I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been trying to disconnect from the computer a little bit. So early February we were still doing Spanish class at Solexico Language and cultural school and were finishing up with our Mexican anthropology class.
Feb 8-13th spent on the beach for spring break. It was great.
came back for a few days of busting out a final paper for anthro.
Feb 17-22 we went on village stays, also more or less great.
and now I am starting up with my food systems classes which is us going to markets, cooking traditional dishes, and doing recipe recording for some women we did our village stays with an hour south of the city.
It was a 7 hour van ride down to Puerto Escondido (translates to hidden port) where we were spending spring break. The first picture is from while we were driving in the van through a semi-tropical forest area that was really beautiful especially while the sun set. The coolest part was that we were driving so high in the mountains that we were above the clouds..something I've experienced and thought was magical in a plane but seeing that while still being on the ground was even crazier.. The second picture shows all the beaches. We were staying in a youth hostel right next to Principal (near the center). Zicatela has the dangerous waves that you can really only surf, and Manzanillo seemed to be where most families went. My favorite was Carrizalilo because it was so beautiful and more secluded. The beaches were pretty walkable so we would hit up a couple in a day. Wake up, go to a beach, swim, eat some food, drink some pina coladas, walk to another beach, swim, read, watch the sunset, cook some dinner, check out the bars, sleep, repeat. That was living the life..everything was great except the heat was almost unbearable unless you were at a beach in the shade or in the water.
Patrick and Reed making some faces as we got our pina coladas. Reed was also waiting on his octopus.
This is the view of the pool from our hotel window that we stayed at the first night. At 35 a night it was too pricey for us so we moved out to our $9 a night hostel. We lost the air conditioning and pool but we gained a kitchen we long missed after not being able to cook for ourselves for the past month, some great company (there were a bunch of young European travelers), and hot showers which is more than we can say for what we get in the city.
some deep fried quesadillas on the beach which were super delicious (I got food poisoning from this same thing in the city two days ago but all is better now..)
at Manzanillo taking a nap under some palm trees
Playa Carazalilo. My favorite because it had less people (not that the beaches were at all crowded to begin with, and the tourists were mostly Mexican if there were any), it had a perfect shot of the sunset, the sand was perfect, it had waves but they were swimable (Principal was verging on dragging you under with some of its undercurrents). And I went surfing! I had a TON of fun..and it was nice to get to chat with my surf instructor who was super patient. He was about to have a baby with his wife and was terrified, it was very sweet. I also got to chat with some people while I was waiting for some waves..one guy who grew up in Puerto and another from France who was traveling beaches for a few months.
Watching the sunset from my board (una tabla)
Paige, me, Kristi, and Codi. I wanted to steal the board shirt they gave me to use but the surfing dude remembered, dangnabbit.
we also went kayaking and some bird watching in a mangrove forest in Manialtepec Lagoon. I learned what a lagoon is, its semi brackish water that is a shallow estuary off of the sea without much water flow
some mangrove tree root brambles
some birdies...im terrible at remembering bird species but there was this cool one called a tiger heron that makes this strange barking noise
Back in the city, this is the view from the roof of my home stay house. We got back at 6:30am so I went up to take a dewy shot of the city before going back to sleep. And yes there is that much traffic at 6:30am. We live on a major bus route which can get a little noisy at times...
At the Rufino Tamayo Pre-Hispanic art museum. We had some free time so we hit up one of the many art museums. I liked this little guy a lot.
Village Stay! at Teotitlan de Valle we stayed with a Zapotec (one of the 16 indigenous groups in Oaxaca) women's weaving cooperative called Vida Nueva (New Life).
Taco flautas for comida
Saneida and Teresa showing us how easily dye color can be changed with different reacting agents (the red color comes from an insect called Cochineal)
My mama Isabel bargaining hard for fruta at the market that it seems all the women in Teotitlan go to every morning at 8:30am
Pan dulce, sweet bread. We ate about 3 of these a day with hot chocolate. It got a little out of control haha..
Vida Nueva did some community outreach projects and this was one of them, painting receptacles to put around the city for garbage and recycling.
Our host mama Isabel's daughter Reina grinding up a plum tomato that she just roasted on the stove to make some salsa for breakfast
Papa turkey and a hen. The rooster took a little getting used to..especially because when one started going off in the morning it would start a chain reaction with all the roosters in the neighborhood..which was quite a few. They also had a mama turkey and a bunch of babies roaming about all the time that they mama was very territorial of and would start squawking if you got anywhere near them.
chopping squash in the kitchen for comida for some soup
making some chile sauce on the metate
the entrance of the cooperative, really the house of the president of cooperative, Pastora who should be the next president despite the fact that she only has a grade school education
view down the street, everyone in Teotitlan speaks Zapotec which I think is pretty freaking cool...if people know Spanish it is as a second language. While walking to the market one day my host mama and us exchanged some language lessons. Zapotec for English, both of us delighted to learn on either end.
zac xtili =buenos dias= good morning
zac chi =buenos tardes= good afternoon
sac shini =buenas noches =good night
traditional oaxacan green pottery, this is for hot coco
these are related to avocados, we were mashing them for brown dye for the wool for their rugs (called tapetes)
me and isabel cleaning some black beans for comida
some tapetes in the market
part of comida
shower time..the hardest part was kneeling to keep the cob webs out of your hair while trying to bucket wash it because even me the shortest person in existence is way taller than every Zapotec in Teotitlan. I also kept missing my head.
pomegranate (granada). cuz they grow on trees here..nbd.
the toilet cuz u were curious. you flush it by taking the little purple bucket on the left, getting water from the silver tub on the right and dumping it forcefully into the toilet. Tp goes in the trash box to left just like in the city (the water and sewage systems in Oaxaca are very lacking), I made a cockroach friend one night whilst peeing.
Isabel giving us braids (trensas)! This is my roommate Jess.
yay!
making the fire in the comal to make some tortillas
can you tell who's tortilla is whose? the hardest part is putting the tortilla on the comal to cook (it sticks to your hands and stretches way too easily)
Isabel making it look really simple to knead the dough with the mega heavy stone
tortilla press
Isabel working the corn masa for the dough
Reina working on her tapete, she finished this one while we were there. They usually do three each on the base white strings.
Ciao for now :) (also photo credz to Jess and Codi for some of these pics)
I've been super like numbed out for a while and hadn't been able to figure it out. And still have a lot to figure out but I do have some thoughts now and perspective on my stay here for the past what is almost two months.
I feel bad, like all the time. I am a person who was born in the US, automatically was granted citizenship the moment I came into existence, learned English as my first language, and just had the benefit of the doubt that things would be okay in my life..in terms of my safety and that my parents (which not to take away from worked really hard for me to get to that place) taught me to assume that I was going to college after high school.
Here walking down the street, there's someone on every block trying to sell me something. Annoyed at the constant pestering of it, I repeat, "no gracias, no gracias" and try to avoid eye contact to minimize the persistence of the vendor. And because I feel bad. Because while I'm being annoyed, I also know that many of these people selling gum or whatever wares don't really have other options. And I see these kids who are maybe 5 years old trying to sell me things and my heart falls apart. And these indigenous women with their petite bodies hunched over showing years of hard work, literally huddled so small that sometimes were your walking you don't even see them as they sit their weaving baskets or embroidering shirts, commodifying their culture out of neccesity, trying to get money. And these men sitting without their legs asking for a few pesos. And the constant "no gracias, no gracias" that comes out of my mouth. When I know that the US is directly responsible for a good amount of the economic hardship in this country. For the drugs war that is pervasive across the country, for the destruction of Mexican agricultural land just to follow suite with mass production and GMO ownership that is happening in the US, for the loss of forest so I can blow my snot in a Kimberly Clarke Kleenex and quickly be rid of it. For the total disregard that I have been raised with for other countries in the US education system where I learn American history and maybe European history if I want to go above and beyond. Because none of the other countries matter, it doesn't matter how the consumption that I take for granted directly destroys communities that I have never even heard the name of and might not ever know exist.
And when I am talking to a person here. I feel bad. I feel bad that I am not better at speaking the language of the country where I am. That in the United States I learn another language because its cool and fascinating unlike the rest of the world that is pushed to learn English because otherwise they will be left behind. I feel like I don't deserve their patience as I try to fumble out a sentence because of what my country is doing to their country. Because the power and privilege that I have that they do not. That I can come to their country for free but they have to pay $300 to even apply for a visa that the US consulate gets to decide based on their income if they fancy to let them come. And that I can move to Mexico and have a happy dandy life but that if they would like to move to the United States, that's basically not an option. Or incredibly dangerous and expensive.
So. with this I still don't really know what to do and will be wracked with this guilt. But I do know that I can read the news, educate myself as a global citizen, get upset about things that matter, form relationships with people, and live my life to make meaningful change.
Thanks if you made it through this post.
Much love.
In resolution to the fact that I have been eating the equivalent of about a loaf of bread a day from going to the panaderia (bakery) I went to the market and went on a fruit buying spree. For $4 I got a banana, a mango, a peach, carrots, a handful of string beans, two apples, a half a kilo of peanuts, and a yellow pepper. cheap eats man...
the anti gold mining conference poster
View of the main church
This past weekend we went to a village called Calpuluapan de Mendez in the Sierra Juarez region of Oaxaca. It's a really beautiful area surrounding by mountains reminiscent of Vermont. The town is called a "pueblo magico" an official designation from the national tourism bureau as a popular eco-tourism spot. The pueblo sits in a "cloud forest" with its low level clouds that make the forests heavily moist and almost tropical. A few weekends ago, I took a colectivo (like a taxi) with some friends to Calpuluapan for an international conference against mining. The community had in the past let companies in to harvest gold but with the destruction of their natural springs, they decided they wanted to stop the mining. Their forests are now protected, they bottle their natural spring water, and have a strong and admirable resistance again gold mining. However, they are worried about keeping the mining companies out because although the community is in agreement and the land belongs to them, the national government has final ownership over what is beneath the soil. Furthermore its a conflict of belief because the people of the community believe that the sky, the soils, and the earth below are all connected and communally shared, not a commodity to be sold.
big tree..
I of course forgot my camera so I don't have pictures, but we got to on a quick hike up to see their water bottling facility that's run by two women and a man and hear what's going on with the mining while sitting in this crazy forest (^where that picture is from). A man named Francisco from the community was telling us everything with Luisa as usual translating for us. Luisa is from Oaxaca and got involved with the UVM program through the school of an old professor named Gustavo Estava that co-founded a school called Universidad del Tierra that functions on a hands-on alternative learning method. She had been training to be a traditional healer but realized she was more interested in other types of healing so decided to stop studying it and do other things. She's about one of the nicest people I've met..
Also while in Capulaupan, we did a temamezcal (a sweat lodge). It's supposed to be for physical and spiritual cleansing and was a pretty intense experience. It was also major bonding time because we were sitting naked in tiny wooden chairs in a clay hut for an hour, sweating our butts off, with leaves on our chests (to take away the bad energy) and attempting to sing songs in Spanish while bawling our eyes out for one reason or another. I think I'm still recovering haha..(just kidding..it was amazing but brought a lot of reality to the trip with hearing about things that are going on in people's lives)
Here's a naked man mumbling one of the songs (start at like 2:06). For my non-spanish speaking homies, it's about purifying the body and reconnecting with mother nature. The temazcal itself is in the shape of a womb in honor of mother nature and the ceremony draws on the four elements; wind, water, fire, earth.
Back in Oaxaca, everyone spent all Sunday in a cafe drinking cafe Oaxaqueno (Oaxacan coffee which is black coffee with cinnamon in it) and busting out our literature reviews for our independent study projects. I'm doing mine on a Zapotec women's weaving cooperative called New Life/Vida Nueva or Galbain Cuy (in Zapotec) and how they have been able to successfully maintain their culture in a globalized economy and improve their rights as women. Then Monday was Constitution day, a national holiday so there was no Spanish class. We had class with Oliver anyway and talked about the dangers of getting a single perspective, I'll post the TED talk he had us watch...
hola! so right now I am sitting in cafe trying to work on my independent study project...which is totally not happening but I am enjoying the drone of chatter going on in the background and the mix of american and mexican music that is playing while I am sitting at a seat by the window. We just got back from a night in a village outside the city called Santa Ana de la Valle. (Santana have you?) It was a pretty cool stay. I felt pretty weird being there at first since we are a huge group and it seemed like a place that didn't get many tourists. But we ended up doing really interesting things that sort of made up for it. I really would like to improve my Spanish so I can have more in depth conversations with local people. I think I would feel less intrusive. We talked about it a bit in one of the debriefs that we've had on traveling in Mexico, that by talking with people directly you are in a way exchanging something. But showing your genuine interest and care in their story or opinions, you are offering them something. I thought that was a cool way to think about it. And of course I would be learning more..
Santa Ana has 2,700 people in the village and another 2,000 or so surrounding it. It is a Zapotec weaving community based in an area that once was Aztec. Both men and women weave these beautiful carpets, called "tapetes".
los tapetes!
la iglesia de santa ana (church of santa anna)
poor sheep..the actual shearing was fine but hearing the noise of her skull banging against the cobblestones while she was trying to get away was a little disconcerting. the man spoke spanish but the women mostly only spoke Zapotec
washing the fleece
fluffing and carding the fleece (here there was three natural colors; brown, grey, and white)
spinning the wool...i was pretty impressed by this part, i dont really get how it works...it seems like the wool fibers wouldnt stay together as well as they do
that red powder is ground of cochineal (a bug that lives among cactus), a red dye. historically its a pretty important export. the lemon juice sets the dye
To dye the wool, they put the skeins in water boiling over a fire and let it sit for about an hour. here they are using natural dyes, this yellow color is from a type of moss. They can get up to 7 different shades based on how long they let the yarn soak up the color. They also showed us the cochineal, black walnut, and marigold dyes.
a cool cactus.
This morning we woke up early and met at 6:30am to climb a hill/mountain overlooking the valley. It was beautiful watching the sunrise as we hiked and seeing the surrounding area. The hike was pretty rocky..I wasn't expecting anything but at the top there were some Aztec ruins..there weren't really any structures, just retaining walls and the flattened tops of the peaks. A man and his son graciously took us up because people aren't allowed to go into the lands without someone from the community since it is community land. Everyone in the village had been really kind to us. They weren't getting any compensation for hosting us, I think UVM was just giving a general donation to the village.
After breakfast (fried egg and black bean enfrijoladas) we went to the town museum about its history. It was interesting to hear that they exchange weaving patterns with Navajo and Apache people. The man telling us everything had gone through all the cargos (which is an indication of social standing..the men complete these different tasks for the community to earn social rank). He told us he wanted to answer all of our questions from the bottom of his heart.
From there we went to a traditional healer who told us a little about how she practiced. She was self-taught and used herbs, foods, plants, and other methods to heal different fears, anger, illnesses, etc. She went around to all of us standing in a circle, blowing the smoke of what I think was burning myrrh and copal wood, as well as beating away bad energy with a bundle of plants. It was a really cool trip.
Nos vemos! (See yah)
(oh! and we tried cactus flower at the top of the hill that was oddly like kiwi. It was a bud filled with slimy black seeds that was slightly sweet. and the first night we found a scorpion in one of our bedrooms...they call them alacron here when they aren't poisonous..I still checked the walls before I went to sleep..)
