After four days of being here, I have discovered NO advantages of traveling to places in high altitude...unless you play soccer in La Paz and have a home game, there's really no advantage to living in the highest capital of the world (and from what I've gathered, the Bolivian soccer team still loses very frequently). To date, the change in altitude has caused the following symptoms: dizziness, fatigue, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, nausea, gas, and let's not forget my favorite: DIARRHEA. I cannot seem to escape it. However, my altitude sickness has been mild in comparison to other stories I heard. Apparently, it can also cause vomiting and insomnia; so basically how I understand it is that altitude sickness can take on any combination of symptoms from any illness you've ever experienced. It just sort of takes you out for a week. I've slept a lot and taken at least one nap a day. For this reason, living in La Paz as a government official is actually considered a "hardship post." That seems unfair, since you eventually acclimate to the conditions.
Aside from altitude, La Paz is a very interesting place. People keep asking me what I think so far and I'm just not ready to make a judgment. It is very striking; a huge city built between and along rugged sharp mountains. You can even see snow-capped mountains in the distance. I would not call the city "beautiful," but it might be if stupid people stopped randomly spray-painting "Yo amo Javier" and other random things on walls and houses. It's not well maintained, but it has potential, and it's a very walkable city (if you can manage to breath).
Another interesting aspect is the mixture of westernized Latin culture with the Aymara culture. The pictures you see of women with long black braids, big bright skirts, and funny hats is not an exaggeration. These women belong to the Aymara tribe and they are the largest tribe in Bolivia, native to the Andino region. In La Paz they are normally selling in the open markets, so you interact with them all the time. It's pretty neat actually.
I have not done much here yet but walk around. Two nights ago my colleague's friend had a dinner party which was really fun. It was a combination of ex-pats and Bolivians, a mixture of English and Spanish, and really good food. The woman who's house I was at is a friend of my co-worker; she and her brother have been living in Bolivia for 7 years now and seem to be very well connected. I met a famous Bolivian author last night--but can't remember his name, so I will have to get back to you on who he is. Noah and Jean Friedman basically work as freelance journalists/photographers and send stories to US magazines and newspapers. They're interesting people, to say the least. There seems to be quite a network of these interesting Americans that come to Bolivia and don't leave.
Tonight I went a concert to listen to a Bolivian rock group called Atajo. I don't think they're big anywhere outside of Bolivia, but their messages seem to be about social justice (or injustice) and politics in Bolivia. Tonight they played for 2.5 hours and featured 18 female Bolivian artists in their songs, so it was a really neat concert because each woman seemed to bring a different flavor to their songs. They had a bass guitarist, an a capella group, a rapper, belly dancers, and a guitarist, as well as several vocalists. But I would say the highlight of the night was when one song inspired an 80-year-old woman to get up and dance in the aisle. The singer on stage noticed her and then invited her to come up...and she did! This woman broke it down (when I say break it down, it was kind of like a Bolivian two-step sort of dance) in front of all of us and was singing along with the words. It was the most awesome thing I had ever seen; she was having a blast and then inspired other people to come up with her.
Anyway, this post is already getting too long and I'm tired. Just thought I should get some of this out before I forgot it...I haven't even begun to talk about work yet. Buenas noches.
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