Easter etc.

Easter was interesting. Apparently the Good Friday tradition is to hike just high enough up the mountains so that your lungs explode and then then take a frosty cold dip in the river. I could not partake in the bathing part because I had a pretty wicked cold. (The cold also prevented me from doing my laundry because doing laundry would make me lose my voice according to some weird Bolivian mom logic.) On Saturday we had our host family fiesta which was less than fun. It was hot, unorganized, and the food was bad. I´m not just whining- my family didn´t enjoy theselves either. Afterwards the volunteers chilled in the plaza and people watched. The highlight was a group of drag queens. Then we ran into Cesar (my tech trainer) and his brothers at a dance club and I stayed out until curfew. Not after. And definitely not until 5AM. On Easter Sunday my family tried to kill me. I was just humbly minding my own business when Abuelita invited me to partake in some chicha. For the unitiatied chicha is an alcoholic corn brew whose fermentation somehow involves spit and poop. Lets just say I spilled out a lot for Pachamama. I was also fed strawberries (which can give me brainworm..but worth it!), made to play soccer in my sandals (and I lost), and forced to listen to the screaming cholita music (which I can only explain as unneccesarily loud noise). In exchange for the Good Friday tradition I tried to explain the tradition of easter socks (thanks Mary!) and I hid Easter eggs for the kiddos.

All 29 of us swore in on April 13th which I hear is pretty darn rare.

I am currently at my site settling in. I couldn´t find my coworker at all this week so let´s just say that my room is now really organized, I read a lot, and sat in the plaza for long amounts of time. Three people have compimented my Spanish. Five have asked me to teach English and about thirty have tried to cheat me on the price of fruit. I also met the world´s tallest Bolivian. He had previously been just a rumor of a man described to me as ¨having the height of a gringo." He is actually quite tall...almost 7ft.