"Welcome To Home!" This was the sign that greeted me (more or less...the guys weren't quite finished with the decorating) when I arrived at the house for my welcome back to Bolivia supper.
Sometimes Google Translate fails us, but the sentiment was there and the food was great, so it all worked out in the end! Rodrigo cooked the meat and Marco pulled out all the stops and made Parmesan Risotto. Sitting around the table and eating with Isabel and the guys is always a joy for me. The conversation is lively (after we all get a few bites in us) and there's always lots of laughter.
Marco is studying culinary arts and is now our resident chef. He sat me down after we finished eating and asked me to tell him what I thought of what he had cooked. "Tell me the truth! If you don't tell me the truth, I'll never learn and get better!" I'm not the best at critiquing someone else's cooking, but thankfully it was pretty tasty. Risotto is not the easiest thing to cook.
After supper I treated us to ice cream at the new food truck food court. I felt sorry for the people in the line behind us. We're not...quick at making decisions, shall we say. All in all, it was a nice, relaxed time of catching up with everyone.
It's interesting to re-enter a culture that's both familiar and yet somehow foreign, after being gone for a few months. I commented on Facebook that it didn't take me long to return to the "every man for himself" form of Bolivian driving, after enjoying our polite "you go....no you go....no you go" Canadian driving for the past few weeks. At the same time, some of the more challenging (and less entertaining) aspects of life here have been more difficult to acclimate to.
Ex-pats will tell you that there's always this strange tension between enjoying the comfort and
friendships of your home culture and missing the relationships and adventure of your adopted one. I find that's true for me. It was especially difficult to say goodbye this trip but coming home to the smiles of my wife and the guys made the transition easier. As well, Isabel and Andres did a great job running the home in my absence and the guys are doing well, so that was encouraging.
Now, as it does, life dictates that my focus needs to shift fairly quickly to the future. Big things are afoot and getting prepared has been both exciting...and exhausting. By the time you read this, you'll know what I'm talking about. Very late nights (when I do my best work) have become a bit too common perhaps, but it's been fun seeing some of the details come together. But more on that later.
Thank you all for being interested in the going on's down here. Some days can be long, so it's great to know that we have a family spread across a couple of different continents that loves us and supports us.
As we move forward, it's a joy to know that we have friends walking alongside us.
Thanks all!
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