Yarumela

Again, I am sorry for being a neglectful blog poster...but the negligence has not been entirely my fault. I live in a little area outside La Paz called Yarumela, there is no internet there..so this is the first chance I have had since the move to tell everyone how I have been.
The move went fine, my host family in Santa Lucia let me leave one of my big suitcases there with all my sweaters and extra stuff in it, so I didnt have to haul as much here to La Paz. We arrived last Sunday night and I met my new host family. They are wonderful and take very good care of me. Yesterday, they even took me on a family picnic to a pool. It was great.

I technically live with my host mother, father, sister and cousin. But, my host mom has like 6 daughters, so things can get busy at our house! My host ¨siblings¨are all much older than me, as my host mom is about 75. Occansionally, when the whole big group is together, I just sit and smile because the sisters´interactions remind me very much of my aunts in the states! Some things are just true across all cultures :) The picnic on Sunday with them was great, they are very fun and were feeding me as much as possible. They keep telling me that when I leave my stomach ¨won´t be so nice and flat.... I tell them that this is ok, because all the food is so good! My tortilla intake has increased exponentially in the last month. ha.

Over the weekend, I also went into a nearby city called Comayagua. My host sister (aunt) took me on saturday and we went to a supermarket (that had all kinds of exciting things) and ate in the main Plaza. After lunch, on our way out of town, we (coincidentally) ran into some other PC people and ended up spending the rest of the day in the city with them. We walked around all afternoon and went shopping. (for Sara L and Jessy P; I bought a bootleg version of Enchanted! Ill let you know when I watch it. hehehe). It was a very nice, very hot, day.

Training also continues to go well. We have gotten a number of presentations from current Volunteers, which is really nice. It is fun to hear from people who are actually applying the things we are trying to learn. Language is also going well, today we had our second interview to see if we are improving at all. He told me that I definitely won´t go down a level. Phew. :)

Also, I have pigs at my house. My mom takes care of three giant swine things in our backyard. In addition, I have a giant pet spider in my room. Actually, its not a pet, because if I find it, I will be squishing it as fast as possible with a nearby shoe. Although, when I say big, I mean about the size of the palm of my hand....so maybe I need a large boot to really get the job done.
I called my (real) dad the other night in a traumatized fit because I had discovered the nasty little sucker, but he scampered away when I tried to kill him.... He is still MIA...and I occasionally wake up at night with a jerk, thinking he is crawling on the bed preparing to attack me. (I think the malaria meds are doing a number of my imagination/dreams).

Anyway, aside from my hairy little friend, everthing is going just great. If anyone wants to write me a letter (hint hint) my address is still the same as in the previous posts. Letters get delivered to us from the capital every week or so.

Hope everyone is having a great Saint Patty´s Day! I am sad to be missing the magic of the green Chicago River... :( Love to everyone!
Happy (belated) birthday mom!!!