I have been gone a while, about three months. If I were studying abroad I would be packing for home soon. But I’m not really on a trip, I am here temporarily yes but not as a tourist. I’m settling into what is a privileged but in many ways normal life in Bolivia. In this blog entry I want to show you more of the things that are normal for me now, which I might have considered ROUGHING IT in that past. - again I’ll stress that I live a very good life here and don’t lack any essentials -


Alwaysd I have cooked on electric stoves, with microwaves, and in George Foreman grills. In Carmen Pampa we use gas and it’s good. It’s fast, it’s east and I get to light a match every time I want to cook something (if you dispute this as a skill try to light one backhand). We boil all the water we drink, and we filter most of it. Once after playing basketball I came into the house SO THIRSTY, and drank a big glass of tap water without thinking. I was ready to induce vomiting when Hugh told me to relax. As it turns out that is as close to throwing up the water has made me.





The following picture speaks for itself. One flush is rarely enough. Even though I’m sure that all the street vendors hide stool softeners in their food.






We have warm showers. Thanks to that white thing which runs on 220v that is mostly contained within it’s plastic shell. If have touched it in the shower and felt what is less of a shock than a slow but certain transfer of energy from it to me. I wear rubber sandals in the shower these days.






We do all our own laundry. I have never worn such stiff socks in my life. No amount of scrubbing or soaking gets the sweaty dust (not fundamentally different from how adobe is made) out of my them. I’m used to it though. The rest of my cloths are okay. Sometimes drying is hard, it rains a lot these days. But never have I appreciated a laundry machine before. And also never have I gotten some much use out of what are and have always been clean cloths.

The next pick sums up the tech difference. Things in many respects are the same, but it still takes me about five min to get my documents double spaced.

LAST OF ALL is a rockin’ pic of us dressed in our morenada costumes, from left to right we are Sam, Bill (volunteer from Berkley Ca), andy, and Don Fico.



When you eat cereal tomorrow morning close your eyes and think about transmitting the taste south east. I read somewhere that if you try to hard if won’t work, so be casual. I’d even appreciate Grapenuts if you could make it happen.

LOVE

andy