zoodles

Well I've been missing in action for a while now, but here are some of the things that happened in the meantime:

Mauricio was sick again, so New Year’s Eve was mellow.

We were almost mugged one night!! I had heard stories from co-workers about a new scam in which someone on the street gets close to you and tells you a story such as: they can’t read, and can you help them find this address... Then they try to give or show you a paper. You’re not supposed to take or be anywhere near the paper, because you quickly become drugged, and are susceptible to the suggestions of the attackers, such as, you go the automatic teller and withdraw a pile of cash, or you take them to your apartment and give them your laptop etc.

Well, we were looking at movie posters in a cinema downtown, at night, it was pretty busy. A creepy lady with a fake flower in her coat pocket approached us and asked with a thick accent, do you speak English? I said, I speak English, and right away knew something was up. She began to fake sob and recounted a retarded story in poor English about how she had just arrived in the city (she was so obviously from here) and that someone had stolen her wallet and passport and that a man had offered to meet her later to help her, but that he hadn’t showed up. I was looking around to see if she was working with anyone, I couldn’t tell. I noticed that her fake flower was bobbing awfully close to Mauricio’s nose. Then she proceeded to take out a business card, supposedly belonging to the fellow who was supposed to meet her, and holding it by the corners, began to raise it to my face, for my inspection. All of a sudden, it clicked and I remembered the stories that my co-workers had told me. I did a slow motion karate block with my left arm, pushing her hand away from me, and then pushed Mauricio, who was by that time starting to feel dizzy, in the other direction. I was a close call, but I’m happy to know that I’m pretty street smart, even in Bolivia.

Evo Morales was elected president with a 54% majority, the first indigenous leader in Latin America in the more than 500 years since the Spaniards first landed. It’s a pretty historical moment. He grew up really poor, as the son of a miner, eating orange peels. He’s made a policy of not wearing suits etc. The striped sweater that he wears here, during part of the inauguration festivities, sold out in the markets in a matter of hours!! Unfortunately, I didn’t move quickly enough.

Mauricio’s friend Fabio and his girlfriend Fabiana visited from Brazil. We did some kung-fu fighting, generally horsed around quite a bit, and had a great time.

I quit my job. In short, too much hypocrisy, and too little real work going on. My immediate plan is to paint and read and just generally indulge in life. 

I got a stomach infection. It’s a little bar-shaped bacterium called shigella flexneri and it’s transmitted by consumption of water contaminated by feces from infected individuals, which basically means I drank poopy water somewhere. The only thing I can think of is I was feeling bold the other week and had a glass of strawberry juice at a popular restaurant here called Dumbos. Here’s the little fellow at work, "causing bacillary dysentery by invading the colonic mucosa".

It’s been raining practically non-stop for a month. So rivers are overflowing everywhere, people, vehicles and homes are being swept away daily. We have no immediate travel plans.

That's about it for now...