At Home
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been a bit constricted to my little neighborhood; Sopocachi. The reason local travel hasn’t been very feasible is El Teleferico (the gondola that runs all over La Paz) was closed for servicing. Which is okay but hinders getting to a few key places for work.
Also, and the most un-nerving for me personally, is that I had to give both my passports to the immigration office here. They took them because of SOP in getting my work visa. If there was an emergency, or I needed to travel/fly within the country, I wouldn’t have been able to. And with no vehicle, my mobility was very limited…
The good news is that I got my passports back, I have my two-year work visa, AND I’ll be getting my official Bolivian identification card… I’m now a legal immigrant! With the Bolivian ID, I can actually travel anywhere in South America without my US passport; it’s similar to how the European Union operates. Most importantly, I can get back to the States if there were any emergencies. Phew, what a couple weeks…
My personal activities are coming together. Next is to get a personal bank account, and that Bolivian driver’s license I mentioned previously (oy vey). Professionally, a few key updates for the week:
- We submitted our first grant proposal last week! Fingers crossed the give us, like, 50 million dollars
- Our visits to the Federal-level ministries are becoming fruitful. I’ll have more on this next week, but I’m pleased with the progress with these entities. New discussions are happening almost weekly
- We’ve found a new private organization here that we’re thinking of partnering with. It’ll help to support our projects, and possibly find new site locations. Again, more on this shortly
- We have our Board of Directors meeting on the 18th, which is always productive, and I personally enjoy. It’s nice to hear English every so often
That’s it from La Paz, and more to follow next week!