Dreams

I spent my last week in Bolivia staying with a Bolivian family in Sucre. I was ill with various infections (damn you unwashed food) and so saw pretty much nothing of the beautiful city apart from my bed and the toilet. This did mean, however, that I got a lot of chances to chat with the people in the house, of which there were many. There was a mum, dad a nephew and 4 sons who lived their permanently. Plus they had a live-in housekeeper. Uncles, aunts and various other relatives were constantly appearing, not to mention friends popping over. So although I had a rough week health-wise, there were plenty of people to chat to in-between vomits.

Whilst in Bolivia, I often found myself having the same conversation. People asking me where I`m from and then always “¿como es inglaterra?” – “what`s England like?” I usually just said rainy and tried to move the conversation on, how was I supposed to answer such a broad question?!

However, with time on my hands and a very captive audience  I told people about the weather, the health and education systems, taxes, and English customs. My descriptions left many a person “boca abierto” (mouth open but I much prefer the Spanish). They had clearly never heard of such a crazy place!

I told the mum about the snow in England and she was amazed, I had to explain that it was winter in England and about the hemispheres. Then I showed her some pictures of the snow family we made last year and she couldn`t believe it.

As I said I`ve been ill recently and have been familiarising myself with the  local health facilities. That´s another story, but let´s just say the service is not good, and you have to pay for the pleasure. I told an aunty that the system in England is free, that someone could be in hospital for months and not pay a penny and she literally didn`t believe me. I wish I had a photo of her face when I told her.

Then I told her about English taxes, and VAT on everything. Taxes in England are higher than they are in Bolivia (there it is 15.5%) but even so  there must be thousands of Bolivians that work without paying un boliviano. I also wouldn`t be surprised if a lot of the taxes people pay go straight into their bosses pockets.

In Bolivia, everything you buy has tax on it (a bit like VAT I guess), except you can claim it back. With an identity card when you pay they write your name and number on every receipt and then you collect them all and claim back the money. So when I said that in England you just have to pay the tax and that`s it, that caused quite a stir.

I`d like to think that most people in England are at least aware that life is different in other countries. For me, I am not shocked to find that life in abroad is different to back home, I am just interested.Talking to this family though, it`s like they literally could not imagine that other places are different. Everytime I mentioned a difference or talked about how the English do things, I got looked at like a bit of an alien. Perhaps it´s a lack of eduaction.

Discussing travel was also interesting, I showed them some pictures of Uganda which they were amazed at (this also prompted some very un-PC comments -“look at the little negritos!”). Most Bolivians I´ve met dreamed of travel, yet with the Boliviano worth what it is, a trip further than to the neighbours is but a distant dream. Not that there is anything wrong with the neighbours of course, I am currently in Argentina and loving it.

It`s interesting how going away from home makes you realise things about your own country. I`ve realised what a civilised place England is. Sure, there is crime and it is far from perfect, but at least you can do simple things like drink from the tap and eat the food without having to worry about getting sick all the time. and then when you are sick, you don`t have to pay for it.

I wish I could take some of the people I`ve met here and take them to England. I don`t think they would quite know what to do first when they got there. I`d love to take them to see different things, eat different foods and meet different people. I can imagine them marvelling at modern commodities like ticket machines and self service checkouts. Even at the size of the supermarkets.

It`s not just that I wish I could take Bolivians to England, I wish I could take English people to Bolivia. I think we have a lot to learn from each other.

In my ideal dream world, we could help them develop and create more opportunities for themselves, and they could help us bring back things we`ve lost; strong family ties, a sense of community and also the lack of complaining.

People in Bolivia often know that they can`t travel and that they will probably do one job for their entire lives,  but they don`t complain. They get on with it, and they laugh and smile a lot. I spent six months in Bolivia, and I cannot say that I met one grumpy Bolivian.