recogitare.com

stanky wrote: ↑Sat Aug 24, 2024 4:53 am

President Bush wrote: ↑Sat Aug 24, 2024 1:18 am This ain't medical tourism, this is life.

It's largely that Bolivia is starving for economic stability, especially right fucking now. The USD is seen to promise that. Black market rate for nice blue $100 bills can be 70% higher than the official rate. I've been asked a couple times if there is also a shortage of dollars up there (in the US).

We are here at the right time to get crazy deals.

is there a wave of gringos right behind you?
drawn by the deals.
they seem endless
(the gringos)
you're not even white anymore, i'd imagine.

may you stay a step a head and may Bolivia blossom

(you ain't missin' a thing)

The Henry Miller line "a world without hope, but no despair" might do it.

There's an optimal type of poverty where you aren't starving and your bed is comfy enough and you have friends and community, and you ride the bus.

or, for ten or twenty times as much, the bed is slightly more comfy and you have no friends, usually, and so much stuff, you need to rent storage. Your pictures are bringing memories of Mexico and a dignified and colorful poverty.
Too bad it would be almost illegal in the states. Way less money would do us wonders, in my unpopular opinion.

If you need more than a pickup to move your stuff, perhaps you have too much stuff.

it's a strange type of slavery, being owned by stuff.

besides, it's ffuts spelled backwards.

Wasn't owned by the catheter for a night, little balloon that holds it in place in the bladder deflated when I was replacing the urine bag nipple and stuck it in the wrong hole and broke the seal. Damned thing popped right out and discovered I could piss like a twenty-year old again. Hallelujah.

Oh yeah, reason the hospital bill was only $150 equivalent was that the four person surgical team including the urological surgeon, plus spinal anesthesia is paid directly to the urologist, another $1000 in Bolivianos. Totally fucking worth it, I was in serious distress.

Dr Jamil, the urologist, is kind of a raucous guy. Since what's going on really shapes just how I'll be pissing for the rest of my life I want to be sure we have excellent communication. Teaching myself to always speak in complete sentences in Spanish. In agreement when I ask something obvious he enthusiastically shouts "YES!".

the foley catheter brings back memories of shoving them up guy's dicks. when you pull out the syringe to inflate the balloon, they get nervous. i recall cathing guys that only spoke spanish and i was really struggling to explain (in spanish) what i was doing to them. he was migrant farm worker, picking apples where i use to live. every year, they'd come from different countries because they were treated so badly and rarely left with money.

whole 'nother story.

stanky wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2024 4:22 pm the foley catheter brings back memories of shoving them up guy's dicks. when you pull out the syringe to inflate the balloon, they get nervous.

Uh oh, here comes Dr Foley now.

Took maybe a block or two of walking after we left the house to notice there was absolutely no traffic in the streets. Normal on Sundays for the main plaza to be pedestrian only but this was more than that, people walking and children riding their toys down the middle of the street, like a science fiction movie after something major happens,

Asked a cop on a corner if all of Sucre had no traffic moving, I was curious how big the perimeter of the pedestrians-only zone was today.

He blew my mind, said today there is no moving traffic in all of Bolivia, it's the national day of pedestrians and bicyclists in defense of Mother Earth.

We splurged, got a table on the Plaza sidewalk outside a nice restaurant to watch today's parades and I asked the waitress if it were true that there was no traffic moving anywhere on the streets and highways of the entire nation. She said yes.

La Paz, August 30, 2024 (ATT PRESS). - Bolivia celebrates the “National Day of Pedestrians and Cyclists in Defense of Mother Earth” on the first Sunday of September of each year, which implies the prohibition of motorized vehicles throughout the national territory. However, air transport continues as normal...

https://www.att.gob.bo/como-viajar-en-e ... 20nacional.

Another entertaining day in Sucre.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and- ... nous-women

Great pics, Prez!

The young folk look more modern than i would have thought.
What a great idea, the no cars day! Love the 'bring your dog to church' day and all the festivals and parades.
So different.
Sane, even.