Tsimane' Flood Relief Fund

Dear colleagues, friends, and family,

Conditions have continued to worsen here in Lowland Bolivia. While the Bolivian government issued a national state of emergency on Feb. 4th, very little of that aid is reaching the thousands of Tsimane' whose houses are flooded and crops destroyed. All communities downriver or north of Uvasichi are under water right now, including Campo Bello (one of the communities where I'm conducting my dissertation research). To help you get a sense of how widespread the flooding is, check out where Uvasichi is in relation to the two communities where we work and San Borja. Uvasichi is right at the turn in the river (if you look at it like an L). (Update: approximately 56 communities are now affected by the flooding, reaching as far as Yaranda and Cosincho upriver). Map credit: Universidad de Barcelona

Currently, all of the roads are under water as well and people are using canoes and boats on those roads, it's surreal. Being on the ground during a natural disaster in a country with poor infrastructure and among a population that is vulnerable with little in the way of resources to get out of harms way really opens your eyes to how rich conditions are in the US. 

Please consider donating to this flood relief fund: https://fundly.com/tsimane-flood-relief-fund , especially if you've enjoyed reading about our adventures down here on our blog. Any bit helps, even $10 can buy a days worth of food or a mosquito net. Currently, there are 3 camps here in San Borja where Tsimane' are staying and this fund, coordinated by an anthropology team from University of Santa Barbra and Univ. of New Mexico that is helping evacuate Tsimane' from flooded communities, buy them mosquito nets, medicine, clothing, and food. We've been in talks with this team to help out as much as we can, dispensing aid while we're stuck in San Borja. Please share the link to the flood relief fund with friends.

La lluvia sigue (The rain continues)

Some of you have noticed we didn’t leave for the field last week, so it’s probably time for another update. Last week, Bolivia declared a state of emergency because of extensive flooding.

http://www.trust.org/item/20140204163022-0qcs5/?source=hptop

San Borja has had some flooding, but the communities along the river have been really affected. The flooding has really hit the roads hard and many of them are completely under water. During the dry season, the taxi ride between San Borja and Trinidad takes around 5 hours. One time, we even made the trip in 4 hours. When we made the trip a month ago – still early in the rainy season – we got stuck overnight in a tiny town in between San Borja and Trinidad and the travel time was 9 hours total. However, the second half of the trip (5 hours) included us sharing a back seat of a van with a mom and her son of 10 years, who threw up continuously throughout the whole ride. The poor kid had terrible car-sickness and rode with his head in a plastic bag. He filled up 4 or 5 plastic bags and when the bag would fill up, his mom would just throw it out the window onto the road. One time, she accidentally hit the head of the guy sitting in front of her with the bag of vomit and he looked back to see what hit him in the head and realized it was a bag full of vomit and gave the funniest look we’ve ever seen. Anyways, someone told us the trip is now taking 17 hours and some days the taxis aren’t even bothering to leave so people are stranded. Needless to say, no one is going anywhere quickly around here.

Campo Bello, the closer community we work in, is flooded. We talked to some people from Campo Bello who were in San Borja, and they said many of the houses have water up to the knees or even higher. The school, which is supposed to start a new year this week, also has some water in it. Many of the people in the community have moved to other villages or have gone further into the jungle until the water recedes.

Anachere, the community that is two days upriver, is harder to get word about since there is no way for people there to send a message. Anachere is higher elevation and is upriver (the flooding gets worse downriver because the water accumulates), and the communities around it have not reported flooding.

There are concerns about disease – dengue, malaria, parasites, and skin conditions – that come along with flooding. The government is sending medical teams to affected communities to provide care. We hope they can make it to the Tsimane communities.

Once it is safe to travel on the river, we will go to Anachere and then try to get to Campo Bello in March. We’ve given up trying to plan anything – our bags are packed, supplies are purchased, but we’re waiting on the river to go down. It could be in two days; it could be another week. Asher is taking it all in stride. He’s even working on a couple new papers. Kelly finished another grant application and has been working on two journal revisions. We’ve also found time to make a lot of soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Thank you to everyone who has checked in with us – it means so much to get emails from family, friends, and colleagues making sure all is well here. We are fine – this isn’t without its challenges, but we have each other and a lot of supportive people back home. We also love hearing what you are up to, so keep the emails and comments coming!

Here are some pics of the rain in San Borja. Our complex is pretty good at absorbing water, but there's still some parts that flood:

The walk into town from our complex on the road also is a bit under water:

In San Borja, there are a few streets that are completely under water, and people have to navigate them:

You'd think people would look where they're going when there's flooding in the streets, but not so much:

We got stuck in the rain for a bit, when we were out buying produce:

People still go out when it's raining and have their little stands selling bread, or cooking hamburgers, but knowing about water quality, Asher has to comment that anytime there's water in the streets, it's mixed with feces due to all the dogs, chickens, cows, and horses that roam the streets. And if the stand is splashed with the street water, that is a recipe for illness: