Daily Life in La Paz

Moving to a new country, a new culture, involves a certain amount of adapting to your new surroundings. I would like to share some of the "new" things that we need to do here that we were not accustomed to doing in other countries.

Every night I need to remember to set aside water for the next day. The water here is very heavily chlorinated, so we have been advised to let the water sit overnight so the chlorine can evaporate out. Then, for additional safety, the water is boiled, and then is safe to drink!

I also spend quite a bit of time "going to market". I take my empty sacks with me and as I make my way up the street vendors offer bread, meat, fruit, vegetables, cleaning supplies, clothes and just about anything else. There are several markets in the city, but the largest one is just three blocks from our apartment, so it is easy to walk there. I make my way up the street and when the sacks are all full I take a taxi back home. The first time I went to the market all the vendors were telling me "caserita" (little home). Not knowing the meaning of the word, I wondered why they were inviting me to their homes. I thought, "These people are really kind. Here they are already inviting me to come to their house for a visit". Now that I have inquired, I have discovered that "caserita" means that they want you to think of their stand as their home and are asking you to be a faithful customer. (They just want your business!) ching, ching.



Another new responsibility is waxing floors. Since the temperatures do get down to freezing here, most of the homes have wooden floors. Our entire apartment has parquet floors. The owner of the apartment fixed up the floors before we moved in and since we want to keep them nice they will need to be waxed regularly. This is a change from the Dominican Republic where all the floors were mopped. So goodbye mop - hello wax!!