Cochabamba, Bolivia: Relief! That´s what I felt when I finally finished painting. Who would of thought painting a room and a staircase would be so difficult! I was not so much happy, as relieved when the job was finally completed. It must of took three to four coats to get that done. Let´s just say it wasn´t Sherwin Williams paint. But it got done! And the tile work got done, and I took care of the roof problem, I think. I did my best, and they asked when I was coming back to visit, so I must have done ok.

All in all, it was a great experience, and i´m going to miss Cochabamba when I leave tomorrow morning. One of the days I had to just stop working, because the kids just wouldn´t let me work, but it was much more fun playing with them. They wanted to be on the swing most of the time, which made it easy. Just a push. And the kids are pretty brave; they kept saying, ¨mas fete, tio¨. ¨Mas fuerte, tio¨. They wanted me to puch them faster. They were great. Funny, as most kids are. It´s a great organization, check them out on the web. Casa de Amor, Cochabamba, Bolivia. Just Google it. You´ll find a great story about Jennifer, who started the orphanage in her early 20´s. The whole staff is terrific, modern day Mother Theresa´s is the way I see them.

I also got a nice tour of the city from a local. Great town, bigger than I thought. Look for pictures on Facebook in about a week. I won´t have good enough internet service to upload until then.

Every town has its little sayings, or manner of speaking. Cochabamba is no exception. After every sentence, it seems, they say, ¨no ve.¨ It´s almost comical. Talking about almost anything, they end with, no ve. So, they´ll say, the place you want to get to is over there, no ve. Or, I´ve lived here for 20 years, no ve. And every time someone would say it, I had to crack a smile, so they were probably thinking, what´s so funny? But it was hilarious to me. I even had to ask someone why they said it so much, but I guess when your so accostumed to it, you don´t notice.

I´m off to Oruro tomorrow, but just for about an hour, then i´m taking a train to Uyuni (in Bolvia), where I plan to take a tour of the Salt Flats. I´m hoping I can do a 2 or 3 day tour. They´re usually 4 days. It turns out i´m in a bit of a rush again. Not yet confirmed, but I may need to be in Brazil by December 17th. That means I have less than a month to finish Bolivia, then visit Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. Should be a fun next couple of weeks.

I´m also thinking I may be in Central America for New Years. Was going to be in Brazil, but since I will be there so early, I could just leave a little earlier. Depends on plane ticked prices.

Great news from back home, my uncle and aunt just had twins! I hope they post pictures so I can see my new cousins (hint, hint)! Congratulations Uncle D and Aunt Yvonne!

No place like home for the holidays, but i´ll make the best of the next few months. I think i´ll be in such a rush I won´t even realize I missed Thanksgiving, or Christmas. When is Thanksgiving, anyways? They don´t celebrate it out here, so I may not know that I missed it. Christmas is obviously international, so I may notice that it´s Christmas time. I´ll probably be in Brazil.

Hope all is well at home!

Love you mom,

Love you family, (and its getting bigger!)

Love you friends,

Michael