all i want for christmas

That's a long way off, I know. But a number of friends have said they would like to send us a package and are wondering what to put inside. No way would we turn that down. So happens that my birthday is in a few weeks, too, so to make it easy on all you wonderful people that want to send some love and joy in the mail, here's some ideas of lightweight treasure I would kill for (and a few for Tom of course):

good coffee and tea
dried fruit, almonds, walnuts
your fave spice or herb mix (we have oregano, salt, and pepper here, nada mas)
any burts bees products
bars of hippie chocolate (endangered species chocolate, eg)
hemp, string and beads
pictures of the fun you're up to
mixed cd's
yummy lip balms and chapsticks
good pens
magazines (backpacker, NG, any trashy smut that I would never read at home but somehow find comforting when I'm so far removed)
mach 3 blades
beef jerky
favorite recipes

Any package should be under four pounds or it will cost an arm and a leg to send and pick up. Also, regardless of what you put inside, say that the contents are religious materials (put a little prayer and verse in there if you don't want to lie) or pictures and letters, and declare the value as zero dollars. Otherwise, we will have to pay the value of the package, which, I assure you, we can't afford. Our address is on the right. Our love and gratitude are in the air for all who are thinking of us and supporting us on this grand adventure.

As always, we miss you wonderful people and wish we could hang out for an evening. Soon enough.

got my man back

Having Tom back by my side makes me feel like I’m home. We are home, I guess. Two years here will be as long as we’ve lived anywhere else, and we’re doing a fine job of settling in, making this pink box a home, and getting to know our neighbors and our town. I like it here. There’s plenty of work for us to do, plenty of good people to get to know, plenty of hours in every day.

This is not a place of rushing. From noon to three every day the town takes a nap –stores close, people go home, food is eaten, rests are taken. Life is good. When we walk by a store, the owner invites us in and puts a snack in our hands. When we pass a house of people we’ve recently met, they holler at us to stop in for a bit. People are kind, the weather is gorgeous, the breeze is constant, the love of my life is here. Not much to complain about.

Tom, Rudy (the peace corps volunteer who was here before us), Tomoko, and Shinobu, a few new friends we have made. They took us out to their farm to play in the wheat -so beautiful.

We took a tour of the local grain factory to see how fields of wheat are magically turned into bags of flour. This is us playing in a giant warehouse of soy beans. Good fun.

Our first pet. His name is senor gecko.

good harvest, good party

Tom rolled into Okinawa yesterday morning, just in time for Okinawa’s annual Dia de Buena Cosecha –the day of good harvest. This fest is a kickoff for the crop harvest that will take place over the next few weeks. Wheat, rice, and soy are the economic backbone of this jungle-turned-farmland, and the harvest season is, for some, the only payday of the year. So there is much to celebrate.

Picture a county fair, complete with tractors, food vendors, dancing, music, high schoolers hooking up, games, rides, drunks, and weirdoes –but in place of Tim McGraw in the background it’s everyone’s favorite Bolivian tunes. And instead of the bluegrass band on stage, there’s a two hundred strong troupe performing a traditional Japanese drum pounding, feet flying dance marathon. This fest was rockin. Granted, the ferris wheel was made out of an old car axle and turned with a hand crank, but the display of talent, the melding of Japanese and Bolivian culture, and the air of good cheer was knock your socks off delightful. We danced into the night, ate the cotton candy, and woke up with three out of towners on our floor. It was a good party.

One of the Bolivian dance performances at the festival.

A traditional Argentinian dance.

And to celebrate the Japanese side of life, there was a lot of karate going on.

This is a whole lot of people in really cool costumes doing a really impressive dance. Photos dont really do this kind of thing justice.

Living without

In my conversation with my sister Leah, she mentioned it would be cool if I passed on ideas from living the 3rd world life about the things we can do without, how I’m learning to make life simpler. For starters, I’m listening to a Van Morrison album that’s skipping through every song. I don’t really think I would put up with that at home –I’d delete the files, hop online, download another copy. But I can’t do that here, and this is the album I want to listen to, so I’m enjoying it, skips and all.

Other things I’m finding I can do without: a mirror (although I do occasionally check my reflection in store windows to make sure I’m not getting too weird), a washer and dryer, a dishwasher, more dishes than the two of us use, a bed frame, more shoes or clothes than I’ll wear in three weeks, a television, a car, a daily schedule, a big fridge (a little one will suffice for keeping veggies fresh and beers cold), grocery stores with a million options, a big paycheck, credit cards, hot water, and a watch.

Things I can’t do without: the people I love, a healthy body, supportive friends and family, a good night’s sleep, music, celebration, good food, a feeling of purpose, play, being able to express myself, and comfy shoes.

In the last three months I haven’t been stressed about a deadline, felt the pressure of a stack of bills, been late for an appointment, or worried about looking good enough. It’s freeing and it’s fun to live like this –little stuff, lots of purpose. I can’t imagine heading to a desk job, enduring a commute, and worrying about insurance premiums right now. That may be my lot later in life, but for now, I’ll enjoy what I’ve got. And what I don’t got.

Things I wish I were not living without:

fam

friends

favorite places

and delicious beer

We miss you all.

sometimes my phone rings, and its like magic!

I was in the marketplace in Montero today, a big town down the road from Okinawa, looking for a few things to make our four empty rooms a home. Bolivian markets are kind of like a mall full of cheap junk dumped upside down; in them you can find all things useless and useful, and with my new and improved salary of $6 a day, I was pretty excited to be there.

I was even more excited when I get a phone call from my sister Leah (see, it’s that easy, you can just call me!). I hung out in the aisle between the cow tongues and the flip-flops while we caught up and laughed and cheered each other on in what we’re up to. I have an awesome family. Sometimes I wonder why I felt such a strong need to get out and explore the world when the people I’m most crazy about and comfortable with are back home. I like to think there’s nothing to regret about venturing out for a while, growing, learning, facing challenges, feeling a little less than comfortable. I hope I’m right. I miss home, but I like where I am and what I’m doing, and I hope I come out cooler, smarter, wiser for it.

This is the street we live on. This morning I found out that the towns beer wholesaler is just across the way. God is smiling on us.

Okinawa*s cute church off the plaza. Palm trees, cool eh? There are also bananas, avacados, oranges, lemons, papayas, and a variety of bolivian fruits you*ve never heard of growing here. Life is good.

This is our yard of dirt and trees. Bolivians in the country generally have dirt yards, which they sweep a few times a week to keep the dust down and make sure any grass or other such thing does not pop up. That makes sense, right? I will put up more pics as we pimp our house and yard -don*t expect any miracles though. I hope to spend most of my time building potties and setting up a trash collection programs and other fancy activities.

Sorry for the asterisks, the apostrophe is out on this keyboard. Such is life when you*re dependent on internet cafes. Still, I am lucky to have that.

Single again

Talking on the enormous fish phone in Okinawa´s plaza. Its a surubi, which hang out in the rivers nearby, and they really do get that big. I am going to catch one some day. But I{ll proabably toss it back, because what would I do with 200 pounds of surubi?



Night number one in our new house in Okinawa. Yesterday was the six year anniversary of the day Tom and I met so many summers ago in Montana. I wish he were here with me - anniversaries are a lot more fun spent together. I knew right when I met him he was a keeper. I didn’t know that so many years later I’d still be so crazy about him. I’m one lucky girl.




I just moved into our new place this afternoon, a cute, small four room house with nothing inside. The landlords painted it pepto pink from top to bottom, inside and out. When I came in to see it yesterday, they had the paint brushes in hand and asked me with excited smiles, ‘do you like the color?!?’ Yes, it’s awesome. Barbie’s Pink Palace is just what I was hoping for.




There is no kitchen and no furniture, and the toilet, sink, and shower are outside. Good and simple and I like it. The only piece missing is my hubby. He’ll be here in a little over a week though, and we’ll kick off our new and exciting life together in style. In the mean time, I’ll try to put my magic touch on our bubble gum abode and get going on our projects, meeting the towns peeps and getting a feel for what work needs to be done.

quick update

We swear in as volunteers in two hours and Anna just got elected to be the represenative for our group and will be on VAC (volunteer action committee). So proud, shes perfect for the role. On another note it is necessary for me to stay in cochabamba for another two weeks of language training, not happy about it but it will be good for my language skills so I am accepting it, not worried about Anna traveling alone because she will be with a big group of people and there is volunteer in our site that is a great guy, and Okinawa is a safe site. we will write more soon with pictures from the swear in and the costume party afterwards! Chao

Just when you think you’ve gotten used to things . . .

We’ve nearly made it through the eleven weeks of Peace Corps training. These last two and half months have entailed sitting through forty hours of class every week, trying our hands at a variety of sanitation and water projects and mastering spinach. We’ve traveled through the vast plains of the altiplano, down into the green, green jungles of the Amazon basin, and through the rolling hills of the Andes’ valleys. We’ve lived with an amazing Bolivian family who share their meals and laughs and safe, welcoming home with us. We’ve found some incredible friends within our training group, spent countless hours in each others’ company, and have gotten used to being packed in eight to a car. We’ve missed family and friends and familiar things back home. And we’ve found things here to replace the numb feeling of homesickness.

It has been a time of reflection, absorption, and adjustment. I’m just about accustomed to the schedule, the life, the food, the faces, the language, the dog-filled neighborhood, and, for sure, the good company of the friends we’ve made here in Cochabamba. Just in time for another change. In a week we’ll be heading to Okinawa, Bolivia where we’ll make our home and do the good work we came to do for the next two years. Last night I was talking to my host mama about how hard it is to leave the things you’ve gotten used to, and she said, ‘yeah, imagine how it will feel in two years when you have to go back home.’

Third world luxury

Hello sloth in the tree.

In our visit to Okinawa last week I left with an eerie sense that it might be a little too posh for comfort. We will have a four room house to ourselves, complete with a flush toilet, shower (no hot water, but it’s generally 95 outside and humid as roasted peanuts), and water that runs 24 hours a day. And get this, you can drink it straight from the tap (yee who have been to Latin America knows how extraordinary this is). All the fruits and veggies, socks and undies, coffee and milk, and other basic things we’ll need are available in one of the many small stores around town. There’s a cute, clean park in the central plaza, a well organized water co-op we’ll work with, three good schools, sunny skies (except during rainy season when our house will likely flood), a public pool, cell phone coverage, a beautiful baseball diamond, and a competitive round of croquet at four every afternoon. This wasn’t quite what I had in mind when we signed up for two years of service in a developing country.

Some of our good friends will be living up in the altiplano, which is cold and barren and beautiful and dry and practically devoid of life outside of the small towns that dot the vast landscape. In the stores there you’ll find beer, toilet paper (on a good month), and rice. It’s a four hour bus ride to the nearest vegetable (remove any thoughts of traveling on a greyhound, it ain’t a cushy ride). Some will have running water, some will have water on Mondays and Thursdays from four to six in the afternoon (but don’t count on it), some will have electricity, some will be reading by candlelight, some will bathe in buckets, one has a mile long walk to the nearest toilet. That’s more like it.

I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky, but I feel like we got a site that someone else would die for. Despite the rugged image it has, the Peace Corps draws a surprising number of preppies, snappy dressers, and those who depend on hairdryers. The picture I had more in mind was of me and Tom deep in the jungle or high in the altiplano, shaggy haired and dirty, eating potatoes straight from the fire and sharing some local moonshine with our neighbor inside his hut. Looks like we’ll have to settle for the deluxe side of the developing world. I guess when we’re done with the Peace Corps we can seek out a more rustic life.

Okinawa's baseball fields.

Family of four on a motorcycle in Okinawa. Don't judge, it's totally normal.

Welcome to the Jungle

Holy Japanese town in the middle of Bolivia! Who knew? Okinawa is beautiful (sort of, if you use your imagination), the people are friendly, the palm trees are green, and the streets are lined with trash and waste water. There is no short supply of work for us to do there. This week we spent a few days getting to know the town where we´ll spend out next two years, tagging along with Rudy, Peace Corps Volunteer man of the year. He has left some big shoes to fill, having constructed fifty ecological bathrooms for families around town, twenty some gray water systems, and also did the ground work for a municipality wide recycling program. Still, there is plenty left for us to do, and when we move to Okinawa in three weeks, we´ll start the process of talking to town leaders, families, womens´groups, youth groups, etc to find out what kind of projects will be most beneficial and where we should direct our energy.

We´ll put some pictures up when we get back to our laptop and flashcard in Cochabamba. For now, party on. We´re soon to be bonafide volunteers, just three weeks left of training, and then we´ll be set free to do the good work we came to do.