What a Week

To say that I´ve been burning the candle at both ends this week would be something of an understatement. Rather, I made a bonfire of several candles and danced around it Bacchanalia-style for 8 days. I don´t know if that extended metaphor worked, but maybe that more clearly demonstrates my current state. That is all to say that today ends a week in which I worked 12-14 hours every day (between normal work and the theater), attended upwards of 15 plays, had a birthday, and saw the sunrise a couple of times from the night end of things. Despite the chaos though, or more probably because of it, I was just rereading my journal entries for the past few days and found several notes saying, "write blog post about how super this week was." So now in no particular order: this week.

First for the theater. What I initially interpreted as charming albeit annoying disorganization proved instead to be irreparable and unabashed mismanagement. Every single play started at least 30 minutes late (letting us out around midnight some nights), volunteers rarely knew exactly what we were supposed to be doing, and no one was sure if the group from the Congo was actually going to come until 4 days after they were supposed to arrive (they didn´t come). This last part was particularly frustrating for my friend Hortencia who was supposed to be their assistant and received absolutely zero communication until the festival director mentioned it as an afterthought. Despite the myriad problems with the festival itself, I saw some really great performances and worked with actors and volunteers from all over Bolivia and the world. The "chief" of my theater, Andrea, and I have become really good friends and a few nights we went out with the cast that night´s performance. We settled into a really comfortable routine and she helped Hortencia and me get into some of the more popular plays (the group from Holland being the stand-out in our opinion). All for free!

Another great part of the week was having Hortencia stay with me. We´ve developed a really natural and comfortable dynamic and we´ve spent the majority of the past two weeks together. Despite my usual aversion to doing things for my birthday, at Hortencia´s insistance we went out with some friends to my favorite bar and had a fantastic time. She left today to travel around Bolivia for two weeks but will be back for a few days after which we´re hoping to take a weekend trip to Sorata.

Lastly (but really kind of firstly) I had a really enjoyable birthday on Monday. My co-worker Liz got me a big, extravagant cake and an acquaintance who works in a jewelry store in the same gallery gave me a great necklace and bracelet. I went out to lunch courtesy of the store and had a peaceful night volunteering before going out with friends. Pretty much perfect.

And that´s about the extent of it. I´ve left out the substantial amount of social life and work that went on as well, but suffice it to say that although this week was really one of my better ones, I´m ready for a cup of tea and a nap. This week expect to find me keeping monastic hours and a strict regimen of NPR podcasts and lemon teas.

Coming soon: the living hell of visa applications and an immigration-required stint in Chile