Ugh! I'm not feeling very well. I think have something, like a worm or critters or something inside of me. Where's Ripley when you need her? My symptoms include mucous coming out everywhere, fever and general fatigue. I've been resting all afternoon--but this awful drafty weather does not seem to be helping. I went to a pharmacy requesting the starting dosage regime for amoxicilin or any anti-infective and she would not fill the script without a diagnosis from a *Bolivian* doctor. She was keen to stress the last part. Do they know something the rest of the medical community doesn't?
I want to go home. My mind, body and spirit, all are in desperate need to be elsewhere rightnow. I'm not having fun in Potosi. I am actually surrounded by a lot of negative energy. The visit to the mines was very depressing. It was appalling to have a tour of something that still contributes to the misery of so many. I saw men who were my own age who looked twenty years older! They all die in their early 40's from chronic exposure to chemicals used to strip the mines of the silver. I'd be curious to know what the infant mortality rate is in this city. Of course,the government just looks the other way. The miners all had a severe bent in their backs, most likely from the repetitive motion of picking and hacking at cave rock all day. I can't begin to imagine the amount of lower lumbar muscular spasms they have to endure. Their bodies were hollow from malnourishment. And he we are these wealthy white people getting to look at their horrid working conditions like they're zoo animals--"on a tour".
According to the tour guides (poor university students), none of those miners really benefit financially from their explotation. The tour guide owners make a windfall though. In return the miners get bags of coco leaves for their trouble. All of them have gobs of it stuffed in their cheeks. I guess I'd too if this was my life. There's got to be something better for these people. No one deserves this.
To make matters worse I've just been told that there will be a national strike tomorrow. The country will be paralyzed with no buses going to La Paz. I may not make my flight. The president (Quiroga)announced that Bolivia is entering negotiations to sell its nationalized water utility to a French consortium. They have been swearing up and down that everyone will benefit from this with water for all at a lower cost. No one buys that crap--and rightly so. They are upset, naturally, as it's just another notch in a series of injustices that have occured to them. I wonder who from the Presidential Palace will get a cut of that fat pay check. Will they take apartments in Paris for themselves and family?
Well, I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. I wonder what will happen first; will I get to fly home or will this parasite inside me burst through my stomach...hmmm.
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