Hannah Richards Reports From Bolivia

I walk fast. This is what I have learned today. I do everything fast. I realised this when I stepped out of the aeroplane in La Paz to find my oxygen supply had been cut.

Even brushing my teeth at normal speed is too much. As soon as I start doing anything too fast, my head starts pounding. I’m suddenly aware of how much I need air.

It would be easy to take things slowly and calmly if it wasn’t for the fact that Bolivia is exciting. All that I see and hear about here makes me want to move fast, to take action, to join in, and I’ve only been here for 12 hours.

Evo Morales came to power in 2006 riding a wave of public support. Social movements made up of the country’s indigenous majority were taking the power they’ve never had. And things are changing.

The poorest country in South America, and the most indigenous it is also sitting on a fat load of natural gas and oil, resources the rest of the world is crying out for.

Since then Bolivia has made some unpopular decisions. Well, unpopular with the international community. It had renationalised part of the oil and gas industry and is charging higher taxes to international companies. It is refusing to consider water a service that can be privatised – after all the right to water is a right to life, not a commodity to make profit. 

With more income and better control over resources like water, Bolivia can make its own decisions about development.

In the next couple of days I will be meeting the people that helped this all happen: Foundations that provided the right information in the right way and helped people get organised to campaign for what they need; and young people who are transforming Bolivia with hip hop and comic books.

I just hope I can keep up.