Frustrations and adventures...

Frustrations

Hello friends, as you may or may not know, the Casa de la Cultura has been kind of on thin ice recently with the local municipal authorities. The town government wants to stop funding it, and everyday the people involved in the Casa try to do everything they can to save it. Last night, my host mother/director of the Casa met with the President and his Regidores (the Cabildo) to make the final push to keep funding and support alive for the Casa.

As she came in at 11 PM last night, the first thing she said to me was, "¡Nos fue mal!" in a very dejected tone. I then heard from her that the Cabildo essentially ignored the requests of the Casa and said that they would rather use the money to pave streets instead of preserve the culture of the town. All I heard from her, her brother, and her son was about how these men are total machistas, drunks, and care less about the goals of the Casa de la Cultura.

This part of Suchil has been a pretty consistent dark cloud over the atmosphere here. Everything that AMIGOS and the Casa de la Cultura does here lacks any type of support from the government, and sadly, power politics and corruption are the law of the land in the Palacio Municipal.

This is the part of the AMIGOS experience no one ever wants to talk about. In this case, there´s no cultural exchange nor leadership development. The only lesson from these events is that politics is always in play, even in a small town. Sometimes its forgotten that a corrupt president or a drunken secretary of health is more than just a quirky aspect of the AMIGOS community that you go home and tell your friends and family about.

For Suchiltecos, this is their life. We leave in 3 weeks, yet we have been affected by these politics. I can´t even imagine what it feels like for my host mother or one of the students at the Casa de la Cultura who live here and will have to deal with this for who knows how long. It´s a downer to talk about this, but I feel this is part of the experience and thus must be talked about. I´d love your comments on this topic.

Adventures

On a different, happier note, my host mother, brother, and I took a trip to Oaxaca City this morning. I wanted to see what a typical day at the market is like, and I asked to be taken along. It was a fun adventure and nice to see the city again.

A few highlights included:

• Seeing a band from the coast of Oaxaca playing at the maestro´s version of the Guelaguetza in the Zócalo - they were very lively and you could sense the tropical flavor in their music
• Learning what foods and items are legit and authentic and what´s not (in the city, there is authentic and pirated versions of everything - CDs, DVDs, artesanías, and even cheese)
• Buying cacao beans which we will later prepare and mix with sugar and cinnamon at my house so that I can have a nice pack of freshly made chocolate to take home

It´s been raining almost non-stop here and it´s actually really cold! Too bad for everyone in the States who are being nicely toasted. =)

Until next time,

Apoorva

Spanish vocabulary lesson

Life and classes continue here in Santiago Suchilquitongo. Here are some points of note from recent days (you will also learn some good vocabulary en español):

Clases llenas - Our technology classes for kids have gotten massive. We have 6 computers to use, and today 30 kids showed up! That means not a second goes by where you don´t hear "maestro!" or "maestra!" because they want to ask you any type of question imaginable.

They are great students and work very well together. But it´s a zoo in there. They have been getting better at typing now that we have been using the Mavis Beacon typing program, and they certainly have Microsoft Paint down. I´m enjoying it. It´s exhausting, but not as exhausting as sitting around waiting for people to show up! (Note that in the picture the computer is barely visible behind the throng of eager Mexican children)

La presa - Today confirmed for me that our community has everything. One of our friends from town, Heriberto, took us in his car to the presa, which is a pretty huge lake surrounded by mountains and cliffs. It´s majestic. There´s a small waterfall, and its completely tranquilo. It was a wonderful getaway for the afternoon, and it was fun talking in English to Heriberto, for he is an English teacher in the Istmo of Oaxaca.
So here´s a list of things in community: Food out of this world, pre-Colombian ruins, high-speed internet, a huge cultural festival (Guelaguetza) coming up next week, beautiful mountains, a secluded lake, and all 45 minutes from Oaxaca City. Superb.

Los Jardineros - Today we also began to prepare a piece of gardening area to do an amaranth planting demonstration for women in the community. We are working with the women in the cooking class, and did a little bit of digging and cleaning the area so we can plant the seeds. It was strange being on Project TECHNO and using a shovel, but it will be fun. It was clearly obvious I have done very little to no gardening in my life. Perhaps I should stick with the blog.

Three weeks from today, we shall we leaving community. It´s going by fast!

Love,
Apoorva

This post is absolutely serious.

Yeah, right.

Here´s an image homage to a funny joke. "When you get hit by a car, your shoe flies off and your ears will bleed" (AMIGOS interpretation, note the giant Virgin Mary painting in the back and my shoe, perfectly balanced in mid-air. Absolutely spectacular.):

Classes still going well. Time still going fast. Food still muy rica. Maestros still trying to start the next Revolución. Sounds like Oaxaca to me.