Raleigh International gives young people between 17 and 25 years old and volunteer staff over 25 years old the chance to live and work on expeditions abroad. Not only do they develop personally and contribute to the country they are working in but they learn to work together with people from different cultures.

Rebecca Riddy signed up as an expedition translator on a Raleigh International expedition in Chile for 3 months. Post Raleigh expedition, Rebecca is travelling in South America. This is the seventh of her 'emails' back home reporting on her experiences. Check out her previous emails sent to us via remote South American Internet Cafes!

Rebecca post Chile: Sucre, Bolivia

5/05/2001

Hola Wola
Another episode of 'War and Peace'! I' ve been in Sucre, one of the bigger cities in Bolivia for a full day now and it really is lovely. Grand colonial buildings that are all white with palm trees in the main square and a great market. The juices at the market are fab. For about 20p you can have a milkshake made with any fruit practically. A very nice one is tumbo, yellow unripe passion fruit. Delicious!

The bus journey here from Potosi was amusing (though not particularly at the time!). We were told that buses left around 9am so got to the bus station at 8.30 to find it deserted with only 1 ticket office open, so I bought a ticket to Sucre for 9am. At 9.30 the driver eventually appeared with 2 other passengers and we set off, pleased that we had managed to get our rucksacks into the boot rather than on the top. 10 mins later we stopped and were told we had to transfer to another, much grottier and packed minibus, and our bags were put on the roof. We spent the next 3 hrs being stared at by a 15 year old, with our knees under our chins, complements of the people in the seats infront fulling reclining their seats.

Thirty mins before we got to Sucre, a bloke got up and started a sales pitch about some natural medicine sachet that cured EVERYTHING!! It was truly amazing stuff. There was one sachet for children's parasites (apparently you can tell if your child suffers from worms as they sleep with their mouth open) Three sachets slipped into an alcoholic beer will cure worms for an adult; one sachet was for kidney problems, mixed with papaya – the cures were endless and hilarious. He really shouted and got on our nerves, but incredibly loads of people bought from him!! I wondered about standing up when he'd finished and saying that I was a doctor in England and that he was talking rubbish, but I chickened out. I did wonder about doing a sales pitch for the tent that we don't need anymore… tomorrow on the flight to La Paz perhaps! A journey here is never uneventful!

The last day I had in Potosi was really good. In the morning we did a tour of one of the '550' silver (and other minerals) mine that employs 7,000 people and makes Bolivia such an important exporter of minerals. We spent 4 hours sliding around in the mud in crampt gassy corridors, jumping out of the way of carts of minerals that sped along. Six miners had died of carbon monoxide fumes a couple of weeks before in a mine nearby, but we had a guy walking infront of us 'who would detect fumes!!!'. We climbed up and down shafts, heard rocks falling and most memorable of all, witnessed the miners working in these horrible conditions. Apart from dynamite which was used every day at 5pm all the work is done by hand.

The youngest miner we saw was 13. He was carrying loads of 50kg on his back in a sack up steep inclines to be transfered into carts to be taken up to the top. I lifted his sack, equiv to a VERY HEAVY rucksack. He had been working there a year. I was really moved by seeing him and talking to him and the other miners. The life expectancy of miners is 45, they die of silicosis, and most work for a max of 15 years. All the miners had fat cheeks of chewed up coca leaves which relieves tiredness, and I hope for their sakes dulls the brain – they work 8 hrs a day, having lunch underground, for 6 days a week. The mine we visited was a co-operative mine, so each man works for himself as part of a group and it is really down to luck as to what they find and therefore earn. Apparently government mines have better working conditions with social security, hospital cover etc.

The mining union is the strongest in Bolivia. Although it is illegal for under 16's to work in the mines, about 1/7 (ie 1,000) of those that work in the mines are children (aged 10-16). They tend to be the sons of miners. Our guide had spent 3 years working in the mine he showed us round. He retired after a bad fall off a ladder and was a great guide.

The miners really enjoyed having their photos taken, they loved the flash, a break from the monotony of the darkness ('like disco lights') and we took them fizzy drinks as presents which made me feel a bit less of a stupid tourist. The co-op of miners received 15% of what we paid for the tour. At the end of the tour we went to see the 'uncle' or 'devil' of the mine. Each level of each mine has one. The miners ask him for protection and luck in finding silver. If miners die in accidents, they believe that the devil (God is the ruler above the ground and the devil beneath) has eaten and is full so they will be safe for a while. On Fridays (esp. the first and last of the month) miners take cigarettes, coca leaves and alcohol to the devil to ask for his help. It was a fascinating visit and I have images in my head that will stay with me for a long time. I never want to go down a mine again, thank God I don't have to.

Back to Sucre. Be and I have just met up with another Raleigher, Jon. Good to see him. He has been in La Paz where we are off to tomorrow so we are getting all the information. We are going to go to a French restaurant tonight (part of Alliance Francaise) which should be great and much cheaper than at home of course. We are staying in our nicest place so far, costing us £11 for a room with bathroom, tv, and phone! We have opted to fly to La Paz for £40 ish, rather than do the 20 hr bus ride. A luxury! We hope to just be a few days there this time to organise a trip up to the north to the Amazon Basin, but will spend more time in La Paz on our return, before going to Lake Titicaca and on to Peru. The general strike that was threatening is not a problem to us now, as negotiations are going on and the deadline is a month away.

Do come to Bolivia if it has ever appealed to you, it's great!!

Rebecca

Further information

Raleigh International currently runs eleven expeditions a year. In 2000-2001 expeditions are going to Belize, Brunei, Chile, Costa Rica, Ghana, Mongolia and Namibia. The three-month expedition is part of a longer programme involving training weekends and workshops. These workshops concentrate on personal development and global awareness. After an expedition, there is the chance to join Raleigh International support groups all over the world, to continue the Raleigh experience and to help others take part.

You can see updates about Raleigh projects on the Raleigh International website.

© travel-quest.co.uk 2001

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