This can be found at: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/10/28-10

WASHINGTON - October 28 - Anticipating a democratic victory in the November 4 presidential elections, 368 academics specializing in Latin America recently sent a letter urging Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama to become a partner, rather than an adversary, concerning changes already under way in Latin America. Above all, the signers are asking Senator Obama to understand the current impetus for progressive change in many of the region's countries: the rejection of the failed "free-market" model of economic growth that has been imposed in most countries since the early 1980s - a period which has seen the worst economic growth failure in the region, in terms of per capita GDP, in over a century -- and the adoption of more socially just and environmentally sustainable development styles.

The signers expressed their hope that an Obama administration will embrace the opportunity to inaugurate a new period of hemispheric understanding and collaboration for the welfare of the entire Hemisphere.

Most of those signing are members of the Latin American Studies Association, the largest and most influential professional association of its kind in the world. Signers include Eric Hershberg, President of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) and twelve LASA Past Presidents, along with over 350 other academics and Latin America experts.

The letter follows: ( Read more... )

This can be found at: http://nacla.org/node/5305

Dec 8 2008
Various Authors

We the undersigned are North American academics who study Latin America. We wish to make known several concerns with regard to the electoral process now underway in El Salvador and which include legislative elections in January 2009 and presidential elections in March 2009. In particular, as academics who have studied electoral processes throughout the hemisphere, we believe that there are a minimal set of norms and conditions necessary for elections to be free, transparent, and democratic. These include the freedom to participate in civic and political activities without fear of violence, repression, or reprisals, and the existence of rules and regulations that assure transparency in the voting process and that safeguard against the possibility of electoral fraud. We wish to make known in this regard the following four concerns: ( Read more... )

There are two things that I just don't understand and maybe never will understand:


1. How do so many citizens in this country forget that we have the freedom of religion and that not everyone has to nor wants to follow judeo-christian scripture?

2. How do so many citizens in this country forget about the separation of church and state?


I just don't understand, I thought it was pretty clear in the constitution...

Date:	2008-12-02 16:58
Subject:	What's your eco footprint?
Security:	Public
Mood:	hopeful
Music:	The Ark - Kolla Kolla

If you have a couple minutes, go to this website and see where you stand compared to other people in the U.S. and around the world:

http://www.myfootprint.org/

It's also a good site for finding out EASY ways to reduce your environmental impact.

:-)

Microwaves are made out of metal.

How is this possible???



Now, back to the drudgery that is grading essays...

Date:	2008-11-09 15:52
Subject:	The wheels on the bike go round and round...
Security:	Public
Mood:	cheerful
Music:	Frou Frou

So today I went for a bike ride, it had been a loooooonnngg time since I'd ridden my bike for a long distance. I think I'll be sore, but all in all it was great.

And, it was great to be outside and see the view from a bike instead of from a car.

I rode 26 miles today! I rode to my friend Oscar's house, from there we rode out north of town and decided to ride all the way out to our other friends Jeremy and Sayu's house in the little neighboring town, Oro Valley. Then we were just getting back into town, just starting on the bike path and my back tire popped! That was sad, I was so looking forward to the last bit of the ride.

All in all though it was great to be outside and great to ride my bike again. Hopefully I'll do that again soon... after the tube is replaced.

Date:	2008-11-07 11:34
Subject:	I'm an auntie!!
Security:	Public
Mood:	ecstatic

About 20 minutes ago my nephew Logan Jeffory was born!

Logan is 6lbs 11oz, and 20 inches tall.

Congratulations Heather and Jared!

On Monday of this week, three of the "Panda Express 11" came into our class to talk, this is an article from the Tucson Weekly describing their story. I just thought I'd share...

From: R Elford
Tucson Weekly Print Friendly:
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=118133


PUBLISHED ON NOVEMBER 6, 2008:

The Panda Express Eleven
On March 18, the state raided a Tucson fast-food restaurant after a lengthy investigation, forever changing the lives of almost a dozen undocumented workers
By MARGARET REGAN

Marlen Yobana
Moreno-Peralta, 24, snuggled in bed with her baby son early one morning
last spring. Freddy, just shy of 8 months old, is her only child, and she
always tucked him in beside her as she slept. It had been rainy and cold a
few days before, and Marlen had a scratchy throat. She was planning to
sleep in.

But a loud banging at the door suddenly woke up both mother and
son. It was 7 a.m., too early for visitors, and the insistent knocking was
scary. Marlen's parents, Isabel and Martin, were asleep in their room at
the opposite end of the family trailer, and her 16-year-old sister,
Guadalupe, stumbled out of bed to answer the door.

Guadalupe was shocked at what she saw. Outside, just beyond the
chain-link fence and her mother's garden patch, was a platoon of cars from
the Department of Public Safety, the Arizona agency that runs the Highway
Patrol and also conducts high-level criminal investigations. Two DPS
officers were standing on the front steps. And they were demanding to
speak to Marlen.

Nobody in the house had ever had trouble with the law. The family
was from Cumpas, Sonora, south of Douglas, but they'd been living
peacefully in Tucson for 10 years, since Marlen was 14 years old. All of
them were proud that she'd graduated from Cholla High School back in 2002,
and that she'd worked so hard ever since.

Since picking up her diploma, Marlen first did cleaning at a movie
theater in Sahuarita and then at a Super 8 Motel in Tucson; next, she was
a waitress at the House of Cheng Chinese restaurant. She started working
at Panda Express in 2004, and ever since had been a counter server at the
popular Chinese fast-food chain restaurant at Swan and Grant roads,
slinging Beijing beef and kung pao chicken to hungry diners, and cleaning
up the store during the slow hours. (A few weeks before the knock on the
door, she moved to the location at Silverbell Road and Speedway
Boulevard.)

She was shocked when Guadalupe hurried into her room and cried out,
"The police are here for you." Startled by the commotion, Freddy started
wailing, and when he was wrenched out of his mother's arms, his wails
turned to screams. Guadalupe tried to soothe him by dandling him on her
hip, and Marlen hurried out to the living room in her pajamas.
"I was in shock, afraid," Marlen says. "I was afraid for my
child."

Speaking in a hoarse voice, she asked the agents what was going on.
They told her they wanted to talk to her about her car out front, and she
let them into the house. She'd bought the Ford Mustang so she could cut
down on her commuting time to Panda Express--it sometimes took her two
hours to get there by bus from her southwest-side home--and took out a
huge loan to pay for it.

Then the officers changed the subject. What they really wanted to
discuss was her job.

"We know you work at Panda Express," one officer said, as Marlen
tells the tale later. "And you're using the name of Marlen Martinez.
You're coming with us."

The officers arrested the young mother on charges of using someone
else's name and someone else's Social Security number to work and get the
car loan. The alleged crimes apparently were so serious that there was no
time for her to get dressed. Officers told her they would allow her only
to throw a sweater over her pajamas and to put on some shoes.

"They didn't let me eat. They didn't give me papers or read me my
rights," Marlen would recall months later, sitting at the kitchen table of
the trailer with her mother, Isabel, who wept at the memory. "They treated
me like a dangerous person."

She asked for permission to brush her teeth. The two officers
conferred with one another, discussing whether that was permissible. When
they finally agreed to her request, Marlen managed to snatch a bra from
her room and sneak it into the bathroom. She put the bra on under her
pajama top so she could at least get to some level of modesty as she was
led away in her night clothes.

Freddy was still crying, and the officers told Guadalupe to tend to
him. Then they hauled Marlen outside, where a female officer frisked her
and handcuffed her behind her back, in full view of neighbors who were out
and about. The neighbors saw her car towed away. And then they watched as
the quiet young waitress was put in the back of the police car and driven
away to the sound of Freddy's screams.

By the time Marlen saw her baby again--after 112 days in the Pima
County Jail, and three weeks in the for-profit immigration detention
center in Eloy--Freddy had already passed his first birthday. He'd fussed
for weeks after she was taken away and had trouble sleeping, but by the
time his mother came back, he had no memory of her. When she tried to hold
him, or even touch him, he'd hit her and cry.

He had no idea who she was.

The case of the Panda Express 11 erupted in Tucson on March 18,
the day after St. Patrick's Day, a holiday that honors the tragic history
of the immigrant Irish.

Marlen Moreno-Peralta was the first of 11 undocumented Panda
Express workers from Mexico to be arrested and charged that day. Headlines
about the case were splashed across area newspapers, raising the alarm
about the crime of identity theft. Attorney General Terry Goddard noted
darkly, and falsely, in a press release that all 11 were "associated with
a Tucson identity-theft ring."

Marlen, two other women and eight men were indicted on a Class 3
felony charge of "aggravated taking the identity of another person." (In
2005, the law was changed to make it a felony to use a fake ID to work.)
During an investigation that began in December 2007, the DPS Organized
Crime Unit amassed a sea of documents on all 14 employees then working at
the Panda Express on Swan and concluded that 12 were working illegally in
the U.S. and using Social Security numbers that were not theirs. (The 12th
worker got away and was never charged.)

"None of them had any idea it was a crime," said Isabel Garcia,
Pima County legal defender and Marlen's attorney, in court in August.
Immigrants, she added, use Social Security numbers only in order to get
jobs and feed their families.

But that didn't keep the Panda Express 11 out of jail. They weren't
accused of a violent crime, and most had local family ties, but they
weren't eligible for bail before their hearings. Thanks to Proposition
100, voted into law by the people of Arizona in 2006, any defendant
accused of a felony and believed to be in the country illegally can't be
released on bail. As the mother of an infant child, Marlen begged to be
allowed out on bond, but her request was turned down.

"These people you're getting to know are fine people, even victims
of the federal government's inability to do immigration reform," Margo
Cowan, assistant Pima County public defender, told the judge at the
sentencing hearing in August. "They are victims of state laws that
criminalize them for working."

The undocumented counter workers, cooks and cashiers were
imprisoned in the Pima County Jail, alongside accused murderers, rapists
and drug-dealers. But where accused violent criminals can often put up
bail and go home to await trial, the restaurant staff had to sit in jail
for four months.

Despite the hard jail time and the high drama of the stakeouts that
led to their arrests, not one of the workers was convicted of a felony.
All 11 pled guilty in July to the far lesser charge of criminal
impersonation, admitting only that they were "pretending to be a lawfully
employed member of the Panda Express restaurant crew."

Pima County Superior Court Judge Frank Dawley ruled the infraction
a misdemeanor and sentenced most of the defendants to fees and time
served. (Two still face a sentencing hearing this month.)

There was never any finding that they had stolen anyone's identity,
or that they had hurt anyone in any way. Most of the Social Security
numbers had never belonged to anyone else: They were made up. Only one had
been issued to a real person, and she was deceased. In fact, Dawley
reproached the prosecutor in August, saying, "You don't have any specific
example of harm."

Even so, the incarceration odyssey of the Panda Express 11
continued after Dawley finally sprang them from jail in July. They were
picked up by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and taken to
immigration detention centers in Eloy and Florence, where they were held
for weeks. Dar?o Cruz-Diaz, as of this writing, is still there, the only
one still being held.

So far, six have been returned to Mexico, and one, Pima Community
College student Francisco Domingo Mondaca-Duarte, has agreed to go back in
December. Three of the Panda Express staffers--Marlen, Roselia Araceli
Torres-Ruiz and Omar Espino-Lara--are petitioning to stay. All three were
brought to Tucson as children and grew up here, and all three now have
children who are U.S. citizens.

Now 25, Araceli was just 7 when she came to Tucson, attending
Cragin Elementary School, Roskruge School and Tucson High
School.

"I consider myself part of this country," the bilingual Araceli
says. "Even though I don't have papers, I've done a lot of positive things
in this country."

The resumes of all the workers demonstrate that Tucson businesses
big and small are dependent upon immigrant labor. Like Marlen, Araceli has
worked steadily since high school. She'd been working at Panda Express for
seven years when she got arrested. Before that, she was a customer-service
representative at Sears in the Tucson Mall, where she deployed her
excellent English and Spanish language skills. Before that, it was
telemarketing, selling prepaid phone cards to Spanish-speakers, and before
that, washing dishes at a restaurant.

Omar, 25, former soccer star at Sunnyside High School, first came
to Tucson at the age of 9. After two years, his family went back to
Guanajuato, but returned permanently when Omar was 14. He graduated in
2002 and went on to Pima to study accounting. But when his father was hurt
in an accident, Omar dropped out of college so he could support the
family.

First, he worked at Carl's Jr. and then went over to Panda Express,
where he rapidly rose to assistant manager. A church-goer who coaches a
youth-soccer team on weekends, he's a young man "Americans would be
honored to have ... as a member of society," his lawyer, Maria D?vila,
told the court.

"What has happened is shameful, a travesty," Cowan agreed. "These
people made this community better, as immigrants to this country have been
doing for 200 years."

The Panda Express 11 could have come right out of the Econ 101
textbook: They were classic low-wage workers in a service economy. For $8
to $10 an hour, they cooked and served food, and washed toilets and floors
for the California-based corporation. Marlen's pay, after four years, was
$8.70 an hour. In their report, the DPS detectives reported that over the
course of four years at Panda Express, Marlen had been paid a total of
$50,324.92.

That's an average of $12,580 a year, paid by a thriving corporation
whose mission statement calls it an "organization where people are
inspired to better their lives."

Some of the workers had been with Panda for years, but they--and
Panda Express--eluded detection all that time. Despite its finding that 12
out of the 14 store workers were undocumented and working illegally with
fraudulent Social Security numbers, DPS hastened to assure the media that
Panda Express officials would not be charged with any crime.

"This didn't have anything to do with Panda Express," DPS spokesman
Quentin Mehr told the Arizona Daily Star. "This is not a reflection
on the Panda Express," he reiterated to the Tucson Citizen. "They
are not being investigated." And Panda's corporate counsel, Monte Baier,
asserted in a written statement, "Panda Express has and continues to be in
full compliance with all federal and state laws."

Anne Hilby, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office,
notes, "We found no evidence that Panda Express was aware of the
fraudulent Social Security numbers." In any case, the new
employer-sanctions law would not have applied, because it went into effect
on Jan. 1, 2008, before the workers were hired.

And in its enthusiasm for the law, Panda Express checked out
workers at its 11 other Tucson locations and fired everyone found to be
legally "ineligible for employment," says Thien Ho, manager of corporate
relations.

Ironically, it was the low Panda wages that ultimately led to the
investigation. Once Freddy was born, Marlen's small paycheck was stretched
too thin, and she applied for benefits with the Arizona Department of
Economic Security. Freddy is an American citizen, born July 20, 2007, in
Tucson, and he was entitled to help.

"My child qualified for food stamps and AHCCCS (health care),"
Marlen says. "The problem began when I asked for food stamps for
Freddy."

Marco Liu, a DES program administrator, says U.S. citizen children
of undocumented immigrants are entitled to such benefits if the family
qualifies financially. Normally, staffers don't alert authorities if they
encounter undocumented applicants--in fact, DES officials try to dispel
that fear in the community--but "if there's an intentional program
violation, we refer it up to state and legal counsel."

DES sent an investigator, Lizbeth Lucero, to the family's trailer
home. Marlen believes that after that, a DES officer called the Department
of Public Safety and reported her.

"When they arrested me, they told me that DES is a font of
information," she says.

The DPS case file notes that its investigation was triggered by a
tip from a law-enforcement source in December. Hilby, with the state
Attorney General's Office, confirmed: "Our office had this referred to us
with concerns of welfare fraud, that one individual applied for benefits
with a Social Security number that was not hers."

By February, DPS served a subpoena on Panda Express corporate
offices in Phoenix, demanding information on Marlen and all the workers at
the Swan restaurant.

Panda Express wasted no time giving up its loyal workers, some of
whom had worked for the company seven years or more. Joyce Martinez with
the California headquarters called the DPS on Feb. 20 to say the company
"wanted to assist in complying," according to the DPS report. Lyle Forcum
telephoned on Feb. 22, reiterating Panda's readiness to help, and then
shipped off a list of the employees' names, birthdates and Social Security
numbers. A DPS check with the Social Security Administration revealed that
the names did not match the numbers.

The Attorney General's Office had originally sought information
only on Marlen, not on her co-workers, Hilby says.

"But if you come across evidence of other crimes, our office has
the responsibility to investigate. We became aware of it, and we had to
move forward with prosecution."

By March 18, DPS officials were ready to pounce.
At Grant and Swan, across town from Marlen's trailer park, the
Arizona Department of Public Safety was setting the trap.

Panda Express normally opens at 10:30 a.m. for early-bird lunchers.
The staff comes in around 10 to get things ready, to polish up the brown
faux-marble tabletops and to start saut?ing the veggies. But the day that
Marlen was rousted out of bed just after dawn, most of the workers had
arrived early, around 9:30. They were expecting a visitor from corporate,
and they wanted to make sure the place looked as good as it
could.

"We were waiting for our boss from California," Araceli says,
speaking in her midtown house in August, months after she got out of jail
and detention. "Everybody was cleaning."

Araceli and Omar didn't mind putting in the extra time, though both
were scheduled to work their usual 12-hour shifts.

Dressed in their uniforms--little black caps and polo shirts
embroidered with pandas--Araceli and the others didn't know that Panda
Express had been actively cooperating with DPS for weeks. Nor did they
know, as they arrived for work, that Marlen was already in custody. Or
that as they stepped off the Sun Tran bus or pulled their cars into the
parking lot, they were already under surveillance by the DPS
agents.

Cruz-Diaz, then 55, had gotten there even earlier than everybody
else. He showed up at 8 a.m. to wash the big glass windows.
"He was good at that," remembers Araceli, who worked as "lead
counter," supervising the female servers who ladled out the
food.

The rest of the team "went in 20 minutes early. We were joking
around, laughing. I went to the bank. I came back."

Assistant store manager Omar was in a good mood. He'd just returned
from a corporate-strategy session in Phoenix the day before, and he'd
gotten the good news that sales were up.

Rudy Garza-Salas, 38, on the job three years, had started cooking
in the open kitchen, stir-frying broccoli and sizzling strips of chicken.
Rosa Nohemi Gutierrez Parra, 28, was opening up the counter. A college
graduate with a degree in chemistry and a tireless volunteer at Duffy
Elementary School, where her 6-year-old son, Jorge, was in kindergarten,
she had been on the job just three months.

At precisely 10:30, "I opened the register, opened the store,"
Araceli says. "I saw what I thought was my first customer."
Araceli turned to the woman with a smile, but she was not somebody
with a late-morning craving for crispy shrimp. The woman who stepped in
the door was a DPS agent, the advance guard of a workplace raid. Araceli
cries at the memory of what followed.

"It's the last day I saw my team," she says, wiping away tears. "We
were happy. I liked that job."

Two agents told Dario, the window washer, to come inside. They
followed him into the store, and one turned and locked the
door.

"I told Omar, 'These are police,'" Araceli says. "I got nervous. I
had a bad feeling. I called my mother."

She starts crying again, remembering her mounting fear. "I told her
to take care of my daughter," 3-year-old Giselle. "I said, 'I don't know
what's happening, but I love you guys.' I called my husband and told him
there were police all over the store. The back door was closed. Something
was going on. It was not looking good.

"I told him I loved him, and to take care of the baby. I said, 'I
think it's immigration.'"

Unbeknownst to the five workers, DPS agents were circling around
outside, with two guarding a side door. (In all, 18 DPS agents
participated.) Inside, officers presented Omar with a search warrant and
ordered everybody to sit at the customer tables, underneath the cheerful
posters with drawings of pandas in every possible pose. Just then, Juan
Trujillo, then 21, turned up, hurrying into the restaurant a little late
and oblivious to what was going on.

"What's up?" he asked his work buddies, puzzled to find them all
sitting instead of standing.

Now with six suspects on hand, the agents separated the workers
into small groups. Araceli and Dar?o were put together and read their
Miranda rights. The officer intoned the familiar words--"You have the
right to remain silent ..."--but then kept on asking questions, she
says.

One asked, "Are you legal or illegal?" Araceli is a feisty
character, used to managing the line, and she replied, "I have a right to
keep silent. I don't want to answer." Then, she remembers, "He got really
mad. He took his badge and said, 'You're being arrested for ID theft. I'm
going to ask you one more time: Are you legal or illegal?'"

When Araceli again refused to answer, the man replied, "There's
only one answer." A woman cuffed her and, according to Araceli, pulled
hard on her hands and berated her behavior, saying, "She doesn't want to
cooperate with us." The man agreed. "She doesn't want to answer
me."

Araceli finally succumbed to the pressure. "All these people were
around me. I said, 'I'm illegal.'"

By 1 p.m., all six of the workers had been taken away to face a
dizzying array of interrogations in facilities all over town, including
the Border Patrol headquarters on South Swan Road, the DPS center on South
Tucson Boulevard, and the Pima County Jail. The corporate visitors Araceli
and the others had been expecting turned up in time to see their workers
being led away in handcuffs. By 1 p.m., according to the DPS report, the
"restaurant was turned over to" to Apichai Vitayaprachasakul, Alan Huang
and Ricky Tong of Panda Express.

DPS rounded up the other five staffers at their homes, including
Norberto Hernandez Ochoa, a 34-year-old father of three, married to an
American citizen; Francisco Domingo Mondaca Duarte, a 22-year-old Pima
College student hoping to become a computer engineer; Artemio Marin
Bustamante, 23, who had a pregnant wife and a toddler at home in Mexico;
and Jose Guadalupe Pichardo Rivera, 20.

Late in the day, the Panda Express 11 were reunited, tearfully, at
the Pima County Jail, six of them still in their work shirts and Marlen
still in her pajamas. They would soon trade these clothes in for the jail
uniform: orange jumpsuits.

"We were with all these people who were really, really criminal,"
Araceli says. "We couldn't realize we were going into jail. I started to
cry. That's the last day I saw my daughter."

One summer day a few weeks after she was released from the
immigration detention center, Marlen Moreno-Peralta bustles around her
immaculate kitchen, loading up a plate with cookies. She's delighted to be
at home again. Tucson immigration activists raised the money to pay the
bond to get her out of detention, and she's awaiting word on her petition
to stay in the United States. She never did get her car back.

Marlen is a big, soft-spoken young woman with a cascade of light
brown curls. She smiles easily, even though her son, Freddycito, as she
calls him, is staring at her warily from the safety of his grandmother's
arms.

"It's very unjust what they did to us," she says, looking over at
him. He's still refusing to come to her. "They took us away from our
children, separated us from our families. I will never forget. It was only
for working. They treated it as a crime."

Marlen was humiliated to be imprisoned with people accused of
serious offenses. At the Pima County Jail, she was with "drug dealers, DUI
people," she says. "Three women were accused of murder." She was afraid,
too. "The places are always dangerous. The women fought."

The detention center in Eloy, run by the for-profit Corrections
Corporation of America, was "very dirty. There was no privacy in the
bathroom. There was a lot of contraband, people smoking drugs, very
different from the people in my regular life."

It was painful for Omar, too, who in his regular life is a pillar
of Iglesia de Dios, the Church of God, on the southside. An athlete all
his life, he suffered by being locked into a small space. He was allowed
outside only "one hour a week, on the basketball court."

He struggled to keep up his spirits. "I didn't eat at all for the
first six days. I didn't take a shower for 10 days. The place was dirty.
... I didn't want to live anymore. I spoke to no one."

The detention center in Eloy was "not better." The place was
infested with gangs, he says, and he had to fend off their demands that he
join.

Araceli still trembles when she talks about her jail time. Some of
the officers were kind, she remembers, and sympathized with the plight of
the Panda prisoners. But others were harsh; one officer would scold her
for speaking Spanish. A fellow inmate taunted her that she'd be deported,
but Araceli says she answered back, "I have done more positive things for
the country than you. I love this country. I'm here because I was working.
You're here for stealing. I'm proud of myself and did a lot of good
things."

Worst of all was the separation from their children. At the Pima
County Jail, only visitors with legal documents can visit, and then they
see their loved one not in the flesh, but via a video feed. Omar and his
wife, Perla, a legal resident, have a 2-year-old son, Gianlucca, named for
an Italian soccer player, and he is stepfather to her three older children
from a previous marriage. Gianlucca would come to the jail with his mom,
but he was confused.

"What are you doing there?" he would ask, peering at his dad on the
computer screen. "When are you coming out of the office?" The other kids
would pester their mother about their stepdad's absence, demanding, "When
is he coming back from work?"

No one could bring Marlen's Freddy in, and Araceli didn't want her
3-year-old daughter, Giselle, to see her in jail. Unlike Freddy, Giselle
was big enough to remember her mom during the long absence, but old enough
to be mad that she was gone.

"Where are you, Mommy?" she'd ask her on the phone. "When are you
coming home?" Sometimes, though, "She was too angry to talk to me. She'd
run and cry." Worst of all, for both mother and daughter, Giselle got sick
when her mom was locked up. Araceli was distraught that she couldn't care
for her.

Among them, the Panda Express prisoners had 12 young children, most
of them U.S. citizens. In June, the three mothers in the group--Marlen,
Araceli and Nohemi--wrote a plaintive letter to the public from inside the
prison walls.

Under the law, they wrote in Spanish, "Working has been transformed
into a crime. Because of this law, we remain here, far from our families
and children. The children are the most affected because they are
suffering the absence of their mothers and fathers, who one day went out
to work and never came back."


Members of the Panda Express 11 will speak at a free community
forum, "Who Are the Panda Express 11? Defending the Right to Work," at
6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 12, at the Armory Park Senior Center, 220 S.
Fifth Ave, Tucson, AZ. Lawyers for the case and family members will also speak. For
more information, call 770-1373.

So last night we went out dancing at Mambo Café. It was the first time I've gone dancing... maybe in months! It was definitely needed. Seven of the nine students in our group went out together to loosen up. After Sam's and my third tequila shot we were free of all inhibitions (still level headed of course) and just started to dance and move and let our bodies be free... it'd been way too long since I'd just let go.

We stayed there until the club closed and then shared a taxi back to three of the girls' neighborhoods. We got dropped off in front of one girls house, walked another to hers and then Sam and I walked the 10 blocks or so back to her house... ecstatic. Dancing was so invigorating. On our walk back to her place I was still floating enough that I did a couple of steps in the empty, quiet streets.

If I finish my paper by tomorrow night we're going to go out dancing again, and if not then, then maybe on Saturday and again next week before we run out of time here in Mérida. If it were up to me, I think I would just dance my days away the rest of the time I were here, but of course it's not up to me and I have responsabilities and such. Anyway, dancing was a sublime distraction, unparalleled thus far in this trip, I only hope it can be repeated (seeing as at times I am still in dire need of good distractions).

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino, y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.

Al andar se hace camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.

Caminante, no hay camino,
sino estelas en la mar.

Soo... I've come to realize that before coming to Mexico, no one in my life had ever come on to me. Now that I've been here it's happened twice and it sucks. I much prefer the random one liners that Spaniards would give and the general avoidance I get in the states, this type of activity I can handle with flying colors. I'm still learning how to deal with boys who take it the next step, but I think at the moment that if it happens again I'm just gonna get pissed and sock someone in the face.

This makes me want to go home so I can hang out with David, the one boy who I can actually trust.

Ay pendejos, no. No quiero que seas mi novio, de hecho por el momento ni quiero novio, él que tenía ya me jodió. Y si ni te quiero como novio, ¿por qué crees que quiero volverme acá a Mérida para pasar mi vida contigo o que vayas allá a vivir conmigo en California? Piénsalo muy bien cabrón, no seas imbécil.

¡Déjenme en paz, ya!

Bands

I’ve started to notice here that when you go out to restaurants or to clubs or where ever generally the music that is playing in the background is actually a live band. Granted this isn’t everywhere of course, but it is in quite a few places. The extra interesting thing about these bands is that they seem to always be cover bands. They rarely play their own music but rather play popular songs or just take requests. It gives the ambiance an interesting dynamic that we don’t have so much in the U.S.

I know that in some places especially in the cities there are these bands in the U.S. but they don’t seem quite so common like they are here. I like both types of bands, cover bands and bands that just play there own music. They both have their own challenges. Regular bands have to write their own music and it has to be good enough to play in public and entertain a crowd. Cover bands on the other hand have to know a huge amount of songs and of all different genres. It’s amazing how many songs these bands can play and the singers can sing from heart. I guess though since it’s their profession it might not be too hard but for me it’s impressive.

Hammocks

I can’t remember if I’ve talked yet about hammocks. If I have, then go ahead and skip this little part but if not then here it goes. I like that here everyone (or at least most everyone) has a hammock, and many people use them regularly. They make a lot of sense in a hot and humid climate and also say something about the walls. Here, especially in the hot (comparative for them) months people will only use the hammocks to sleep in instead of sleeping in beds. It makes sense this way because the air can circulate around your whole body and don’t have the bed on your back keeping you too hot all night. With the hammock I understand how they can stand to sleep in the summers without an AC and with just a regular ceiling fan. The air really does circulate and cools you off.

Hammocks are especially nice say if someone is going to sleep over. You don’t have to have a bed to offer them you just either have an extra hammock or ask them to bring theirs (they’re small enough that you can just take yours where ever you go). Once they’re there you just hang it up and viola you have a bed! I think I’ll buy one to take home with me, I’m just a little nervous about hanging it up in my room because I don’t know if our walls are strong enough. That’s another interesting thing about here. Most walls are made of stone or cement so they are very sturdy and I imagine it helps with keeping things a little cooler inside the house so that the heat doesn’t penetrate quite so easily.

Stone walls make hanging hammocks easy. All you have to do is figure out how to get the sturdy hooks into the wall, but once they’re there you don’t have to worry about them coming out. At home though with all the drywall… I’m not so sure if hanging a hammock inside would be such a great idea. Maybe if I just found where the studs were behind the drywall and just used those it would work. We’ll have to see (see if I make big holes in my walls trying to hang up a hammock!).

Another interesting thing about the hammocks here: they’re actually comfortable!! Back home I never was really comfortable lying on hammocks; they would always make my back hurt or just make me uncomfortable. I napped on mine here the other day… man that was a great nap! I slept comfortably for like 3 hours! I was definitely tired but I was comfortable too. The ‘weave’ (if you can call it a weave) of the hammocks here are a lot more like cloth than like just wound rope with lots of holes. Or at least the good ones are, of course there are the poor quality ones that are made specifically to sell to ignorant tourists too! Hopefully with Ligia’s help I’ll be able to buy a good quality one to take home and let you guys try it out.

Getting Change

It has been really interesting for me here in Mérida. I don’t know if it’s there and I just don’t see it, or I just don’t let myself see it, but I haven’t seen too much poverty. (Maybe I’ll see it more when I go into the small communities and do the surveys.) Or maybe it’s just common enough that you don’t see it?? No I don’t think that’s the case. I think that Mérida just isn’t too poor. Granted there are poor sections… maybe I just haven’t seen it first hand too much. ANYWAY… I’ve seen little hints of it here and there. First of all, women wearing towels instead of shawls, that was definitely one sign, but that was also in a little community that… I guess I would expect to not be too rich.

In Mérida you see it when you go to get change for large bills, or sometimes even smaller bills too. Unless you go into really big stores (especially chain stores) many times if you pay with a large bill the cashier will not always have enough cash to give you change so you have to pay with a smaller bill or they have to ask if anyone else has change. It is kinda odd that that’s how it is here compared to back home, but at the same time it makes sense. Back home our culture is so commercialized that it makes sense that cash registers would always be full (for two reasons). First the store wants to make everything convenient for the customer so that the customer will continue to buy, buy, buy. Second the more people buy the more cash the store is going to have on hand. Here though… it seems almost like they start out with zero or very little cash in the morning and can only change larger bills once other people have been in shopping and even still sometimes it is a struggle.

I don’t know how much of a problem it is for locals, but for us ‘tourists’ who rely on the ATMs to give us our cash we always run into the problem of having to change our bills. The ATMs give denominations of 500, 200 and 50 pesos (about 50, 20 and 5 dollars). This doesn’t seem like it’d be too difficult to change but when all you’re buying is say… bus fare it gets a little complicated. Bus fare, by the way, in Mérida for the general public is 5 pesos. For students on all days except Sundays and holidays is 3 pesos. For children and senior citizens it’s 3 pesos. The interesting change for fares is on busses with air conditioning. On AC busses students and maybe even children and elders have to pay all 5 pesos, there’s no discount.

Well, this is it for now. I’ll write more later. Oh one interesting thing about the weather. People tell me that today was the first really cold day back home in California. The odd thing is that we’re on our third day of a hot and humid tropical front! I’m getting more and more nervous about the temperature change for when I go back but… I’m definitely looking forward to being back home and even more so to exploring the South West!!! I can’t wait for David’s and my road-trip!!! Very, very exciting!

Oh, and P.S. Happy late Thanksgiving!! I hope you all ate well but not so well that you split your clothes or lost any buttons!

Basura: orgánica vs inorgánica

One interesting thing about the trash here is that it is separated. There still isn't too much recycling and there's a lot of litter (just like there is - or you would expect - in any city with a population of one million plus) but all of the public trash cans in the city are divided and marked as orgánica and inorgánica (I hope that's easy enough to translate without having to write it out). For us at home, in our houses this isn't too out of the norm. We have our green cans and our black cans, and more and more the blue cans, but I think here their orgánica cans are used much more than our green cans. I like seeing the orgánica cans because it gives me hope that they're using all of that organic matter for something useful - like for a huge compost or something. I'll have to ask what they actually do with it but either way I liked it and think we should divide our cans like this more in the United States too.

La Feria de Yucatán en Xmatkuil

The other night Samantha and I made our way to the fair. I thought I'd already written about it in detail but I guess I had just talked about it, so I'll write more about what the fair was like later. For now though... while Sam and I were at the fair we saw two really cool things (among others of course). The first was this two-man (father and son) show of brazilian cyclists. They had a whole show that they put on every night I think. They use a huge range of bikes: tall ones, short ones, miniatures, tricycles, unicycles etc. Their show was great because they just pulled people out of the audience and made them participate, but I've yet to get to the part I really liked.

Basically they were just putting on a show like any regular street performer. They did their show and then asked for money. It was unique though how they went about asking for money. Since they're brazilians and are a traveling show, they take advantage of what they've got. They bring a bunch of brazilian currency with them, both coins and bills, small denominations of course. They go on to do their whole schpeal (sp?) about how they're offering to sell their brazilian currency for mexican pesos. They explain that their currency isn't actually worth what they're selling it to you for, but they explain the situation to convince the public that they're not getting ripped off.

What they say is that while the currency isn't worth that much, in order to get it (unless you buy it from them) you have to fly all the way down to Brazil! So in the end, with the cost of the flight, it'll cost you hundreds of dollars to get their currency instead of just a couple if you were to buy it off of them. I really liked this logic, and, this way you get something unexpected back for supporting their show!

The other ting that I liked a lot about the fair was that there were firefighters there. Yes, just run-of-the-mill firefighters but... they had brought their firetruck and had brought a set-up. They attached something like a plank that took you out to a fire pole! We watched the kids climb up the fire truck one by one and get help sliding down the pole.

I thought that this idea was incredible! What could a kid want more than to be able to slide down the fire pole at the fair?! The best part though was that the kids here don't know how to slide down the pole. There were firefighters at the top and the bottom of the pole, and from what we could see, the kids were basically being put on the pole and handed down to the other firefighters below. They didn't know that they had to wrap their arms and legs around the pole. I liked seeing this because it made me realize how important firefighters are in our society and how much - especially as kids - we look up to them and want to emulate them as much as possible.

Laundry:

So, last week I 'did' my laundry for the first time in Mérida. Very few homes here have washers on the property, and I think even fewer have driers. what you do is just take your clothes down to the lavandería - the laundromat. The difference though is that you leave it there and they wash it for you. Basically it is like getting your clothes dry-cleaned, just that it's not as fancy.

I took my laundry down just in a bag and they said to go back and pick it up the next day. At first I was a little nervous about leaving my clothes overnight but then my americanness passed and I went on with my day.

I went back the next day and fell in love with the lavandería. It is a little expensive, but definitely worth it. I don't know if my clothes had ever been that clean, and it was all perfectly folded! I had had stains on some of my clothes for years and miraculously they were gone! Now I kinda wish I could bring all my clothes down to be cleaned (not that my clothes are that dirty or covered in stains, just that they do such a good job)!

Towels:

On Friday I went with Cynthia, David and JJ to Sahcabá to another school. This time we left town at seven am in order to arrive by 8am. Needless to say, I slept like a baby on the way there. Anyway, when I was there I watched as women came onto the school grounds and noticed something rather peculiar. Many of the women wore the traditional maya dress with the shawl to cover their shoulders, some wore just regular city dress but still had something to carry on their shoulders. The odd and interesting part was that not all the women wore shawls. Many women had just put a towel on their shoulders. At first I didn't understand at all and thought that they had all either just gotten out of the shower or were going to go swimming.

When I realized the absurdity of both of these ideas I decided to ask David what was going on. It turns out that it is very traditional for the women to have something on their shoulders and yes traditionally it was always the shawl. The problem is that nowadays shawls have become rather expensive whereas towels are not. Because of this, many women have just started wearing a towel because it fulfills the same purpose and costs less.

They're more of a suggestion...

I think that I've come to the conclusion that driving in Mexico is a little more chaotic (from an American's perspective) but yet more fluid than driving in Spain. First off, dividing lines are there merely as a reminder and a general rule of thumb. Many times though, dividing lines, lane separating lines and even that white line that marks the edge of the road, freeway and highway are missing. this is enough to cause panic in a newcomer, but after experiencing this type of situation with people who are used to it, you realize that instead of causing confusion, this lack of painted barrier actually makes things flow smoothly.

When in town many people merge throughout the lanes as dolphins may do when swimming next to a boat. Each car decides what speed to take and will just move accordingly. Rarely are blinkers used as rarely they are needed (unless you happen to be that pedestrian unsure of whether or not it is safe to cross the street). There is more verbal and nonverbal communication that occurs between drivers which somehow works here instead of initiating road rage.

This is the same on the smaller highways I've been on. Going out to the municipalities I have seen roads that are just pavement lined by vegetation. There were no lines and no shoulders, just pavement running through the wilderness. In these situations, if the road is wide enough, at times you will encounter that three lanes have emerged out of two. In these cases, someone is passing someone else while there is oncoming traffic. The passee just moves more to the right, the passer goes in the middle and the oncomers just move to the left. Simple. No panic. Just liquid movement.

Another thing concerning roads that I have found interesting is that busses at times go the wrong way on one way streets. They are set routes of course so this only happens in designated (by tradition - not by signs) areas. Still, it is enough to make the ordinary American cringe in their seat.

Also, coming here in a way is like a blast from the past in terms of seatbelts. While there are some signs addressing the importance of seatbelts, for the most part they are still merely a suggestion and one that most people still ignore. There was one situation in which I was in the car with Marco and Emilio and all of a sudden they buckled-up. From this I imagine that there must be at least one area in the city where seatbelt-wearing is enforced. Also, on one bus - an overnight bus - they actually played a video at the beginning teaching you (especially good for kids) the importance of the seatbelt and asking the passengers to please wear them while seated. I wonder how long it'll take for these ideas to become ingrained here like they've almost accomplished in the US.

Speed bumps:

The use of speed bumps here is definitely much more common than anywhere else I've ever been before. There are always speed bumps in front of schools and hospitals but they are not limited to these areas. They are placed anywhere and at any time where it is safest not to speed. There is also a large variety in the types of speed bumps found herer. Some are rounded, some are more pointed (like a wave getting ready to break), some are wide, some are wide and have ridges like cow grates (except they're all made of cement).

One day I decided to look up the word speed bump online because I wasn't sure if 'tope' was the correct word. I went to my favorite online language dictionary (www.wordreference.com for anyone who is ever interested) and looked it up. Sure enough, in Mexico speed bumps are 'topes'. I read what they are in other countries as well and decided it was too great of a list to be lost in cyberspace, and says a little something about each of the countries listed, so... here you go:

'banda sonora' - España
'lomo de toro' - Chile
'policía acostado' - Colombia
'guardia dormido' - España
'tope' - México
'rompemuelle' - Perú
'lomo de burro' - Puerto Rico
'badén'

Lastly, in terms of cars, roads, transportation etc., it has come to our attention that here, a language all of its own has evolved out of honking. We started to make a list of all the ways that honking is used, but instead of giving it to you now, I think I'll wait until it is a little more complete (so if I forget to talk about it within a couple weeks, just remind me).

So last night Sam Kellie and I went out for a drink after our group meeting. We went to a café/bar by my house that has specials on national drinks, 2x1 before 8pm. We went there and since I personally prefer tequila over... maybe any other alcoholic drinks I decided, what better place to drink tequila than in Mexico??

So I got my two for one tequila shots and Sam and Kellie got their beer. Before I took my shots though Sam decided to be a nice friend :-) She didn't want me to be taking shots by myself so we decided that we'd each take a shot and then just get another round so that no one would be left drinking by themselves.

When we asked for our second round the bartender thought we wanted another round of the beer too so he brought that. We decided to go ahead and keep the beer instead of sending it back so needless to say we felt good afterward, but don't worry we were still fine, just a little giggly! I decided that it probably wouldn't be a good idea for me to stay by myself for the night though considering everything that's been going on for me emotionally so we asked our moms (we're back to asking permission to stay at other people's houses... back to highschool...) if it'd be alright and they said there was no problem.

We walked around the central plaza for a little and then took the bus to Sam's house. Once we got there we walked Kellie home and then went to Sam's favorite hang out: the Van Gogh café. She got an iced coffee and I got an iced tea and we sat and played cards... in Spanish... until about 11:30. It was a lot of fun and it was a really good exercise to try to keep my mind off of things or at least to not let those things take over my thoughts. After playing cards we went back to her house and got some much needed sleep after drinking a bunch of water!

It was a really nice night, rather mellow and over all really good. And it was successful cause I didn't let my emotions take control, wuhoo!! I was proud of that (thank's to good ol Samantha) so I thought I'd let you know.

Today Sam and I are going to go look into tickets for Palenque!!

Since I haven't really been writing about my observations since I've gotten here I figure I should start. It's a little harder to notice the little differences here since I'd already been to Mexico before though, because it just makes these little things seem more normal than out of the ordinary. But there are a few things that are different here than in Zacatecas, and different than in any other place I've been so far.

First, (I don't know if I've mentioned this already or not so here it goes) the toilet situation here is interesting. They all work, there's no worries there it's just there are some slight differences. Here, for the most part (meaning in just about everywhere except for like luxury hotels and super tourist oriented places) you do not flush your toilet paper, but rather just throw it into the trash. Their plumming is not set up in the same way as ours back home so they don't flush it. Also I guess there's some paper that is dissolvable so you can flush it, it's just that most of it is not, so you don't. This was an odd concept to get used to but the transition has actually not been too bad, and it is not as gross as you would imagine. I've only forgotten twice so, I think I'm doing pretty good.

The first time I forgot was a little hilarious though. It was the morning after I arrived, that first morning when you wake up groggy because you were traveling the whole day before and went through a time change and you go into the bathroom in the morning and do your normal routine. I did my normal routine and it was one of those things that the second the paper leaves your hand you cringe because you remembered just a second too late that it was supposed to go into the trash instead. I laughed pretty hard, but it was good to help me remember.

Another funny thing about not flushing the tp... of all the things going on in my life at the moment and since I've come, I've only had bad dreams about one thing (but I've had multiple of them), can you guess what it is?? Yes, my recurring bad dream in Mexico is that I forget to throw away the toilet paper! I guess that's good for my only bad dream, haha!

Another toilet observation.. but this one only counts for girl's public restrooms. Before we came we were warned to start working on our thighs for when we would have to squat because there are no toilet seats in public restrooms here. It is true that there are rarely toilet seats in public restrooms, but what I realized was.. if it's a girl's bathroom, why do you need to squat? Shouldn't you be able to just sit as if it were a regular seat? Am I missing some information as to why you can't just sit on the rim if it's an all girl's bathroom? Anyway, since I'm not sure if I'm missing some vital information I only partially sit, haha. Or I'll kinda rest on my hands and then wash them extra-well afterwards. But I'm starting to think that it's alright to sit, as long as it is in an all girl's bathroom.

Moving on... I like that here you get to see new animals running around the house. There aren't so many mice that you have to worry about but rather lizards. I definitley prefer lizards over mice, just because they're fun. In my shower there's a broom that I use to sweep the excess water into the drain when I'm finished (the tiles aren't quite steep enough for the water to just automatically flow there). The other day when I picked the broom up to start sweeping, there was a lizard under it!! I was excited and left it alone, I figured it couldn't hurt anything. The next day it was still there. The following day I was a little disappointed to not find it under the broom until I looked around a little and found that it had moved into a different part of the shower. It was kinda nice to have a buddy, haha.

Another animal that we get to see here are the iguanas! It's interesting because they aren't anyone's pet that has gotten loose, but rather they're the locals. The other day I saw an iguana sunning itself on the sidewalk. Ligia says that sometimes they'll line the stone wall in the back too. I'll have to keep my eyes out for them. Oh, and one last animal, Sam has encountered gechos! She's seen a couple in her house and even saw one in mine! I hope I get to see one soon too.

There's one pest here that deserves recognition: the mosquitoes. The mosquitoes here are a little different than the ones we have back home, they're much more stealthy! They're not loud and annoying like the ones we have in the states, but rather are very quiet. Also, one of my professors a couple semesters ago had taught us how in some places people will build their houses on stilts so that the mosquitoes wouldn't get them. I didn't understand this concept until I came down here. At home mosquitoes will fly up and bite you even on your head, there's no problem for them to do that. Here though, it seems that mosquitoes tend to stay within three feet of the ground. I learned this the hard way. When I first came I wore capri-pants, so the 3/4 length pants and my ankles were attacked, even though I put on repellant. My arms though and my neck have almost entirely been left alone. I learned that when you're here, even though it might be hot, if you wear pants, and then anything up top (tank top, t-shirt, anything) you will almost never get bitten! Yay for tropical mosquitoes who are afraid of heights.

Okay, those are my observations for now. I'll write more when they come to me.

Well.. I woke up this morning really hungry, I felt like my insides were completely empty. I haven't been able to eat well lately, and it's not that I'm eating tiny amounts, but that it's just not enough. I'm afraid that I'm losing weight so... I need to figure out how to get my mind off things so my stomach will stop churning so that I can eat and not... waste away. (Wow, that sounds awful.)

This morning though it was a little different. Cause lately when I would sit to eat, I'd be really hungry and I'd start eating but then it just wouldn't go down right. It's like my gag reflex is extra sensitive at the moment. And then I can't tell if I'm full or not, so it's just weird to eat. Today though was a little different... to the point that I think I might be getting or making myself sick. I'm kinda wondering if I'm getting a fever.

So... I need your help. If you have any ideas on how to distract myself and keep myself occupied, especially my mind. Or how to relax, but truly relax... I'd like to know. Sleeping hasn't been the best lately either so I'm sure that's contributing to the problem, but yeah, the whole problem of not being able to relax doesn't help. So yeah, if you have any advice or ideas, my ears are open.

One good thing I found out about... Intocable (a music group) is going to come and play a free concert here at the fair, wuhoo!! So I've got to look that up and see when it is to make sure I don't miss it. Also, I might finally start learning how to play soccer. My neighbor might start teaching me, so... we'll see what happens. This weekend (if I'm not sick) a group of us are going to try to go down to Palenque, Bonampak, and Yaxchilán in Chiapas to see the ruins!! It's our three day weekend so hopefully that'll all work out. I'll keep you posted.

Al principio Ampelio pidió su espacio y su tiempo y yo estaba de acuerdo con él. Entiendo por qué tiene que tomar su espacio. Entiendo por qué tiene que conocerse a si mismo y por qué no puede estar con una chica para hacerlo.

Pero, luego luego esa pedida cambió a ser un aviso, me avisó con sus acciones, no con las palabras, que iba a tomar su espacio y su libertad y que no era cosa de conocerse a si mismo ni a realizar su sueños, sino para conocer a otra.

Después, dejó de hacerme caso y de respetarme.
Empezó a torturarme hablándole a la sancha. Esa tortura duró cinco semanas enteras. Por más que le pedía que no lo hiciera o que por lo menos no lo hiciera tanto, jamás me hizo caso. Ya se había dejado lo moral atrás.

En menos de una semana de estar yo en México me traicionó, los dos me traicionaron.
Me hizo ver que los casi ocho años de estar juntos no le valieron para continuar de respetarme.

Tomó su libertad.
Se metió con Chiara Martin y no le da cuenta que o quizás no le importa que ella se aprovechó de mi y nos manipuló para acercarse a él.
Por lo menos conmigo, ella es una mentirosa. Jamás me respetó, vio su chance para estar con él y la tomó.

Ella no se siente por sus acciones, por más que diga y jure que sí.
Nunca intentó ser amiga mía, era y es sólo una facada para que él y yo no veamos la realidad. Y con él su plan sigue funcionando.

Los dos dejaron de valorarme como ser humano y se aprovecharon de mí.
Él sigue aprovechándose de mí. Él sabe que para mí es difícil de dejar las cosas y dejar los amigos y por eso hace lo que le dé la gana sin realmente pensar en lo que está haciendo con nuestra relación y nuestra amistad.
Él va a continuar de hacer lo que le dé la gana. Por sus acciones es obvio que ya no le importan los casi ocho años que compartimos, ya los olvidó. Ya tiene su libertad.

Por el momento él va a negar que eso es la realidad pero algún día se va a recordar que yo no soy mentirosa y en ese día verá.

Ahora, yo tengo que respetarme a mí misma y es lo que voy a hacer.

Date:	2007-11-12 10:03
Subject:	La traición de un beso - en los labios que amaba tanto.
Security:	Public
Mood:	crushed

Lo que no entiendo es por qué no podían esperar ni una semana para empezar a besarse. Bueno, por lo menos sólo se besaron, o por lo menos me dijeron que sólo se besaron, aun si fuera más de una vez.

A ver qué traerá el futuro, espero que traiga respeto y sinceridad en las acciones, porque allí es donde de veras cuenta, no en las palabras que suelen ser mentiras.

Y tú, Chiara, La Sancha, jamás le hechas la culpa a él, porque en besarse, especialmente la segunda y la tercera vez, es la voluntad de los dos. Toma la responsabilidad de tus acciones y deja de fingir ser inocente ya que no la eres.

Well... I finally got out of the 'centro' to see where some of my friends live. I rode the bus with Sam and Kellie to Sam's house. There I got to see her neighborhood and her house and meet her family. It was all pretty nice, and definitely much quieter than the 'centro'. I really liked the nanny in the house, she's short, chubby, cute and very nice. I can tell why Sam likes her so much. After staying at her house for a little while we walked Kellie to the park nearby and asked how to get to her house from there (she's really not good with recognizing landmarks). It turned out to get to her house was really easy so we walked her there and met her family too.

Her house was a nice one too, I'm starting to think that all the houses that they put us up in here are nice. I guess they'd kinda have to be since they have to have a spare room for us. Anyway, it was a nice walk, and now all three of us know how to get to her house from Sam's. On Sam and my walk back we stopped by Charlotte's house to ask her a few questions. She lives on the same street as Kellie, just like six blocks down or so (maybe less). Afterward Sam walked me to her bus stop so that I could get back to my house before it got too late. Ligia had told me which street to walk down to get home that is the most lit up so I felt comfortable walking by myself at about 10pm.

A couple days later I went out and tried to get to Sam's house on my own on the bus. It actually went okay. I got a little lost trying to find her street, but now know that it is really easy to get to. It's a huge relief knowing that I can go visit them whenever I need to so that I can avoid getting lonely.

On Thursday in the evening Sam, Kate and I went to the 'Evento 40'. It was a concert in Mérida for 'los 40 principales' (you've got to sing when you read that - they're the top 40 songs). I think each of the top 40 groups were going to come and sing, but we didn't stay for the whole thing. We were lucky and got free VIP tickets because one of the girls in our group, Luicita, works at the radio station and they gave our whole group free tickets! We didn't recognize any of the bands, but that's okay because it was entertaining. I think my favorite that I saw was a group called Caló.

It was fun at the concert. Everyone was standing and dancing on their chairs instead of sitting on them (the concert was in a stadium, so we were on chairs on the grass). Sam was kinda knocked into a guy next so us, but it turned out okay because we all started talking and it turns out that he's a dancer in one of the local clubs so we kinda peer-pressured Sam into dancing with him. It was great though because he was teaching her some steps, and even took her out to the side to teach her some salsa basics. It was a lot of fun watching her try, and it was nice to meet him because now we have someone we can go out dancing with.

Friday was a very interesting day. I went to work and I met a lady named Cynthia who works with (maybe under) JJ. She took me to the school of psychology where we met up with two other professors and drove out to a community called Pencuyut. It is a tiny community somewhere about an hour and a half away from Mérida. I think it is small enough that it doesn't even show up on the maps. It was really neat going out there and seeing a tiny, local community. I just need to find out if it is alright to take pictures so that when I go to the next one I'll know if I can or not.

When we were in Pencuyut we met with the school principal and he showed us how the school's solar was coming along. It was really neat, and huge!! They have fruit trees, an area for compost, an area for horticulture, and are building areas for chickens and for pigs. It looks like it is a really neat program but I definitely want to know more. The nice part is that it seems really sustainable. For example, the pigs and chickens are going to eat the local vegetation and the fruit and such that is not used from the orchard. Also, the community is going to collect materials that were blown off of houses and such and discarded after the hurricane to use to build shaded areas and fences for the pigs.

Cynthia said that if I want to work there (in a small community) I would either work doing promotion for the program or at the school and help out with construction I think. What I'd have to do though would be take a bus on Monday out to a designated community and stay overnight until Wednesday, when I'd take a bus back to Mérida. It would be a great adventure, but I haven't quite decided it I want to do it or not. Before I make my decision I want to see how things go with the surveys. Tomorrow I'll hopefully go out and do some of the surveys with GGG. We'll see. On Wednesday I'm going to go back out with Cynthia to another community and afterward I will make my decision.

Wow, this'll be a long entry!! One last day. So yesterday we made our first excursion to the ruins. First we went to Chichen Itzá and then we made our way to Ek Balám. We spent a lot of time at Chichen, but it was annoying. We had a guide, who would've been really interesting to listen to except that after everything Charlotte would have to translate it for the people who don't know enough Spanish. And then on top of it we went into so much detail that it actually took away from the experience itself. On top of all this there were tons of tourists so it really took away from the experience. The nice thing though was that we got to experience our first little rains. Every 20 minutes or so the sky opened its faucets and would rain for about a minute and then clear up. It was great because it cooled you off enough to last the next 20 minutes in the sticky humidity.

One thing that I really liked about Chichen was that we got to see epiphytes. That was exciting!! The other cool thing about Chichen was that we got to meet a guy that's been working there for about four months now with the national geographic. They're making a film on Chichen and the Maya culture that'll come out in the Imax theaters in December 2008. They're filming with cameras that have like 280 mega-pixels!! It's bound to be a great documentary. It was cool, he told us a great anecdote. I guess not too long ago Pres. Bush came down and visited the ruins and a couple other places, and after he left people came in from all over the area to purify the site!! I guess it was completely filled with incense for a while, haha!!

The pyramid and the ruins there were interesting, I think I got some good pictures. It was just kinda annoying that there were so many tourists. Anyway, next we went to Ek Balám which was for us ten times better, even though the ruins themselves are not necessarily as spectacular.

It was nice there though because it was still almost all covered in jungle-like vegetation, not big open spaces like in Chichen. Also at Ek Balam they let you climb the steps of the acropolis!! We did not hesitate and went straight up all 110 steps! Mom, you'd never go up, sorry. It was great to see everything from so up high!! We could see the whole site and the surroundings and we got there for a nice sunset through the clouds so that made it even more spectacular. I still haven't decided if I'll put up pictures while I'm down here or wait till I get back, but eventually you'll see a glimpse of what I got to see.