Today is the International Day of No Violence Against Women, so this morning we had an activity at a church salon to talk about womens violence and there were performances from the Casa de Cultura in San Juan Hermita. Each time you do any kind of group meeting or activity it is required that you bring food and refreshment for the entire group, and if it lasts until lunch you have to bring that too. It really makes for an expensive meeting, but on the other hand it´s the only way so many people would ever show up. This has been instilled in them from the NGOs and govt. programs that if you just sit through this meeting or sign up for this program and go through the motions that you´ll get free stuff. It is hard to say how many the information really gets through to. I think it´s great to teach women about independence and citizen participation and AIDS awareness but at the same time I wonder, do they listen, I don´t know that I would. I do think that progress is being made, and that every time a woman steps up to be a leader in the community it affects more than we can quantify, and that I can be an example and resource for this change as well. First though we need to work on being able to sign your own name which many of these women can´t do...

Also today I met an orphan girl, that was probably the sweetest little girl you´ve ever seen and her and her sister are now being raised by one of the very leaders that these programs have aided. Her name is Amelia.