Just about a week ago (yeah writing way late again), I found myself in one of Bolivia's capitals, La Paz. I went because I had somehow managed to procure a meeting with the UN High Commission for Human Rights' office in Bolivia, and I was super excited about it. Of course, I didn't inform my parents right away of this development and instead just bought plane tickets to La Paz from August 8-9. So once again, I found myself in Cochabamba's airport about to board a flight to another city in Bolivia. The flight is super short (like 30 minutes at maximum altitude?) but it still provided some pretty cool views such as this one below. I was also in awe of what looked like little villages scattered on mountainsides high up in the air.
One of the coolest things about La Paz is the fact that it has cable car lines as public transportation. Here are some pics I took from the red cable car line on the way up to El Alto, where the airport is located.
While in La Paz, I stayed with a Swiss friend of mine that I had met during my time in Bolivia this time around (I meet a lot of people, that's a general rule). She was passing through Cochabamba and told me that if I ever ended up in La Paz, she could host me because her apartment had an extra room. She also mentioned it was on the 14th floor of her building. I of course couldn't resist and was super happy that the UN thing worked out because then I had a great excuse to come stay in such a place. Here's a couple of pictures of what living the dream looks like.
We also had a good talk (rant) about doing work in the NGO world and it was nice to unload some of my issues with her, who of course completely understood, working for a Swiss NGO that operates in Bolivia. Like me she's interested in the idea of international cooperation and has traveled quite a bit, and she'll be living in La Paz for the year. By some lucky stroke of circumstance, the building that the UN office was located in was just down the street from where my friend's apartment was. (This trip was all meant to be, really.) I couldn't take pictures of the actual office because it's a legit UN office with security and whatnot, but here's a pic from the building's elevator heading towards the tenth floor.
Ugh, that's the kind of professional atmosphere I want to be in one day. Anyway, to sum up the meeting, I met with a girl (I say girl but she's like 29) who used to work as a lawyer for the state but has been working with the UN office since January. We sat in this small conference room (with a spectacular view) and she handed me a tote bag full of materials relating to their work and also work they've collaborated on with the Bolivian government. She then explained to me (broadly, given the time that we had) the work of their office these past ten years since they originally started working in Bolivia, answering whatever follow-up questions I had. One of the things I found most interesting was that the Bolivian government sent a request to the office in Geneva indicating that they wanted to have an office in Bolivia to help their human rights situation, because there wasn't that much policy relating to human rights. They agreed and thus the office was to serve a mandate for ten years. I managed to catch them just in time because the office will actually be closing in September. The girl said that they're closing satisfied with the work they've done in the advancement of human rights in Bolivia, and thus will leave on a good note. She hopes to either return to work for the Bolivian state or stay in the UN system. At the end of the official meeting, we just sat and continued chatting with each other. It was fun for me to hear about how she got where she is, and she was curious to know about me as well. The meeting wasn't as formal as I expected it to be, which was great, because that way I felt like I was talking to somebody as a colleague and not so much as a superior. The fact that we spoke using the informal "you" in Spanish (compared to the formal you that we used in email) also added to that. It was a very informational and fascinating meeting, and I left telling the girl I met with that perhaps one day we would meet again somewhere in the UN system. She agreed.
Part of this trip to me was also just playing house. Throughout my travels this year I've met quite a few girls in their mid to later twenties who have been sort of inspirational figures to me, helping me imagine what my life could be like when I reach that age not too far away from now. Meeting them I've come to realize the kind of people I want to be surrounded by in my eventual career and "real adult life": the kind acutely aware of what's going on in the world and with the motivation to contribute in some small way to make life more fair for its people, the kind that name drop various countries in every conversation, the kind with whom I can converse in more than one language. I don't see myself changing that much between now and then in this regard, though of course I do see the context of my daily life and what I'll be doing overall changing pretty drastically in ways that I can't yet fathom. This trip was a good break away from being in Cochabamba to think about these things. But anyway all that aside, here are some more pictures from La Paz!
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| View from a café where I was trying to do work before the UN meeting |
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| Some cool graffiti I saw walking down a hill |
That's it for this brief update. The week that it corresponds with is a special one so stay tuned for another entry coming up very soon!
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