4.03.08 Not what I am used to

I had my first Spanish lesson since leaving London with a kindly teacher at the inaccurately titled Instituto Exclusivo (well, they took me)—and it appears I have not improved. As luck would have it, there is plenty of opportunity for me to practice.
In the afternoon, I returned to the Iglesia de San Francisco to interview Juan Mauricio Choque Apaza, who is on hunger strike. A charming, vibrant man in bright, traditional clothes, he enthusiastically described how Evo Morales’ government was only good for socialists. Interestingly, he also drew comparisons with Nazi Germany and apartheid. In his room lined with posters denouncing the government and explaining his strike, he was solely sustaining himself on coca leaves and cigarettes. I found his demands impossibly and possibly suicidally woolly—for the government to move to social democratic principles—but I was impressed by his bravery. Only last week, supporters of the Morales’ Movement Towards Democracy knocked him unconscious at a demonstration.
As my first piece of work since leaving ILN, the contrast between the conviction of this man to starve himself for his principles and subbing the fluff I was used to in London could not have been greater. In fact, I took myself off for a beer to muse further.