"You must be the change you want to see in the world."

Sorry about the vague entry before. I was in the training center and we have 1 computer for 20 people to use in about an hour total. So, a few other trainees and I went into a larger ¨city¨to use the internet/have dinner tonight. It´s good to feel a little bit of freedom...

Anyway, I wanted to take the chance to tell you all just a little bit about my family. My "host parents" are 69 and 70 and live with their granddaughter who is 16. I think that one of my host parents´ children´s family lives with us, but I don´t see them enough to talk with them. There are also two of the parents´ sons who live with us (both are older than I). Other than that, I think that my host family is related to everyone in town. We have a small store on the front of our house. This is really interesting because people are constantly coming up to the front of it and yelling ¨¡vendame!¨ to call attention to the fact that they would like to buy something, then someone from the family goes in the store and does business. Our house is very large for the neighborhood and is centered around a large open courtyard. We have lots of animals; cows, pigs, chickens, a couple pesky roosters, 4 dogs, a pregnant cat, 3 green parrots, and a macaw (sp?). A cousin of the family has an adorable puppy that comes over a lot.

I´ve got to say, life has been pretty comfortable, although different from the US. I´ve only taken one shower since arriving on Saturday and it was from a bucket, but it´s just not a big deal. I could go on and on about the differences, but they all seem just fine to me. The weather here is amazing and the landscape is beautiful. I can´t wait to get pictures of my village up. (Keep in mind, this is just my village for training.)

Class is pretty strenuous, just because I don´t like sitting in class a lot. We have class daily from about 8:30-6:00. Luckily, my language teacher is awesome. And, once in a while, things get mixed up due to vaccination days. There´s nothing like free healthcare...I can´t say it enough.

So, anyway, here are some pictures that I do have online. Enjoy.

=) Sarita


Sunrise over La Paz from the airplane. Note: this camera sucks and doesn´t do anything justice.


Our hotel room.


The training center; we go here on Wednesdays and it´s just a really cool place in general.


More training center.


Latrines at the training center. First time I´ve ever used a latrine without a seat. That´s going to take a bit of practice, but it´s not bad.


View of Cochabamba from the PC Headquarters. The HQ building is ridiculously lavish in comparison with everything else we´ve seen, IMHO.


Another view from the HQ.