Lightbulbs

I’m sitting in the kitchen drinking tea and eating a sweet roll the boys here made yesterday while they were making enough bread for the rest of the week.  When the door bell buzzes, Teresa hops up to answer the door.

“Tia,” Josalyn says, “Como se deci polecia en ingles? Policeman, verdad?” How do you say police in English? Its policeman, right?”

I nod my head.

“Mira, hay 3, no 4, no 5 policeman aqui.” Look, there are 3, no 4, no 5 policeman here.”

Why? I ask.

No se. I don’t know.

And since she appears unconcerned, I figure its just another Bolivian thing, I continue on with my breakfast. When I walk past them on my way to the office, I see that they are young, around 18, but dressed in full army gear, camouflage, tall black books, and full back-packs.

When I get to the office, I ask Ester, the co-director why they are here. I think she says something about lightbulbs, but that doesn’t make sense and since trying to figure out what she means will probably take both of us a long time, I wait until Heidi gets here so she can explain it.

Heidi came in late, but I finally figure out the story. The government was sending men around to replace lightbulbs. So Talita Cumi got five lightbulbs from the president because our electrical bill was high enough. Not just us, these guys are stopping at every house, to replace lightbulbs.  I can’t help thinking that if only the president would send these men to fix a real problem, things could be a lot different here.