Paz with a ‘more tame’ version for kids…that’s when we took part in the festivities, and I can’t even begin to imagine what the other days were like if that day was more subdued. All the people are in the street armed with ‘espuma’ (a foam-like substance that they love to spray directly in people’s eyes), and heavy-duty water guns (which they also like to spray in the eyes). Duane and I commented that the only time the streets in Canada would be as full as that, is if we won the Stanley Cup, and NEVER for 4 days! Pretty much everyone was in costume and there was kind of a parade. This was seriously like Halloween on steroids.

Our city's traffic control...no joke

Trying my hand at the espuma 

Thankfully these little glasses were for sale everywhere. They proved to be useful.

Even in my mouth.

On ‘adults’ day, I’ve heard that things get a bit crazier and people fill water balloons with paint and they throw eggs at each other. They will toss flour at you and then douse you with water. Different cities do different things, but thankfully La Paz is known to be a bit more conservative and lots of these things are prohibited.

Baby in a cage? Why not?

That being said, it’s a super fun and wild holiday where people have the freedom to let loose…much like Songkran festival in Thailand. Amelia was a champ despite being hit in the face with a water balloon and she’s proving to not be so intimidated by large and raucous crowds anymore. She used her tiny little water gun to drizzle water in the direction of others (never quite making it there), and quite liked the espuma. She was most impressed by the costumes and dancing though…something I’m sure she will miss when we return to Canada. 

The streets were bursting with people.

With Sergio, his wife Andrea, and their daughter Natalia.

Sergio and his family.

Profesor de Protesis

I've been trying to figure out why this feels like SO much work. The obvious reasons were always apparent.... I speak a different language.... we have minimal access to helpful prosthetics technology.... I have a time limit... But not until this week did it don on me; I'm teaching two professions at once! Clinical Prosthetist and Prosthetic Technician.  Our new employee Sergio is an educated Fisioterapueta (Physiotherapist), but does not have a speck of prosthetic training. With the situation here, it is necessary for the Prosthetists to demonstrate clinical judgement and too be fully apt in the art of fabrication. This adds up to ALOT of things to learn.

Amongst the daily hands-on training I give, I've also spent many many hours [probably equal to the amount of hrs I give to Bike Polo when I'm back in Canada :( Mosquito Bike Polo ] developing my version of the Coles Notes curriculum for prosthetics.

One of my old carpentry employers used to call these types of notes chicken scratchings

This has resulted in 13 PowerPoints which are being translated into Spanish.

This is an example of one of the PPT slides in Spanish

This week I start to teach them. Esto va a ser muy interesante!

Lake Titicaca

We took a much-needed holiday about 2 weeks ago to Lake Titicaca (yes, it’s a funny name…go ahead and make your best joke). It was our first time outside La Paz since November. We spent our primary night in Copacabana, which is a far cry from Brazil’s Copacabana, but it didn’t keep me from singing the song. We stayed in an amazing accommodation called Las Olas (The Waves), which was a series of cabins situated on the side of a small mountain. All the cabins had a spectacular view of the vast lake. We ate trout, drank coffee, and followed a trail for a spiritual pilgrimage called Calvario, which led to an unobstructed view of Titicaca offering a picturesque panorama of Copacabana and the wild, raw outlying areas. Magnificent.

The resident llama at Las Olas

One of the crosses on the hike up Calvario

View of the bay of Copacabana from the top of Calvario

The next day we boarded a ferry with a bunch of hippies headed to Isla del Sol (Island of the sun). Seriously, I think we were the only people on the ferry without dreads or patchouli. We rode for 2 hours to our destination on the north part of the island. We knew very little about the island, only that we had to spend one night on the north and walk to the south…the north was crazy. When we arrived, we were welcomed by pigs, sheep, donkeys, and very little visible accommodation. A boy led us to a room that Duane couldn’t even stand up in, that held two single beds pushed into two corners. We declined. We ended up staying in the matrimonial suite of a cholita’s home consisting of two double beds, thankfully situated in a quiet part of the town. Eating was another story. We went to a restaurant and ordered spaghetti…unfortunately the two girls who were there before us ate it all. I don’t think the restaurant had anything else. Now, don’t get me wrong…the north is not all bad. There is a beautiful white sand beach and the temperature was considerable warmer…warm enough that Amelia swam in the lake.

Right outside our "hostel" 

Our hostel

My little bean in all her beach loving glory

The next day we arose earlier than the hippies and were able to get some food, and then began our three-hour hike across the island. This was easily the highlight of our trip. We walked on a makeshift path that wound it’s way through the lush greenery, across sandy beaches, up steep, arid hills, through small farming towns, all with grand views of the lake. We ended our trek in a village by the name of Yumani. This village provided a much nicer stay in comparison to our experience in the north. We had a lovely hostel that overlooked the lake, took a walk through the eucalyptus trees, and ate at a rustic but delicious restaurant that sat at 4010 meters. The entire experience was amazing. The island doesn’t have a single car on it, and the noise of La Paz is only pronounced by the profound silence of Isla del Sol. Our evening ended with an impressive display of lightening.

Incredibly productive land. Every available square inch is used for farming

         

La Paz felt cold in comparison to the sunny, hot weekend we had at the island…must have been because we were closer to the sun. I can’t even begin to express the extreme heat one experiences when in direct sunlight…you feel like your pants just might spontaneously combust! The temperature outside will only be about 15 degrees, but that sun will char anything in its path!

Anyway, I would strongly encourage everyone to visit Bolivia. I have never been to another country with such a diverse, extreme, and vast topography. It’s absolutely breathtaking and worth a visit! 

Catching up

These last four months have been a roller coaster of emotions, loneliness, culture shock, busyness, and adventure. I don’t think I’ll ever say that this trip has been easy, but I will always say I’m glad we did it, that we have learned a lot, and have had a great time! We are over halfway…only 2 more months to go…there’s so much to be done, as Duane begins some intensive training sessions at the Center, and as he starts to fade himself out of work there. This transition period will be incredibly challenging for him and for the staff at the Center.

Not much has been said about what is happening there recently, mostly having to do with the fact that any spare time Duane has is filled up with teaching prep and mind preoccupation. About a month ago the Center hired a new prosthetist…Sergio. He has been a real gift, and is eager to learn. He is 26 years old, is a trained physiotherapist (which is such a great skill to have when working with people who are re-learning how to walk), and has never done any prosthetics in his life. He is literally starting from the beginning. At least he knows anatomy, and has an understanding of the body, so I guess he’s not starting completely at zero. There has also been a bit of an overhaul of the entire staff at the Center. One of the prosthetists quit quite early after our arrival and the other main prosthetist lives part-time in another city about 5 hours away so he’s not always here. Sergio is likely going to be the main guy. We’ve also hired a full-time office staff to deal with patient files and other general office type stuff. These big changes at the Center have been both good, and challenging! Certain expectations have had to be changed as a result of dealing with a different culture that does things a different way. The North American time structure is one of the major ideals we have had to change…for anyone who has traveled, you will know what I’m speaking of. When you’re on vacation, a more relaxed way of life is welcoming…you can come when you want, leave when you want and have no time constraints…BUT, when you’re in a work environment trying to accomplish certain tasks for people who are in need, it’s difficult to adjust. I don’t think we need to toss it all out the window…there is a certain level of professionalism and excellence that can and should be expected, but we have to meet somewhere in the middle.

Language has been coming slowly, but well for us both. Duane knows everything having to do with legs and how to build legs, and can get everything he needs around the city. This is his first time learning a language and it’s so fun watching him communicate! He has improved dramatically in the last two weeks. I am a slow, but steady language machine, but have found it difficult to balance learning with being a mom. I just don’t have the time I would like to put into it. Those who have said that Spanish is easy were quite misleading. There are so many different and difficult tenses that are hard to keep track of and there are many irregular verbs…pure memorization is the only way to remember how to conjugate them. In some ways, Thai is much easier. Amelia has learned a little bit…not as much as we perhaps initially hoped, but I am amazed with her. I think the thing that impresses me the most is simply her understanding that another language exists. I can now ask her, “What is the Spanish word for ‘ball’?” and she will answer, “Pelota”. She has her own made up language as well, I think because she hears us speaking something different, and so she thinks she should as well. She fascinates me.

I have begun teaching English at an all boys’ school once a week. It is a whirlwind morning where I teach four classes an hour and a half each. The boys love having a foreigner in class and are intrigued by my height, as I stand at least 2-3 inches taller than any of them. This is their first experience with learning English through the communication method and it’s a challenge to get them into a communicative mindset. They believe they can’t speak, and so they don’t try, and of course there are the general pressures surrounding high school aged kids to never look dumb. Unfortunately, having confidence and taking chances fascilitate learning a language. We have some work to do.

We definitely feel that our time here is coming to a close. We can’t believe how quickly and how slowly it has all passed. Please keep Duane in your thoughts for these last 2 months as he is feeling the mounting pressure to instruct and guide the guys at the Center to autonomy. This is a difficult task, one that he is doing masterfully, but the pressure still remains.

Thanks for following us on our journey!

Fun with Plastic

 We've been really busy at the Center and realizing you can do everything with 3mm and 5mm Copoly plastic :)

Patellar tendon bearing prosthesis for a terrible chopart amputation with a chronic ulcer on the distal end.

 Clam shell design allows for donning of the prosthesis. Otherwise the patient's ankle is too large to pass through the smaller proximal circumference.

   

Flexible AFO to provide medial-lateral ankle stability for a patient with a longitudinal partial foot amputation.

 "Stove-pipe" design prosthesis for Symes amputation. This is the right foot of the same patient using the AFO shown above, on his left foot.

We'll be doing a hip prosthesis in the near future and many "normal" trans-tibials and trans-femorals.

Raising Kids Abroad

I’m not going to say that my experiences are the same as all of those traveling and living abroad with kids, but I do think that perhaps some of you might be able to identify with me.

My level of flexibility had to go from novice to yogi overnight. In La Paz it is very difficult to find healthy foods for your kids…people are eating ice cream and lollipops at 9am, and there is evidence of this consumption all over the playground. This has been incredibly difficult for Amelia, as it seems to her that her parents are cruel and are withholding the best things in life from her. I have definitely had to relax in the “healthy eating” department as people love to give her treats, and I have had to be creative in the kitchen to provide nutritious meals for my family.

In the developed world we are sleep obsessed. We have sleep consultants, we schedule when our kids sleep and it is our goal to get our kids to sleep through the night as quickly as possible. One of the questions I heard the most after Amelia was born was, “Does she sleep through the night?”. Nobody asks me that here. Kids are not scheduled…in fact, I don’t think children even have naps. They sleep when they are tired which ends up being on the bus, or in their parents arms wherever they may be at that moment. I seriously see kids sleeping everywhere here. Also, kids don’t have a scheduled bedtime. They are up very late, but seem to function just fine. Many do not understand our scheduled sleep routines and I have had to relax a bit in this department as well.

I did not think that a 2 year old would have a difficult time adjusting to another culture…I was wrong. We went through a month or more of difficult transition, with Amelia missing her friends and really not liking the attention she receives here. I wasn’t prepared for the difficulties facing an introverted child in a country where kids don’t get the luxury to be so. Children are passed around from day one, and get used to many hands and many faces. On numerous occasions I have had to decline the outstretched arms of a vendor at the market who wants to hold Amelia (as she desperately clings to me). The people are so sweet here and love our blonde little girl, but unfortunately she does not reciprocate their affection. The other day, Amelia and I were walking down the street and a woman walked up, picked Amelia up, swung her around and said, “You are an airplane” in Spanish. Amelia’s stunned expression said it all. Just as quickly as it began, it was over and Amelia was back on the ground asking, “What happened?”. If this had been 2 months ago, her reaction just wouldn’t have been as impassive. She has developed coping mechanisms, and has adapted to the way that things are done here. That’s not to say that she has accepted the attention she receives, but we’ve come miles from where we started.

I am perhaps the one who still needs to change. I think of the big, open fields in our cities, our spacious yards, our public libraries, recreational activities and I feel like parenting is easier at home. I miss the consistent friends for Amelia, and I feel like I’m not able to provide her with what she needs…but this is only my conception of her actual needs. Truly, all of the things I have listed are luxuries that are a part of our daily lives at home…things that I took for granted. I am aware that we are now at our halfway point in our adventure and culture shock is more a reality now then it was at the beginning of our trip. I am trying to seize everyday.

Just to be clear, this is not a criticism of how other cultures (specifically this one) parent…not in the least. Bolivians deeply care for their children and more often than not, provide safe and loving homes for them. Weekends are for families. It says something positive about the family construct when you see teenage girls still holding their mother’s hands. This is more a reflection on the difficulties of culture change and how that has affected me, my child, and my ideas of parenting. Ultimately, it has been such a positive experience, and being stretched and challenged in the way one does things can’t ever be bad!  

Nuestra Casa

Ok...so we have officially as of today, been in our "new" house for a full month. I cannot even begin to express how this place has changed our existence here in Bolivia. This is our third place in 3 months, and by far the best. Amelia's entire demeanour changed when we moved into this house (which may be a result of our renewed emotional state) and we immediately felt like we were home.

One of our living rooms...the previous renter bought the couch set at El Alto and the taxi driver strapped all of them to the top of his car.

The other living room where we spend most of our time...hippy living. Amelia loves sitting on the floor. 

Dining room.

Hallway lit with skylights. 

Our kitchen...it's rare to see a full-sized fridge.

The office. This is the warmest and cosiest room in the house.

Our bedroom.

Amelia's bedroom.

We took this place over from a couple from Spain. It is spacious, completely furnished, shares a garden with another Spanish family (who have kids), is incredibly quiet, private and safe, and has fruit trees ripe for the picking. When it rains, the beautiful aroma of the citronella tree wafts through the yard. The entire house is lit with natural light due to the skylights that run the length of the flat. Being that we are in rainy season, we have the pleasure of daily listening to the drops hit the plastic skylights, creating a cosy, romantic feel. We are a mere 4 blocks from the Centre, live directly across the street from a convenience store (and when I say convenient, I mean convenient...toilet paper, eggs, wine, beer, diapers that you can buy individually, chips, noodles, the best banana bread...EVERYTHING), live next door to a Salteñ
aria, and a place that sells "almuerzo familiar" (familiar lunch...for 10Bs ($2) you get soup, meat and rice, and a dessert).

Plums. I made plum jam out of them. I don't think Bolivians have ever tried it. They were very surprised when I told them. 

The garden. Our house is on the right.

Cherries. 

Purple plums. 

Tumbo. Looks like passionfruit on the inside, but tastes like nothing I've ever had before. Really sour...used mostly for juice. 

Anyone want to come over? We'd be happy to have you!