Needless to say, I haven´t been around the internet or phone much lately.  Nonetheless, a lot has happened in Bolivia since my last post.  My three month training period is up in three weeks.  After that, I´ll be traveling to a southern Bolivian city of 30,000 people near the border of Paraguay called Camiri to serve as a natural resource manager for two years.  I´m excited and a little bit nervous as well since the program has been very successful in this area in the past and I will undoubtedly have some big shoes to fill.  The main goal of the program right now is working with government and private oranizations to get clean water to communities.  At this point, my spanish is in pretty good shape and I´m certainly conversational.  The second language spoken in my area is an indigenous language called guarani.  It´s been a bit more of a challenge, but fun learning at the same time.

 Otherwise, I was evacuated from a high altitude city of 14000 feet above sea level recently due to medical reasons.  It looks like I´ll be sticking to the lower altitude regions of the Andes during my service.

 Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and comments on the posts.  I miss you all and it´s great to hear from you!

I´ve been living with a Bolivian family for about a week now and it´s been a great experience. They´re super accepting of me not knowing what´s going on half the time and we´ve been having four hour conversations in the evenings as of late (they don´t speak english and I´m on caveman level for Spanish grammar right now which is hilarious for both of us).

My mom (Nona Christina) is basically your stereotypical latin mama. She´s an amazing cook and keeps everyone in line perfectly. The dad (Don Nestor) is very tranquil. I also have three sisters (Arminda, Caterine, and Silvia)who are really crazy high school students in Cochabamba. I also have a 21 year old brother (Nestor, too) who plays guitar (totally different than pop music in the US) and sings. We´ve been jamming quite a bit and I´ve learned a ton about Bolivia and Spanish from him. So far I´m beating him in the record for tricep dips on the bars outside our house, but he´s closing fast). I´ve also gotten the chance to go to the local church in Cochabamba which I can´t really begin to describe, but it´s been great. Dancing, singing, and great Bolivianos.

Bolvia Day #3

 Spanish key boards are really strange to write on for the record.  After three days in Bolivia,  I can already feel my Spanish improving.  I´ve also been injected with every vaccine known to man and am immune to everything except for bullets. 

The Bolivian people are probably the most relaxed and leisurely people I´ve ever met.  I´m very excited to move in with my host family tomorrow.  ¨Carnival¨ is going on now which is basically a time to throw globos (water balloons) at strangers.  So far the Bolivian ninos are batting .000 for hitting me thankfully.

 I´m afraid my host family is going to think of me as some strange, feeble pet from another world when I show up tomorrow with all of the precautions Peace Corps is taking with safety.  Mosquito nets, water filtering machines, etc.  But I suppose all of that is better than Chagus disease.

Boliva

Thanks to all of you for joining this blog.  I intend on this being a way to journal and express my Peace Corps experience over the next two years with some of my best friends and hopefully share life with each of you. 

It’s nearly 10:00 Washington DC time right now and I’ll be leaving the USA to go to live in Bolivia in approximately 14 hours.  Given last night’s axiety attack over leaving everything I’ve ever known for two years (thanks for listening, mom), my emotional state right now is relatively relaxed and very excited.  Nos vamos!

 Feel free to email me at WAMaurer5941@gmail.com and tell me to add any more contacts to this blog.  I know that I am missing many important people’s email address who I’d love to add.  Good night and God bless.