Mi Casa es Su Casa

So much has happened in the past week. It's been a roller-coaster of emotion between decorating my new office, moving into the new house, trying to get a driver's license, trying to plan English classes while the professors are on strike, shopping for a car, acclimatizing to constantly sweating, and generally just settling in to Santa Cruz. I could share at length about any of these topics, but I decided to veer away from the more negative aspects of the week, except to note that most of them would have been almost identical in the States.

For instance, I've nearly pulled out all of my very thin hair, while attempting to acquire a driver's license as it has so far required five trips to two offices on opposite ends of town, and I am no closer than when I started. I was tempted to direct my frustrations at the Bolivian bureaucratic process, when I remembered crying in the parking lot during my last experience at the DMV in Maryland, and from then on continued to remind myself that every DMV experience in the history of mankind has probably been similarly root-canal-like.

But my house is great! The housing set-up allotment in my budget that all you supporters have been so gracious to fill, has allowed me to buy such wonderful luxuries as a bed, towels, garbage cans, dishes, pots, pans, and all those little essentials, you only think about when you move without any of your stuff. So now, it's feeling homey here;

with the thirty new plants I added to the garden today, a fairly stocked kitchen, first dinner guests coming on Monday, hammock hung and tested, and the guest room all prepared for your visit. You'll fit right in, I can even take you to the DMV for a little familiarity if you get homesick.

(Captions: Here's the new hammock on the mosquito-proof screened in porch and the beautiful view of my banana trees through the bedroom window)

Recalling this verse a lot recently:

"...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." - Phil 4:8