Spring and Spring again

Dear Friends,

Realized a few days back that I get two Springs this year and no Fall. Not sure how I feel about that. I´ve definitely been leaning towards Fall as my favorite season the last several years. At least this means it´s finally getting warm here. Rosemary, parsely, and basil are all coming up and that´s something. I´ve also got a nice little bunch of regulars that visit my window sill every morning for bread (and what´s left of the popcorn).

So, Evo Morales made an appearance at the house last night. So did Alvaro Garcia Linera. The presidential and vice-presidential candidates, respectively, for the MAS -- party most likely to win the elections in December. Evo is the coca leader and Linera has an even more "interesting" past. I thought about going down to have a look, but found my little apt a lot more inviting. Lots of speehes, clapping, smoking, milling. Perhaps I should have, Bolivian politics up close and personal.

Other than that a relatively productive week, though not as productive as I would have liked. Dropped credentials off to an NGO today so that its members (companeros y companeras) can vote on whether to cooperate with my research or not. I´ve got, in other words, to be approved by the executive committee. Which is fine. At least they´re organized. Also downloaded cases to which Bolivia was a party from the IACHR web page. There weren´t that many, but the trends are interesting and telling. Activity during the late 70s early 80s and then nearly nothing until 2004. A quick skim showed some interesting, if not especially pleasant facts in the earlier cases. Will go through them this weekend and see what I can find. And my Spanish is improving considerably -- writing, which is the main thing. Spoken too, but that was never really a problem, I was just rusty and needed to augment the vocab. Human Rights First, formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, has yet to get back to me, so that´ll be a call to DC first thing Monday morning. A consultant for them did an excellent paper on Bo in 2000 and I´m trying to track her down. Am beginning to lose patience with the milling about on all sides. No doubt all busy people, but a little professionalism please.

What else? My Brazilian novela is getting to its final, juicy episodes in fine form: 1. Fernando is not really Ignacio´s father!! Beatriz lied all those years! 2) evil Laura has been double crossed by "El Hippie," and 3) maybe tonight we´ll find out who killed Lineo. Stay tuned.

Anyways, hope everyone is well, especially those of you weathering Rita and her consequences and ACL and its consequences. Take care.

B.