Last week I got into a conversation with my neighbor Mary, over the fence.   Since she has a new baby (a surprise) along with her 11 year old daughter, we talked about child-raising.  Oh, it’s old hat for me, she says.  I took care of my brothers since I was very young.  I was 13 [...]

Carmen and I went for a long walk to the next neighborhood up the road from ours, called Naranjos, 30 minutes by foot and further into the country.  We stopped to visit a woman who owns a small convenience store who has a daughter Carmen’s age. Marina has 3 children, the last of which is [...]