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<p class=MsoPlainText align=right style='text-align:right;line-height:150%'><font
size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:
Arial'>Letter 13 (March 13)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>Subject: Hugo and
George, Marling and Meyling and Seyling<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText 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=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'>Dear Everybody, <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Today
is Tuesday, March 13 -- two weeks to go. Yesterday I was in the middle of two
emails, one with words and one with photos, when the power went out, for about
the tenth time since I got here. It was out for about four hours, which is the
norm. It makes you realize what you take for granted.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Saturday
I finally got to the Pacific. It wasnīt easy, with six people in a car with no
shocks, four of us packed in the back seat and the trunk full of watermelon,
chicken, drinks, and the ever-present arroz [rice]. But Mario knows just how
much the car has to slow down over any given bump. When this car goes, it will
not be through any large thud with broken axle or ruptured gas tank. It will
be the death of a thousand scrapes, wearing a hole somewhere in the underbelly.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Approaching
the beach, we saw a long metal pole extending across the road, manned by
official-looking people, who required a fee to pass on. This was evidently
something new; the entrance to the beach would require another fee, but we were
still on the highway. Mario was incensed, but I was delighted for this was the
first use in my hearing of the notorious word <i><span style='font-style:italic'>JODER</span></i>.
He was saying something like, YOU ARE JODIENDO WITH ME [does this need
translation? Email your private requests, if necessary]. Still, the pole
demanded payment, so we paid and went on, paying again at the entrance to the
beach area and then crawling past hordes of official looking people all
pointing in one direction or another. Those to the side and immediately in
front were pointing left, so we would park near their store or restaurant;
those farther ahead were beckoning straight ahead, toward THEIR store or
restaurant. They all looked to me to have the force of law, and I expected we
were going to be arrested at any moment, but Mario knew what he was doing, and
suppressing the urge to run them all down and muttering something like 'I paid
my ticket and I'll park anywhere I want' he kept inching forward until he found
the space that he wanted, and we were there.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Itīs a
lovely beach, this western edge of Villa El Carmen, with dark sand which, if
itīs dry, you donīt want to walk on with your bare feet. Miles of public beach
for walking or swimming. We did the things you do on the beach, bouncing
around in high but friendly Pacific waves, picnicking under a roof of palm
leaves, gathering shells. Three dogs kept us company, to their great profit.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Feeling
guilty for having called Hugo Chavez a megalomaniac, I spent much of Sunday
reading newspapers, which were full of Hugo because of his late-announced visit
to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:country-region></st1:place>
Sunday and Monday, ending his anti-Bush tour. He got a rousing welcome here,
no doubt influenced by the 430-million-dollar package he is sending Nicaīs way,
full of oil, a refinery, health and educational supplies, a literacy program, <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>Yo Sė Puedo</span></i> [Yes I Can], that originated
in Cuba.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> From
the <i><span style='font-style:italic'>periodicos</span></i> [newspapers] you
get basically three positions on Hugo: PRO, CON, and PROCON. (You werenīt
expecting anything insightful, I hope.) The PRO view is how wonderful Chavez
is for sending all these contributions to the standard of living in Nica. All
this while George is pouring billions into you-know-where. All of a sudden
George realizes he has a rival in the old Latin American 'backyard' who is
putting his money where the real needs are in several countries. But the
Venezuelan initiative looks sincere while the belated American initiative looks
like a band-aid applied in desperation.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> The CON
view is based on the fear that <st1:country-region w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:country-region>
will head in the same direction as <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">Venezuela</st1:country-region></st1:place> toward a leftist
totalitarian state dominated by a charismatic <i><span style='font-style:italic'>caudillo
</span></i>[leader]. It is noted that Ortega seems to be beginning in the same
way as Chavez did, with much lip-service to democracy but a steady movement
toward concentration of power. And many are nervous about the commitments that
the Ortega government may have made, or may have to make in the future. All
that oil money isnīt coming to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Nicaragua</st1:country-region></st1:place>
free of charge or strings attached.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> The
PROCON view has been expressed in the form of advice to the American
government. Yes, Chavez is noisy, rude, and obnoxious, but he does sometimes
get close to reality, as in his terming of the Bush aid package as
'ridiculous.' Yes, he does seem to think heīs Godīs gift to government, and
his refrain about Jesus being the worldīs perfect socialist may be a bit much.
But the guy is putting his money where his mouth is, and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">U. S.</st1:country-region></st1:place> would be wise to credit him
for the contributions he is making to social and economic development in
various countries, whatever his ultimate motives may be. Oh, and Americans may
as well realize that the days of American hegemony in <st1:place w:st="on">Latin
America</st1:place> are over, and not because of Chavez. Itīs because other
areas of the world are seeing the potential of the area and are making strong
economic commitments here. <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>, for
example. <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Yesterday
I stopped into a little store, the first time for this store, to buy a packet
of napkins. These serve for Kleenex, of which there is none to be found. The <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>servilletas</span></i> [napkins] work fine, though
they share with the paper towels of this area of quality of disintegrating upon
contact with liquid. The old woman at the counter asked me where I worked, so
I told her, and where I was from and such. It made sense to her that Iīm
teaching at the school a few blocks down the street, because she had noticed me
every day walking down the street in the morning and again in the afternoon.
What struck me was her attentiveness. Perhaps she only gets a dozen customers
a day -- what else to do but keep track of the traffic down the street?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> There
are a number of people whom I greet repeatedly in the street, including several
old men. But the most prominent is Natalia, a woman who lives on the corner
past the bridge. I pass there four times in a normal day. One day early on,
she stopped me to find out who I was and what my name was. Her five-year old
girl also knows my name. She watches the street like a hawk, and on the
average day she sees me, from her perch inside a shack at the edge of her
house, three times a day. So I get saluted--Adios DAYveed! Adios Natalia!
And half the time the little girl chimes in. <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Adios
DAYveed</span></i>! I canīt remember the name of this little girl. But Iīve
got the names of about 50 of my 65 students. I had to take their individual
pictures to get that far. You try it some time, sorting Yanira from Deyanira,
Osman from Oscar, Meyling from Marling from Seyling, Nadir from Neysis, Amalia
from Ivania. Iīll have them all on the day I leave.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:Arial'> Yours
from Villa El Carmen,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoPlainText style='line-height:150%'><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=MsoPlainText 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%'><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><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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<P><FONT SIZE=2>--<BR>
No virus found in this outgoing message.<BR>
Checked by AVG Free Edition.<BR>
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.10/720 - Release Date: 3/12/2007 7:19 PM<BR>
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