Bolivia

Good morning,

I signed a contract to teach physics and chemistry at a private school in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, a landlocked country in the middle of South America. The past three weeks have been spent trying to find and set up a house, getting ready for school, and now teaching and learning Spanish.

Bolivia, or at least the city of Santa Cruz, are very different from what I saw in Mwanza, Tanzania. There's a lot of money here in the city and in the east of the country generally. Much less in the high, mountainous west and that is reflected in politics and society.

It is winter now in the southern hemisphere and when the winds come out of the south they bring cold air out of Antarctica so that on several occasions I was sleeping with a sweater, light jacket, hat, wool socks and pants. Like camping in my own bedroom. When the winds come from the north they bring hot and humid air from the Amazon and temperatures soar into the 90's and beyond. It's generally windy and this time of year very dusty. It rains occasionally but when it starts in earnest in is apparently torrential.

There's a movie theater two blocks away so I've already seen more movies here than in the past four years. Most are in Spanish but a few of the more popular ones (The Simpsons, Harry Potter) are in English with Spanish subtitles. Everybody goes out late. 9 or 10pm on a Sunday, 11 on Friday. I asked one of the Bolivian teachers when he finally went home and he replied "oh, it was about 7am".

I hope you are all well.
Ryan

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