some serious update-ness

sorry in advance, this one is going to be way long, I´ve done way stuff since the last entry.

so, reason for extended absence, my family has internet but my computer can´t configure to it for whatever reason, so I´m in my professors hotel. i just got back from the orphanage and I´m 45 minutes early to go to the barrio, so...yay free internet!

okay! so! things that have happened!

1) we left santa cruz on the 3rd and flew to cochabamba. the night before I was wandering around in the hotel gift shop and totally made friends with the peruvian dude at the counter, and somehow our "hola, como esta"s turned into a two hour long spanish lesson in which he pulled random things off the shelves and taught me the words. it made me happy to know I can make friends even when I have no idea what they´re saying.

2) after flying into cochbamba, we went back to bolivia cultura (the main office of the program) and had a spanish pretest (urgh) and then an orientation on safety, not drinking the water, not getting into unmarked taxis, not getting robbed, etc etc etc. cochabamba isn´t as dangerous as I thought it would be--you just can´t be stupid.

3) then I met my family! who I love! it´s the mom, the dad, and an 8th month old girl who is SO cute. there´s also an indigenous maid which was kind of awkward because I´ve never lived in a household that could afford a maid, but she´s really nice, and we´re totally friends now. so yeah. the little girl is possibly the most adorable thing ever, and I learn way vocabulary from her because my parents are always asking "que es esto?" and she replies with whatever it is. so yeah. woot! there´s also a random british girl who I never see, but that´s okay. anyway, the first night, my family took me to a birthday party where people were doing national dances and wouldn´t stop waving potato chips in my face.

4) then we went to the barrio! half an hour ride up a mountain and then hiking up more mountain. the view is beautiful but the community is so so poor, it´s heart breaking. families get one barrel of water twice a week. the richest guy in the barrio is the president, and one of the things that makes him so rich is that he has a bathroom (read:maggot infested hole in the ground). so yeah.

about the projects:

today my group starts our service with the barrio´s womens group. i´m not entirely sure what we´re doing, but I´m under the impression it´s some kind of needlepoint. on sundays I´ll start my photography project, but since there are like fifty (no lie) kids who are interested, we´re splitting them into two groups. half go to english class, half do photography, and then they switch off. the lady in charge of my group is way excited about project, as are the other kids I´m with, so we can´t way for sunday. the only thing is, we have to supervise the kids with the cameras...or else they might get stolen/sold. it´s that sort of poverty.

in addition to the womens group, I got permission to go hang out at the orphange too--which isn´t really an orphanage, it´s a home for boys whose families can´t take care of them. most of them have wound up on the street,and more than a few have been involved in drugs. but they´re so so cute and I love it. I made friends with a bunch today when I totally busted out the mad paper crane making skills, which turned into boat making, which turned into paper airplanes, which turned into paper airplane throwing contests. at some point in there there was tic tac toe and animal drawing, and we were having so much fun, a few of us stayed for lunch. which was cow stomach. which I didn´t eat. but as soon as I walked in the dining room with my plate of (plain) rice (heehee) and entire table of kids stood up and were like "tina tina! come sti with us!" so I did. we discussed our favorite animals, favorite foods, and then somehow erupted into a game of hide-the-silverware-from-tina-and-make-her-find-it. when we left, a couple kids climbed on the roof to wave goodbye.

some more random things! the city is beautiful, everything is mad cheap, you can haggle with the little indian ladies in la cancha (the giant open air market) and I got a sweet bookbag with a llama on it. bolivia is way more coloful than america. anyway, we gain a lot in development, but we definitely, definitely, definitely, lose something too.

stories of the day:

1) I was watching baby einstein in spanish...and learning

2) while trying to explain that cochabamba was abetter city than santa cruz, I mixed up the word for better (major) with mujer, and told my parents that cochabamba is more of a woman. oops.

anyway, must run, other people are arriving! adios!

edit: oh! i forgot to mnetion how yesterday I hailed a taxi ALL BY MYSELF, told him where to go ALL BY MYSELF, and then made friends with him ALL BY MYSELF (and in spanish no less). YES.