Semana Santa

2 days before I visited one of my colleagues, who actually I share an office with. She is a new supervisor of the health network center of the province and used to work for a NGO for 10 years planning developmental programs. One day during the Easter vacations, she invited me for lunch at her house. We had beautiful vegetarian lunch.

Her family is originally from Potosí where is freaking cold due to the altitude 3700m that is a bit higher than La Paz, they say. I felt the family is less self-centered than people in Santa Cruz. Some say that people in Santa Cruz are unique in Bolivia: they are too egoistic and self-centered to work in a group. Well, this could be the case according to my feeling I had through working with 3 women’s clubs. Some are from other areas like La Paz, Potosí, and all that. They tend to consider others and try to work for others more than the others originally from Santa Cruz, however of course you cannot generalize it.

What I got really surprised at a glance of her house was that the economical situation of my host mom, the manager of the health network, and the supervisor of the center could differ this much. The family of the supervisor moved in the house recently. For the first 3 months they didn’t have light, electricity, and a bathroom. Attributed to the lack of a bathroom for a while, probably, their little kid seems reluctant to go to the new bathroom. In stead he just peed in front of where we were sitting by the entrance of their house.

Nobody mentioned anything when he did so. But I really wanted to say to the supervisor “in terms of hygiene this is not very cool,” although I decided not to. Since I was too Japanese at the moment and I was afraid of breaking the feel of home settled over us. When I looked around where I was sitting, I realized there is no concept of hygiene in the family and also in the neighborhood.