Tocoli, Lake Titicaca Bolivia

We just got back from an 8 day excursion to La Paz. I found that La Paz has so much spice, combining art and politics in the form of graffiti, cool café's and social organizations like Mujeres Creando, an anarchist feminist group. I'm seriously thinking about doing my month-long field research project in La Paz.

From there, we took a 3 hour bus ride to a Tocoli, a small community of 25 families right on the edge of Lake Titicaca. We spent 4 days there with families in the village working in the fields, peeling potatoes, going fishing, etc. I got one of the sadder sides of the village. I lived with a 40 year old single man who works in the mines in Chile -- the same mines that the people were trapped in not too long ago. He told us about life in the mine and said that he never knows when he wakes up in the morning if he will live or die that day. He was in the village visiting his mom for 2 months before returning to work. He told us how much he worries about his mom living alone in the village because all of her children have migrated to other places and left her alone with a bad back condition that she hasn't gotten treatment for.

One of President Evo Morales's main pushes is for Bolivia to "Vivir Bien," a phrase derived from Quechua that means to be happy with what one has - to try to limit always wanting material things and a better life. I found, however, that it must be hard to "vivir bien" without access to medical attention and other basic services. With basic needs fulfilled, however, I think it's very possible to realize "vivir bien," but after my experience in the campo, I found the Bolivia is very far from this reality. With 60% of Bolivians earning less than 2 dollars a day, to tell people to be happy with what they have is unrealistic.