I should probably write a blog entry actually really detailing what I'm DOING here. Except... I'll put it all in an email update. That I'm going to send out. Eventually. Really!
But um, here's a small, completely random sampling of some of my HNGR activities...
*Making homemade pizza in the kitchen of Renovación (the girls home I'm working in!) with the girls while rocking out to Beatles music, some of which was in Spanish (hilarrrious)
*Getting my nails painted by the girls- they look awesome.
*Learning the plot lines to several Bolivian soap operas after weeks of watching them every afternoon with the girls AND at night with my host family... and worse, starting to care ("Oh my gosh! I hope her half-brother survives the drowning or else her mother will lock her in the wardrobe again!"). I can now sing the theme song to the channel ("Más cercaaaa de tííííí!") perfectly. It makes my host sister laugh.
*Hiking up a gorgeous mountain with a bunch of other students and teachers from my language school on Saturday. This was such a sweet day... beautiful scenery, fun people, and we spoke in Spanish but it was low-pressure because we're all learning.
*I saw a bunch of monkeys in a tree!
*I also learned how to squeegee a kitchen floor.
*Which is more fun than squeegeeing the bathroom floor... WHILE showering. Which I have also, by necessity, learned how to do.
*I'm so busy and really enjoying myself that I'm hardly homesick at all, which REALLY surprises me (and probably surprises those of you who walked me through my weepy freshman year even more!). But in those moments when I am? Oh man, if someone handed me a plane ticket home (or to Wheaton, Alabama, or Hungary, for that matter!), oh MAN, would I take it. Good thing no one has yet, because an hour later when my host sibs come to cuddle on my bed or I'm cracking up with one of the girls at work, I think six months isn't SO long after all :-)
*I brought a Bilingual Bible, which is really nice to have for church and reference... but to my surprise I NEVER want to read the Spanish side. I've actually avoided it like the plague. Jesus-in-English for me, please. I told this to one of the missionary couples I'm getting to know and they said it's actually very normal... for people in culture shock, we want to pray in our "heart language"! Makes me understand even more why Bible translation into even tiny dialects is SUCH an important thing,
*I am SO SO excited about my independent study, which is just starting to take shape. I think it's gonna be about the girls' perceptions of s-xuality (spelling it that way so I won't get censored on y'all's bloglines)... what messages does s-x send to them, what are they looking for in it? Still early stages but fascinating and important to me, and hopefully helpful to MY's HIV/AIDS prevention department- one of my goal's for the project.
*Last night (I'm staying at Reno with the girls overnight for two weeks, along with another volunteer, while the normal woman who does it is on vacation- definitely different and hard as well as really special... more on it later... maybe)... ok so last night, we watched Pride and Prejudice in Spanish!! The Keira Knightley version!! I love it so much. We get to finish tonight. I'm excited.
*I have lost enough weight in the last month that my clothes noticeably don't fit. Like, if I stand still long enough my jeans fall down to an inappropriate degree. I was slightly concerned about this as I'm more or less doing nothing but eating uncomfortably large portions of carbohydrates at every opportunity, but my Spanish teacher reassured me that it's normal... yes they eat nothing but carbs here, but it's all natural and fresh food. So just by cutting high fructose corn syrup and preservatives, etc., out of your diet (without meaning to), you lose weight. I decided that buying new jeans would be kind of a hassle, though, so my strategy for dealing with this is to get addicted to this Bolivian chocolate bar called Gobanzo. Oh. M. Gee. They may be my favorite thing about HNGR thus far. OK, maybe not, but they're pretty fantastic. I'm averaging about three a day and thus expect my clothes to be fitting again in no time! ;-)
*My host parents pat me on the head and call me "mi hijita" ("my little daughter") a lot. I love it.
But um, here's a small, completely random sampling of some of my HNGR activities...
*Making homemade pizza in the kitchen of Renovación (the girls home I'm working in!) with the girls while rocking out to Beatles music, some of which was in Spanish (hilarrrious)
*Getting my nails painted by the girls- they look awesome.
*Learning the plot lines to several Bolivian soap operas after weeks of watching them every afternoon with the girls AND at night with my host family... and worse, starting to care ("Oh my gosh! I hope her half-brother survives the drowning or else her mother will lock her in the wardrobe again!"). I can now sing the theme song to the channel ("Más cercaaaa de tííííí!") perfectly. It makes my host sister laugh.
*Hiking up a gorgeous mountain with a bunch of other students and teachers from my language school on Saturday. This was such a sweet day... beautiful scenery, fun people, and we spoke in Spanish but it was low-pressure because we're all learning.
*I saw a bunch of monkeys in a tree!
*I also learned how to squeegee a kitchen floor.
*Which is more fun than squeegeeing the bathroom floor... WHILE showering. Which I have also, by necessity, learned how to do.
*I'm so busy and really enjoying myself that I'm hardly homesick at all, which REALLY surprises me (and probably surprises those of you who walked me through my weepy freshman year even more!). But in those moments when I am? Oh man, if someone handed me a plane ticket home (or to Wheaton, Alabama, or Hungary, for that matter!), oh MAN, would I take it. Good thing no one has yet, because an hour later when my host sibs come to cuddle on my bed or I'm cracking up with one of the girls at work, I think six months isn't SO long after all :-)
*I brought a Bilingual Bible, which is really nice to have for church and reference... but to my surprise I NEVER want to read the Spanish side. I've actually avoided it like the plague. Jesus-in-English for me, please. I told this to one of the missionary couples I'm getting to know and they said it's actually very normal... for people in culture shock, we want to pray in our "heart language"! Makes me understand even more why Bible translation into even tiny dialects is SUCH an important thing,
*I am SO SO excited about my independent study, which is just starting to take shape. I think it's gonna be about the girls' perceptions of s-xuality (spelling it that way so I won't get censored on y'all's bloglines)... what messages does s-x send to them, what are they looking for in it? Still early stages but fascinating and important to me, and hopefully helpful to MY's HIV/AIDS prevention department- one of my goal's for the project.
*Last night (I'm staying at Reno with the girls overnight for two weeks, along with another volunteer, while the normal woman who does it is on vacation- definitely different and hard as well as really special... more on it later... maybe)... ok so last night, we watched Pride and Prejudice in Spanish!! The Keira Knightley version!! I love it so much. We get to finish tonight. I'm excited.
*I have lost enough weight in the last month that my clothes noticeably don't fit. Like, if I stand still long enough my jeans fall down to an inappropriate degree. I was slightly concerned about this as I'm more or less doing nothing but eating uncomfortably large portions of carbohydrates at every opportunity, but my Spanish teacher reassured me that it's normal... yes they eat nothing but carbs here, but it's all natural and fresh food. So just by cutting high fructose corn syrup and preservatives, etc., out of your diet (without meaning to), you lose weight. I decided that buying new jeans would be kind of a hassle, though, so my strategy for dealing with this is to get addicted to this Bolivian chocolate bar called Gobanzo. Oh. M. Gee. They may be my favorite thing about HNGR thus far. OK, maybe not, but they're pretty fantastic. I'm averaging about three a day and thus expect my clothes to be fitting again in no time! ;-)
*My host parents pat me on the head and call me "mi hijita" ("my little daughter") a lot. I love it.
2 comments:
Oh Em, so good to hear about what's going on in your life! I am glad that you have good chocolate there... I would say it is mandatory for survival! :0) I love you so much!
oh em, i just read your latest blog and the entries just get better and better. you are amazingly wise and reflective and of course just an astoundingly good writer.i am glad you went to cochabamba, and i can't wait till you come back
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