Lucia bent over to pick up the last handful of the day's wash, supporting her aching back with one hand as she straightened up to hang the faded clothes on the line. She paused for a moment to glance around at the decaying buildings which surrounded her perch atop the Rio-Tex Savings and Loan building in Houston, Texas . . . America.

All around her bricks were crumbling and mortar was coming loose. Some of the buildings looked so decrepit that it seemed as if they would tip over if too many pigeons gathered on one side of the roof. The drab greyness of the scene combined with the overcast, smog-filled sky to bring a tear to her eye as she remembered her tiny but pleasant village in the foothills of the Bolivian Andes.

• edward1