La Paz

I am in La Paz for three months of training.  There will be some punctuation difficulties in this blog because the computer I am using is more quirky than I can figure out.  Ill do my best.

First my amazing host family,  I arrived to a warm welcome at their casa.  It is bright yellow.  My room ( I nearly wept when I saw it) is a deep but lively green and feels like a monks cell.  I have a 4-poster bed (to hold the mosquito net¡ and small  desk and a chair.  I have a place to hang my clothes.  We have an in door toilet! But the water isnt on at night so there is a bucket to help you flush.  Of course the shower is cold (bucket shower when the waters off) but its indoors.  The house is very clean. My nica mama is very health conscious and so we have lots of fruit and vegetables.  In the morning there are frescas made from the fruit in the yard. Rice, beans. But no coffee in this house and no dessert.  Im told that although Nicaragua exports the best coffee, most people drink instant.  And so Ive adapted to caffeine.

It{s impossible to describe the warmth of my family.  My Nica mama is a third grade teacher which makes her especially helpful to me who is operating on a sub kindergaten basis.  We only speak Spanish.  My Nica dad(weird becuse both are younger than I am) is studying for his masters.  He likes House on TV.  We watched together.  Last Sunday family visited as is the tradition here. A neice came with her two children, a beautiful 9 month old and an 8 year old who made friends with me.  I knew there was a reason to drag the Wheres Waldo book though hree airports.  Juan is in private school and so has had some English.  We must ahve spent 2 hours with the book, first finding Waldo and then laughing at all the silly pictures on the pages.  I became Juans special project, he trying to teach me new words.  In a few weeks hell be back for more.

As if that were not enough, two of my host mamas sister came to check me out.  Big hugs.  They approve. They are all so warm you just fall into their arms.  Icing on the cake: Sunday was the birthday celebration for my host mama and 2 of her sisters, all of whom have the same birthday.  They are 3 of a family of 8 sibs all of whom live in La Paz.  As do their children, grandchildren everyone.   Our next door neighbors is my mamas nephew.  The party was at one sisters house,  Everyone sat in parallel rows facing each other.  A great deal was made of the babies. We had a long prayer, several songs including Happy Birthday in English and traditional food including vigaron, yucca, carne and salad eaten with fingers. I was made to feel right at home.

  This family thing bears watching.  It looks mighty good at first glance.

I must say the Spánish is hard.  Im exhausted from the strain of listening and trying to speak and understand all day.  I fall asleep at 9.  In the morning the roosters and cows and dogs wake me.  I{m out of time.  Next time I{ll write about La Paz, a story in itself and my visit to a school today to observe and to be introduced to classes and teachers.  There{s a lot to say.  I{m glad to be able to be in touch this way.