Pictured above is my excellent accordion sketchbook which I intend on starting abroad, my required summer reading (thank you Laura and Kristine), my uke which I specifically bought to play in airports, and materials essential to existence (Spanish Verbs, my dictionary etc)



When I tell the politically-aware listeners that I am returning to Mexico again, but this time alone, they usually have similar responses. First their eyes widen a bit, raise their brows, then they look at me as if I am either stupid, ignorantly fearless or insane. Occasionally someone showers me with admiration (in which case they are usually young and believe that chivalry isn't dead). Well, I'm young too, and chivalry isn't dead. But I'm not chivalrous, I'm just going home.

I leave tomorrow. Yadira Mendoza (the woman who runs the orphanage with her husband, Fernando, and the staff) has arranged for her friend Lidia Felizardo, who resides in Tampico, to pick me up from the airport. Which means them sex slave traffickers/drug cartel gangstas/really bad men ain't got nothin on me. You can still pray for me, please. I am not invincible, as I found out in Tampico two years pasado when immigration kept us from flying home because we were ILLEGAL by 2 days or something ridiculous. Now I can tell people that "once I was an illegal immigrant in Mexico," it was totally worth it.





thank you to my parents, Mom and Dad Evans, this unrealistic summer would never be possible without their trust and support. I am so poor right now, and they continue to help me out. So if you ever see them, give them a hug or a pat on the back or five dollars for me.





And this lady is my new best frand.