Host Families, Debit Cards, and Identity

Today we arrived in Bolivia! After sleeping in the Santa Cruz Airport on a nice tile floor with 90's pop music playing for several hours, we got to our final destination. Right now we are staying at a hostel until Thursday, when we move in with our host families! I made possibly the worst mistake ever (#exaggeration) by losing my debit card within 30 minutes of being in Cochabamba. But luckily I was able to call the parental units to get the card cancelled. The things that can happen when you are sleep-deprived, flustered, and rushing to get Bolivianos in order to purchase nescafe... There were, however, a few frustrated tears shed.

Santa Cruz, BO Airport

My host family is incredibly nice. They consist of a married couple in their early thirties and their very adorable 2-year old son. The husband is an economist (that's what I got out of the Spanish explanation of his job) and the wife studied economics but is now staying at home to take care of their son and she makes art. Before meeting the family, the organization I work for (FSD) pulled me aside to discuss my gender identity and whether or not I should introduce myself as Laura or Lucas. I feel really really uncomfortable being perceived as Laura, but because all of my official documents say "Laura" the host family was expecting someone female... They were in for a pretty rude awakening when I walked out in a trucker hat and button up shirt with almost no semblance of femininity. FSD advised that I don't come out to the family until after I am established in living with them, and although I am not at all ok with pretending to be fully female, I am waiting to introduce my semi-complicated identity until I know them a bit better. They probably will just think my Spanish is really bad when I use "o" adjectives instead of "a" adjectives to describe myself (i.e. estoy consado).

I'm pretty nervous about getting settled with the host family mostly because of the gender identity issues and also because my Spanish is not as great as it could be... but I definitely got by at dinner tonight with the family so I think it will turn out alright.

I'm most stoked to start work at SIDAcción. I think I want to propose a few different social media projects to help the organization improve their internet presence... we shall see if it goes over well!

My host family lives west of downtown, I think it's in walking distance of my organization, but several buses from the FSD office where we meet every Friday. I haven't figured out any of the bus system yet, but allegedly it's easy enough to figure out! No official stops, so you just hail buses on the street and hope for the best!

Una mapa pequena de mi barrio: