DAY 3, Bolivia. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO CLOSE TO DEATH

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

I had the hardest time waking up this morning. I had such vivid dreams last night as I always do when I am here in Bolivia. In my dreams I had such big hands and my face wasn’t visible. This may sound strange… but I know EXACTLY what it meant. My hands are so much more powerful than my face… you can only do so much with a beautiful face; with beautiful hands, you can change the world.

I don’t consider myself a “religious person.” I don’t go to church and I have a hard time following one religion’s views. I follow my heart, earth’s energies, my passions, and intuition. I know I have a purpose and I want to make a difference. Each time I come to Bolivia, I am reassured of my life’s path and that I am being guided (by whom/what… I can’t say for sure).

Today we lost one of the patients in the operating room (I am traveling with http://www.solidaritybridge.org/, my partnering non-profit). I have never felt so overwhelmed with sadness together with such a strong presence of faith in my life. This patient was a mother of seven, less than 50 years old. She was on her path to death before we saw her; we hoped we could give her more time on this path so she could continue to be with her children. I have never been so close to death before. After she passed, I could feel her energy circulating around the room drawing all the doctors (Bolivian and American), her family, and our staff together as one force moving forward.

DAY 2: Tata Esteban Cooperative

Before heading to the hospital to be with the patients and help out the doctors I visited our cooperative, Tata Esteban. Also know as Sipaskuna (pronounced SE-CA-ME-SPA), the Quechua word meaning “young women,” Tata Esteban is located in Tiraque a small mountain town of 2,000 in the heart of Bolivia. The young women, owners of Tata Esteban, are alumni of a training center affiliated with the local church. I love visiting this small town and talking with these young, playful girls working at this cooperative. Each time I visit I see another young girl (between the ages of 14-25) in the cooperative with a newborn baby strapped to her back as she works. It is another classic case of a young girl impregnated by just as young of a boy who is unable to man up to the responsibility of a baby; she is then is left to take care of the baby by herself. Without the proper sex education and preventive measures available, this is an unfortunate reality for Bolivian girls.

As we started to talk, again the biggest concern was work. They need more work. The American company they produce many goods for and we help coordinate, no longer needs their services. There has been many quality issues with their work and they haven’t been able to source the correct fabric. They asked for my help in getting one more chance. They need this work to support their cooperative. Together we talked about new styles, quality, and how we are going to approach this company to reassure their cooperative is capable of the company’s requests. We came up with a plan and have some great new samples coming back with me to give to the American company. Solidarity Clothing is also starting a new line, GREENOLA (http://www.greenolastyle.com/) and the girls and I had some great conversation around new products that allowed them to utilize their creativity and innovation. They are so funny… they were really excited to show me a new “dress” they created. This was not much of a dress, it was quite sexy. I tried to hold back my look of shock when they asked if I would wear it (Basically it was two panels that barely covered the chest area that flowed into a incredibly short skirt). As politely as I could in Spanish I told them it was too cold in Chicago for such a dress.