A novel and screenplay by Jeffrey R. Charles.
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Syzygy is inspired by the total solar eclipse expedition experiences of Jeffrey R. Charles and the experiences of a few South American people he became acquainted with during his 1994 eclipse expedition. Among other things, Syzygy explores the effects Latin American culture and politics can have on a visitor, particularly in situations where the visitor may become sympathetic to the plight of the country's poor after seeing it first hand. Even when a visitor does not actively promote causes of the poor, simple association or identification with them can (through no fault of their own) lead to difficulty which may be imposed by some among an area's privileged, and the unsuspecting traveler or those he meets can be drawn into some degree of political intrigue and socioeconomic conflict.
The story exaggerates the actual experience, but not to an extent beyond what could potentially occur in some areas. (This paragraph was written in 1997, so it may become dated.) One need only recall political imprisonment of some in Peru to see the extremes of what can actually happen to a person in Latin America. It is important to note that the paranoia and sanctioned oppression exhibited by the Peruvian government are not prevalent in modern day (e.g. circa 1997) Bolivia, which has policies that are far more civilized by comparison. In order to include more action in the story, demands imposed on the fictional central character in will not degrade his health as severely as Mr. Charles' health was degraded on his 1994 expedition.
The Syzygy story begins with a brief fictional account of an eclipse in South America centuries ago, then emphasizes a different eclipse over the central United States during the 19th century. In the 19th century part, the way people talk is intended to be authentic to the time, so antiquated terms such as "Injun" are used, as are antiquated phrases such as "throwed in jail". After this, the story jumps to the 1970's, then works its way up to the present time (1994-1997) and continues from there. Parts 7 through 12 are set in Bolivia.
This paragraph added in 2023: While in Bolivia, the author met Wilma Alcocer, a person to whom this work has been dedicated from the beginning. In 1994, she was a director at a school for children that include those from indigenous and low income families. From his first day in Bolivia, it was obvious to the author that Wilma Alcocer and her work with the poor was opposed by many wealthy people, political wannabe types, and by some who were associated with actual politicians who later came to power. Over time, it became obvious that, in the grand scheme of things in the real world, her experience was more important than that of the Author. A character based on her was always in the story, but over time, it appeared that she was a real world heroine in many ways. Therefore, her character is now a heroine, which is closer to who she was. Her character is in Parts 7 through 12; mainly 7, 8, 9, and 12. Sadly, Wilma Alcocer passed away on 22 August 2023, under tragic circumstances related to one of the same politically-connected people who was problematic for her and the Author in 1994.
An unusual dusky sunlight covers the bleak, high altitude landscape of the west central part of what later came to be known as South America. A few birds are in flight as they seek the refuge of their nests. It has only been a few hours since sunrise, but these birds respond to the fading light just as they have just before sunst in the past days and months. All is quiet.
In the distance, a group of people have come to notice the changing light. Many eventually seek shelter as they would during a storm or at the end of the day. They know that the present events are unusual because the sun is high overhead, yet the light all around them has dimmed. They do not know what is happening.
Some remember being told that their people used to have explanations for unusual events. Before the Spanish came and plundered their civilizations, it was said that some could predict even the times that unusual events would occur. But the Spanish had come more than a generation before, and there was no one left who could predict events, or even tell them what was happening now.
The sunlight continues to grow dimmer and dimmer. Soon, it dims so quickly that the fading light is obvious to everyone in real time. On one side of the sky, a diffuse darkness appears to descend on everyone. Many become alarmed and there is panic. The sun is going out!
A few dare to stay outside and look up toward the sun. They see a small sliver of sunlight shrink into a small arc of beads. The beads toward each end of the arc progressively dim and go out until only one bead is left, then it too goes out.
But there is still something in the sky where the sun had just been:
A dark, round area is surrounded by a ring of light. The ring of light has bright lines in it which extend out from the dark round area. It is as though a great eye is looking back at them. Some people scream or shout. Some are frozen with fear.
The sun as they knew it is gone!
The view of the ring of light fades to a darkness, then:
A star field fills the field of view. Gradually, one point of light near the center becomes brighter than the rest and it becomes apparent that it is being approached. It soon becomes obvious that the light is blue, then it can be seen that it is a planet with a smaller dark gray sphere in front of it, slightly off center toward the right. As the planet grows larger, the relative size of the gray sphere appears to enlarge and gradually become more centered in front of the blue planet. As the gray sphere becomes centered, it completely covers the planet, then it appears to grow still larger, until it gradually moves off to the left and out of the field of view, again revealing the blue planet. The blue planet continues to appear larger until the view is filled with an area on its top half. The planet is the earth, and all but the upper part of the North American continent fills the field of view. An unusual round dark area having a feathered edge has become visible on the northwestern limb of the planet. It is the shadow of the moon, and it is about to move over a largely unsuspecting population.
The viewpoint shifts to shifts to an aerial view of a man rapidly riding a horse over hilly and grassy terrain. A ground level view shows that he is a middle aged man with graying hair. From his vantage point, the ride over the rolling hills is exhilarating. An aerial viewpoint from behind him shows that the terrain in the distance ahead is relatively flat and that he is approaching a farm.
The date is August 7, 1869. The place is a few miles northeast of the small northeastern Kansas town of Grasshopper Falls, which later came to be known as Valley Falls. In a few hours, something extraordinary is going to happen.
Syzygy, Part 1: "An Unusual Day for Pioneer Benton Marfold." August 7, 1869:
The sun rises over the plains of northeastern Kansas. The sky is clear on this summer morning.
A quarter million miles above the earth's surface, the moon orbits the earth as it has for millennia. Likewise, earth continues to orbit the sun, as it has for millennia.
The moon's orbit is inclined sligntly more than 5.1 degrees with respect to the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun. This inclination causes the moon to be north of earth's orbit half of the time, and south of earth's orbit half of the time. Twice in each orbit, the moon's orbital plane crosses earth's orbital plane. Most of the time, these orbital plane crossings happen when the sun, earth, and moon are not aligned with each other.
About twice each year, the moon's orbital plane intersects earth's orbital plane when the sun, earth, and moon are within a couple of degrees of being aligned. Even more rarely, the orbital plane crossing happens when the sun, earth, and moon are aligned to considerably less than one degree. On average, such a near-linear alignment, or syzygy, occurs only about once per year.
When such an orbital plane crossing happens while the earth is between the sun and the moon, a lunar eclipse will occur, but the lunar eclipse will not be total unless the alignment is within about half a degree.
When such an orbital plane crossing happens when the moon is between the sun and the earth, a total solar eclipse or an annular solar eclipse will occur somewhere on the earth's surface. The type of solar eclipse depends on the distance between the earth and moon at the time.
When an observer on earth is located directly line with the sun and the moon, a rare and precise syzygy occurs for that observer. When the moon is sufficiently close to the earth at such a time, a total solar eclipse will coincide with the syzygy.
Orbits of the sun and moon have been stable for millennia, and the times they are in syzygy with the sun can be predicted. Over many centuries, some civilizations have predicted when a syzygy will occur, including when one will result in total solar eclipse.
On this day in August 1869, the moon will briefly be in syzygy with the sun and Grasshopper Falls, Kansas. Life is hard for most in 19th century Kansas, but for those who take the time to observe it, the resulting total solar eclipse be a once in a lifetime experience. And during this syzygy, the lives of two people will unexpectedly become entwined under the shadow of the moon.
Act 1: Trouble at the Reichart Farm
Cy Pittenrouge, the local sheriff, is riding to the Reichart (pronounced Ritchert) farm, northeast of Nichols' station, to check out a report that a fence had been torn down, presumably by outlaws. Not just ordinary outlaws, but habitual outlaws. Richard's fence is not the only property that was recently damaged.
Richard, his wife Ilene, and several other members of the Reichart family were among the first pioneers to settle in the area. Richard and his wife are now in their 50's, and do not have any children. Richard is tall and of medium build, has dark graying hair, and a mustache. He tends to talk in a loud and enthusiastic way most of the time, and is locally known for keeping his wagon in tip top shape. He has also preseved a few older wagons in his barn. Ilene has long black hair which shows only slight graying.
As farmer Reichart is repairing the southern part of his fence, Cy can be seen approaching a farm house in the background. Cy arrives at the farm house, dismounts his horse, and Richard's wife, Ilene, comes out to meet him.
Ilene: "Cy Pittenrouge! So good to see you!"
Cy: "Much obliged to see you, Ma'am. How's things with y'all?"
Ilene: "Richard's out a mendin' the fence. Some folk teared some a it up last night."
Cy: "I heard there'd been some orneriness out this way, so I thought I'd ride out an' see if i'twas all so. Housen Lots' place looks somethin' terrible. His barn woulda got burnt clean up if he hadn't seed some feller a settin' the fire an' run 'im off."
Richard walks up and says: "Howdy, sheriff!"
Cy asks: "How ya doin' today, Mr. Reichart?"
Richard responds: "OK I guess. Some of my crops ain't too good though, bein' as a some critter got in here after my fence was all messed up. I kin show ye one place where me fence was teared up over here."
Cy: "Good seein' ya 'gin Misses Reichart."
Richard and Cy walk back toward the fence on the south side of the farm while Ilene goes inside the house. Some of the fence has been torn down on both the south and west parts of the farm, but the western boundary is some distance away.
Cy asks: "Any idea who mighta' done this?"
Richard responds: "Nope. No idea, but I guess 'ya heard that the railroad wants more a me land. Ya'd think they'd be satisfied. I already let 'em run a track aside me property. Whata ya think?"
Cy replies: "I think it has to do with the railroad all right. There's been a lot a property damage along the railroad's proposed spur route ta half mound. Too much damage ta be a coinkerdink, err, a, coincidence, but I don't think the railroad done it."
Richard: "Ya don't?"
Cy: "Nope. Cuz the big railroad fellas 'round here seem to be a gittin' along with most folk now. I think some ornery folk acted on their own initiative so they could try and git hired ta do dirty work fer tha railroad. If they kin git enough folk mad at the railroad, more folk might resist them new rail routes they wanna build. That could make the railroad git more likely ta hire troublemakers like them - kinda like how them lawyer varmints git folk a fightin each other back east. Speakin' a ornery folk: Ever hear 'bout Ezra (pronounced Ezry) Hoskins?"
Richard and Cy arrive at one part of the fence Richard had been repairing, which is only a few dozen yards from the railroad tracks.
Richard: "Nope. Shore ain't. Think he mighta done this?"
Cy: "Ezra and his kin are ornery fellas outa Plattsburg, Missouri. I hear'd they been a messin' 'round these parts lately. Yep, I think it was Ezra Hoskins, or if it wasn't, it was one a' Ezra Hoskins' boys. They been in a lotta' mischief before, and I been a' wantin' ta see 'em throwed in jail for a long time. Cain't seem ta catch 'em in the act though, otherwise I could git 'em throwed in jail. Y'all oughta take care travelin' alone, seein' as what's happened."
Richard: "Seems ta be harder an harder ta git troublemakers throwed in jail now, with civilization and its bleedin' heart varmints a movin' in around us and all."
Cy: "Yep, and its a gonna git worse. Why, I bet that less than a hunert years from now, there'll be a million folks a livin' west of the Mississippi. It'll shore be crowded then. Well, I better be a gittin' back ta Grasshopper Falls. God speed with yer fence."
Richard: "Thanks fer a comin' by sheriff."
There's Talk of an Eclipse
Cy pauses to recall something, then continues the conversation.
Cy: "Oh, I almost fergot. Some folks from outa town tell me there's a gonna be an e-clipse of the sun this afternoon. They say its gonna be differ'nt than any 'clipse we's ever seed before, somethin' 'bout it bein' total er somethin', whatever that means. Prob'ly nothin' special."
Richard: "Yep. Most a the time they say there's a dog gone e-clipse, things don't look no differ'nt ta me a'tall. The only in'er'stin' one I kin recall was on some mornin' way back in October a '65. Thanks fer a tellin' me about this un though."
Richard puts down his tools and dusts off his pants.
Richard: "If y'all can wait up a spell, I'd like ta ride into town with ya. I could use some more supplies fer my fence."
Cy: "I can wait, but I gotta stop by Benton Marfold's place on the way back."
Richard: "Well, I ain't seen ol' Benton for quite a spell, so I may as well tag along.
Richard grabs his tools, walks over to his horse, puts the tools in the saddle bag, and he and Cy walk the horse a few hundred feet back toward his house. Less than half way back, he finds a note attached to an uprooted fence pole.
It reads: "Be back fer yer barn an yer crops today. Don't try an stop us."
Richard reads the note and looks concerned.
Richard: (as he hands the note to Cy) "Hadn't seed this before. Whata ya reckon they's a gonna try?"
Cy looks pensively at the note and slowly shakes his head side to side.
Cy: "I've seen this sorta thing before. It's Ezra Hoskins and his boys all right. They may try an' burn y'all out, and with the drought we've had, no fire would stay put on just one farm. That's the trouble with ornery types: They're too unsophisticated to think about problems their actions will cause in the long run."
Richard: "So what's there to be done?"
Cy: "Nothin' for now, bein' as they may try an' shoot anyone who interferes with 'em. I can try an' round up enough folks in town to watch yer land today. This is the first time the Hoskins boys ever told anyone 'bout what time and place they were plannin' ta cause trouble. They prob'ly won't be back fer a spell though, bein as they prob'ly know I'd be a checkin' things out this mornin'."
Cy and Richard reach the farm house and Richard goes inside and takes off his hat. Ilene greets him. He shows her the note that had been attached to one of the fence posts and tells her to keep an eye out for troublemakers. He kisses his her, grabs his hat, goes outside and mounts his horse.
Act 2: Visiting Benton Marfold
Cy and Richard ride away to Benton Marfold's place, a couple of miles closer to town. Benton is in his 30's, unmarried, and has lived in the area for more than 10 years. They ride part of the way over low, rolling, grassy hills, and the rest of the way on a trail that runs between farms. Finally, they arrive at Benton's place in a little less than 15 minutes. They dismount and tie their horses, then knock on Benton's door. Benton answers the door.
Benton: "Well, howdy! Good to see ya, sheriff, and you too Richard. It's been a spell. C'mown in!"
Cy: "Howdy."
Richard, Cy, and Benton greet, shake hands, go inside, and sit down.
Benton: "Word from Housen Lot has it that there's been some property damage recently. Any luck trackin' down the culprits?"
Cy: "A lot more places been messed up than I first thought. Richard's fence was messed up last night, and Housen Lot's place was really tore up somethin' fierce.
Benton (surprised): "Housen Lot's place again, last night? What he told me of happened a few days ago."
Cy: "Yip. No luck finding the culprits, but I think I know who they is."
Benton: "Who?"
Cy: "Well, it was either Ezra Hoskins or some of Ezra Hoskins' boys. Ever hear of 'em?"
Benton: "Only by reputation. Whenever somethin' ornery happens, I often hear people say it musta been Ezra Hoskins or one of Ezra Hoskins' boys. If he and his boys cause so much trouble, why ain't they been throwed in jail?"
Cy: "Gotta catch 'em in the act or have witnesses, and nobody ever seems ta see nothin'."
Benton: "Glad to see that you mighta figgered out who done it. Some folk been a blamin' the Delaware Indian folk a livin' near me, but I haven't seen 'em cause any trouble 'tall. I have a lot a contact with 'em, being a tutor and all."
Richard: "You tutor Injuns? I thought most of 'em didn't like our ways?"
Benton: "Yes, I tutor them, and while the Delaware people want to maintain their traditions, many of them also want to learn about more things. What they don't want is to have their families pulled apart like what happens when the government ships their children off somewhere that they'll be forced into at least the appearance of rejecting their traditions. You see, many of their traditions can coexist with education. It is just that some back east seem to think that Indian traditions are a threat to their agendas."
Richard (slightly baffled): "That's a mighty differ'nt kinda view."
Cy: (Interrupting) "I wouldn't sell them Injuns too short. You know that e-clipse I was tellin' you about? Nearly six months ago, some of them Injuns said there was a gonna be an eclipse today. They didn't say the date, but they said it would be at the time of the new moon this month. But no one 'cept Benton here paid 'em no mind. No white folk ever said nothin' 'bout it till last week."
Benton: "That's right. Before then, we never heard anything about it from any other white folk, but for several days now, a whole passel of scientists from the east have been travelin' through town. Some of 'em mentioned today's eclipse. They say it'll be total somewhere around these parts, but other than sayin' it's goin' to get dark, they won't say much 'bout what to expect from it. They also don't seem to agree about where the eclipse will be total. Some say north of town, some say right in town, but none of 'em will be specific. Not a very friendly sort, either. When we try to find out more, they act we're all a bunch of idiots."
This Eclipse Will Be Different
Cy: "You mean today's eclipse really will be differ'nt than the tothers?"
Benton: "Oh yes. During most eclipses, the sun is only partly covered by the moon. Sometimes you can't even tell that there is an eclipse because such a small amount if the sun is covered. Today, if you are in the right area, the moon will cover the entire sun, and it'll get dark right smack in the middle of the day!"
Cy: "How long will it last?"
Benton: "A little after noon today, the eclipse will start like all the others. It should get total an hour or so after that. It will only be total for a few minutes. That's when it will get dark."
Richard: "That darkness could really surprise a lot of people, 'specially the Injuns!"
Benton: "Yes, it prob'ly will. Unfortunately, there's no way to inform everybody 'bout it in time. As for the Indians, they did not know today's eclipse would be total until I told them, but some of their traditional stories do tell about what ta 'spect during what I assume is the dark part of an eclipse. That is where I learned most of what I know. Many underestimate the knowledge of the Indian people; why, did you know that some well known foreign explorer once tried to use his knowledge of a lunar eclipse to scare a tribe of people into obeying him? And when he approached the chief to tell him that the moon would "turn to blood", the chief calmly replied: "Oh, do you mean the eclipse?""
Cy: "So what do these Injun stories say 'bout today's eclipse?"
Benton: "Traditional stories say that animals behave as though the sun is setting. They also tell about a glow that is visible around the moon during the eclipse. Some say that the eclipsed sun looks like the eye of a great spirit."
Cy: "What does that mean?"
Benton: "Translated to our viewpoint, it means it looks like the eye of God."
Cy: "Sounds inter'stin'. You mean to say that the Indians looked at the eclipse? It hurts to look at the sun, and I hear it ain't safe to look at it!"
Benton: "Since it gets dark during a total eclipse, it must not hurt to look at the sun when it is completely eclipsed; however, some traditional Indian stories do tell of people going blind after eclipses. I guess that this may be from people looking at the sun when it is partially eclipsed, since I have heard of people around these parts having problems with their sight after a partial eclipse. Some traditional stories also say that a pregnant woman can miscarry her baby if she is outside during an eclipse."
Richard: (Joking) "Could be from all the excitement if the sun gets so dark you can look at it!"
Benton: "The eclipse should be something worth seeing, and there may be more to see than just the darkening of the sun. Some traditional stories tell of a growing dark storm and strange colors that surround everyone, but I don't know what these mean. Shore should be interestin', though. I'm lookin' forward to seein' it!"
Cy: "Got me all inter'sted! I'll have ta take time ta see it today!"
Richard: "Got me all fired up too!"
Benton: "Be careful that you only look toward the sun when it is totally eclipsed."
Richard: "How will we know just when that is?"
Benton: "Not sure how to tell exactly when it starts bein' total, but I 'spect you'll prob'ly just know. It makes sense that it should be 'bout when it looks dark on the ground around you."
A Plan to Catch the Outlaws
Cy: "Well, I better git to why I'm here. I wanted to know if you had any property damage recently, or if you or any folk you know gitted any threats."
Benton: "No, I haven't, but then, my property is not near the proposed rail line. I have head that there may be some trouble brewin' 'twixt some folk and the railroad."
Cy: "I cain't imagine the railroad bein' behind it in this day and age, even if they do want the land. The Half Mound spur's a pretty low priority for em now, but I'm a gittin' concerned 'bout all this 'cause a what happened at Housen Lots' place an' acause Richard here just got a threat sayin' his place 'll git wiped out today. My guess is the Hoskins boys may be a plannin' to burn him out, so Im goin' ta town an' round up some folk, a posse of sorts, ta hep try an' stop 'em. I reckon they'd usually try an burn crops in the heat of the day, but bein' as there won't be as much sun as usual today because of the e-clipse, its hard tellin' what'll happen."
Benton: "They would start a fire in this drought? No fire could be confined to one farm."
Cy: "No one ever accused outlaws of bein' smart or thinkin' ahead."
Benton: "And they warned you 'bout causin' this trouble ahead of time?"
Cy: "Yep."
Benton: "Hmm... Sounds like those Hoskins boys really aren't too bright."
Cy: "Yep, I'd say that."
Benton: "Think they know about today's eclipse?"
Cy: "You know, I'd say not. Even if they'd been told 'bout it, they probably wouldn't believe it. Ezra tends to believe what he wants, whether it's right or not. Don't confuse 'eem with the facts, his mind is made up."
Benton (after a pause): "The heat of the day... Sounds like they're a goin' to act in the afternoon, maybe about the same time as the e-clipse... Perhaps we could use the eclipse to thwart their plans, maybe even catch 'em."
Cy: "How?"
Benton: "Oh, I was just thinkin' out loud, but maybe it is worth considering." (Benton pauses and thinks for a few seconds.) "We know that it is going to get dark during the eclipse. And they probably don't know that. If we can find 'em with things they'd use to start a fire, we could move on 'em during eclipse if there's still enough light to see 'em."
Cy: "Sounds like it may be worth trying. Whata you have in mind?"
Benton: "(Benton looks contemplative) Well, I'll have to think about it."
Cy: "It shore would be nice if I could git them Hoskins boys throwed in jail."
Benton: "What if... we tell the folks you bring out to Richard's farm ta look for anyone they don't know who is carrying torches or lanterns. If you deputize some folk, then any of them who sees other folk a messin' around with fire 'round Richard's farm could stop 'em, and you could ask 'em questions. If we find 'em during the eclipse, we could wait till when the sunlight comes back after the eclipse ta talk to 'em. We can tell your folk it'll get dark during the eclipse, so they'll know what to expect. Even if the Hoskins boys don't show, we can all git a nice view of the e-clipse."
Cy: "Sounds like a good idea to me. Well, I better be a gittin' ta town.
Everyone gets up and walks outside.
A Posse and a Ride Into Town
Cy: I should be back out to Richard's farm with a posse in an hour or so. Nice seein' ya again, Benton."
Benton: "Likewise, Sheriff."
Richard says to Benton: "Ya kin come own by my farm today if ya like. Ilene's been a wantin' to have some folks by for quite a spell."
Benton: "Be glad to."
Richard says to Cy: "Sheriff, if ya don't mind, I think I'll ride with Benton out to my place."
Cy: "That's fine. That way, Benton won't have to ride out there alone. I kin git some fence wire fer ye whilst I's in town."
Richard: "Why thank ya Sheriff!"
Richard gives Cy a few coins his second set of saddlebags, then he and Cy position the saddlebags on Cy's horse. Cy then mounts his horse and rides off to town while Richard and Benton prepare to ride out to Richard's farm. Benton goes inside, grabs a small extendable telescope, a canteen, and his saddle. Then he saddles and mounts his horse and both he and Richard ride out toward the Reichart farm.
As they begin their ride, Richard looks mildly distracted and temporarily rides at a walking pace so he and Benton can talk.
Richard: "I hope Cy kin find the right fence wire."
Benton: "They have lots of fence wire in town."
Richard: "Yip, I know. But, did you hear 'bout the big K-feed store?"
Benton: "Only hear folk talk 'bout it. Never been."
Richard: "If he goes there, like lot a folk do, he may not find fence wire."
Benton: "How come?"
Richard: "K-feed was a good store in its beginnin' a few years back, see. But after some smaller stores went under, K-feed went downhill."
Benton: "In what way?"
Richard: "They cut down on se-lection. They used to have lot a things, see. But now, they ain't got no se-lection 'tall. The last few times, they didn't have nothin' I needed. I went there with money in my pocket. But they didn't have nothin' I needed. So I left; money still in my pocket, and mad!"
After this brief conversation, Richard and Benton begin to ride at a faster pace to the farm.
Ezra Hoskins and His Boys
Meanwhile, Ezra Hoskins, his son Edward, and several of his gang are preparing to ride out and cause more trouble. Ezra gives orders and rallies his gang by blaming their problems on various people in the area. After this, the last few of his boys mount up and the gang rides out at a fast gallop.
Act 3: A Gathering at the Reichart Farm
Richard and Benton soon arrive at the farm, go in the house and greet Ilene. Then they tell her about the eclipse, and that Cy and the posse will be stopping by.
Ilene (somewhat excitedly) "Oh Lordy! First the fence an' now the sun! It's a shapin' up ta be a right inter'stin' day ain't it?"
Benton: "Yep, shore is."
The Solar Eclipse Begins
Richard brings a few chairs outside in preparation for the people Cy will be bringing from town. Several minutes after this, the partial phase of the eclipse begins, but no one notices.
A little over half an hour later, Cy arrives with ten men from town. Most of them dismount their horses and greet Richard, Ilene, and Benton. After some conversation, some of the men position themselves around the farm buildings. By now, some folks notice the dimming ambient light, and many make comments to each other about it.
Cy says to Richard: "I reckon them ornery varmints 'll prob'ly come from the east er the west an foller a line 'twixt east a here an Housen Lots' place."
Richard: "I don't like the thought a seein' them varmints, 'tall, but I'd shore feel better 'bout seein' 'em comin' while the posse's here than at some other time."
Meanwhile, Ezra Hoskins and his boys ride past a farm which is a few miles northwest of Richard's farm. His boys are getting nervous about the changing light because they don't know what is causing it. The air is slightly cooler, and some say they want to leave because a storm must be brewing. Though he does not know what is causing the dimming light, Ezra reacts by pointing out that there are no significant clouds in the sky, then begins verbally brow beating them for their failure to notice this.
As Ezra starts his tirade, one of his boys says under his breath: "Here he goes again; o'l fire mouth". As Ezra gets more abusive, he says "Y'all chicken livers may as well just go on an' git if ye cain't take it." At this, the group separates from Ezra and Edward and rides away.
At Richard's farm, the posse continues to keep a look out. Ilene brings water to some of the men. One man quickly glances at the sun. It is too bright to look at directly, but he can tell that it has become a wide crescent shape.
The sunlight has now been growing steadily dimmer for over an hour. Birds have begun to fly back to their nests and it appears as though it is near evening, but the sun is still high in the blue sky overhead.
Under the leafy trees, crescent shapes of light can be seen projected on the ground. Some gather around one of the trees to look at the crescents, which appear to dance on the ground whenever the tree is moved by a mild gust of wind. A gentle and sustained breeze soon begins to blow from the south.
The sky near the west-northwestern horizon is gradually beginning to darken, but only the few people watching the west side of the farm notice it. They are not concerned about it but they do look puzzled and ask each other if they know what it is. No one does.
Ezra and Edward, are now riding slightly less than a mile west-northwest of Richard's farm. Ezra is in front and carrying a torch, still muttering to himself under his breath about the boys that left. Edward follows with a lantern. They stop near the southeast corner of a field and look around, then they dismount their horses, cut the fence wire, and splash kerosene over a small part of the field. Ezra suddenly looks surprised and disappointed as he watches Edward take his lantern and throw it into the field, starting a fire.
The fire rapidly spreads over the area doused with kerosene, but from there, it spreads very slowly and makes relatively little smoke. Fields usually do not burn easily in northeastern Kansas, but the drought has changed this situation.
Ezra slowly shakes his head from side to side, then he whacks Edward on the head with his hat and verbally brow beats him for throwing away his lantern. They mount their horses and ride toward Richard's farm, staying hidden behind the left side of a low rolling hill to their east. Ezra is upset about the slow progress of the fire and brow beats Edward for supposedly failing to douse the field more thoroughly. As they get closer to the hill, they turn south and move along side it.
Darkening in the Western Sky
Back at the farm, the darkening in the west-northwestern sky still is not particularly obvious, but it is enough to make the smoke from the distant fire almost invisible; however, the contrast between the western sky and the foreground do make it easier to pick out bright or moving objects near the horizon. One of the men spots a point of light moving unevenly along horizon. He suspects it could be Ezra Hoskins or possibly one of his boys, and tells the others near him about it. The men pass the word and keep an eye on the light. It soon disappears behind the right side of the nearby low hill. Two of the men casually mount their horses but do not ride out.
Ezra and Edward are riding south just beyond the low rolling hill west of Richard's farm. Edward has begun feeling uneasy about the dimming sunlight. He happens to look to the west and sees the deepening darkness. The west-northwestern sky is substantially darker than it had been only a few minutes before, with the darkest area extending almost all the way from the west to the northwest. This causes him even more uneasiness.
Edward: (in a quivering voice) "P-Pa..."
Ezra does not respond, so after a pause, Edward speaks again: "Pa, I really think ya oughta..."
Ezra (interrupting) "Oh, shuddup Edward!"
Edward: "But ya gotta see this, Pa. It's somethin'... I'm ascared."
Ezra: (while turning toward the west to talk to Edward, who is behind him) "Oh, what!..."
Ezra is stopped in mid sentence by the sight of the growing darkness in the west-northwest. His eyes get wide, he stops his horse, and his mouth drops open in amazement and fear. After a short pause, he yells "gityup" while turning his horse to the east and dropping his torch. The torch falls on a barren patch of ground but does not start a fire. Edward yells: "Wait fer me Pa." and also turns his horse to the east. In near panic, they ride fast, not suspecting that they are riding straight toward the waiting posse at Richard's farm.
A few members of the posse hear the sound of running horses, so the other men on the west side of the farm begin to mount their horses. A few seconds later, Ezra and Edward crest the hill, still riding straight for the posse. The fence around that part of the farm still has not been repaired, so there is nothing to impede their frantic ride toward the east. The Some of the posse quickly ride out toward them, meeting and calming them, after which they detain them.
Edward asks: "What is... th-tha-at?" while pointing to the west.
"Must have somethin' to do with that e-clipse I guess" said one of the posse.
Edward: "What 'clipse?"
The Posse seats the Hoskins boys on some chairs and ties them up, telling them they will only be tied to the chairs until the eclipse is over.
Benton Marfold had overheard Edward's question and looks toward the west, where he sees the deepening darkness. To Benton, the growing darkness is obvious but not particularly ominous. He looks contemplative and thinks to himself: "So this is the dark storm."
Rapidly Dimming Daylight and a Gigantic Shadow
The sun is now more than 90 percent covered and appears to be a bright crescent shape. After the brief excitement of capturing Ezra Hoskins and his boy, everyone has grown quiet from amazement at the changing character of the surroundings.
They have all gradually realized that the sunlight is becoming dimmer, and everything around them appears to be grayish, as though it was a dreary winter day. By contrast, there is an unusual harshness to the edge of shadows. The sky is still getting darker in a large area on the west to northwestern horizon, but the change is gradual, so few people notice.
Soon, a whistle is heard from a train approaching from the east. It is over an hour behind schedule, which is unusual.
The train is running slightly faster than usual because it had started out late from Atchison, having been chartered earlier that morning to take a group of scientists to an eclipse site west of town. There are relatively few passengers on the train, but most have noticed the unusual lighting outside, and some of them begin to get agitated. The engineer has also noticed the dimming and changing light, but realizes that it is still brighter than it normally would be at sunset.
He looks out the north side window to see more of the unusual lighting, then he leans out and looks toward the front, and is astonished at the sight. On the horizon in front of him and slightly toward his right, the sky has taken on a dark blue pall. He has seen this deep blue color before. It is like the darkness under a severe late afternoon storm, but a closer look reveals that there are only a few thin clouds in the sky. He continues looking at it until a minor noise inside the cab of the engine catches his attention.
The train continues westward toward the now ominously darkening sky. After tending to the engine, the engineer again looks out the north window. He is even more astonished than before. To the north, the few clouds near the horizon have become a pale yellow color, much like the color can appear to be just before sunset!
A Train Stops for a Shadow
The engineer looks at the color toward the north in amazement, then again looks toward the west. His eyes get large at the sight of the approaching and growing darkness, which is becoming quite large. He begins to become nervous about what may be ahead of the train, so he starts to slow the train. It comes to a stop just short of Richard's farm.
The engineer gets out of the engine while looking at the shadowed western sky, his mouth agape in astonishment. Passengers begin emerging from both sides of the train, and when they see the darkness in the sky, some of them slowly walk toward it, partly so they can see the area obstructed by the engine. As they go, most look at the sky in wide eyed amazement. The darkness now extends almost all the way from the southwest to the north, with the highest point being about 25 degrees above the western horizon. A few people briefly glance toward the sun, but it is still too harsh to look at.
Some of the people at Richard's farm look at a low rolling hill to the west and notice that wheat growing on it seems to be a more intense golden yellow color than usual against the deep blue western sky. The field even seems to be shimmering, almost like it's on fire. Others look across the railroad tracks to the south and notice the same effect, but without as much of the apparent yellow color. In amazement, some of them walk toward the southern field to have a closer look. Two even run. Most of the fence is still down, so it does not interfere.
Some people also notice that the ground around them appears to be covered with aimlessly wandering bands of subtle shadows. Soon, the shadows become more orderly, as though moving in waves. Benton stops about 75 feet short of the tracks to take it all in. In a few seconds, shimmering on the southern field becomes far less distinguishable and soon stops.
The increasing darkness is no longer confined to the western horizon. It is growing; wider and wider, higher and higher into the western sky. Overhead, there is only a tiny sliver of bright light where the sun used to be, and it is accompanied by a ghostly curved line that extends from its cusps far enough to barely form a complete ring. The outside of the ring is feathered, but the inside is sharply defined, revealing the complete outline of the moon. The ambient light is now nearly 100 times dimmer than normal.
Toward the west, the rapidly growing darkness now covers almost one quarter of the sky! Yellow color begins to be more pronounced on the horizon toward the north and south, near either side of the growing darkness. The light level begins to fall rapidly, getting dimmer and dimmer as the approaching darkness seems to completely cover the sky. They are being engulfed!
The Sun Goes Out!
Suddenly, all of the direct sunlight disappears! Some people begin to scream, and someone yells: "Look at the Sun!"
Everyone looks up toward the sun. Some gasp, others scream, and still others silently stare in amazement.
Overhead, where the sun used to be, they see a dark disk surrounded by a softly glowing ring of pearly white light, which is the solar corona. There is still a very short arc of bright light remaining on the left side of the dark disk, and this arc quickly shortens and randomly breaks into small points, then the remaining points of bright light go out.
A dimmer pink arc of light remains, but it too shortens and all of it except a few dimmer spots of it disappear. Though the people do not know it, the pink arc is the solar chromosphere and the remaining spots of pink light are prominences, some of which are larger than the earth!
As everyone's eyes adjust to the dimmer light, the glowing ring of light around the dark gray disk of the moon appears to be wider and brighter than it had only a few seconds before. It is unlike anything they have ever seen before: It is about as broad as the diameter of the dark disc, but there are many delicate bright lines and fan like plumes extending from it. Wide and long streamers are visible on each side of the disk, with one on either side extending to at least an additional disk diameter beyond the outside of the ring of light. Small areas of bright pink light are visible around the edge of the dark disc.
A few stars are now visible overhead. A really bright starlike object is visible about 25 degrees to the upper left of the eclipsed sun. A dimmer one only 5 degrees to the right. All is quiet, and everyone stands in awe. One person notes that the eclipse has an appearance reminiscent of an eye.
It is dark enough that details on the ground are barely visible, but the entire horizon is ablaze with the yellow and orange colors of a sunset! Some motion above the eastern horizon catches the eye of a few people, and they look to see the moderate brightness remaining in the eastern sky steadily retreating toward the horizon, as though it is being covered up by a great shadow. The upper part of the sky and the dark disk are both a dark grayish blue. Nothing is completely black.
Eyes Meet Under the Eclipse
Mariana Doyle had been on her way to visit people in the area, including her sister in Grasshopper Falls. She had exited the north side of the train and rushed to a point well beyond the font of the locomotive. But now, she was slowly walking backwards as she beheld the eclipsed sun in amazement. She is overwhelmed.
As she continued moving backward, she bumped into Benton Marfold. She turned to see whom she had bumped into, then she and Benton's eyes met under the dim, eerie light of the eclipse. At that moment, she and Benton felt as though they had known each other for a very long time. Neither of them ever looked back at the eclipse.
Syzygy, Part 2: "A Modern Day Moonshadow Encounter." February 26, 1979:
Act 4: 110 Years Later, in 1979:
The view point again shifts to the eclipsed sun, then zooms out to show a wide view of the eclipse with the horizon about 20 degrees below it. The date is now February 26, 1979. The place is just south of Grassrange, Montana. Three members of the Charles family, distant descendants of Benton Marfold, have traveled from Colorado to Montana to see today's brief total solar eclipse.
Their site is one of the few off road areas which has been plowed free of the half meter of remaining Montana snow pack, so there are dozens of other people, including two bus loads of school kids, at the site with them.
Everyone is silent and in awe. John and his brother Dan are taking pictures of the eclipse with separate cameras. As John is operating his cameras, he looks toward the east and northeast, where he sees the boundary of the dark gray lunar shadow, or umbra, rapidly and smoothly moving over the sky toward the east, appearing to eat up the brighter blue sky below it as it goes. He stops shooting pictures and looks with interest.
The boundary of the umbra is about 15 degrees above the horizon at its highest point, and the upper and rightward parts of the shrinking bright area below it gradually changes to a yellow color, with some orange and red appearing down toward the east-southeast. As the edge of the umbra gets lower, distant clouds that are still in sunlight can be seen through it. It is a fascinating sight. He is so taken in by the amazing sight that it does not occur to him to take a picture of it!
The Sun Returns
The sky soon begins to get brighter in the west. The solar corona is still visible around the moon, but the right side of the dark disc has become ablaze with a bright arc of pink light, far brighter than the pearly white corona. The pink arc quickly lengthens until it wraps around about 60 degrees of the dark disk.
Suddenly, an incredibly bright white light pierces the middle of the pink arc. It quickly grows so bright that no one can see the corona any more. High cirrus clouds scatter the bright light of the emerging sun, shortening the duration of the diamond ring effect. The total phase of the eclipse had lasted only two and a half minutues.
Many people at the site begin to applaud as though they had just seen a good play at a football game. The clouds had obscured most of the outer corona, but the eclipse had still been a magnificent experience.
John walks over to his a camera with a fisheye lens and takes a couple of shots toward the east. The whole sky quickly brightens except for a large dark area near the northeastern horizon and the light intensity on the ground begins to increase rapidly. John photographs the darkness remaining in the east, which quickly disappears. Soon, the ambient light level seems normal again.
All marvel at this strange and exciting experience, then many wonder: When and where will this happen again? They have witnessed the greatest celestial light show on earth; a total eclipse of the sun. The darkness covering the sky was the shadow of the moon, and the ring of light was the corona, the sun's atmosphere.
The moon covered the sun, yet everyone saw the sun in a way they had never seen it before!
Dan says to his father Roy and his brother John: "Wow! If Benton Marfold could only see this!"
John: "Yeah, being as he met our great, great, grandmother during the only total eclipse he had a shot at."
Roy: "Under the circumstances, I'm sure he didn't mind missing part of the eclipse."
John: "She must a distracted 'im from the eclipse. Girls must have a way of eclipsing even eclipses! Hard to imagine now though. This is sock knocking off stuff!"
Dan: "Yeah."
Roy: "And Benton also helped catch Ezra Hoskins and his boys the same day."
Dan: "Amazin' ain't it."
Roy, John, and Dan observe the ever widening crescent sun through filters, then John begins to pack most of his equipment and put it in the car. John comments about how the high clouds may have acted as a rear projection screen for the lunar umbra, adding that the umbra and the color above the eastern horizon were more impressive than he could have imagined.
Dan mentions that he had not seen the shadow during totality, but that he had seen it just before totality. He also said that the extent of the corona had not been as much as he expected, adding that the clouds must have obscured some of it.
The Eclipse Bug
John comments that it would be nice to see another eclipse but that he thought most future eclipses would occur far from the U.S. He added that the next affordable one would not be until 1991, adding that it would be nice to see an eclipse under completely clear skies.
After a while, the partial phase of the eclipse is almost over. A strong, cold, wind suddenly comes down from the north. Dan takes a final picture of the sun and everyone battles the wind to finish loading the car. After a last look around, all three get in the car and drive off.
On the way back to Colorado, John begins drawing what he remembered of his encounter with the lunar umbra. A few hours later, he looks through some of his astronomy literature as a Gordon Lightfoot tape is playing the song "It's Worth Belivin'" from the album "Old Dan's Records".
He comments that Mazatlan may be a good site for the 1991 eclipse because the clear western horizon would offer a good view of the approaching lunar shadow. Everyone had been impressed by the 1979 eclipse experience. It was clear that the eclipse bug had bitten again!
The rest of Part 2 is under construction.
(The existing story picks up again in Part 7, below.)
Some of the basis for the rest of Part 2 is at this link:
Eclipse Chaser's Journal, Part 1: My First Total Solar Eclipse: Feb. 26, 1979.
(This chapter will summarize daily life between 1979 and 1991.)
Some of the basis for Part 3 is partly outlined or covered in):
Astrophotographer's Journal, Part 2:
Between Eclipses: 1979 to 1991.
(This linked Astrophotographer's Journal is only partially completed.)
(The small part thus far completed emphasizes a 1988 trip to Canada.)
Syzygy, Part 4: "The Second Moonshadow Encounter"
(Will summarize trip to see Total Solar Eclipse of July 11, 1991.)
Most of the basis for Part 4 is covered in):
Eclipse Chaser's Journal: Part 2: The Big One: Total Solar Eclipse of July 11, 1991.
Syzygy, Part 5: "Of Telescopes and Antennas"
(Will summarize the main character's work environment in early 1990's.)
Syzygy, Part 6: "Preparing for a Third Moonshadow Encounter"
(Will summarize USA-based preparation for November 3, 1994 Total Solar Eclipse.)
Most of the basis for Part 6 (and some of Part 7) is in:
Eclipse Chaser's Journal, Part 3.
The Wild One: Total Solar Eclipse of Nov. 3, 1994.
(Section 1: Covers period shortly before eclipse, including meeting key people.)
And:
Eclipse Chaser's Journal, Part 3.
The Wild One: Total Solar Eclipse of Nov. 3, 1994.
(Section 2: Covers eclipse. Has "Afterword" chapter on problems with political types.)
Syzygy, Part 7: "Familiar." 1994: (1994 Introduction of the Heroine in Bolivia.)
(Introductory notes: This chapter begins with background on the Heroine, who is an afternoon shift director at a Primary School in Cochabamba, Bolivia. After the introduction to the Heroine, the eclipse chaser character ("the Visitor") meets her in Bolivia: The eclipse chaser character meets a woman of good character (the Heroine) who is sympathetic to plight of Bolivia's poor, much as he is. A first meeting date of 19 October, 1994 is used in the story. The actual date of the Author's arrival in Bolivia was 26 October, 1994.)
(Comment 1: Material goes here to note that the Heroine had Yellow Fever when she was younger. Also noted is the lingering effect this has on her stamina in the present time. This is to show how she had to push herself to become the dynamo that she is. Also covered is how pushing herself in the service of others ultimately became second nature to her.)
(Comment 2: More of the Heroine's history is covered here. A few parts may also be interspersed through some of Part 6. If events leading up to the beginning of her working in education (and at Buenas Neuvas in particular, starting circa 1977) can be determined, this would be described here as well. Earlier in her life, the Heroine had also made sacrifices for her extended family.)
(Comment 3: The first meeting with the Heroine is very similar to the Author's first meeting with the person who inspired her character, except that this chapter condenses impressions from the whole Bolivia visit (and later reflection in 1994, 1995, and 1998) into the first two meetings. In the story, she also relates her "...like we have known each for a long time" impression directly to the Visitor character, while in reality, she only related it to others early on, then this soon got back to the Author. A huge difference is that, in the story, the eclipse chaser (visitor) character has the opportunity to spend more time with the Heroine (weeks vs days or hours) than was possible in real life (time with her was limited due to rich men imposing themselves and their unsavory politics), and he is able to go to Bolivia more than once, to see her in person over a long period of time.)
(Comment 4: The high pressure meeting demanded by "the Politician" on 19 October is based on an actual high pressure meeting that was demanded of the Author within two hours of his arrival in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on 26 October, 1994. If anything, the story tones it down, because only a few minutes of the hours-long imposed meeting are described. The only other significant differences between real life and this part of the story are that some of the men at the actual meeting were political climbers instead of real politicians, and they scolded the Heroine instead of shouting her down. In real life, political climbers, men with political connections (to a presidential candidate plus a future Vice President), and rich people, brought so much pressure to bear on the Author for so long (hours on the first day, then intermittently thereafter), and they demonstrated so much opposition to the woman who inspired the Heroine, and to the poor, that exaggeration is not needed.)
The following Proverb illustrates the contrast between the Heroine and certain politicians and rich men in this chapter. This contrast is based on the Author's real life experience with people who were the inspiration or basis for the corresponding characters. The contrast is a recurring theme throughout the rest of this work:
"The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor,
The wicked does not understand such concern." - Proverbs 29:7 (NASB)
Part 7 of the Syzygy story follows:
Act 5: The Heroine Begins Her Day. The date is 19 October, 1994:
(The "Act number" is provisional, and is for skipping from Part 2 to Part 7.)
The morning of October 19, 1994 had begun like any other day for the Heroine. After her morning routine, she prepared to catch a bus for the first leg of her commute to her job. She is the afternoon shift Primary Director at Colegio Buenas Nuevas, a school located well south of her residence, and about 2 km northwest of the Cochabamba airport. (Comment: This is the school where the person who inspired the Heroine worked. A fictional school name and location may eventually be used.)
She anticipated that the evening would be somewhat out of the ordinary, as a friend of her sister in the United States was going to visit for a few weeks. She had heard a little about him from her sister, but not a great deal. She knew where he worked, and that he was an amateur astronomer who went to the church pastored by her sister's husband in the USA. The house the Heroine lived in was a large one that accommodated her, plus one of her sisters and her immediate family, and a guest room was always available.
The visitor was visiting partly to see the total solar eclipse that was only a couple of weeks away, and to visit her and some rural churches that her sister's husband, a pastor in Pasadena California, had helped plant. He had also offered to speak about the eclipse at her school and she gladly accepted. It had been over a decade since a foreign speaker had appeared at her school.
Today, she had some concerns, but these were not about the visitor. Instead, she was concerned that a distant relative and aspiring politician had usurped her role as hostess a few days prior. He was, without her consent, unilaterally taking over all arrangements related to her guest. And because of the extreme pressure he had brought to bear on her, she had no say in the matter whatsoever.
In other words, the visitor would no longer be her guest, but instead he was now the "guest" of her relative. And on the eve of his arrival, the visitor doesn't even know about this change.
She was also concerned that this Politician relative had been trying to curry favor among other political climbers certain wealthy people, telling them that "his" guest would be available to them for whatever they wanted to use him for. This also concerned her - for a lot of reasons. First, this was no way to treat a guest - especially one known to her family in the USA. Second, the Politician and the wealthy people he was groveling to were openly hostile toward indigenous and low income people such as those who attended her school.
In fact, she had recently discovered that the Politician relative and some of these people were involved in a fledgling political movement. This movement had openly taken extraordinarily hostile positions toward indigenous people and the poor, yet was trying to call itself "Christian." As a Christian herself, she knew that real Christianity (which is a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and not a political movement), and the positions this group had taken - were diametrically opposed.
All of this gave her concern that they would try to dissuade the visitor from appearing at her school, not to mention the impact their "use" of him could have on the rest of his itinerary. She was sympathetic to the plight of her students and their families, but she did not know if the visitor held similar views. If he did not, it could be easy for others to prevent his visit to her school. If he did have views similar to hers, he would be in for a fight with these people.
One day earlier, she had spoken to the Politician relative to advocate for the visitor's original (and previously agreed to) itinerary, including and his planned appearances at her school, and she had been mercilessly shouted down for it. This confirmed her suspicions about the Politician's intentions regarding the visitor and her school.
And now, in only hours, the visitor will be blindsided by all of this.
(Introduction to the Visitor, and retrospective about eclipse preparation, goes here.)
(Retrospective about visitor in USA, preparing to travel to Bolivia, goes here.)
(Text about the Politician imposing himself into the Heroine's house goes here.)
(Background about Politician imposing himself into the Heroine's house goes here.)
(Text about the Politician colluding with wealthy people goes here.)
(Text on Politician scheming to delay when Heroine and visitor can meet goes here.)
(Text about the Heroine leaving work, picking up flowers for the Visitor goes here.)
Act 6: The Visitor Prepares to Leave the USA for Bolivia. 4 October, 1994:
The Visitor has long looked forward to this trip to Bolivia. And now, the trip is not far away. His flight to Bolivia leaves in exactly two weeks. This is his first opportunity to take a vacation in nearly three and a half years, so it is fitting that the trip will begin on his birthday.
The trip will provide an opportunity to observe his third total solar eclipse. He has seen two total solar eclipses thus far. The first was from Grassrange, Montana on 26 Feb. 1979, where he saw it with his dad Roy and his brother Dan. The second eclipse was seen from Mazatlan in Mexico on 11 July, 1991.
In 1979, seeing the leading edge of the lunar umbra move across the sky had proven to be the most impressive natural phenomenon he had ever seen in his life. It impressed him even more than the solar corona, which was partially obscured by thin clouds. Nothing he had read or heard about total solar eclipses had even mentioned that the lunar umbra could provide an impressive light show.
Therefore, he decided to take 360 degree panoramas at every total solar eclipse he could get to. This was for the purpose of capturing photos of events similar to the one he had seen in 1979, since he did not know where in the sky something like this might occur. He also took the panoramas and made other measurements so he could use them in predicting the circumstances under which the umbra could be the most impressive.
One of the most important things that influences the appearance of the lunar umbra in the sky is the range of altitudes at which the boundary of the umbra is most obvious. If there were not specific ranges of altitudes at which this happened, the boundary of the umbra could not seem as well defined as it appears to be at total solar eclipses.
For this purpose, he designed and built a motorized indexing rotary camera platform in 1991. When combined with a camera having a motor drive, the platform could easily take 360 degree panoramas with the push of a button. It was configurable to caputre each 360 degree panorama in 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, or 12 shots. It also had commutators that made it possible to fire the camera without the need for a cable wrap.
His ultimate goal was to forecast, capture, and simulate total solar eclipses with enough precision to be able to recreate the experience in an immersive way at a planetarium or by some other means that had not yet been devised. He knew that this could be a decades long project, but nothing gets done if you don't start doing it.
The 1994 eclipse offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to gather lunar umbra data from a high altitude site on the Bolivian Altiplano - ideal conditions for the experiment.
But there is more to this vacation than just an eclipse:
Back in early 1992, the Visitor had moved to California to begin work at at an agency that was involved in space flight, including building robotic spacecraft. The Visitor's job at the time was related more to communications than to any specific spacecraft.
Well over a year in advance of the 1994 eclipse, the Bolivian Altiplano was selected as the observation site. This was due to weather prospects, relative accessibility, and his impression of the area's safety and political stability, (as opposed to the conditions in Peru at the time, for example). Some of his older colleagues at work still thought in terms of old stereotypes about revolutions and the like in Latin America, and one co-worker thought he was crazy to want to go anywhere in South America. The Visitor did not see this as a problem in 1994, but time would tell.
Shortly after starting with this employer, the Visitor began attending a Latino church in Pasadena. He had attended a Latino church in his former state the previous year, and liked it a lot. At the Pasadena church he became friends with the pastor and his wife. After getting to know them, he wanted to see their relatives and friends, their former church, some rural mission churches they were involved with, and other aspects of the country and its people.
In 1992, a trip to Bolivia seemed impractical. But after looked into the circumstances of the 1994 total solar eclipse there, he considered it more. The pastor and his wife were from Cochabamba, which is only about 200 kilometers from the eclipse path, so the eclipse offered a good opportunity to visit their part of the country.
A few months before the eclipse, he was delighted to learn that a sister of the Pastor's wife had offered her hospitality. In the house where she lived with some of her extended family, a guest room that was in separate living quarters from hers was available. Even better, she and others also wanted to see the eclipse! This house in Cochabamba was co-owned by this sister and members of her extended family. Staying with them in Cochabamba would allow the Visitor to become acquainted with them.
In addition to this, he was looking forward to visiting a particular Bolivian school, and speaking there about the eclipse and astronomy if they wanted him to. The school was Colegio Buenas Nuevas, and his host (the Heroine), the sister of the Pastor's wife, is the director (principal) of the afternoon shift primary school there. He had heard a lot about her and wanted to meet her.
Since she was to be his host, there should be plenty of time to get acquainted and talk about her work at the school, etc.
Many weeks before his trip began, the basics of his proposed schedule were reviewed with his host family, and they were very agreeable to it. His schedule will be light (particularly before the eclipse) in order to allow time for adequate sleep, adjustment to the local time and high altitude, and to locally prepare for the eclipse. Slightly more than the first 24 hours in the country are set aside for rest.
Murphy's Law Comes Calling Before the Visitor Leaves Home. 5 October, 1994:
As the time to leave for Bolivia drew nearer, the Visitor was blindsided by an unprecedented number of seemingly random problems that came out of the blue.
A couple of weeks before departing for Bolivia, he received his phone bill, and was surprised to discover that his long distance phone service had been switched from MCI to AT&T, then to Excel (a company he'd never heard of before) without his consent. He investigated the matter with the help of Excel personnel and discovered that the switch had been made by an unethical salesman, the name of whom they provided.
He was able to get his phone service switched back to MCI before he left, but he would be unable to use his MCI calling card during the trip due to the recent unauthorized carrier switch. This would result in a great deal of inconvenience and added expense, because he then had to make calls on his host's phone account (which did not have cheap international rates) and reimburse them.
This would also limit how often and how long he could make calls out of Bolivia. Therefore, his folks back in Arizona would not be able to hear much from him. (While he was gone, his folks told his brother that they were just in denial about the fact that he had gone to South America alone.) He later submitted a carrier restriction form to my local phone company. That should prevent future unauthorized carrier switching, but it would not help in the current situation.
14 October, 1994:
Only four days before he was to leave for Bolivia, his insurance provider (with which he'd had an inland/marine policy on his telescopes and cameras for two years and never had a single loss) said it would not cover his equipment during the trip to Bolivia unless he jumped through a lot of last minute paperwork hoops for them before he left. The insurance agent had long known that he was going on this trip because he had said so when adding a few new items to the policy in recent months. This took a lot of time and caused problems in regard to getting ready for the trip. He later switched insurance providers.
Foreshadowing. 16 October, 1994:
Only a few days before the Visitor left for Bolivia, he called his host family to confirm flight times and other details. But he was surprised and a little concerned when a local aspiring politician (whom we will call Roberto) answered the phone.
The Politician claimed that he was the Visitor's "host", and that he was arranging for the stay. This seemed odd and surprising to the Visitor, since his schedule had been agreed to some time ago, and the only detail that was not yet arranged involved chartering a vehicle and driver to get from Cochabamba to the eclipse site two weeks after he arrived in the country.
The Visitor said he would have to talk with the host he had previously been working with, to be sure the Politician was authorized to take over the host role. The Politician made no reply to that statement. The Politician seemed in agreement with the Visitor's schedule, but he wanted him to work in one additional presentation, possibly at a city auditorium. He though that it may be possible, but made no guarantees.
In spite of this new person on the scene, all still seemed well. He thought that the Politician answering the phone could just be a fluke. He had been told that his host was unmarried and was not really into politics.
The Night Before Departing for Bolivia. 17 October, 1994:
The night before he left for Bolivia, he had an interesting time cramming a few last minute clothes in his luggage that some people in his church wanted to send to their relatives in Bolivia, but this had been accomplished by a little after midnight.
All of the late breaking drama with the phone company, insurance, and other things had used up a lot of the Visitor's time and energy, and kept him from getting much rest before the trip. This meant that he would be tired at the very start of the trip.
Fortunately, his light schedule has no obligations for the first 28 hours after arrival at his host's house in Bolivia, and that should provide time to rest after he gets there. This aspect of his schedule had been specifically arranged to compensate for Murphy's Law events such as those he just experienced.
And the next day, it will finally be time to leave for Bolivia!
Act 7: The Visitor's Trip to Bolivia Begins. 18 October, 1994:
Well before noon on 18 October, the Visitor takes a taxi to a local Pasadena hotel, then catches the airport shuttle bus a little before noon.
Upon arrival at the LAX airport, he found that sky cap service were not available for international flights, so he had the daunting and interesting task of getting a footlocker, a large suitcase, and two rolling carry on bags to the the airline check-in counter by himself. Combined, the luggage weighed more than he did. To make things even more interesting, the airport was rather busy.
By the time his place in line reached the counter and he checked in his two largest bags, the time of his departure was near enough that he decided to run part of the way to the gate. He was certainly glad that his carry on bags had wheels! He reached the gate with plenty of time to spare and got on the plane when it boarded. There, he was able relax during the remaining minutes before departure.
The flight took off from LAX a little after 2:30 pm in the afternoon. Away at last, on his first ride in a Boeing 767. Just after takeoff, a very interesting vortex originated from the engine cowling outside of his port side window. Condensation made the 20 cm diameter vortex very obvious, and he could even see its shadow on the wing. The vortex became invisible as the plane gained altitude. This American Airlines flight was to connect with a Lloyd Aero Boliviano flight in Miami that was to leave at about midnight.
At about 10:45 p.m., the flight landed in Miami and he went directly to his connecting flight. There were a lot of people waiting for the flight, so he waited in line with them, talking with a family from Bolivia as he waited.
When the Visitor's place in line reached the ticket counter 25 minutes later, he presented his ticket and seat assignment to the airline's ticket agent, but before the agent even looked at it, he began to smirk and curtly told the Visitor that "the flight was full", and if he had wanted on the flight, he should arrived over an hour earlier than he did. This seemed unusual because he already had a seat assignment, and his travel agent had assured me that the connection time would not be a problem when he'd asked about that at the time he booked the trip.
The next flight would be 24 hours later; too late to allow preparation for his first presentation at the Heroine's school in Bolivia. He explained this situation to the smirking agent, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. He also pointed out that he had waited in line for 25 minutes. The ticket agent responded to this by telling him that he should have cut in front of everyone else. This made no sense because the Bolivian people he spoke with in line had not experienced any difficulty getting on the same flight.
He eventually realized that this agent and the other agents had been allowing dozens of other passengers (all of Latin American origin) onto the plane, and that he had been the only Anglo person waiting to get on the flight. He reluctantly began to think that he may be dealing with a "racist" ticket agent. Praying seemed like a good idea at the time, since he was not getting anywhere with this agent.
He continued to politely plead his case, and as many precious minutes slipped by, more and more people were being allowed on the plane. Eventually, just a handful of passengers were left at the check in counter and only a few minutes remained before the scheduled departure of the flight. He had been dealing with this agent for the better part of half an hour, and he was getting desperate.
Finally, he raised his voice and repeated to the agent that he had arranged to speak at a school in Bolivia, and if he could not get on THIS flight, he would not arrive in Bolivia soon enough to be able to prepare for and make his first presentation there, (which was true if he was going to sleep at all between his arrival and the first anticipated presentation on Thursday afternoon).
At that point, the ticket agent's supervisor must have overheard him, because he signaled for the wayward agent to come back to where he was. They both went through a doorway, and several seconds later, the same ticket agent returned, looking shaken and bewildered. He huffed that he would make an "exception" and put the Visitor on the plane, and added; "You're only getting on this flight because I decided to let you on". The Visitor thought to myself; "Yeah, right". But he was nonetheless thankful and relieved to get on the flight.
By this time, all of the coach seats really were full, and the befuddled ticket agent had to upgrade the Visitor to business class - for free!
He had to run to catch the flight, and was the very last person on. He put one of his bags in the overhead compartment, took his seat in row three, and put his other bag under the seat. There were plenty of empty seats in Business class, but few if any were left in coach. Some of the flight attendants were very petite and were having some difficulty reaching the overhead storage compartments as they found homes for the few remaining bags that belonged to other passengers.
19 October, 1994. 12:01 a.m.
The Visitor's eclipse expedition seemed to be off to a nail biting start. Just after midnight on the morning of October 19, the red-eye flight left Miami. Next stop, South America. This plane was a rather beat 727. It was almost impossible to sleep after his tense experience with the ticket agent, though he could tell that he definitely needed sleep.
Fortunately, the Visitor was not alone. On this leg of the flight, it was his pleasure to be seated next to Alfonso Canelas, the director of Los Tiempos, the largest newspaper in Cochabamba, Bolivia, the city he was going to. They talked about the upcoming eclipse, and Alfonso eventually asked if he or his daughter could to interview him later during my trip if he had the time. The Visitor told him that he would try to work it in, adding that someone related to my host had asked him to squeeze in an extra eclipse presentation just a few days before he began this trip.
Alfonso later said that a story about the Visitor's experience in Bolivia would be nice if he had time to write one after his expedition was over. He gathered that this would be a more likely prospect if the trip proved to be a good one. At that time, they both expected that the Visitor's expedition would be an entirely good experience, and the Visitor looked forward to writing such a journal when he got back home. Due to the possibility of writing such an article, the Visitor decided to keep notes of the details of his trip, so that little would be left to memory.
Soon, some lights became visible from the plane. The Visitor thought that it could be Havana, but he was not sure. Several minutes later, the plane started making a descent. At about this time, the Visitor started having a twang of Montezuma's revenge, probably due to sleep deprivation, which is something he was very sensitive to. (He'd been up late the night before, working last minute items into his luggage that his friends in Pasadena were sending down to their family in Bolivia.) It was a good thing he was in Business class, where there is not as much competition for the rest room! Immodium AD was not an option for him due to a condition he had.
The plane began to descend at about this time. It turned out that they were making an unscheduled stop in Caracas, Venezuela. They landed at around 3:00 a.m. He got off the plane for what he thought would only be a couple of minutes, but it turned out that the flight attendants would not let anyone back on the plane until just before departure. At about 3:45, they let everyone back on the plane and it took off a few minutes later.
In a few more hours, the sun came up just about as they were flying over what appeared to be the Amazon river. After that, the Visitor was able to sleep for about half an hour. He had always had trouble sleeping on flights, probably because of vibration and noise.
Later in the morning, he was looking out the starboard window at the rain forest. It was beginning to show clear spots. This gradually gave way to vast, green grassy areas. He noticed that flight attendants were going in and out of the cockpit with increasing frequency, and whenever the door opened, he could hear male voices laughing and female voices giggling. They all certainly seemed to be having a good time. It was nice to see people having some fun on the job, just as long as the pilot remained attentive. But it would soon be obvious that perhaps the pilot was not remaining attentive!
Around eight a.m., they started the descent into Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The aircraft was making turns during the descent, but the bank angle was sometimes different than would normally be used for a coordinated turn. The Visitor could feel considerable side pressure in his seat. Suddenly, one of the meal serving carts rolled out of its closet and with a loud clatter and a thud, fell over in the aisle right next to him. It turned out that the closet door was missing.
A flight attendant quickly appeared and began to stand the cart up and roll it back into place. The Visitor offered to help her move it and to let her use one of his luggage straps to secure it for the duration of the flight, but she said it would not be necessary. (He was thinking that he sure would not want to get beaned by something as big as the cart if they hit turbulence). A few minutes later, near the time of final approach, the plane made another partially coordinated turn and the serving cart again rolled out of its closet and fell over in the aisle. A flight attendant again attended to it. That was the cart's final attempt at acrobatics.
A little after eight, the flight landed in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and the passengers went into the terminal. The connecting flight was to leave in about an hour, but they had to wait something like three hours because the airline had held the plane for another connecting flight. Alfonso and the Visitor talked more, and he informed the Visitor of what to do when going through immigration. Normally, this is straightforward, but the Visitor was a bit spaced out from sleep deprivation, having had only half an hour of sleep since the previous morning.
At about eleven, they boarded the plane. Soon, the flight took off for Cochabamba. On this leg of the flight, he was in coach, which seemed very much like being in a sardine can compared to business class. It was more crammed than the coach seats I'd been in on other airlines; so crammed that his knees touched the seat in front of him. Out his window, he could see the plains give way to hilly terrain, then to treeless mountains.
Act 8: The Visitor Arrives in Cochabamba, Bolivia. 19 October, 1994:
Cochabamba is in a large valley, partially surrounded by mountains that are about 4,000 meters high. On final approach to Cochabamba, the Visitor noticed that they were flying over areas that looked very impoverished. These areas extended almost all the way to the runway. The plane landed a little after noon; over two hours late.
As the plane taxied to the terminal, he could see Cochabamba stretching all the way up a gentle slope at the foot of a mountain range to the North. It was very picturesque. A few seconds later, it suddenly dawned on him that he was in a place very different than the U.S.
The plane finally came to a stop on the tarmac and everyone debarked. Two armed and uniformed men greeted them and directed them to the terminal. The recently self-proclaimed host of the Visitor, an aspiring Politician, and whom we will call Roberto, was waiting for him at the airport. The Visitor went over to the Politician and introduced Alfonso and himself, after which time Alfonso left the airport. Alfonso did not want to linger after seeing the Politician. His apparent aversion to the Politician proved to be a harbinger of things to come.
The Politician and the Visitor talked as they waited for the checked bags. Aduana (Bolivian customs) did not bother to inspect the Visitor's carry on bags, and his checked luggage never materialized. After waiting to see if my luggage would show, they left the airport without it. The next flight would not arrive until the next day, so he'd have to do without the stuff in his checked bags for a while. This was unfortunate, because the material for his presentation at the Heroine's school was in his missing checked bags.
The Politician introduced the Visitor to his wife, who we will call Gloria, as they walked toward their family car. A pleasant though sad looking older female beggar of indigenous descent intercepted them, and Gloria eventually gave her a couple of coins, showing marked annoyance as she did so.
Just after this, a radio announcer came up, ready to tape an interview with the Visitor. He vigorously started asking the Visitor questions. There was no time to answer one question before the next was asked. It was too much to process while sleep deprived. So, the Visitor responded by saying that he was going to get some sleep (he really needed to sleep). The announcer then said he would catch up with the Visitor later. After this, the Visitor continued toward the car with his recently self-proclaimed host. The announcer was not obnoxious, but the Visitor certainly wasn't ready to be interviewed with a flurry of questions out of the blue at that time.
Unwanted "Fame." 1:00 p.m.
The Politician and Gloria told the Visitor that he was "famous" in the area, and that the interviewer was a relative of his. The Visitor had hoped to keep a low profile, and thought to himself that he did not like the idea of being "famous" if it meant people would be sticking microphones in his face at the airport. He assumed that this new found and somewhat unwanted "fame" was due to some sort of promotional effort by the Politician, and that it probably had more to do with where he worked than with anything he may have accomplished personally.
While some may like to be "famous", he did not. Especially on this trip. This was the first time in nearly three and a half years that there had been an opportunity to take a "vacation", with a brief trip to Mexico for the 11 July 1991 total solar eclipse being his last real vacation. (There had also been a rushed trip from Phoenix to Los Angeles for the January 1992 annular eclipse, which had been clouded out, but that wasn't really like a vacation.)
On this trip to Bolivia, the Visitor had anticipated, and hoped for, a quiet trip without many objectives. But he did want to accomplish those objectives, because this could be the only opportunity in his lifetime to do so. Therefore, he did not want many distractions from those objectives. And being "famous" could lead to many unwanted distractions.
The Visitor's objectives included:
- Observe the solar eclipse and conduct his umbra projection altitude experiments.
-- The 1994 eclipse is the only one in his lifetime that is optimum for this work.
- Observe southern sky, and take pictures of southern sky objects from a dark site.
- Visit churches in the Campo that the church in Pasadena had planted or supported.
- Visit Iglesia Cristiana Evangelica Bolivar, his Pasadena friends' former church.
- Meet and get to know the Heroine, see her school, and speak there if she wanted.
-- This was as important as the eclipse, because of what he'd heard about the Heroine.
Flashback to Learning that Matchmaking was Afoot:
The Heroine was an elder sister of his Pastor's wife in Pasadena, being the second most eldest of four sisters. He wanted to meet her partly because he'd heard she made sacrifices for her younger siblings in her early adult life. That was a mark of good character, and he liked meeting people of good character. There was a woman in the Pasadena church who had done similar things for her siblings. She was from El Salvador, and had come to the USA with them in 1974.
There was no anticipation that there would be any romantic interest or connection with the Heroine in Bolivia, partly because she lived on a different continent than the Visitor, partly because he'd heard her job at the school was important to her (so she would not be likely leave the country during her career, and he had not yet even seen Bolivia), and partly because she could be up to half again his age.
However, at a wedding of some church friends in Los Angeles a month earlier, he heard rumors that matchmaking may have been afoot for the Heroine and himself. At the reception of that wedding, the Bride had stopped by his table to say something like: "...when you come back, I want to see you with that lady you are going to meet in Bolivia..." This and other things he heard were significant, because he'd never spoken with anyone outside the Heroine's family about her. And little did he know: Sometimes the unanticipated can happen out of the blue.
The Reluctant Bolivian Car. 1:05 p.m.
The Bolivian Politician, his wife, and the Visitor arrived at his family car and got in, but the engine would not start. The Politician hailed a cab for his wife and the Visitor, then stayed behind to tend to his car. The Visitor offered to stay so the Politician would not have to call a cab, but he said it was not necessary. The Visitor was glad about that, because he was looking forward to many hours of uninterrupted and needed sleep, as allowed for in the schedule he had worked out with the Heroine (via her sister) before the Politician got involved. They got in the taxi and it took off for a wild and fast ride to the Heroine's house.
The End of Almost 23 Hours of Sleepless Travel. 1:30 p.m.
They arrived at the Heroine's house around 1:30 pm on Wednesday, 19 October. The Heroine was still at work, but some of her extended family was there. The Politician's wife came into the Heroine's house with the Visitor. She was going to stay there until the Politician could pick her up in their family car.
The grueling and nearly sleepless "door to door" travel time had exceeded 22.5 hours, starting before noon (PST) the previous day. This included the taxi and shuttle bus, the four-leg flight to Cochabamba (LAX-MIA, MIA-CCS [unscheduled], CCS-VVI, VVI-CBB), waiting for missing bags, and the taxi ride to the house. Accounting for the time zone change, the arrival time was over 25-1/2 hours later than when the Visitor had left home.
The house was quite nice, with two levels and a fully enclosed yard. It was co-owned by the Heroine and members of her extended family, and it had separate living quarters (sans a kitchen or bath) where the visitor could stay. In this area, he stayed in an upstairs bedroom that had a hardwood floor and a nicely finished wardrobe cabinet.
The fact that his checked bags were missing made it take a bit longer to get ready to sleep. His mouth tasted really bad, but his tooth brush and all of his clothes were in his checked bags, as were the slides and materials he needed to make his presentation at the local school.
He had filled his carry on bags with the most delicate pieces of equipment that he would be using for the eclipse. This left little room for other items, and he had not foreseen the degree to which he would want a tooth brush so soon after arrival. His first presentation at the school was not to be until late the following afternoon, which gave him at least 24 hours to rest and prepare. (Or so he thought!) Finally, he was ready to crash.
An Unwelcome Politician Demands a Long Meeting Before the Visitor can Even Sleep:
Just as the Visitor was getting into bed, the Politician arrived at the house. He knocked on the bedroom door and said he needed to talk to the Visitor right away, so he put his shoes on again and they met in the hall. The Politician told the Visitor that he had to meet with some people at seven o'clock that evening about scheduling his presentations at schools.
He told the Politician that he thought the matter of his schedule was already arranged, and that he was speaking only at Colegio Buenas Nuevas and a maximum of one other place, and that he needed to sleep if he was to function properly. The Politician said: "Gringos always think they need a lot of sleep after they arrive somewhere, but we don't need to do that."
He was somewhat surprised by the Politician's bluntness, and reminded him that he had a migraine condition that required him to get adequate sleep, that he was currently in need of sleep, that his work at the eclipse was highly critical, that he had to acclimate to the local time and altitude, and that he could not consider continuing the trend of starting out the trip with inadequate sleep.
Showing some further loss of pleasantry, the Politician said that the Visitor really did not need to sleep, and that the meeting would not take that long. The Visitor did not believe the meeting would be very short, since its purpose would probably be to get him to do things which he had not previously agreed to do. (If he'd had a credit card, he would have left the house right then and checked into a local hotel, then not even let the Politician know where he was until he had gotten adequate sleep. Or maybe he would never let the Politician know where he was.)
The Visitor asked why he was not informed about this meeting in advance, and why it had to be scheduled in the middle of the time he had scheduled for sleep. The Politician said that the people who would be at the meeting were not available at any time other than the evening. The Visitor suggested that he meet with them the following evening. The Politician replied that they wanted him to do a lot of presentations the next day, so the meeting had to be before then. (This confirmed his suspicions about the purpose of the meeting.)
The Politician added that the people who wanted him to present the additional lectures were "influential". The Visitor said that Buenas Nuevas was the only presentation that was potentially scheduled for the next day, reminded him that the slides required for his presentations were in his missing checked bags, and repeated that he needed sleep.
At this, the Politician firmly (and with what appeared to be some degree of veiled contempt and seething volatility that seemed just below the surface), replied: "You have to do this!"
What the Politician was doing smacked of colonialist thinking, but on a microscopic scale: Find a resource (be it water, mineral, or human), then exploit it to the maximum extent possible in the short term, without any regard for the long term consequences. It struck the Visitor that the Politician was seeking some sort of short term social or political gain from the situation, but that the Politician was too simple minded and shortsighted to think ahead. Because of this, the Visitor suspected that Politician tended to coerce people on short notice instead of making long term plans.
Therefore, as a last resort, and to the degree possible while sleep deprived, the Visitor questioned the Politician about cost versus benefit (for the Politician) over the short and long term. The Visitor explained to the Politician that what he was proposing put his eclipse experiments at risk. Then, he asked the Politician if it would be better for him (the Politician) if he helped enable successful results (by honoring the original schedule that had been worked out with the Heroine) - because then, the Visitor would be in a position to acknowledge the Politician for his "assistance" after getting results.
The payoff for the Politician could begin as soon as 10 days later, when the Visitor could locally, then elsewhere, begin presenting results after the eclipse. But the Politician wanted nothing to do with it. Politician's only interests were being "in control" of the current discussion, or what could pay off for him, etc., in the next few days, without regard to how it would play out 10 days or more, let alone months or years, into the future.
It soon became clear that there was no way to change the Politician's mind on the matter, particularly in the Visitor's sleep deprived state, which made it difficult to think or negotiate on his feet. It was clear that the Politician would not stop hounding the Visitor or let him sleep unless he agreed to the meeting. It seemed odd that the Politician would be making such demands while the Visitor was staying in someone else's house. The Heroine's house, not the Politicians's house.
The Politician then left the house. The Visitor was surprised that the Politician would be so demanding in the Heroine's house. (Years later, it would come to light that there was considerable intrigue concerning ownership of the house. Intrigue that had secretly been instigated by the Politician some time before. This later discovery would reveal why the Politician "acted like he owned the place.")
The Visitor thought to himself: "The first day in Bolivia, and already there are serious problems. I had planned to sleep off my jet lag as soon as I arrived. So much for that!"
The Visitor would have split and gone to a hotel right then if he had been able to access his bank account in the U.S. He did not currently have a credit card, and the funds and traveler's checks that had with him were insufficient to cover lodging in a hotel for the three weeks he would be in Bolivia, so it appeared that he was stuck.
He complained to the Politician's wife about his actions, and she seemed surprised that he had acted the way he had. She said she would talk to him about it. The Visitor got ready to sleep again.
The newly imposed meeting was only 5 hours away, but he could not sleep at all due to being upset at the prospect of his schedule being turned upside down, which is what he justifiably feared the people would try to do at the meeting. (Hundreds of hours of work preparing for the eclipse experiments, along with considerable related financial investment, could now be at risk.) A little after six, he got out of bed, tried to take a spit bath at the sink, and got ready for the meeting.
By seven, no one but the Politician had arrived for the meeting. He told the Visitor that everyone would be there at eight. (Apparently eight is Bolivian standard time for seven as far as they were concerned.) The Politician said he had talked to his wife about the situation, and thought the meeting could be limited to about 20 minutes. The Visitor wasn't so sure about that estimate. The purpose of the meeting was to get him to do things he had not agreed to do, so he expected he'd have to push back against at least some of the demands.
The Politician then offered to delay the meeting until early the next morning, adding that he "thought" he could contact everyone in time to keep them from coming (all while making it abundantly clear that it would be a big deal to do so) but again added that the meeting would not take long. Having to get up early the next morning was not very attractive to the Visitor, and he had already gotten up for the evening meeting, so he was inclined to get it all over with. He went into the dining room, where he and the Politician waited for the others.
Act 9: The Heroine Meets the Visitor. 7:30 p.m.
At the end of her shift as the afternoon Primary school Director at Colegio Buenas Nuevas, the Heroine travels home. When she arrives home a little after 7:30 pm, she finds the politician and the visitor sitting at the dining room table.
The visitor looks haggard, which is not unusual after a long flight to Bolivia that usually involves multiple stops and plane changes. His "door to door" travel time had exceeded 22 hours.
The visitor sees her gracefully come in through the front door. He guesses that she may be ten to fifteen years older him. However, he notices a brilliance to her, in which she seems kind to the core and younger he is.
With little hesitation, she walks into the dining room, initially oblivious to the visitor's displeasure with the Politician. Then, with a big smile, she enthusiastically says "Hola!", kisses the visitor on the cheek, and gives him a slim glass vase with a few flowers in it.
For the visitor, this is a welcome and dramatic change from the tension that has existed between him and the Politician since shortly after his arrival. In his sleep deprived state, "Gracias" was about the only response he thought of on the spur of the moment. He knew that saying more to express appreciation would have been in order, but words had left him for the moment.
He could feel that she had a comforting aura. One that inspired the kind of feeling one gets when returning home after weeks of absence. It seemed odd but wonderful at the same time; having this feeling of being home while in her presence, while in a country thousands of miles from his actual home. It was a profound moment, and he wished that he had been awake and alert enough to fully perceive her.
And there was much more than this. Only seconds after they first met, he felt like he already knew her. It was as though a whole encyclopedia about her had been read in only a few seconds. There were no words to describe this, other than the nerdy concept that had just crossed his mind.
She had also immediately acted as though she knew him, even though they had never met before. He guessed that she may have been told about him by her sister in the U.S.
But it wasn't long before she expressed what had happened in words that made sense, when she said:
"It feels like we have known each other for a long time."
He had never heard that expression before, but it was a perfect description. And it was incredibly special to hear that from the only person in the world he'd ever had exactly the same feelings for.
The Visitor's ancestors, Benton Marfold and Mariana Doyle, had felt exactly the same way when they first met under a total solar eclipse in Kansas 125 years earlier. He just did not know it.
The Heroine's sister in the US had told him good things about her, but the impression he had upon meeting her was much more significant (in a platonic way at that first moment) than just matching a face with a person he had heard about. Even with senses dulled from sleep deprivation, he perceived that she had a goodness of character that was far deeper than her brilliant smile.
He wished that his senses had not been so dulled by sleep deprivation, because on some level, he could tell that this was the most profound first meeting with another human being that he had ever experienced. Even though a lot had been perceived about her in the first moment they met, he knew that there was far more to her depth of character than what he could then perceive. So much more to her that he knew was there, but could not then perceive.
The Heroine started speaking in Spanish with the visitor (and occasionally to the politician), while looking happy and excited. She was talking too fast for the visitor to fully understand, particularly while sleep deprived. (He thought to himself: Of all the times to be sleep deprived, why did it have to be now?) She eventually went into the kitchen, but periodically came back into the dining room.
When the politician noticed that the Heroine had given flowers to the visitor, he said: "Giving the flowers is the cultural thing to say hello to a new person. I forgot to do that". The politician who had usurped the Heroine in being the "host" had forgotten one of the most basic cultural aspects of welcoming a visitor. (This oversight alone not an issue for visitor, since he didn't even know it was a custom. And it was nothing light of the Politician's overbearing impositions. It was just amusing that the "big shot Politician" who usurped the Heroine's host role would blow it like that.) Of course, the politician's motives were not to make the Visitor feel welcome. His motives were only to use the Visitor in any way he could to serve the agendas of his wealthy associates.
Before long, the Heroine sits down at the table to converse with the visitor. The visitor is surprised to find that he was not nervous at all, in spite of how profound the first meeting with the Heroine had seemed only minutes earlier. One of the members of the extended family also sits at the table, partly to act as an interpreter on occasions where the Visitor's Spanish may be inadequate.
The Visitor could speak Spanish, but not particularly well. He would be at a loss for one Spanish word or another every few sentences. For this reason, someone in the extended family was going to interpret for him during the two or more upcoming presentations at Colegio Buenas Nuevas.
In general terms, some of the conversation with the Heroine was about those who are economically disadvantaged, and how there is a relative lack of opportunity for low income people throughout the globe. And yet, in spite of this, the character of such people is often admirable. They both felt that it can be deep and humbling to be around the meek (not just meaning weak) among such people. The visitor considered many of these to be better people than himself. The salt of the earth. He had long felt that he would be a far better person if he could be even a little like them.
As they conversed, they both found that their views on opportunity for the poor and many other things were the same. Before long, the visitor would find that the Heroine's views were something that she lived in her capacity as a Director at the school, and in many other ways.
The visitor did not yet know the degree to which opportunities for low income people were sorely needed in Bolivia, but he was about to find out from both her and from third parties. Starting only minutes later, he would learn that many children from low income families attend the school where the Heroine is a Director, and that she is passionate about their well-being.
He would also find that her school, and her work with indigenous and low income people - was opposed by the Politician and certain local people who the Politician had represented as being wealthy and influential, and by others said to have political ties. Race had not come up at all in their conversation, but the visitor was about to discover that those who opposed the Heroine and her work also opposed indigenous people.
The Heroine's unique smile and perceived inner kindness made her face almost seem angelic. It was not a magical thing at first. It was more like an observation. Her sister had said this of her smile, but the visitor had figured that it was just hyperbole - until he met the Heroine himself - and he began to see that it was true. But he did not let himself dwell on this because the Politician was still sitting at the table with them.
However, it was hard to ignore the sense they have known each other for a long time, their agreement on so many things that matter to people, and her aura. He was too tired to process it all at the time, but he knew at a gut level that everything about her was significant to say the least. The Politician is still in the room, but he is barely noticed at times. There is just the Heroine with her depth of character, her aura, and her smile. Everything else begins to become a blur.
He wanted to tell her that he saw this and much more in her, but knew the Politician was there at a very unwelcome time. He normally would not say such things to a woman whom he had just met. But it seemed like he did know her. This was unprecedented, and sleep deprivation can do strange things in such an unprecedented situation.
Given the presence of the politician, he proceeded to compliment her in only limited ways, but he did obliquely imply the similarity between her face when she smiles and that of an angel. She appeared to approve, but only when the Politician was not looking her way. She smiled and briefly looked down at the table. Then she looked content and relaxed, sometimes smiling with her mouth closed or mostly closed, and with her eyes having a relaxed appearance.
The Visitor was surprised to find that he was beginning to be blown away by the Heroine. He was not thinking that anything like this could happen, even after he'd caught wind that matchmaking may have been afoot a month earlier. There was a significant age difference of almost 14 years, but that no longer seemed to matter. He realized that the age of the earthly dwelling doesn't matter when the right person lives there.
It was a wonderful and profound time. If only it could go on forever.
But sadly, the joy and positivity of meeting the Heroine was almost immediately followed and overshadowed by its antithesis, as people with agendas that oppose the Heroine, and most of what she stands for, began to arrive on the scene.
[Comments: In real life, the Author first complimented the woman who inspired the Heroine on her character, kindness, inspiration, care for children and the poor, and her smile, etc., during their second conversation, the following evening. By then, there was more to base compliments on. In real life, she had by then joined him in advocating for the poor against political and wealthy men, and he had visited her school for the first time, seeing first hand how she cared for the children. In this story, 19 and 22 October correspond to real life conversations of 26 and 27 October, 1994. Compliments, impressions, and responses were more limited than during the second meeting in the story (though less limited than text above), because the Author and the inspiration for the Heroine never had an opportunity to be alone together at the table (or anywhere else) until after he fell ill from burdensome demands of the equivalent of the Politician and his cronies. And when he fell ill, he temporarily lost his ability to understand Spanish, so all communication with her had to then be via an interpreter. This obviously limited what either one could say without setting rumors afoot.]
Clash with the Antithesis of the Heroine. 8:00 p.m.
At about eight, the Heroine gets up from the table as some of the men arrive for the imposed meeting. She will periodically come back into the dining room as the meeting progresses. She can already tell that it is going to be a difficult time for the visitor. She has seen these men before.
Two more men arrive well after eight. Two of the four recently arrived men are wealthy Bolivian individuals, and the others are apparently the equivalent of upper middle class. One of the rich men has a very confident, presumptuous, and demanding nature. One of the others, his brother, is less confident, but can be volatile. The politician is weaker in conviction than either of the rich men, so his nose is the one that has become the darkest. The rest of the men seem passive by comparison.
The meeting begins with little in the way of pleasantries or introductions. The visitor is somewhat annoyed to hear the politician refer to him only as "esta gringito" (this little gringo) instead of using his name.
The men at the meeting aggressively launch into making a ridiculously excessive number of demands on the visitor's time. The politician then produces a calendar and begins writing on it. Initially, no one was ASKING the visitor if he would do anything. Everything was demanded with confidence, as though the men felt entitled to the visitor's cooperation.
It is obvious to the visitor that the men are not organized. Some of them had conflicting agendas. When they weren't pelting the vistor with demands, they were arguing with each other, though usually not loudly. Initially, it was all so hectic that it was difficult for the visitor to answer anyone, and it seemed that working with these men would be next to impossible.
The men were trying to get the visitor to make three and four presentations per day on several different days, including clear out to the week of the 3 November eclipse. Not counting travel time, each presentation (including addressing participant questions through an interpreter) could last two or three hours. Anyone involved in public speaking knows what a ridiculously heavy schedule this would be. This would triple to quadruple the obligated time on his itinerary, and prohibit nearly all of his planned activities. Not to mention that it would stand in the way of his newest priority, which was to spend time with the Heroine. So, the visitor resisted their demands.
The most confident and obnoxious among the men made more demands of the visitor. Then the more volatile one did so, but more aggressively.
The visitor maintained that he had agreed to make only one presentation per day for first two days after his planned rest day to get over jet lag. And there could also be one presentation on the third day if the additional one (that had been asked about in a hypothetical way just prior to departure, via a family member in the USA) was included. The previously planned presentations were at Colegio Buenas Nuevas, where the Heroine is a director.
The men said that this was not good enough, and that the visitor had to speak at numerous locations. The visitor said that he did not. This went on for several minutes, and the visitor was getting bewildered. He just wanted to leave the meeting and go to bed, but it was obvious that this was not an available option.
After arguing among themselves, the men finally got around to naming specific locations where the visitor had to make presentations. They proposed a couple of dozen locations in all, and set about trying to populate the calendar with them. The visitor argued further against the sheer volume of presentations that the men were demanding.
The visitor eventually realized that the men were demanding that he appear at a lot of schools and universities, but that no one was mentioning Colegio Buenas Nuevas, the only school at which he had prearranged to speak. Therefore, he said:
"I've heard you mention a lot of places you want me to speak, but I haven't heard any of you mention Colegio Buenas Nuevas. That is where I..."
One of the men interrupted and said:
"That school is for poor people. It would not be a good use of you. And we don't want you there!
The politician (with accent) then said:
"They are just Indians there. They would not understand what you tell them."
The visitor said:
"But that is where I had arranged to speak! Besides..."
The politician interrupted and said:
"They are only poor people there."
Up to this point, the visitor had not known that indigenous or low income people attended the Heroine's school. But now he did know. And with this knowledge came an abiding conviction that defending his arrangements at Colegio Buenas Nuevas was the right thing, the only thing, to do.
The visitor responded:
"All the more reason to speak there. The poor have less opportunity!"
The Heroine, standing by the table and making a fist to subtly gesture with, added:
"Amen!", and continued with more words of affirmation in advocating for her school.
At this, another one of the men interrupted the Heroine during her first sentence and both rapidly talked over each other for the next sentence. Then, the man mercilessly shouted her down with many scolding words in Spanish. The Heroine temporarily looked taken aback by the scolding reply. She remained silent for some time after this and eventually went back into the kitchen.
The visitor then became very much more upset with the men who had imposed themselves. He had become too tired to react right away, even though he wanted to let the person who had shouted down the Heroine have it; verbally and perhaps otherwise. But he held back partly because something wasn't adding up. These men had just shouted a woman down in her own house, yet other members of the household who were in earshot had done nothing. This left the impression that these could be powerful men. Even so, the matter could not go completely unanswered.
The visitor then raised his voice and said:
"I am speaking at Buenas Nuevas. The poor here have less opportunity!"
More heated debate followed and the Heroine again left the room.
The Visitor was favorably impressed that the Heroine would enter the fray and join in standing up to those men, all while probably knowing, or at least suspecting, how harshly they might respond to her. He was very, very impressed with her. And he gained more resolve as he contemplated this.
The Heroine began to reflect on what could happen if the ideology of these men (and their fledgling political movement) was to gain momentum. Indigenous and low income people would need even more advocacy - but from where? Society limited their power to advocate for themselves. And very few other people seemed interested in working with the poor, some due to related social implications. She had given her all for years, but now it appeared that this soon may not be enough.
She decided to pray. To pray for strength to shout back when shouted down. To pray for even more endurance beyond her own. To pray that others would be advocates, in spite of the potential cost.
Back in the meeting with the Visitor, one of the men began to claim that they had already promised all of the other schools that the visitor would appear at them, so he HAD to appear. The visitor was quite shocked that they would really have done this. He replied that he had prearranged to speak at Buenas Nuevas, and that if they did not have a problem with trying to get him to break his commitment there, he couldn't worry about them having to break theirs.
Another reason the Visitor defended appearing at Colegio Buenas Nuevas was to simply show respect for, and deference to, the Heroine, because she was originally supposed to he his only host. It was obvious that the Politician had usurped much of this role without her consent. The fact that she advocated for Buenas Nuevas showed that it was important to her. Therefore, resisting the men on this was a reasonable thing to do in her house, whether the Politician liked it or not. It was a show of respect for the Heroine. But the Politician didn't see it this way. He took it as a slight.
The Politician was trying to use his usurpation of the host role to work against the Heroine, while in her house. By actively trying to keep the Visitor from appearing at the school where the Heroine worked, it was obvious that the Politician was actively trying to PREVENT the very things that the Heroine wanted, and had been looking forward to, in regard to the Visitor's trip to Bolivia. It was obvious that the Politician was hostile to many aspects of what the Heroine wanted. The Politician was also using his usurpation to actualize the disdain that he and the men had for the poor.
If the Politician's goal had been to coerce full compliance from the Visitor, he set himself up for failure by opposing the Heroine. The Politician's disappointment in failing to gain full control over the Visitor was of his own doing. The Visitor didn't feel sorry for him at all. The Politician was a pest.
After the exchanges with the visitor over Colegio Buenas Nuevas, the men cut back on openly trying to take Buenas Nuevas off the table. Instead, they tried to schedule engagements that would conflict with appearances at Buenas Nuevas, but the visitor caught them every time they tried this.
This got them to quiet down on that point, but it did not affect the grand scheme of things at the meeting. The continued demands of these men were wearing down the Visitor, even though the men were gradually becoming less aggressive.
The visitor could not believe how rabid these men were about trying to deny even a small thing like his presentations to indigenous and low income people of the area. They actually seemed to believe that the poor were less capable, a view much like the antiquated social views that were prevalent in the United States up through the early 20th century.
Many if not all of the men harbored prejudice against indigenous and low income people. And it was clear that they did not want indigenous or poor people to benefit even from little things like the visitor's presentations. It wasn't enough for them to get more for themselves. They also wanted to prevent gains by financially disadvantaged people. To hold them down. The extreme prejudice of the men bothered the visitor infinitely more than the effect their actions could have on his itinerary.
In light of this, the visitor perceived that the poor in Bolivia should be given much more in the way of advocacy. The men kept trying to set up presentations that would conflict with his appearances at Colegio Buenas Nuevas, but he was able to at least hold the line and retain one favorably timed presentation there.
He was concerned about the way these people felt "entitled" to change his itinerary, but what really galled him was their bias against the poor, and a sustained and vicious racism such as nothing he had ever seen in person before. This was not just a matter of racial slurs. This was a functional racism and prejudice that sought to hold people back based on their race or economic status.
The Visitor Perceives a Threat to the Heroine, so He Partially Capitulates. 10:00 p.m.
The visitor was also concerned about something else: Upon seeing that no one in the Heroine's extended family had done anything in response to the Heroine being shouted down by the men at the meeting, and that no one had done anything to defend him, he became concerned for the Heroine, her extended family, and himself.
He wondered if the men could pose a threat to them, either near term or after his trip. The men were very confident and aggressive. No one was wielding a rubber hose or a cattle prod, but the experience was intense enough to make him wonder what could eventually happen if he did not cooperate.
(More detail text about the visitor becoming concerned about the threat that the men could pose to some in Bolivia, including the Heroine and her relatives, and giving in to some demands - just in case the men posed a threat to them, goes here.)
The visitor was too sleep deprived to think it all through rationally, so he eventually decided to be on the safe side and ultimately give in to many of their demands. He agreed to up to three lectures per day, though not on every day.
But he refused to cancel all of his presentations at Colegio Buenas Nuevas. The rich could have their more. But the rich were not going to take from the poor on his watch.
The meeting was finally over. It was grueling and had lasted more than two hours, with the most intense part being in the first hour or so. The visitor resisting these people to the extent that he did had radically increased the duration of the meeting, but it had also paid off in the sense that the maximum number of major engagements per day was now three instead of the four the men had wanted. And he only had to present material on one day during the week of the eclipse instead of the three or four that the men had initially insisted on.
In all, he had succeeded in eliminating about half of the work the men had initially sought to impose on him. However, the remaining number of imposed presentations were still a copious burden, tacking up to ten extra hours per day onto his schedule for several days. Also, having to present any talks at all on the week of the eclipse was going to interfere with his planned preparations for it. But on the bright side, he had succeeded in preserving both of his appearances at Colegio Buenas Nuevas, though only one of these was optimally timed for the school.
More importantly, the imposed burdensome schedule also limits his time with local people of his choosing, such as the Heroine. Her sympathies regarding opportunities for poor people seemed in alignment with his, and this was consistent with his initial good impressions of her. In fact, everything he was aware of that she had said or done thereafter was consistent with those first impressions. He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to know her better. A lot better. She was extraordinary.
Even though he had taken on a substantially heavier schedule, the men making demands of him still were not satisfied. They would had been satisfied unless he had capitulated to every one of their demands, which would have been humanly impossible. They were dissatisfied partly because he had refused to cancel all of his planned appearances at Buenas Nuevas. But by then, he did not really care what their feelings toward him were. The men were presumptuous, abrasive, and insufferably annoying. He just wanted to get away from their oppressive presence.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the Visitor's problems with these men. It was only the beginning. In addition to the numerous presentations at universities or schools for rich kids that were imposed at the meeting, a plethora of other unscheduled impositions followed.
Before the Visitor crashed for the night, he saw the Politician alone in the combined entryway and hallway, and asked him who the men were. The Politician said that he "had not even heard of them" until a couple of days before the Visitor arrived, but that they were "influential".
The Visitor went to bed, but could not sleep well, partly due to the stress of his new circumstances, and partly due to jocular conversation the men were now having in the other room. Even though they were speaking in Spanish from some distance away, he could overhear and understand a good part of what was said. He was shocked to hear the Politician laughingly make light of his desire to allow 10 hours a day for rest and sleep in the days before the eclipse.
It was obvious that the Politician had known these men for some time, and that he had lied when he said he "had not even heard of them" until shortly before the Visitor arrived. It appeared that some of the first actions of this self-appointed "host" Politician were to coerce his "guest", and then lie to him.
The Visitor reluctantly began to realize that the Politician was likely a patsy or a chameleon, and that these particular men were probably too indifferent or unsophisticated ("illiterate" in the local vernacular) to appreciate the preparation that is required for exacting work at an eclipse. And they had not treated the Heroine well either. Everything about these men was wrong.
Act 10: The Dizzying Hodgepodge of Events Begins. 20 October, 1994. 8:15 a.m.
When he got up, the Visitor found to his chagrin that he had developed Montezuma's revenge. This made him a few minutes late in being ready to leave for his first presentation, but his ride was equally late as well.
This development could result in the need for some short notice stops on the way to various places. All of the clothes the Visitor was not wearing on his flight are in his checked bags, both of which did not arrive with his flight. So he has no spare clothes to bring in the event of an "accident".
Less than 24 hours after his arrival in Bolivia, he is about to leave for his first presentation. His dizzying new schedule will have him so busy will be hard to tell which way is up. It seems that he has become a commodity. This particular morning, he will have no available time or energy for pleasant distractions like taking pictures, or for errands like picking up a tooth brush.
Aduana. 9:40 a.m.
(What follows is a factual account of dealing with Aduana from 1994. It needs no embellishment, even for this story. The slides for the school presentations are sadly in the other missing piece of luggage. The Visitor to misses his first presentation due to an hour-long delay with Aduana.)
Soon, the person we will call Simon (the same person who had scolded the Heroine during the previous night's meeting) came by to pick up the Visitor for his first presentation. Simon was driving a white vehicle that looked like a VW van that had been converted to a pickup truck. He was going to interpret at the presentation, but the airport had to be the first stop because the Visitor needed his slides and other presentation materials from his tardy checked bags.
When the Visitor got in the vehicle, he was obviously displeased to be around Simon again, but he decided to try to make the best of it. Nonetheless, a long, icy silence followed.
Finally, Simon said:
"I wanted to see you speak at more Catholic schools. The others are always against Catholic schools."
Simon was not Catholic, so his preference seemed unusual at first. The Visitor thought that Simon should have realized he had been unable to significantly influence the outcome of the meeting they had both attended the night before, so he indignantly replied:
"You know perfectly well that I had precious little to do with what was decided last night! I don't know why you're complaining to me about it."
The Visitor felt somewhat badly about unloading on Simon, so he was more courteous after this. He'd only had an hour or two of sleep since the previous Tuesday morning, and this sleep depravation tended to erode his diplomacy and other social skills.
After a few more minutes, they arrived at the airport and went in to look for the Visitor's luggage. The flight had arrived some time before, so no passengers were left in the area. Unfortunately, only one of his two bags had arrived, and it was not the one that had his presentation slides in it; however, it did have some reference material he could use to prepare a lecture. He needed that material because he was too spaced out to even remember his well-practiced presentation. The outline for was presentation was with his slides in the bag that was still missing.
When he tried to get the luggage through Aduana, or customs, the agent inspected the contents. When the agent saw the Visitor's telescope mount, he agent told the Visitor that he had fill out some forms and leave the mount and other items with him for several hours while the forms were processed. The Visitor had been warned (by his Bolivian friends in the USA) not to go along with this scheme if he ever wanted to see my equipment again.
He had previously been informed that the usual solution to this type of problem was to pay the agent a bribe in the amount that the agent would subtly indicate with his fingers. He watched the agent's fingers, but did not see the characteristic signal. He did not really want to pay a bribe; both because he did not want to spend the money, and because he did not want to contribute to the delinquency of an adult (the Aduana agent, in this case).
The Visitor offered to check his bag back into the airline's custody and come back later, when dealing with the customs situation would not conflict with his school presentation, but the agent would have no part of it. He patiently continued to argue with the agent, while Simon interpreted, for about 40 minutes. He considered the possibility of waiting by his equipment all day while the customs agent "processed" my forms. Praying came to mind again, and shortly thereafter, he realized that there may yet be an expeditious way to end the situation.
He recalled that, on his flight to Bolivia the day before, he had been seated next to the Director of Los Tiempos, the largest newspaper in Cochabamba. They had both discussed the matter of the Visitor writing an article for the paper about his experience in Bolivia, particularly if the experience was good. At the time, he fully intended to oblige, and he realized that his experience with this Aduana agent was just as much a part of his experience in Bolivia as anything else.
So, in the hearing of the agent, he said to Simon; "You know, I've been asked to write an an article for a local newspaper, and I sure would hate to have to mention that I was not able to appear for this morning's school presentation because I had to wait in an airport due to a difficulty with Aduana".
At this, the agent looked at Simon and, in Spanish, asked him what was said (Que dice?). Simon then interpreted the Visitor's last remark to the agent, and the agent instantly lost his confident demeanor. The agent then went into a corner office and began talking with another person. When he came back a couple of minutes later, he waved Simon and the Visitor through and said that they could leave immediately with the luggage!
The First School. 11:45 a.m.
They then drove to the first school that the Visitor had been newly scheduled to speak at. As was the case virtually everywhere he visited that day, his first order of business was to use the restroom. The facilities in some schools were far more primitive than even the most basic facilities in the U.S.
In order to attend this presentation, the students at this school were going to stay past the usual end of their school day, but most of them had left by the time Simon and the Visitor got there. Apparently, Simon and the others who pressured the Visitor had not been organized enough to even call ahead and inform the school that they would be late.
The fact that even the scheduled presentation time was after school hours made the Visitor begin to wonder if maybe even the school had also been pressured by the same people into allowing a presentation that day. If that was the case, it would be tragic indeed.
The few students remaining were all identically dressed girls who appeared to be in their later years of high school. They looked sad as they expressed disappointment in not being able to see the presentation. The Visitor felt sorry for them, but there was nothing he could do other than try to squeeze a short talk to their school in between his later imposed presentations. This was a highly unlikely scenario, so he did not mention the possibility. But he later learned that Simon had.
Even though the people who pressured the Visitor into presenting claimed that they had "arranged things" with all of the schools in advance, he began to wonder if they had really done so. Planning, communication, and attention to detail, were not their strong suits.
As it was, the possibility the Visitor had raised at the airport turned out to be what actually happened: He had not been able to present at the school due to a difficulty with Aduana.
When they left the school, and Simon expressed concern about the Visitor not having any presentation materials. The Visitor had been was equally concerned, because the sheer number of students anticipated for his next presentation could make the use of even a black board impractical. He would at least need view graphs, so they went to a store and bought some blank view graph material and some view graph pens. He also asked if they had toothbrushes, but they didn't.
Making view graphs meant that the Visitor could not take a nap before the next presentation, which was at 3:30 that afternoon. There was at least one good thing about that afternoon's presentation: It was at Colegio Buenas Nuevas, where the Heroine was a director. This is the only school he had prearranged to appear at.
He thought to himself: Yea! I get to go to Buenas Nuevas! That was his first happy thought of the day.
The Unwelcome Politician Returns. 12:40 p.m.
They arrived back at the Heroine's house and went inside. Lunch had been prepared by the Politican's Quechua maid, who had been brought there by the Politician, who had also brought all four of his children. It seemed odd that the Politician and his whole family would come over to the Heroine's house for lunch when she wasn't even there. He was acting like he owned the place.
After lunch, the Visitor set to work on his view graphs. His Spanish had gotten rusty since the night before, but his Spanish dictionary was in his missing suitcase. He was too spaced out to remember how to spell some things in Spanish, so he checked with the Politician. Unfortunately, he did not know how to spell the words that were needed either, so the Visitor guessed. If he spelled a few words wrong, it would probably make for some good laughs among the students.
Before the view graphs were finished, the Politician told the Visitor that a television reporter was coming by to interview him later in the day. This was another unscheduled imposition. He was not happy about this idea, because he had not been able to shave or brush his teeth since the previous Tuesday morning due to his missing luggage. Not to mention that this also would prevent getting any rest at all.
The Politician then started telling the Visitor about a lot of interviews and other events that would be happening at the Heroine's house between his presentations. None of these events had been scheduled or even so much as tacitly agreed to, and it became clear that the Politician had no intention of allowing the Visitor any time to rest. It was obvious why the Politician had come over to the Heroine's house again.
The Politician's family did not seem to approve of the way he was treating the Visitor, but it appeared that they were in no position to do anything about it.
Even though the Politician was not an owner of the house, he seemed to be "in control" of many things there. At the time, the Visitor thought that this may have been due in part to the patriarchal nature of the culture, but that wasn't enough to explain it. He would later find that there was considerable "intrigue" concerning the Heroine's house, in that the Politician had designs on it.)
The First Visit to Colegio Buenas Nuevas. 2:50 p.m.
A little before three in the afternoon on 20 October, Gerardo, a person who will be interpreting at the visitor's afternoon presentation, arrives to take the visitor to his first appearance at Colegio Buenas Nuevas. Gerardo is a very personable college student, and he and the visitor began to talk.
The visitor eventually says that Colegio Buenas Nuevas was the only school where it was pre-arranged that he speak (he had volunteered to speak there before he had even left home), but that he had been pressured into making a lot more presentations that he had not planned on. He added that these presentations were all at other locations. Gerardo asked the visitor if he knew the names of the people who had pressured him, and he mentioned the names that he could recall.
Upon hearing the names, Gerardo became visibly disturbed. He said that some of the same people had pressured him to interpret at the presentations, adding that he had final exams in the next two weeks. He was concerned that the impositions on him could compromise his studies. He said that he did not like those people and added that he did not like the Politician very well either.
The visitor's unfavorable perceptions of the Politician and the other men appeared to be congruent with their local reputations. To the visitor, it seemed that the Politician, while tall physically, was a socially small man who wanted to rub shoulders with big shots, and who exploited others in his efforts to do so. It appeared that the Politician bartered labor that he coerced from others to try and impress influential people. Yet all the while, this Politician was only being used by them, not respected by them. And beyond this, he was always trying to hatch one type of scheme or another.
The Visitor enjoyed Gerardo's company, but felt badly about the pressure that interpreting so near the time of his exams was putting him under. As it was, Gerardo was going to miss the trip to the total eclipse due to his exams. The people who appropriated him apparently had little interest in doing much of the related work themselves.
Even though Gerardo was under this pressure, he enthusiastically volunteered to give the Visitor a tour of some of Cochabamba as they drove between various schools and the house where he was staying. The visitor appreciated this incremental tour with Gerardo because, as it turned out, that was the only tour of the city that he would ever get to have.
The Visitor was staying at the school Director's (i.e. the Heroine's) house, but in completely separate living quarters there. This house, and its separate quarters, had both become intermittently infested with presumptuous politicians, wannabe politicians, and pushy wealthy people - all of whom the Heroine had not invited, but that her Politician relative had invited - into the Heroine's house!
This meant that the only way the Visitor could avoid all of those pushy people was to avoid the house as much as possible during waking hours, then only go there to sleep. This had the unfortunate effect of limiting time with the Heroine, but at the house, the pushy people imposed themseves so thoroughly that it was not possible to even talk to her there.
Therefore, in the rare times when there were no coerced presentations to make at rich schools, most of their time together would be in the immediate area of her school, before or after her shift. There, they could go on reasonably long walks without being disturbed. It seemed odd that the Heroine's own house was the one place where they could not spend time communicating, due to all of the intruders. This was true even during meals there.
As Gerardo and the Visitor drove south toward Colegio Buenas Nuevas, the town around them gradually took on a more impoverished look. As they drove up a hill to get to the school, the visitor was able to look out over the vast area of Cochabamba. It was a beautiful sight. Finally, they arrived at Buenas Nuevas around 3:20, and parked in the median of the wide dirt road in front of it.
Gerardo and the Visitor got out of the car, then Gerardo gave a Boliviano (about 22 cents, US) to an old Indian lady who was sitting under a small tarp by a "Foosball" table. The Visitor asked Gerardo why he was paying her, and he said it was so she would "watch" his car. The Visitor knew exactly what he meant, but asked to verify that it was so. It was for "protection".
Colegio Buenas Nuevas is an unassuming complex of red and yellow brick buildings. It is attended by about 1,800 students. Half come in the morning and half come in the afternoon. But the buildings are not what matters. It is all about the staff and what they teach there.
The Heroine meets them out near the street, by the northwest corner of the school complex. She then leads them through a nearby wrought iron gate and onto the school grounds. From there, she escorts them to the auditorium, where at least 400 students are seated on benches and at a few small desks.
Most of the students are twelve years of age or younger. All of the students have identical white gowns or smocks over their regular clothing. The visitor had never seen this type of uniform in person before arriving in Bolivia, but liked the idea of this type of school uniform. It helped level the perceived economic playing field between students while they were at school.
Gerardo and the visitor went to the stage at the front of the lecture hall, then the Director introduced the visitor to the students. All of them then loudly and enthusiastically responded "Buenas Tardes (visitor name) Char-les!" in unison. This was impressive, and both Gerardo and the visitor were pleasantly surprised! Gerardo even did a double take.
The Director made a few additional introductory statements and led the students in a prayer. The visitor had noticed that prayer was practiced in virtually every Bolivian school he had visited, he liked the fact that prayer was both allowed and utilized. There were people in the U.S. who would not like the idea, but after seeing it first hand, his argument for prayer in school (particularly voluntary prayer) would be one of results:
He knew that people will usually put something first in their lives, and if God is not allowed in the school, students will seek out someone or something else that they can put first. For some, this may be their studies, but for others (particularly in the U.S.), it will be drugs, guns, or gangs. Lethal violence in U.S. schools is the legacy left by our high court decisions over the last few decades. Prayer is allowed in Bolivian schools, and there is less violence in Bolivian schools. Go figure.
After the prayer, the visitor began his presentation. Owing to his missing luggage, he only had four view graphs that he had made by hand earlier that afternoon, so he quickly ran out of material. Most of the newly made view graphs were to explain the difference between a partial and a total solar eclipse. Cochabamba was outside the path of totality, and the visitor realized that few if any of the students would be able to go to the area where the eclipse was total, so his emphasis was on safe viewing methods for the partial eclipse.
After presenting the view graphs, he wanted to use some balls or disks and a light to illustrate the earth, sun, and moon. He asked the Director if anyone had any of these items on the school grounds. One of the teachers went out of the room, and soon returned with something that pleasantly surprised him.
She returned with a beautifully made articulated mechanical model of the earth, sun, and moon. It was the neatest gadget he had seen in a long time. After he finished marveling at it, he used it to illustrate how a solar eclipse occurs. He then began a questions and answers period.
The children were well behaved and had a good attention span, particularly considering the fact that he had no photos to present due to his missing luggage. As they we leaving the school after the presentation, a few of the students came up to grab or shake his hand. They seemed very appreciative.
There was little no time to speak with the Heroine because she had to be about her work activites at the school. In the short time she was seen, she seemed very happy, as though this had been an important day for the school. The Visitor wished that his presentation slides had been available, as opposed to being in his remaining missing piece of his luggage. He then could have given the school a far better presentation.
As Gerardo and the Visitor left the school and made their way to Garardo's car, he mentioned to the Visitor that he was very tired from the experience of standing and speaking for so long (over 45 minutes in this case), and he did not know how the visitor was able to have the energy to make more than one presentation per day.
The visitor responded that it was not easy, and that he would never schedule more than one or two presentations per day if it was up to him. But Buenas Nuevas was the one place where he did want to provide presentations. He had volunteered to present there before he had even met the Director (the Heroine).
Playing Hooky - From a Politician - Not from School! 4:30 p.m.
Gerardo and the visitor left the school and started back to the Heroine's house. He offered to show the Visitor more things around town "on the way" back to the house. The Visitor accepted because the Heroine herself will not be home for some time, since her shift as the afternoon shift Director will continue for several more hours. Therefore, they went back to the house via a very indirect route. Monty's revenge was not as bad at this point, so fewer related stops were needed.
Avoiding the house also reduced the risk of more unwanted encounters with the Politician and his pushy cronies. The Visitor had the correct impression that the Politician had long infested the Heroine's house any time he wanted to, and that she may have had little if anything to say about it.
They stopped at a few music stores, where the Visitor bought some Bolivian music he had on his shopping list. Some of it was to use in an amateur video about the trip that he had initially planned to produce. They also stopped at a few places to get a toothbrush, but were unable to find one after a reasonable time of searching, and the Visitor wanted to rest.
They stopped at a furniture manufacturing shop that one of Gerardo's relatives owned, and the Visitor was able to rest there for well over an hour.
When Gerardo dropped the Visitor off at the Heroine's house at around 7:15 (about 45 minutes after sunset), the Politician was there. He told the Visitor that he wished he had arrived home sooner so he could have done a bunch of other things that he (the Politician) wanted him to do.
Given that the Politican had come to the house, the Visitor was glad that he had gone on his little detour with Gerardo. It was a vacation from the Politician's incessant demands! The Visitor more or less ignored the politician, and the Politician left just before the Heroine returned home.
When the Heroine returned home, she could tell that the Visitor was not particularly well, so she offered him some Linaza tea, which he gladly accepted.
At the same time, the Heroine received a phone call saying that the Visitor's other checked bag had arrived at the airport, and that Simon had gone to get it. Simon was going to bring it to the house, so the Visitor waited for Simon to arrive with it for it before going to bed.
The Visitor's views of Simon had softened a bit, because of all of the men at the meeting the night before, Simon was the only one who was helping out with the actual work of facilitating the extra coerced presentations.
The Visitor and the Heroine briefly talked while waiting for his suitcase. Finally, Simon arrived. The first thing the Visitor unpacked was his toothbrush. After days without a toothbrush, he really wanted to brush his teeth. He then got out his presentation slides and notes, reviewed his notes, packed both in a shoulder bag to be ready the next morning, then went to bed.
Act 11: 21 October, 1994:
On this morning, there was no need to go to the airport again, and the Visitor's first presentation was not until 10:30 in the morning. This made it possible to sleep in a little, and the Visitor felt somewhat better after finally getting some sleep. He was still too tired to juggle giving eclipse presentations and taking pictures (and keeping track of both a camera and the presentation material) so he did not bring a camera.
Gerardo picked him up and they drove to the Emanuel school for the Visitor's 10:30 morning presentation. The school was brick complex having a much different layout than Colegio Buenas Nuevas, in that many areas were out in the open. The Visitor had some lingering Monty's revenge and had to use the rest room. It proved to be little more than a raised trough with a separate basin of water and a can which is used for "flushing".
Other than Colegio Buenas Nuevas, Emanuel would prove to be the only school at which the Visitor had been "allowed" to speak where the students were from something other than rich and upper middle class families.
At Emanuel, the presentation was done was in a shaded meeting area that was partly outdoors. After Gerardo and the Visitor arrived, uniformed children started coming down some stairs from their classrooms. Many were carrying their desks down the stairs with them. This was a little time consuming, but amusing to see.
They made the presentation the Visitor's 35mm slides, most of which were pictures of eclipses. The Visitor was delighted to find that the projections of his slides were visible in the relatively bright outdoor surroundings. The Visitor was still tired enough that he made a few errors, but Gerardo had corrected these errors on the fly during his interpretation, based on a briefing about the talk the Visitor had provided in the car on the way over.
After this, they went to Colegio Buenas Nuevas for a second time, arriving a little after noon. This was the only window of opportunity prior to the eclipse that the Politician and pushy rich people had "allowed" him to make a presentation to the morning classes there. But it was not optimally timed for the school, because it was after the end of the morning shift classes. (It seemed that everything the Politician and his wealthy friends touched became disorganized or even got ruined.) They presented the talk, and it went a little better than the the one at Emanuel earlier that morning.
After the talk at Buenas Nuevas, Gerardo challenged the Visitor to a game of Foosball, on the table next to where his car was parked near Buenas Nuevas. It had been 15 years since the Visitor had played Foosball. Gerardo gave the Indian lady by the machine (the same lady who "watched" his car) some coins, and she gave him balls for the game. Gerardo easily beat the Visitor. For the next game, Gerardo offered to play with just one hand. He beat the Visitor again, but it took a little longer.
Playing Hooky Again - From a Politician. 1:30 p.m.
They drove to a few places "on the way" back to the Heroine's politician-infested house. He showed the Visitor the college he was attending and told him about his girl friend. He remembered the exact year, day, and even the minute, that he first met her. (She would probably be impressed!)
Near his school, the traffic was particularly crazy and he nearly got stranded in the middle of an intersection as he was trying to turn left. He was worried for a while, but made it through. Even though relatively few intersections have traffic control signals, he said that one could get a traffic ticket if they got stuck in an unsignaled intersection.
Gerardo later mentioned that, if the Visitor wanted to, they could go out of town for target practice after he had finished his exams early the next month. The Visitor wanted to take him up on that after the eclipse, but he did not know if his condition (or the continuing coerced presentations) would permit it.
Less than an hour after they left Buenas Nuevas, it started to rain. Gerardo said it was the first rain they'd had for months. The rain made driving difficult, so he again took the Visitor to his family's furniture business, but showed him around this time. They then had a soda and the Visitor got to rest for the better part of an hour. After the rain let up, Gerardo dropped the Visitor off at the Heroine's house.
The Short Sighted Politician: 3:45 p.m.
When the Visitor came into the house, the Politician was there yet again. And, as might be expected based on the Politician's M.O., the usual impositions prevented him from even taking a nap. This confirmed to the Visitor that "playing hooky" from the house had been the right thing to do, since it was the only way to get any rest from the Politician.
This time, it was being demanded that the Visitor does not grant Los Tiempos (the paper directed by Alfonso Canelas, the Visitor's fellow passenger on the flight to Bolivia) an interview during his trip, and that he instead "had to" grant an interview to a competing paper at five p.m. that day. While the Visitor did not say anything at the time, he was inclined to just disappear when the time of the competing interview arrived.
The Visitor did not want to stiff Los Tiempos, and he also did not like the idea of being interviewed before he was able to be more rested. Fortunately, the competing reporter never showed up.
What the politician was doing seemed very short sighted. Here, the largest newspaper in Cochabamba had asked the Visitor not only for an interview, but also to (if he wanted) write an article about his experience in Bolivia for the paper. If the Politician had honored the original schedule that Visitor had worked out with the Heroine, he could have thusly helped facilitate work at the eclipse, then had positive exposure in such an article.
But now, the Politician probably knew that he had blown that opportunity, so he now wanted to keep the Visitor from even interviewing with the paper.
The Visitor eventually called Alfonso at Los Tiempos and informed him that he could have some difficulty meeting with him during his trip, but that he would still try to do so. However, he never had the opportunity to meet him again. The Visitor did not mention the problem with the Politician, but Alfonso may have already known:
When Alfonso and the Visitor had arrived in Cochabamba two days earlier, the Visitor had noticed that he seemed to bristle at the sight of the Politician, and he did not linger at the airport after seeing him. Based on what he knew now, the Visitor figured that this would be the reaction any normal person would have to the Politician. Maybe that's why the Politician had never been elected to any office.
The First University. 6:30 p.m.
The next presentation was at seven p.m., at Universidad Mayor de San Simon. The Politician was interpreting this time. The talk was rather sluggish because the Visitor was still tired and the Politician was only able to haltingly interpret a few words at a time.
After the Visitor's presentation, there were a lot of questions, but the meeting was pretty much over by around ten thirty that night. Many people were bilingual, and some commented that the Politician's interpretation was not very good.
Just as they was getting ready to leave, a few people came up to the Visitor and told him that they were going to the center line of the eclipse too, and they wanted to show him their material. He very much wanted to see what they had, but was tired so he did not accept as enthusiascically as he ordinarily would. They were obviously unaware of his difficulty earlier on the trip.
The Visitor was glad he did stay to see their material, because that meeting was the beginning of a decades-long friendship with the director of Astronomia Sigma Octante (ASO).
What they showed him was very impressive. They had independently produced a table for the 1994 eclipse from the Besselian elements. The table had detailed eclipse data for every major city in Bolivia. It was obvious that this was their own work rather than a copy of a NASA publication.
They had much more material that they wanted to show him (and that he wanted to see) so he got one of their business cards with a phone number. Then, they invited him to their next meeting, which was on the Saturday night following the eclipse. They even offered to pick him up. He accepted, contingent on the state of his health. The group was called Astronomia Sigma Octante (ASO). It was led by German Morales, and they met at Centro Simon Patino. He was glad to have met fellow astronomers in Bolivia.
The Politician and the Visitor left the university. The politician seemed excited about the people from ASO whom the Visitor had just met. The visitor was somewhat cynical about the Politician's enthusiasm, because he was probably just looking at them as another commodity he could try to use.
The politician didn't seem to pick up on the fact that the director of the group didn't appear to like him, as he had been interrupting the Visitor's conversation with the group, and acting as though he was a slobbering fan wanting a celebrity's autograph or something.
After hearing the Visitor speak with the ASO group, the Politician may have finally begun to realize that serious astronomy, including an eclipse expedition with related experiments, is not a thing one can just go out and do without some preparation. The Visitor had told him this before, but it never seemed to register.
After this, the Politician's impromptu demands began to taper off. And it seemed that he intermittently began to show the Visitor some respect, though only for a while. This at least made it possible for the Visitor to better tolerate the Politician.
Unfortunately, much damage had already been done in terms of lost sleep and preparation time, and there was no way to get out of doing the coerced presentations over the next ten days or so. This would make it a challenge to properly prepare for the eclipse, and it would also still limit time with the Heroine.
Act 12: 22 October, 1994:
For a Saturday, this was a busy day for the Visitor. On this day, his coerced schedule called for him to appear for an hour-long live radio program that began at 11, then there was a 2:30 presentation at Laredo University, and then there was a presentation to a civic organization toward evening.
It turned out that the latter presentation had not actually been arranged in advance with the organization (as the Politician had claimed), so it didn't happen. However, the Politician still hung around at the Heroine's house until an hour before sunset.
After the Politician left, there was finally time for the Heroine and the Visitor to have time for conversation. Up to this point, they had only been able to speak directly to one another for half an hour on the first night (while the Politician was there, but before the other men came over for the imposed meeting), and for another few minutes since then. By contrast, the Politician had imposed himself on both of them for many hours each day. The Politician was proving to be quite the pest.
The Second Significant Conversation with the Heroine:
As the Heroine and the Visitor began to converse, their conversation turned again to opportunities (or lack thereof) for the areas's low income people. This was at the top of both of their minds, especially after the men at the imposed meeting three days earlier had tried for hours to get the Visitor to cancel his appearances at her school.
They recounted to each other how such a long argument with those men had been a significant situation to be thrust into only minutes after they first met. But it had also heen enlightening. It was enlightening both in relation to seeing the ideologies and forces arrayed against the areas's poor, and in terms of revealing their own views and priorities.
It was as though they were immediately on the same page in terms of what was important to them. What was important to her had already been important to him long before they even met. And this was just one of many areas where this was proving to be true. The events of three nights before had driven what proved to be their common interests and priorities - in a number of areas - to the forefront.
He could see that there were many impressive things about her. He could see that she cared greatly about the children at her school, and that her position there was far more than just a job to her.
There was something else that he knew was true, but that could be painful for her to talk about, so he did not bring it up at the time. While at the Heroine's school, he noticed that her affect was far happier than it was when she was home at times when the Politician was there, or even when there was a prospect of the Politician coming there. She seemed inhibited if the Politician was anywhere near the house, or if it seemed he might come over, but she seemed free and happy at the school.
It was as though she was in her element at the school, but that the presence of the Politician took all of that away and began to suck the life out of her, even when she was in her own home.
She and the Visitor began to talk more about her work at the school. At this, a visiting girl in her early teens from the extended family, who had incidentally overheard, came to the table and said that the Heroine had organized various trips and camps for the students, and even for children beyond the school. She said that the Heroine had organized Christian camps, and that she had at least once taken some of her students all the way to another country on the west coast of South America so they could see the ocean. (Bolivia is a land-locked country.) The young girl seemed fond of the Heroine. After this, the girl retired for the night, even though it was not very late.
As they continued to talk, there were occasionally short pauses where the Heroine would just sit there and look content. At other times, she would turn to one side and stare off into the distance, as if in deep thought, all while looking happy and content. At those times, it seemed as though her contentment grew while he was looking at her. During other brief pauses in the conversation, she would just smile. It was at times like these that the Visitor could sense and feel her aura the most, possibly because he was not distracted by the challenge of speaking with her in Spanish.
In addition to the Heroine's aura making her presence feel like home, she was so kind and caring, so principled, so dedicated, so unpretentious, and so much more that it could not all be written. She cared for the poor (she was the only Bolivian person he'd met thus far who obviously did), and she wanted the best for her students regardless of their poverty or wealth.
And she had the rarest of noble qualities, in that she seemed guileless. This was shown in part by her always finding a way to say something good about someone or what they do or have. Rarely if ever did she say anything contrary. Such an extraordinary woman.
Her radiant smile and a myriad of perceived inner qualities made her face increasingly seem like that of an angel to him. More so than just three days ago. It was not yet a magical thing, but it was beginning to be more than just an observation. He again remembered that her sister had said this of her smile, but that he had figured she was just exaggerating - until he met the Heroine himself. Three days ago, he began to see that this was true of her. But now, he could fully see it was true! Marvelously true! It was not long until this observation gave way to the magical.
He didn't know what to make of all this: The sense they have known each other for a long time. The way that everything she had done and said since they met had matched his first impressions of her. The immediate delving onto meaningful (not superficial) conversation. The agreement on so many things. Her care for the children. Her care for the poor. Her unpretentiousness. Her aura that made her presence feel like home. Her angelic smile. All of this and more in one person!
It didn't matter if he could figure it out. Because here they are! In the present tense, she is here! There is just the Heroine with her depth of character, her aura, and her angelic smile. Everything else is a peripheral blur.
He had wanted to tell her what he saw in her for three days. And now there was so much more that he saw in her. He wanted to tell her that he saw all of this and much more. He normally would not say such things to a woman unless they had known each other for a long time. But it seemed like they already did know each other very well, though in what capacity he could not tell. And even his now less severe state of sleep deprivation could do strange things in such an unprecedented situation. And now, there was no Politician at the table to overhear.
So he dared to tell her some of this, and doing so did not make either of them tense or nervous. Quite the opposite of nervous. She appeared to like what she heard, and in such a short time after their first meeting, he already knew her well enough to know that she would like what was said, and that saying it so soon would not be too forward in this situation. It was, to use her words from three days before, as though they had known each other for a long time.
They were both very conservative, and would ordinarily take even verbal things very slowly, but everything about this conversation was different. For the first time in his life, everything was different. He was quite relieved to have said at least some of the things that he'd almost felt compelled to say to her. And these were but a tiny fraction of the endless words that she already constantly inspired.
They were both content to keep things to only words for a long time into the future, and not to delve beyond that. They didn't even need to express this verbally. They just knew. Such was their conservative nature and their understanding of each other.
He was so conservative that he had long purposed not to even so much as kiss a woman unless the relationship was going to be a permanent one, and by God's grace, he had kept to it. He had based this partly on the Biblical verses 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7, and partly on his having known women as platonic friends, and seeing their heartbreak and shipwreck when they went to far with their guy and then things went south shortly thereafter.
When with the Heroine, so great was his respect for her person that he could not bring himself to look at any part of her except her face or the hair on her head. So great was his respect for her that he did not even try to look anywhere below her face. Who was behind her eyes is what mattered. And most important of all, they both knew Jesus Christ as their Savior.
The Visitor had also found that everything that he had seen or even heard of that the Heroine had done or said - was completely consistent with his first impression of her. It is again, to use her words, just as though they have known each other for a long time.
Only three days after first meeting her, and following less than two hours of conversation, it is as though she is more familiar, and more trusted, than anyone he has ever known before. Even in comparison to people he has known for months or even years.
And there is soon little to compare to: Faces from the past fade away as every available brain cell spontaneously sets out to remember every aspect of the Heroine's face.
After a few more minutes, they prayed together and then bid each other goodnight, retiring to their separate living quarters.
It had been a joyous, deep, and memorable time for the Visitor. Could it be that such a wonderful person really exists? Is this a dream? Less than a week ago, he could not have even imagined this could be possible. That such a wonderful and blessed time would even be possible in this life. He hoped that she was as happy and content on the inside as she seemed to be on the outside.
In his whole life, he'd never had such strong feelings toward anyone. Not even close. Even when only the platonic aspect of what he saw in and felt for her was considered all by itself, its intensity exceeded the full scope of anything he had seen in, or felt for, anyone else before. But it was not like burning with passion. This was much less volatile than that. This was calm, not raging. Content, not urgent. Constant, not coming or going in waves. Abiding, not fleeting.
All of the upcoming coerced presentations demanded by the politician and the other men was no longer on his mind. There was just thanksgiving to the Lord for the Heroine. Thanksgiving that they both knew Jesus as their Savior. And that knowing the Heroine was drawing him closer to the Lord and not farther away. It was a peaceful way to fall asleep.
[Author Comments: In this story, general conversation subject matter, and impressions the Visitor has concerning the Heroine on 19 and 22 October, correspond to real life conversations of 26 and 27 October, 1994, except that some impressions about the Heroine were developed over a much longer period of time throughout the time in Bolivia, and additional reflection afterward, after the Author had recovered from the extreme exhaustion that had been caused by the impositions of the equivalent of "the Politician", and after he had heard more of the person who inspired the Heroine via visiting relatives. Also in reality, an interpreter was present during parts of both conversations, so far fewer compliments were said or responded to than what is implied in this story. And, given the need for an interpreter, neither party spoke to the other about what type of feelings they had. This is a fictional story that is based in part on actual people, ideologies, and events encountered in Bolivia. A factual account is in the Author's 1994 Eclipse Chaser's Journal, at eclipsechaser.com.]
Act 13: The Visitor Goes to Church with the Heroine. 23 Oct. 1994:
(Misc. related text goes here.)
(In real life, the church was Iglesia Cristiana Evangelica Bolivar, and a larger group went to the church together on 30 October. The Author went to small churches in the Campo (Huasarancho and Tarata) on the other Sunday he was in the country.)
(Text about how the Heroine and visitor grow in courage to defend low income people against those arrayed against them, and how they draw strength from the Lord and from each other, goes here.)
Glaring Inequality. 24 October, 1994:
(Misc. text goes here.)
On Monday morning (24 October), the Visitor spoke at the school attended by the Politician's children. The school was by far the most affluent looking one he had been to. Students wore uniforms here too, but these were "fitted" uniforms. He sort of liked the simple smock idea at some of the other schools better.
The Politician drove the Visitor there himself because he (the Politician) was going to be the interpreter. He had not planned on this, but one of the people he had coerced into interpreting had become indisposed. His wife had also come along.
The Visitor began his presentation at about 10:45. The school had wireless microphones and other fancy gadgets, but the children there did not have the attention span exhibited by students at other schools. The audience was the largest for any of his presentations, with nearly all of the school's nine hundred students in attendance.
The Politician's wife video taped some of the presentation with the Visitor's camera. After the presentation, one of the men who had been at the 19 October meeting with the Politician appeared and gave a short talk to the students that was unrelated to the eclipse, then he helped in interpreting student questions and the Visitor's answers. The Visitor attempted to answer one question in Spanish, but did not do too well at it. His answer was understandable, but the syntax was not quite right.
After the end of the questions, some bilingual people came up to talk to the Visitor. One said that the Politician's interpretation was not very good, but that the second interpreter did a decent job.
After the presentation was all over, the Visitor went outside to look around. The school had nicely cultivated gardens, ornate white buildings, and other amenities. It was much larger and fancier than the part of Colegio Buenas Nuevas he had seen, but it only had half as many students.
He had nothing against this ritzy school, which could easily be mistaken for a school in the U.S. But it seemed that the people at this school had ample opportunities, and that his presentation (predictably) made no difference to them. He was just one of many guest speakers. By contrast, it may have been more than a decade since the last foreign speaker had appeared at a school like Buenas Nuevas.
In the distance toward the south side of town, the Visitor could see the hill near where Buenas Nuevas was located. He recalled the kindness and dedication of the Heroine and the rest of the staff, the unison greeting he had received from the students, and their seeming eagerness to learn from just about anyone, including him. He felt a connection with the faculty and students at Buenas Nuevas, and he wanted to be there again.
After remembering the way that some wealthy local people had strongly resisted his speaking at Colegio Buenas Nuevas, and how these wealthy people even seemed hostile toward its staff and students, he wondered what would ultimately happen to the students there:
Would they be held back by racial and economic inequality, or would they grow up in a Bolivia that offered them equal opportunity and privilege? Will any of them have the opportunity to be engineers or scientists at NASA? He hoped they would get the chance to do so if they wanted. He knew that there were things more important than what one does for a living or how much money one has. Things like strength of character, which no one can take from them.
Like Father, Like Son. Like Politician, Like...
The Visitor and the Politician with his wife all left the fancy school, went to their house to pick up their Quechua maid, then went to the Heroine's house. Later on, the Politician's kids came there after school.
This gathering at the Heroine's house had been prearranged by the Politician so the Visitor could give his family some eclipse viewing goggles. The Visitor also provided extra goggles so their Quechua maid could have one. His children looked at the goggles and treated them with great care. The Politician and his family remained at the house all day.
The Visitor was delighted to find it was being advertised that the largest local newspaper, Los Tiempos, was going to issue eclipse viewing goggles with the paper that was to come out just before the eclipse. He had by chance been seated next to the Director of Los Tiempos on the legs of his flight to Bolivia that covered between Miami and Cochabamba.
He also noticed that well made television commercials were being aired to inform people not to look at the partially eclipsed sun without proper filtration. Also, local authorities appeared to be doing a good job of locating and shutting down operations that were selling defective or unsafe solar viewers, one of which was using only (unsafe) developed color film as the filter.
This was a rare day when the morning presentation was the only one for the entire day, which made part of the day available for eclipse preparations. With all of the past and upcoming presentations, there would not enough time to prepare for the eclipse properly, but at least he could finally get started unpacking and checking his equipment.
The Politician and his family presumed to stay at the Heroine's house for dinner. This was why they brought their maid. So much for any thought that they would have brought her there to be given the eclipse goggles or otherwise for her own benefit. The Politician's maid began to prepare dinner so it would be ready shortly after the Heroine got home.
In the evening, the Heroine came home. The Visitor gave her a couple of dozen eclipse viewing goggles for some of her students. He put them on the cabinet near the dining room table while he and the Heroine talked nearby. What happened next really surprised him:
As soon as the Politician's younger children perceived that the goggles were for the students at Colegio Buenas Nuevas, they went over and grabbed them off the cabinet and started carelessly playing with them, even beginning to play tug of war. They were soon made to stop by the Heroine and their parents, but it was an almost unbelievable thing to see. Even the children were showing disrespect for indigenous and poor people. And there was no hesitation at all before they did so.
One of these same kids had also shown disrespect for the Politician's Quechua maid, by pulling her hair on several occasions. The Visitor did not think it was right that the maid had to put up with that, but then, one of these kids had also pulled his hair on a number of occasions. He had told the kid to quit, but the maid may not have been at liberty to do so. It bothered him to see the maid have to put up with this, because she seemed to be a very disciplined, sensitive, and gentle person. A better person than many of the local affluent people he had met.
When dinner was served, the Politician dominated the table, acting like he owned the place. For the visitor, it was difficult to be at the table, just over a meter from the Heroine, and not be able to talk with her because of the Politician's braggadocious bloviating. There were other ways to communicate, but they chose only to share subtle expressions. They didn't engage in the universal language of playing footsies: She wasn't that kind of girl, and he was similarly conservative.
Throughout the entire meal, the Politician presumed that the Visitor would only want to hear what he said, so the Politician's voice continued to dominate the table. The Politican and those with him left as soon as dinner was over. Washing the dishes was left to the Heroine and the Visitor. After dinner, the Visitor couldn't remember a single word the Politician said.
At this time, neither the Heroine or the Visitor suspect that this will be the last day of peace for the Heroine, and the children, friends, and co-workers she cares about for a long while. Soon, unpleasant things will happen to her or someone she knows almost every day: There was more to this Politician than his recurring domineering presence in the house and his annoying bloviating. Something sinister was afoot that involved him and the political movement he was associated with.
(Misc. text goes here.)
(Text about politicians and elites colluding with mercenaries and others, goes here.)
(This is where an elitist connection to the Politician who imposed on the Heroine is shown.)
(Remainder of Chapter 7 is under construction.)
(Place Holder for remainder of Chapter 7.)
Syzygy, Part 8: "Opposition" (Breakout of atrocities against the poor, etc.)
(First part of Chapter 8 is under construction. Partial outline with a few details follows:)
Act 14: 25 October, 1994:
(Active opposition to the Heroine who works with the poor, to those similar to her, and to the poor themselves, begins. This is not done by the Government. It is done mostly by members of the fledgling political group and associated mercenaries, while the Government looks the other way.)
(Atrocities against indigenous people and the poor continue as some well-to-do citizens who support a new Regime feel at liberty to make incursions into areas populated predominantly by indigenous and poor people.)
(Some of the wealthy citizens do this themselves, while others manipulate others to join them or act independently. Still others hire mercenaries to terrorize people. At this time, the Government is not directly involved in these atrocities.)
(Some people in the attacked areas become separated from each other for long periods of time.)
(Elites who have certain politicians in their pocket, along with the wealthy who have been terrorizing indigenous and low income people, begin to form a network that can better coordinate attacks and ultimately challenge the Government.)
(At this point, they also begin to harass, and even kidnap, some of the people who work with indigenous people or the poor, or who are openly sympathetic to their plight.)
(Some of groups that are hired by the wealthy are led by people from the lowlands. These groups act with increasing boldness. A few groups start making incursions into major cities, often on motorcycles.)
(On 27 October, one of these motorcycle groups enters Cochabamba, just as shifts at some of the schools are about to change.)
The Heroine Stands in the Gap. 27 October, 1994:
Most of the students have arrived for the second shift classes at Colegio Buenas Nuevas, but a few who walk to school are still up to a block away. The Heroine (the school's afternoon shift Director) is at the main gate on the west side of the school, welcoming students and a few parents as they arrive.
The gate is made of black wrought iron. Each door of the double door gate is a little over 1.5 meters wide. At this time, the north gate door is closed, but the south door is open. The gate is accessed from an inclined side street, at a point a few tens of meters away from the main road.
Suddenly, there is the sound of several motorcycles. They are coming from the east. As they approach the school on the unmarked dirt road, they deviate from normal traffic patterns in an attempt to harass the children still outside of the school gates. The children run to evade the riders, and none are hit.
A group of three motorcyclists turn off of the main road and boldly ride uphill toward the school gate. The lead cycle rushes up and stops just over two meters outside the open gate, with the others right behind. The sudden appearance of the cyclists did not allow time to close the single open gate door, and it is obvious that attempting to close it now will result in their charging into the school.
The Heroine walks outside of the gate, to a point slightly beside and in front of the lead motorcycle. She attempts to speak to the lead cyclist, wearing a forced version of her charming smile in hopes of defusing the situation. But she struggles to speak loud enough to he heard over the motorcycle engines. Her normal speech is moderately soft spoken, and the maximum volume of her voice, even when she tries to shout, is not particularly loud.
It soon becomes obvious that the cyclists intend to ride into the school on the sidewalks and terrorize the children. Her expression quickly changes to one of concern and resolve as the cyclists begin to rev up their engines to make the charge.
However, just as the lead cycle is about to move, the Heroine suddenly rushes back to the school gate, positions herself right in the middle of the gateway, faces the cyclists, and spreads her arms out toward either side. At the same time, a few inside the school become aware of the situation and begin to run up to the gate. But they are not in time. The Heroine stands alone in the gap.
Her sudden actions startle the lead cyclist to such an extent that he slams on the brakes before his cycle moves much more than one meter, and his engine dies at the same time. One of the cyclists behind him then collides with his now stopped motorcycle, and his engine dies as well. The third cyclist shuts off his engine so he can try to make sense of what just happened.
The lead motorcycle is now stopped - less than one meter from the Heroine. It is then relatively silent - quiet enough that her voice can be clearly heard.
The Heroine, now with a determined look on her face, stares at the cyclists as though they were children who had deliberately broken a window, only with a newly found wrath in her gaze that she would never use in a look toward a child. She then boldly cries out the Spanish equivalent of:
"You shall NOT enter this school!"
"You will NEVER enter this school!"
("NO entrarás a esta escuela!")
("NUNCA entrarás a esta escuela!")
The lead cyclist, having lost confidence after his engine died, and in the face of such a determined school director, decides not to enter the school. Those inside the school take the opportunity to start pulling the Heroine inside and they begin to close the gate.
As this is happening, a cyclist from the lowlands tries to goad the lead cyclist into attempting another charge into the school, but without success. In frustration, he then hurls insults at the school director just as the gate is shut.
It quickly becomes clear that insulting the school director was the wrong thing to do, because people on the street start converging on them as soon as the insults begin. The Heroine is a well-liked school director. And you don't mess with a well-liked school director!
The cyclists then start their motorcycle engines and leave the school.
Then, the rest of the nearby staff and a few students rush up to the Heroine.
She had not planned on standing in the gap, but when there was a threat to the children, it was her automatic reaction. Not even a microsecond of hesitation. Perhaps a maternal instinct kicking in to save children that were not even her own in a biological sense.
She finds herself shaking with nervous relief as more staff members arrive on the scene to comfort her. When asked what happened, she said she had been quietly praying while the cyclists were there.
Students who saw her stand up to the cyclists are awestruck. They had always respected her, but now that respect is on a whole new level. Word quickly spread among all of the students, then later to the parents and beyond.
When later repeatedly asked about what happened, the Heroine always maintained that it was an answer to prayer. She never took any credit for the outcome.
She remembered her prayer for strength and endurance on the night when she first met the Visitor, during that awful meeting with the downright mean politicians and rich men who had shouted her down and coerced the Visitor. That was on 19 October, only 8 days earlier. She had also prayed similarly a few times since then. And God had already answered her prayers.
The only resulting down side was that the incident had put her on the radar of the elites and those who work for them.
The Visitor is informed of the day's events long before the Heroine gets home. He is concerned that people would even think of doing something like that at the school, but he also is not surprised that the Heroine did what she did.
The previous Sunday, they had both discussed the way the Holy Spirit is ready and willing to live the Christian life through any Christian that will let Him do so, and that He is then the source of His own activity through anyone who fully yields to Him at any given moment.
They knew this was not just something reserved for church services. It is how Christ lives the Christian life on earth every moment of every day. He does this through those who believe in Him as Savior and then "get out of His way" so He can work through them and others. This is beyond worship. This is faith in action. The indwellng Holy Spirit is infinitely stronger than what any human being can muster within themselves.
And the Visitor knew that the Heroine prayed about everything. So he also knew that the power behind the Heroine's response to the cyclists was from more than the Heroine herself. And that she would be the first to acknowledge this.
He briefly smiles and thinks to himself: "Yep, that's the Heroine!"
It is similar to being proud of her, except that it is a different and more noble feeling than pride, because the Lord's essential role in it is recognized.
[Author comments: The original 1997 version did not have the motorcycle incident at the school. The original concept had a different, and somewhat less threatening, scenario. However, after learning that some lowlands people actually did use motorcycles to stage attacks on people of all ages in rural areas near and during the time of the 10 Nov. 2019 coup in Bolivia, the story was changed to reflect that situation, with only the location being different from that sad 2019 reality.]
Act 15: Abducted! 30 October, 1994:
(Shortly after the Heroine and the (Eclipse Chaser) Visitor leave an 11 am church service that they attended on the morning of Sunday, 30 October, 1994, a small group of political operatives and mercenaries attempt to abduct them, but fail.)
(However, they do abduct others in the same area who have worked with or associated with local indigenous or low income people. This includes two of the Heroine's co-workers.)
(Those abducted are then taken to a secret location on the Altiplano, where political operatives and mercenaries are holding several other people they had recently abducted. The new captives are brought there on 1 November, 1994. Two days before the total solar eclipse.)
A Day of Decisions. 1 Nov. 1994: (Partial Outline with a few Details):
(Late in the morning, a woman known to the Heroine arrives at her house while the Visitor is there. She has information indicating that those abducted were probably taken to the Altiplano, possibly to Huari or to a small town near it. The woman also mentions that, in numerous rural areas, there has been unusual activity by people dressed in green and cammo clothes. Some of these people are armed, but they do not appear to be related to the Government.)
(In the afternoon, the Heroine and the (Eclipse Chaser) Visitor decide to go ahead with plans to take some of the students from her school to see the 3 Nov. 1994 total solar eclipse from Sevaruyo, on the Altiplano. (They were originally going to go to Pampa Aullagas, but heard that the road was in poor condition.) Most of the plans had already been made, but some changes are now needed.)
(They are going ahead with the trip partly because they were informed that people they know are being held on the Altiplano, possibly in Huari, Sevaruyo, or somewhere near these. The trip will provide a chance to check this out, possibly at a time when some may be distracted by the eclipse.)
(However, they keep a low profile in light of the increasing harassment of people who work with or otherwise associate with the poor. The Heroine and a local Missionary come up with a scaled back expedition plan that will utilize only two vehicles.)
(Changes in planning include bringing far fewer people, so everyone can fit in a single vehicle if the other breaks down. This is also to allow space for the abducted people they know - if they are found and rescued. This also makes it possible for one vehicle (with the students) to be in hiding while a few in the other are out looking for people. It's a long shot, but still worth accounting for just in case. Objectives of the trip are now very different than those from only a week before.)
(The visitor will still bring most of his eclipse equipment, but not just for the purpose of using it. Instead, different parts of it will be set up in two locations, so one location can be a decoy. The equipment is insignificant compared to the people who are at risk, and finding them is the priority. The Politician (the one who is a distant relative of the Heroine) has seen the tripod with the Visitor's panoramic platform. Its unique appearance may make it identifiable to any operatives that Politician may have been in touch with. No one in the group knew if the Politician had anything to do with what was going on, but this was at least suspected by the Visitor.
(A few local people of means are also in the expedition, partly because they want to see the eclipse, but also to provide cover for the low income students. Moderately expensive clothes are borrowed (via contacts the Missionary knows) to mask the economic status of lower income students that the Heroine is bringing with her. There are fewer students than originally planned, because of the new arrangements and the potential risk.)
(The group will leave Cochabamba for the trip to the Altiplano on the morning of 2 November, 1994.)
(Remainder of Chapter 8 is under construction.)
Syzygy, Part 9: "Escape!" (Partial Chapter and Outline)
(First part of Chapter 9 is under construction. Partial outline with a few details follow:)
(Much of the following was written by 22 Feb. 1997. However, because it was not a complete chapter, it was not published until 2023.)
(People escape mercenaries and political operatives in imaginative ways.)
(The 3 Nov. 1994 total solar eclipse is also in this chapter.)
(Some of this chapter was written in 1997 and 1998, and may later be added to this site.)
(Text about the Heroine, Visitor, and others preparing to go to the eclipse goes here.)
Act 16: A Memorable Trip to Oruro. 2 Nov. 1994:
(Text about leaving Cochabamba for Sevaruyo goes here.)
While on the road between Cochabamba and Oruro, the bus is met by a jeep that is traveling in the opposite direction. It is occupied by armed men. The jeep quickly stops, turns around, and begins overtaking the bus. It soon passes a vehicle that is traveling some distance behind the bus and continues its pursuit.
As the jeep gets closer, people on the bus can see that the armed men have their weapons ready. But only a few hundred meters before the bus reaches a large bridge that spans a deep gorge, the Jeep moves up to pass it, with all occupants, including the driver, pointing their guns at the bus.
At the same time, a truck is just exiting the bridge in the oncoming lane. The driver of the jeep does not see it in time, so he has to take drastic evasive action. This is not entirely successful, and the jeep is sideswiped by the truck. The jeep then loses control and begins to swerve off the road. It is no longer heading for the bridge. The jeep is able to slow, but not enough. The occupants jump out of the jeep just before it misses the right side of the entrance to the bridge and sails down into the deep gorge below.
After all of this, the bus finishes crossing the bridge. The convoy continues long enough to put a few kilometers of distance between them and the jeep's former occupants, then stops.
Most people exit the vehicles, then the Heroine leads everyone in prayer. In this part of Bolivia, it is unusual for a woman to lead a mixed group in prayer, but none of the men stepped up to do it. She was also in her element while she was with some of the students from her school.
After this, some in the group discuss whether or not to continue the journey to the eclipse site, now that they have apparently been discovered. It is decided to continue at least to Oruro, partly because it may be easier for the vehicles to get "lost" in the city. It is unlikely that those in the jeep were associated with the Government, so their actions probably will not influence upcoming checkpoints.
It is later decided to proceed to the total eclipse path, but not to the specific site that had been discussed with others in Cochabamba. This will make it possible to follow up on leads indicating that those abducted on 30 October may have been taken to Huari, or to a town relatively close to it.
(Text about the rest of the trip to Oruro goes here.)
(Background about the recent establishment of a safe house in Oruro goes here.)
(Text about stopping at a safe house in Oruro goes here.)
(Text about discussing possible locations of recently abducted people goes here.)
The Wild, Wild, Altiplano
(Text about the leg of the journey from Oruro to Sevaruyo goes here.)
(Text about the evening before the eclipse (2 Nov.) goes here.)
Act 17: 3 November, 1994. The Day of the Eclipse.
(Text about sizing up safety before searching for people, setting up decoys, etc., goes here.)
(Text about early morning of 3 Nov., searching for missing people, goes here.)
(Text about Heroine perceiving that some encountered people informed on them, goes here.)
On the morning of 3 November, one of the leaders of political operatives on the Altiplano has been looking into the whereabouts of various people who oppose their group's ideology. Their ideology is the same as that of those who imposed themselves on the Visitor, and they are part of the same political group as the Politician in Cochabamba. The political group is actually larger than anyone could have imagined. It is not a mere fledgling group as some had thought.
Upon previously questioning a few people just outside of Sevaruyo (one of whom had heard one of the Visitor's many recent (coerced) eclipse talks in Cochabamba), the local leader of the group discovered that some vehicles that could be associated with the Heroine and the Visitor had been through the area the night before. Also, some back in Cochabamba, including the Politician, had related that the Visitor had intended to observe the eclipse from Pampa Aullagas.
The Heroine and the Visitor are by no means the only people he is looking for on the Altiplano, but he has leads about where they may be.
The Partial Phase of the Solar Eclipse Begins
The moon takes its first apparent bite out of the sun at 7:19 in the morning.
There is little interest in the eclipse among the political operative or his associates, but a few look at it through solar filters every now and then. The Cochabamba newspaper Los Tiempos had previously published a thorough article about the eclipse that was written by German Morales of the organization Astronomia Sigma Octante, and one of the men had a copy of it with him. The paper says that the total phase of the solar eclipse will occur at 8:22 in Sevaruyo.
Some of the Altiplano operative's underlings have advised him to wait until after the total phase of the eclipse before making their move, saying that it will get dark during the total phase.
A little after a quarter to eight in the morning. The eclipse is approaching 50 perent, and totality is only about 35 minutes away. The operative and his associates are at the intersection of 30 and 603, and it will take them almost half an hour to reach the Visitor's expected location. (Actually longer, due to the effect that recent rains have had on the road.) Most of the armed men are being sent to Pampa Aullagas, but two jeeps are being sent toward Sevaruyo, just in case the condition of the road to Pampa Aullagas made the eclipse party change their mind.
To the lead operative, it does not appear to be uncomfortably dark when the eclipse is at 50 percent, and he does not expect that it will get much darker. He has seen eclipses before, and it didn't get all that dark during those.
He is reminded that this is a total eclipse, but he doesn't know what difference that would make, so he acts accordingly. He is also of the opinion that people will leave the eclipse site as soon as the maximum part of the eclipse is over. So, he orders his men to immediately set out toward Pampa Aullagas and Sevaruyo.
As it turns out, the Heroine and the Visitor did not go to either Pampa Aullagas or Sevaruyo. Instead, they selected a site that is just under two kilometers west of Sevaruyo. This was deliberate, because the Visitor recalled that he had told some in Cochabamba that Pampa Aullagas was where he expected to observe the eclipse. Under current circumstances, the place where he was expected to be would be the last place he would want to go.
Saved By a Total Eclipse:
It is now 8:15. At the eclipse site, the Visitor has only set up his telescope and a single camera on a separate tripod. He informs the Heroine and others that there are only seven minutes left until totality.
He has set up less than half of his equipment, mostly because the searches for the abducted people the Heroine knows has not been fruitful thus far. This is on his mind more than the eclipse. They had searched longer than anticipated, so there had not been time to set up any of his equipment as a decoy at another location.
Suddenly, one person in the group sees lights (and dust rising) in the vicinity of Sevaruyo. Before long, the group hears distant but sparse gunfire. The Visitor trains his telescope on the source of the rising dust, and sees two jeeps that are both occupied by armed people in greenish or cammo garb.
He recommends to the Heroine and to Gerardo that everyone get into the vehicles so the group can prepare to make a run for it when the eclipse becomes total. But he adds that they should not use vehicle lights or do anything to raise excessive dust that could call attention to their location before and during totality. The relative darkness during the total phase of the eclipse should provide a good opportunity to escape if the vehicle lights are not used.
People in the group who had been on nearby hills scramble to grab their belongings as they prepare to get into the bus and the group's other vehicle.
Meanwhile, through his telescope, the Visitor observes that the jeeps are about to start coming up the same dirt road that their group had used to get to the site. The group's vehicles had been backed up to only about 30 meters away from the road. And with the distant jeeps approachng, it is time for a new plan.
The group decides to move both vehicles farther from the road at a time when local topography will temporarily obscure their line of sight to the distant but approaching jeeps. In the dimming light of the eclipse, this may add enough distance to keep the group from being discovered. Timing will be everything.
The Missionary and the Visitor recommend that, if the jeeps do pass them by, the group's vehicles should start to head back toward Sevaruyo no more than one minute after the jeeps make their closest approach. The vehicle engines are started in anticipation of the move.
Meanwhile the operatives in the jeeps are complaining among themselves about being sent out before the eclipse was total. The increasing darkness has required that they turn on their headlights when traveling at speed, and this will make them obvious. They also browbeat one of their own for having fired his weapon for no apparent reason, which had also called attention to them. Further, the eclipse has dimmed the sunlight so much that they can't tell if any tire tracks on the road are recent.
At the eclipse site, a few people start getting on the bus by about four minutes before totality. Because the bus will not be moving very far, most stay outside the bus and will just walk over to the new location. This will also reduce the load on the bus tires while the bus is off the road. The Visitor leans the tripods that support his equipment over and lays them on the ground with the equipment still attached. This way, the tripod silhouettes will not be visible to those in the passing jeeps.
Meanwhile, the lunar umbra is causing a growing area of the sky to darken toward the northwest.
By a little over two minutes before totality, the jeeps have at last become invisible due to local topography, but everyone knows that they are on the move. It is time to move the vehicles.
Since there is no longer line of sight to the jeeps, vehicles back away from the road. For now, the reverse lights do not pose a risk of the group being discovered. Backing the vehicles up will make it possible for them to drive forward when later getting back to the road.
The vehicles start their slow move toward a point a little over one hundred meters father from the road. Some of those who are walking outside act as spotters for the bus.
By 90 seconds before totality, yellow color becomes visible along the horizon toward the north and south. The yellow color then slowly intensifies.
As the vehicles are still moving, the sky overhead slowly darkens to a deep twilight blue and the ambient light level begins to fall so quickly that it is obvious in real time.
Less than 30 seconds after the vehicles are stopped, the eclipse becomes total. The timing had been perfect. This rare alignment, or syzygy, of the sun, moon, and earth had solved the group's biggest problem at exactly the right moment. The Heroine bows and quietly says a prayer of thanksgiving.
A few seconds later, the glow of headlights is seen as the two Jeeps emerge from behind a small ridge. The jeeps drive right past the former position of the bus and disappear over a small rise. The eclipse is behind the jeeps, so those riding in them don't notice it. All they know is that it's dark, though not as dark as night.
The Heroine and the visitor had stayed outside the bus with most of the others, so they had a good view of totality for several seconds. But now, it is back to business.
It had been decided that it would be best to go back to Sevaruyo and hide before the Jeeps come back. The bus moves back toward the road, with several people walking to lighten the load on the bus while it is not on the road. The Visitor carries one armful of the minimal equipment he had set up at this site onto the bus with him, but leaves the rest behind to save time.
As the both vehicles reach the road and the people who were walking finish getting in them, only half of three minute duration of totality is remaining. The lower part of the north through western sky has already begun to brighten a little.
The bus slowly heads toward Sevaruyo without its running lights. The road is visible, but the contrast is low. The ambient light is about like it would be half an hour after sunset, and in most directions, the horizon is ablaze with the colors of a sunset.
Ahead of the bus, the totally eclipsed sun is visible, with Venus only a few degrees to its upper right. Below the eclipse, the edge of the lunar umbra still appears to be descending slowly toward the horizon. (It is actually becoming more distant and is not moving downward, but this is not obvious to most observers.)
Less than half a minute later, the entre western half of the sky brightens considerably, and totality ends several seconds after that.
The bus is only about half way to Sevaruyo, but it arrives there about two minutes later. The vehicles move slowly into town, to reduce how much dust is raised.
The Hideout:
After arriving in Sevaruyo, the bus is backed into something that looks like an abandoned stable, except it has mud or masonry walls that are about as tall as the bus. The front of the bus is then concealed. The other vehicle is driven into a different stable-like structure.
At the Heroine's suggestion, a few people get out of the bus and wipe the vehicle tracks from the ground outside of the structures. All of this is completed by about nine minutes after totality, or six minutes after the group's vehicles arrived in town.
Now, the waiting game begins. Some wait on the bus, while others consider options.
About twenty minutes after totality, the jeeps drive back through Sevaruyo. They go right past the stables without even slowing down, then turn onto the road to Oruro.
Someone observing through a crack in the concealment by the gate said they saw a person in the jeep holding one the Visitor's tripods. If this is true, it could explain the long delay before the jeeps returned.
The group's eclipse site had been on a loop road that ran about three kilometers west of Sevaruyo before looping back. If the jeeps had only made one circuit of the loop road, they could have arrived back in town less than four minutes behind the group, which would have been a close call at best.
The group assumes that the jeeps must have made two circuits of the road, and the second circuit, along with the jeep occupants finding the tripods, may have distracted the jeep occupants long enough for the group to hide their vehicles.
Several minutes later, some jeeps are heard again. These only make a single pass through town, then they go onto one of the side roads and leave.
The Visitor suggests waiting at the stable for up to an hour or two, until some of the tourist eclipse expeditions pass near the town, then mix in with them on the road back to Oruro. This will provide a lot of witnesses, which should make everyone safer.
It is not unusual for eclipse tours to remain at an eclipse site until well over an hour and a half after totality, because some eclipse chasers like to stay until fourth contact (the end of the partial phase), and others require a lot of time to take down and pack their equipment.
The group decides ahead of time that, when they do leave, one vehicle should go well ahead of the other, but remain in sight. The lead vehicle is to change lanes (to the extent that there are any lanes) and then turn around as a signal to warn the other if road blocks are spotted ahead. Some anticipate that these could be set up closer to Oruro. If there are any, they will not be government road blocks.
In the event there are roadblocks, it may be possible to backtrack to some of the smaller towns they had been through, or to even use different roads on the Altiplano. But this would be a last resort because the roving jeeps with armed men could be anywhere. One thing that now had to be avoided was travel at night, since the roads could easily be blocked and there would be few witnesses for protection. The group had to reach a town or city of significant size before sunset.
About a hour later, what appears to be a tour vehicle is seen in the extreme distance. It appears to be a bus through the Visitor's telescope. The vehicle is approaching Sevaruyo, presumably to continue on the main dirt road to Huari, then on to Oruro. As it gets closer, it is possible to confirm that it is a tour bus through the telescope. Everyone quickly gets into their respective vehicles, then both vehicles move toward the intersection with the road to Oruro and stop in as inconspicuous and shielded a place as possible.
After only a minute or two, the sound of a small airplane is heard. The performance of the plane is marginal at the high altitude of the Altiplano. It soon becomes obvious that the airplane is in a search pattern. In the distance, dust is visible behind the tour bus. The airplane flies toward the bus, descends to within about a hundred meters of the ground, flies over the tour bus, then gains altitude, turns to fly parallel with the road, and flies directly away from the group's location.
But by the time the slowly moving tour bus is is just under two kilometers away, the aircraft has circled back and is heading in the group's direction. The aircraft ignores the tour bus as it passes it a second time, then it descends to about 100 meters as it approaches the group's position and flies over. The plane then begins to circle around for another approach. As it draws near for a second pass, one occupant opens a window or door and produces a pistol, but then the plane turns and flies away before any shots are fired. The approaching tour bus is getting close by now, so some figure that those in the plane did not want to do anything rash in front of dozens of witnesses.
[Author Comment: In the original 2/1997 version of this segment, the tour bus has not yet been seen when the plane comes back for the second pass, and one of the plane's occupants shoots at the bus, but does not hit anyone. As the plane is coming in for a third pass, Gerardo shoots at it with a high power rifle, then it stalls and crashes a few seconds later. Some in the group then go and gather the (deceased) operatives' weapons from the crash site. He had a rifle with him because, prior to the when people had been abducted on 30 October, he had put a high power rifle (an M16) into the smaller vehicle, in anticipation of he and his friends using it for target practice on the Altiplano after the eclipse. Having to shoot down a small plane in self-defense was not what he had in mind. He did not remember that he had the rifle with him until only a few minutes before he used it.]
Act 18: Saved By a Tour Bus:
The tour bus drives by, with its occupants apparently oblivious to the danger presented by those on the plane. This is the group's chance to get away, so they pull their vehicles out onto the road right behind the tour bus.
The smaller vehicle in the group then overtakes the tour bus, and is able to get it to pull over. All of the vehicles then stop on or beside the road. Some people in both groups then exit their vehicles, and the Heroine's group is able to discuss their predicament with those on the tour bus. Several people on the tour bus know the Visitor, either directly or though familiarity with his eclipse presentations at conferences in the U.S.
While the Visitor would normally discuss eclipses with other eclipse chasers, the focus of his conversation is on those who had been abducted in Cochabamba on 30 October. He also emphasizes introducing them to the Heroine and informing them of what had happened to her in recent days. Several people from the tour bus speak Spanish, so they begin to speak directly with the Heroine. They are impressed with her selflessness and care for others.
While they were talking, a second tour bus approaches. However, the tour operator in the second bus did not want to get involved, so they leave after only a brief stop. Members of the first tour group had been given the opportunity to leave the area with the second tour bus, but all of them wanted to stay. A few wanted to see if what was in store might be a bigger thrill than the eclipse had been, but most stayed because they genuinely wanted to help.
A few people on the first tour bus mention that they had seen several people in one of the small towns as their bus had gone by early that morning. They noticed the people because some were dressed as though they were going to a church in the city, even though they were on the Altiplano on a cold Thursday morning. A few other people near those who were dressed up were seen wearing in military and cammo garb, and the locals seemed to be avoiding all of them.
With this new information, the Heroine speaks directly to those on the tour who speak Spanish and had seen the people, describing what some of the people she knows look like. The descriptions fit some of the people that the group had seen.
The Plan:
Based mostly on discussions between the Heroine and the tour operator, it is decided that a rescue attempt will be made with the vehicles available to both parties. Only volunteers from either group will be actively involved.
After an informal briefing and some rushed preparation, the first proposed step is for the buses from both the tour group and the Heroine's group, as well as the smaller vehicle, to stop slightly outside the nearest part (the south part) of the small town. As the vehicles approach the town, the smaller vehicle will go well ahead of the rest and scout for a good place to stop.
Then, as many people as possible from both buses will get on the tour bus, and it will drive through town on the main road by itself. The tour bus is not the one the operatives would be looking for, and this gets everyone safely to the north side of town, which is the side closest to Oruro. This will also provide a way to check and see if the abducted people are still in an accessible part of town. The Heroine will be on this bus because she can most easily identify some of the abducted people.
If none of the abducted people are seen, a "Plan B" will be necessary. The tour bus will feign a rest stop, a few may search on foot, and the bus or the smaller vehicle may return to the rest of the group so the occupants can report what is known.
After going through town, most on the tour bus will disembark in (or just beyond) the north side of town. The best location will depend on if the passengers need cover, based on what is learned as the bus passes through town.
Then, the tour bus (with only the Heroine and a few others on board) will turn around and drive back into town at a predetermined time. A TV reporter had happened to be on the tour bus, and he will be on board the bus with his camera when it goes back into town.
Meanwhile, the smaller vehicle from the Heroine's group will have left the south side of town only a few seconds behind the Tour bus. It will take back roads through town and meet up with the tour bus on the north side of town before the bus turns around. They will go slow, to keep from raising too much dust.
Those in the smaller vehicle will then get a report from those on the tour bus on the whereabouts of the abducted people, then take back roads through town toward the south, and provide the information to those on the other bus.
The bus the Heroine's group had used will then drive into town from the south at a predetermined time, and both busses should arrive where the abducted people were last seen at about the same time. (However, the bus from the Heroine's group may remain some distance back and temporarily out of sight if it appears that operatives in the town can identify it.) The simultaneous arrival of two nearly empty busses should make it possible to quickly board any people that can be rescued.
All of the people who will be going through town on the tour bus get on board, and a few final preparations are made before the plan is set in motion.
The tour operator tells the Heroine that he is impressed by her forethought and planning abilities. (These sentences in parenthesis added in 11/2023: One of the staff members from her school quickly chimes in and says that the Heroine used to organize field trips and camps for her students and other children. Some of the field trips were even to other countries.) The Heroine politely downplays what the staff member said, then says that she had prayed about what to do. She does not take any of the credit for herself.
She remembered how the Lord had enabled her to confront the motorcyclists at the school only a week before, and how the total phase of the solar eclipse had begun at exactly the right time to save them from armed men in jeeps only hours ago. Things had worked out well when she put her trust in Him.
Words from the children's song "Jesus Loves Me" came to her mind: "...Little ones to Him belong; They are weak, but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me..." Compared to Him, she recognizes that she is also a little one who belongs to Him. And that He is her strength.
The Rescue:
(Text about the rescue of abducted people goes here. There were very few guards. Outline is:)
(Text about the tour bus not seeing any trace of the abductees goes here.)
(Text about the tour bus then stopping in town so people can look around goes here.)
(Text about Heroine again perceiving some encountered people informed on them, goes here.)
(Text about the smaller vehicle spotting the abductees on a back road goes here.)
(Text about getting this information to people on the tour bus goes here.)
(Text about getting this information to people on the other bus goes here.)
(Text about holding back the south bus in case the group was informed on goes here.)
(Text about the actual rescue and getaway goes here.)
(This includes the revised plan for the bus on the south side of town.)
(More text about what else happens on the Altiplano after the eclipse goes here.)
(Text about returning as far as Oruro goes here.)
(Text about the group checking to be sure they are not being followed goes here.)
Back to the Safe House:
(Text about arriving back at the safe house in Oruro goes here.)
(Text about secretly treating certain rescued people who had hypothermia goes here.)
(Dialogue about size of political movement the Politician is associated with goes here.)
(Text about establishing code and signs for when Politician is at Heroine's house goes here.)
Back to Cochabamba. 4 November, 1994.
(Text about further discussions of concern about the Politician's associations goes here.)
(Text about returning to Cochabamba goes here.)
A Changed Cochabamba. 5 November, 1994.
(Text about sensing tension in the air within parts of Cochabamba goes here.)
(Text about temporarily hiding the rescued people in Cochabamba goes here.)
(Misc. text goes here.)
Act 19: The Campo. Sunday, 6 Nov. 1994:
Much of the tension that the Heroine's group had sensed in Cochabamba the day before seemed to have subsided by the morning of Sunday, 6 November. No one knew what the cause of the tension was.
Given the reduction in local tension, the Visitor decides to go ahead with his originally scheduled visit to churches in the Campo. However, he does not inform anyone in Cochabamba except the Heroine and those with whom he is going to the Campo.
Gerardo, who had interpreted some of the Visitor's previous presentations, had offered to bring the Visitor to these locations. The Politician had offered to accommodate this as well, but this was before the Visitor saw the disdain the Politician seemed to have indigenous or low income people. The Visitor wondered if there might have been some sort of hidden agenda with the Politician, so he went with Gerardo instead.
(Text about visits to rural churches in Tarata and Huasarancho goes here. It is based on the actual visits to these churches, as described in the Author's 1994 Eclipse Chaser's Jounral. In addition, a fictional visit to a church in Cliza is described. Visiting the Cliza church was one of the things that the Author wanted to do in real life, but it was not possible.)
(The church visits prove to be pleasant, without any significant adverse events. However, the Visitor's group does get stranded in Tarata for several hours, after members of a musical group to whom they gave a lift, go to a birthday party in town and accidentally take the pickup truck keys with them! On the way back to Cochabamba, the musical group plays live music as they are riding in the bed of the pickup truck, just like really happened on the Author's trip. No need for a radio!)
(Text about other events of 6 Nov. 1994 goes here.)
The Heroine's Birthday Party. 7 Nov. 1994:
On this day, the Visitor had been scheduled to make three presentations. When the Visitor arrived at the Heroines's house after the second one, the Politician was there (as had become all too usual), and informed him that the evening presentation had been canceled.
The Politician said that there would be a party at the Heroine's house that evening, and that he wanted the Visitor to set up his telescope again so the guests could see Saturn through it. The Visitor did not know what the purpose of the party was, but decided to make the best of it and accommodate the Politician without resistance.
The gathering proved to be a "star party" in the literal sense, with food, live music, the works, all in conjunction with a telescope. In this context, the Visitor could see the benefits of the house owned by the Heroine and her extended family. It has a yard that is completely enclosed by a high wall. This offered good privacy and a major reduction in noise from the outside. He wondered why this type of thing was seldom implemented in U.S. housing developments.
The party turned out to be an enjoyable time. To make it more enjoyable was the fact that part of the festivities were a birthday party for the Heroine. The party ended a little after eleven at night.
It surprised the Visitor that the Politician would do anything to benefit the Heroine, since the Politician seemed to loathe her work. He had known the Heroine's birthday was coming up, but he did not expect that the Politician would even acknowledge it.
(Text about events of 8 Nov. 1994 goes here.)
(The Politician is conspicuously absent most of the time on 8-10 Nov.)
(Text about events of 9 Nov. 1994 goes here.)
Act 20: The Staff and School Children of Colegio Buenas Nuevas Say Goodbye:
When the Visitor got up at 9:30 on the morning of Thursday, Nov. 10, 1994, he did not have much of his stuff properly packed. His flight home left the next day, so he had plenty of work to do if he was going to pack all of his equipment, newly purchased Ponchos, and extra stuff that the Heroine and the Politician's wife wanted to send to their families in the U.S.
A little after he got up, a member of the Heroine's extended family informed him that the Heroine had called from Colegio Buenas Nuevas, and she was asking if he could go to Colegio Buenas Nuevas so the children in at least the afternoon classes could say "good bye" to him.
The Visitor was pressed for time, but there was no way that he would turn down the Heroine's request that he go to Buenas Nuevas. Seeing to the welfare of children at Buenas Nuevas was obviously more than just a job to the Heroine, and he wanted to contribute to her effort there in any capacity he could.
Also, they had both been thrust into defending his appearances at Buenas Nuevas only hours after he first arrived in Bolivia, and he wanted to do anything he could for the children in lower income parts of town. It was obvious that much was arrayed against the poor, and he wished he could stay in Bolivia long term if it would make a difference for them. But the reality of having to get back to making a living prevented that.
The Heroine said the best time would be about 3:30. He was glad he went, because it was a real treat.
Conditions in Cochabamba had been relatively calm since 6 November, so it appeared that there would be no risk to either him or people at the scool if he went there.
The Politician had been conspicously absent since the Heroine's birthday party of a few days earlier, and as a result, there had recently been more of an atmosphere of peace at the house. Gone was the tense, forced laughter that her extended family had felt obligated to do whenever the Politician told a joke. People were free to be themselves, at least for now.
The Heroine's younger sister Gloria (a different Gloria than the Politician's wife) was going to come to the school as well, to handle the logistics of the taxi ride for the Visitor, and to interpret if needed. The Heroine had been working at the school for almost 18 years, but this would be Gloria's first time visiting there.
Gloria and the Visitor got in a Taxi and went to Buenas Nuevas. As they entered the area of the town where the school was located, the Visitor thought he could sense tension in the air, as though this was some sort of a calm before a storm that could envelop this area, but not the affluent parts of town. He did not know what to make of it.
When they arrived at Buenas Nuevas, the Heroine was out in front of the northwest corner of the school to greet them. She then escorted them into the school. After the motorcycle incident of a couple of weeks earlier, the school gates were now usually kept closed, then only opened when people need to pass through. However, during busy times, they occasionally leave the gate open and place a watchman on the main road who can signal a gatekeeper about any potential threat.
As they reached the west school entrance, the south door of the two gate doors was opened. A Quechua woman had arrived at the gate at about the same time they did, and the Heroine invited her to go in front of her. This would seem like common courtesy, but the Heroine was the only person the Visitor ever saw do this during his entire three plus weeks in Bolivia. The rest of the staff would no doubt do this too, but he just was not there to see it.
When he entered the school grounds, the Visitor was literally "swarmed" by appreciative children, and a mass of children hung on to him as he made his way through the school and toward the library. He took video initially, while his free hand was being held by the children, with a different child holding each finger. He had not been around children much in years, and this was a joyful and touching experience.
Eventually, he had to put his camera away in order to keep his balance. After he did so, more children grabbed on to his other hand. As the Visitor approached the library entrance, the Heroine told the children to let him go so he could go inside, and they instantly did so in response. He pointed his video camera at the students and asked them to say hi or bye (their preference) into his camera, which they enthusiastically did. Almost all of them said "Chao". Once in the library, the Heroine introduced him to some of the staff.
Whenever the Heroine and the Visitor entered an open area, the Visitor was at times surrounded by a sea of enthusiastic children out to a radius of up to two or more meters! It was neat. All the while, the Visitor felt that the Heroine was the one who the children should be showing appreciation for. They probably did not know how strongly she advocated for them and the school. They probably did not know about the long argument with wealthy men who had tried to prevent him from visiting their school.
He was given a tour of the school, meeting various staff members in the process. The tour included a lot of the school, including the afore mentioned library, the auditorium (where he had made eclipse presentations weeks earlier), a few playgrounds, and the equivalent of a kindergarten crafts area. He was surprised and impressed to see the sophistication of the kindergarten art projects, which were much more ornate than what he recalled doing at that age.
While he was being shown the art projects, some children entered the room. One who had a missing front tooth smiled really wide and waved at his video camera.
After they left crafts room and went outside, a little girl carrying a bouquet of flowers took the Visitor's hand and held it as they walked to the same auditorium where he had made eclipse presentations a few weeks earlier. He'd never had a child do something like that out of the blue before. It was neat, like so many other things about the students and staff at the school.
By the time he was led to the auditorium for a second time later in the day, the school had set up a VCR and television so the students could see the Visitor's video tape of the eclipse. He had anticipated that this might happen, so he had brought a copy of the tape with him. While showing the tape, he narrated various events, and Gloria interpreted as needed. Gloria had been to the total eclipse with the group, and she seemed to know quite a bit about the eclipse and the video, so she sometimes narrated in Spanish without the need for the Visitor's input. Some additional children were outdoors, and looking in through the window to see the video.
When the presentation was over, a large group of students converged on the Visitor, so he sat down on the front of the stage where he could greet them and take video of them, partly to show to the Heroine's family in the USA.
When he left the auditorium, many of the students followed him, and he occasionally continued shooting video. Some of the girls would giggle whenever the camera was pointed in their direction. After a while, the Visitor noticed that one of the boys was carrying a nicely painted wood cutout of a animal cartoon character that may have been one of his school projects. It was sort of amusing to see his antics with it.
The Visitor was invited to have a late lunch and "going away party" in a classroom with about 70 of the students. The Heroine started the event with a prayer. The students had what looked like a chocolate drink for part of their meal. He was told that it had a full complement of vitamins.
To his pleasant surprise, the children had made him a nice wooden apple, a wood picture frame, and a clock shelf. He was also given three flowers, and one child even gave him a piece of candy (a chocolate relleno). He was also presented with a Psalm 128 poster which had been signed on the back by some of the students and one staff member, though the Heroine had not signed it.
A little before leaving the school, the Visitor was able to interview a few members of the faculty about the eclipse. It was a happy time, even though he had to occasionally communicate via an interpreter. One staff member said she was so overcome with emotion during the total phase of the eclipse that she was glad when it had ended.
At this, the thought crossed the Visitor's mind that this was part of why he had wanted to do a briefing for the group before the eclipse - so the group would know what to expect during totality.
But of course, no one could have expected what happened on 3 November. Their eclipse experience had been like none other, to such an extent that even the eclipse itself was insignficant in comparison to the drama that had unfolded on the Altiplano that week.
As their time drew to a close, the Heroine and one of the staff members thanked the Visitor for selecting the eclipse site for them, for many other things, and for visiting the school. They said goodbye together while several students were still nearby. It had been his privilege to speak there, and to be shown the kindness of their goodbye luncheon. It was a time he would treasure for the rest of his life.
As they were about to part, the Heroine seemed sad for a few seconds, and he was sad to see her sad. He had never seen her cry, but he could tell she was on the verge by the way her upper lip crossed above her teeth and how the corners of her mouth began to pull back. She began to bow her head and clench her eyes, and her upper teeth remained visible even with her head bowed. But then she sighed in a way that her voice barely came through, raised her head and began talking again. She was smiling again before she finished the next sentence. The most beautiful face was also the most expressive.
This had only taken a few seconds, but the Visitor could tell that some of the students behind the Heroine could "feel" her, because their mouths became slightly agape, and some of them almost looked sad for a few seconds. The Visitor's eyes had moistened a bit as well. They bid each other farewell, and Gloria and the Visitor began to walk toward the school gate. He already missed the Heroine before they even got to the gate.
As Gloria and the Visitor left the school, several children hung around with them until near dark. There was no school bus pick up in the usual sense. There were some buses, but only a few of them showed up at any given time. Many of the children are from relatively poor families. Some have to walk fairly long distances to a bus stop, while others may have to walk to school.
Of Zamponas and Police Dogs:
At about sunset, Gloria and the Visitor tried to to locate a manufacturer of zamponas, a type of musical instrument used in Bolivian folk music. He had wanted to buy a set of three zamponas, but impositions by the Politician had prevented it.
He could have looked for zamponas during the sparse time he could be with the Heroine, but zamponas were very low priority compared to this. He had never bought up the subject of zamponas with the Heroine because their conversations had been about more meaningful matters.
He had given up on being able to get any zamponas, but then was told that a zampona maker was located very near Buenas Nuevas, and right across the street from where the city kept its police dogs. However, through a mix up in interpretation, someone thought that he had actually wanted to see the police dogs themselves, which was not his intention. And soon, his interpreter had taken him right to them.
The sound of the dogs had the highly undesirable effect of discouraging the children from Buenas Nuevas who were still with Gloria and the Visitor, so they left him there. He could sense disappointment in their voices as they said goodbye, and wished that he could have bid them farewell in a more normal way. (He thought to himself: "Now I am really in the dog house!") But it was probably just as well that the students got home before dark.
He reluctantly saw the dogs, and took video of all 18 of them. Many were German Shepherds, and some were quite large. The police dogs were very obedient. One whistle from the trainer and all of the barking instantly stopped.
At the end of the Heroine's shift at Buenas Nuevas, she came to his rescue. She led them out of the police dog facility and to the south side of a dirt roundabout that was a block or so west of Buenas Nuevas. The Visitor thought that this must be where they would catch a taxi back to the Heroine's house. But the Heroine had a plan in mind that he did not yet know about.
The Heroine said a quick goodbye to them, then walked to the west end of the roundabout. She then began to walk northward along the west end of the roundabout, toward a street that led to the northwest. As she continued walking north at west the end of the roundabout, the Visitor wondered if he would see her again before his flight left the next day. He thought that perhaps she was going to catch a bus back home.
Looking west-northwest from where he stood, the ground sloped away behind the Heroine, with a vast part of Cochabamba in the background, and with mountains behind that. Even though she was still in sight, he already missed her. She was only about 20 meters away, yet she looked small against the vast background. He pulled himself away from his emotions and took wide angle picture of the scene. He then looked in her direction again until she became obscured by a local building. With her disappearance came a sinking feeling.
He wanted to see her one more time, but there was no nearby vantage point that would work. A scene from the movie Doctor Zhivago came to mind, where the Doctor desperately ran upstairs in the house at Varykino and broke an iced over window so he could see Laura one last time as she was taken away. He felt like that.
For some reason, he wanted to know how much area on his retina the image of the Heroine had occupied as she began to walk toward the north. So, in nerdy fashion, he set out to calculate this in his head. The Heroine was about 20 meters away at that point, and she was just under 1.6 meters tall, so the ratio of her height to her distance was 1:12.5. The optics of a human eye have a focal length of about 17mm, so her image would be about 1/12.5 of 17mm, or 1.36mm tall. At the angle he saw her, her average apparent width was a little less than 1/5 of her height, or about 0.27mm on his retina. Thus, her image occupied only 1.36mm * 0.27mm, or roughly 0.37 square millimeters of his retina. An image no larger than the size of a dash in the text of an average paperback book. He marveled at how so much emotion had been evoked by such a tiny image of her.
In reality, the Heroine was not leaving them at all. She was locating the zampona manufacturer. Before dark, she returned with the news that she had found it. The zampona maker worked out of his house, which was near where the police dogs were kept. That was music to his ears! And seeing the Heroine again, if only briefly, was even better!
The Heroine had developed a slight cough just before they went to the zampona maker. She went to the Zampona manufacturer's house/shop with Gloria and the Visitor, then later left.
The zamponas and other instruments were all made by members of a single family. The man of the house was also a musician. He was very skilled and had no legs. But this did not slow him down. He did not have the three sizes of zamponas the Visitor wanted in stock, so he offered to make them that evening and deliver them to him that night. The Visitor accepted his offer because it was his last chance to buy musical instruments.
On the way back to the house, Gloria took the Visitor La Cancha, which is a market where a lot of independent vendors sell their wares. He purchased some ponchos and a few other items. When they got back to the Heroine's house, she had long since retired for the night. This was one of the few times on the whole trip that he entered the house without the Politician being there.
The Visitor knew that his ponchos, zamponas, and items that the Heroine and the Politician wanted send to their families in the USA with him would require an additional piece of luggage. The Heroine had left out a small suitcase in anticipation of this, and had left a note saying that it could later be returned to her by visiting relatives.
The fact that the Heroine had left a note probably meant that she did not expect to see the Visitor before his flight, which would explain her brief sadness at the school.
The Visitor resumed packing for his flight the next morning. The zamponas were delivered a little after midnight, and packing was finished about an hour later. He then turned in for the night.
He was overwhelmingly thankful that he had met and become acquainted with the Heroine. He did not know that such a person could even exist until he met her. And he already missed her.
He was already looking forward to returning to Bolivia to see the Heroine again shortly after the middle of the next year.
The Visitor Departs. 11 Nov. 1994:
(Misc. text goes here.)
(Text about the visitor departing goes here.)
(It is not possible to extend his trip because of leave policies where he works.)
(He will not be able to return to Bolivia for six months, after accruing enough more leave.)
(Text about the return flight and arriving back in Pasadena goes here.)
(Text about the Heroine resuming her routine goes here.)
(Remainder of Chapter 9 is under construction.)
Syzygy, Part 10: "Rise of a Regime" (Rise of a Fictional Regime in Late 1994.)
(First part of Chapter 10 is under construction. Partial outline with a few details follows:)
(Emphasis is on the rise of a Regime that oppresses indigenous people and the poor.)
(Full lines or paragraphs of text in parenthesis may describe what happens in the story, but are not necessarily the final text of the story. This text may be more vague than the rest of the story, and it may not necessarily describe the actions or words of specific characters.)
Act 21: Collusion: 8 November, 1994:
(These events occur three days before the Visitor departs Bolivia, but do not involve the Visitor. The Politician is involved, and the events from this day forward explain why he is not at the Heroine's house as much as he used to be.)
(Text about secret high level political and logistical planning for a future near term Regime goes here, as does text about leaders of the political group being concerned about some who have begun to act too early, putting the secrecy of their plans at risk.)
A Problem with Free Agents:
(Text about the actions of a few overly enthusiastic military and political people goes here. Some of these people are associated with the military and Police, while others are with the same political group as the Politician. Some of these people are acting on their own, or at least at a much earlier time than their respective organizations want them to.)
(One of the problematic military people has recently relocated to a part of Cochabamba where two and three story masonry structures line both sides of the street. A car alarm has been repeatedly going off and annoying him and nearby residents. Some residents inform him that the alarm has interfered with their sleep for almost a month, and that the car owner won't do anything about it.)
(One day, the car alarm goes off while the some military people are communicating about sensitive matters, both in their flat and on the phone. One of them looks out the window and sees that no one is on the street. He leans back into the window, casually grabs a grenade launcher, and fires it at the car. The car is destroyed and its alarm goes silent. After half a minute or so, a few people come out onto the street and start applauding.)
(However, this does not sit well with his superiors, or with the political people they have been making secretive plans with. They don't want their operatives calling attention to themselves. Even the fact that their operatives have been placed all over the city is supposed to be a well kept secret.)
Act 22: A Not-So-Fledgling Political Movement. Late November, 1994:
(Within a week or two, it becomes obvious that this network of political operatives and mercenaries who are funded and enabled by elites, other wealthy people, and the politicians and wannabe politicians they have in their pocket, have become a force to be reckoned with, even for the Government.)
(They present the Government with demands for economic and social policies that will ensure the continued existence of a servant class in the country. Their demands would result in policies that are oppressive toward indigenous people and the poor. The Government only makes a few token concessions.)
(After a few days, a coup is attempted. It succeeds only to a modest degree. The Regime enabled by the coup fails to consolidate power across the country, and the coup leaders soon have to surrender. There are no fatalities.)
(But this was not the end of the matter. It is only the beginning!)
(The coup was actually a ruse. The first purpose of this ruse was to mask secretly forming a coalition with the existing Government that would solidly orient the Government against indigenous people and the poor, and in favor of wealthy elites.)
(It had all been arranged in advance, including who would back down and when. The Government had been collaborating with the would-be Regime to form a joint Regime that was oppressive toward any who opposed the elites. This is what some had wanted for a long time.)
(The second purpose was that the staged coup attempt has given the Government a "reason" to invoke emergency powers that it otherwise could have only dreamed of.)
(All of this comes to fruition with remarkable swiftness, and the new Regime is soon in power.)
The Regime:
(Because it is a joint Regime, formed through a coalition with the existing Government, many in the Government do not even lose their positions, and many that remain get more power. It is not a legal or a constitutional coalition, but it is a powerful one. And they believe that they can now rewrite the laws and the Constitution to suit themselves.)
(The fake coup did not fool everyone, but there was little that the average citizen could do in the face of the Government's new emergency powers. The most obvious circumstance was the fact that there was not a great deal of ideological difference between the existing Government and those promoting the coup. Also, the resulting joint Regime had quickly selected the most anti-indigenous and pro-elite policies that had been conceived by either group.)
(The new Regime claimed to be Christian, but it was not in reality. The Regime was only exploiting religion to gain support among the wealthy and the gullible within the Christian community. Thus, support for the Regime failed to materialize among people of conscience within the Christian community, including the Heroine and others she knows who work with the poor.)
The Regime's True Colors:
(Persecution of those who work with the poor soon breaks out. The Regime does not want anyone to give indigenous people or the poor any reason to hope for a better future. The Regime wants to hold them down and continue to propagate a servant class within the society.)
(Furthermore, the Regime wants to expand the servant class. To that end, they begin to vilify some of the population in an effort to dehumanize them in the eyes of the rest of the populace. They start with those who even associate with indigenous people or the poor.)
(The Regime also wants to broaden social division, so that no other group will be as large as theirs. They believe that this can be accomplished in a new wave of persecution. It is persecution at the hands of the agencies they have corrupted, and by numerous manipulated citizens. There are a lot of wannabes out there, and the Regime knows they can pull them in by making empty promises of fame, promotion, or power; or by bribing them with expropriated property.)
(The Regime increases persecution those who have any association with indigenous people or the poor. The Regime also begins to expropriate the homes of some who work with the poor, though this practice does not become widespread for some time.)
The Visitor Learns of the Regime:
The political events in Bolivia had not been covered at all by media in the USA, so the Visitor is unaware of what has been happening. He had not received any communication from the Heroine, which seemed unusual.
There had been attempts to send mail to the Heroine, but unknown to him at the time, the Politician or one of his associates had intercepted it. The same had been true of incoming phone calls, which is something the Visitor had quickly become aware of. The Heroine did not have funds to budget outgoing calls.
It had occurred to the Visitor that this could happen after he left Bolivia, but it had not seemed likely because there was then no Regime. He had not spoken with the Heroine about whether it would be acceptable to the school if he sent mail to her there.
He eventually receives a phone call from the Heroine's sister in the USA. She relays that things are not going well for the Heroine's students and their families, but it is not specific.
It also appears that the Heroine's job is at risk, but not because of the regime. It is related to the organization that owns the school property. This is particularly tragic, because of how seriously she takes her job. It not just a job to her. Helping the children at the school is part of who she is.
The Heroine's sister also relays that it could be risky for the Visitor to go to the Heroine's house in Bolivia. And that if he does go to Bolivia, he should stay in an undisclosed location that is not known to the Politician or any of his associates. And that keeping a low profile is advised.
She also says that he should only make contact with the Heroine through calls that she makes to the Heroine at locations other than her house in Cochabamba. She also says that there are others who will be relaying messages. She then relays a little information about the Regime.
After his experience with the Politician, the Visitor knows that there is no need to question these instructions. The Regime seems like an overgrown version of the Politician. From what he has just been told, the ideologies of the Regime and the Politician are almost identical.
He has deeply missed the Heroine, but now, he is filled with concern for her. And now, it could be a long time until they can see each other again.
(Remainder of Chapter 10 is under construction.)
Syzygy, Part 11: "The Upheaval and the Calming"
(Overreach and subsequent fragmenting of the regime that oppressed the poor.)
(First part of Chapter 11 is under construction. Partial outline follows:)
(The Regime gradually becomes more oppressive. By the end if its second year in power, the Regime radically increases the practice of expropriating property, usually for the purpose of redistributing property to those who support it.)
(But it does not stop there: Many corrupt politicians and others associated with the Regime begin to "expropriate" property apart from the Government, in order to obtain such properties for themselves. Because the Regime gives corrupt people cover for such behavior, this activity soon accounts for the vast majority of property that is taken, and it occurs mostly in the cities.)
Act 23: The Upheaval:
(Before long, almost everyone in the country knows or has heard of someone whose property has been taken. This causes unrest throughout the country, but mostly in the cities.)
(It is discovered that those who have taken the most property have also tended to be the same people who oppose the poor, and who try to blame everyone's problems on poor or indigenous people. (Blaming others to distract from their wrongdoing.) The population begins to take notice.)
(During its third year in power, the Regime starts to lose its control over limited parts of the country.)
(Those who violently oppose indigenous people and the poor are gradually removed from local power in some areas, but repression stays the same or gets worse in other areas.)
(Strongly held differences of opinion between various parts of the country are increasing, but there is no outbreak of civil war. Long distances between major cities have a calming effect, and only a few cities are severely divided within themselves. Much of the divide is between rural areas and the cities. Many in the rural highlands have always spurned the Regime, but had not been vocal about it.)
(The Regime remains in power at a national level, but begins to lose its grip in many areas, as large numbers of people in an increasing number of cities repudiate their dictates. The atrocities and taking of property perpetrated or enabled by the Regime in some areas has given the opposition more resolve. This resolve is expressed both on the streets and in the Senate.)
(In spite of the Regime continuing to lose control due in large part to public outrage over the expropriatin of property, the taking of property by corrupt politicians associated with the Regime continues.)
(The Heroine's property is taken by her Politician relative during the fourth year of the Regime. The Heroine goes underground to escape capture, and to indirectly do what she can for the children and against the regime. She now has nothing left to lose, and she becomes active within the underground. (Some of the Heroine's situation is described retrospectively in the next chapter.))
(The Visitor is not in the country when all of this happens to the Heroine. She and the visitor are unable to communicate while she is underground, though sporadic indirect messages from her make it out every few weeks. She had rarely received his mail since 1994, because the Politician and his cronies had been screening mail to her address. Only messages to her at the school had gotten through since 1994.)
(Large numbers of people in Potosi are among the first to reject the Regime, followed by Oruro and towns nearby. The Government does not attack these areas because moderate elements advise against it, out of fear that it would start a civil war. Cochabamba and some parts of La Paz are approaching a point of decision, but many in the lowlands still favor the Regime.)
(Socialists have gained considerable support in economically depressed areas. They try to fan the flames of discontent, smuggle weapons, and provoke armed conflict, but they are unsuccessful. Their time will not come until early in the next century.)
The Calming:
(Text about local areas becoming more peaceful after they repudiate the Regime goes here.)
(Text about most of the population becoming united against the regime goes here.)
(Text about local Security Forces beginning to withdraw support for the Regime goes here.)
The Fall:
(Text about Security Forces withdrawing support for the Regime on a national scale goes here.)
(Text about failure of the Regime, and its fall, goes here.)
(For now, these aspects are partially covered in a retrospective way in the next chapter.)
(Remainder of Chapter 11 is under construction.)
Syzygy, Part 12: "The Return" (Reunion with the Heroine)
Act 24: The Regime has Fallen
For years, the Regime had persecuted indigenous people, the poor, and those who had worked with them or associated with them in almost any capacity.
But the driving principles of the Regime had been flawed. Its economic policy had been based largely on maintaining and expanding a servant class within the society, while increasing the power of the Elites of predominantly European ancestry. But by seeking to hold more people down, the Regime had reduced the number of people who could meaningfully participate in the economy, causing it to shrink.
The Regime had hoped that its anti-indigenous rhetoric would keep the rest of the population from noticing the shrinking economy, but this tactic had failed. It had even backfired, because many in the country grew tired of the Regime's negativity. The Regime had also failed to address the concerns of anyone who fell between the two economic extremes.
People had grown tired of being told that this group or that was the cause of their problems, when it was obvious that the Regime was the cause of most problems. Many wondered when the Regime would get around to labeling them as the cause of everyone's problems. The Regime seemed to be playing a "Scapegoat of the Month" game.
As a result of the Regime's policies, the economy had faltered. And the population took notice. Thus, the Regime had gradually fragmented. One city at a time. One region at a time.
Civil war had been avoided. Members of the security forces were participants in the economy just like anyone else, and they could see that the Regime was steering the country toward disaster. Therefore, most of them stopped supporting the Regime. This had the effect of removing the teeth from the emergency powers that the Regime had coveted for so long.
And now, the Regime is gone. Key players in the Regime have resigned. In their place, moderates have formed a coalition Government. The effects of this have trickled down into lower levels of Government, enhancing the ability of many localities to also become more moderate, and to begin to purge elitist-centric officials from their ranks.
This had not fully taken hold in the lowlands, but it was sufficient to steer the country away from the brink. There had also been a similar change in some local social structures, as shills for the Elites were increasingly seen for what they were.
Act 25: Wrongs Done to the Heroine Under the Regime, Mostly by the Politician:
Under the Regime, her (the Heroine's) property had been expropriated several months prior, by a Regime politician who had simply taken a liking to it. Her house was taken by the same Politician that had been a chronic problem for both her and the Visitor. Other corrupt politicians and operatives had done similar things to other property owners in the same time frame.
Back in a time even before when the Visitor had made his first trip to Bolivia in 1994, the Politician had used the threat of expropriating the Heroine's house to gain unfettered access to it. After the Visitor arrived, the Politician used the same threat to gain access to both the house and the Visitor.
The Heroine never informed the Visitor of this, because the Politician had said that his operatives would take care of both her and the Visitor if either of them got in the way of him or his associates again. This had happened right after the Visitor's first day in the country, when they had both defended her school against those they then did not know were powerful men. After remembering the perilous time dodging armed political operatives near the time of the 1994 solar eclipse, she had taken the Politician's threat seriously. She had also long felt beaten down by being under the Politician's thumb for so long, though she did not know if anyone noticed.
Since then, the Politician used the control he had over her house to have her mail and phone calls screened. Therefore, the only way she and the Visitor could communicate while he was out of the country was via messages through visiting relatives or by sparse mail to the school that was under an alias name and address. The Regime controlled the mail service, so they could screen out any name they wanted. This limitation applied to many of her distant friends who supported her work.
Even after all this time, the Politician was still upset with the Heroine and the Visitor. He was angry that the Visitor refused to cancel all of his appearances at Colegio Buenas Nuevas upon his demand to do so, because this had made him look weak and unprepared during the 19 October, 1994 meeting with the wealthy people that were his so-called friends. He had assured them that the Visitor would be fully compliant, but then he wasn't. The Politician had lacked the foreight to even inform the visitor of his plans, and had blindsided the Visitor with his usurpation of the Heroine's role as host, yet in the Politician's mind, his appearing weak in front of his "friends" was the fault of the Visitor and the Heroine, not his. And, the Politician was still upset with the Heroine for backing up the Visitor in regard to her school.
The Politican and his Regime counterparts also didn't like anyone who gave the poor a reason to hope for a better future. The Heroine had been effective in her work with the poor, and she had repeatedly spoken up to defend them against the wealthy and politically connected people he knew. This made the Politician think he looked even weaker to the elites he had long been groveling to.
The Politican was almost as fixated on the Heroine's "defiance" as Haman had been fixated on Mordecai in the biblical book of Esther. She was not of his household, and she had no obligation to do what he said even if she was, but he didn't see it that way. The Politician was surprised that she had been bold enough to stand up to him in 1994 and on later occasions, because, even when in her own house, she had been under his thumb for so long.
But now, this was the Politician's chance to "show her" who was really in charge!
Even though The Heroine had tolerated the Politician frequently coming and going from her house in 1994 and later, the Politician knew that the power of the Regime he was associated with would provide cover if he took her house, so he did so. This had become a common practice among many corrupt politicians in recent months. The Visitor was not in the country when this happened.
After the Heroine's house was taken, she had to resort to going underground along with many others. Extended family members at the house had collaborated with the politician, some of them under duress and some of them not, and had been allowed to remain there.
There were few options available to her at that point. She could resist and face certain arrest, she could flee the country, she could collaborate, or she could go underground. Collaborating with enemies of the poor was out of the question for her, and fleeing just wasn't her style. So she went underground. From there, she could at least work through a network of people, including one contact who still remained at the school, to try and make some difference in the lives of the children there.
As for the expropriation of her property, her options were also limited. She could resist and face certain arrest - and even possible harm to children at the school, or, she could accept the expropriation of her house. She was not one to emphasize standing up for her own rights, but she was willing to sacrifice and vigorously fight for the children in any way she could.
Expropriation could happen in several ways. It was relatively easy for corrupt officials to expropriate properties that were unoccupied. When a property was occupied (as hers was), a corrupt official could kill or forcibly remove a property owner, wait until the owner was away from home, falsify documents, or give the owner an ultimatum - including one to coerce a homeowner into signing over their property. Of these options, the latter was preferred among corrupt officials. This is because if the Regime fell from power, and a homeowner had signed over their property, it would be more difficult for a homeowner to reclaim it later.
This is how her property was expropriated, based on an unwritten code that if she complied, no harm would come to third parties such as the children at her school. She had gone underground almost immediately after being confronted with the ultimatum, but had left the signed papers behind in a place where they could be found by the Politician. It was done in this order because a person who remained in plain sight could still be arrested even after they had signed over their property.
Incommunicado:
The urgent circumstances under which the Heroine went underground made it impossible for the Heroine to inform anyone that she was even going underground. She would have limited contact with people within the underground network, and since the whole idea is to remain undetected, the only opportunities to get information to the outside world were very indirect and infrequent.
From the Visitor's point of view back in the U.S., the Heroine had simply disappeared from the face of the earth. It was not until well over a month later that he received a vague verbal message saying only that she was safe, and that it was not safe for him to go to Bolivia while the Regime was in power. He already knew the latter part of the message.
There had been one unusual development in the expropriation of her house. The politician involved was married to a member of her extended family, and he had offered to let her remain in one room of the house while he and his immediate family occupied the rest. (The collaborating relatives also lived there, but they had been forced to occupy a smaller part of the home.)
She had declined the politician's offer for a number of reasons. First, if she stayed, she would be under his thumb, and if she continued work at the school under such circumstances, her activities could be more closely monitored, potentially putting those she knew at risk. Also, the arrangement would no doubt be subject to the whims of other politicians.
She had also known of others in similar situations who had begun to identify with those who had taken their homes, then would not even stand up for themselves when there was an opportunity to assert their ownership of their property. (While the cause of this was not widely known at the time, it was based on a coping mechanism that many refer to as Stockholm Syndrome, so named because of a 1973 hostage situation in Stockholm, Sweden. The hostages were released after being held for almost a week, but then none would testify against their captor. Instead, they sympathized with their captor. But it can manifest in other abusive situations, and living in a room of a house that a usurper has taken from you is an abusive situation.) Even worse, there was the unthinkable possibility of what could happen if the politician invited people who wanted "entertainment" into the house.
None of these possibilities were acceptable to her, so she chose to go underground and do what she could from within that framework.
Act 26: The Heroine Returns:
But now, the Regime had fallen from power just as suddenly as it had begun to implement its repression.
Those who had gone underground began to go back to their former surroundings, not knowing if any pieces of their former lives would be left to pick up, or if they would have to begin all over again.
With the Regime gone, schools in poor areas will now be free to resume a full education, as opposed to the former Regime's deliberate limitation on what indigenous and low income people were allowed to learn.
Ultimately, the Heroine and other staff members find their way back to the school. Regime propagandists who had called themselves "teachers" have fled. Soon, the original staff will be free to resume their positions. It is Buenas Nuevas for Colegio Buenas Nuevas: Good news for the school of Good News!
But it is bittersweet. Good has prevailed, but at great cost. Many were harmed by the Regime before it fell. When good prevails in the battle with evil, it is often only a "break even" proposition. Good prevailing means that the advance of evil has been slowed or temporarily stopped, but good rarely makes gains. Everything tends toward a lower state, and this descent is only slowed when good people, with the Lord's help, stand up to evil. If good people did not do this, society would have imploded long ago. But for now, the descent has been stopped. Stopped by thousands to millions of people throughout the country who stood up to the Regime and the fruit of its ideology.
Reunion:
A few days later, the Visitor learns that she has returned. Just as it seemed all hope of ever finding her was lost, she has returned. He travels to a now safer Bolivia to see her. Four years after repression under the Regime had begun, they find each other at the school. As he walks over to her, some of the children come outside and gather around them.
They look into each other's eyes. There is a look of recognition for all they have been through. Especially for her, at the hands of those who had opposed her and her work with the poor for so many years.
Each one has quickly perceived what happened to the other during the long time they were apart. Much like when they first met, it is as though they have known each other for the long time they were separated by some in the Regime. There will be long talks to catch up while going forward, but the deepest way that each was affected has already begun to be understood by the other. And there is nothing to keep them apart anymore.
A Better Normal:
For her, recent months had been particularly hard: She and some of her friends were harmed by the Regime and its operatives. Her house was expropriated. She had to go underground for months.
But she is back now. And those who had harmed her and opposed her just cause are no longer in power. A tribunal has begun adjudicating unjust exproptiation of property that occurred under the Regime. Most of the former staff has returned to the school. She is now among familiar friends.
Life can be better now. Low income and indigenous people will no longer be oppressed as they were before. And those who know them, work with them, or serve them will no longer be harmed by the wealthy, or by the political cronies they have had in their pocket.
Life can be normal again.
A better normal.
A brighter normal.
For her.
And for the children.
The End.
(Camera Angles and Music for the Ending: The camera point of view shows them together from a height of about eye level, then slowly raises up and zooms back from them to eventually show a helicopter view of the school. (In 2023, these camera angles can be done with a drone.) The music for this scene is from when children are singing at the beginning of the song "Tu y Yo" by Rabito.)
(Just before the louder instrumental part of the song starts, the picture fades to closing credits on a dark background, with small photos or scenes inset on one side of the credits for the rest of the song. And (added in 2023) at the very end: "In Memory of Willma Silvia Alcocer Borda")
Summary of Differences Between Syzygy (Parts 7-12) and J.R. Charles' and W. Alcocer's Actual 1994 Experiences in Bolivia. (See notes below summary (in next chapter) for context.)
A good part of the Syzygy story in Parts 7-12 is relatively literal to the Author's factual 1994 Eclipse Journal, except for significant key areas that include the following (Spoiler Alert):
Summary of (mostly) High Level Differences:
- In story, Visitor character does not get very ill from political impositions, retains his Spanish.
- Visitor and Heroine promptly have mutual romantic interest in each other. (Not discussed in real life.)
- Visitor's impressions of the Heroine become profound within 3 days (rather than 4 years).
- Visitor's Bolivia trip is a week longer, and third parties do not limit time with Heroine as severely.
- Visitor becomes aware of oppression of and threats to Heroine while in Bolivia (not years later).
- Some of the school staff is abducted as they are leaving a church service, but they are rescued.
- 1994 eclipse is used as a cover for characters to escape mercenaries and political operatives.
- Government is fictional. There is a fake coup, then a joint unelected 4-year Regime.
- School staff is replaced by Regime propagandists who limit education for the poor.
- Visitor does not get laid off from work in 1995, so he has funds to keep visiting Bolivia.
- Heroine's interest in her house is taken by a corrupt aspiring politician. (WAIT-that DID happen.)
- Visitor and Heroine can communicate after the 1994, until Heroine joins the underground.
- Regime falls, Heroine returns to school, Visitor sees her again, everyone lives happily ever after.)
Summary of Differences with some Details:
Notes: Parts (Chapters) 3-12 were not published until 2023, though much of it had been written in 1997. These were not published earlier because they were not contiguous, complete chapters. Existing (or easily completed) segments of some chapters were published in 2023. This was done because, after the 22 Aug. 2023 death of the person who inspired the Heroine, the Author does not anticipate being able to finish the entire story. At least one person with political connections who was problematic for her and the author in 1994, allegedly took her interest in her house without compensating her (though he "let" her live in a few rooms), then created stressful circumstances that contributed to her death in 2023. She died only two weeks before she was to legally come to the USA, where she could be seen again in person. Some actual experiences in (but mainly after) 1994 were more tragic than the foregoing story. These are tragic circumstances that the Author does not want to be reminded of going forward. Once a bad politician, always a bad politician.
But verse four of the children's song "Jesus Loves Me" (verse 1 quoted in Part 9) provides some comfort, as do the Bible verses on which it is based:
"Jesus loves me. He who died, Heaven's gate to open wide,
He will wash away my sin, Let His little child come in. Yes, Jesus loves me..."
He has done this for Wilma and countless others.
And she received His gift of eternal life long ago, so now she is with Him.
He is the only One Who matters to her now.
But on this earth, there will never be another like her.
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For journals of eclipse expeditions, go to the Eclipse Chaser's Journal at EclipseChaser Home Page
Outline of Jeffrey R. Charles' 1994 Experiences in Bolivia.
After seeing the total solar eclipse of Feb. 26, 1979 in Grassrange, Montana, Jeff Charles and his father and brother return to Colorado, where Jeff resumed his job in photogrammetrics. In 1983, a few members of the family move to Arizona, and from there, Jeff takes a trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico circa 1988. He later visits Mazatlan, Mexico for the total solar eclipse of July 11, 1991. The experience of meeting Mexican people in their homeland leaves him favorably impressed with their character, and he begins to have increased interaction with Latino culture in the U.S., even attending a Latino church on a more or less regular basis.
In 1992, Jeff moves to Pasadena, California in order to work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. While there, he attends a Latino church and meets a pastor and his family from Bolivia, who later become his friends. This in turn influences the places in South America that Jeff is interested in visiting, when he goes to see the total solar eclipse in 1994. Among other things, he wants to see the his friends' family and some Bolivian mission churches their church was involved with.
Finally, planning begins for the expedition to the total solar eclipse of November 3, 1994 in Bolivia. It will be his first solo expedition to another country. The sister of one of Jeff's Bolivian friends is the director of a public school in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He decides ask if this director would like him to present eclipse material at her school, and the response is an enthusiastic yes. Planning goes well and Jeff works out a somewhat leisurely schedule that will allow him plenty of time to get over jet lag and acclimate to the high altitude in that part of Bolivia before the eclipse. All seems innocent enough.
In the rest of this account, the names and relationships of some people will be changed in order to protect their identity:
Only a few days before Jeff's departure for Bolivia, a person ("Roberto") associated with the embassy in Bolivia (who is also related to a Bolivian family that offered to have Jeff stay with them) informs Jeff by phone that he will be handling his schedule, then he tries to get Jeff to agree to making a few additional presentations. Jeff only agrees to a single additional appearance due to the short notice. The person seems satisfied, but says they will see about additional presentations after he arrives. Jeff again says that no additional appearances will be possible, especially before the eclipse. Understandably, Jeff begins to be concerned.
Here is some of what actually did happen on Jeff Charles' two week trip to Bolivia. The occurrences are grouped by category.
General Experiences:
Social Experiences:
Good Experiences:
Bad Experiences: (Murphy's law at work)
Bad circumstances experienced by people Jeff had met or known of in Bolivia.
Acknowledgments:
References:
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Parts 1 and 2 of Syzygy originated on: 4 September, 1997
Bolivian experience section originated on: 12 December, 1996
This document converted to HTML on: 4 September, 1997
Content of this document last modified on: 20 April, 1998. Except for:
This document last modified (to correct typos and location): 2 June, 2018
- Summaries of Chapters 3-12, some of Chapter 7, end of Chapter 12, added: 2, 4, 7 Oct. 2023.
(Some is based on my 1994 Eclipse Journals. Some other aspects outlined or written in 1997.)
- Additional details in Chapter 7 (most from Author's Eclipse Journal) added: 18 Nov. 2023.
- Chapter 8 added: __ Nov. 2023 (some of it was outlined in 1997, but not then published.)
- Chapter 9 added: 10 Nov. 2023 (some of it was written in 1997, but not then published.)