My Workplace at Montero in the Prefecture of Santa Cruz

From Dec 14 - 16, 2005 I went to Montero in the Prefecture of Santa Cruz on business. I introduced myself to my future colleagues and other important people of the community like the mayor and some municipal directors in the fields of education, health, etc. The director of Health in Montero is actually my supervisor and my future host mom.


Thanks to my supervisor's powerful publicity, I had a "great" opportunity to appear on two TV news programs, a radio show, and in a newspaper. Even though they are local, there are 1,400,000 inhabitants living in the area. Now I have surely gained super publicity in the area with the label
"a poor Japanese girl with miserably poor Spanish and JAPANESE skills."

Well, I was asked by the reporters to say something in Japanese to the Japanese communities of Colinia Okinawa and Colonia Sun Juan, less than one hour away by cab from Montero, I screwed it up. People, I WAS nervous in front of the cameras and the enthusiastic Latinos!

The people over there speak as if they don't have teeth. They don't pronounce "S," instead they pronounce "H" or "J" sounds and what is worse they don’t pronounce anything sometimes. Except for the fact that they speak like they are toothless and they eat meat insanely, I really like the city. It looks like Saigon, Vietnam and even the people look like Asian sometimes.

The pics are of my workplace, a house of my host family in Montero, and the mass media with my supervisor.