A Perspective of Bolivia
Hello all! My name is Matthew and I am a member of the 2015 Bolivia Mission Trip. This is my third mission trip, my previous two being in Costa Rica.
One of my favorite parts of about visiting any new country is learning about the culture and lifestyle of its citizens. I especially enjoy mission trips because since you are working, eating, and hanging out with locals, you often get a much more accurate picture of the country than would've as an observant vacationer.
I have only spent about two weeks in Bolivia, but during my time here I believe I've leaned a great deal about this incredible nation, and hopefully my findings will interest you as well.
Geography
Bolivia is one of the only South American countries that does not have any access to the ocean. This is problematic for Bolivia because it greatly reduces the potential of their trade industry since they cannot import and export goods by sea. However there are currently ongoing talks for Bolivia to reclaim a tiny portion of the land they ceded to Chile many years ago from extremely unfair treaty their bad dictator signed.
Bolivia is the most biodiverse nation in the world, meaning that there are more different kinds of organisms in Bolivia than anywhere else.
Bolivia has many different climates and environments, which is likely the cause for the biodiversity. Bolivia is also home to a portion of the famous Amazon River, but this is often overlooked since Brazil controls practically all of the Amazon tourism industry.
Bolivia is specifically known for being very mountainous, probably because some of its biggest cities, like La Pez and and Cochabamba are located on the mountains at very high altitudes.
Economy
Bolivia's original major industry that prospered when it was initially colonized was tin and silver. This is why some of Bolivia's biggest cities were started at high elevations in the mountains, so that the settlers would be near these resources. The first colonists, the Spaniards, completely exploited both the land and the indigenous people for these resources, it is said that enough silver was extracted to build a bridge to Paris, and enough bodies from deceased slaves to build another bridge back.
Today Bolivia's biggest exports are quinoa, natural gas, soy, coffee, zinc and tin (all of the silver was taken by the Spaniards). Though the economy is growing at an optimistic rate, it is still one of the weakest in Latin America. Bolivia's economy could be boosted greatly if they exported coca, a plant grown all across Bolivia which is used as a natural medicine and to make tea, however the United Nations forbids countries to trade coca because it is used to make cocaine. Bolivia has been campaigning to the world to say "Yes to Coca, No to Cocaine," and it is possible that the world will see their view as the War on Drugs gets increasingly criticized.
Another problem with Bolivia's economy is that the governments socialist policies foster an anti-entrepreneurship environment. There is a law in place which requires employers to pay their employees an extra month's wages every year as a bonus, and to give every employee a 10% raise yearly. While this law is supposed to benefit the people, it imposes impossible expectations for small business owners, causing thousands to get laid off every year simply because employers can't keep up with the salary requirements. There is also controversy regarding the governments nationalization of multiple industries in Bolivia, specifically the natural gas industry. The government believes that by taking over these industries, they ensure that the profits reach the people in the form of various social services. Many international communities argue that the amount of power and control the government has will be too easily corruptible, but on the other hand you can't blame the government for finding unorthodox methods to get money considering that a vast portion of the population isn't even able to pay the mere 10% income tax.
Government
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Bolivia has a socialist government that supposedly is larger and more powerful than an a typical government so that it has the ability to provide more for the people. While it is unclear what the long term consequences of their current government structure will be, it is worth noting that they are at least doing more than the previous government(s) ever did to tackle Bolivia's many problems. One of the reasons the government receives so much support from the people is that the current president of Bolivia is for the first time ever a native Bolivian, named Evo Morales.
Bolivia has had a long history of political instability since its origins. The original leaders of Bolivia were Spaniards who practically ignored the presence of the indigenous people, going as far as to ban them from even entering major cities. During the Cold War, Bolivia was under the ruler of a series of dictators placed into power by the CIA with the purpose of being puppets for the United States. Bolivia has since driven out all practically all United States presence, namely the CIA and DEA. There is currently a significant amount of animosity towards the USA throughout Bolivia, from both its government and citizens today.
Infrastructure
Bolivia is a relatively underdeveloped country today, especially when compared to America. The roads are narrow and bumpy in both cities and the countryside. Bolivia does not have an intuitive traffic control system. The stoplights do not have sensors to better time when to have green or red lights, and there are far fewer road safety signs than there probably should be. I never once saw a set of four way stop signs at an intersection, instead cars would honk as the approached the intersection to warn drivers coming from the other directions. One of the main roads we travelled from to get from the airport hotel did not even have lane dividers, and there would be anywhere from 3 to 5 other cars aligned with us at any moment.
Internet is less accessible throughout the country, Internet cafes seem to be everywhere since many Bolivians cannot afford to have their own wifi.
One of the biggest shocks for me was that you cannot flush your toilet paper down the toilet anywhere in Bolivia. Instead you have to just put it in the trash which results in very stinky bathroom.
Culture
Bolivian culture in interesting because there is constant cultural conflict between the indigenous people and those of Spanish/mixed descent. Bolivia has one of the highest racially indigenous population percentages of all Latin American countries. Because of this the government was forced to give the natives more recognition in the constitution, unlike other South American countries who have been able to ignore their indigenous minorities indefinitely.
Bolivia is a very male dominated society. This is the root cause of a lot of Bolivia's problems, nearly 100% of violence in Bolivia is domestic. The sad thing is that most of the violence is out of ignorance, as men think that it's simply acceptable to beat their children and spouses as a form of discipline. The Women's Rights movement in Bolivia is small but getting stronger, however this has caused other unforeseen issues, because now that women are realizing that they shouldn't have to receive abuse, they are just leaving their domestic situation which is causing unprecedented rates of abandoned children.
Food in Bolivia can be best described as meat and potatoes, which were incorporated in one way or another in basically every meal. My personal favorite food products in Bolivia were the interesting beverages, which were often creamy and comprised of exotic fruits.
It is worth noting that the coca leaf is an important cultural symbol for Bolivia. It's prevalence in Bolivian medicine, food, and general culture is unique from the rest of the world. Bolivians are also proud of their coca because the CIA desperately tried to eradicate it in the 1970-80s out of fear that some of it would eventually be synthesized into cocaine. Evo Morales experienced this firsthand when he was a coca grower prior to his involvement in politics, he is currently not only the president of Bolivia but also the president of the Bolivian Coca Union. Bolivia's see their production of coca as taking a stand against the United States and imperial power in general.
Matthew Zimmer
Rising senior