Yesterday I spent most of the day downtown. Started with a huge pot of coffee then bought some art off the wall of the cafe. It was a sunny Mum's day so there were lots of families. I went to the Museum of Natural History which includes cases of soccer trophies and old clay pots. Oh so Guatemala. But there was also a very cool marimba section, the national instrument. The disturbing part was the "zoological" room where basically there lives a bunch of poorly taxidermed animals. And a human fetus in a jar. And an armadillo fetus. Horrifying room.

Luckily outside there was a "granizada" stand or like snow cones. I got one with mango in it. Then I went to mass. On the central park is the Catholic cathedral. A man gave me his seat on a plastic stool in the shade; the church was spilling with people. The mass talked about forgiving others and getting over envy and hate. I couldn't actually see the priest in the church but I saw his face on six different flat screen monitors.

From my neighborhood getting downtown is a straight shot and usually the bus or micro van isn't totally packed. But getting back usually takes 2 rides, is full or rarely comes. Yesterday being Sunday the transport was few and far between. Finally a bigger van came and I got a seat carefully protecting the artwork I'd been carrying around all day. Feeling pretty good about a fun day that included shaved ice and mango, I then saw a man sprawled eagle in his underwear passed out on the road. Then a series of street dogs in bad shape including one whose skin was missing from the inside of its leg. Heavy-hearted once again in Guatemala.

I watched the documentary "Estrellas de la Linea" about a soccer team of Guatemalan prostitutes. I recommend it. Well done and, yeah.

This morning I woke up and started making coffee when I noticed a bird on the kitchen table. At first I thought maybe some of the taxidermy followed me home but it was alive. So I asked Poncho, Um is that a bird? And he said that Norma had been chasing it and now it can't fly so it sits on a piece of bread on the kitchen table. After a bit it flew out of the kitchen into the front area outside and Norma took off after it. She caught it. She killed it. Norma killed a baby bird this morning. Poncho picked it up and said, yeah it's dead. I saw its limp head in Poncho's hand. So we started calling Norma the "asesina" or the assassin. But I think after awhile she caught on and now appears to feel pretty bad.

Ironically I had just gotten done talking to two little neighbor boys while I took Norma out and said, Nah she don't bite! (Because one of the boys was nearly in tears yesterday just looking at her). They decided she was safe and started yelling, NORMAN!! And then the little one who cried yesterday was pretty happy to now count Norma as a friend and kept saying, Que raza ha'! But in suuuuper Guatemalan Spanish, which blogging letters does no justice to.

Thanks to those who donated to the computer project. Those funds have hit Guatemala and I will be receiving them soon. The plan is to order the computers in August, and hopefully some more funds will pour in by then. Awesome!