A trip to Bolivia
In a typical for me fashion, I have changed all the immediate travel plans, I had. You may remember that I was supposed to be visiting Venezuela and Colombia soon… Providing service in crisis situation tends to be unpredictable though, and as the fires in the Amazonia have become really worrying and have affected lots of individuals and entire communities, we decided that it was more important that I travel to some of the affected parts in Bolivia, so that we could assess weather there are things that we could do to assist the people to cope with the consequences of the disaster. Things have rolled out really fast. Yesterday, we took a decision for the deployment, and I am ready to go tomorrow. The overall idea is to visit La Paz, where most of the coordination of the response to the fire happens, and then off to Santa Cruz, in the east of the country, so that I can actually experience the operations themselves. When I am in Bolivia, I will be reporting to you what I see and what is being done to immediately control the fires, but also in terms of what can be done better so that we limit the extent of similar problems in the future.
In the meanwhile, Casco Viejo, the part of Panama City where I live does not stop impressing me. The neighbourhood is very colourful. People here are of various economic, and social backgrounds. There are the wealthy ones, and those who struggle. People however do seem to support one another and are definitely friendly to each other. The vibe is good, and I love the place!