I flew back to La Paz today. Tomorrow it will be back to the office and back to normality. I have mixed feelings about being back. On the one hand it will be good to have a regular schedule again and not be working all the time. I am very much looking forward to the extra sleep. And it will be good to get back into my projects at work. At the same time it was hard to leave because we are starting to see results. Things are improving with the response to the floods. We delivered 400 hygiene kits (kits that contain basic personal hygiene items like toothbrushes and toilet paper) Fri and Sat to families living in camps. Three weeks of work is finally paying off!

All in all, working in Santa Cruz for three weeks was a great experience. I learned a lot about emergency response, about how UNICEF and the UN system function and my Spanish has improved a lot. I made some good contacts and really did enjoy the work, even though there were many days of pure frustration and long long hours! It is certainly satisfying when you have seen the damage the floods have caused, met people living in tents or schools or trucks and are able to do something concrete about it.

Santa Cruz itself is a great city. It is very different from La Paz. The climate is hot and humid, it is flat and there is lots of vegetation in the countryside. The people and lifestyle seem more laid back than in La Paz. I was able to go out a few times and have some fun, which was great! I will write another post about my two days off in Santa Cruz. I may go back for a weekend at some point, when I get tired of the cold of La Paz!