Marian, John, Bill, Margaret, Hazel & Wes; Chaco, Yungas; circa 1935.
Unduavi River
War with Paraguay
Secondary School
Margaret |
Herricks |
Yungas |
Margaret |
Herricks |
Margaret |
Bill & Wes |
When the unpaved truck roads got down to the 7000 ft. elevation, Dad and Carl Bell went looking for a site to build vacation cabins. The Tejada family owned a large estate at a site where the Chaco river joined the Unduavi river at the bottom of a steep valley. Some of the Tejadas were graduates of Amerinst. Whoever owned the Chaco site agreed that we could build two vacation cabins near the new roadway and tap into their water conduit from the Chaco river.
Our first visit to "Chaco" was probably in 1933 in our powerful Chevy 2-door sedan. We contracted to get suitable round timbers and had corrugated galvanized steel sheets (3x6 feet) brought to the site by truck. We hired local masons to build volcanic (basalt) rock walls for foundations and side walls down at the road. Dad designed the pole and round timber frame structures on which to nail the calamina roofing and siding sheets.
Vacation Cabin at Chaco in the
Yungas; John, Margaret, Bill, Hazel, Wes, Marian.
Yungas |
Group |
Herricks |
Happy
Memories
Our Bolivia Home
1928-1936
One of the events in the early Yungas days was Margaret's sickness with pneumonia. She had a high fever and we immediately took her down to the lower elevation of Chaco but she still had a hard time breathing and a high fever. The local woman native "healer" came and suggested that we treat Margaret in a warm bath of coca leaf tea. Within minutes her breathing relaxed and in a few hours her temperature was back to normal.
The basement floor of the Bells cabin was eventually rented for use as the tax collection station. The laborious road construction costs were met in part by transportation taxes. A recent Spanish emigrant, who suffered from periodic malaria attacks, was the tax collector. Mr. Cuentas was well educated and full of stories and folk songs. He particularly liked our little Margaret and sang a beautiful song called "Margarita vaya al fuente, Bella Cantarina"; Little Margaret go to the fountain, beautiful singer. We started calling Margaret by the folk song name. She didn't like that and asked Dad to make Wes and Bill stop calling her by the folk tune name.
During this period of time, the Tejada family, who owned the Chaco estate, decided to build a home on a solid rock promontory overlooking the Unduavi river. Foundations were gradually built using their peons for labor. They were cutting timbers from the forests at the top of the valley. The mayordomo or manager of the Chaco estate was helping bring down timbers and was badly injured when a log fell on his right leg. His son ran down to our cabins, knowing that we were on vacation, and told us what had happened. With the help of other men we carried the injured man down, after applying a belt tourniquet to his thigh.
We put him in the back of our Chevy car and Dad, Wes and I drove him as fast as possible to Chulumani, the provincial capitol, where we knew that a Seventh-Day-Adventist missionary doctor had a small clinic. Even though the pain must have been terrible, the injured manager survived after having his right leg amputated above the knee. His family was very grateful for our help. Eventually he walked with a wooden peg leg and always was very cordial when we came to the Yungas. He became the main stone cutter and mason as the Tejada home was finished in a year or two. This home from the up-valley view appeared to be a castle. The entrance gate was just across the road from the Bells cabin.
On one of our trips to the estate called Florida to get oranges and bananas, Wesley and I went down to the Unduavi river for a swim. We were wearing shorts but had new belts and shoes. I was wearing glasses at that time. We took our shoes and belts off and tried wading the river to pick blackberries on the other side. The river was much swifter here than at Chaco and we lost our footing. I went down about 200 ft. holding on to my glasses before I came to a pool and was able to get back to the right shore. I managed to save my shoes, as did Wes, but we were soaked through. Going back to the path to the fruit orchard, we forgot our new belts and didn't remember where we left them until back in Chaco. Dad said, well, probably some of the local monkeys were wearing them now. We had to replace them with our allowance money. The forests by the river were full of small green parrots. These were the type that could be taught to speak words or short phrases.
By 1933 the worldwide economic depression was underway. The Christmas parties were held at the Chijini Club up near the railway depot. The best golf course in La Paz was in that area. The expensive toys received in 1929 became more utilitarian. I remember getting a little windup car that would scoot across a table but never fall off because of a right angle wheel underneath that turned it at the edge of the table. I got my first "toy" chemistry set in 1933 or 34. Mr. Gibson still played Santa Claus, possibly even to 1938, my last Christmas in Bolivia.
Another factor in Bolivia was the war with Paraguay, which was in progress by 1934 and didn't really ever end until Bolivia gave up all the land claimed by Paraguay, based on the native people that spoke the Guarani language. The highlanders from Bolivia were no match for the Paraguayan military who had years to prepare and were used to the wilderness area called Gran Chaco. When Bolivia became free of Spanish rule, the boundaries were set based on those of the viceroyalties established during the colonial period. Gran Chaco was in the viceroyalty of Charcas, a city now called Sucre which is the judicial capitol of Bolivia, whereas La Paz is the commercial and government capitol.
Dr. Frank Beck and many Bolivians close to Amerinst were drafted into service. Dr. Beck came back to La Paz after two years, along with Cleto Zambrana a male nurse and later a close associate of Dad in the altiplano missions. Dr. Beck was awarded the Bolivian Cross of the Andes for his service. While he was gone the Clinica Americana operated with missionary registered nurses and Dr. Jose Guzman who had interned at the clinic for several years and was certified as a medical doctor even though he didn't attend a medical school. He was married to an American missionary who decided marriage was better than teaching. They had two children.
Going back some years - - after we moved into our own house, we all had duties to perform to earn our monthly allowance. Dad usually was up by 5 am, sometimes earlier, and built the fire in the kitchen cast-iron range. He started cooking oatmeal and had hhot water boiling and usually had an early cup of perked coffee. He would wake Wes and me if we had studying to do. By 6:30 am we started breakfast preparations, Wes and I taking turns toasting bread or squeezing the orange juice. Marian set the table and we sat in the breakfast nook by 7 am. We always had prayers and took turns reading chapters in our bibles. Dad and Mother took turns praying, naming and blessing each of us and any relatives or friends that needed help. Then, off to school. We came home at noon, ate a bowl of soup or stew and bread, or sandwiches and a simple dessert. The evening meal was more elaborate at 7 am with meat, vegetables, potatoes and dessert.
By 1935, Wes and I took turns making and baking the bread for the week on Saturday morning. We prepared the yeast and mashed potato sponge the night before. We left the fancy baking to mother who made cinnamon rolls or "parker house" rolls or pies and her special spice cake. We also roasted the coffee beans in the Bolivian style by carmelizing a little sugar at the offset pottery roasting container and roasting of cup of beans until dark brown. We also ground the coffee in a food grinder, usually a two week supply. We also toasted peanuts in the oven and removed the red inner shell, ground the peanuts and made our own peanut butter. We made orange marmalade or other fruit jams.
Our Sunday routine included going to church usually walking, finish preparing our Sunday dinner and Sunday afternoon, after a short nap were allowed to play games such as chinese checkers, monopoly , gomoku, scrabble and pick-up sticks. We often had guests for the light Sunday evening meal of rice with butter, cinnamon and sugar or sandwiches and cookies or cake.
Our Aymara servant girl from 1932 to 1940 was Prudencia or Pru for short. She was referred to us by her older sister Clotilde, who was the gate keeper on the entrance to Amerinst that led to the Clinica Americana. Pru was probably sixteen when she stared working for us. She spoke good Spanish and Aymara and was partly literate. She came to work at about 7:30 am when we were finishing breakfast and washed the dishes and then had a list prepared by mother for the day. She prepared our lunch and evening meal after which she went home. She had Saturday afternoon and Sunday off. Early on she learned enough English to understand us children. We made our own beds but she generally cleaned the house and did our wash. She also learned lots of our style of cooking and could make wonderful pot roast, roasted leg of lamb and best of all lamb chops called chuletas. She also did some of the marketing, knowing how to get the best bargains. Pru was a great caregiver when we were sick, especially with Margaret and Rose. The only vacation she had was when we were in the Yungas or travelling. After the family (minus Wes and Bill) moved to Camata and Ancoraimes, Pru finally married.
The Amerinst had a pair of purebred german shepherd dogs called Buck and Beauty. Dr. Beck had obtained these and the male was kept at the Clinica Americana. The female was in our care and we raised several litters of puppies. Beauty became quite temperamental. One of her first male pups was named Paco or policeman and was the school mascot. We also had a cat called Tabby and enjoyed baby kittens. Miss Rusby let us ride her horse Terciopelo (Velvet) on Saturdays.
In the secondary school experience we made many more friends with Bolivians, especially the internado (boarding school) students. On Sunday evening we had an hour long meeting in the older boys dormitory social hall where we sang folk songs and many protestant hymns translated into Spanish. Actually, Amerinst was not supposed to convert Catholics or hold religious services, but we could have these fellowship times with some refreshment. The girls were also included. All of these students must have missed their families, so this event was enjoyed and we had many good voices.
During these years we were taking our car and the school "bus" to the Chaco cabins several times a year. Some of these "excursions" or camping trips introduced many students to the Yungas area that was a new experience for those who grew up in the high Andean regions. By 1935 the truck road was completed to Chulumani, the provincial capitol and the Unduavi river combined with the Takesi and many smaller rivers to form a much larger river. Periodically the "truck" road made connections with old Inca roads that still connected most towns and large estates. There were two fruit growing fincas that we visited quite frequently. The one on the road was called Florida and let us pick oranges and bananas. Another, reached by about two miles up hill had even better oranges and other fruit to have or buy. Standard transport at that time was the 2.5 ton Chevrolet truck. Most of the mule trains were smaller and still used the Inca roads. Truck traffic was supposed to stop and let the mules pass, but they were easily spooked and once in a while one went over the steep bank, load and all.
Our trips to Chaco were not without problems. Mother was very sensitive to insect bites from Chuspis and Tabanos. The first were small blood suckers while the second were large deer flies that really sucked blood. Once Mother was bitten on the nose, which swelled to double. Dad told us she looked like Julius Caesar. There were also piques that were small ground beetles that laid their eggs in your toe nails and made a painful wound when the grubs hatched. Fortunately if we washed our feet carefully with a disinfectant, or wore good shoes, we weren't bothered. The local barefoot natives knew how to spot an infection and pick it out.
By 1934, Dr. Carl and Fanny Bell had two children, Donald and David. There
was another whooping cough epidemic. Donald died in a few weeks even at lower
altitude. The Bells were advised to take David to sea level at once. David
recovered but the Bells decided to take a job out of the high altitude. The
Charles Woods family in south-eastern Peru hired them to manage a gold mining
operation on the Inambari river, one of the tributaries of the Madre de Dios
(Mother of God) river, a main tributary of the Amazon. The mine site was
called Oroya or place of gold, an old pre-Spanish site reached by an Inca
road. Oroya was perhaps at 5000 feet and was the provision route to the Santo
Domingo gold mines, 2000 feet high. Mr. Woods and his son and several mining
engineers had rediscovered these old mines and had a contract with the Peruvian
government to operate them. The Bells invited our family to visit them during
the l935 vacation time.
next > 6. 1935 Peru: Bells, Inambari R., Cusco