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<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right;line-height:150%;
text-autospace:none'><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>Letter 11 (March 5, or week five)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>Adios
a todos --<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>Some
of what follows may be of interest only to Moscow Sister City Association
folks, and some may be of interest only to animals. Pick and choose. I am
surrounded by third-graders and may have trouble focusing.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Sharing
the house with the people and the <i><span style='font-style:italic'>lagartijas</span></i>
(little lizards) are tiny ants, not 1-16 inch long. They live in harmony with
the rest, helping clear off the counter and get the garbage ready to take out.
They mind their own business and nobody much bothers them. Sometimes a few
ants fall victim to the sweep of a dishcloth. No chemical action is taken
against them. In fact, the only time I have seen chemical activity is once
when Mario sprayed a cockroach with Windex. Cockroaches are infrequent,
perhaps because of the Windex: one gorgeous golden-brown and fast moving one
did appear in my travel bag once, but it immediately saw the error of its
ways. Mario suggested I might take more care to keep my bedroom door shut so
they wonīt explore.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Last
Thursday night (This is Monday March 5) Mario, Auro, and I were eating supper
when Aura gasped and pointed with alarm at the wall where swarms of the tiny
ants were climbing it and out onto the ceiling, forming colonies and building
roads. Another large group advanced across the floor under the dinner table,
and since my feet were in the way Mario suggested that I rest them on the
tableīs leg supports. To Auraīs expressions of alarm Mario simply said the
ants werenīt doing anything. <i><span style='font-style:italic'>HACEN NADA, no
problema</span></i> [They don’t do anything. Not a problem!]. He said
this with the gentle scorn of adult experience to Aura, girl of 13 and ignorant
of ants.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> For
my part I was busy being calm while the ants marched under my sandals, but I
was thinking RAID! Where are you, Dow Chemical, when we need you? I was sure
that Mario would find implements of destruction after we finished our
slow-moving meal. But no, after we finished, we picked up and washed the
dishes while the ants developed their suburbs and highways. Then Mario went
outside and began watering his plants. I kept vigil to see if the ants would
want to head for my bedroom.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> They
did not. After an hour of so of maneuvers they gradually reversed course and
began to stream back home, which I imagine is a nest under the house. As Mario
said, they did nothing to bother anybody. They lifted a few rice grains,
perhaps.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> SCHOOL
NOTES. Friday (mar 2) I visited the fifth of the seven schools: Instituto
Santa Rica. It is on the highway to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Managua</st1:City></st1:place>,
on the main bus route, and we took the bus both ways. There was another
welcoming ceremony for me, complete with dancers and a student reciting a Ruben
Dario poem (he is the great national poet), and most of all, a really sparkling
drum band. If there is a girlīs <i><span style='font-style:italic'>gimnasia </span></i>group
with cheerleader outfits, they were not in evidence. This was a group of about
20 boys -- and one girl -- wielding drums, two vertical-vibes-type instruments
called <i><span style='font-style:italic'>LIRAS</span></i>, for the tunes, and
metal cylinders called <i><span style='font-style:italic'>GUIRROS</span></i>
that you stroke with some kind of pick (Ana showed me later using her kitchen
grater). They were doing really complex rhythms, and they were marching all
the time, and doing dance moves that might have been taken from a chorus line.
It was a great show, full of bounce and beat. Chris [my son] would have LOVED
it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Santa
Rita totals over 500 students, primary and secondary. It has a water tank paid
for by the Moscow Sister Cities Association, as well as a special classroom
with a removable center wall for large meetings, also funded in part by MSCA.
I talked with all the secondary classes, which are at manageable sizes of
25-35. The English teacher, Helio Anfaro, who is also the PE teacher, runs a
tight ship. The students are very well behaved and there is no outside noise
of students running around.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Helio
also works for Gran Pacifico, the company which is building the huge hotel and
condominium complex, with two golf courses, on VIlla El Carmenīs Pacific
shore. He is a liaison with the public in some way, and he offered to get me
in to see the development, which is not generally open to the public. I hope
this happens.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> The
school library, though small, is the only one Iīve seen that looks like
somebody is taking care of it. Helio says they could really use some chairs
and desks for students to use. And the school has no computers for students.
(The computer room in which I am sitting seems to me the ONLY advantage, though
a huge one, that Gustavo Carrion Zamora [GCZ] has over the other schools.)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> That
night Mario and Ana and discussed equipment needs. It seems the immediate
school crisis is one of an expanding population, which has created a shortage
of various things (at bottom, of course, is the shortage of teachers),
including CHAIRS. At GCZ in any given classroom there are normally not quite
enough chairs: this is why students press to get into school -- there is only
one entrance, always guarded by a doorkeeper -- so they can get good seats.
Since one class group (like 8th grade, 9th grade) may be much larger than
another (my senior class sets the record at 65), the schools are forced to
assign classrooms to STUDENT CLASSES rather than to SUBJECTS. This means that
a given class of students is always in the same room, with just, or almost,
enough chairs for that group. So itīs the teachers who move from <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>aula</span></i> to <i><span style='font-style:italic'>aula</span></i>
[classroom], not the students. Which of course means teachers cannot store
materials in an English or a science room, and the use of materials is severely
limited.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> The
schools can afford only plastic chairs, and the students are for the most part
writing without benefit of desks. And plastic chairs break easily. Ana says
there is a broad cultural failure to care for equipment: not only the students
but parents also, even teachers, even some principals, donīt care enough to
keep the equipment in good shape. (The computer room here is a clear
exception, but it is maintained by people hired specifically to maintain it.)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> CHANCHOS
[pigs] have dug into and eaten the roots on one side of a platano tree, one of
several lining the edge of Mario and Anaīs yard. The tree is leaning and
wilting -- looks like itīs going to die. This is the second strike against
pigs. The first is the way they talk. Otherwise I like them.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> (This
was Saturday night) I have just helped a neighbor boy chase a chicken out of
our yard back into his. Itīs just after sunset. It is amazing to a northerner
how quickly the light drains out of the sky at this latitude when the sun goes
down.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Saturday
morning Ana, Mario, Aura, and I went shopping at the largest <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>mercado</span></i>, Mario says, in <st1:place w:st="on">Central
America</st1:place>, Mercado Oriental. Fortunately we didnīt tour much of it,
just enough to get the staples, <i><span style='font-style:italic'>arroz,
aceite, vegetales</span></i> [rice, oil, vegetables], etc., and pants and pajamas
for Ana and Aura. They wouldnīt let me take my camera in -- too much danger of
it getting stolen. Later we went to a mall where Mario exchanged $100 for me
into 1800 <i><span style='font-style:italic'>cordobas</span></i>, and Ana
bought shoes. Finally we went to their favorite food market, where I bought
materials for my next supper: bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches. (Had them
Sunday night -- not a great success, partly because I used olive oil instead of
<i><span style='font-style:italic'>mayonesa:</span></i> Ana seemed to like
them but Aura is down on lettuce and Mario doesnīt eat naked tomatoes.)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Shopping
here, as you can imagine, is a big process requiring careful planning. A
shopping trip is for a week, and for two households, Ana & Marioīs and Doņa
Amandaīs. Itīs almost an hourīs drive to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Managua</st1:City></st1:place>,
where the good food stores are. Mario and Ana buy little in Villa El Carmen
except quick items like newly baked <i><span style='font-style:italic'>nacatamales</span></i>
and an occasional <i><span style='font-style:italic'>cajeta</span></i> (a
fudge) and packaged ice cream cones. They will sometimes stop along the road
if someone is selling something interesting. On our sightseeing trip with the
principals two weeks ago, they discovered platanos at 1 cordoba per fruit, as
opposed to 3C in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Managua</st1:City></st1:place>,
and they filled up all the free space in our mini-bus with platanos.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> PERROS
[dogs]. Iīve been getting bad vibes across the miles from Lucy about my
treatment of the dogs here so Iīve tried to make friends with a couple who
often visit the yard. One is a puppy, maybe half a year old, white and brown,
shorthair. (All the dogs here are shorthair -- wonder why?) He lives next
door, and is the only dog around with a collar. The other is a middle-sized
black-brown dog named Sacha who often stands just outside the door, not
pleading or begging, just looking in. She lives across the street, but she gets
scraps from here, and thatīs why she checks us out often. To both dogs I
offered my hand, to lick or sniff or bite. Petting dogs is not what people do,
so I havenīt messed with dogīs heads. Both dogs responded in the same way: a
quick sniff, then a very gentle bite on the fingers, so as to be totally sure,
I figure, that they werenīt being offered food. One soft nip, a quick taste,
and off they went. Guess thatīll have to do, LucyBelle.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Iīve
stopped wondering what is wrong with the dogs here, because clearly theyīve
been trained by the heat to move as little as possible. All days are dog days
here. There is also a mindset here which seems not anti-dog but just not very
affectionate toward them. Maybe inside the houses it is different. Actually,
Doņa Amanda is somewhat affectionate with her two foot-long yappers, who are
treated with the same benign neglect but occasional affection as her turkeys,
parokeets, and the skinny black cat named Jacinto, who is retired. (He gets
respect for having given up chasing mice and relying on peopleīs food.) Iīm
pretty indifferent to these dogs myself since I donīt like foot-long yappers.
But what I miss, overall, is the sight of a happy, or at least a passionately
yearning dog. I think of that lovely description of a dogīs mind –
“Ah, a toast crust -- my favorite! Ah, a walk in the park -- my
favorite! Ah, a pat on the head -- my favorite! Ah, a nap, my favorite!”
etc. Do the dogs here have favorites?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> THE
FUTURE OF VILLA EL CARMEN. I used to think our home south of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Moscow</st1:City></st1:place>, surrounded by farm fields, was
dusty. Well, it is, but it donīt hold a candle to the dust here. Still, I can
hardly imagine negotiating the mud during the rainy season. I asked Mario is
there are plans to gravel or pave the dirt roads in the town. He said that
money has been budgeted for next year to pave the long street that the buses
travel, from the end of this little street around the corner past the bridge
all the way to the central paved road. That in itself would be a major
improvement, and he said there is more money budgeted for paving in the year
following.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> So
if you consider the roads, the improving water supply, the move toward indoor
toilets, and such, it looks like life here is moving at an accelerating pace
toward what we would recognize as a modern lifestyle. Computers and Internet
access may become affordable in a few years. There are almost none here except
in the school and the <i><span style='font-style:italic'>alcaldia</span></i>.
And it follows that there are almost no digital cameras here. One movement of
modern technology that has bypassed VEC entirely is that of landline
telephones. So guess what? The placed is loaded, at least among the employed,
with cell phones. Very few of the children have them, but that'll probably
change shortly.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Love
to all,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Dave<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>[Letter
from early March]<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>Dear
Everbody --<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Iīm
going to be accustomed to the heat by the time I leave. Already itīs less an
event and more the norm. Iīve long since gotten used to going to bed sticky,
and a wet shirt goes without saying, except when I walk into this air-conditioned
room. Recently Iīve discovered I can survive without Gaterade every day.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> <span
style='text-transform:uppercase'>Nica presidential politics</span>: A few days
ago Mario gave me the scoop on Nica presidential politics. Skip a couple of
paragraphs if youīre not interested. Mario is quite pleased with the
elections, not because he likes Daniel Ortega much, but because the results
could have been worse and the election (Nov 06) was so interesting and
surprising. The central figure was not so much Ortega, who was not even his
partyīs original candidate but slid into that slot when the partyīs chosen
candidate died a few months before the election. The central figure is Arnoldo
Aleman, a sleazebag politician of some 290 pounds who was president from 1996
to 2001 and stole extensively from the countryīs coffers. The president who
succeeded him in 2001, Henrique Bolaņos, had Aleman put in prison for stealing
from the state, but such is Arnoldoīs influence that his lawyer was able to get
house arrest for him on grounds of bad health -- and Arnoldo has quite a house
in the only cool section of Nicaīs Pacific coast. Bolaņos, by this act of what
I assume was courage -- he was of the same party as Aleman -- lost so much
clout within his own party that he was largely ineffective as president.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:country-region></st1:place>
had developed -- or deteriorated, possibly -- into a two-party system dominated
by the Sandinistas, FSLN (<i><span style='font-style:italic'>Frente Sandanista
de Liberacion Nacional</span></i>) and the PLC (<i><span style='font-style:
italic'>Partido Liberal Constitutionista</span></i>). But a member of PLC,
Eduardo Montealegre, seeing that his partyīs candidate was going to be
controlled by Arnoldo, split off and formed his own party, the ALN (<i><span
style='font-style:italic'>Alianza Liberal Nicaraguense</span></i>).
Montealegre is an appealing, intelligent-seeming young politician who can be
seen every day on Nica TV. Perhaps he will be Nicaīs Barak Obama.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> So
it began a three-way race (with two other marginal candidates making five in
all), and Eduardo drew away over half of the PLC vote, which, the going theory
is, handed the election to Ortega. And Eduardo Montealegre came in second!
Arnolda has not been happy since (heīs out of house-jail now for some reason),
and has been trying to 'unite' the opposition, PLC and ALN, for his own
purposes. This week he visited Montealegreīs office unannounced, with a cloud of
reporters, seeking a meeting. But Eduardo would not meet with the reporters
present. When the reporters left he offered to meet with [Arnoldo] Aleman in
private, but Arnoldo stalked off in a huff.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Thatīs
all I know (or a little more). Ortega continues to establish his government,
and I just hope he doesnīt get too committed to Hugo Chavez and Venezualean oil
money. At least he met last week with a U.S. State Department undersecretary,
Daniel Sullivan, who was in the area trying to offer a counterbalance to Chavez
and back up Bushīs current <st1:place w:st="on">Latin America</st1:place>
trip. Sullivan was pushing the perfectly reasonably point that connection with
the U. S would be more profitable for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:country-region></st1:place>, in the long run, than
connection with the Venezuelan megalomaniac (my word, perhaps unfair).<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> <span
style='text-transform:uppercase'>My English class</span> if picking up some
steam. After Bob Wrigley sent me some lovely poems for using with my kids, I
punted and reverted to something simpler, STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY
EVENING. And they did a nice job of translating the poem, once they got past
'Whose woods these are . . . ,' which threw most of them. ('Downy flake' was a
little tough, too.) But there is a student culture here of copying other
studentsī work; it looks like each group of friends has its own worker and the
rest are copiers. That may be overstating the case, but I tried to persuade
them yesterday that not doing your own work is bad for learning! I forbade the
practice. Weīll see.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> In
the meantime weīve been studyinlg a letter from Moscow HS Leslye Penticoff and
Brendan Littlefield. Before leaving, I asked them to write a letter to my Nica
students, in both Spanish and English, about their lives and plans. This they
did brilliantly, but I hesitated to use the letter because of its complexities
in English. Then it occurred to me that here was an entrance into an area of
their expertise: Spanish! So I asked them to find the errors in
Leslye-Brendanīs letter.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> L
& B are so proficient in Spanish, so far beyond the point where my Nica
students are in English, that I hope they will forgive me this indiscretion. I
learned a great deal about Spanish yesterday myself, as my students had a
gleeful frenzy over the text. Like <i><span style='font-style:italic'>tiburones
felices</span></i> they were, happy sharks. The mysteries of <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>'a</span></i>' vs '<i><span style='font-style:italic'>en</span></i>,'
'<i><span style='font-style:italic'>por</span></i>' vs '<i><span
style='font-style:italic'>para</span></i>,' <i><span style='font-style:italic'>'diez
y siete'</span></i> vs '<i><span style='font-style:italic'>diecesiete</span></i>,'
<i><span style='font-style:italic'>'me gusta bailando'</span></i> vs <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>'me gusta bailar,'</span></i> etc., all became a bit
clearer to my gringo eyes. Now I need to have them write letters of their own
to B & L. But Iīll have to help them with the English.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> <i><span
style='text-transform:uppercase;font-style:italic'>Dia Internacional de la
Mujer</span>: </i> This day was celebrated at Gustavo Carrion [school], and
Mario took three big cakes to his school. Ana arrived home with two red
roses. Mario took us all out to dinner, with three generations of women, Doņa
Amanda, 83, Ana, and niece Aura.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Roberto
came also. He alternates between staying with his grandmother Amanda here and
his mother in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Managua</st1:City></st1:place>.
Roberto is intensely dedicated to learning English, though why he doesnīt know
more at this point, in his early 20s, is unclear to me. He evidently has no
social life, doesnīt dance or sing, doesnīt like the popular music, doesnīt
drink, or swim. But heīs very friendly and the only person here with whom I
have a 2nd-person-singular <i><span style='font-style:italic'>TU</span></i>
relationship. (Nicas turn out to be more formal than, say, Spaniards -- unless
thereīs a deference to my age; though itīs possible to forget in a house
without mirrors, I am almost twice as old as Ana and Mario.) At first I
thought Roberto was going to intrude on my space, but he turns out to be
perfectly sensitive in that regard. What is most fun about Roberto is that he
is curious. He asks about me, my family, Mary (Voxman), the <st1:country-region
w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State></st1:place>. At dinner last night he was asking
about the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State></st1:place>
landscape, where we go to find beaches, rivers, and lakes. And he asked about <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State></st1:place> potatoes. I
explained all about <st1:State w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State> potatoes being grown
mostly in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Washington</st1:State></st1:place>,
and told him about the FAMOUS POTATOES license plate. All this was stirring
memories in Ana from her time in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Moscow</st1:City></st1:place>.
We sat there in the warm summer breeze, recalling <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:State
w:st="on">Idaho</st1:State></st1:place> farm fields, lakes, rivers, potatoes.
Images of the Pacific Northwest deep in the heart of <st1:place w:st="on">Central
America</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Hope
you donīt mind the rambling, or if you do you know what to do about it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%;text-autospace:none'><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Dave<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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Checked by AVG Free Edition.<BR>
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