Okay, so I’ve found myself in the middle of a major family drama. It’s been brewing for a week or so, but yesterday it finally got resolved. It goes a little something like this: Sunday morning my aunt approached me and told me I had to move into her house because of a wedding in August. Yeah, the reason wasn’t really a reason. So before I knew it, about 5 or 6 Bolivians were in my room grabbing my stuff and running to the other house and depositing it in an empty room. Within an hour my entire room was empty, including the bed, which my surprisingly strong aunt picked up and carried all by herself to the other house. So I hurriedly unpacked my stuff and then went off to work on our group project until later that night. When I returned, I had to go to the other house to hang up my wet, soggy clothes (I washed them that morning and as I was hanging them up to dry it started to rain, so I had to leave them in a wet heap in my room). My old family ran up to me asking why I had left them and that they want me to come back, etc. I was completely confused. I assumed my aunt had told my mom (her sister) that she was moving me, but apparently she didn’t. The whole family was sad/pissed that I had left without saying anything. And I was pissed too because I preferred living in the other house and I wanted to move back ASAP. But by that time it was too late, so I just went to bed in the new house and asked the Peace Corps lady about it on Monday. She was mad that my aunt had moved me without asking PC (I’m just going to start abbreviating it) and that there were now two gringitas in one house (yeah, I now live with another trainee). So that night she called my aunt and they had a 40 minute argument over the phone, but nothing really came of it. We just found out that the reason for my move had nothing to do with the wedding, which pissed off the PC lady even more. So Tuesday Christa (PC lady) came to my house during my Spanish class to talk to my aunt. However, my aunt coincidentally was gone all day. All day. 9-9. She’s never gone. Wednesday she called with no response. Finally Thursday she was able to get a hold of her and the conclusion was that I have to stay at the new house. It’s kind of a bummer, but I’ll survive. Actually, the new room is much more modern and “better” (i.e. no dirt floor and that kind of thing). But dude, every door has at least 3 locks and I only have keys to some of them. I’m continuously either locked in or out. I hate that! I was late to Spanish class yesterday because I was locked in my own house!!
Okay, the other stressful thing in my life right now is all the work I have to do. I feel like I’m back in school. This Sunday I have to give a 45 min. presentation (in Spanish!!) with my PDA group. That just means, well, don’t worry about that. Too hard to explain. The bottom line is that this weekend is going to be packed. We have to prepare for that speech and give it, then immediately begin working on three more! Yeah, we have to give three more 45 min. presentations on totally different topics in Spanish during Semanan Tecnica (will describe later). And tonight I’m going to the city to celebrate two trainees’ birthdays, which means I’ll be out of commission for all tonight and a good part of tomorrow. Oh what a busy life! Okay, question for you all: if you were living in a land-locked country, would you choose to have your birthday dinner at a sushi place? I’d say no, but I guess that’s not the majority’s vote. I mean, I like sushi as much as the next person, but where are they getting it from exactly? It just can’t be that fresh. I don’t like my raw fish to have traveled two weeks over the Andes on a llama’s back. But I guess that’s just me. All I can do is try some and see if I get any severe stomach trauma. It’ll be a good experiment.
Other than the unstable living conditions and loads of work, all is good. Next week we leave for Semana Tecnica, which is just a 10-day trip to the altiplano (exactly where I DO NOT want to go for the next two years) in which we learn about what current Natural Resource volunteers are doing in their sites. We have to give our charlas (those presentations) to farmers who probably know a lot more about natural pesticides and fertilizers than I do. We also will be doing some good old manual labor like digging ditches, building retaining walls, and planting trees. It’s in a department called Oruro. It’s at like 13,000 ft or something. The bottom line is that it’s cold, cold, cold. I’m shivering just thinking about it. And the bad part is that for the Natural Resource Group, there are 5 open spaces and only 9 of us. So there’s a good chance that I’ll have to go there. We’re going to talk with the head dude during the trip about what our preferred choices are, so we’ll see if I can convince him to put me somewhere warm. I really want to go to a department called Santa Cruz. It’s really hot and humid (which will kind of suck), and full of malaria carrying mosquitos, leishmaniasis carrying sandflies, and dengue fever carrying mosquitos. But seriously, I’d rather have my skin eaten off my body from protozoa than be cold all the time. Plus, I just hear from everyone that Santa Cruz rocks, is gorgeous, and is a great place to live. Hopefully I can convince them to put me there!!
Oh yeah, there’s lots of praying and stuff going on because it’s getting close to Semana Santa (Good Friday), which is a super big deal here. On Friday (which I’m soooo mad that I’m going to miss) they eat 12 different dishes for dinner. 12! That’s awesome! I can’t believe I’m going to miss it! But at least I’m not missing the fireworks, the parades, and the weird nun ladies walking around the streets with megaphones and gigantic crosses talking about Jesus. It’s kind of cool. I love how there’s always something to celebrate around here.
Well, I love and miss you all and hope you’re all doing good back in the states. I’ll write again when I get back from Semana Tecnica!