Note to Bolivia

Dear fair-trade-trim-flat-white (from Ben Café on Fort St),

I miss you.

I know there are some good reasons that we’ve been apart for so long but that doesn’t make it any easier.  I’ve really enjoyed all the reasons we split up but I am once again starting to remember our sweet-sweet love.

After ten months, these last two months of separation should feel like nothing, especially given they will be full of happy times: the satisfaction of finishing projects and the fun of travelling with my other love.  However the closer our reunion comes, the more anticipation and excitement I have about being home, the more I can’t wait to see you.  You know my name, I know your flavor, you always deliver and I trust your hygiene standards. I hope you’re as amazing as I remember you.

It’s not long now, I look forward to your familiar surroundings.

Sarah

Recently I’ve been feeling very lucky and pretty content with life in general.  Cochabamba has treated us really well – what a great idea it was to come here and live.  It feels like home and finally everything is really coming together.  With only 6 weeks remaining I have a lot to do, but after months of frustration at how hard it is to get anything done here, I am pleased that I feel like I have cracked it (or half cracked it at least).  This of course means 6 weeks of busting my butt to get everything finished (or just started in some cases) but why not.

Luck has also hit me in a more real sense too.  A friend of mine asked if we wanted to go on a day trip last week with a friend of hers who I had met a couple of times – it would have been a scenic drive to see some ruins.  I had a meeting on that day so declined. Turned out that the car fell off a cliff and the friend of my friend died.

She was a Swedish girl living here for some years, she was settled and planning her life with her Bolivian boyfriend.  Now she has been sent home to her parents in a coffin.  Who knows what would have happened if we’d gone on the trip.  It certainly makes me feel lucky.  So lucky that a busy schedule and the meeting stopped me travelling that day.

In typical Bolivian fashion the crash and events afterwards have been managed very poorly and I can only hope that she didn’t suffer at all.  It could have happened to anyone, it’s an accident, and accidents don’t pick their victims.  So even though my rational mind knows this, I can’t help but think how close it was to happening to me , or Beavs.

Some say it’s not healthy to think about these things but maybe it is.  Especially if it means I remember and am thankful for all the awesomeness in my life, why not.

When the

lights

went out