Nearly September

Dearest Friends, It´s an exceptionally good day. Start of a new week, a bright, beautiful day, and images like these make me think of Brazil. I´ve also heard from a number of you and everyone seems to be doing well. September is fast approaching and though I´m not there to join those of you who are preparing for a new semester (and a new academic year!) in Austin and elsewhere, I´ve been in school in one form or another so long that the excitement and anticipation are now a part of me. Luckily my fellowship work starts in earnest in September, so my academic seasons go on undisrupted -- a new semester, a new year, a new -- yet familiar -- beginning, students moving into dorms and long lines at the bookstore. The perpetual student, no matter where I am in the world, I find a university and I feel at home. So this week I´m set to arrange a meeting with the Rector of the main university here in Sucre, established 1624 (I believe), hopefully to solidify relations. From previous discussions, it seems he´s pretty interested in the work I´m doing and willing to facilitate interaction with the law faculty. Hopefully that will be the case and I can find an academic home away from home here in Sucre.

Went to the Bolivian-American center here in hopes of finding a running partner (if American, they must have a community bulletin board, right?) and found, somewhat disappointingly, that there is no bulletin board and that unlike the ICBA and AF, the Americans really don´t have any sort of a social-cultural presence here (does this tell us something?). Most of the cultural events are co-sponsored in some way by the Germans and the French, but no sign of the Americans. Rather, the CBA´s (as it´s known) primary function is to offer English classes and that´s about it. They also run a kinder, which does me absolutely no good. They seemed very surprised when I asked what services they offered Americans living in Sucre and what cultural events they offer. Instead, they tried to get me to teach English classes to lawyers, M-F. Umm, no. Though, of course, I´d be happy to volunteer on an irregular basis. So, the search for a running partner continues!

On other fronts, been clipping and filing a lot of news articles. Gathering names of possible interviewees. Need to work on the ¨general background¨portion of my research agenda and on a brief overview of the Bolivian court system. Easy enough.

In sum, I hope the start to everyone´s week is fantastic and that September brings wonderful things.

As ever.

B.