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Blog 1: Look at me now- Pamela Munoz

Richard and I, he was one of my deaf students, helping me learn his name in ASL.

August 11, 2018
Today is Sunday, a very slow day here in Riberalta. I was surprised to see that there was barely any places open, I wasn’t able to find a close by restaurant, I had to walk longer than usual. Riberalta is a very hot city, which made it harder, but it reminded me of my time that I lived in Costa Rica, it was very nice. For lunch I tried some local fish with rice, beans and plantain. In my time here so far, I think I had plantain almost everyday, because it is the accessible everywhere and easy to cook for a beginner like myself. I am missing home a little more than usual today, but getting to experience this time with myself has really helped me getting to know myself better. Not having a schedule to follow, working at my own time, has given me confidence that I am able to handle independent projects. On the other hand, I have noticed that I really need to practice cooking more often, as my roommate usually cooks for me back home, and know that skill would be very useful. At night time, the volunteers and I had a Bolivian food night, it was very nice seeing everyone try to make a Bolivian plate, half of the time we were guessing the ingredients. I am very proud it  to say that the dish came very close to the original. Finally, Ludivine, the NGO coordinator taught us how to play “Cachos” a Bolivian game with dice. It was very confusing at first but later I was able to sort of follow up. It was a very nice day overall, had a great time bonding with the other volunteers, It really helped relieve my homesickness.
Christian, Ludivine and I, at the local university “Universidad Amazonica” to recruit volunteers.
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