My new home

‎"Don't underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."

Yes, that's right, I am actually staying in a place long enough to call it home! After over four months of bouncing around cities every few days or weeks, it is nice to have a place that I really know. As people who have travelled this way know, it does get a bit tiring after a while, so this break here has been nice. I am definitely ready to start traveling again now though!

I have been staying in a home stay, a family of normally two (a middle age married couple) that has been a family of ten or more for the holidays, including two kids who love playing with me. Their house is in the countryside, about a thirty minute bus ride away from the center of town, which has been nice since towns here are so polluted. The first couple days here in Sucre I took Spanish classes, and wandered around for the rest of the day, getting lost, and trying to find my way around. Luckily me getting lost all the time ended up being a very good thing here. On one of my little adventures near my house I saw white people (very strange considering where I was living). They apparently thought it was strange as well, and stopped to ask me who I was. I quickly found out that I was right in front of an orphanage, and they were a group of people who visit two weeks every year (they are from a church that supports the orphanage). I went in, met the kids, and ended up going back almost everyday of my stay.

There are three houses (all together, with a large courtyard and playground as well) with 8-10 kids, and a "Tia" (aunt) in each one. It is a great set up since this way the kids live in their family, but still get to play with the other kids all the time. I have never seen kids who play together and take care of each other like these ones do. Though these kids have horrific stories, that us in the west can hardly contemplate, they are now extremely well cared for and have a better life than most kids here in Bolivia. The kids cook (there were eight year olds teaching me to cook different meals everyday), clean, go to school, and basically just spend the whole day playing together. I have been teaching the older kids English (they all really want to learn, and the little ones are mad they aren't allowed in class), and the rest of the time we play football and jump on the trampoline.

The weather here in Sucre is perfect, normally sunny (occasionally the crazy downpour), with a cool breeze and during the day between 20-25 (and cooler at night). The city is also beautiful. This has got to be my favorite one yet, and I love having my different "places" here. In the market, I have a fruit lady who I visit multiple times a day for jugos and delicious fruit salads, and I found a small restaurant "le petit Parisian" where I am buddies with the owners and go often for dinner or just to hang out.

As much as I like it here, I am ready to move, so in a few days I am going to take off to Tupiza, a small town (at 4,000m) in an extremely high desert. I hope to do some hikes and maybe even a few days on a horse (never been into horses, but I figure I gotta try it at some point). I am planning to return to Sucre in a month or so, after I have visited a bit of Argentina, but who knows if that will really happen, as always, my plans change every few days.