Bienvedios a Hardeman

Greetings Bloggers,

I will begin by saying that I had a great entry all typed up to talk about my site where I will be working for two years, but due to technical difficulties it was lost. So I'll briefly recreate it, but there was a lot of in-the-moment feelings in it that are hard to just remember and write about.

About 3 weeks ago I found out I would be spending my time here in Bolivia in the small farming town of Hardeman. It's located about 4 hours north of Santa Cruz city, which is one of the country's largest cities and definitely most modern city. I rode out there with my work partner, a guy named Don Marcelino, who then proceeded to not be around for the rest of the site visit and I henceforth got very little info on what I'd be working on, but that's just the way Bolivia is sometimes. I will be living with another family, consisting of two sisters in their late 20s, one with an 8 year old named Bianca and the other with a one year old named Daoul, and also another nephew of theirs who is 10 named Cristian. They all seemed very nice and my room is in a brand new part of the house with a tile floor and even a ceiling fan! Which is going to come in major handy since it's really stinking hot in Santa Cruz. It's in the lowlands, at only about 230 meters, whereas the city I've been living in up until now is like 2800 meters or so. Last week was pretty much the middle of winter and it didn't get below 80 degrees, even at night. But it cools down when it rains. At least I won't have to wear shoes cause I've come to really despise wearing socks.

I spent about 3 days in my site and am pretty happy. I am the first Peace Corps volunteer they have had, which has it's good and bad parts. I have no predecessor, so I don't have to worry about behaving like they did or do the work they did. At the same time, it will be a little harder for me to integrate because the community doesn't really know what the Peace Corps is. Some people asked me if I was a doctor, which I considered saying yes to. There is a school in town run by an Italian nun who is interested in me teaching English, which I think will be cool...getting in with the kids in town will definitley help me out.

The few people I did interact with were very friendly and I think it will be a really great place to spend my time here. On the bus ride back to the city, as the bus was slipping and sliding down the muddy road, I had this strange feeling of comfort and that I was ready to do this...I really felt up for it. I guess that might sound funny, but those kind of moments can be few and far between, especially when it comes to work. It's easy to say it when I'm around all my friends all the time in a comfortable place...but I had just spent 3 days speaking nothing but spanish, understanding even less because the Santa Cruz accent is so different, and meeting all new people. And then I felt like I was ready for it, which is quite inspiring.

I'll go into more of the details on Hardeman once I get there.

Keep on rockin in the first world.

Ben