I spent last week in the region of El Chaco, which is located in southern Bolivia on a work related trip to investigate the possibility of implementing a project in the region to provide water using solar pumping systems. It was a very interesting trip. I expected the weather to be very hot (up to 40C), but luckily the days were mostly cloudy and the extreme heat doesn’t start for another month or two. We are working with an NGO called Energetica, which specializes in solar panels, and has done several solar pumping projects.

I was away from Wed to Sun night last week, for work of course! I flew Wed morning to Cochabamba with two other women from the office. We had a capacity building workshop from Wed to Fri. The workshop was being given by UNICEF to community-based hygiene promoters. It was a very interesting 3 days and I think I probably learned as much as they did! The hygiene promoters are people who travel to communities in their municipality and hold hygiene promotions sessions, follow the construction of water systems and latrines, and do basic repairs to water taps and systems.

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!

Things in Santa Cruz are moving forward!! This is a big deal and makes me very happy. I’ve been here for almost two weeks now. Time doesn’t really mean much at the moment – mostly my schedule is work sleep work and all the days seem to turn into one another. At the moment I am taking a brief break to update you all on my time in Santa Cruz, and also for my sanity! It is looking likely that I will be heading back to La Paz on the weekend or early next week.

After two weeks we are finally making progress in the water and sanitation response. The first week was difficult because there was a lack of information available about the conditions in the affected communities. So, I spent a few days with teams of people gathering data and evaluating the situation in some communities. There are, however, still some communities that can’t be reached by road because the floods washed out a lot of roads and they haven’t been fixed.

I’ve been in Santa Cruz for 10 days now. It’s been a very busy 10 days. Emergency response is work that involves long long hours and very little sleep! I’m fairly certain that I haven’t had a night of 8 hours of sleep since I’ve been here. Tonight is the night!! 8 hours, here I come!

I have been working as a member of the water and sanitation commission of the Departmental government. I am not supposed to be coordinating the group, but really I am. I have spent several days out in the field evaluating the water and sanitation situation of people who have been affected by the flooding. I have spent many many many hours in meetings. And other hours working on our strategy and trying to get things done.

It is hot in Santa Cruz! I am back down at an elevation of about 450m, and you can certainly tell the difference. First of all, it is hot. Very hot. The past few days have been about 40C. Today wasn’t quite that hot. There are A/Cs almost everywhere, which is nice. I have found out how much someone can sweat without really doing anything though since there are no A/Cs in the field (except in the truck, thank goodness!). Santa Cruz is also flat, which is very different from La Paz, which is built on the side of a mountain. In general, although I haven’t seen much, I like Santa Cruz. There are lots of restaurants with patios and all kinds of shops selling ice cream and goodies!

I am off to Santa Cruz! The flooding has continued in 8 out of 9 departments of Bolivia. Due to El Niño, the rains and flooding are worse this year than they have been in a while. Santa Cruz is the department worst hit. As of yesterday, there were 12,000 families displaced in that department alone and a total of 30,000 families displaced throughout the country. Some of these families will have gone to live with relatives where there is no flooding. Some of these families will have gone to camps that are being set up for them. I saw pictures today of families living in the back of a truck, and one woman living on the side of the highway.

Working at UNICEF has so far been very interesting, and there is always a lot of work to be done. I have had various tasks and assignments since I’ve been here. One of these has to do with water quality in Bolivia.

In Canada, standards and guidelines exist for drinking water quality and are enforced. We have the knowledge, resources, and laboratory capacity to carry out testing, analysis and reporting. We also have the ability to provide resources to fix any problems that might be encountered. How do you monitor water quality in a country where, at least in rural areas, most of these requisites are missing?

Summer in La Paz is in full swing. This is not, however, anything like summer in Ottawa or anywhere in Ontario. It might actually get warmer in Moosonee. I would compare summer here to an early May day in Ottawa. The temperature fluctuates every day from about 5 or 6C in the morning to about 12 or 15C in the afternoon. Because La Paz is at such a high elevation (3,600m), it doesn’t actually get hot and any heat built up during the day dissipates as soon as the sun goes down. But it is lovely to walk home for lunch without even needing a sweater on a sunny day. The winter will be cooler, with lows around zero at night, and the highs a little lower than in summer.

Well, I’m stuck in Miami at the moment. I was supposed to arrive in La Paz at 6:30am this morning. Instead I will arrive there at 6:30am tomorrow. My flight from Chicago to Miami was delayed just long enough for me to miss my connecting flight from Miami to La Paz. So, I stayed in a casino/hotel near the Everglades on the outskirts of Miami last night, paid for by American Airlines. There is only one flight a day from Miami to La Paz, so I am now in the airport waiting until then! So I thought I would take this time to write a bit about what it is exactly that I will be doing while I am in Bolivia.