A Kingdom for want of a...

...nose.

So recently I completed my first year as an official Peace Corps volunteer. I was only in site for the first seven hours of the day...five sleeping, two freezing my backside off in the plaza while waiting for bus to Tarija and reflecting on my first year. (To be honest I didn´t reflect that day cuz I was so angry that they told me to come to the bus stop at 5:30AM when the bus came at 7. And I even asked what time the bus came the day before, that particular bus, not the other lines)
Let´s see. After one year:
--My hair is longer. It also appears to be blonder. I think I might look older but that could just be the gigantic wrinkles between my eyebrows from squinting all the time.
--I still procrastinate. I still hate doing dishes and I still leave all my clothes in a pile to be sorted later. I clean slightly more frequently because my room is the size of a postage stamp.
--My sarcasm has mellowed a bit. maybe. Mostly because it doesn´t translate. I am still brutally direct which has been referred to recently several times as "having balls." As it happens we had a situation recently where one of the new trainees told the country director about some rule breaking he had seen, resulting in some shady dealings and the loss of a spectacular volunteer.
--I am better at small talk. My friend Doña Maria says that her heart leaps when I walk by because she knows I will stop by and chat....usually about health problems (she´s 70), the scandalous dress of women today, and our neighbors. This does not mean that I will join a conversation of more than three people unless you try to tell me that coral is the biggest animal on earth, the holocaust didn´t happen, or you ask (someone else) if I understand Spanish....but then the convo may take an unpleasant turn.
--I still dislike kissing people on the cheek (the typical Bolivian greeting). This may be a depth perception thing though. I am so unsmooth. As such I continue to trip, fall over, and bump my head. I had hoped that my new glasses might help but this Sunday I walked into a pole and yelled F!%/k that hurt! (in English) in front of 20 small children. After recovering we crossed the river to have a picnic and several races. After some time, instead of using sacks to have sack races the kids started hiding in the bags. I think you had to be there. We were in a field of cacti and scattered among the plants were several colorful, chattering, rocks. Lunch was tomatoes, sardines, bread and cheese. That´s new too. I never liked tomatoes before I got here... nor peach flavored products, hamburgers and more soda than I´ve ever had in my life. I avoided organ meat until last week when I was served liver and watched to make sure that I ate every bite.
--I still have a skewed sense of humor. Bolivians make a big deal out of town/county/state/country anniversaries with parades and speeches and such. For April 3rd, the anniversary of Camargo, all the students (and I) marched to the plaza and lined up....to wait an hour for the hung-over dignitaries to show up. (For full disclosure, I also was hung-over.)When they finally came they made a bunch of long speeches to no one and then we marched again. In all seriousness, the mayor has someone specifically to make sure that the marching is done correctly. I am always tempted to stop short, or skip, or wave to the mayor.

Have set a deadline to quit English. I was visited by the Peace Corps boss-man this week. We had a meeting with my counterparts and then went to visit one of the schools where the profe and I had big plans to plant fruit trees. But her proposal got turned down so the boss man (Remigio) and I went into action trying to figure out if we could make it my project instead. Just at that moment the irrigation committee was having a meeting in a beautiful sprawling hacienda so we went to see if we could convince them to go in on a water tank. Meanwhile, we were served "refreshment" which turned out to be undistilled grape liquor....oops

I still don´t journal every day, still haven´t read War and Peace, still don´t like Bob Dylan, still have no idea what I wanna do with my life...but I have a year left. I started by celebrating my year with my buddies, dancing and looking for a tall young man for my friend who is recently broke up. Funfun.

Oh yeah. The nose. Evidently my allergies are really bad in this country and I now have sinusitis and am leaking boogers all over and coughing and stuff. I leave you with that image.