Random Pictures of People

Miguelito and Milvio


Old guy, can´t remember his name.


Yanco (short for Jean Carlos) and Rafaelo.


Old lady in a pastora (that´s what they call the hats).


Me dancing with Bienvenidos, the leader of the Catholic Church and all around fun person to be around.


My friend Thony with his little sister Marchelis. She just got her hair done so that´s why it´s in curlers. Nobody wants to have curly hair here. They all want it to be straight.


Yamily, the daughter of my 15 year-old friend Yafresi.


One of Doña Maria´s 8 children, all about a year apart.


This is the youngest of Maria´s children.


Cafe, just about the cutest little boy you can think of and you should hear him talk, it´s so cute. It´s what I think Nate was probably like when he was little.

Silvia, Juana, and Bolivar

I´m not sure how much I´ve mentioned Silvia, Juana, and Bolivar. If not, I should have, because they have been my friends and confidantes since practically day one. Silvia (a man) and his wife Juana own the colmado up the street from my house. Bolivar is Silvia´s dad that lives in a little house behind theirs. I would head up there most days to buy a refresco (pop or soda for you east coasters) or a bolon (lollipop) and just get out of my house particularly in the evenings before the house cooled down because it was hot!! Silvia is forever trying to get me to fall in love with one or the other of the boys in our campo and take them back to the States with me. He´s always giving me advice that makes me giggle. Juana is like a mom and gives me advice about things that I don´t understand. And Bolivar is just the nicest old man you´ve ever met. He always has something nice to say and is encouraging and always happy to see you. I´ve spent many evenings sitting and chatting with them and whoever else stops by in the evening, sometimes sharing a beer with Silvia. I don´t have a picture of Juana because she refuses to have her picture taken unless she´s all made up, although I may try to sneak one because she´s a beautiful lady and doesn´t need to be all made up.


But here´s Silvia!


And here´s Bolivar!

New Neighbors

So my new house of course comes with new neighbors and new views. I still don´t have nearly enough pictures of my house to share with you all. I keep forgetting to take pictures when I´m at home. I´ll take care of that shortly so you can see more of my house.

This is me standing at the edge of the rice field at Santico´s house. He is the neighbor across the way and the father of my friend Francisco.


I can´t remember this guys name but he´s always working for Santico, helping him out with planting harvesting, etc. Here he is with a sickle and a handful of rice stalks!


This is the view across the way from my house. This is Santico´s house and you can see the mountains in the background. Pretty spectacular. I´ll take pictures from the front and the back of the house soon so you can see what I see.


These are the little neighbor boys Pedro and Niño, sons of my friend Mayra and her husband Goné. They wander over to visit and see what I´m doing most every day and Pedro is great about being manda´o (mandado or sent) to the colmado to buy whatever you happen to need and just a sweet little boy and Niño is about as cute as they come and always wanders over to talk to me. I have to keep mints on hand to give out to the boys when they visit.


This is Mayra, my neighbor and friend. She is 30 as well, which is nice because many of the people I hang out with are much younger than me. She lives with her husband and 3 sons next door and then her mother, Malega, lives in a little house right there as well. Families tend to stick close around here.