Beth is Alive!

hello everyone, hola todos!
beth is alive! beth esta viva!
sorry that it has taken me so long to write a group email. i have been crazybusy. this training program is insane, they keep us busy every day from 8-6and then expect us to help our families cook dinner and do our homework. sowhere to begin...

right now i´m living in a community called florida, which is outside of abigger town called quillacollo, which is a suburb of cochabamba. i´m in amountain valley at a pretty high altitude. it is very chilly in the morningand after the sun goes down, but during the day it hits the low 80´s. i liveon a cobblestone-dirt road in a tiny cement-concrete-plaster house with ayoung family. the parents are in their early 30´s. their names are don noeland doña willma. they have two precious childre, joel who is 4 and lesliewho is 7 months old. joel is full of energy and always wants to play andtalk with me even if we don´t understand eachother. the spanish here is hardfor me to understand, they speak with a different accent and use a lot ofslang from the indigenous language (quechua). the baby is so chubby andcute. she doesn´t cry much and just loves to be in her stroller. i´ve beenhelping care for her a lot. i get to feed her, which is funny to do becauseshe won´t take a bottle. you have to feed her with a spoon. don noel anddoña willma are really nice, and they talk to me all the time. doña willmais trying to teach me all sorts of things. i´m learning how to peel tomatoesand potatoes with a really sharp knife. she does it so amazingly fast and ittakes me a very long time. hopefully i come home with all of my fingersleft. i´m learning how to cook a lot of native dishes too. which means i´mlearning 1001 ways to cook potatoes and rice, because that is all they eathere. every dish includes rice and potatoes, and sometimes noodles as well.they eat a lot of carbohydrates. they cook the rice here with a lot of oil.first they fry the dry rice in oil. then they boil it in water with oil andthen they drain it and put some more oil on it. it tastes ok, but i know itmust be pretty bad for you. i really wish they would cook more veggies,because they have them around. they mostly just sell all of the fruit andveggies they grow at the market instead of eating them at home.

as for the peace corps training, it involves a lot of sitting and listening.we get lectures on safety, security, diseases, and cultural issues. thereare a lot of scary diseases here that i won´t mention, i don´t want to scareyou all. don´t worry though, i´ve been vaccinated for a lot of thingsalready. every wednesday we go to the training center and get shots. lastweek i got 3 shots, and the flu shot hurt really bad. everyone has bruisesand sore arms from that one. every morning we have language classes in thecommunity where we live. the professors come from the city and we meet ingroups by level of spanish at someone´s house. i´m in the advanced groupwhich is both good and bad. it is good in that i can communicate prettywell, but on the other hand the advanced group has to do individual thesistype project-reports. i´m kind of nervous because it involves doinginterviews and that sort of thing. it should be ok though, i have to go getmy proposal signed on monday morning, i´m hoping to do a project on boliviandental care and the role of the school system. the people here have prettybad teeth. my little host brother has all of his front teeth half rottedout. most adults have a few fake teeth or have tons of gold fillings acrosstheir front teeth. the living conditions in my community are not so good.most people have running water at least a few days a week and electricitymost of the day. my family has electricity and running water most of thetime. we also have a latrine, which is basically a cement toilet that youhave to poor water down after using. it smells horrible. the first time iwent in there i threw up because it smells so bad, but now i´m getting usedto it.

let´s see...what else. hmm, today i´m in the city with my friend laura wholives with the family next door to mine. we went to the supermarket to lookfor some food, because we are already sick of eating potatoes and rice. ibought some powdered milk because we can´t drink milk from the local cows,it is too full of bacteria. i also bought some tomato paste, so i can teachmy host mom to make some sauce for pasta tonight. oh yes, i forgot tomention my host parents are both teachers. my host mom teaches weaving andcrafty type stuff. i have no idea what my host dad teaches, but on theweekend he is the community water and electricity bill collector.

well, for now i guess that is all. i´m having a good time and the people inmy training class are awesome. everyone seems to get along well and we´rehaving a good time. hopefully i´ll have some funny stories next time for youall. i love and miss you all. take care and write back when you can. if younotice someone is missing from my mailing list, please let me know. i don´twant to leave anyone out. thanks!

hugs, beth in bolivia