Picture Time!

…A visual compilation of my first five months in Bolivia…

My debut as a Bolivian dancer in…. The Llamorada! (Dance of the Llamas) We rented costumes, learned the steps, and danced 3 days straight while people oohed and aahed over the fact that a bunch of Gringoes were doing a traditional Bolivian dance. We were pretty much celebrities afterwards.

In the same festival I saw a dance called the Morenada…

After falling in love with the dance (and the costumes), I decided to be a Morenada dancer for Halloween.

My host family during training. It was tough to get them to smile for the camera.

My birthday. I’m going to be 27 by the time I’m done with service. Uh oh…

Christmas!

I decorated with a foot-tall Christmas tree. Peace Corps salary doesn’t go too far during the holidays…

Celebrated with a family here in town. Tradition dictates that on Christmas eve, families must roast a pig and have a huge dinner at midnight. Our pig took a little too long to cook because the coals on the ground would not stay hot. We ended up eating at about 3 in the morning. It was the most delicious pig in Bolivia. (And I only slightly worried about getting brainworm from the pork.)

New Years!

Other volunteers came to my place and we had a week long New Year’s celebration. On the actual new year’s eve, we cooked, ate, and headed out to the “club” at 11:30. We arrive and find the place completely empty. I guess we somehow missed the fact that Bolivians celebrate new year’s first with a dinner at midnight at home, then start heading out to party at 2 in the morning. Who knew that we would get our own private party in the club, VIP style, with hip-hop music and Tammy on the mike doing the countdown??

Timmy, the dog, who adopted Tammy, the volunteer. Not the other way around.

Dogs in Bolivia are not kept for much more than protection. Timmy kinda sucks as a guard dog, but he’s great at chasing cars, bikes, and motos; he loves trying to fight horses and cows, and of course scaring the chickens.