Monday afternoon up-date

Dear Friends:

Here´s the latest, probably tedious for you all to read. More of a note to myself on the day´s events and efforts thus far. I feel like I´ve been here before, i.e., full of energy and hopes. Let´s hope this week´s "blitz" bears fruit.

1. Was up early, met with president of human rights NGO. Made clear needed interview time set in stone. We´re meeting tomorrow morning at 7 am.

2. Made tons of phone calls to CEJA in Chile. They don´t answer the phone. So sent emails to three different possible addresses, let´s hope they get back to me. That, or I just show up once in Chile.

3. Sent emails to two additional members of a group that is pursuing litigation against the former president for the events of "Black October". Emails to confirm viability of email address, remind them of who I am, where we met and to request meetings.

4. Emailed consultant re her paper on Bolivia for LCHR (Lawyers Committe for Human Rights; and yes, for those of you following, I did manage to track her down, or at least a possible email address, let´s see).

5. Dealt as best I could with hotel, air ticket, travel agency fiasco. Hotel issue still in limbo. This is when a word like ¨barbaridad¨comes in especially handy. As in "dear travel agent, this is a barbaridad!". Anyone have 5 star a tent?

6. Went to departmental branch of the Defensor del Pueblo. Presented myself. Spoke with the fellow in charge of communications and the Defensora herself. We have a tentative meeting scheduled for tomorrow 9 am (we´ll see).

7. Emailed an old UT Law prof of mine in Argentina for contacts in Bo and Chile (I suspect he´s tired of me).

Need to:

1. Phone CEJIS, Santa Cruz

2. Phone Ford (as the emails of last week aren´t going through on either personal or generic addresses)

3. Prep for 7 am interview and possible 9 am interview

4. Have a large drink of some kind

5. Oatmeal for dinner


So that´s the news. It´s been raining all day and night, though not unpleasantly. Guess we´ve hit the rainy season early. Had a nice dinner with Sabina saturday night. We don´t get to talk often and it was nice to talk to hear about her family life in the "campo" while I threw together some pasta. She had her little radio of Bolivian-country music in Quechua going in the back (radio campesino) and was telling me about the animals her family has (the death of one of her horses), life in the country, crops, cold, taking things to market for sale and barter and how when she first started to work with the señores in Sucre she was very homesick -- she must be about 17 or 18. The señores were at the Bramadero again, so we had the house to ourselves. It was also rainy and damn cold, so I guesss that´s why we both ended up in the kitchen. Sunday was relatively slow, and today is today. If all goes as it should, I leave for Chile this Friday.

Hope everyone is well.

B.