I brought name cards on this trip, because I want to win some lunches

They say "Devin Malone - Potential Lunch Winner."

So now I'm typing on a German keyboard, so if anything seems strange, suspect that. Most prominent is the switch of the Y and Z keys, which is driving me crazy. Figuring out the switch between German/English/Spanish keyboard layouts is throwing my brain for a loop I think. Fernando was born to a Bolivian father and a German mother, which explains the German keyboard. He's an . I'm pretty positive his wife hates me, but I take solace in the fact that I'm pretty sure that his wife hates everyone. Someone who just scowls at anyone who says "hello" can be described as an unhappy person I think.

I started painting today finally. It's hard to work here because everything is so sub-standard compared to what I'm used to. You can only buy white paint, to which you have to add color, and the more you add, of any color, the more brown the paint turns. At best you get this sort of mushy pastel. It didn't help that Fernando thought adding lots of black would help when what we were going for was a vibrant red-orange. My boss is odd: he's not much of a talker. When I got here he handed me a room key and literally said "OK, see you later." Hey, what about food, work, internet, anything!? When I first met him he seemed like a stereotypical sex tourist; blond white guy with a big pot belly, shirt unbuttoned with a nest of gray hair poking out, lacking in social graces (He was rather awkward in our interview; I don't think he had thought at all what he would ask. He said "OK, you can work" and then said "do you have any experience with this sort of stuff?"). I was definitely relieved to hear that he was born in Bolivia and that he had a wife.

Let's see, other stuff they don't have: masking tape (apparently part of the chain of cocaine production. Who knew?), those big wide buckets for paint rollers (so it goes on pretty thick), lights you can plug into the wall (I work almost literally in the dark), buckets (I cut up old water bottles), drop cloths (I have enough newspaper so if I move it to the spot I'm working in I'm covered). There are a couple of tools, like screwdrivers, but I have to share them with Jorge, the main maintenance guy, and he doesn't like to share. Friday I spent half my day just trying to track him down so I could ask if I could have my scraper or stepladder back. Most of the time when I need stuff I go to a scrap heap in the back and dig around. In a way you could call it "resourceful," but I think a more accurate word is "annoying." I mean if your scrap heap is your tool box, you could organize it at least. It's pretty nice though. I mean mostly I just hang out in a room and paint while I listen to Democracy Now and Mitch Headburg.

There's a drawing by one of Fernando's kids on the wall next to me. What is it about all kids that they go through a stage when drawing people means a circle with a face, plus arms and legs sticking out? I'm pretty sure all kids do that at some point. I sure did. I guess we focus on faces, not bodies, but even a child can't get away with drawing a person as just a floating head.

I went on a short walk yesterday (short because it looked like rain, which actually didn't materialize until last night, when I awoke to the sensation that I was sleeping under a waterfall with thunder all around. I had to put in earplugs. It was kind of awesome actually). On my walk I saw four species of ants (what, I like ants), one of which had carved 1 1/2 inch wide super-highways away from its nest. I don't know how many times an ant has to walk on dirt and grass to create a path a human can see from 20 feet, but my guess is a bunch. I also saw a radio tower inside a small barbwire compound which included a concrete bunker-like building. You would think that would hold machinery and stuff, but it actually held a family with little kids. I was sort of incredulous, kids living in barbwire. The girl waved back.

The music here is funny. We went from Pink Floyd to Backstreet Boys to Dave Matthews to Biggie Smalls. Last night it switched from Rolling Stones to Afroman. Afroman. Now there´s a quality American cultural export. Up there with Baywatch, in quality if not in quantity.