A 2.5 Week Beard (5/28/06)

So there is a bit of a competition going on between a few volunteers to see who can go the longest without shaving. So far here's what I've got going on:


What do you think? I'm at 17 days without shaving. Rock out.

Yesterday was Mother's day here in Bolivia, which in addtion to giving moms flowers and gifts, they celebrate by drinking a lot. Seems to be the custom here. Yesterday morning we (all of the kiddies) got up and presented our mom with a cake, which we promptly ate for breakfast. So good. Later that afternoon we went out to eat to a really awesome restaurant where we had some food that turned out to be really really good. It was the first thing I've had here that I've felt like I could eat until I'm really stuffed. Super Yummy. After hanging out with my fam, I went over to my friends house, who's parents were having a neighborhood party, but they had a DJ and were selling drinks and food and everything. The walk there proved to be a bit of an adventure. I said in my last post that I hadn't had any real adventures yet, well I spoke too soon. My friend lives a good bit a way from me, and I showed my dad where it was on the map and he was like "oh, don't go that way, it will take forever! Just cut through here, where there's no road, and you'll get there a lot faster." Looking back, not a good idea, but I'm a trusting soul. And at first it was pretty cool, I was walking through this tiny path, through calm fields and no one was around. I came upon a little house in the middle of nowhere and before I could say "Buenas Tardes," their three dogs ran out and were getting ready to assault me. They've taught us to carry a rock with us wherever we go in case dogs attack, and fake like we're throwing the rocks. Well, I tend to listen to instructions and had a rock with me and pretended to chuck it at all the dogs before they had a chance to bite, but they were definitely too close for comfort. I faked a few more throws and hustled out of their pretty quick, pretty sure at this point that I was lost. I followed some music and found a road...asked some people how to get where I was going, but they were from out of town, so I just turned right, judging by what I saw on my map...turns out my sense of direction is better than I thought at within about 10 minutes I was there...good thing too because it had just gotten dark. I had a great time dancing with a bunch of other volunteers and throwing back a few cervezas...it has been fun throwing myself into a whole new group of people. Here is a photo of some friends and I at the fiesta:


On the right is Justin Jansen from Iowa, whom we have dubbed "Sunshine" since he reminds us of the long-haired quarterback from Remember The Titans...also because he played football in college. Super cool dude. For those of you priveleged enough to know the Joe Ranz Plastering employee known as "Razzle," I can't help but see a resemblence between the two. Any thoughts? The girl sticking her tongue out is named Sydney (from California) and is one of the crazier folks in the group. Lots of good stories from her...before coming here she lived in a monestary for a few months, just to get used to isloation. She also played on a Swiss guys soccer team while she was studying there in high school. Everyone here has stories to tell.

The walk home (on roads this time) proved to be much safer, mainly cause we were in a big group and I wasn't by myself.

Sundays have come to be my favorite days here in Bolivia. This morning I had an early meeting and when I got back, it was apparently time to mop the patio...so my sisters were having a good time squirting themselves with the hose while they were supposed to be cleaning. They are great playmates. I snapped a couple shots of them...here's one:


We scrubbed down the patio and squeegeed it all off, which turned out to be pretty fun. It reminded me of opening Aunt Ele's pool way back in the day. After the house was clean, I did some journaling and then a load of laundry, which I have to do by hand in a tub and let it drip dry. Turns out the sun is a much more dependable dryer than the dryer at the Calhoun household :)

Now I'm at the airport using the free wireless internet and plan on going with my brother and older sister to see the Da Vinci Code tonight. Sundays are very chill, very good days, just like they are at home. They are a big part of why I have found it easier to get comfortable here...a little personal time to do personal things...just about the only time that isn't sucked up by some training session. I don't mean to downplay our training, I know it's important, but Sundays are a well deserved break.

Thanks for reading folks, take care of yourselves.

Ben

Christ, Barenaked Ladies & a Butch Cassidy Wannabe (5/26/06)

It has been a good week here in South America. I’m slowly adjusting bit by bit…getting used to doing strange things like sleeping in a mosquito net and boiling and filtering my water before drinking it. Before I know it, these kind of things will seem commonplace.

This past Sunday, I went with my sisters to watch our brother Cheeno play soccer with his team. They ended up losing, but it was fun to watch and reminisce about my good ‘ol YMCA soccer days. At first we were sitting in the shade, but it got too chilly, so we moved to the sun, but that got too hot, so we went back to the shade. That’s pretty much how it is all the time here…the best strategy is to dress for 50 or 60 degrees and hang out in the shade. Since we are so high up (the city is at about 8000 ft), the sun is really strong, but it’s cool when the sun isn’t around. Just something else to get used to. That afternoon, I went with my brother and sister to visit Cochabamba’s Christ Statue, which is supposedly the largest in the world. I heard a rumor that said this: The Christ statue in Rio is something like 34 meters tall…one meter for each of the years Jesus was alive, so the Bolivians did them one better. Since Jesus didn’t die on his birthday, he was actually 34 years plus a few months, so the Bolivians prorated the number of extra months and made it 34.2 meters tall. So this Christ has a few inches on Rio’s. Sounds to me like a way to justify making it just a little bit bigger so they could claim they had the largest in the world…South American machismo at its best. Anyway, we hiked up over a thousand steps to where the statue overlooks the whole city as the sun was setting…it was quite a view. We walked around a bit, had an ice cream, and came down on the gondola they have for the folks that aren’t up for climbing. Pretty good Sunday.

Campaigning for Scharer/Kreiner at the Christ Statue

Spanish classes are coming along pretty well. I’ve definitely had to work to get my Spanish to come back, but it’s slowly returning. Talking with my family helps a lot, especially trying to decipher what they are saying amongst each other…it’s the best way to learn new words as well as the nuances of Bolivian Spanish. Wednesday night I went out to dinner with some other volunteers and afterwards as we were walking to catch the truffi, for whatever reason I began to sing “If I Had $1,000,000” and my friend Sydney chimed in with the call backs…and for a minute I felt totally comfortable and relaxed. Kind of funny how all it takes is a song sometimes…that will be something that sticks in my mind for quite a while.

Then today (Friday) instead of going to class, our language teacher took us to a local factory that makes stuff out of Alpaca wool, which is REALLY comfy and smooth. I ended up buying a hat to keep my head warm (one less thing for Grandma Ranz to worry about) and found an awesome poncho that I’m going to go back and buy…check out the picture below…who needs Robert Redford when you’ve got Sundance Ranz?



The whole factory prides itself on using natural processes and only Bolivian Alpaca wool. They’ve got some pretty cool stuff and it’s all really comfortable. Feel free to check them out at www.fotrama.com. Unfortunately, not all of their styles fly off the shelves…my friend Josh was modeling one of their less popular designs…

A Cosby Sweat-ah!

Not too many crazy adventures yet. It’s strange…I’ve only been gone about 3 weeks…and while day by day it feels like it’s going by really quickly, it also seems like I’ve known these folks in my group for a really long time…way longer than three weeks. I must say I haven’t been all that impressed with the training quite yet…all the information they are giving us seems valuable, but to me they could be presenting it in a much better fashion. I’m already really sick of listening to person X talk about topic Y, then having them split us up into 3 groups for smaller discussions, and then having the groups present to the entire group. It’s not bad, it’s just surprising me that after years of training people, they don’t do anything more advanced than what we always did in high school. There are definitely bright spots though. Monday and Friday afternoons we have hands-on tech classes, where we learn a lot about exactly what we could be doing at our sites…for example on Monday we did a little plumbing. A couple of pipes in the local water system were leaking so we dug down and replaced the broken portions…it was great to get my hands dirty (quite literally) and help out the community too.


The Pipe We Fixed

All for now, until next time,

Ben

One thing I miss about the US: The food. Most food I have had here has been ok, but nothing amazing yet. I honestly think being sick last week was caused by Skyline & Putz’s withdrawal coupled with the realization that it’s going to be a LONG time before I get more…

One thing I don’t miss about the U.S: Buying Gas. While I do miss cruising around in White Rice, it’s great not caring a bit about gas prices changing. By the time I get back we’ll all be driving hybrids and carpooling to combat the $4 per gallon gas prices like the rest of the world.

Wednesdays = Good Days (5/24/06)

Ah, the end of a satisfying day here in Bolivia. It’s about 11pm and it’s been quite a good day. Most days we have classes in our communities at a volunteers house but on Wednesdays we spend about an hour on various modes of transportation to get to the Peace Corps training center, which is on the other side of the city from where we live. So these days are fun because we get to see our entire training group as opposed to just or project groups. There are shortened classes and sessions for cultural adaptation and health sessions as well…the training center has some space to just chill out, play hacky sack or kick a soccer ball and we get a fair amount of breaks to do stuff like that. So, while the schedule is pretty full, there is also some chill time built in to actually form bonds and make friends with the folks we’re here with, which is going to be important for our support system while we’re here. Most days are pretty rigorous and these Wednesdays are a good break from that rig-a-ma-roo.

After classes and sessions, we usually get a good group of folks to head out for dinner in the city. Tonight we tried to go to this really awesome Kabbob place, but it was closed, so we went around the corner to this place with all kinds of different food, good service and they also played good music. We had some food, some drinks and some good conversations. Then all 11 of us squeezed into a truffi to head back to our communities and had a heck of a time singing Disney showtunes, among other things. Despite the training folks best efforts to teach us not to draw attention to ourselves when we are out together like this, we still tend to be loud and obnoxious and not blend in one bit. Hopefully at some point we’ll at least be loud and obnoxious speaking Spanish instead of English.

I was lucky enough to get to chat on the phone with a good friend from the states before heading back home, which was great, despite being short lived. It’s not expensive to call by US standards (about 10 cents per minute) but I get paid in Bolivianos now and am starting to think in Bolivianos and they are a little harder to come by, so we only chatted for about 20 minutes. I got home, did some homework and finished up writing a letter and am now getting ready for bed. Re-examining the day, I’m not sure why I feel like it was such a good day, but regardless, it was. I am becoming more and more comfortable with some of the folks in the group, so perhaps that’s why. I’m not sure I’d be drawn to many of these people if we weren’t all in this situation together, but that’s fine with me, really. Any new reason to make friends is reason enough to be happy. I’ll sleep well tonight, as I do most every night.

Hasta Luego,

Ben

P.S. A most happy 21st birthday to my good pal David Morgan, who hits the big 2-1 tonight when the clock strikes 12 and the carriage turns back into a pumpkin. I know you guys are having fun and it makes me smile to think of the crazy shenanigans going on back in Columbus…nothing beats OSU in the spring…

Week One: Six good days, one not so good

Well, it has been a whole week since I have been living with my host family and holy crap has it been interesting. You can read about my family members and first night in previous posts, but there is much more to tell. Most days I get up around 7:15 and have breakfast with the girls of my household. Usually a piece of bread with jelly ("Could ya' please pass the jelly?") and hot chocolate. The weather here is crazy. During the day the sun is really strong and it's about 75 degrees and sometimes too hot, but in the mornings and evenings, it's pretty chilly. When I leave my room, I have to walk outside to get to the rest of the house so it's quite an experience. I can usually see my breath while I'm washing my face. We have a real bathroom with a toilet and everything, and water that runs all day and night. This would prove to be a godsend...I'll get to that.

After breakfast and getting dressed, I head off to class. We are all living with families in a fairly rural community, but in pretty close proximity. I walk on a road paved with stones that is pretty dusty, past pastures and cows and sheep and any kind of animal poop you could possibly want. The incredible view of the Andes mountains makes up for the nasty smells that surround the community. Below is the view from my house:




Jealous? You should be.

We have all been placed in Spanish classes with people of the same speaking level as us, and I am in a class with two other guys, Mike (from Alabama) and Josh (from Maine). We have four hours of Spanish class every morning in one of our houses, after which we return home for lunch with our family. Most of my family works during the day or goes to school, so usually lunch is left for me and the little girls. After lunch we have four hours of Technical Sessions or some sort of community integration activity, or a medical session, depending on the day. The tech sessions are by far my favorite so far...we are learning about all the cool stuff we're going to build once we're out at our sites, and current volunteers who are serving in the field come back to do the teaching. I have been very impressed with the staff so far, everyone seems really informed and on top of their game.

After the afternoon session, I return home for dinner, then either do homework, read, journal, or hang out with the family. Last night I spent about two hours teaching my two youngest sisters how to say all the colors in English. They are quick to learn and excited too...but it kind of wiped me out...I was tired afterwards!

They say we're all going to get sick...well for me it didn't take too long. Tuesday night consisted of little sleep and about 6 trips to the bathroom...like I said I was very happy I had a flushing toilet. Wednesdays we ride about an hour on a Truffi (Bolivian for: Toyota death van into which they pack about 22 people...not exaggerating...that serves as a taxi) to our training center to have classes there...well my stomach was not happy and about halfway through the Truffi ride, when it stopped to let some folks out, luckily I was close to the door cause I hopped out and threw up like a champ right on the side of the road. Man, it was damn funny. I got some weird looks from the Bolivians on the Truffi after I got back in...thankfully the thing didn't drive away. Mike and Josh thankfully made the guy wait until I was through, then gave me a little victory reassurance by saying "Geez man, I thought you were done halfway through, way to barf like a champ!"

It didn't' help my stomach any that when we got to training, that day's medical topic was "diarrhea and dysentery: How to get it and how to prevent it." Certainly a memorable day. I felt awful all day...Definitely a low point. It's times like these when I'd do anything to come back. But then a few hours later, we went out for dinner and I had a really incredible conversation with a few of the other Trainees and I remembered why I am here and how good the good can feel. It was a pretty crazy feeling to go from so high to so low in such a short amount of time. Luckily by the end of the day whatever was in my system had run it's course and I've been good to go since. Rock and roll!

All for now, check back Wednesdays and on the weekends for updates.

Current Health Status: Good to go. The red thing on my face is still hanging around a bit. Any dermatologists in the house?
Current Hygiene Status: Showers twice a week, wash my face once a day, wash my hands about a million times a day.
Days Since Last Shave: 9
Current Book: Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, recommended by Michael J. Ranz - a great and inspiring story of a Harvard educated doctor who spends all his time and money in Haiti. Check it out, fellow world savers.

The Fam - 5/15/06

Don Roberto: My host father is 39 years old and works in a detergent factory, I think. He works long hours (he leaves about 5am) and then goes to classes to get his high school equivalency, I think. He is gone a good majority of the time during the week and only gets to really spend time with his kids on Saturdays and Sundays. He demands that his kids study hard and doesn’t really let them go out too much. He works hard so his children can have a better life than him This family has had Peace Corps volunteers live with them before, but I am the first male to stay here, which I think he enjoys…machismo is a pretty big deal here and I doubt he would feel comfortable taking me a lot of the places he has if I were a woman.

Dona Aurora: My host mother doesn’t say much, but is very friendly when she does. She also works during the week at a soap factory, although I’m not sure if it’s the same one where her husband works. She likes to laugh but it seems like finding time for it is a challenge.

Noelia: Sister, age 22 years old. She goes to college for early childhood education and studies a lot, like her father tells her too. She likes hanging out with her friends too when she has time, mostly while she’s at classes. I have had the most interaction with her out of all of the kids, and she has told me she kind of wants to get out of this place and make a life of her own…big dreams.

Cristian (Cheeno): Brother, age 18. We haven’t talked much. He finished high school last year and has been working in the detergent factory too since then. He is thinking about going to Police Training school either this June or next June. He seems pretty friendly and plays soccer on Sundays.

Shirley & Jesica: Sisters ages 10 & 7. The two “chiquitas” with whom I eat breakfast and usually lunch…they goof around a laugh a lot together and are always smiling. They both go to school in the mornings and spend the afternoons doing homework and playing. They help me with my spanish homework and I help them with Math problems. They are my playmates and we have a great time. They remind me a bit of the Calhoun twins, only way less funny. But that might only be because they don't speak English like the Calhoun boys. But then again, for those of you that know them, I think you'd agree that no one speaks English quite like the Calhoun boys.

First Night - 5/14/06

I arrived at my new Bolivian home yesterday around 4:30 pm…in all honesty my new family did not seem very excited to have me here, they were fairly complacent…much more than I was expecting. But, they knew nothing of me before I arrived today, and I nothing of them. We didn’t even know each other’s names. Dinner was fairly quiet…nothing but simple conversations…questions about where I was from, what my family is like, how old I am. I found out that most of their family lives on this street…grandparents, uncles, cousins, the works. A veritable Bolivian Boomer Road, if you will. I returned to my room feeling quite homesick for familiar food and people who spoke English…this was not the first or last time I wondered to myself “What am I doing here?”

My host father then came to tell me that there was a gathering up the street tonight…a baptism party for someone in the family, and asked if I wanted to go. Doing my best to overcome the homesickness, I figured I might as well begin getting to know the people I’d be living around, which turned out to be an excellent decision. I met a whole host of friends and family, all who were very interested in what I was doing there. This was the first real test of my Spanish skills…aside from the loud music playing, both the people I spoke with and myself were a little tipsy, so it was certainly a challenge. Everyone wanted to shake my hand and call me a friend. I had an excellent conversation with a guy named Don Tito, who told me he could tell that I was a beautiful person on inside as well as on the outside. My host-dad told me more about his life and how he raises his kids and I found out that this family isn’t much different than many of those I know back home. We danced “la cueca,” which is a local dance where the participants swing handkerchiefs in the air and halfway through take a little break for a quick drink that everyone throws back quickly. Those of you who are familiar with my dancing skills know that I didn’t quite master the dance, but no one seemed to mind. I was a happy little gringo.

I got up around 9am or so and sat down to a cup of coffee with my host sister when my host dad came out and asked how I felt, confessing that he didn’t feel so great. He encouraged me to come with him so he could show me the customary Sunday Bolivian hangover cure. We walked through a couple of cow fields to a neighbor’s house that had been converted into a tiny restaurant where many came for soup and some more beer. That’s right, it’s 9:30 am after a night of drinking and we were drinking beer again. “A little hair of the dog that bit ya” as my mom always says (not that she practices such a thing). I took it easy…telling my host dad that I liked to drink, but not 24 hours a day. I had a great conversation with a younger guy named Alberto, who was confounded by the fact that mother’s day in the U.S was not the same day every year. From there, we went back to the house we had been the night before, where everyone had returned for more drinking and playing a game called “zanuela,” which is strangely like cornhole, only on a much smaller scale and played with coins. My host dad informed me that everyone worked so much during the week that the weekend was the only time they had to spend with family, so that’s really all anyone did on the weekends. I hung around for a couple more hours talking with folks but then walked back home to spend some time with the rest of the family. Needless to say, it was an interesting first 18 hours or so.

Clarification

Greetings blog readers!

Just a heads up, I'm going to let you in on a new blogging system. Obviously, I don't have daily internet access. So what I've begun to do is write about my experiences on my computer at night during the week and then upload those updates to the blog all at once, usually on Wednesday evenings or Saturday or Sunday afternoons. So check the dates I have typed if you get confused as to why all the blog posts are all from the same day. Make sense?

Also, the airport here has free wireless internet, so as often as I can I am going to try to come here and use my laptop. A great way to keep up is by using Skype (www.skpe.com) to talk for absolutely free from computer to computer. My username is ranzaganza27 or you can search for me by using my email address, ben.ranz@gmail.com. So if you see me online, give me a ring and we can chat as clear as day!

Without further adieu, this weeks updates...

All the best,

Ben

Una Familia Nueva

So later on today we will all move out of our nice hotel and into our homestays with Bolivian families. We will spend an incredible amount of time here and this will be our main opportunity to integrate ourselves into Bolivian culture. Not only will we sleep and have our meals at these homes, but we will also have our language classes there. We are placed in groups dependent on our spanish level and then placed in homes near the other students in our spanish class. Each morning we´ll walk to another persons house (or stay at our own) for class for four hours. We then go home for the big meal of the day, almuerzo (lunch). Then, most days starting at 2pm we will have training sessions pertaining to our project, which is also 4 hours. The fact of the matter is, the next 11 weeks are going to be incredibly demanding and frustrating. All of the current volunteers with whom we´ve interacted have said that training is without a doubt the hardest part of Peace Corps. At no other time do we have such a strongly regimented schedule and so little free time.

It should be interesting though, some of the questions they asked us when placing us in families were "do you like children?", "could you handle showering in a barrel?" "would you be ok with lots of farm animals running around?" We all are trying to be as flexible as possible, so we´ll see how it turns out.

Since we are leaving the hotel, I don´t think I´ll have access to the internet nearly as often...perhaps once a week or so. I will do my best to update this thing as often as possible though. And next time I have my bag with me, I´ll send out my address so you guys can all send me stuff!

Hasta luego,

Ben

If you just let go and scream, it´s a lot more fun...

So day one in Cochabamba is coming to a close. We are all staying in a hotel until Saturday, when we will move in with our homestay families, where we will be for three months for the duration of training in Cochabamba. We left Miami last night at 11:15 and arrived in Bolivia this morning around 5:30. After a long layover in La Paz, we hopped about a half hour flight to Cochabamba. Needless to say, we were wiped out and spent most of the day sleeping. We had about 3 hours of introductory sessions before current Peace Corps Volunteers in Bolivia came to the hotel and took us all on a quick tour of the city and to a place for dinner. They have proved to be an invaluble resource for all of our questions. Some have been here only a couple of months, others are getting closer to finishing their tour soon. They were extremely eager to share information and we were extremely eager to hear it. It was really great to meet folks that have been here for a while and can really relate to what we are feeling.

The best way to describe the past couple of days is a roller coaster. Coping with saying goodbye to everyone I love coupled with the excitement of the adventure upon which I am about to embark has caused me to be constantly up and down. When we talk about how good it´s going to feel to help people and how much they are going to appreciate it, I get really excited and remember why I wanted to go and know I made the right choice. But then we start talking about some of the times which are not so great and the things that can go wrong and I start to think ´´why on earth am I here? why did I choose to do this?´´ And the thought came across my mind to cut and run off the jetway as we boarded the plane to South America. Luckily, these were all fleeting thoughts and the good has begun to far outweigh the bad. Which is exactly opposite of what I was feeling Monday morning. But now I´m actually here...it´s kind of unbelieveable. For over a year I´ve been saying I¨m going to join the Peace Corps...andfor the past couple of months I have been saying I´m going to Bolivia. But now I´m actually here and it´s an odd feeling.

All in all, it´s all good. Once I embraced the roller coaster of emotions instead of being afraid of it, everything became easier.

Check back soon to hear about my family I will meet on Saturday. Until then, peace be the journey.

Ben

p.s. emails are incredibly nice to recieve while I´m here. I´ll do my best to answer all I recieve, but it´s comforting to read news of friends and family, however tiny...

The Group

Although I am writing this while in Bolivia, pretend it was yesterday before I left Miami and I am blogging. I´d like to take some time to talk about the group of people I am with and the staging we went through together for two days in Miami.

Everyone is very friendly and about what I expected...a few really chill people, a few kind of spazzy people, those who talk a lot and those who are rather quiet. I wonder what they think of me so far and where I fit in. We haven´t had too much of a chance to get to know each other aside from having meals together and the like, but we are starting with small things. I´ve got everyone´s name down so far (too bad they don´t have dot numbers) and am now working on where everyone is from and where they went to school. There are 31 in our group, 16 Integrated Education Volunteers and 15 Basic Sanitation Volunteers, of which I am one. There are about 5 each from Oregon and California, 3 from Alabama, 2 from Seattle, 2 from DC, one from Maine and a few other Midwesterners...even one guy who went to Michigan! He´s surprisingly cool though. There is one guy Josh who reminds me so much of my friend Frank Sasso that I have actually called him Frank a couple of times. He doesn´t seem to mind. There is also a girl from DC who played Lacrosse at Georgetown who knows Molly Murphy McLauglin, which I found pretty random.

Everyone has at least one cool story to tell, and most have traveled extensively. People have lived in Argentina, chile, tanzania, japan, italy and many others. There are two married couples, one which is older and one my age.

They say that over the next three months of training, our group will become extremely tight. Then we all get sent out to our posts and spend our social time meeting up in cities with folks from our training class.

It is nice being around people who are here for the same reasons I am and who are all going through the same stuff. You will be hearing much more about them as the weeks and months go by.

All for now.

The Storm Before the Storm

So I thought I'd give this blogging thing a try...seems to be a good way to keep everyone updated on my adventures. The past few weeks have been a bit of a "Ben Ranz Farewell Tour." It has included trips to New York City; Cleveland; Las Vegas; Bloomington, Indiana; Columbus, and finally, Cincinnati. It has been incredible being able to visit with so many people before I ship out.

For about the past week, I have been at my parents house, basically making a huge mess. I got all of my earthly possessions out of all of the nooks and crannies of their house and went through everything, sending a car full to Goodwill and a whole garbage can to the trash (much to my dad's dismay). What remains now are two rooms filled with clothes, CD's, wires, and just about everything else I own strewn about as I make an attempt to pack and put stuff away. My mom is looking forward to getting her upstairs back, while my dad insists that the mess is "pretty neat" and felt the need to take video footage of the "tornado" that hit the second floor. Those of you who know my dad are certainly laughing right now. Below is a shot of the mess upstairs, although not at its worst point.



I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update this once I'm in Bolivia, but check back periodically for the latest from South America.

T-minus 6 days...