I just sent a message out to my mailling list of people who signed up for updates about the Computers of Bolivia project. It's really close to finally happening. I'm excited, and a little stressed out about it, because there will be a lot of work in the next month making it really happen. But hopefully it will all work out and by April the machines will be at their destinations!
Meanwhile, as explained in an excellent recent article by my friend in La Paz, Luis Gómez, the efforts to bring the exiled president and his cronies to justice in Bolivia continues, slowly and painfully.
In the nostagia department, a year ago yesterday I crossed the border leaving Bolivia and going into Brazil. On the night of December 30 I witnessed a year-end candomblé ritual down at the Rio Paragui in Corumbá. People were putting boats full of food and flowers in the river and letting them float downstream. It was beautiful. And for New Year's eve I drank beer ("Brahma," which was like the Brazilian national beer, it seemed) and ate barbeque on Eva Peron's yacht, with the couple that now own it, a kenyan-british woman and her yankee husband, their teenaged son, 2 french guys and a brazilian videographer. And after midnight the kid took us to a disco club and we danced with the party people of Corumbá.
Tonite promises to be much less interesting, but I will enjoy spending time with friends at a quiet little party in northeast portland, and maybe playing some video games at Freegeek beforehand.
It's very cold for Portland, and sprinkling rain on and off. Very cold rain. I was reminded as I rode my bike home from breakfast a little while back how rain doesn't have to be so cold. I wouldn't mind it if it was warm water. I thought back to the heaviest rain I've ever seen, on my last day in South America back in March, in Sao Paulo. Caught in a torrential downpour, I marvelled at how the rain was so intense that the storm sewers were spitting water back up through grates in the street, and huge expanses of street and sidewalk were just impassable. But the rain was warm. It wasn't pleasant, exactly, but it was tolerable because it was warm.
By contrast, rain here in Oregon feels like liquid ice. Not fun to bike around in, especially because I have a headcold. I can't wait till I get out of this town again...
Posted by steev at Diciembre 31, 2004 12:26 PM