Bolivian Bingo
Friday night we went to Cochabamba’s only casino to “donate” some money to the Bolivian education lottery. We justified wasting a little money by the fact that we only spend about ten dollars a day here! The casino was a bit of a let down, as there were only digital slot machines and the main attraction was bingo, a game of which we excitedly and wholeheartedly joined. We expected to play a little bingo, have a couple drinks, and relax; however, this was Bolivian bingo and the stress it induced rivaled that we experienced during any of our final exams last semester. A nice Bolivian lady fires out about 30 numbers a minute (in Spanish of course) and you are supposed to mark the numbers down while at the same time somehow trying to figure out if you have the right combination to yell "linea!" (a complete line of numbers) or "bingo!" (a full card of numbers). Even with two employees leaning over our shoulders pointing at the numbers on our cards, we still failed miserably. At one point, Daniel tried to pay for a drink, drink the drink, and cross off numbers all at the same time. Needless to say, he ended up making our table look more like a three ring circus than a bingo table. I somehow won a game and was awarded a whopping 40 Bolivianos (approximately US $5)which we then blew in about 45 seconds on a machine whose instructions to play contained no more than 3 words that we understood!
Another Perspective on Bingo:
We have been trying to do things as the Bolivians do. They love Bingo. Last week we dressed up for the Bolivian casino bingo, and did so with blind hubris in our own mathematical and concentration abilities which, being medical students, we assume to be naturally high. Thinking that we would play a dozen cards at once and pay for our trip in winnings, we forgot one essential thing about Bolivian bingo: it is in Spanish – and we do not speak Spanish. Not only is it in a foreign language, but the numbers come so fast one cannot look up and enjoy company or carry on simple conversation. Certainly one cannot keep up with the rate of numbers when drinking alcohol. This was a heck of a stressful night, and in all we played two games and left with a headache and down four US dollars.
Bolivian Billiards
After we left bingo we went to a bar and played pool. As if bingo weren’t hard enough, pool was so hard we thought we were in the middle of a practical joke. The table looked exactly like one you would see in the states (though it would have to be the longest you might see) yet the pockets were all cut to a width of about half of what we shoot into back home. There was literally about a centimeter and half of leeway on either side of the ball as it went through the hole. Easing a ball in off the side railing or getting a soft touch off edge of the pocket just doesn’t happen. Shots such as these ricochet back and forth across the pocket face a few times before mockingly strutting back out onto the table. After playing 2 games in just under an two hours, we cursed the South American billiard gods and called it a night.
Bolivian Bowling
Saturday night we went bowling, a very popular thing to do here on a weekend night. After our bingo and pool experiences last night we expected to be rolling a square bowling ball down a lane full of sand into 50 pound pins arranged in a single straight line. However, we were relieved and pleasantly surprised to find that bowling here is exactly like bowling in the states. In fact, we were the only people in the place who knew how to start a game, amend a score, or skip bowlers because the scoring machines operated only in English. It was a rare moment of knowledge and control in a weekend filled with recreational frustration and we soaked it up!
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