It´s Pouring

Hola,

It´s been pouring rain all night and all mourning, and will probably continue all day. Luckily I have my Cusco-tested rain poncho. It´s not very elegent, but it keeps me dry.

I´ve given up the ideal of looking stylish. I´ve been wearing the same t-shirts and jeans for several months now. No make-up. Hair in a ponytail most of the time. I´ve lost a lot of weight, but not enough to fit into clothing sold down here. They seem to think women are skinnier than they are. Some of the women are very thin, but most are normal and a few are overweight. And women here wear their clothes very snugly. But even with my new thin-ness, I can´t fit into the clothing available for gorditas (fat women). Sigh.

Today walking from the subte stop to the foundation was alot easier. The street normally bustling with pedestrians crawling or racing down the sidewalk, and sellers of umbrellas or some useless gadget or toy. In front of most stores there are people handing out fliers to intice shoppers into the stores. And there are the bus stops and the people waiting for the bus. So walking down the sidewalk from the subte to work is really an obstacle course. Today there were fewer people, but those people had umbrellas. I decided to forego the umbrella and use the poncho to make the walk a little less challenging.

And this morning, the park through which I pass each day, was empty. Usually it´s packed with people awaiting the bus, vagrants, people meeting and waiting for others, christians preaching, kids playing, trash and unbelieveable smells.

There is a monument in the middle of the park. This is where the cats live. There are a hundred cats that I can see, and there are nooks where I´m sure more cats are lurking. They seem quite content to be there. There are not cat fights. And this morning, the cats were the being hanging out in the park, sheltered by the monuments, watching the people scurry by.

I think the rain just got harder. It´s like God turned firehose on Buenos Aires. It´s incredible! And I have to go outside now. Great.

By the way, I´ve added some more photos to past posts.

Need to get going.
cheers,
Stacey