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tuesday 20 december 2016
el albergue
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text and photos by roylu.
el albergue, terminal de buses, la paz, bolivia
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vol 1 no 9
thank you to the residents at the albergue for not minding the disturbance and imposition of a camera the all-volunteer staff who permitted and facilitated our visit the employees of the embassy whose initiative it was to raise funds, purchase the goods and to share them personally with the residents, especially the children, of albergue.
on the cover an old woman gathers her meager goods and herself about her, a moment before she partakes of dinner from a small plastic bag.
A
germainluprojX INITIATIVE
COPYRIGHT
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2 0 1 6 R OY LU .
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1 today, a few days to christmas it is in the air on the ground all around though not starting as early as in some countries the philippines for example it is there 2 as in the philippines lights shopping songs merriment herald its arrival but
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| 3 as there here there are different heralds different but the same actually beggars beggar familes a horde of the poor the homeless who flood the city 4 still here unlike the original christmas story of a family expecting the child who finds no place to welcome this child
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| 5 here there is a place in fact an inn 6 el albergue 7 the inn the refuge 8 at the city’s main bus terminal for buses that ply the national and international land routes between bolivia and the great american tricontinent
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9 a terminal designed by the civil engineer known the world over not for this project but for another one miles away in a different continent in a different country in a different city in the city of lights 10 gustave eiffel
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11 here a warehouse abandoned but now reoccupied by a reluctant city and her recalcitrant temporary and itinerant wards 12 mostly they come from potosi some 530kms away where three centuries earlier her fabled and highest elevation silver mines propped up the entire spanish empire making her the largest and wealthiest city of the known world then
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13 but that was then and this is now 14 now they seasonally leave the mines behind for a different kind of surface mining the meager treasures of which are surrendered often as grudgingly as by stone itself begging they as it were for it to bleed 15 yet they don’t all beg some have boxes stuffed with goods to sell
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| 16 still at this albergue there are treasures nothing to brag home about but certainly as tangible as the air there is the building itself a fortress against the cold and the sundry misfortunes of the streets there are mattresses there is water there is food facilities and utensils for cooking there are medicines there is security
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| 17 and most important there are the volunteers who run this place at almost zero cost to the city 18 now employees of an embassy have taken the initiative to raise funds to buy goods especially for the children who flock here with their elders mostly their mothers and grandmothers and their siblings
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19 bread chocolate milk malt energy drink toys small balls big balls contact with strangers encouragement cheers 20 as with most children everywhere with the most modest of parties they turn it into the grandest of feasts
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| 21 as we leave some of them running alongside dribbling their newly acquired balls rolling them throwing them about gracias they shout 22 as we head into near midnight into the snarled traffic of a 24-hour bus terminal that feeds into a main avenue crowded with christmas stalls spilling over into the street
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