I put up some more photos from my visit in the US, and also a picture from when Andres and I went out to the campo (countryside) my first weekend back as a reintroduction to being here. moooooooo.
Being back... the things I notice. Some you've heard about, some you haven't.
Speaking Spanish all the time. How quickly you forget, how quickly you remember.
The rainy season. How brimming with life my neighborhood is. How hills that look down on Cochabamba have transformed from a dusty green-brown to a vibrant mix of the tender green of fresh growth and a deep happy forest green. How even though it's summer, the moment the sun is covered with clouds, it gets chilly. How the pacay fruit on the tree in my yard is all ripe. How good it tastes fresh off the tree. The fact that I have a tree in my yard that I can pick fruit off. How it's fig season again, and my co-worker brings in figs for us all to eat, just like last year.
Marketplaces lined with many different vendors all selling the same thing. Five hardware stores on one block. How crazy it is. How logical it is.
How easy it is to catch a bus... anywhere. How I can look out the window on public transportation instead of concentrating on the road driving. How I look forward to the moment when I cross the bridge into the center of town because I can see everything at once - the highest peak you can see from Cochabamba, Tunari, in the west; the hill up to the Cristo statue (a few centimeters taller than the far more famous one in Rio de Janeiro) to the east; the green hills in the north; and the skyline of the sweet city that I'm about to enter in the south.
How quickly Carnaval has snuck up upon us. How I'm never sure if it will be rain or a water balloon that will soak me on any given day. How amazing it is to see the diversity of dances and dancers.
How polarized politics are here. How little the different groups talk to each other. How strong racial/ethnic/class barriers are. How entrenched racism (intertwined with classism) is. How every group claims that *they* are the ones moving the country forward. How it makes the civil rights struggle in the United States ever more real, and me ever more curious to learn about it. The challenge of speaking out against racist attitudes while not treating with any less humanity those who are racist. How troubled it all makes me.
How Cochabamba is a city that most people in the world have never even heard of. How, in global social justice circles, this city is famous (for rejecting the privatization of its water system). How my other home, Washington, DC - the capital of the United States - is a city that just about everyone in the world knows exists.
Just a few Spanish words:
pacay: http://www.tradewindsfruit.com
higo: fig
ferreteria: hardware store
justicia y paz: peace and justice
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