Living the Bolivian Life

We´ve been settling nicely into the Bolivian way of life....

We work: We´ve almost had two full weeks of work now and its been going great. We´ve actually been doing more construction then was initially scheduled. The first couple of days we moved (with buckets on a pulley system) a huggggggge pile of sand from the first floor of the clinic to the second floor. The next couple of days we did the same thing with bricks. My entire body hurt for like a week, but lately we´ve just been painting which is much easier. There are only two guys working construction right now due to lack of funds (the recession is every where it appears), but I think the five of us make a pretty good team. Another guy from the US and his son have worked a day or two also. We have also been doing home visits and working with the nurses preparing supplies; they make their own cotton balls here and we´ve made a ton.

We eat: We´ve been managing to cook a fair amount. Mostly veggies and we buy meat to go along with them from this family that runs a restaurant (out of their living room) and grills awesome meat every night. Lunches we haven´t been cooking that much, but its hard to do better than $1.15 lunches that include salad, rice, and some type of meat dish. Though one women did tell me we were floja (lazy) for not cooking lunch, but I´m pretty sure a maid prepares lunch for her family so I didn´t take it too personally.

We workout: After about a month of meat and potatoes, I think we´ve all decided its time to start working out. Maybe the Bolivians can eat like this all the time, but I definitely can not. Mansfield has started playing on the clinic soccer team. They did lose their first two games, but they seem to be having a good time; Maya and I have been having a great time watching them. I´ve also worked out a running/stairs workout around the courtyard of our building that I´ve been doing pretty regularly. While running around in circles may not sound that appealing, its well worth the repetitiveness to avoid getting constantly hollered on the street (though the male dog next door does his best not to let his fellow chicos down).

We do things like Bolivians: Maya and I have officially mastered the art of riding the moto´s (dirt bike taxis) sidesaddle like the Bolivian women do. At first I was very sceptical, but now I think I actually like it better that way. It feels like it would be easier to make a quick exit from the bike if necessary; not that I have ever needed too, but ya just never know. We have also taken to (like all good Bolivians) hanging out on the street at night. Everyone brings chairs and sits on the sidewalk in the doorway to escape the heat. We were told that the fact that we had music and speakers made it less authentic, but some things are just necessary.

All and all we have settled in to a nice routine in Montero. This weekend we are going to a water park on Saturday to kick off the birthday celebrations. On Sunday we are attending the championship soccer game between Santa Cruz and La Paz (viva Santa Cruz!). Hope all is well at home!