MC
I heard the letterbox open at 08.07. As I had been doing for days, I sprinted to the front door to see if the letter had arrived.
“We´ll let you know by post within the next fourteen days,” they had told me from their head office. I had applied to do a year voluntary work in a third world country. The missionary organization had accepted me, so I knew I was going; I just didn´t know where.
“Mum, Dad. It´s here. It´s here!” I sat cross legged on the sitting room floor in our pokey end terrace in Reading, Berkshire. I smiled at my Mum, as I opened the letter.
“Wherever they send you, that´ll be the place for you,” she said with characteristic aplomb.
I read the words, “Congratulations. You have been selected to join a team who organize and manage CASA CRUZ, a day centre for Street Children and Alcoholics located in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.”
“Bolivia. They are sending me to Bolivia.” It looked so amazing typed on the page. “BOLIVIA!” I repeated.
“Where precisely is Bolivia?” Dad asked. He knew, as I did, that it was in South America but neither of us knew any more than that. He took out the atlas from our cluttered sideboard and located the land locked country.
It is pushed away from both Atlantic and Pacific coastlines, nestled in between Peru, Chile and Brazil. At the bottom of the page, there were some key facts:
Population 6.5 Million, divided into nine provinces, La Paz is the highest capital in the world, Potosi the highest city on the planet, high indigenous population, poorest country in South America.
JC
Another police raid today. They got me. With no shoes I could hardly run.
Some Brazilian diplomat is coming to town, so they want us out of the way. Vermin, they call us. Only for the weekend. Then, if one of us pays up, they´ll let the rest out. Same old story. Only this time, I´m the one that was left out. Sonia, Edela, Chico, Indy, Jhonny and P Chino are all inside. Poor buggers. I´ve got till Monday to get 60$. If I could find the fucking Brazilian bastard I´d steal it right off his back. Snatch his watch or his wallet. I´d phlegm up and spit right in his face and scream at him to go back to his own fucking country.
I am too nervous to go stealing today though. My nerves just aren´t right. I´ll see if I can get some Rohypnol[1] or more clefa. Or I could just go to the Mission House. Those gringos that think they fucking own the world. Last time I took 50$ right out of one guy´s back pocket. Fancy walking around with that in your pocket in a room full of thieves and drug addicts. Stupid idiot…
[1] Rohypnol – a heavy sedative marketed by Hoffman- La Roche, ten times stronger than a Valium. It´s use as a medical drug, for anesthetic or for treating insomnia, has never been approved in the USA.
