Our First Week

We were dropped off at our host family´s house a week ago in a little neighborhood about 10 miles outside Cochabamba. All 29 volunteers are within walking distance of each other and most of us have flushing toilets and hot showers, two very important factors in describing what your home is like here. The alternative would be a latrine and a ¨bucket shower.¨ Our host family is very nice and immediately fed us and let us rest a little. We are all required to sleep under mosquito netting because bugs are quite common and friendly here.

The second day we spent with our host family, there was a celebration in a nearby town. Our sister, Carola (in the yellow baseball tee), and her cousins, Karen (middle), Lisbeth (right), and Carla (the little one), took us to the celebration. It took about 30 minutes to walk there from our house, and when we arrived I was surprised to see everything that was set up. It was as though we´d entered the midway area at the state fair. There were airguns to shoot down prizes, various other gambling-oriented games, and then trampolines for the little kids to jump on. For sale were different pastries and beverages. The first hombre who greeted us may have had a bit too much chicha (local alcoholic fermented corn beverage) because he wouldn´t let go of our hands when we were greeting him. He thanked us in English and then went on his way. We played a little footballiza (see above) against the girls, and then the music and dancing began. The band consisted of trumpets, baritones, bass and snare drums. There were tons of people in traditional constumes and it must´ve been 90 degrees out. They danced for hours and we sat in the shade, people watched, and shared a 2 liter of Pepsi.

Karen, Lisbeth, and Carla left on Tuesday night in the back of a pickup truck to go home to Santa Cruz, which was going to be about a 12 hour drive. We were all sad to see them go because they were lots of fun. School starts for them on Monday as well as for Carola. No more summer vacation for them!