I have spent the past two days attending workshops in Chiquimula with Milo. The topic: Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. Seems like it´s blowing up in Guatemala, and especially in the department of Chiquimula, in part because it borders both Honduras and El Salvador. People traffic children over the border usually in the evening hours. But locals prostitue themselves as well. Appearently there is a block in Chiqui where adolenscent girls stand around waiting to get picked up. There is also a catalogue of girls, some in their Chiquimula school uniforms, in circulation. This was all news to me. I knew there were protistutes in my town, Noel´s old town, hell, most towns. They usually work in bars and they are usually from El Salvador. According to some of Mirna´s friends who live her town, San Luis, all El Salvadorean women are whores. (Mirna was born in El Salvador and is now and American citizen. Her friends know this.) Lately sex tourism has become more popular here. I just assumed that sex tourism was limited to South East Asia, but appearantly recent cruscades to end the trade there have created a market in Central America. Most ¨tourists¨ come from Europe, but Americans come here as well. And pornography which was mostly imported now is made in Guatemala. The best was when he started explaining the laws and penalties. For example, if a man molests a female minor, it is not a crime if he declares his love for her and intent to marry her. We were told of a case of a 60 year old man impregnating an 11 year old girl. He told the parents he loved her and wanted to marry her. The parents did not accept his proposal, nor could they prosecute for a crime since none was committed. Another great law is when an older man, tricks or convinces a 12 to 14 year old to sleep with him. In order for it to be a crime, the girl has to be ¨honest¨. So basically if the perpatrator gets a couple other guys to testify that the 12 year old got around, it´s not a crime because she was already a slut. I mean i knew this country was machista, but listening to these laws made me sick to my stomach. When milo and I got on the bus to come home, there was a drunk man on the micro. He was so wasted he was drooling on himself and completely incoherent, except that would cry out ¨mamਠand ¨adios hijo de puta¨ as cars passed by. There was a 7-year old girl sitting on her dad`s lap next to this guy. I just kept thinking what a shame that young guatemalans, hell all of us, have to be exposed to this kind of thing. It was very ugly. And then when I got back to ipala, I passed by a lady`s house where I had left some things to be mended. As I was walking to her house, a man, wasted out of his mind, broke two full beer bottles on a table inside of a restaurant and then walked outside, obviously proud of what he had done. It was disgusting. It was about one in the afternoon on a Thursday. And then as I was leaving with my mended clothes, a saw man whip out his penis to pee in front of a semi truck. For the amount of public urination it´s surprising that I haven`t seen more penises. It`s something i´m very grateful for.