Sad news

We got the terrible news last night: the father of Janneth Mamani, the student in La Asunta that Sarah wrote about last week, died the night before last. Janneth's brother Nelson, is also a student at the College, in the ecotourism department.

Janneth's boss sent her in a truck that night from La Asunta to La Paz, a long trip, where her family was sitting with the body, distraught. The death was totally unexpected -- there were no signs that there was anything wrong.

I went to the house today. Uncles and aunts sat and talked and cried with the family, Janneth sitting at her mother's side along with her two brothers. The body will be at the family house until tomorrow when it will be taken to the cemetery around the corner, in the Río Seco section of the Alto, the sad, barren, cold and windy place where the city of La Paz ends and the Altiplano begins. Please keep the family in mind these days. We will, too.