Mas niños

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The kids were back again, essentially assuring that I could get nothing done. I purposely didn't go up to the office until later, hoping that perhaps they wouldn't be there, but of course they were. They wanted to play games on my computer, but I needed to do work. I appeased them with playing games on my iPhone and walking down to my house to get them each a piece of chocolate. I really do love kids, but I don't feel particularly comfortable with them playing with my phone when they can't read or speak English. They don't know my password, but I'm still terrified I'm going to get a $400 bill from iTunes from some in-game currency that they bought. They managed to turn Airplane mode off yesterday, but fortunately there is no service here and I won't end up with roaming charges.

After the kids left, I walked down the small store down the road (the one run by the Asian guy). For the first time I had a young guy, probably within four years of my age, call me "linda" which means pretty. There's something a little bit nerve-wracking about walking past a group of four latino guys loitering outside of the little shack of a shop. That's horribly racist of me, I know, especially since everyone here is latino, but I can't help it. For some reason, though, I trust the little Asian guy, and figured I was safe inside the shop, not to mention there are lots of people walking the road all the time, so I'm safe all the time. I was very aware of the pepper-spray that I carry in my pocket at all times, though. Dr. Lindquist told me to bring some, so I did. I don't think I'll ever have to use it, but there's something comforting about just knowing that it's there.

From the store, I walked back to the office and stayed there to work on my Spanish on duolingo.com for a while. Erik, who I think is a taxonomist and is only here every other week, came back last night. He kinda talked to me a little bit, but he doesn't speak english, so it wans't much of a conversation. I told him I was practicing my spanish and he watched me do a couple of lessons. It's nice having him here. He's the one who helped me with my water heater and it just makes me feel safer to have a, as far as I know, trustworthy man around to make the whole place feel safer. There is one other guy here, Rona is his name I think, but he looks like he's around my age and just laughs every time he sees me. Our first encounter was one of mutual misunderstanding of each other's languages, and he hasn't tried to talk to me since.

After practicing Spanish for a while, I went back down to my house. For the second night in a row, I managed to get a fire going, but it took over half of a newspaper. I hung some of my clothes right in front of the fire, and they actually dried! I'm wearing jeans today! I'll have to get another fire going tonight so that I can dry the rest of my clothes.

I stayed up really late drying my clothes, but I figured it was okay since today is Saturday and I can sleep in!

Just as a side-note, I am perfectly safe here, as a female, walking around in the daytime. I'm just noting my fears in general, but don't want anyone to worry that I'm not safe. This is one of those places where people don't even lock their doors because they're not worried. The worst I might ever have to deal with is petty theft because they assume I'm rich because I'm white.

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