Suga Suga and Eat My Dust

I'm sitting in the living room right now, wondering if my ride to church is still coming. That's the thing about Bolivia -you never know if you just didn't understand correctly or if they are simply running on Latino time. I'm honestly debating whether or not I should go back to bed but I just had a cup of coffee so I think that option is probably out.

Anyway...I've been meaning to talk about the sugarcane on here for quite sometime. One of the first things I noticed when I got to Montero was the smell. While it's not as bad as manure or dying things, it is distinct and very strong. Guillermo informed me that it comes from the sugarcane refineries here in town. And while you might have an image from Charlie in the Chocolate Factory in your head, that's not quite accurate.

Sidenote: My ride is here!! Only an hour and half later than they said. I'll finish this later...  

Continued:
Montero is known as "The Sweet Town" and is the capital of sugarcane in Bolivia. It's very common to get stuck behind a huge truck loaded to the brim with stalks of burned sugarcane. That's right, burned sugarcane. Harvesters burn the cane to get rid of excess leaves and branches, leaving only the stalks intact. This makes the harvesting easier once they start hacking at it with machetes. Also gets rid of all the snakes (shudder). Snakes are worst than dogs. True story.

Anyway, supposedly the refineries and plantation owners are not supposed to accept burned cane, but it's obvious that this rule isn't enforced. Burning saves the harvesters from a lot of work and I was just reading that it's actually helped decrease child labor here because the harvest requires less workers. However, it can easily destroy whole forests full of monkeys, birds, and tropical foliage, leaving behind ugly, charred ground in its wake.

Often times when we are returning from el campo, there are whole fields burning. Once, I thought I was going crazy because it looked like it was snowing but it was actually just the ash falling from the sky. You can imagine what the smoke/ash combo does for the air quality here. Excuse me while I cough up a lung. Imagine the poor little ones out in el campo with asthma! I've heard many, many mothers complain that their children get sick from the smoke. It's also common to burn your garbage out there too, only aggravating the problem further.

The dust is the other thing that doesn't help the whole breathing thing. If we get stuck behind a huge truck full of cane or there's the slightest breeze, it's like the dustbowl of the 1930's all over again. Fabi can barely see well enough to drive.

Needless to say, I return SO filthy after a full day of work. The dust acts like I put on sunscreen just so it could stick to me. On the bright side, I look really tan if you're not looking too closely. And this type of tanning doesn't give you cancer, so it's pretty much win/win.

Although I'll probably just get cancer from all the Coke I'm drinking instead. You win some, you lose some, folks.