A Chicken at Potosi’s Silver Mines
Bolivia, 2006
In the 20th century, in another lifetime it almost seems, I completed my studies as a jeweler-goldsmith. At the time I thought it was a wonderful profession. Creating and selling all those beautiful objects felt like a dream coming true.
A lot has changed since. The glitter and sparkles of precious metals and gemstones still mesmerize me. I am also aware of the darker side; of the price paid by people in far away countries. Travels to many a country, and encounters with people of different cultures, have contributed to my shift in perception. As has a visit to the silver mines and the mining factory in Potosi in Bolivia.
An attempted robbery of the jeweler store where I was doing my internship during the last year of my studies, had taken away my desire and joy to work as a jeweler. As students, we had been forewarned that there was a fair chance we would sooner or later go through such an experience. I hadn’t anticipated the impact it would have on me.
It hadn’t been helpful that I had to go through the pictures in the armed-crime-photos-file at the police station. While the robbers weren’t yet on file, several of our loyal clients were. It had troubled me a lot, and I had difficulty maintaining an unbiased and fear free attitude towards anyone entering the store. I had counted down the days till the end of my internship.
Even though, the experience resulted in giving up my profession after graduation, jewelry and all that is related to it, still stirs something within me. I love looking at the precious objects on display in the windows of jewelers’ stores. Different parts of the world value different colors and carats of gold, and jewelry styles vary largely from one place to another.
So yes, I did get excited when I read in the guidebook that there are silver mines nearby.