Rice and Beans

the REST of Panama

2007-08-06T20:04:00.000-06:00

whew... I´ve seen a lot of Panama in the last four days.
Quick run down:
Friday- woke up at 4:45 to catch my 6:30 flight from Panama City to Bocas del Toro. Tiny plane but overall very smooth. The highligh had to be flying over the Canal and seeing two enormous cargo ships going through the locks. Got to the ambitiously named International Airport of Bocas and checked into this great little hostel/bar called mondo taitú. I joined up with two girls from Princeton who were about to leave on a snorkeling trip and spent the whole day boating between islands, snorkeling and sitting on the beach. Our boat driver finished his six pack of Balboa beer before 11am, but thats not important. He spoke some english and some spanish but mostly just the bizarre, english-bazed creole dialect that all the people on the island speak. Had a great time at the bar that night trading stories with the crazy people who had been traveling for 9 months up through all of South America before getting to Panama. Good stuff.

Saturday: Went with Emily and Claire again to snorkel in the morning. We also went to bird island, which was maybe the most beautiful little island I´ve ever seen. (http://www.aguaazulbocas.com/images/bird_island.jpg) I´m terrible with my camera in Panama, by the way. In the afternoon we hiked through the jungle trails to a few amazing, deserted beaches. I took glorious beach naps, clearly a top 5 thing in life in general. And these were great. The other highlight of the day was getting back to Bocas and seeing a 6 year old boy dancing to ´Hips Don´t Lie.´ Priceless. Overall bocas is a terribly relaxing place and I would love to go back.

Sunday: woke up for the third day in a row before sunrise to catch an early boat back to the mainland and then push on to the mountains. But the boat broke down. And the tuny buss took forever. And it was raining. So I stayed in Davíd, which is kind of a bland industrial city in the west of panama. The bus ride was actually amazing. Sat next to a girl with her pet ducks in her lap. The lady inf ront of me pulled her green parrot out of a cardboard box so it could sit on her shoulder. Reggaeton music blaring the whole time, except for the 45 minutes when the national lottery was being drawn. Panamanians love the lottery to an unhealthy degree. Stayed at the Purple House hostel in, yes, an entirely purple house with almost exclusively purple furnishings. Weird.

Today- Woke up before sunrise (pattern here?) and took 3 different buses all the way across the country and into the heartland of Panama, the Azuero peninsula. Its the folklore center and the place where they hide all the really nice people in Panama. The way I caught my last connecting bus to Chitré is hilarious. I had been waiting near the sign in the terminal for about 45 minutes when a small child came up to me, stole my water bottle, opened it, and chugged the last few sips as I laughed and as his mother looked on horrified. We chatted about Josué for awhile and then she pointed me to where the bus actually would leave. Never trust signs in Panama. but I caught the bus and made a friend. So I get to the peninsula and take anothe rbus over to a small town called Parita that was supposed to look like it did 100 years ago. In an awesome stroke of luck, I got there in the middle of their largest festival of the year. I wandered for a few hours and watched how the men drank seco like water and the young men crashed around unrestrained bulls through the town park next to the church. The rest of the town looked on, laughing and dancing to the traditional music being played nearby. Surreal.

I head back to the city tomorrow after seeing a few more small towns. Should be amazing.

love, d

about to say goodbye to Panama

2007-08-01T14:34:00.000-06:00

friends,
I have just 8 days left in Panama, so Rice and Beans is coming to an end. But here's what's been up the last few days.

Been interviewing more people and have some cool stuff coming up. On Monday, I had two great meetings at the US Embassy. Brian Naranjo was first; he's the chief political affairs officer and a really smart guy. We talked for about an hour and he helped me understand the trajectory of the campaign and why it took so long for the poll numbers for the Yes side to respond to what everyone figured would happen in the election. He said it was a combination of the Yes side sending out politicians to hold info sessions rather than technocrats who aren't as dynamic, a private group of business leaders who pooled funds and ran a parallel ad campaign that posed the vote as a question of progress or move backwards, and the public support of a number of Panamanian celebrities for the Yes side. Great talk though.

Second was Manny Rubio, who was much more of a character. He made it huge it private equity in NYC and retired when he was 38. Ok. Then he applied for the foreign service after a few friends died in 9/11. Got the job as chief officer for economic affairs and has been in Panama for a few years. He knows vast amounts about the shipping industry and the Panama Canal. And told me great stories and called people out on their bs. He's a little too young to be so disenchanted with the entire world. But thats ok...

Last night I went to the Universidad Latina de Panama with Alejandrino, one of the contacts I'd made. Heard a great presentation by an American who's been here studying corruption fo rthe alst 10 months. Nothing about the Canal or the Canal Authority, which is kinda expected because people see it as something completely set apart and above the normal workings of politics. Others have confirmed that this perception played a key role in how the Yes side won so handily. We grabbed some dinner after at La Tablita, this 45 year old outdoor diner that's still incredibly popular with the politically inclined in Panama. Best grilled chicken I've ever had in my life. Glad I got to go to this Panama City institution.

Tomorrow I'm going to the Electoral Tribunal , the govt branch that runs elections in Panama. Should be good stuff, and once again I got the contact through Alejandrino, who has become an enormous help here. What a guy--

This weekend is my last adventure in Panama. I'm flying on Friday morning to Bocas del Toro, a cool series of islands in the nw of Panama. I'll spend a few days hiring locals to drive me around on their boats and snorkeling, then Sunday or Monday start to meander my way back to Panama City by bus. last chance to see the country!

2 Months in Latin America

2007-07-28T13:33:00.001-06:00

Well, I've been traveling for two months in Latin America. Which kinda makes the little message under the title of the blog seem a little silly. But I'm glad I've kept up with this thing...it's hard to remember two months worth of adventures.

I had lunch on Friday with Alejandrino Jimenez at Manolo's Cafeteria a few blocks away from my apartment. (Whoever this Manolo guy is, he has to be doing ok for himself. There are like 7 Monolo's in Panama City). Alejandrino is amazing. He is a professor at the University of Panama and serves on the legislative advisory board for Canal Affairs to the Panamanian Congress. We sat down at lunch and he pulls out this folder of page after page of official documents about the referendum. Like, transcripts of the President's speech in support of the expansion in front of Congress and the official regulations on how the media must give "equal" time to the Yes and No sides. Stuff I could have NEVER tracked down without him.

Probably the coolest two things he gave me---
A sample ballot handed out in the weeks leading up to the vote. Oh, but it's already marked with a vote for the Yes side. Not too subtle.
And a directions page for how the check-in process works for voting. Only the guy has a cartoon thought bubble over his head that says "I should vote for the Yes side." haha... Panama cracks me up.

He's also setting me up with another professor next week and probably one of the 3 chairs of the Electoral Tribunal for the whole country. Why do these people want to talk to me??

Today I wandered over to Avenida Central, a huge pedestrian shopping street. Very alive on a Saturday afternoon. There were tons of people hawking stuff, not unlike the rest of LA. But the craziest thing is all the traditional Indians who come from their "comarcas"-- more or less completely sovereign territories within Panama. In the middle of a huge city, you'd see ladies like these strolling by:
http://coppermine-gallery.net/demo/cpg14x/albums/userpics/14018/gtb_0091.jpg
Crazy.

Two More Interviews

2007-07-26T14:42:00.000-06:00

Two more cool interviews the last few days-

First was yesterday with Marco Gandasegui, a sociology professor and director of the Center for Latin American studies at the University of Panama. He was a quiet, older man who spoke to me in Spanish for about 30 minutes, then mid-answer changed and spoke perfect English. It was bizarre. But he had some good things to say, and passed on copies of the Center's journal, Tarea, that covered the referendum extensively.

One of the cool things we got to talking about was this small park on Via Argentina, near where I live and where his office was located. I asked about it because citizen participation seems to have influenced the zoning politics enough to where it won't be surrounded by 50 floor condo buildings. This is good, but Marco seemed much less optimistic. He said that one of the things Panama is known for-- and I've seen this in reading the papers very carefully-- is making bold, this-is-a-new-day announcements, then quietly shifting after public attention is elsewhere. We'll see what happens to the park, but it'll definitely be a new thing to ask people about, especially around the neighborhood.

This morning, I woke up early and ran for the first time since running on the beach in Rio. It was great to explore a little bit before it got too hot. I showered and put on my shirt and tie (I have one. Bad packing). Took a cab to Casco Viejo (French Quarter, but not nearly as nice) and found the Salon Bolivar where the Ministry of Exterior Relations is located. Went through 3 secretaries before I got to my appt with Dr. Nils Castro, basically the 3rd or 4th in command of Panama's foreign affairs. Wow.

No, wow. I didn't appreciate how cool that experience was when I was talking to him because I was focusing on not making myself look like an American clown. But it was great. He gave me a few articles he wrote on the subject, introduced me to a colleague that gave me some more information and promised to have a packet of things for me waiting on Monday. Very friendly guys. Got the appointment through Bill Smith, one of the professors who taught the class I finished a few weeks ago in Argentina, Uruguay and Brasil.

So that's my update. Went to the yacht club last night to meet some people who might get me on their yachts to cross the Canal. That's not looking as good bc its hurricane season. I hate hurricanes. But we'll see.

Davis

The Home Stretch

2007-07-24T17:54:00.000-06:00

friends,
Big Al took off this morning to return to the land where wearing shorts is socially acceptable and where people drive normally. It´s a sad day in Panama. Well, a sad morning at least. I rode to the airport with him, said our goodbyes, and got into a cab with Juwan, a Dominican guy who drove me through parking lots ¨because they have less traffic.¨ He learned English playing video games.

Today was my first real work day, the first day in the home stretch of my trip. I will be interviewing various political actors and observers in the next few weeks for my research on the Panama Canal expansion referendum last Ocober here in Panama.

My first interview was the father of Michelle Galindo, a Panamanian friend who goes to Uva. Her dad chatted with me for 45 minutes in his sweet office in the banking district. Gave me some really cool things to think about, including to what degree the referendum was a symbolic rubber stamp, how a political system and tradition that encourages strong executives affects direct democracy in Latin America, and why turnout was so low. He said usually Panamanian elections are ¨like a big party. Panamanians love to vote.¨ But didn´t turn out because the outcome wasn´t in doubt, and the usually candidate-driven political machines which provide transportation to the polls weren´t functioning since there weren´t any candidates.

In other news, I think I left my rain jacket in a cab late last week. Which is great during the rainy season when inches of rain can fall in an hour with almost no warning. Old friends and my family will remember that I lose things with shocking frequency, so nothing that strange.

Big Al´s visit was highlighted by renting a car on Sunday and driving over 300 km in the Panamanian interior to El Valle de Anton and Playa Santa Clara. the first is a great town higher in the hills that is a bit cooler, full of flowers, has a great sunday market, a bizarre mini-zoo (with golden frogs, an ocelot, 2 capybiras, and a 3 toed sloth), and a strange boulder covered in pre-Colombian symbols and art. Al and I had a great time exploring, then moved to the beach for a few hours. Cool because it was a fairly deserted beach, not that cool in that it didnt come close to Rio´s beaches. Not even close.

We got lost in Panama City before dropping off the rental car. these things happen when i´m the navigator, right Ross?

love, davis

Big Al Takes On Panama

2007-07-21T15:15:00.000-06:00

The legend has arrived in Panama. My dad got here on a flight from Houston in the middle of a horrible afternoon rainstorm on Thursday at about 1. He's staying with me until Tuesday morning so I have a friend to see the sights of Panama with before my interviews and all that start for my research project.

Thursday we took a walking tour of the neighborhood and then had a short nap. At about 6:30 we took a cab to the old city (think French Quarter like 150 years ago, crumbling paint, moderately dangerous) to Restaurante Las Bovedas, an awesome jazz bar and restaurant built into the dungeon chambers of the seawall at the very tip of the old center. Great atmosphere, questionable decision to order a caipirinha when I wasn't on the beach in Rio. After a quick drink, we headed doen the street to Caracol Manolo, a cool place where you order a drink and they bring you 9-10 mostly seafood tapas to share. Awesome dinner.

Friday we ate breakfast at Manolo's, a neighborhood place famous for its chorros. Big breakfast and we were off to Panama La Vieja, the oldest city center that was burned down by pirates and abandoned in 1672. I made that date up. Cool ruins, though. We moved back to Casco Viejo (where we were the night before) to go to the churches and musuems. Pretty interesting, but my favorite parts was being allowed to wander in front of the Presidential palace that overlooks the water. The herons in the courtyard are a Panama symbol, and rumor is that when Jimmy Carter came to visit in 1977 his security team accidentally sprayed a poisonous cleaner that killed them all. They had to smuggle more back into the palace before the Panamanians revolted. Good day, then we moved to El Cangrejo (where I'm staying) to grab some dinnner. Watched the Truman Show and crashed.

Today we went to the Canal. First to the Cerro Ancon, a huge hill that has great, Rio-style views of the entire city and Canal. Gill, our cab driver, gave me some interesting things to think about for my research, and then dropped us at the Miraflores Locks, one of 3 sets of locks along the 40 mile Canal. We saw a huge ship get lowered down on its way to th Pacific, then had lunch on a balcony overlooking the canal. Very cool.

The plan tomorrow is bold- renting a car and driving to Central Panama to a mountain village and a beach town 2 hours away.

Al is loving Panama; it's great to have him here.

Davis

lazy blogging

2007-07-18T16:24:00.000-06:00

friends-
I am in Panama, in my apartment in El Cangrejo near the Universidad de Panamá. Wonderful room, great neighborhood. out of Sao Paulo before the horrible plane crash, so I`m safe. My dad is coming to visit tomorrow for the weekend!!!!!!! That deserves that many exclamation points. Also, it looks like the Canal transit as a line handler on a private yatch is going to work out. The lady in whose apartment I`m staying has friends with yatchs and will recommend me. Huge.

hasta luego, d

bye bye brasil

2007-07-16T03:00:00.000-06:00

About to get on a bus to the airport in Sao paulo... I arrive in Panama at 5:45 pm central time today. Much more to come about the last week and about Panama. It´s pouring rain and I have to pack!
Brazil 3- Argentina 0. Dagger!
davisinho

2007-07-08T13:28:00.000-06:00

And the Cristo Redentor (the Christ the Redeemer statue on a huge mountain overlooking all of Rio) was voted one of the 7 Wonders of the World that were announced yesterday. It is wonderful.

2007-07-08T12:29:00.000-06:00

Last day in Rio?? Are you kidding?

To update every one on my last week or so--

The ACC Course is finished except for my final paper on civil society adaptations in the last 30 years in Brazil and Argentina. I´m updating the blog right now instead of writing that. Hm. Anyway, it was a fantastic class, with great discussions, interesting field visits, and a lot of new knowledge.

I went hang gliding of the Pedra Bonita in Rio onWednesday. I was in a tandem with Ricardo, an experienced guy who´s been doing it for years. We jumped off about a 1700ft rock, glided for 15 minutes or so, and landed on the beach. But to say it like that does no justice to how stunning the whole experience was. I mean, I was floating over the most beautiful city in the world as the sun set behind the mountains. And then I landed on an empty beach. I should be able topost pics soon. But just a great experience and something I´ll remember for many years.

Friday we had a party in our hotel room for the group and professors. It was hilarious. We bought tons of fresh fruit from the market and chopped it up into a $4 baby bath we bought at a store near the hotel. Made a huge thing of punch and demanded that everyone dress as another member of the group. My buddy, Partick, just ripped me. Khaki shorts, virginia tee, huge goofy smiles, repetitive speech patterns (wonderful, big, clown, are you kidding me?, hup!) and pretending like he was fixing his hair. Devestating. Then we went out to Lapa again.

More time on the beach and playing grabass (see below) until all of the feathers and sand fell out of the pouch. Dagger.

Last night was Live Earth on the beach in Copacabana. Very very fun concert with like 700,000 people there. O Rappa was a ridiculous Brazilian rapper. Macy Grey was a miserable, drunk mess. Lenny Kravitz, for what he is, puts on a good show and the Brazilians love him.

Bus to Sao Paulo arrives at 3:30 on Tuesday. Sad to say goodbye to all the amazing people on this trip, but Wellington awaits.

Davis

brazilian love

2007-07-03T17:49:00.000-06:00

Feeling a lot of Brazilian love the last few days. At 2pm on Saturday Guiliana picked me up from my hotel and we headed north to a city an hour and a half away in Rio de Janeiro state called Teresópolis. For those who dont know, Guiliana is a wonderful wonderful Brazilian woman who babysat for Austin, Afton, and I for about 5 years in our early childhood. She was studying in the US and living with her sister, Andrea, and Andrea´s husband, Roger. We were headed to their house, filled with 4 kids, one tropical bird, vast quantities of brazilian food, and, oddly, movies like Borat and albums like Oasis and Beyonce. beautiful views of the mountains, too. And they were so loving and good to me. Always hugging and making sure all was well. Went to a Festa Junina (june party) with their 17yr old son, Filipe, on Saturday night. If i ever get to a computer with a USB port, Ill upload pictures of us dressed like hicks and drinking kiwi caipirinhas and eating streak kebobs.Big.
the rest of the weekedn was playing with the kids, eating, laughing at the youngest singing Beyonce, napping, and being really really happy. Oh, and we saw where the Brazilian national soccer team trains. Sick.
Oh! And Big Al is coming to see me in Panama for 5 days in late July! Big! Big!

other highlights from Rio--
1. going out in the Arcos de Lapa neighborhood last Friday; so, its a huge street party. with brazilians. And a shocking amount of safety for late night Rio. But thousands of young people, walking the streets, sharing a drink and some live music, teaching gringos how to samba then talking with them in portuguese. Dozens of bars that people just flow in and out of. Amazing street food. We stayed til like 4:30-5 and were the first to leave it seemed like.

2. Nova Iguaçu visit today. Another new, young, dynamic administration who is trying to change something in a large, poor suburb on the urban margins of a major city. They have implemented similar integrative policies, but their theme is education. The big thing since 2005 has been to expand the school programs to the entire day. Little known fact-- Brazilians usually go to school half a day, either morning or evening. So this place has linked up with churches and clubs and soccer teams near the schools to provide activities and learning and care for the ´off´ half of the day. We saw some programs and the kids LOVE them and are so happy to be there.

3. Grab-ass; crucial beach game which involves grabbing no ass whatsoever. We just hit this wooden badmiton looking thing back and forth and dive around making ridiculous plays. yes, we played by the street lights on the beach the last two days because our field visits ran from 9 til dark.

ok- one more week in Rio. I´ve booked my bus to Sao Paulo and am getting all kinds of excited to play with some kiddos.
Hope all is well. Email me, davisz@virginia.edu
davis

I met a Brazilian kiddo today name Daviso. True story.

beleza

2007-06-28T16:01:00.000-06:00

I have only a little time because I´m low on reais, but a few updates.

Rio is not a real city. It is a joke that people live here. Vastly more stunning than anything I had even imagined. Woke up today with a few of the group to watch the sunrise while sitting on this big stone outcropping about a mile from the hotel on the beach. Wow.

I love Portuguese. And Brazilians. And their food. And their smiles.

http://liveearth.org/?p=92 Go to that page. I insist. I think I know what I´ll be doing next Saturday.

Love, d

oi brasil

2007-06-25T16:40:00.000-06:00

I leave Buenos Aires for Brazil in 14 hours. That is wonderful. Guiliana, my nanny for 5 or 6 years when I was a toddler, has since moved back to Rio and will be my host when I´m not with the group. She´s already making plans to bring me to her sister´s house next weekend for a big rodizio (grill out). The group is really excited, especially to get into some warmer weather. It´s been between 32 and 60 degrees here and in Montevideo, depending on the fog and wind. But Brasil looks like sunny and 80 degrees the whole next week for sure. Big.

I did a crappy job with Montevideo. I don´t know that city at all. Little disappointed because it seemed like it had a lot to offer. I only got to know our section near the center, a little of the coast area, and a tiny bit of the colonial port. I feel like there was so much more to see, but rain and seminars and other things kept keeping me from exploring.

One area I wasn´t expecting to see was an illegal squatter settlement on the fringes of the city. Techo para mi país, a multinational NGO, agreeded to lead us around on Friday afternoon. It was a muddy, isolated, intensely poor area. The residents arranged their plots of land through a political broker who occassionally gets them food or medicine if they´re struggling. The crazy part is that only 60% of the residences in the center of Montevideo are occupied, but the owners refuse to sell or charge high rents. So these 100 families live in one of the 400 squatter settlements around town. It would be impossible to catagorize and interpret my feelings about how these people live and what the material poverty they experience means to them and to Uruguayan society. Suffice to say it was thought provoking.

I got a 14 peso ($4.80) haircut today. Random, but interesting that it costs 14 pesos to get a haircut here and 54 ($18) to pay an airport tax to leave the country. This is a meaningless paragraph.

I´ll write from Brasil, d

montevideo

2007-06-20T15:31:00.000-06:00

Got to montevideo on Monday morning at about 11:30 from the ferry from BA. Our hotel is much nicer here, and very close to the Old city and the ocean. On monday, I rambled around the city to get a feel for it. We`re having to cram a lot of seminars and stuff into our 7 days here, so I didn`t want to miss a chance to see some of this place. It has almost half of uruguay`s total population of 3 million, and is very nice, with a smaller feel than BA, obviously. great views of the ocean, not bad beaches, and really great old buildings.

on tuesday, we went to an 11 am Independence Day celebration in a major plaza. A lot of people were upset because the president (a leftist in name, but not in policy) Tabarè Vàzquez has backed down considerably from prosecuting members of the military dictatorship who assassinated people in the 70s and 80s. He barely appeared at the ceremony. We rerturned to the hotal and met with a journalist from a major magazine, who had some interesting,pessimistic thoughts about the future of latin America. But the highlight of the day was going to the student protest a few blocks away. They had to cancel it before we got there because a radical group was lighting tires on firein the major road to block traffic. 7 were arrested. We got to hear a short speech from a really firey student leader, but less than we were expecting. later a crowd of like 200 or so gathered near our hotel because the jail was close. When they released the 7, it was a pretty crazy celebration.

Today was the first really really rainy day of the trip, and besides our two interesting seminars about land squatting and civil society groups in uruguay, I stayed in the room and watched pro Uruguayan basketball. Bush league, except for the half court shot to win the game.

Montevideo-- at this point-- has just been a good break between the two highlights of the course, although we`ll see if it ever stops raining

BsAs Wrap Up

2007-06-17T16:20:00.001-06:00

The Buquebus ferry tomorrow leaves at 8 am to take us across the river to the capital of Uruguay, montevideo. It´s about a 3 hour ride and I´ll be in Uruguay for about a week.

Few more favorites from BA, not including the soccer game which deserved its own entry:
1. Sunday mornings are still the most peaceful, slow time in the city. Especially today, when tons of fathers and grandfathers were walking with their kids and dogs around the parks in the city. Some of my best memories will be Sunday mornings here.

2. Morón field experience was last Tuesday and Wednesday. We got to talk to Hilario, a 30ish guy who plays several roles in the Sabbatella municipal government, all while getting a PhD at the same time. Drinking mate and hearing about reworking the budget so that they could take a decent census of the city without federal aid, and how beneficial this has been was really cool. There really is nothing different between Morón and a dozen other major municipalities on the border of the federal capital. They just are improving their city by fair government. On Wednesday, we sat in on a tense community meeting to decide which residents of a shanty town would receive public housing units. But since there were elected neighborhood reps there and because they followed the criteria they generated in community meetings, all agreed the process was as unbiased and fair as possible. We´ll see how Morón compares to other places I´ll travel.

3. Museo de Bellas Artes in BA- probably the best art museum I´ve been to in my life. I actually recognized the Rodins, Degas, Picasso, Pollacks, Rothkos, and more that were all over. Very impressed. Spent like 4 hours here on Thursday afternoon with a few others from class.

4. Argentine playground equipment is so fun. We climbed up a 25 foot high rope tree in Puerto Madero yesterday. No warning signs or restrictions against 5 year olds doing the same thing. We were bouncing around trying to knock each other off balance, and the parents of the kiddos near us didn´t seem to mind that their kids were about to plummet at any moment.

Vélez vs River Plate

2007-06-15T21:24:00.000-06:00

I definitely didn´t think when I left the Residencia at 9 am this morning to go our seminar at U of San Martin that I´d just be getting home. But what an amazing day.

So we grabbed some lunch after 3 hours in class and Evan, Melissa, Annika, and I decided to scope out tickets for a soccer game tonight. Purely exploratory, no real plans. We got the number of the bus we needed to take from our waiter, paid the 40 cents, and ended up... somewhere. As we got off the bus near the stadium, we met Silvia, a die hard Vélez fan who was going to the game later. She explained that there had been some fights between the fans of River and Vélez in the past, so they were playing in a neutral stadium tonight. Tickets were 14 pesos ($4.75) and Silvia assured us she would save us seats on the ¨fan bus¨ that was leaving in a few hours. We killed some time in a Wal-mart like store, bought some sweet blue gloves to fit in, and met up with Silvia and her family near the buses.

An hour or so on the bus, three police pat-downs, and one hamburguesa later we were in the Vélez section learning the songs and getting ready. They went down 2-0 after the first half, but had two quick goals at the start of the second that were calmly celebrated by the well-mannered Vélez fans. River had a nice goal in about the 75th minute and won 3-2. But a great game.

Our epic journey continued with a packed bus ride home. Well, packed until people started yelling for the driver to stop at each interstate exit and would walk down the exit ramp. No big deal. Transferred from the bus of fans to a regular city collectivo (I really have no idea where we were), got off when we started recognizing street names, and had some empanadas. our cab ride home from there saw me trying to sing the Vélez fight song for our cab driver, then him explaining that I was making up Spanish words and singing a generic fight song for any soccer team. Damn.

But what a ridiculous experience. I´ll write on Sunday after my favorites from BA before we move on to Montevideo, Uruguay on Monday on the 8 am ferry.

dz

New Pictures

2007-06-11T16:15:00.000-06:00

I added new pictures of the Cuartel Quinto, the Abuelas, Morón, and La Boca yesterday:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8579079@N08/with/541400947/

Today I ran in an ecological reserve that takes up most of the SE coast of Buenos Aires. It felt like I was in South Carolina low country. And nowhere near a city. Underrated, one of better runs I´ve had in my life.

Davis

Another Great Week

2007-06-10T10:03:00.000-06:00

My favorite times in Buenos Aires are Sunday mornings. I just sat in an outdoor cafe for about 2 hours, read some, people watched (probably fifty yellow labs strolled by), and enjoyed how quiet such normally loud place can be. If you can´t tell, I´m showing how I´m not a city boy at all. But Sunday mornings are wonderful.

Before I go with some friends to la Boca, a working class neighborhood with a few cool streets filled with brightly painted buildings and random tango performances, I thought i´d put some more favorites online.

1. Wednesday afternoon meeting with a spokesperson for the Abuelas de Plaza del Mayo. This group of grandmothers of Argentines who were ¨disappeared by the 1976-1983 military regime is still going strong in their 30th year. We heard a really amazing story of how this woman´s son and daughter in law were kidnapped and their baby stolen to give to a pro-military family. After 22 years, the Abuelas used dna evidence to show that this 22 year old was her grandson. What an impossible situation for the guy, who now had to come to grips with the fact that his ´parents´were actually criminals. The grandson and his abuela now, finally, are beginning to have a good relationship. She was so old, but so passionate and kind to us.

2. Thursday tour of Morón. This 300,000 person suburb of BA elected a 29 year old mayor in 1999, then re-elected him in 2003. He demanded open bidding for all city contracts instead of the usual back room deals for services like garbage pick-up, which used to take up 30% of the municipal budget. He cut $4 million (like 12 million pesos) on the new deal and so the city now has funds for improvements like parks and roads. The Wall Street Journal did a feature on the city, though I´m having difficulty finding it in English anywhere online. let me know if you stumble across it because I´d love to read it. Anyway--- I´m going back there all next wek to study effective states for my ´field study´portion of the class. Wonderful place with a governing team thats young and very committed to doing things the right way.

3. Lunch with Carey Beth! She´s been studying here since February and we had a great lunch at a hole in the wall in palermo. My steak was less than $3. Wow. Good to see a UVa friend in Argentina!

Ok- keep writing me email because I love to get them. Also, check out my friend´s blog. She´s much better about updating it than I am:
walycealmeida.blogspot.com

-dz

2007-06-05T16:54:00.001-06:00

Also-- I added pictures, so check them out through the link in my first entry.

-d

One Week Down, 10 to go

2007-06-05T16:32:00.000-06:00

hello all--

Today makes one week that I´ve been in South America, so I figured I better get the blog going or I never would. This is a wonderful place, and the trip has been great. Hard to prioritize what to say exactly about what i´ve done...

Highlights:
1. Colonia, Uruguay with Ross, Timmy, Edward, and John. Took the Buquebus ferry, posed for pictures with mimes, saw some wonderful views and cobblestone streets. Great first night with good friends.

2. The city of Buenos Aires... It´s huge so there´s horrible areas (that was our field visit today) but the middle class and upper class areas + the government center and the parks are amazing. Like New Orleans in that when you enter a new neighborhood, you can usually tell so by the shift in architecture or just general feel. Palermo is like 30 blocks of Magazine Street, Florida looks like Tokyo, and Recoleta has a wonderful laid back feel that inspired a lot of Borges stories.

3. Tango Show: Our somewhat awkward professor who grew up in BA invited us alng to this tiny club near downtown to see ¨and older guy, but one of my favorites". This concert was phenominal. Tiny basement club, maybe 40 other older, rich Argentines there, just instruments (tango is a style of music, dances that are famous are just extras) and he just belted out songs. At one point he pushed the mic aside and raised his hands and the entire club (minus us gringos) joined him in singing this song. So incredible. One of the best concerts I´ve ever been to.

4. Todays field visit to Cuartel Quinto, a very poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. The 45% of residents there that actually manage to find a job travel 2.5 hours by bus, train, then bus again to get to the city center or wherever they work in construction or domestic servants. But we visited La Comenal, which is this umbrella group of civic organization that tries to improve life in the neighborhood. They have landscaping classes so the people can get jobs as gardeners, and put on arts and sports clinics to give the kids something to do besides huff the leftovers from cocaine production. And they run like 80 soup kitchens for the 60,000 people in the area. They´re big on community identity, trying to give the people something to cling to besides buying the next consumer good or doing drugs. It was a sad place, but hopeful too. And the people were wonderful. there´s a chance i´ll be going back there for 4-5 days next week as part of the field experience/internship that we do. I´d like it, but theres other options that I might like more. But we´ll see.

Going to eat some empanadas and will write again next week or before.
dz

Photos this Summer

2007-05-26T13:46:00.000-06:00

Still trying to figure out the best way to handle pictures I take this summer. I opened a Flickr account and posted a photo of Wellington and me. For the record, I'm not holding my hand out to him and saying "What do you want kid?" He's reaching for the white ball in my hand and I'm not giving it to him. Much better.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8579079@N08/

-dz