As I lie here in my mosquito net, wondering who is winning in the NCAA tournament, I also reflect on the events of the last two days and the wonder that is the Bolivian bloqueo. And by ¨wonder¨ I do mean wonder, along with many other not-traditionally-wonderful things.

I awoke yesterday at the break of dawn, fired up. The day had finally arrived: We were to give our first recycling talk to the teachers of Winston´s elementary school in Calamuchita. If all went well and we convinced the teachers of the brilliance and usefulness of recycling, this day could mark the beginning of a sustainable project and give meaning to my service. (That last part was added for effect.) My cell phone rang.
¨Sarah?¨
¨Yeah?¨
¨It´s Winston. Ummm... Is your school open?¨
¨I assume so, Winston. Why?¨
¨Because there´s a huge civic strike and they´re bloqueoing between Tarija and Valle.¨
¨Oh.... Huh. I´ll go check and call you back.¨

I threw some clothes on, walked down the road to my school, and reported back to Winston. ¨Yeah I´ve got kids and I´ve got taxis that look like they´re headed to the city. See what you can do about getting here.¨ He arrived about an hour later.
¨Yeah they had just cut down some trees and thrown them in the road. I just got out of the cab, walked across and caught another one on the other side.¨
¨Any idea what they´re bloqueoing about?¨
¨Nope.¨

When Steve arrived we went over our presentation and struck out for Calamuchita but ran into Lourdes and Ana (my work partners) in the Valle plaza. They advised us not to go.
¨Oh right,¨ agreed Winston. ¨Most of Calamuchita´s profes live in Tarija and probably didn´t try to cross the bloqueo. Nobody´s going to be there.¨

Luckily for us, Lourdes and Ana were also on their way to Calamuchita and invited us to share their contracted taxi. The director of the Calamuchita elementary school was very apologetic about his teachers fallaring. (fallar - a great Spanish word meaning to fail or not follow through. Learn it. I don´t think I´ll be able to stop using it when I´m back in the English-speaking world.) We said it was okay and that we hadn´t expected his teachers to come all the way from the city, crossing bloqueos, for our hour-long talk -- especially if they wouldn´t put in the same effort to teach their classes. We had come to reschedule anyway and set the new date for this coming Tuesday at 9am. (The talk in Valle is scheduled for noon the same day.) We walked back out to the road just in time to see Ana and Lourdes zipping by in the taxi on their way back to Valle. Drat. Usually there is public transportation that runs most of the way from Calamuchita to Valle, but during bloqueos there is no such luck. At least it was a beautiful day for a walk.

I´ve never actually seen a bloqueo. It is against Peace Corps rules to go near them due to the typically drunken state of the protesters. Can you think of anything better to do as you sit by some trees you have felled across a road than drink? I did strategically avoid one once in Santa Cruz. When my cab came across a long line of semi trucks with their drivers swinging lazily on hammocks tied to the underbellies of their vehicles waiting for the bloqueo to lift my driver heroically found a side road. We followed the overgrown road through tropical brush, paying farmers to open their gates so we could pass through their property and, after about an hour of seemingly aimless detouring, found ourselves on the other side, triumphant. The bloqueo itself, however, I never saw.

Today I had big plans to verify which teachers I´d be bringing to Katie Gordon´s HIV/AIDS workshop in Cochabamba in a few weeks. When I got to the school I learned from the director that one teacher had backed out, and because of the bloqueos nobody else was at school today to invite. She asked for my patience until Monday. Monday?!?!?!?! Katie wanted to send out the invitations today. I asked her if she remembered about our recycling talk scheduled for Tuesday. Blank look. She then turned to the four teachers left in the entire school and asked them to spread the word. Great.

Then I tried to go to the PAN office to see if I could get anything productive done there, thinking that maybe Lourdes and Ana would be working during today´s bloqueo as they had been yesterday. Nobody was there. I sat down, organized some things, twiddled my thumbs, and then Monica, a girl from my reading club, showed up with her little sister Marioli. We played Yengha (Jenga -- Yes we have Jenga lying around the office.) until lunch time. Monica was making some very structurally unwise choices when we began, but I think by the end I had taught her something about physics. Can I put that in my trimesterly work report?

After lunch I had reading club, which was wonderful except that I was missing one girl who apparently had been punched by Monica after reading club on Tuesday when I left them playing in the park. Her mom told me about the incident yesterday, and my reaction probably wasn´t what she was expecting. I did have a talk with Monica though, during Yengha. Though she pretended not to know what incident I was referring to, I think she got my point: I´m always watching....

Despite my big plans to go into the city tonight to watch some Sweet Sixteen action on cable, I find myself sitting here in my mosquito net, after a fairly unproductive day, writing to you. Why? Bloqueos.

Thank you, bloqueos, for this blog.


ps - I wrote this blog yesterday. After receiving many unclear and inconclusive reports from Bolivians concerning the reasons why I had to miss the NCAA tournament, the Peace Corps finally sent me this information about the happenings in Tarija:
"Today, March 23, at 12:30 pm, we are activating the EAP [Emergency Action Plan] for all Volunteers located in sites corresponding to the Tarija regional office. Campesinos [country people] have set up blockades on all roads connecting the City of Tarija with rural areas and are demanding that the Prefectura [local government] be more responsive to their needs. Tear gas has been used by the police but no injuries have been reported. This afternoon a meeting has been scheduled to discuss the situation, and we are hopeful that all will be resolved.
All Volunteers in Tarija City, you are on standfast EAP phase [meaning don´t move]. Do not go near the main plaza or any area where people are marching.
All other Volunteers in sites corresponding to the Tarija Regional office, you are on alert EAP phase [meaning be aware that there is a situation, don´t move, and listen to the radio for updates].
All Volunteers corresponding to the Tarija regional office be sure that you have sufficient food and water, and please call the Cochabamba office or 800-10-5009 between 9:30 AM and 10:30 am tomorrow for an update on the situation."

Don´t worry. Valle de Concepción is its usual, tranquil self. I have sufficient food and water. I´m about to buy a sandwich made of fried things and sit in the quiet plaza. No danger here.

Love,
Sarah