never drink pure alchohol when they say it is tequila

So i guess you are wondering what this title means. Well i thought it was pretty strightforward. But here is what happened the other night. I went with another volunteer that lives here in villamonte to one of his friends house. They were actually people from holland, so we spoke in english. So some of the guys i work with called me to see if i wanted to to come over and drink some tequila. so i decided to go over there later that night. Because one i get to practice my spanish and two get to drink tequila with some guys i work with. So i go over there around 12:30 and hang out. Well sure enough not a drop of tequila was in that house. Instead there is puro. Which is pure alchohol and they mix it with water. It wasn´t all that bad. But the stuff has a way of creeping up on you. So we hung out and talked about some projects that i wanted to start up. Mainly recycling here in town as a way to bring in money for poorer folks. But slowly and surely my spanish turned to something very unintelligible. so i decided it was time to walk home. When i got home i really wanted to drunk dial Rachel but at three in the morning AT&T would not allow me to recharge my card. So unfortunately Rachel didn´t get to here my lovely voice while she was still sleeping. So then my alarm is set for 8 so i can go to work. This is where the real fun began. I decide there is no way that I am going to work. Not that i had a hangover, but you have to remember that was pure alchohol and as i said it creeps up on you. So needless to say i was still drunk and felt like something was wrong with me. I called in saying i was sick. Which i did get sick but it was because they mixed it with the water and well now i might have some parasites or intestinal problems. So i never threw up but i slept in till 4 in the afternoon! I never ate till 8 at night and then went to sleep and slept another 12 hours. So that was it. Never drink pure alchohol when they say it is tequila.

i´ve been told to write more

So here it is, Generally i get up around 7:30 and and not really wanting to, i get off of my straw mattress and go see if i have water today. Then if i have water, it smells like rotten eggs. Now if I want to take a shower, which i generally don´t, I have two pitfalls I have to watch out for. Both of these deal with an electric shower head that heats the water. If I try and adjust my shower head and haven´t turned off the power then guess what, I´m electrocuted and that feels midly like an electric fence, but remember I am completely wet. The second thing i have to remember is to turn off the power to my electric shower head when I turn my single faucet off. Somehow the electricity travels through the pipes and to the faucet handle. So after i walk into the bathroom and decide yet again to not take a shower, then i dress, eat a banana, and walk to my office which is thankfully only 10 blocks. During my walk i encounter all sorts of obstacles. Ususally cows, chickens, and dogs and all the poop that they leave on the street. I used to think it weird a dog shit on the street but lots of ideas i had, have been shattered by coming here. Then I go to my office and try my best to follow what anybody is saying, and then throw in my own two bits that i have pre thought out before i actually say it. I have no problem down here speaking before i think about what i am about to say. Sometimes I go to meetings and other times I study spanish. Then comes 12 o´clock and it is time for my three hour siesta, I go and scrouge up whatever I have in the kitchen and eat and then go lay in bed and take a nap and read a book. Around two i wake up and do Yoga which i have recently started. It is actually alot of fun and I happen to have lots of time on my hand so laugh as you will but i like it. Then around three or 4 I have spanish class with Roxanna. Then we just sit around and talk about whatever and she corrects my spanish. Usually I drink a bottle of 1 dollar wine because i have found alchohol helps out my Spanish. Now don´t think I am an alchoholic, because my tolerance is so high that a bottle generally doesn´t get me drunk. Then i usually cook dinner and sometimes another Bolivian come over named Peter and we all hang out and chat. Then if I´m lucky Rachel calls me and i get to catch up with her. But rachel, valerie, and my mom are all real good at calling so it keeps me sane. Then at night i usually Play Soduku and then read until 10. Then take a big whiff of straw and go to sleep hopefully sleeping the whole night. But generally Roosters wake me up around 4:30. Then sometimes the routine starts again. But then again here in Bolivia nothing is routine, because the people won´t allow it.

Workin

Hey ya´ll, everything is going pretty good down here. It´s sad but we already had two volunteers leave from my group. They are leaving to go back home on Fri. They felt this just wasn´t right for them. So that was best for them. But it still sucks i will miss them terribly. We spent three months as a very tight group. But anyways, today was a pretty sad day for me because me and my counterpart are trying to save this gorgeous tree inside a plaza. They want to build school buildings there and cut the tree down. The tree is 100 years old. My office is offering alternatives to cutting it down. One alt. is me. they know this is what i do for a living. So we are offering pruning suggestions and i will climb it and prune the proper limbs. but they called us today and we went out to the site and they told us that they were going to cut it down. Which i might possibly do also. 100 years to grow and ten minutes to kill. Que triste! but there is another tree that i think we will save that i might prune. But to answer jagdeeps inquiries. A lot of change is going on down here and it is real exciting to be apart of it. I can not express my own opinion about these things because we are a non-political org. and this is a public blog so any body can see it. But what basically happened is Evo sent the military to take over the gas companies. He is going to nationalize Bolilivias natural resources so they are not privately owned. this way more money comes to Bolivia and doesn´t leave the country. Eventually nationalizing all of Bolivia´s natural resources. Tom. there is a meeting with the presidents from all surrounding countries. It is very interesting. And to make anybody that is worried about this feel better, i will say peace corp has been calling me to see if everything is all right at my site because we have a refinery about 5 kilometers away from our city. But everything is normal here and i haven´t seen any problems or even the presence of the military around Villa montes. But it is all very interesting to see the drastic changes going on in this country! But if CNN tells ya´ll something is goin on down here that i need to know about please call me. But I hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for keepin up with me.
If lindsay from SC reads this i hope all is well with you and that your baby is coming along fine. tell me how things come out...