First month in Bolivia

Here are a few photos taken along our journey in our first month in Bolivia. If you notice that my cheeks get a little rounder as we go along, that's because Bolivians are very hospitable and generous with their portions.

Day 2 in Bolivia (MCC Headquarters, Santa Cruz): making lemonade. In the city, fresh fruit of all varieties is abundant and delicious. In Moro Moro, there are few fruits during much of the year, but Sunday's market will shine a little light on our kitchen each week.

Day 3: Traveling to Moro Moro. We're getting ready to cross this river for the second time. This was the unofficial detour around what could have been an hours-long construction delay.

Here are just a few of many livestock we saw on the road to Moro Moro (and just about every other road we've traveled so far).

Day 4 in Bolivia, Day 1ish in Moro Moro: Hike to a nearby high point. Here we're overlooking our little pueblo, Moro Moro.

Tomato and cheese sandwich with a view:

Is he carrying a sack of potatoes? Oh, nope, just a sleeping 2-year-old.

Day 7 in Bolivia: first real day of work (actually, watching Brian work): pouring concrete for dry latrine parts.

Day 9: settling into our host-family room in Moro Moro. Those are two kid-sized beds filling up most of the room. We slept quite comfily though, I must say.

Day 11: Visit to Pampa Negra, a community about 40 km from our pueblo. Pampa Negra is home to another family in the MCC Moro Moro team, where there's a large project underway to help collect drinking water from roofs of homes. Pampa Negra was hot, dry, dusty, and windy, but the people there produce some spectacular crops of various fruits, vegetables, and herbs by channeling water from the river.

Visiting the river in Pampa Negra was a great relief from the heat. It is also a likely place to find one's pig if it goes missing.

Fishing in Pampa Negra. The guys are each holding down a portion of a long net with their toes. Can you find the gringo?

The spoils of the guys' fishing efforts. Tasty!

Day 12: Wrapping up Pampa Negra visit. These trucks (camiones) are common people-movers around Moro Moro. This one is hauling a group of weekend visitors from Pampa Negra back home to the Moro Moro pueblo.

Going for a walk in the black hills around Pampa Negra. Walking on this volcanic-rock stuff must be similar to walking on the moon.

Day 14: Dry latrine workshop in La Tranca, rural community just outside of Moro Moro. These women cooked lunch and dinner for all the folks at the workshop. When they were taking a break from their full day of cooking, some of them also carried loads of adobe bricks to help build the base of the latrine.

Day 15: Birthday fiesta in La Senda, rural community about a 45-minute moto ride from Moro Moro pueblo. The woman in the middle was celebrating her 87th (or 96th, not sure which) birthday, and we happened to be in the area to enjoy a chicken and potato soup with them. The two guys are her sons.

Day 18: Visiting ValleGrande, larger town about 2-hours by camion or car from Moro Moro pueblo. Brian and Krista showed us around as they bought supplies for our next water project.

Something like Day 21: Commencing spring capping in Duraznito, rural community about a one-hour moto ride from Moro Moro pueblo. It was cooooold this day, and Sylvia, whose house we were visiting, is a wonderful cook. We arrived at about 9 am, and about 15 minutes later she served us our second breakfast: fried eggs, tomatoes, boiled potatoes, and noodles cooked in some kind of oil that makes them taaaasty. This particular day we visited several families, and each fed us this much food.

Andrés, very proud to be hauling a large board on the back of the moto, made me take this picture before I climbed on. We made it all the way home without knocking over any burritos (baby donkeys).

Day 23: El Alto Veladero, rural community just a 15-minute moto ride from Moro Moro pueblo. These folks recently requested we visit them about a new water system project. The day we arrived, they were drying pork on their clothesline. Andy was so fascinated by this that he asked (in halting Spanish), "Can I take a picture of you and your meat? It's beautiful!" They not only allowed the picture, but also sent us home with sausage, some dried meat, and some skin (not really my thing, but supposedly it's good fried).

Thanks for looking! We just arrived in Santa Cruz today, and will live in the city for over 4 weeks studying Spanish. Our next month's photos will be something totally different!