Moving South

So here I am at in an Internet cafe yet again, this time getting settled in Bolivia. I have been here for three days now and am still going through orientation with SIT. Tonight I will be meeting my host family for the first time and then tomorrow I will move in with my host family and start getting a feel for my daily routine. My group seems great so far. They are from all over the states and have a wide rage of interests academically. I am finding that all the initial impressions I am making of Bolivia are based off of my experiences in Nicaragua. It has been a little harder then I thought it would to change mind sets from working in Nicaragua to being a student in Bolivia. Then again this is only day three...

For anyone who has been keeping track of my blog, thank you. I really appreciate the encouraging comments, it means a lot to me to know people are behind me in all my travels. I thought before I dive into describing in detail my semester in Bolivia I would give a wrap up of my time in Nicaragua. In the end my grant project was an incredibly rewarding experience. Through working with the youth and community of the centre my motivation behind the project began to pick up as I realized that these individuals wanted to learn english for different reasons then why I have been trying to learn spanish. Besides increasing the opportunities for them to find jobs in their futures, enigish is a sign for them of wealth and success. They therefore have a drive to learn english that most americans do not share in their studies of spanish. The highlight of the project for me was how in the process of implementing the english classes I held workshops with the youth encouraging them to think of ways in which english would influence their future. I then had them each pull together their ideas in a picture which I compiled and created a design for a mural which I completed painting in the last few days of my internship.

I had wanted to go a little deeper here into my final thoughts on Nicaragua but I am finding that I have less free time then I did in Nicaragua and need to run back to get ready to meet my host family. Once I get settled with my host family this weekend I hope to add a little more to this post.