a lot of rain

right now i am in buenos aires, again. my giagia died, i am sad but i am celebrating her life. she was a tough lady and i got some of my sassy-ness from her, so i will carry her memory anytime i engage in sassy behavior or paint or write stories because these were all things she did. after i found out about my giagia's death, my debit card was stolen. washington mutual messed up real bad and was supposed to send me an emergency card but sent it to the wrong address and told me it would arrive on the wrong day and between all the phone calls and being put on hold i had to pay over 200 dollars! i still have no card and no money. but i have been to a lot of banks and to the police station, and consequently my vocabularly on robbery and bank-language has improved significantly. also, the person who stole my card IS BUYING PORN! i don't know, i think i can laugh a little at that. international women's day protest here was incredible and made me think of all of my CUNY community back home. i am so consumed by my work here (in the best way possible), and it's going to be a challenge for me to take this experience and transfer it into an academic setting. i have been talking to women about the judicial system. there is no desire to reform the corrupt police system because the women i spoke with (from all different ideologies) said it's impossible to penetrate. these cops take bribes from sex traffickers who steal eleven year old girls from small towns to prostitute here in buenos aires. the cops do nothing and encourage the behavior. change, the women told me, comes from a social transformation. from protesting, from workshops and art and theater in the streets. and then i think of the history of protesting here. of how the fall of the dictatorship, although complex, was rooted or at least strongly connected to the women, the mothers of the dissapeared, protesting. now is not then. but the history of public protesting here is very powerful and very real.