Working next to a prison has its perks

On Wednesday, the Internet at work was just so incredibly horrible, that Esteban and I decided to go to a café where there was wi-fi. Esteban walked out a minute or two before me, and when I walked out of the office, I didn’t see him, so I looked around and heard someone shouting my name to run just as a brick went flying past my head… so I did just that, I ran! I ran towards the 20 or so policemen standing next to the Plaza holding plastic shields above their heads. When I was safely out of reach of the flying bricks and burning sticks flying from the sky, I turned around to see what was going on. CADEPIA is situated right next to the prison in Cochabamba, even sharing a wall, and the prisoners had all broke loose of their cells and climbed onto the roof. They were throwing whatever they could find off the roof onto cars, towards pedestrians, and especially towards the policemen. They were even tearing their own clothes off their backs, burning them, and throwing them off the roof. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but then again, TIB (This Is Bolivia). So after about 30 minutes of watching the riot ensue, Esteban and I… no, we did not leave, we saw my boss walk out of the building. He saw us and laughed and stood with us for about another 15 minutes just watching the burning, the attempts at jumping off the roof to escape, and the policemen doing absolutely nothing. So I guess we finally made it to an internet café where we did manage to get a little done on the website. Then I left a little early to do a little shopping for my trip where I got all the essentials: sunglasses, suitcase, and $10 speakers which function both as portable speakers as well as fabulous disco lights. Then after lunch, I got a call from work telling me that we were ordered by the police to not come to work since the riot had worsened and it was too dangerous for anyone to be in the building.

So Wednesday afternoon, I went to TAM airlines with Mansi to buy plane tickets to Sucre (15 minutes-$30), but they were full, so we decided to take the bus on Friday night (10 hours-$7). Then after, we walked to La Recoleta to get some artisan ice cream. Well, I got a frozen drink thing, and there was a promotion, so they gave me two. I went home with a frozen drink in each hand in a cab—one was for my niece. Well, as soon as I got into the cab, I could tell from the questions he was asking me that he was interested. First he wanted to go on a date on Saturday, and then he wanted to go on a date on Friday, and then he wanted to know where in Brazil I was from… I wasn’t even aware I looked Brazilian. As I got out of the cab, my drink spilled all over my crotch, so luckily this wonderful cab driver was there to hold the door open for me from the front seat as I tried to scootch out of the cab. As I was managing my drinks and myself, the cab driver made me feel more awkward than I have felt in a long time, he said to me, “que lindos pechos tienes.” Well, translate it for yourself if you don’t speak Spanish.  It was an end to an eventful day, and there were just two days of work left!

The next day, work was pretty boring because the web developer had not been working like he said he would. We didn’t have much to do, but Esteban did tell me why the prisoners were rioting. They were mad at the people running the prison because they weren’t giving them any respect and were randomly not allowing family to visit, etc. for no apparent reason. After work, I went out with Mansi and Natalia to get some margaritas at Paprika. Esteban met us just as we were heading to Tirana to dance. Natalia wanted to go home, so Mansi and I took her home and went back to Tirana where we met Yudozca and her sister. We danced for a good while and then headed home around 1AM so that I could prepare for my last day of work.

On Friday morning, Yudozca took Esteban and me with her on a field trip. Her project was to work with 18-26 year olds who wanted to learn how to sew and then set them up to work with CADEPIA’s affiliates in the sewing industry. We went to one of the affiliates factories where the affiliate, Beatriz taught me how to use a sewing machine! It’s surprisingly similar to driving a car, and I was actually not bad. Then we visited a school and then I went home for lunch. After lunch, I went to Dumbo’s to buy a cake for the office since it was my last day. Turns out my boss bought us all drinks and Esteban bought my favorite, chocolate milk!!! We had two hours of reminiscing… about Richard, about Esteban’s nagging, about Beren, etc. It was a great way to say goodbye, and I still can’t believe it’s all over.

On Friday night, Mansi and I boarded the bus at around 7:30 to head to Sucre. It was an uneventful ending to an eventful week. But my Bolivian trip and adventure was at my fingertips and just about to begin!