8th NC Water for People Trip to Bolivia

August 9-17, 2002

 

Report by Art Mandler

 

Peter Weed and I visited Bolivia in August of this year.  The trip was only one week, shorter than in past years, and we had very focused objectives: installing and configuring computer equipment for Abraham in the WFP office, assessing the viability of water-pressure driven chlorinator pumps in the field, and most importantly implementing a “circuit rider” program for maintenance of the chlorinator pumps in the Montero area.  Happily, we succeeded with each of these objectives but our pace was, quite frankly, grueling, and with the usual array of problems that seem to crop up on any journey to our adopted country.

 

We arrived in Cochabamba at 6 AM on Saturday, August 10, after a red-eye on Lloyd Air Bolivia from Miami.  We were pleased to learn when we checked our luggage in Asheville that we were not required to transfer it through customs in Miami.  Instead, our bags would follow us all the way to Bolivia and we would be processed through customs there.  Peter learned a lesson at the very first security gate we met:  never wear steel toed boots when traveling by air.  He ended up taking his boots off and having them searched at every gate coming and going.   Our flight was destined for Santa Cruz where we expected a stopover before heading on to Cochabamba.  But for reasons still unknown to us, the flight flew directly to Cochabama!  We were happy to be at our destination several hours early as the sun was breaking over the mountains surrounding the airport.  Passengers who were destined for Santa Cruz weren’t so pleased …

 
Peter in Cochabamba

 

But our pleasure soon turned to dismay when we discovered that our luggage didn’t make it to Cochabamba, and when we inquired as to when it might arrive, the response was a classic South American shrug with “maybe tonight or maybe tomorrow afternoon or maybe tomorrow night …”  Our only shirts were already beginning to ripen in the warm Bolivian sunrise.

 


Sunrise at the Airport in Cochabamba

 

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