i takeded you some pics, but i posteded them

Finally realized that not having a real working camera isnt an excuse for no photo gallery if I have a mighty XO laptop with built-in webcam.

This is me on the concrete slab roof above my room. Not too difficult to climb up, with or without a ladder. I really enjoy it up there.

A shot of some of the other parts of my barrio. The ladder there is going up to their water reserve tank, I think.

Slightly different angle. Check out the rebar sticking out of my roof. This was intentional so they can add a second room on top of mine at some later date. You are not hallucinating, by the way. That orange house IS a bit different than the rest of the houses in the area. Apparently a family of 4 lives there...they have a garage for their car and everything. Two stories, just for them.

This is the railroad rail that they used as a center reinforcement beam for my ceiling. There was 3 or 4 feet of excess, so they just left it. Maybe for the addition theyre planning to add...notice the cinderblock walls. But I use it to do pullups. Good for the grip muscles, and good for turning into a Spartan.

There is a mango tree that grows over my room. We can eat these right off the branch. Theyre not real mangos, theyre called green mangos. Crunchy like a crisp apple. They cut em into slices, and add herbed salt and chile sauce. Pretty good, and very popular. A gringo buddy compared them to the pickle in the US. Very popular, sold at a ton of roadside shops, but the green mango tastes better. I never liked pickles.

I think this is the first time my host mom had seen my laptop. Thats her and the 1.5 yr old. The shack is the wood-burning stove and secondary kitchen. By my eye is where the pila is. My front door is directly opposite the doorway they are standing in.

Host mom had to climb up to take a better look.

1.5 yr old felt lonely because she couldnt climb up to get a better look. That wall there, with the window, yeah, I can climb up that onto this roof in about 3 seconds. Feels good to have constantly bruised forearms again.

Later, I wrote some and the sun got lower in the sky. Then other host sister decided to hang out with me for a bit.

Pretty clouds...they look really yellow on this internet cafe screen. They were more pink. Cant really tell, but theres an occasional palm tree mixed in with the standard woods.

Thats Negro, our cat. He likes me. Hes pretty cool.

I have no idea why he puts up with this sort of treatment. Host sister decided to help me get a better shot of the cat. If anyone wants to add a caption and post it on lolcats, feel free. Just let me know if you do. I can try to get you the original file, too.

My host dad. This is the next day, inside the living room of the main house. This guy is pretty cool. Hes worked with theodolites and total stations, installed water systems of all sorts, and now works on road construction all over the country. Fun to talk to, and seems like a great dad. The kids love him.

Everybody else in the family except the 18 year old host brother...he wanders around town a lot. Friends are cooler than family, doncha know.

This is my room. My bed with iPod wires creeping up from the floor, table with misc. possessions on it, then my suitcase, then a chair with my backpack. Mosquito net around the bed, rigged up with sewing thread and nails in the concrete walls.

Backpack, clothesline for my towels and sweaty clothes, second chair for laundry, mirror that has yet to be hung up. We needs big nails.

Mirror, scrap panes of glass for my windows, my window, my red scrub brush thing for the shower.

And this is a shot of where I took all the other shots from. Door, chair for shoes, power outlet with surge protector for my iPod, computer and phone, bed again.