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: