Week 2 in La Paz

28. March 2009 by Fortunato Velasquez.

I have made it through week one of Field Based Training.  The pictures above are of my first three weeks in Santa Lucia.  My first host family´s home is up the long dirt road to your left from the main highway.  The second picture is from across the street of my host family´s home which is visible third in line and then there I am at the Campo Zarabanda Peace Corps Training Facility.  I wanted to include these first pictures before I integrate myself into the La Paz community.  La Paz is a city of 20 to 30 thousand folk surrounded by a number of small aldeas, rural villages.  I live right in the city center, near the internet sites and restaurants and bars.  There´s even a disco in town, which I will probably never frequent, although I have been invited.  Our Field Based Training is very intense, 8 hours a day with a lot of homework every night.  In addition we have hands on field experiences that are designed to inculcate a community development educational experience that we will eventually take with us to our permanent assignments.  I have had no contact with news from the USA and I have no idea what is happening back in the states.  It is kind of refreshing to not read of the small mindedness of American politics.  From this perspective in Central America (It´s America, too) it is most refreshing to live a life unencumbered by the arrogant self importance of the U.S body politic that is filtered down to much of the population.  My host mother told me this morning that President Obama has lifted the travel restriction to Cuba.  If so, I plan to travel there this year after I finish training.  Of course, I will take pics.

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