The beauty of life has continued.
Since my last entry i've experienced miracles in my internship, by which i mean some work actually began to occur on my project.
After what seemed like forever, a week perhaps, we were finally able to find common ground on what it means to have ¨concrete¨ things in a project; names, dates, times, amounts of money, and the necessity of these little beauties. That was a success in itself and i will count it as such. We have begun the construction on the seed bank structures, we´ve found women who want to participate in the workshops, and well, i suppose that is more than i could have imagined. I've begun discovering that (its about time) that there is nothing i can do to speed up the process that is work in the situation i'm placed. Everything is about perseverance and patience, continually reminding people of what needs to be done, asking questions continually because eventually someone will tell you what you wish you'd known 2 months ago, and then changing everything around all over again to try and make it work within the budget and time frame. I'm constantly getting things wrong though, so i'm endlessly grateful to my coworkers for their patience and kindness towards that insane gringita who seems slightly well intentioned but man, has no idea whats going on.
(i've decided to enclose this little gem of a photo of our subject in spite of my questions about the ethical nature of incriminating a minor, however, in the meantime i have no sense of shame and will let you have just a taste of life in my old homestay)
Since my last update things have been going downhill in my home stay and I am moving out of Frida's home today. Gerardo has taken to locking me outside of the house when his mom isn't home, and I'm beginning to lose an idea of what a home stay should be... should i be able to get into my home? Should i be able to wash my clothes on the back porch without getting locked out there for 45 minutes by a passive aggressive boy? Do i play the games with a nine year old who admits to hating me because I'm from the U.S. or do i just move on? I decided the latter and am going to be living for the last 11 or so days of my FSD internship with a family of four women, the Fuentes. Composed of two divorced sisters and their 15 year old and 22 year old daughters, it sounds like it will be amazing.
Also, I've just been able to meet some friends of Mariah's who have been traveling in South America since last February. Heather Rose and Ryan fell in love with Cochabamba along the way and decided to just stay put as their other traveling partner went on his way. Since the beauty and convenience of our new friendship isn't lost on either side, Heather and I have decided we'll find an apartment together in the center. I'm going to be here for 2 more months after my home stays and i can't imagine a more welcoming idea than living in an apartment with another international who is practicing Spanish, knows all the best places in town, and who finds the balcony the most important aspect of a living space.
peace and love.
amy
