I have been in La Paz, working on getting my visa. I am trying to get permission to stay for one year, it isn't terribly hard but there are a lot or small tasks I need to complete. Naturally everything is in Spanish. If I were a more optomistic person I would think of it as a good way to measure of how far I have come. I think it's bullshit.

A cute anecdote. Some of us volunteers go about 6 weeks ago to the immigration office to get our 30 day visas extended, to start the process of temporary residency. The man we are sent to gives a slick little 90 day stamp and says come back in three months no más. When we come back three months later they tell us the stamp actually means nothing and that we have been living illegally for the last 40ish days. But fear not, Bolivia doesn't punish people like us with prison time or exportation, we just get to pay a muelta that would starve the family of a coca picker, no ves.

Aside from this things are cool. Driving home from La Paz we pass through a beautiful part of the country that I think is called La Cumbre. I haven't yet posted pics of it so they follow.

This rugged terrain transitions into lush mountain forests as one descends in altitude. It is usually cloudy, which I think casts a fitting gloom over what I can't see as anything but a wasteland. I think people grow tubers here and raise Llamas aswell. I have seen Llamas a few times, they look like people who have been camping. People who don't like camping, who don't know much about it. They have sticks in their hair, they are dirty, they haven't slept. They need a strong cup of coffee and a hairbrush.

This sign says that 43 people have died on this road this year, be careful and use your headlights. It is scary, narrow with a lot of blind turns. I haven't been in an accident but I could see how it would happen. We took "the worlds most dangerious road" (not associated with the above sign) back to Coroico today. Normally we take a newer, marginally safer road. It comes at the cost of the kind of beauty that makes a person believe in God. There are water falls we drove under, many times the bus was what felt like a foot from a verticle rock wall on one side and a cliff on the other.

Sam's birthday was this week, some of our students from tourism threw him a party. They cooked chicken in an outdoor oven, baked a cake, and sang. They had this thing where they carried Sam to a water faucet and soaked him, they dropped him once he got wet. Then they did the same to everyone in attendence, minus being dropped.

This is a picture of all of us. They will graduate at the end of the year, I'll be sad to see them go as many our close friends of ours.

The kid who threw the party, Gabriel, is pictured with me. He is good at English and funny. He always uses phrases he doesn't quite understand, "you are pulling my leg" is his favorite in all situations. We are in his chicken coop. He says he has 201, I might believe him. They will be ready for market in a month or two. I held one that was just big enough to be ugly.

I included this last pic for the sake of a good friend who I thought would get a kick out of it. Think of me driving it home. North all the way through the the Amazon and Bolivars through the Daryan Gap and up the west coast of Mexico. Then it would break down somewhere in Colorado and I would have to sell it to lucky hippies to get busfare home.

There are a lot of cool cars here. Many old ones, including basically original VW Beetles that were built through '03. The cars cost about the same here as in the states, so most people don't have them. Gas is cheaper, I don't remember exactly how much, maybe 1/2 the cost. Still expensive to most Bolivians.

Life is good here, I have been working hard and feeling alright about what I do. Take care, pass on my regards, say something negative about Sarah Palin at work.

LOVE

andy