Over Spring Break I went on a trip to DC organized by Career Services and stayed with my friend Kate's parents. Of all the visits and organized 'networking' (shudder) that the trip entailed, staying with and talking to Kate's folks ended up being by far the most useful since they have both made careers in international development and know a lot of people and have great advice. When I told them about my internship, they put me in touch with some people down in Bolivia who work with USAID, so I hope to really take advantage of those contacts when I am down there to learn more about development in Bolivia in general and also some insights for what I should be attempting to do in Santa Cruz for CEPAD.

This Friday I went back to the medical center to pick up the rest of my cheap malarial pills (luckily in my one week of taking them there were no terrible side effects, so I do not have to invest in the new malaria pills which cost $5 per pill) and to get the second rabies vaccine. After being convinced of the importance of actually getting the vaccine last week due to the high prevalence of rabid animals in Bolivia, I was cheerfully informed by the nurse this week that there is now a shortage so no more shots.

I wonder if getting only one shot makes me 1/3 protected against rabies, or if it was just a waste of time and money to get one to begin with. Luckily, a blood test I took last week showed that I am not fully immunized to mumps, which needs to be dealt with immediately (how I survived 23.5 years without being fully immune I don't know, but I should count my blessings and get an immunization stat). In summary, my trip to the medical center was a mixed bag:
Bad news: cannot get rabies in Bolivia since I am not fully vaccinated.
Good news: can be exposed to mumps because that vaccine is available.

In other news, I decided that this weekend would be my big shopping spree at REI and it was pretty exciting. I found two adventure-ready pants, a mosquito net, some toxic stuff to wash my clothes in to keep the mosquitos away and some less-toxic bug spray to put on my face. Unfortunately, there were no long-sleeved shirts that were meant to keep you cool except for these two neat ones that made me look like a zoo-keeper, so I will have to keep searching for those.

That is all for now. Until June 11th when I finish finals, I am afraid all of my adventures will be limited to the IR/PS library and computer lab:( Until then, I hope everyone has a nice last week of May and I'll catch you later.

athalia

PS If you are going to want a postcard, start sending me addresses so I can compile a complete list of snail mail recipients.

Count-down begun

Hello friends!
You have been invited to read about my travels in and around Bolivia this summer as I embark upon my internship with CEPAD in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

http://www.cepad.org

Santa Cruz is on the relatively rich eastern side of Bolivia and it has been in the news recently for its calm democratic processes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/05/world/americas/05bolivia.html

It will definitely be an exciting summer!
I am going to be participating in a ten week internship in the town of Buena Vista, approximately 1 hour outside of the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, working with local officials to come up with a sustainable business plan for the municipality. Given that the most sustained employment I ever had was an 8 month job working in the weight room of the gym at UC Berkeley, I am not sure what advice I am going to be able to give local officials but I am willing to give it a college try (what would Tedford do?)

I am excited to go to Latin America and I hope that it'll be less hot and more awesome than I think.

My ambitions for the trip are to:
1) not get malaria
2) improve my Spanish
3) write a good blog
4) not get malaria
5) travel
6) make connections for future work opportunities
7) travel with all necessary goods in one bag. Having a carry-on is not only a time saver, but also a money saver as well.

The one bag goal is not really going to be feasible on the way to Bolivia since I was advised to bring bug spray, sunscreen, shampoo and some other liquids with me. I also read that there are no granola bars in Bolivia, so I plan to have one-check in backpack with liquids, my clothes and granola bars in it and then a smaller carry-on with my computer, camera and a book or two. That way, once the liquids are used up and the granola bars eaten, I will get down to one carry-on bag.

So far my preparations have consisted of going to the medical center to get shots (tetanus, rabies, yellow fever) and find out all the incurable diseases that they really cannot help me with (note to self: stay away from kissing bugs Changos Disease=no fun). I bought some traveler's insurance in case I need to be medically evacuated or get dismembered, and I am planning on buying a new camera that does not require batteries (that way if I lose a limb I can document it without worrying about whether my batteries ran out).

That is about all the news for now, hopefully the upcoming posts will be a lot more interesting. Until then, I will try to survive the last three weeks of finance and QM and if anyone has any suggestions or advice before I go on my travels, I would love to hear them.

Hasta entonces,

athalia

P.S. I am also going to be travelling after my internship ends on August 29th. I will hopefully travel around Bolivia and into Peru from August 30th - September 19th. If anyone has some spare time and wants to join in the fun, the more the merrier!