There is a place close to jania´s heart
though it is a three day drive from houston
it is the rural town of Jinocao
where she has been pilgrimaging
for ten years now

the highway after Leon gets much worse
and it wasn´t good to begin with
our speed is so reduced
that kids chase the cars
and keep up

cows walk in front of us once, twice
three times a lady
with kids, hands out
one spit at the car when we went by
without contributing

the town itself is much prettier then i imagined
the family, Jania´s family, her other family
(another family? there´s so many)
are so charming
we start with a cirlce of speeches
Angel translates
I say mine in my broken Spanish
like JFK
I am a Hamburger

we play games with the kids
i am whacky
and win many ten year old friends
we introduce what we think is duck duck goose
but later realize it´s duck duck rooster
due to the deficiencies of Jania´s goose impression
the principles are the same

we drive a rocky road
to treat an old lady
she cannot walk
there is one lightbulb in her house
the rooms are made up of back plastic
still they vote conservative

she cries when she speaks of her pain
Andrea can tell she has had a stroke
she has heart problems too
she should be on medication
seeing a doctor every two weeks
like our old people do
Andrea is maybe her third doctor ever

she says that God has blessed her
sent us to her
its tearful and touching
we all feel great
then we leave
and feel guilty
Andrea wonders
is this good feeling
simply something i paid for
am i doing this
instead of Paris
or mountainclimbing
are we just help-tourists?

maybe

the old lady has some relief
lasting three days to three months
depending on her faith levels
which seem high
in the morning her daughter stands up at church
says her mother felt better
didn´t want to bathe
in case she washed the goodness off

when we got back the tire was flat
we drove over some barbed wire
which is everywhere

in the morning
we went to the river
we hear there might be parasites
that swim up your urethra
sounds like a weird thing to risk
but we did

it was so fun

driving back from fixing the tire
which took Angel five hours
we ran over a nail
and got another flat
in a different tire
we are one of three cars in this community
so they don´t keep much track

we stopped in leon
to pick up the painting
lindsey bought another one
he was in better spirits
our painting is now in our hotel room
i´d like to hang it
but jania worried about the terrible walls and their awful paint
oh well
it sits up pretty
i love it

today i took the morning off from the clinic
the videographer is not essential staff
i have work at home that needs my typing
arlen is going to LA now
(who isn´t? i´m not.)
3...2...1 and faithless
i almost forgot how i make up stuff for a living
for a life

i almost thought i just swam in rivers