Keep smiling! The sun is shining!

Hi everybody! I survived Friday and Sabbath with all the loud meetings… Actually, I skipped the Friday night meeting and stayed outside talking with my Heavenly Friend – and infringed another rule. Somehow I didn’t care about that though. I needed it so bad and I had already disrespected the “everybody has to be in the dorm at 4.30pm on Fridays getting ready for Sabbath”-rule (without knowing about it) so that one rule more or less didn’t count anymore. I WOULD HAVE GONE, if I could have stayed a little bit outside after, but right after the meetings, the deans lock the dorm. Actually, I didn’t completely disrespect this “everybody has to go to a Friday night meeting” rule since I could hear everything outside. I didn’t hear the kids singing, but the voices of the guy/choir that came out of the speakers were not to escape from (without leaving campus I guess). And I could count how often the sound system went completely crazy trying to destroy your eardrums for good. Mmmmh… somehow, there are so many rules here… oh my goodness! For the teens I think they are ok… but I kinda know what’s good for me spiritually, concerning food, bed times… These rules are rather counterproductive… well… I better stop. I actually didn’t intend to start complaining and I definitely don’t want to become sarcastic.

Besides all the crazy rules here, there are a lot of things I like about Bolivia. One thing hit me about an hour ago. I was outside with my roommate Daniela, doing my laundry (by hand…) and talking and after a long time I thought, “For how long have we already been playing with soap and water??” I could only guess that it must have been something like 1.5-2 hours. The only thing I knew was that it didn’t feel like lunch time yet. I use my watch here a lot less than back home or in the States. The feeling for time is somehow different. More relaxed. It might change when my classes start but for now I’m still enjoying my kind-of-holidays.

Oh, and my diarrhea is really getting better. Since the soft treatment (just charcoal) didn’t help this time, I went for the hardcore one (charcoal and cola) before allowing a doctor to give me the killer treatment (antibiotics and stuff). Cola is just great. I guess it’s simply killing everything in your stomach. I think antibiotics kinda do the same, but they continue killing everything in your bowls including the good bacteria. That’s why I try to stay away from them. I’ve been successful doing that for about 14 years and I’m really thankful that I’m feeling better and don’t have to go for the killer pills just because of some stubborn diarrhea.

I finally got some combs, too. I didn’t manage to buy one last Friday but I remembered that I got a little cute one in the plane. This Friday, I actually wanted to do some essential shopping – including pics of myself for the university – but I wasn’t able to get some Dollars changed (here at the university they told me to come back later since they had no Bolivianos yet and the ATM-machine off campus looked pretty destroyed). In the end, it didn’t matter anyways since I couldn’t go to Quillacollo (closest little town) because some Bolivians were on strike for something and the roads were blocked (one reason, why they couldn’t get through with the new ATM-machine). So I just walked to Vinto and when I found out that the cameras of the only photographer in the village were in Quillacollo, I spent my few Bolivianos on cola, nails, combs and toilet paper. Back to my room, I opened my beautiful set of combs. I had bought the set because I thought I would take a few in case one breaks. Well… I won’t have any problem with broken combs. They bend like they’re made out of rubber… Guess I’ll stick to my nice little cute plane-comb…

Whatever happens – I hope and pray that I won’t lose my sense of humor =) I already accepted the fact though, that I won’t be able to adjust to everything and I think acknowledging this will help me to enjoy my time here more. Adjusting to the States and my job there was easy compared to UAB and Bolivia, but once again I experienced it to be true, that bad days only make you appreciate the good ones more!!

Sending you a smile and some sunshine of a really good day:
maria