...and in 'Bad News'

These are the cutest girls ever. How could anyone ever decide that they deserved a good smackaround every so often? Sadly, it is not uncommon for our girls to show up late to class, in tears, and after some gentle probing, shamefully admit to us that their dads just hit them. Domestic violence is a huge problem in Peru, a study by the Peruvian government confirms with findings that on average, nineteen women are killed every month by their spouses. Not beat. KILLED. Wtf? It's no wonder women walk around the city with their heads down and are rarely seen having fun in bars or clubs at night.


AND: Peru has announced that it will ban all homosexuals from the police force for damaging the image of the institution. The law states that any police officer who has sexual relations with someone of the same gender will be indefinitely suspended from the police force.

I have yet to meet a gay Peruvian, and have only met one openly gay traveler here. It's an incredibly homophobic country- to the point where when a band in a bar sings a popular song whose title appears to be (in Spanish) "Faggot", the entire bar starts to chant with them. Weird.