Fotos: La primera mes

Cochabamba Airport. We were met by a group of raucous PCVs, holding signs and cheering for us. Later, I overheard one PCV say to another, ¨Ah, I remember the day we arrived, smelling like fear and soap.¨

Nuestra casa. Donde viven los Omonte, my middle-class host family.

Hermanito. Me and Ronaldo, my little brother. He has enough energy to power a spaceship. It was very difficult to get him to hold still for five seconds so I could take this photo.

Arco iris. Somewhere over the rainbow, way down in Bolivia...

P-dub. Fellow Field Day Family Farmers will surely recognize this planta mala: Amaranth, in the U.S. commonly known as pigweed. Yes, to my delight, it grows here in Bolivia too.

Vacas y montañas. Bolivia is insanely gorgeous.

A bunch of PCTs jumping. I don´t know why we jumped. It just felt right.

El huerto. With fellow gardeners Lebo and Marlise. We made a fence out of corn stalks. Its purpose is purely symbolic.

Tipitop. We learned how to make soap holders out of two-liter bottles, which involves making rope out of the plastic label. Not exactly the most useful skill, but at least I can make rope.

Me and a parrot kissing. My options for romantic interest are limited here in Bolivia. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Beekeepers. That´s me on the left with the orange gloves. I´m holding a ¨smoker,¨which (as you might guess) sends out puffs of smoke. The smoke calms the bees down. Cool.