Just 2 months left in Bolivia

We just completed one of our longest trips to the field. 4 weeks without any breaks. We came back to some exciting news:  two papers Kelly had been working on and were under review were accepted for publication, and Asher received a revise and resubmit decision on the first article from his dissertation.

Back to our recent trip:  After all the flooding, April was very gracious with only two inches of rain during our stay in Campo Bello. Nevertheless, March was not willing to leave without a splash, and prior to our arrival to Campo Bello, it rain so hard that the river flooded the community again. When we arrived, the house we rent had water in it and flooding around the house. We spent the first two days of the trip building canals to drain all the pools of water around the house.

Here's the house all set up and our food stacked up. We brought 4 weeks of food supplies. Our little hut was jam packed with foods and presents for the community.

Many places around the community still had a lot of standing water.

Inside the school, we were really pleased to see this public health poster discussing three ways to purify water.

Asher was able to conduct water quality analysis in three of the main water sources: the river, a pump, and a well. And this time, only the river tested positive for fecal contamination.

The signature of the flood, as the community members called it, was evident on every house in the community. Below you can see a line of dirt about 2 feet from the ground on the house (just at the shadow line), which is where the flooding rose for a period of three weeks in February.

The fishing was really good here this month as the Sabalos were swimming upriver. Many of the community members were fishing with nets and caught hundreds of fish, which contributed to the majority of the community reporting eating fish with almost every meal on the diet recalls.

We were able to do a little bit of visiting and exploring this trip. The river has changed drastically and the bank has moved about 20 meters from where it was in October.

We visited Paublina's house and talked to her about the flooding. She lost her house and her water pump during the flood. However, she has a great attitude and was laughing all the while telling us stories. Luckily she has a huge family, and one of her grandkids built her and her husband a new house.

They were able to save the pump, but now it's just sitting in a tree. In the foreground you can see a stick in the riverbank - that is where the pump originally was before the bank fell into the river.

We had a great month of visiting with the community and data collection. We interviewed a total of 46 families with a total count of 186 individuals.

The majority of the interviews are about diet. Diets here are more market integrated than in Anachere, but at the same time, there is a lot of repetition to the diet. People were eating fish, plantains, and rice in some variety of preparation – soap, fried, smoked, or cooked in the fire. While the community members had huge losses in their fields, the majority of households still have some plantains or rice in their fields because almost every households has multiple chacos that are much larger than upriver since they sell many of their crops for income rather than just consume them like they do upriver. This change to cash cropping is possible for communities close to San Borja. We gave out aid to families at the interviews as well as gifts for participating in the study. People also had just received aid packages from the Tsimane’ Flood Relief Fund here.

It seemed as though everyone in the community was sick. The doctor stayed busy and gave out tons of medicines for colds and diarrhea as well as treating wounds and abscesses. She also was a big help to Asher with anthropometrics.

The fruit on the trees was plentiful – lots of limes, mandarins, grapefruits, and pacai (shown below) – it is citrus season. The weather was phenomenal. The rainy season is finally coming to an end – only one day of hard rain in April – it is incredible how dry the village was at the end of the trip compared to when we got there. 

We ate a lot of plantains this trip as people brought them as gifts and to trade.

We are now preparing for our second to last trip to the field, and our last trip upriver to Anachere. This year has gone by really fast. At times, it has felt slow, and we've had lots of challenges to overcome, but at this point there are only two months left. We are excited to get back upriver, but it will be hard to say goodbye to the people we've gotten to know there. We'll be back from Anachere around the 25th of May.

Back to Campo Bello

After a little more than a week of being back, prepping for our next trip, we are heading out to Campo Bello for the better part of April. We'll be doing the same data collection as we did in Anachere last month. We expect to return to San Borja around the 25th of April. It'll be great to get back to Campo Bello, the close community that we've been unable to visit since all of the flooding took place. We actually haven't been to Campo Bello since mid-October, so we're really looking forward to catching up with people in the community and seeing how things have changed.

Campo Bello is downriver from San Borja and as such was severely affected by all the flooding. During the flooding, we encountered many people from Campo Bello in San Borja, including Paublina, this spry 90 year old woman with a hunch back. When we'd visit at her house, we would always comment about how she had the best view of the river as her house was just meters from the river bank.  She also had a new covered-well, water pump at her house that she was incredibly proud of and would frequently talk about how nice it was to not have to get water from the river anymore. She would always start listing how many kids and grandkids she has (more than 70!).

Unfortunately, during the flooding her house and the well both fell into the river through erosion of the river bank. We're going to be taking aid packages to every family in the community once again as well as conducting interviews. We hope to be able to help out the families in Campo Bello as well as get data collection back on track for this community. Our team is ready to get back to the field:

Asher prepping for sample collection:

Kelly posing with Barbaro, our San Borja compadre:

Dino and Katerine smoking fish from the barbasco in Anachere:

March Madness

We were able to leave San Borja on Sunday, March 2, despite pending thunderstorms. We arrived in Santa Maria, a community of about 30 families, and gave aid packages to the community from donations that we received. Each family there received 1kg of rice, a can of sardines, laundry soap, two plates, and two spoons.

We arrived in Yaranda, a community a little further upriver from Santa Maria, to spend the night. As we were about to leave Monday morning to resume our journey, Dino and the doctor, Katerine, said we should wait a little bit since it looked like it was going to start raining. That was an understatement. We got torrential rainfall all day long and had to spend the day and extra night in the school in Yaranda. With the help of a family, Dino was able to rid the canoe of water, which was filling it. Unfortunately as a result of the torrential rainfall, some of our food and a few presents were ruined.

The next day we resumed our trip, and the river was excessively full with a strong current, which meant it took us an extra 3 hours to reach Anachere (9 hours in canoe on day 2). 

As we traveled upriver, we saw how different the landscape and communities were close to the river. Households were gone, chacos were dead, riverbanks changed, and the water level from the flooding was evident on the trees. We didn’t know what to expect when we arrived in Anachere. Since the upriver communities are so far away from San Borja, no one had heard much about conditions in Anachere. Some of the first houses we saw in the community from the canoe had been underwater not long ago. All the plantains, rice, yucca, and papaya near the river were dead. We weren’t sure if our house would still be there, but we were so relieved to see it. People here who lost their houses have rebuilt, and we visited them in their new homes. Here is one family in Anachere in their new house.

Asher spent his birthday getting data collection back on track, which went very well. Everyone in the community was happy to participate. 

We were able to complete more than 70 diet recall interviews with an emphasis on hydration strategies and the one thing that stuck out this time was that citrus season correlates with a being more hydrated as people regularly "drank" grapefruits, limes, lemons, and oranges all day long (up to 20 a day!):

The blood and fecal sample collection was also a success, for the most part – a cluster of 4 households that has a dispute with the Corregidor (village mayor) did not want to come for the blood/fecal sampling, and so we weren’t able to get 9 of the 36 subsample. The doctor was great – she helped with all aspects of the trip: doing the anthropometrics and the health recall interviews, as well as treating individuals and taking the blood and fecal samples. During the sample collection, we had families come to the school - Kelly made yupi (a vitamin c fortified kool aid type drink), and Asher provided the entertainment for the kids and adults as we were taking blood spots, which people did not seem to mind at all. For the kids, Asher would prepare the items, then as the Dr. was preparing their finger for the lancet prick, he would distract them by showing pictures on his camera of Boo, our cat in the US, and say Mishi (cat in Tsimane’) or whatever other pictures were around. Sometimes he would do a little dance or put a bucket on his head to make them laugh. As his friend, Paula Tallman, who has taken a lot of these samples has said – keeping people relaxed and making them laugh, as well as soaking hands in warm water, is the best way to get good blood spots.

Two weeks into the trip, we had all noticed some of the gifts (31 bullets, 5 knives, 60 candies, and a bag of pasta) and food items (1.5 kg of dried beef, 1-2 kg of sugar, 1 kg rice, 1-2 bags of pasta, a box of yupi, 2 boxes of crackers) were lower than they should be. We figured out that someone had been stealing from our house. Upon close inspection of our house, we discovered that they had removed the chuchillo (bamboo-like wall) and stuck their hands in and stolen the items. Fortunately, they left just enough gifts for the study participants and food for the four of us. That put a damper on the trip. It’s always a few rotten apples that spoil what was otherwise a mostly perfect trip (aside from all of the bug bites). This time there were hardly mosquitoes, surprisingly, but the no-see-ems were everywhere and ruthless and we got hundreds of itchy bites.

We got to experience and partake in a traditional communal fishing event called a barbasco. Barbascos are a community-based fishing activity when either an entire community or several sets of families dam a small tributary stream to the Maniqui Rio and place a plant poison in the water so the fish become drugged and dull and are easy to pick up. 

It was a great event and people were successful. Although it’s important to note that Asher and Kelly caught the first (and smallest) fish of the barbasco:

Everyone got 4-5 kg of fish, some more, but people said they didn’t bring enough of the poison and so it wasn’t as successful as it could have been. Since meat rations in our house were low after some of our food went missing, Dino caught 3 kg of fish - the smaller ones we fried and the bigger ones we smoked – so we had a nice buffer of meat for a few days. Angel’s family told us that they will have another barbasco in May when we return.

Jose is in his 80s and looked like he's been to a few barbascos before. Here he is - wearing the traditional shirt worn by Tsimane - with a machete in one hand and fish in the other. Some people used bow and arrow to catch fish; other people brought machetes and were just as successful.

Here's what we brought home:

Although the flooding meant that many of the lakes near the river are full of fish - great for barbasco events - the effects of the flooding will be felt here for the next year or two as so many people lost the majority of the crops in their fields. Here is one house and chaco - all the plantain trees, which are a major part of the diet here, have died.

It seemed like the majority of the community was sick while we were in Anachere, especially during the second half of the trip when colds and diarrhea ripped through households. Though we were all feeling run-down by the end of the trip, unfortunately, we were also afflicted and had to leave the community a couple days early because Dino was exhibiting three of the classic signs of appendicitis. After talking with the doctor on our team, we decided we had to get him back to San Borja and to medical care immediately. We moved quickly - packing as soon as we knew what was going on and leaving in the early morning once it was safe to travel on the river. It turns out he doesn't have appendicitis which is great news.

Phase 2, take 2

Here we go again! We were scheduled to head back to the field in late-January but were delayed more than a month due to devastating flooding in the Bolivian Amazon region. After a prolonged stay in San Borja, we are finally heading out – this time to Anachere (the community of 16 families located two days upriver). Before leaving, we want to provide you with an update on the flooding in Bolivia.

For a couple of days in San Borja, it looked like the river might enter the town. Work crews built a mud walls to hold the water back, but the water came pretty close for a couple of days to coming over the dikes and into the city. Here is the dike –

The river, usually around 200 meters wide, was several kilometers wide. Many people who live outside the city have lost their homes, many of their possessions, and cattle.

As we’ve shared previously, the communities were very affected by flooding with many of them underwater. Campo Bello, the close community that we work in, was completely flooded. The Tsimane Flood Relief Fund and other NGOs have responded to the crisis. During the severe time of flooding, hundreds of Tsimane' families came to San Borja to camps set up in the schools. In the schools, they were given shelter, water, and food, as well as medical care.

During a visit, we found little Rabiano, the son of the corregidor of Anachere, who had come down with his older brother to go to school in a closer community.

What has struck us is how little international coverage this flooding has received. We kind of assume that when big news items happen around the world, we’ll hear about it, but this experience has taught us that a lot of things can be happening around the world that we are not aware of and other times what is actually going on on the ground level is very different than what information is shared.

We’ve had a break in the rains for now. Water is beginning to recede and the ground is starting to dry in some places, though not all. We flew to Trinidad this week and were shocked to see the flooding from the air. The city of Trinidad is an island – surrounded by water.

The road between San Borja and Trinidad is closed. We figured it was pretty muddy, but what we saw from the plane was very surprising. In many places, the road is completely submerged in water. Yes, that line in the picture is the only road from the west to Trinidad under water:

Many of the communities outside of Trinidad are still under water and from the flight we got a sad view of the reality of the situation as many houses are half under water:

On a lighter note, after spending more than 3 weeks in Customs here, our water filter finally made it to Trinidad for us to pick up. We are looking forward to bringing it to the field.

On the flight to Trinidad operated by TAM, the military airline which is now also commercial, we had fun jump seats and we were pleased to see the plane had a spare wing. 

Because you never want to fly without a spare wing and a good wing man to hold it up.

And finally, we celebrated Asher’s birthday a little early this year with a great steak dinner followed by an exciting win over NC State.

Thank you again for your concern and sending your thoughts to the people here. Family and friends have responded with an outpouring of love and compassion.  We can’t wait to get back to Anachere! We don’t know what to expect there – we’ve heard very little from the communities far upriver, but we are hopeful that they have not been affected as much by flooding since they are higher. We’re taking aid packages to 2 communities (46 families total in Santa Maria and Anachere), where we’ll give out a package of plates, spoons, soap, rice, and canned fish to each family with donations we’ve received.

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: