The Scene & The Players (2006.08.25)

I thought I’d put up some photos of where I live and who I spend my time with these days.

The Hardeman Water Tank – Lets you know you’ve arrived as well as does some free advertising for some agriculture company.

Hardeman is a dusty place, thanks to the lack of paved roads. Here’s a shot of looking down the road coming into town:


The blue building to the left is the pharmacy, and the little place on the corner behind that big sign (this side of the blue building) is where I get a nice cool drink and a treat on the mornings I feel the need for a snack. Sadly, the Hostess and Little Debbie trucks have elected to not include Hardeman (or Bolivia for that matter) on their daily routes. Papa Shultz would have a tough time here.



Looking up the main road, right before it takes a turn into the plaza. I live in the blue house on the left, behind the pile of bricks I can stand on if I want cell phone service. Off to the right is a nice little path to take a walk on, without people living around it. Nice and secluded.



The Water Cooperative where I work every day. You can see the tank in the back. This is two doors down from where I live.



Here is my front door. It opens up to the front part of the house, which is older and dirtier. After going in through the front door, I walk through a dark little room and come out the doorway on the right below. Looking right, this is what I see.


I hesitate to call it the dining “room,” so I’ll just call it the dining area. Beyond that door straight ahead is the kitchen, where we also sometimes eat. There is a tiny oven and fridge in there, but we have to bring water from the faucet, which is behind me from where I’m taking this picture. Turning around from this view, I see this:



This is what I call my “house.” I use quotes because it’s not really what we think of as a house…it’s really just a few covered rooms that all open up into the open air…so I guess this is my “yard.” On the right is the old bathroom set up, along with the clothes washing sink (stationary tub?). Beyond the enormous satellite dish is the new construction at the back of the house, where all the bedrooms are. My front window is the one on the left. Also behind the satellite dish is a coconut tree. Cool! Walking a little further into the yard and looking left, you see the new bathroom:


The door on the right is the toilet, and the door on the left is the shower. Behind the little tree you can see the new stationary tub, and also a tiny sink for hand washing and tooth brushing. If I keep walking back, I arrive at the bedrooms. Here are some shots of my room.




There is a nice high ceiling, two big windows, a bed, a table and a dresser. The room came with the table and the bed, I bought the dresser. It would be cooler with a Dark Side of the Moon poster on the wall, but oh well. The floor is tile and I sweep out the dust that finds it way in every couple of days. It’s a pretty nice set up, I’ve got no complaints about the house. Except maybe our dog, Ocampo, seems to bark at nothing during the night, which can get to be annoying. Here he is:


Some of you Von Allmens over the age of 19 might remember Spiegel, Pop and Grandma’s faithful steed, who reminds me of this dog here. However, Ocampo is by no means a dog and a half.

When you hear me referring to my “office,” here’s what I’m talking about.


It’s a nice corner, just enough space for what I need. And they let me take up a bunch of space with my whiteboard, which makes me happy.



And now on to the people. The woman who owns the house I live in is named Lidia, and she also works with me at the water cooperative. Lidia is on the left.



On the right is Susy, who answers the phones and does other random tasks around the water cooperative. They get a kick out of my strange Spanish and my refusal to shave. We have a pretty good time around the office each day. Also hanging around the office is Danny the plumber, seen below.



Danny fixes pipes when they break and cuts off people’s water off when they don’t pay. He also talks really freaking fast. Nice fella. There are always people coming in and out of the coop to receive phone calls or just to hang out. Two of our favorite guests are Kilmer and Elli, seen below.



I talked about Kilmer in an earlier blog…quite a comical character. Elli is Lidia’s cousin and is very nice, and she speaks slowly which earns her serious points in my book. Although the other day we had an unwelcome visitor to the cooperative.


Pretty nasty, huh? Freakin’ huge! No idea where it came from or where it went. I can hear my sister still screaming.

Other people running around my house include Vianka, Lidia’s 8 year old daughter:



She’s always running around getting into whatever there is to get into. She can be a brat sometimes, but I don’t blame her really, I assume it’s tough without her dad around, who lives in Spain. She doesn’t quite fill the void made from my sisters from my old host family, but those are tough shoes to fill. There is also Cristian (nickname “Chino”), who is Lidias nephew, the 11 year old son of her sister who passed away when he was a baby. His dad left town too. I don’t have a photo of Chino. Then there is Lidia’s 23 year old sister, Bilma, and her baby boy, Daul.


The baby is pretty well behaved for being a one year old and is usually the center of attention around the house. Bilma is also very friendly and speaks slow. Then there are a few folks who aren’t always around but are regular visitors. Lidia’s parents usually spend their time out at their farm, but come in usually on the weekends or whenever they feel like it, really. They bring stuff to sell in town (watermelon…yum!) and her mom is a better than average Bolivian cook, which also earns serious points in my book. Last but not least is Lidia’s 19 year old brother, Pepe. Pepe spends the vast majority of the time in Santa Cruz city, where he studies agriculture in college so he can help his dad. He comes home usually every other weekend and is also very friendly. He has shown me a few things on the guitar and introduced me to a few people around town as well.

That pretty much wraps things up for my daily life here. Below is a shot of the sunset on the busride back to Hardeman…nice.




Health Status Update: Doing fine after a 12 hour bout with food poisoning (I think) earlier this week
Beard Update: Long enough to merit shampoo. Still no plans to cut it, or my hair for that matter.
Most Utilized Thing I Brought: Laptop computer. God bless Apple
Least Utilized Thing I Brought: Shaving Cream. Ha!