You can take the girl out of Georgetown...

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So I´m in Cochabamba, fabulous.

My host family was really glad I made it alive! They are very sweet. Alfredo the dad, Yolanda the mom, and three kids, Gabriela (really mature and kind, 12), Diego, 10, and Daniela (adorable, 6).

Yesterday was a holiday, Corpus Christi, so there was a huge family bbq! And in accordance to custom, we played a sort of drinking game. One bucket, one wooden cup, you pick someone and say ¨para ti¨and then you chug the chorizo, which is like a corn based jungle juice. Then you fill up the cup (with as much or as little drink as you want) and pass it to the person you picked and they have to chug! It´s awesome! Glad to take important parts of the culture here back with me.

But on the serious side, Alfredo, our host dad, took us around the neighborhood of Valle Hermosa yesterday. There are a lot of interesting things in the town--a lot of poverty, broken down houses, but also a lot of new construction and huge houses, the result of people leaving bolivia to work in spain or argentina, and then sending their money back home. the nicest bulidings are the mormon churches (I know, weird) funded by our own dear old c.i.a. theres also a lot of pollution, just like garbage in thes treets and a lack of water and sewage systems. Our main task here (which I was excited to learn about...its not just ¨cultural immersion¨as I was sketchily saying before) is teaching the children in the schools the importance of recycling and putting trash where it belongs (among other topics) to help keep their community beautiful. It really is a beautiful landscape surrounded by mountains. Cold in the morning/evening and hottt in the day.

We´re also staying with a group of 12 kids from Fordham. They are only staying for 2 weeks and only 3 of them can speak Spanish. Yeah...interesting. They have fun instructions (such as they must ´dress simply´and are not allowed digital cameras and have reflection time every night). Our little group from Georgetown (me and 3 others) kind of don´t know what to make of them. I suppose they have good intentions but cannot help looking and acting overwhelmingly touristy. I´ll try to keep positive thoughts about them though.

We are making our lesson plans with Alfredo´s sister who is a teacher in one of the schools. Yesterday we were wondering why she didn´t come to the celebrations with us. We then made the lovely discovery that she was a Jehovah´s Witness (they don´t celebrate holidays or birthdays) and she proceeded to tell us bible stories for an hour...awkward. We´ll see how that develops.

Ok I´m off to eat dinner. I miss the US xcore...having fun but can´t wait to be back.
Loooove,
Olivia

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