we awoke yesterday to a hot sun baking our tents. quickly up, aaron and i got some food, and headed down to the convergence center. we sat and read and observed what was going on, enjoying the air conditioning. at 2 oclock we went to a meeting of the zapatista supporters of the world, in the baseball stadium, under a huge tent.
now, aaron and i have agreed that this whole event has been quite disorganized, and the zapatista meeting, though not as bad as others in terms of organization, highlighted one of the problems with activism such as all of ours here. it took 45 minutes to discuss and decide what we would be discussing. granted, there were 120 of us, but the give and take and wishy washyness was demoralizing, and halfway through i walked off to a corner to sleep a pile of the cool 350 ml bags of water that every drinks here. aaron later pointed out that that is a problem with the left, that while we have meeting after meeting to decide what we are going to meet about, the right wakes up, decides to screw over a bunch of poor people, does it, then goes to sizzler.
at the meeting i ran into a friend named sara who i met when i was in mexico the last time. very chance, but then again the activist world is very small. her, aaron and i decided to go swimming, but on route the the hotel zone, which we planned to scout as we were swimming, it began to rain, and i realized that i am stupid and left the rain fly on my tent partially open. knowing that the bus ride would be 40 minutes back, i resigned myself to moldy clothes and we cracked into our cawambas, or liters of beer.
on arriving back, we saw the cacerolazo parade departing, but were too hungry to immediately follow. eating in one of the little tiny kitchens, aaron and i found perfection in the habanero salsa the lady served us with our beans and rice. we are currently contemplating kidnapping her and holding her for ransom for the recipe.
ok i am getting booted from this computer, later i will add what took place in the evening, including a huge pots and pans banging party, dozens of riot police standing waiting to kick our asses, and the greatest cluster of tattoos ever seen on one arm.