I arrived back in Lima yesterday in the evening. I’m staying again in the Hostel El Patio, charming and near the center of Miraflores. In the Parque Kennedy they are putting up today a handicrafts fair that will continue for 10 days. There are some beautiful and wonderful things to be bought there.... read more

This group of Mennonites use tractors with metal wheels. Mr. Friesen told us that there are other communities which use only horses to pull farm equipment. The farm provides most of food for the family.... read more

The children were singing when we arrived at the school. The style of singing was more like a chant than what we recognize as singing. Soon after we came, the school was dismissed for lunch. The boys came out first from one door, then the girls exited from another door. The communities of Mennonites live in the farmland areas east of Santa Cruz. They arrived from Chihuahua Colonies in Mexico, Russia (Ukraine), Canada, Paraguay, and Belize. There are about 60,000 people living is 57 colonies. Each colony has its own ordnang (community life style agreement), and the Santa Rita Colony has some of the most restrictive rules with no electricity or cars, metal wheels on the tractors, no phones, and no team sports. Girls go to school until they’re twelve years old, and boys ... read more

Today is the census in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I am not allowed out of my hotel because there is a 24 hour curfew for the city. It is eerie; this normally bustling city with cars jamming the street is quiet and no one is walking about. The television says that everyone is to remain at home with their families and the census takers will go from house to house to count the population. The hotel is serving food so I’m not starving. So what am I doing today? Catching up on emails, doing accounting type things on line, watching TV—these are the things I can do confined in the Hotel Alaska on Calle Florida in Santa Cruz on the census day.... read more

I was in Paraguay listening to the radio and talking on Skype with Li in China when a song came on the radio that he liked and that he could hear through Skype. I saw him doing something with his computer and suddenly on the IM part of Skype there appeared the name of the song, the name of the singer, and the publishing details. In China he’d recorded part of the song on his computer and put it into an app and come up with the details of a song playing in Paraguay. I met Li on a train in Morocco in 2010, and he’s my ”tech guru” in China who answers my questions about technology. He’s always on Skype so I can talk to him often.... read more