Blissful Moment.

Today I was awakened with a knock on my door and my father informing me we will be going to the Quinta today with the family. The Quinta is a pool and BBQ place that our family owns in the country. It's kind of a custom here for people to have places to go to in the country for family on the weekends. It's like when people in central or southern Wisconsin have cabins in the north, except the quinta is only about 45 minutes from our house or 15 minutes out of the city. So, when my dad woke me up, I got my swimsuit on and sunscreen all packed right away and went down stairs. about and hour and a half later everyone lazily came downstairs and began to get ready. Silly me for not taking into account the fact that when people say "now" they actually mean "in maybe and hour or two". This is what we call Bolivian Time. When someone says 7 o'clock American time, they mean 7, however 7 o'clock actually means sometime around 9 or 10. So, we got out coolers, filled them with ice, waited for my aunt and uncle to arrive, then we were off to get the beer! we stopped at a large market about 10 minutes from our house, gave them empty beer bottles for re-use, then got a crate of beer. Then we went to a little supermarket (oxymoron I know) for some meat and coke zero. By this time we had too many people to fit in the five spaces available in the truck, so my brothers and I sat in the back. We made our way out of the city and into the dirt roads of El Campo (the country). Past the richy rich condominiums, past the soon to be richy rich condominiums. Past men on horses, stray dogs finding a tiny bit of shade in the middle of the road and the many four wheelers trudging through the dirt and mud. We made it to the Quinta, me already showing signs of severe sunburn on my shoulders and thighs. We brought our food to the BBQ and rested in the shade of the thatched roof. We drank our cokes and beers. When people came I saw Charlotte from Belgium who had just gotten back from her 4 day trip to Buenas Aires. We shared stories and pictures, then we swam. We swam, we swam and then......we swam some more. We were so grateful for the pool on this scolding hot day. I had begun to notice my red skin burning and went to ask my mom for sunblock. Three women lathered me down in sunscreen, I was ready for more swimming. Unfortunatly I had already burned severely from sitting crosslegged in the back of the truck and i already had a shorts tan forming. I didn't care we were having fun. We mingled with family members, some I had not met before. Charlotte and I had never seen so many people here before, usually just two or three families, but this was more like 7 or 8. My brother told me it was because on of our cousins had returned from Spain after 5 years and wanted to see the whole family again. When the beer ran out, hard to believe because everyone brought so much, Charlotte and I went with my brother German to get some more. We rode in the back with our sunburned cheeks and RayBand sunglasses, reveling at the beauty and sorrow of the country. We gawked at the poverty and giggled at the stray puppies. We went back and swam some more and ate some more meat, THERE WAS SOO MUCH MEAT!! When a few families had left and it was time for us to leave, we said goodbye to the one remaining family and took off, seven of us in the back of the truck, we gained a few in the process. This was my blissful moment, on our way back to the city, crossing the large bridge over the almost non-existent river, in the fading light, the blue sky turning purple, 7 of us in the back of a truck drinking beers, in my case a coke zero. I felt like I could do anything, I can travel the world, I can make a million new friends just my being my regular old self, everything just felt perfect and in place. Especially me, I was in the right place, I was where I'm supposed to be. And even though my sun burn hurts so bad I can barely sleep and I'm tired beyond belief, it doesn't matter because I learned a lesson today.

Again I am sorry I don't have pictures, I keep forgetting to bring my camera to the Quinta. Next time.