KDurant7 blog adventures

Gringos become the scapegoats for political complications 

Have you ever been attacked verbally over something not under your control? In Lapaz, Bolivia, 1982, there was a change in the governing politics which switched from a dictatorship style of leadership to democratic elections, establishing officials by popular voting. The pressure to change came from the admin of former Pres. Jimmy Carter. Under dictatorships, which my wife & experienced for over a decade, business and daily life matters were monitored militarily and no one could complain very loud about injustices or one might disappear! So, with an elected President, Hernán Siles Zuazo, the people felt freedom to express their legitimate complaints about inflation, corruption, and more. Several times taking a taxi I got attacked verbally! The taximan would ask, “Are you a gringo?”, I would reply, “Yes sir, but I live here, my wife is Bolivian”. The next sentence would be, “It is your fault we had elections from your president forcing it on us and now we are worse off than when we had the dictatorships”! My response would be, “Sir, I have absolutely nothing to do with politics, as I do mission work and teach English..and by the way, do you believe in Jesus”? So, a few dozen times I took the brunt of the frustrations of the people which were to some degree due to political economic influence of the United States. The accusations aimed at me from taxi drivers, friends in coffee shops, and folks at random were real. I could tell you of several cases of how foreign politics were quite disastrous despite their supposed good intentions. We are aware that all governing powers convince their populus that their country’s ills are from outside influences to cover their tracks. For 14 years of English class conversations, that’s 300 days of work per year times 5 to 8 classes per day times 14, I have had over 25,000 conversations usually over politics! I can tell you all about the politics of South America now, so before you travel, you might want to get informed of the people’s current sentiments towards your nationality.  – Kelly Durant