A place to live & finger sticks

Good news for Kim! I found a place to live! It’s right off the main street, the Prado, and is only 5 blocks from the Plagbol office. It’s fully furnished and, though a bit cold because of all the windows, check out the view:


That is Illimani.

That’s right, that’s the view out of my living room AND bedroom windows. Pretty exciting. I figured if I am going to live here amongst the Andes, might as well get to see them. ☺

Here are some other views of my new place:




Yes that is my pet gorilla on the couch that came with the apartment.



And here are my friends at my housewarming my first night:

Holly, Alicia, Bethany, Allie, Marco

The first meal I cooked here was lentils and quinoa, very appropriate, no?

La Paz is incredible. I think I’ve mentioned that already. We went out last Sunday and it happened to be Earth Day, people everywhere talking about climate change and water (glacier melt and water supply is a big concern here).

There was a march on the US embassy last week:


This march had tens of thousands of people. They blocked off the main street here in La Paz and walked by for hours (literally). It was incredible. They know how to protest! We were advised not to get too close (being US citizens and all) and so couldn’t go to our favorite lunch spot because we couldn’t cross the protest to get there. People are protesting the US asylum given to the ex-Bolivian president who is responsible for the deaths of 67 people in El Alto, right outside of La Paz in 2003 because people were protesting nationalization of the gas industry.

There are marches here almost every day. I’ll be in the office and hear what sound like gun shots and no one blinks—they are huge firecrackers that the protesters set off. It is common to have roads blocked off here in La Paz or between major cities, and no one can get anywhere. There were people stuck in my hotel last week because of a bloqueo and I was advised today not to let my cooking gas supply get too low because you never know when there will be a bloqueo and then I won’t be able to cook. It’s a totally different perspective here. If there’s an injustice, protest.

La Paz photos:





What else? Oh yes, my project. I’ve been working non-stop to get my project up and running. Tons of revisions of my documents and planning how everything is going to work. The Plagbol people are incredible and are spending a lot of time to help ensure things go well.

Yesterday at the office we practiced taking blood samples (a doctor brought in her lancing device which worked better than the little lancets we had the first day. The first day I was stuck twice and we didn’t enough blood. Today the blood was flowing!). We practiced analyzing the blood samples with the test kit, at which I am now very proficient, and got control blood samples from 11 people (29 to go!).

Me, Daniela, Rafael

Omar, me, Rafael

Today, we went to validate the survey. I’ve translated it into Spanish and we’ve gone through several versions but I think we are close. We took it to the pesticide store of a friend of Omar’s (Plagbol agronomist) to test it out on several of his employees. Based on the results, I made adjustments to things that weren't clear. We also tested out a “checklist” I’ve put together to analyze the occupational safety practices of pesticide stores. It’s quite long and is more like an inspection so we are thinking we will ask people who come to our course on June 23 to volunteer to participate so we can explain what we are doing before we show up so they don’t freak out.

Monday we are going to survey pesticide sellers with the final survey and take some blood samples. It's really beginning now! My days are long but things are going great!

Besides all the work I’ve checked out several veggie restaurants with my friends and am going to the Bolivia-Chile soccer game Sunday! This should be great as Bolivia and Chile are arch-enemies (just come here and you will hear incessantly about how Chile stole Bolivia’s coastline). Other than that my plans for this weekend include the very exciting buying more heaters, working on my IRB amendments (main activity), and making a new project timeline.

It’s been good to hear from everyone!

Love,
Kim