Flashback to Age Six

So Saturday night I had the opportunity to go to a dinner/culture show as a special thank you from the organization for some of the BSCP staff. It was such a nice way to spend my last weekend in Bolivia--authentic Bolivian dishes, amazing music, and beautiful cultural dances from various parts of Bolivia.

During one of the dances, the two women and two men came off the stage and started to survey the audience. Oh NO. They´re picking people to dance on stage! I started talking to one of my co-workers and say how funny it´d be if they came to our table (but of course pick someone else other than me). Right as I said that, a guy comes from behind and pulls me on stage. Suddenly, I flash back to childhood. I think I must have been six years old, my family and I were at Marine World watching the whale show. It must have been the intermission when a clown came out and started to perform these tricks. Then, as part of one of his acts, he pulled out an unsuspecting little girl to be his guinea pig. Me. Course I´m still shy now, but at that age, I was horribly shy. Anyways, that experience traumatized me because 1. He was a clown 2. I was forced on stage in front of a huge crowd of people 3. Everyone was laughing at his tricks, but basically I was the butt of those tricks so, as a six year old you can´t help but feel like everyone was laughing at you.

Flashback to La Paz, Bolivia, July 2008. If any of you know me well, you know I can´t dance, as much as I would love to know how. Especially latin-style dance. Anyways, I´ll spare you all the details and let you know that it was one of the most embarrassing things I´ve done in a while, and yet, it was SO much fun. It was a neat reminder for me--to not take myself so seriously, to enjoy laughing with other people about my silliness, and to seize opportunities to experience new things. It is a very wonderful thing to learn to laugh at your ¨bad dancing moments.¨

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It has been such a wonderful past four and a half weeks. Tomorrow is my last full day here, and then I´m off to return to the states. I have so much more to share as I´ve been reflecting much on my time here. I plan post a few more times, so please stay tuned.

Btw, did you know there´s a website called sleepinginairports.net? Yeah! Supposedly they tell you what airports are good for sleeping in and where the good spots to sleep are...! Yup, gonna rough it in the Miami Airport on my trip home, but I´m actually kind of excited. They say on the fourth floor near the post office is the place to be. We´ll see. =)