Saturday,Aug 27 2005, 12:09:49 PMTyped and posted Sat aug 26th

Fri august 25th 2005 1:32 pm

Things are going well here in bolivia. For those of you who know about culure shock. i am definately in the honeymoone stage.

Thurs Aug 25th 2005 3:46 pm

We are at the PC training center right now in the city of cochabamba. Today we had interviews such as language ability health, what we expect from our host families during training, whether we are extroverted or not (anyone guess what I am). All in all they seem to ask the questions tht show they have been doing this for some time. The weather here is amazing low 70´s during the day and mid 40´s at night. Tonight we are supposed to be going to this bar with some of the pc volunteers who have been here for a while. They warned us about gringo killers or hot bolivian (and believe me there are a lot more than i thought) who are in search of a gringo boyfriend.Anyways the food so far has also been awesome. They have a salsa called llahua and for those of you who don´t know my love of tabasco I think that I have found a good substutute in llahua. similar but spicier than the salsa verde in austin.

Wed 24th of August 2005 10:30 pm.

Well I am back in my hotel room thinking about the events of the day. I have been surprised that my spanish has been as functional as it is. Speaking Castellano or madrid spanish and all. I am able if I don´t know the word to describe the word and get the bolivian equivalent. I learned my first word of quechua today so as to not sound like a janqui or yankee. Don´t they know that i am from redneck country. My instuctor a local bolivan photographer who I struck up a conversation with taught me to say i am ok in quechua pronounced key chewahh. There are 13 million speaker in south america and it was spoken by the inca and thus not related to any western language. hopefully I will be able to develop some proficiency in quechua in the coming 2 years. i have been really surprised at how easily my mind has made the transition back to thinking in spanish. I keep speaking in english to other volunteers and use certain spanish words rather than english ones. Great for me I guess

 As for today we had training mainly on safety and security. They have given us maps of cochabamba, where I am, which is a mountain city about 8000 feet up , anyways the map had highlighted areas that are safe and othere that are not. All in all it seems as if things are going great.( have to go will finish this post later)

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Tuesday,Aug 23 2005, 04:55:57 PMYesterdays journal entry

there are actually 2 texans and a girl that lives in fort worth here which I found interesting. A few californians and sprinklings of others . . .only one of your stereotypical northeast yanks. and so far it seems none of the hippies that I was expecting. anyways I will write you soon geoff.

Also in my last email I forgot to say that you can always email me at

keoghgeoff@yahoo.com

or the old one but use the hotmail first please

keoghgeoff@hotmail.com

I would love to hear from all of you,

Geoff

www.zorpia.com/geoffinbolivia

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Monday,Aug 22 2005, 03:33:42 AMFinal Goodbye, for now at least

 

Well I sit here at my house in Bedford, excited about what lays ahead for me but sad that I am leaving so many great friends back here. It was with a heavy heart that I left College Station this subdat morning. I don't know how I can put in to words how great each and every one of my friends is. I always knew that I had amazing people in my life, but I suppose that until the finality that came with my last drinks with friends that some people never have in a lifetime, my last night at the chicken, my last night singing guitar late night at Mary Lake, my last night wearing my most prized possession in the world "my aggie ring", my last game of fetch with andre, my last hug with Jenny, my last time seeing my little brother and my first true tears in years as I rode home and said goodbye to Garrett and Lisa did the impact and finality of my next few years and future really begin to dawn on me. I am making a journey around the world and leaving comfort, incredible friends, good times, memories and so many intangible things behind. I suppose that this is the true essence of family and home. I know that I will be back and hopefully as some of you have promised I will see you in the southern hemisphere somewhere. As tears well behind my eyes I just want to thank all of you for being incredible people in my life and as cheesy as it may be I will leave you with one of my favorite John Mayer quotes.

"and if you never stop when you wave goodbye, you just might find if you give it time, you will wave hello again, you just might wave hello again . . . " from Wheel on Heavier things

Love,

Geoff

 

Please check out my website, it is different then the original one some of you got.

http://www.zorpia.com/geoffinbolivia

you can also mail me letters until November 22nd at this address

Geoff Keogh

Cuerpo de Paz

Casilla #1603

Cochabamba, Bolivia

South America

 

I will also post the link to phone cards that you can buy online if you wish to call me. They are relatively inexpensive and will much cheaper for you guys to call me at 15 cents a minute then my 3 dollars a minute to call you. I will let you know the phone number I can be reached as soon as I know.

http://speedypin.com/phone/cards/Bolivia

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Wednesday,Aug 10 2005, 09:21:02 PMWelcome

This is going to be one of my main contact areas while I am in Bolivia. Hopefully it will help me to stay in touch with friends and family as well as to share photos and experiences that I have while I am serving 2 years in the peace corps.

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