After preparations Sunday for our first full day of workshops, a crew of us went to supper (la cena) at the Asian Fusion, an interesting juxtaposition of Bolivian cuisine and sushi. Given that I was leary of anything not cooked, I elected the llama steak, which was very good. Others in our party were more adventurous. The wine was also very good.

We rose early Monday, had a bite of breakfast at Los Tajibos (very good buffet with a chef who made excellent omelettes), and then were guided to the Universidad Católica for the day’s activities. After some introductory remarks, Ing. Aguilera (the technical director for SEARPI made his presentation about their activities to mitigate flooding and bank erosion of Rio Piray. This engineer is very interesting. It was clear he has talked about SEARPI activities many times. But what fascinated me most about him was that he spoke slowly with many gestures. His delivery was excellent (¡muy excelente!) and he was very entertaining.

When we broke for lunch (la almuerza), they guided downstairs to the break room. They provided very nice sandwiches (two of them, which was too much) and plenty of warm soft drinks or bottled water. I elected the water. Ing. Aguilera and one of the translators sat with us and we chatted over lunch. We were invited to Ing. Aguilera’s home for supper.

The afternoon passed quickly. My talk was right after lunch and of course the audience had food-induced coma. I was not at all surprised. I don’t remember much else about the afternoon. Perhaps I had food-induced coma as well.

Ing. Aguilera and one of his staff members picked us up from Los Tajibos early on a beautiful Santa Cruz evening. The drive to his home was only a few minutes. As we entered his beautiful place, we were greeted by his sister and a waiter who was there to assist with the evening festivities. There was good wine and whiskey. I stuck with the wine.

We had enough people there who were conversant with English that understanding was not an issue. We chatted before supper, drinking wine and munching appetizers. Regardless, I think I would have understood Ing. Aguilera anyway. He spoke slowly and with great elocution. I could follow most of what he was saying with my few words of Spanish and by following his hands and face. He is an excellent host.

I asked (Jaime I think) whether Monica would be attending that evening. I was assured that she would be there. I wanted her to pose with me so I could send an image to my children to tease them about their new step-mother.

“Bolivia is a very dangerous place for a single man,” Ing. Aguilera informed me. He laughed at himself for being married not once, not twice, but four times. He told stories about himself, his life, and his work.

La cena was very interesting. I’m generally open to new foods, but couldn’t bring myself to eat the tripe or tongue. I suppose that when I return I will give both a try. Monica teased me about the traditional food and told me the tongue is really quite good. I have never eaten tongue, but have had tripe before. It’s certainly edible, but not my favorite protein source because of the texture. I can eat it, though. So, I’ll have to try the tongue.

After supper, over wine and dessert, the group chatted about water-related issues. I was impressed that technical people involved in hydrology generally have the same set of problems and concerns. It was clear from the discussion, even with the language barrier (which wasn’t that great of a barrier, really), that we share so much. The Bolivians are in a place where we here in the States were maybe 40-years ago. They have an advantage, though, in that much of the research to help them deal with their water problems has already been done. What they really lack, I think, is the institutional drive and funding to completely deal with their problems.

I was impressed that the Bolivians are intelligent, dedicated, hard-working, and capable. I left with much to think about as the evening ended too soon. Papá shooed us off to our accommodations because we had another big day to follow on Tuesday. So we said buenas noches and bid our hosts adios for the day.

Monday was one of the big days. We held seminars all day, from about 0900 to 1500 hours. Breakfast was fairly early and just before the chef began cooking omelettes. I was disappointed, a bit, but the various breads were quite good.

I might remark that the coffee here is just OK. It is brewed in a way that is unfamiliar to me. I expect that if I lived here I’d have to find a good source of beans, learn to roast my own, and then grind and brew my own coffee.

Along that line of thought, coca mate is legal here in Bolivia. Coca Mate is made from the raw leaves of the Coca plant, meaning that it contains a small amount of coca alkaloids. While we were working on our presentations Sunday afternoon, I brewed some coca mate using the hot water and tea bags provided by the hotel and added just a bit of sucralose. It is a very good tea and I enjoyed it a great deal.

Unfortunately, I cannot bring the tea home with me. It’s illegal in the United States. Also, I’ll now test positive for cocaine, although I have had none of the refined drug. I don’t actually care because the experience of tasting this wonderful tea is worth the risk of not passing a drug test.

Back to my story — we had two translators provided by the US Embassy. They are sufficiently skilled to do simultaneous translation while we are speaking. Those speaking in Spanish are translated into English and vice versa. It works amazing well… if the speaker remembers to pace him/herself such that the translators can keep up.

The morning sessions went well. One of our speakers was the head of a local resource agency, SEARPI. He is an experienced, animated speaker who has good command of his material. Even without being able to understand Spanish, his delivery of his material was highly entertaining and I enjoyed his talk. The translation was good enough that I was able to follow along.

After his talk, he invited those of us from the States to his home for dinner. That will have to be another story, I think.

Lunch was also fun. He sat down with us and one of our hosts (from Tarija) is fluent in both languages. So we were able to have a lively discussion over sandwiches.

My talk came right after lunch. I learned that I can still put them to sleep with the help of a food-induced coma. The room was warm and I was working to pace my talk to keep from getting ahead of the translators. I listened to the translation in my right ear with the volume down so I could track the translator. That worked well, although my pace was a bit slower than I usually use. It worked, nonetheless (unless you count putting them to sleep not working).

After the talks, it was time to mingle. One of the professors from Catolica Universidad Santa Cruz greeted me and we chatted a bit (small bit) in his broken English and my broken Spanish. I have his card and if I get back down here will attempt to spend some time with him discussing his work and students. A number of others asked for a photograph and then we did a group photograph under the university emblem.

Ing. Aquilera volunteered to drive us back to the hotel and we graciously accepted. That meant we had time between the seminar and supper to rest a bit. I did and it was good.

Today I’ll meet with a group of students (with my colleagues), spend some time with the dean of engineering here in Santa Cruz, and fly to Tarija this evening for more meetings tomorrow. I will have to write up my supper story in a second entry. I also need to retrieve photographs from my camera and choose some of the best.