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| Doris and Javier enjoying my bed and pillow. How do they know ? Javier has the world's longest limbs. |
I am also attaching a photo of Helen, Margarita's owner. She is 8 and has been used by the family as a babysitter, ergo she'smissed more school than not. Both her mother and her old sister both have infants for whom she is used as a babysitter. She cannot read at all but does know some of the sounds so at least we had something to work with. She comes over almost every day to do some reading work and I send her home with a packet of nutritious cookies...which she just loves. She does not know the alphabet, nor the days of the week. such basics..but it has been so rewarding watching her progress in just a few weeks. Her smile is huge.
I am teaching her to read in Spanish which is so much easier than teaching a kid to read in English....Spanish is so much more predictable...tho there are a some irregularities, but not many.
The Peace Corps has issued a "stand fast" which means we volunteers are not permitted to leave our communities for the next two weeks, unless given prior permission from the country director. The national election is next sunday and they are expecting a whole lot of agitation in the next week and then afterwards, regardless of the outcome. But, it is a pretty sure thing that Ortega will be declared the winner....sort of like Bush but they won't go thru a Supreme Court charade....they'll just declare it.
There have been a few skirmishes in some of the more northern departments ( counties) and there was even a photo in the paper of the police going door to door in one little burg with their guns drawn looking for a couple of agitators who ran off. They found them and they looked like little old men so the town got very angry about the police presence and actions.
Actually, many countries have withdrawn their NGOs and financial support due to the illegality of the elections in 2008 so there are some real problems. In fact, Holland is closing its embassy and terminating its fianacial support to the country. There are lots of vehicles and buildings here with inscriptions indicating that they were gifts of Hollandia....so that is really going to be felt by the poor folks here...the rich ones won't even notice but the poor folks are the ones who always suffer first and hardest.
Well, the town just went black.....its about 8:30 so now I am on battery. Glad I have a head lamp to read by but it attracts the tiny little bugs that can get in thru my mosquito net. Darn, I am discovering the lighted computer screen does too..so, good bye.
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| This is Helen sitting at our table. She is a dear thing. |
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| A photo of the "Garage sale" sign that made me laugh. |
Pat
I'll blog if anything else happens
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