first interview!!!

Wow! Had my first interview yesterday! I talked to the former director of the association of municipalities of Pando. He was the director until a month ago and now is a director general in the subministerio of decentralisation. He drew me a great diagram of all the different players in the development of the economy of Pando. There is one economic sector: the forest sector, so that’s easy :) He gave me a lot of names of people I could talk to, and a name of someone from a Swiss NGO in La Paz that I can hopefully talk to next week! Also, he told be my subject was really interesting for my host organisation, and that my questions were exactly right!!! I now feel that it has really started, I am so excited!!!!
Did you know by the way that Bolivians greet people (even people they just met apparently) with a kiss on the cheek?! I had read about it but it is still very strange to me, to be kissed by all these people from the hostel and the language school and the ministry… A very interesting cultural experience anyway! The people at the hostel are starting to notice that I am not going anywhere for a while and also my Spanish is really improving so I am starting to become friends with some of them, yesterday we celebrated my victorious interview at the bar… I really feel at home here now, although I have only been here for a week it seems so much longer. It will be sad to leave.