In Bolivia, a draconian shutdown went into place almost as soon as the first coronavirus cases were reported in the country in March. When the universities were shut, one 20-year old student, JosĂ© AndrĂ©s Romero, tried to stay on in the city of Sucre, where he had been studying building construction. He was working part-time as a welderâs assistant, but when his employer closed shop, JosĂ© AndrĂ©s could no longer afford the rent on his room. Then he ran out of food.
The buses had been stopped, so JosĂ© AndrĂ©s would have to walk home, to his grandfatherâs house in the village of Motaya, 90 kilometers away.
Just leaving the city was a challenge. In Bolivia we are only allowed out of the house one morning a week; everyone is assigned a day from Monday to Friday, depending on the last number of oneâs national ID. When it was JosĂ© AndrĂ©sâs turn to leave his room, on a Wednesday, he left at 7:40, carrying water and cooked pasta, the last of his provisions.
He avoided the road most of the time, taking short cuts. He wasnât very sure of the path, so he used the GPS on his phone to guide him. After running out of water, he drank from a stagnant pond, which made him vomit. Weakened, and with no houses in sight, JosĂ© AndrĂ©s kept walking. The mountains and the canyons blocked his phone signal most of the way. Then he remembered what his grandmother had taught him, that the stars set in the west, and this helped guide his way.
At 11 at night, when José Andrés climbed to a ridge, he saw the lights of the town of Presto, near his village, and he also got a phone signal. He called his cousin, who came with a friend on motorcycles to pick José Andrés up from the road. It was one in the morning on Thursday when they got home.
The municipality put José Andrés in quarantine for two weeks, but his family will feed him, and then he will be able to help with the farm work and wait out the quarantine.
This story puts a face on what is blandly called rural-urban migration. One of the most viable strategies for rural migrants is to go to the city after graduating from high school, to attend university. Young people from the countryside work their way through school and after graduation build a career in the city. These hardworking, resourceful kids are the future of their country. Yet they are so under-appreciated that national leaders can close their universities and shut down the bus system, without even offering the students the dignity of a ride home.
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