Hola otra vez!

We had a cancellation, and so I have a little more time to post.

Again, muchas gracias to LaBelle for her excellent care here at YWA. I understand she is being assisted by JungleGeorge and Bill - so, many thanks to all of you. You are "da man" - or "da men". (Hey, look at that - I found the quotation marks key!)

We didn´t get arrested at the rally, but we have another one coming up. We did get pepper sprayed. Well, it was not intentional, but the police were brutally arresting a street vendor and got carried away with the spray. Our guide got a pretty good face full, my roommate got a blast and I got away with only a few molecules up my nose.

The Chavista rally itself, however (at least for the time we were there) was very calm and orderly and warm. Many people there were eager to talk to us and tell us their stories about this day two years ago. We had made an earlier stop at an opposition rally, and I must say I have been wanting to see their side of the story, but am having a hard time getting beyond their repugnant, obscene attitudes toward the Chavistas. They refer to them as donkeys or monkeys, quite publicly and quite loudly. They had an ugly representation of Chavez at the head of their parade, and a woman with a little monkey prompting it to slap and poke at the face of the representation while people stood around filming. I have lots of pictures, and I will post the better ones when I get back. We asked one of the Opposition women to tell us their side of the story, and when asked what she would ask Chavez to correct - what would satisfy her demands, she simply said he should shut up and get out. I keep hoping we will hear from someone from the opposition who will be reasonable. They talk about the Chavistas as though they are not even human. It´s really quite appalling. We are supposed to get some more representative members to give talks to us, and hopefully they will be more human themselves. At least I´m still hoping.

We were supposed to attend El Presidente´s radio program "Alo Presidente", but he had to go to another city, and is holding it from there. It looks like we will be able to listen to a speech he is giving on Friday to an international conference of women. I may attend the conference itself...to be determined.

I have a lovely roommate from New York, and as I said, it´s quite an interesting group on this tour.

This morning, the British student who was interviewed on Channel 8 yesterday was stopped on the street by someone who recognized him from the interview. He was told that several million people watched. Today at the rally, a similar thing happened to the woman in the group who had been interviewed. As I was standing on the side of the road, I suddenly realized a television camera was directly in my face. I don´t know which station, but, well....I guess all our CIA files are still getting thicker.

We are having a great time, though. And getting so much incredible information. I am really glad I came. Thanks to Bob!

Wait till you see the scanned image of Condi Rice I´m going to post from a Chavista news pamphlet I got at the rally this morning. It´s interesting that there is a lot of anti-Bush grafiti and print here. Not anti-American. Signs specifically name Bush. One sign we saw calls him responsible for the murders on April 11 2002. One calls him a terrorist and has a swastika, CIA, and 666 on the sign. I´ll post all the pictures.

This internet cafe plays American lounge music - swing music - Frank Sinatra mostly -blaring. So, we sing along as we type.

By the way, the banner that the "old lefties" made really made quite a hit at the rally. The people gathered around very respectfully and applauded, while two of our women held it. It said quite simply, "Chavez Yes - Bush No".

Bob usually checks the internet daily and gives us a daily morning briefing on what´s happening with you guys and Iraq. We are not encouraged about the latter.

So be good there.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.