Shannon Costello

Well, here I am, seeing South America from an internet café at a cost of 3 Bolivianos per hour.  I get 7 bolivianos for every dollar.  I won´t dwell on the loooong plane flight, except to say that I met the most interesting people and had fun using Spanish to get through customs- not at all the arduous task one might expect. 

I must take a moment to describe the bathroom in our (Melanie, a nursing student and I) hotel room.  It is a very small room with a window that provides a great view of the construction work going on in multiple floors of the building next door, with no curtain to obstruct our view.  We hung a towel to rectify that situation. 

The light is a bit scary- it buzzes dreadfully at first, then pauses, and then starts again, getting progressively louder and louder….The room is small- I think if I stretched out my arms as far as they would go lengthwise I could probably touch both walls.  And there is no shower stall.  The electric shower head (supposed to heat the water right in the head- my preliminary tests have yet to prove that) is positioned right above the drain in the floor.   The toilet paper is also smaller and tougher. 

But the room is clean and has a working toilet.   And new experiences are definitely broadening.  The towels and sheets were folded in fancy ways I could not have imagined. 

The most challenging thing for me so far has been that I find myself having to talk in Spanish when I would rather not.  So far today we have gotten a map of the town, gotten money and food, and even found our way back to our hotel.  And I found a used book store.  I paid roughly $4-5 for each book.  (The book store is a good example of me not wanting to talk.  I made myself ask for recommendations for Bolivian novels and also about a specific title I was unable to locate in the US.)  Now we are back out again, having eaten our first complete meal (we tried for authentic Santa Cruz but ended up with very good Italian).  After we finish here we will head for a small park and the supermarket, purely to satisfy my curiousity.  We will probably buy a snack to last us through the dinner area, as walking around at night may be a little more than even our tough constitutions can handle.  Oh, and once I come down off my adrenalin rush I will probably find that I am very tired.  I probably got about 4 fitful hours of sleep on the plane. 

Tomorrow we are supposed to meet up with Francis, our project director, for lunch.  The rest of the team is also supposed to arrive tomorrow. 

I find myself a little nervous about eating.  I take a bite and think “I took a bite.   I´m sick!”  It helps make praying for the meal more meaningful and not just a mealtime ritual.  I really do want God to bless the food to my body…