The Situation Room

Dra. Malu and I talked today about the social situations in Bolivia so that I would better understand the girls who walk into her office. Servicio de Adolescentes is an outpatient clinic for adolescent health issues located in Alto Miraflores. The number one issue is teen pregnancy. Why is this? Abortion is illegal in Bolivia. Which means is it underground and very dangerous. There are two ways to abort, as far as I can tell. The first is the use of papaya and natural herbs that the Aymara use to terminate pregnancies “the natural way”. The other option is to go to a dentist’s office. Many dentists perform abortions in a back room at their private practice, but there is absolutely no accountability. No statistics, no laws, if you get an infection or die, no one cares. It’s one less baby born into poverty and one less unwed girl selling fruit juice on the sidewalks. The girls that come to see Dra. Malu live with their mothers or alone, having been abandoned by their lovers. Usually, the men are older, by ten years or more. Sometimes the men are married with families or divorced with other children. They skip town, or they just leave. Just leave. What about child support? I ask, naively. Dra. Malu sighs and looks me in the eye. It only exists on paper. The government and lawyers are corrupt. Yes, technically in Bolivia the law states that if you can prove a man is the biological father of your child, he owes you financial help. But there are loopholes and no one stands up for the women to ensure they receive the money. Lawyers are easily bribed to favor the man’s case. Same goes for judges. So I look at the seventeen year old girl sitting in Dra. Malu’s office expecting her second child and I see little hope. She can only receive the medications that SUMI provides and Dra. Malu’s words of encouragement. Her first child is a year and 3 months old, and does not walk or talk. He is malnourished. By accident of birth he is indoctrinated into a system of unaccountability. The government, his father, his grandparents, society- everyone is failing to take responsibility for him. And he pays the price, as will his mother, as will his unborn sister. I am angry. This needs to change. The laws must be rectified and enforced to ensure that mothers can feed their children. It sounds so simple. But how?

Dra. Malu and I ride to Zona Sur where she conducts a workshop for other doctors regarding adolescent care. She asks me, how’s your love life? I tell her about Sergio and she lights up and wants to know all about him. More girl talk. It never gets old. We keep chatting and discover that both of our mothers are Paraguayan. This is really cool, she is the first person I have met in Bolivia with Paraguayan heritage. It’s surprising since we are bordering the mother land. Anyways, we both agree that Paraguayan women are the most beautiful in the world. I tell her I am learning so much from her and hope to use this experience to fuel my thesis. She encourages me to write about adolescent health issues for my senior thesis because there are so many problems in Bolivia that no one is addressing. I begin to feel that helpless, desperate moth banging around inside my brains again. I know, I know, as we bounce along the congested streets of Miraflores. So many problems but what can I do? I am just one person. I wish I were smarter, more powerful, more important. I am a college student in Bolivia, seeing life up close and personal. I am a newborn with a red face and slits for eyes. I am seeing the world for the first time and I am scared.