the INCREMENTAL house

On my first day back, I went on some house visits with one of the nurses at the local health clinic, and spent the day looking at some rooms where I could stay for a month. Wandering around Senkata, it still feels like a ghost town. Is this what was recently considered the fastest growing city in Latin America ? Where is everyone? Knocking on doors, it became very clear that many people were away, working….somewhere. Probably in La Paz . Returning to La Paz from El Alto, we passed a massive line of people waiting for transportation back to El Alto. The people have to live so far away to make a living in the modern metropolis. It is a taxing journey packed into small vehicles, dodging traffic and everything else. Even though, people are hidden behind the walls of their homes. The nurse told me that people are afraid of thieves. I wonder what applications Jane Jacob’s ‘eyes on the street’ has here. If the public and private realms were more permeable and peo...

For my last stint in South America, I returned to the outskirts of La Paz , Bolivia , to the sprawling city of El Alto . I decided to rent a room in the neighborhood of Senkata ($30 a month, no bathroom) and get to know the built environment and people a little better than I had on my previous visit ( http://incrementalhouse.blogspot.com/2008/10/bolivia-la-paz-and-el-alto.html ). I was really curious to better understand the built environment of a city that has been termed the ” Rebel City .” Because on the surface, there seemed to be nothing rebellious about most of the housing. It was a bit of tense time, as the country almost fell into chaos, after Bolivia’s own ‘9-11’, when almost thirty people were killed in a clash between supporters and detractors of President Morales and his attempts to shift revenues from the wealthy lowlands to poorer highlands. For background, see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/world/americas/15bolivia.html?scp=1&sq=bolivia%20ma...

My hotel was in a small building near Praca da Republica, right in the heart of the city. I think I feel lost here because I caught a glimpse of the city flying in. Breathless. All I can say. To me, it is incomprehensible. I couldn’t see the end of it. On and on and on. My room was facing an internal courtyard, where I couldn’t hear the sounds of the city except for the buzzing helicopters and the occasional sirens. To reach the room, I went up one flight of stairs, then down a hallway, turn, and up another flight of stairs, and then turned and up another flight. My room was at the top, but I have no idea where in the building it was. I couldn’t even tell where the sun was. But, it was quiet, with wireless internet. The good parts of this place are a laugh and smile as I struggled with the language. It was weird, hardly anyone spoke English, not even at my hotel. They taught me numbers, and I taught them numbers. I don’t know whether I am actually...