I'm starting this week pretty excited and totally refreshed. I spent the weekend in Santa Cruz, a great little town 8 hours away from Villamontes that has (among other things) 4 art museums, cafes with live music, hotels with hot water, and bookstores. What more could a girl want?
I´m excited because last week was a week of breakthroughs on the project and personally. On the project, after a lot of discussions and hunting, we signed contracts on 3 albañiles, or master contractors, which means we get to break ground this week on 4 houses, a very exciting stage of the project!
We will start digging tomorrow and start building the rebar portions of the foundations. Basically the foundations are poured cement bases with rebar columns. We'll build foundations for 4, then while those dry we will break ground on the next batch of 6 houses. We will have a ground breaking party this week or next with all the families, which is one of the most rewarding parts of the whole process.
On the personal front, after working side by side with the families last week on the replanteos, they are getting to know me, my goofy sense of humor, my willingness to get dirty and sweaty for long stretches of the day to help them have a home. Bolivians are known to be very warm once they open up to you, and they've started to open up. It's so great to bump into one of the families on the street in Villamontes and sit and have a coffee in the evening. Two of the families have invited me for lunch at their homes in the next weekends, which should be a treat!
Other minor breakthroughs-- I convinced the dog in my house, Beethoven, to accompany me on a run. After my dog bite incident a while ago, I was hesitant to run with so many dogs in Villamontes. I'm hoping taking a dog with me will act as some kind of buffer from getting eaten by another dog. So far so good.
I´ve also successfully managed to get hot water! This is a major upgrade in my lifestyle and so unusual in Villamontes that I may have to invite my neighbors over to shower at my place.
Finally, in Santa Cruz, I befriended the curator at the modern art museum, who has invited me back for an exposition opening in October. She is super-knowledgeable about Bolivian art and culture, so it will be fun to get to know a different side of Bolivia.
That's the news from here. New pics to come this week once we're in the ground breaking stage.
Saludos from your happy,
naomi
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