This was my statement when I was predicting my fathers plan to Tammy about my hia move to Tarija, Bolivia. Then Tammy stated ¨That would be a great opening line for a comedy novel. Unfortunately it is too close to reality. Either way I do support all of his emotional endeavours.
Speaking of community I did attend my the local water syndicate meeting this morning. Living here in Tiquipaya, Bolivia (a rural suburb of Cochabamba) where we do not have a city water system so the community formed a syndicate. It was interesting as most of the people that attend tend to be mostly “campesinos” or country folk of indigenous racial decent. The meetings for the most part are held in the local language of Quechua which I do not speak. Who’s fault is that?!?! Anywho as I walked into the room I could smell that half the people were chewing coca as the locals have for several thousands of years and they were all staring at me as I was the only white boy in the crowd. I new that most of them new who I was as North Tiquipaya is a very small community and they see my riding my bicycle around on a very common basis and many are aware of the social projects that I direct in the local and greater community. The feeling of the meeting had a very Cezar Chavez twist to it. It was not very different than having a meeting out in the fields. I was reminded of the movie that I watched last night Blood in, Blood out. A movie about a group of half brothers who were torn by the LA gang culture. What made me think of this movie is the fact that there was this character who was having a conversation who was the major gang leader of the Sam Quinton Hispanic gang. The gang boss was reminiscing when he asked the other inmate “Have you ever picked fresh grapes from the vine? There is nothing like it. There is no more pure feeling that eating grapes directly off the vine. It is like you are next to God” This of course brought me back to my own roots of how I used to visit my grandparents in the San Joaquin Valley. My Grandparents were Hispanic immigrants as well who were tied very close to the migrant workers as they were ministers in the Nazarene Church. I remember from my visits seeing all the workers come on Sundays for church and they would bring all kinds of freshly plucked fruit from the fields. I also have memories of going out to fields and seeing the workers work and doing some picking myself.
While I was thinking all this at the meeting when it came to me as sort of a revelation that these people, my neighbors, were the only thing that I really had as safety and stability in the community that I lived in. Once when I was hosting a visiting mission group I had 2 participants robbed while walking around the neighborhood. It was a freak occurrence and nobody was in harmed way but when we went to report it to the local police they did nothing. It was the local community leaders and neighbors that took action and a form of community justice was brought about. I find this ironic as with local politics my upper class friends are opposed to the current Bolivian President who wants to formalize community justice because it is the only thing that has saved me around here. Perhaps it is that they do little things like during a meeting they all call each other “companiero” which translated literally mean “companion” but is used as “comrade”. Anyway this was this week’s effort at community building and being involved.
On a side note I am still amazed when I look around seeing a contrast between my being a person who was born in a country that lives by the sword and it’s citizens not standing up for what they believe in (liberal or conservative) and where I am now where people stand up all the time but there is never any war. Hmm.
“The best surveillance systems are your neighbors watching your back and you doing the same for them”
¨I hate it when people say somebody has a ´speech impediment´, even if he does, because it could hurt his feelings. So instead, I call it a ´speech improvement´, and I go up to the guy and say, ´Hey, Bob, I like your speech improvement.´ I think this makes him feel better.¨ Deep Thoughts, Jack Handey
Have a great week!
FeO2
Three Religiions
Facing the wall
