refugio para perros de tres piernas

It's raining, again. The wind last night even took up some of the rocks that appear to be part of the foundation of the house built on a hill. This is not meant to incite concern about my safety (the house is and will be fine), but instead meant to be an indicator that I am not exaggerating the speed and devastation of the wind last night.

The dog that I walk by every day as I walk down the hill to the main street only has three legs. He is always around this one small shop and kiosk, and I recently noticed that the shopkeepers give him food in the evening. The woman who works at the kiosk (lovely lady- she sold me a chocolate bar for only 150 pesos instead of 180 because I didn't have the extra 30 pesos) also built the dog a small little "refugio"- a cardboard box propped against the store front. But today I noticed that it had been rigged with a waterproof tarp as a roof, a blanket inside, and some extra protection from the elements. As I went down the hill, the dog was in his little hut, but when I came back up later (in the rain), he was outside, just kind of hopping around. I don't know, but if I was him, I don't think I would find any reason to leave my sweet little set up.

I'm beginning to reach the human limit of amount of tea healthily consumed in a day. Rachel, I would reckon that you understand what I'm talking about with your NZ experience.

On Friday I went to meet up with this woman Fresia who works with a lot of womens groups. I eventually met her (and this woman Nancy, who for the first 30 minutes of our encounter thought I was a Chilean named Gina who she was also supposed to meet that day). The women are working to promote the right for anyone to take a morning after pill, and promoting therapeutic abortions (abortion is illegal at all times, but it's commonly known that with money you can go to Argentina or even to Miami or elsewhere on vacation to get a tan and an abortion, and morning after pills are only available with a perscription that is only perscribable by private doctors- again, an economic issue mostly affecting the poor- very classist). Nancy and Fresia are both older women, but full of life and really entertaining. Despite their hard work (they're also working to open a safe house for women who have denounced their husbands/boyfriends/whoever who are abusing them so that the women don't have to return home to the violence), they maintain good attitudes, despite seeing lots of grief and tragedy. I'm going to check in with them next Monday (this Monday is a day off in honor of the patron saint of fishermen), which is when they do their gender work.

I was also offered a few hours each week teaching English to professionals, in their company work space (and some at the Institute workplace). It's not full time, but it's a good start and a good way to market myself with formal English teaching experience in the near future.

I'm off to water my broccoli plants.