Wonderful welcome

On Saturday Michelle and I were officially welcomed into our host community/organization here in Cochabamba with a party. We met a lot of people and got to know them a little bit. The food theme was refreshingly familiar; hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and salads. It was the first time I've been able to eat a green salad here. Generally, it is very unsafe for gringos to eat lettuce because there is no real way of knowing where it came from or how it was grown, but this came directly from another missioner's garden. There were also some fabulous desserts. Hm, I guess I've missed N. American food more than I realized!

Monday the 2nd marked a new 2-wk period of classes. I have four new teachers and we are moving a lot faster through the material. This is great for me! I feel like my language skills are slowly moving forward. At dinner the other night, my host family told me that I can speak much better than I could a month ago. I am not sure how much I believe that, but it was kind of them to encourage me.

On Tuesday, the language institute started offering dance classes and I decided to attend. The first few weeks we're learning salsa. It is fun and good exercise.

Wednesday we had a class on culture shock. I am not homesick yet; I think I've been too busy and everything is still a novelty. At least now I know that if I start to feel 'not quite myself' and certain things start bothering me more than they normally would, I'll be able to recognize the signs. Obviously the culture is very different here and I think I have been the butt of a joke or two when I have been out shopping. (Like the time I bought shampoo only to discover that it was for chestnut-colored hair. This was after I had asked the saleswoman several times if it was for brown-haired people. OR how people are gearing up for Carnaval (a pre-Lent celebration similar to Marti Gras) and one of the traditions is to throw water balloons at young people and Gringas when they are walking down the street.)

Signing off for now. . .