So I´ve arrived in Quilino safely after spending two nights in Cordoba. I´m starting to wonder if I should have just stayed in Cordoba to work, but I´m waiting out a few weeks here before deciding for sure.
While I thought I was working IN the cultural center of the village, I quickly found out that I´m working ON the cultureal center, which is a room in my house and doesn´t exactly exist yet. The first day we did a lot of cleaning and organizing boxes, and yesterday I helped design some paraphernalia to pass out to the community. We begin visiting the schools next week, and hopefully those visits will be a lot more rewarding than the work we´ve done so far.
My family is wonderful. I live with an older couple, Lachi and Carlitos. Their house is made out of stone, and we only have hot water for showers--which comes from a contraption outside that you have to light before showering. It´s a very simple and basic lifestyle and I like it a lot. Everything is very calm and without stress. Another student, Amanda, lives with us. She´s a lot of fun and has shown me a lot around the house.
It´s a little difficult right now because I don´t have access to internet directly in the village, so I can´t stay in touch as much as I´d like.
This weekend I´m going to Cordoba with another girl named Amanda, who lives there and also works for the Foundation. We´re going to a little German Village for the weekend. I think there is also a tango show one night!
It´s not very cold here, though I´m told it was close to 0 degrees F a few weeks ago. The days are really warm, but it gets cold really fast at night. It´s really windy and dusty, becuase it doesn´t rain much. Unfortunately, I haven´t gotten to ride the horse yet; we just walk or take a bus wherever we go.
My Spanish has already gotten a lot better, but I still have a long way to go. The accent here is very difficult to understand, and they talk very fast. I´ve forgotten a lot of words that aren´t just everyday words. Like today, I was talking with Carlitos about what I used to debate, and could hardly string together a sentence about the UN. He´s really funny because he doesn´t let Amanda or me use ¨gringo¨words; they all have to be the correct Spanish words--which is a really good thing--but we´re not allowed to respond with ´OK´and things like that! Needless to say, I´m learning a lot.
The pictures are of my house. It´s cute and small, and there are lots of spiders! ugh!
That´s all I have for now!
Lots of love!
Katie
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