Addition 1: This one's more like an update. I am happy to report that, upon checking email yesterday, I discovered that I'd received a message from Mabel-- the cleaning lady of the Javeriana campus. It was certainly a shock to hear from her, as I had attempted to show her how to use email in the university's computer lab on more than one occasion (at her request), with pretty unsuccessful results. However, one of her daughters had sent a message on her behalf, which asked me to call her and referred to me as "mi querida amiguita." Thus, communication has not been lost! I was pretty touched that she'd tried so hard to contact me.
Addition 2: Another common informal job that I failed to previously mention is that of the recycler, who must perform the trash-sorting function that most individuals perform automatically in the U.S. I'm not exactly sure how payment or logistics of the position work, but I do know that all sorts of men, women, and children flock to trash bins with their wooden carts and go through all sorts of garbage to find plastic, glass, or aluminum items. They never wear gloves, and I cannot help but feel so bad for them as they dig about in all sorts of smelly messes. (Please don't forget that toilet paper cannot be flushed here, so all households' used TP ends up in their trash bins!). There are two mothers who work as recyclers in my neighborhood, and their collections of recycled goods are always topped with their sleeping babies... But, as I've said, a job is a job, and any income is better than nothing...
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