Street Kids in La Paz

Have their own unions and newspapers. Very cool. I donated $10 US to this group of articulate young boys who told me of their troubles. Street kids become shoe shiners and get about .010 cents Australian every shine. They become street kids cos their parents cant support them or wont support them. They become street kids cos of violence in their homes. The shoe shiners mostly all wear masks around their heads so as not to be recognised by cops or family. This makes them look rather scary. I presume they engage in a little redistribution of wealth in slightly illegal manners as well. To get by. The unionists I met in Plaza del Estudiantes were top notch. Great kids. Intelligent. Engaged and engaging. Bored. They hang in the one place for 12 hours in a day.

Morales introduced a school assistance program, to help poor families send kids to school. For primary and secondary school. But these kids cant do school and work at the same time. Their accomodation would cost (if they could afford) $200Bs - $30 Aust per month. Eating per month would be another $200 Bs per month. Morales is building more public houses for the poor, and the pension for older people he is introducing will help enormously.

One of the oldest of the kids talked eloquently about Ecuador politics, the FSLN in Nicuragua, Chaves. Pretty switched on. The street kids- shoe shiners organised a rally here to demand the right for childern to work within the new constitution. They want to right to work enshrined. Its pretty hard. Cos its child labor, they should be in school. But they are poor and they have very few options. They asked me to talk to Evo Morales about their conditions. I said I would. :)

I met with GLBT groups yesterday and some youth cultural groups. Both pretty cool. Staying at Mujeres Creando - an anarchist feminist group who do sex work organising and abortion rights campaigning. Their groups graffetti is the most prominent of all groups in La Paz.

Insomnia is a side-effect of altitude sickness. As is throwing up. As I have been experiencing both I am off to Cochabamba - a political city lower down the mountain.