Despedida

As I write, I'm listening to the mariachi band that plays every Sunday at the bar across the street, loud enough for everyone within a 3-block radius to hear... It's good until the 5th or 6th hour, roughly...

One of our workers, Erica, is leaving us today. She's off to Ecuador for another job for the rest of the summer, rounding up high school students who are studying there for 6 weeks. So, we had a despedida for her on Friday night, combined with a birthday celebration for Johanna, another worker. There was lots of celebrating and dancing in a very tiny space - made even more interesting as it was turned into a sort of dance version of musical chairs: whoever was left the odd person out without a partner had to dance with a broom for a song.

Some of our office crew at the party, from left: John (part-time volunteer from Essex), Meghan (national director, her house), Erica (who's leaving), Boria (from Santa Cruz), me, Alyssa (volunteer from D.C.), Erik (director of ecotourism), and Johanna (campaigns). Missing: Ivon, Fatima, Judy.

In other "news", I finally found an artist I have been trying to track down at a local fair yesterday... He makes some wicked cool jewelry, which I am a sucker for, so I bought a necklace from him:

Up for this week: hopefully going to La Paz overnight on Wednesday for the Aymara new year celebration on Thursday, then doing a bit of sightseeing, maybe some biking.